Theories and travel plans

(RON)

"Aww, another one from your girlfriend, ickle Ronnie!", Fred laughed, waggling the letter in front of his little brother's eyes. George snickered and looked up from the disgusting looking mould he was currently trying to rid the kitchen floor from, and grinned, as well. "Seriously? That has to be the tenth one already, since we left!"

"They are growing up so fast, aren't they?", asked Fred maudlinly, pretending to brush a non-existing tear out of the corner of his eye.

"It's not the tenth one, all right? It's only the seventh one so far!", Ron clarified, annoyedly, after finally snitching the letter out of Fred's hands. At that, the twins kept snorting with laughter. "Shut up, you wankers!", murmured Ron, the tips of his ears turning red, and slowly stole away, to open the envelope upstairs, in his room. He always preferred to read Hermione's letters in private, especially recently, since the twins were currently becoming even more annoying about that topic. That topic being his friendship with Hermione. Really, he didn't know what they were even on about! It wasn't like they didn't have female friends, so why were they making such a fuss about Hermione?

All right, so perhaps, she wasn't only a friend to him, at all times. Sometimes, there was... something. Something weird, and different, and better not to be thought about too much... At least not earnestly.

Well, now and then, Ron did consciously think about her that way... Sometimes, when he would lay up at night, or when he watched her in the common room at Hogwarts... With all that orange flickering from the chimney across her concentrated face, her teeth biting down on her lower lip ever so slightly...

But these thoughts were most definitely not something he wanted anyone else to know about.

Fortunately, his brothers seemed to have at least the decency to shut up about their assumptions when Harry was around... Or, even worse, Hermione herself...

Ron shook his head, scratching his neck, and managed, to shake these thoughts off, as he opened the letter.

Dear Ron,

Of course you and your Dad can come to my place this afternoon, that sounds great! I've already packed and I can't wait to see you all again. Is this really okay for your parents, though? I don't want to cause any inconveniences, of course, especially after all that Percy-drama. So, if anything should get in the way, I would obviously understand it. Otherwise, I'll see you later!

Love,

Hermione

Ron laughed out loud, shaking his head at her obvious desire to be as polite as possible to his parents, when she already knew from him that most of their time they would spent cleaning an ugly, old building. She couldn't really "cause any inconveniences", since most of their life currently revolved around those. For an instant, he couldn't help but to feel really grateful towards her. Alright, she was mostly joining them, to feel helpful and while probably being terribly curious about what might be going on, but still, she also was sacrificing another few weeks with her parents, to see him and his family again, instead! Which really was awesome. Ron read her letter again, and his smile only got brighter. Then he jumped down the stairs of Grimmauld Place, drastically slowing down, as soon as he passed the painting of Sirius' mother, and quietly continued to make his way as fast as possible back to the basement, where his parents were momentarily repairing some old cupboard.

"Hey, Mum, hey Dad, guess what Hermione just told me?", he laughed, waving with the letter in his hands.

"She's ready to come here, too?", his mother asked, fondly.

"Yep, she says that, as long as she doesn't "cause any inconveniences", she would like to be picked up at her place this afternoon! You're free, right Dad?"

"She doesn't cause any inconveniences, of course!", protested his mother, smiling. "Arthur, what do you think, do you have time in an hour or two?"

"Or how about now?", Ron urged, hopefully, "We could apparate to her place right now, couldn't we, Dad?"

Arthur smirked, warmly. "Now, now, Ron, I can't let your mother do all that work here alone. Besides, it's only half past one, she's probably not expecting us this early, anyway, is she?"

"How has she even received that letter you wrote her last night, and also send an answer already?", Molly wondered. "Isn't your owl normally really slow?"

"Well, she must have answered my letter pretty early this morning", Ron shrugged. "She always gets up pretty early."

His Mum shook her head. "Once again Ron, I think you could learn a lesson or two from your friend Hermione!"

Ron rolled his eyes. "Whatever, so when are we going to visit Hermione's place, Dad? Let's say, half an hour?"

Arthur chuckled, blowing the dust from an old drawer, before putting it back inside the cupboard.

"All right, Ron. Half an hour."

Ron grinned, walking up the stairs again, a happy swing in each of his steps.

"So... What do you think?", Molly murmured, conspiratorially eyeing her husband in the half-light of the basement, " A year, perhaps?"

"A whole year? Still?", Arthur uttered, incredulously, "No way. I tell you, Molly, in less than six months, he'll realise that he's completely nuts about that girl! I mean, it's getting more and more obvious, don't you think?"

Molly shrugged, uncertainly. "I don't know, Arthur. In many ways, Ron's still pretty immature, sometimes... I really hope they'll figure it out, though, at one point. She's such a nice and decent girl, and after all that drama Rita Skeeter wrote about her last year turned out to be untrue..." She smiled, lost in thoughts. "Well, Ron's obviously important to her.. We'll see..", Molly concluded.

"Yeah, you're right, dear.", Arthur agreed, wiping another drawer with a grey rag, "Although, it's exciting to think about, sometimes, the possibility of having a Muggleborn in the family, one day!"

"For Merlin's sake, Arthur! There barely in fifth grade yet, stop getting your hopes up that high!"

"You're right, of course, Molly.", he told his wife, hastily, once again. "You're right."

Hi guys, so I originally thought about making this little story about their summer holidays only, but it's actually pretty fun to write, so I might continue it throughout their whole fifth year. What do you think? I might also change the rating to M, since there might be some specific dreams and thoughts in future chapters, in that case. Tell me about your opinion, please! :) Thanks for reading.