A/N: Oh, ye of little faith…alright, you're right; we need some Ron Weasley in our lives, yeah? I'm mucking up my outline so we can have him a bit earlier. Don't complain if I speed through stuff, though. I'm doing this for Ron! And you guys, because I know you all love him. Almost as much as I do.

Remember when I said, "Wait until chapter five!"? Yeah, well, it's now this and the next chapter.

This was gonna be a MEGA chapter, but I cut it in half so you wouldn't have to wait as long. We're speeding through some plot points. (Like I said above.) This chapter and the next will give you loads of background. Ron going buh-bye, Hermione and Charlie coming to be (I agree, it's weird, but it will make sense after the next chapter…well, it'll be more understandable), etc.

And all of your reviews have really encouraged me to get this thing rollin'. I told you they would! Especially the ones hatin' on Charlie. I feel like I have to explain sooner than I'd planned just to keep you all from freaking out. Poor Charlie.

I have to say it again…OH, YE OF LITTLE FAITH! Do you think someone whose FAVORITE CHARACTER OF ANYTHING EVER IS RON WEASLEY would keep you waiting FOREVER for him to show up in the story?

The whole story, after all, revolves around Ron Weasley for once. He deserves to be number one for a bit. But for that to happen…well…

Ya'll are gonna be pleasantly surprised soon…I'm hoping someone cries when they are…not really. It'll probably be me, though.

Let's get crackin'…

We stood like statues at the gate.

Vacation's come and gone too late.

There's so much sun where I'm from.

I had to give it away, had to give you away...

"I don't understand why you can't just apparate back and forth."

"They may need me at any second."

"For a whole month?"

Charlie sighed. "At the most, yes. It may not even take that long. It really depends on how good their developmental skills are, and then-"

"See?" I rounded. "You don't even know that it really will be a month. It might take longer!"

"If it takes longer than a month," said a very irate Charlie, "I will come back to see you once a week. But it shouldn't-"

I snorted. "Oh, once a week, how generous. I mean, I'm only your wife, so I suppose once a week after a whole month-"

"Stop," Charlie yelled. "Just stop." I did. It was rare that our fights ever escalated to yelling. "I don't want to go," he said much more calmly once I had stopped. "Believe me, I'd much rather stay home with you. But this is my job. There's nothing I can do about it. This is what I get paid to do, and this is where they need me, so…" He stared awkwardly into his bowl of cereal.

After a very long pause, I said, "I just don't…I don't like having you taken away from me."

"Oh, Hermione," Charlie sighed and abandoned his breakfast to hug me. I willed myself not to cry. I would not cry. There was no reason to. He was coming back.

"Nothing's going to take me away from you," he promised. "Nothing, ever. I promise." I rested my cheek against him and sighed. "It won't be that long. Before you know it, I'll be back. And I'm going to do whatever I can to get back before the month is up."

I moved my head, replacing my cheek with my chin. "And if it's longer than a month, you'll-"

"Come back immediately," Charlie said firmly. "The least they can do is give me a day or two off after a month away from home."

I nodded sadly. "Alright, then. And you'll write? And you have your cell? In the event there's not so much magic-"

"We will communicate on a daily basis."

I huffed. "Alright. Alright, I guess I can live with it. Maybe I'll be able to figure out that goblin thing while you're gone, and we can both have some time off."

"We should go on holiday," Charlie suggested. "We haven't done that since our honeymoon."

"That would be nice," I admitted. "Alright. I can live with it if we'll be taking a holiday after. I won't be happy about it, but I can live with it."

Charlie smiled sadly. "That's all I ask." He kissed me briefly. "I have to get going-"

"I'll clean up after you." I kissed him for a bit longer. "Be careful."

"I will be. Love you."

He grabbed his suitcase and gave me a regretful smile. "Love you, too," I managed. With that, he was gone, and I was left alone with my thoughts. A furry, ginger feline rubbed against my leg. Well, my thoughts and Crookshanks.

"You won't leave me," I crooned. "Will you, Crookshanks?" He purred under my touch. "That's what I thought. At least one of my ginger boys will stay with me."

I glanced up from Hogwarts, A History to make sure James was still there. He had been playing quietly since dinner, which was something I had never observed before. The only noises he had been making were the occasional giggles that followed him knocking over his block towers, which were usually twenty minute efforts.

James saw me watching him and smiled brightly. "My-mee, ahh blerg do eega mu!"

I had no idea what he was trying to say, but I nodded encouragingly. "Yeah, it looks good, Jamsie." I must have been in the right direction because he smiled again and said something else before returning to his tower. I laughed to myself and glanced up at the clock. "We'd better start cleaning up, sweetie. It's nearly your bed time."

Though his vocabulary was far from expansive, James knew that term. He frowned and threw the blocks in his hands at the floor. "No, My-mee!"

I sighed, setting my book aside and grabbing the block container. "If you don't go to bed, you'll be in trouble with Mummy and Daddy. And then they won't let you come play anymore." He sat on the floor and crossed his arms. "James," I said firmly, "clean up."

He hesitated for a moment after I set the box in front of him, but his resolve didn't last long. Soon, his blocks were all sloppily piled much too high for the lid, but in the box all the same. I quickly rearranged them and he wobbled over to the couch behind me.

"Daddy!"

I glanced back shortly to find him looking at a table on the far wall that was covered in pictures. "Did you find a picture of your daddy?" I asked cheerfully while fitting the last of the blocks into a reasonable space among the others. I felt like I was playing tetris.

"Da-da." He wobbled back to me with the picture frame. I placed the lid back on the box. "Daddy, My-mee, Won."

I froze. "What?"

He showed me the picture. "Won."

He held up a picture from my days back at Hogwarts. Harry was trying to grab the camera from Ginny and Ron and I laughed in the courtyard behind him.

"Daddy, My-mee, Won." He pointed to each one of us as he said our names.

I recovered from my shock. "Do Mummy and Daddy tell you about Ron?"

James smiled when he saw that I knew what he was trying to say. "Won Won Won Won."

An image of Lavender Brown flashed across my mind. "Your uncle was a great hero," I told him. "Absolutely spectacular."

James handed me the picture and went back to the table, glancing from picture to picture, naming every person. Though he usually called Fred "Gi Gi", which was an understandable mistake in my opinion, he always knew Ron.

"James, we have to get you to bed," I said ten minutes later, picking him up. "Come on, buddy."

I carried him upstairs to my room where his pack n' play was set up in the corner and rocked him to sleep. I nearly drifted off before he did. As soon as I settled him into his makeshift crib, I collapsed on the bed, not bothering to change out of my yoga pants and tank top. Without so much as a yawn, I fell asleep.

The Hogwarts Express couldn't possibly take any longer to stop. It seemed to be drawing out its final stop, torturing me with its impossible speed. I glanced at Ginny, who looked even more anxious than I felt. Her eyes darted back and forth through the window, taking in Platform 9 3/4 from this view for the last time. Somehow, I didn't think she was taking it in for nostalgic purposes. Actually, I didn't think she was taking it in at all. She was waiting for the same thing I was, and if that was any indication...I pitied anyone who had to see either of us like this. I didn't think it was possible for a person to be quite this eager; I especially never thought it was possible for it to show this much.

The train had barely halted when Ginny threw our compartment door open and raced off the train, luggage forgotten. Shaking my head, I levitated our trunks out onto the platform, immediately spotting my parents.

"You've done it! You've finally graduated!" Mum squealed as she hugged me. "I can't believe it, my daughter out in the real world."

"She just stepped off the train, Bonnie," Dad laughed. "I hardly think this qualifies as 'the real world'." He winked at me and I forced myself to smile at them in return, to focus only on them. Ginny had long since disappeared.

"So how was term, dear?" Mum asked as Dad grabbed my trunk by the handle and started to drag it towards the other end of the platform. Leave it to Ginny and me to get stuck in the compartment furthest from the gateway.

"Oh, it was...well, it was school," I said distractedly. My eyes couldn't help darting through the crowd of students rambling about their exams and holiday plans to parents, hugging each other goodbye, stuffing their Hogwarts robes back into their trunk-

"And exams?" Dad asked. "You sat the last of them, eh? How'd that-" But he stopped when someone nearby screamed in excitement and we all turned to look.

Ginny was squeezing the air out of Harry from the looks of it. Not that he minded, of course, because he was grinning like mad over her shoulder and returning the affection. Our eyes met briefly and he smiled at me brightly. So if he was there, then nearby had to be-

"I'll be back," I muttered quickly and took off, despite my parents knowing looks, pushing through the crowd. It was only a matter of seconds before I saw him, doing the same to get to me. "Oh, move," I hissed at a gaggle of third years saying tearful goodbyes. I finally escaped and ran right into his arms.

His lips felt so good on mine. I threw my arms around his neck, hugging so tightly that I couldn't have been pried away by an army of centaurs. I felt my feet lift off the ground and giggled. I felt him smiling before I deepened the kiss and slipped my tongue between his lips, all the while sliding my fingers into his hair-

"OI! There are kids here!"

I pulled back reluctantly, glaring at Harry, who was laughing with arm around Ginny's shoulders. She was shaking her head and smirking.

"Harry, this whole 'break my best friends apart at crucial moments' habit of yours is really starting to piss me off," Ron said as he set me back on the ground.

"No, he's right," I said, seeing that a few parents were scowling in our direction. "I don't want to cause a scene." I looked up into Ron's deep, bright, blue eyes. I was suddenly very glad that he had kept his arms wrapped around my waist, and also very regretful about my last statement. Oh, if he only knew the affect he had on me...

I slid my arms up his body, leaving one on his chest and wrapping the other around his neck again, not sure why I had removed them in the first place, and played with the tips of his hair. "I missed you," I cooed. "A lot. More than a lot."

Ron smiled. "The great Hermione Granger, brightest witch of her age, can't even think of a word to describe how much she missed me. Must have been an awful lot then, mustn't it?"

I bit my bottom lip to keep from smiling any broader; if I did so, my face would probably break. Here I was, recently graduated from school, wrapped in the arms of the love of my life, for the first time free of the troubles and worries of war. It was taking every bit of willpower I had and then some to keep from pulling his head back down to mine, but I knew once I did, even Harry wouldn't be able to break us apart.

"We can catch up later," I whispered mischievously. Ron's eyes widened a bit and he raised his eyebrows.

"Later? I don't know if I can make it that long without kissing my beautiful girlfriend-"

"Well, you're going to have to," Harry cut in, suppressing giggles with great difficulty. "Both of your parents are coming this way."

"And that's funny?"

"What's funny is that you two are getting all lovey dovey," Ginny chuckled. "Never thought I'd see the day."

"Oh, I knew we'd see the day," Harry corrected her. "I just thought we'd have a bit longer of a wait than this. But you can't expect good timing or location from these two," he added as if we weren't there. "First, in the middle of a war. Now, in front of all of Hogwarts and everyone's parents." He shook his head and tsked at us.

I wanted so badly to retort, and Ron looked as though he was going to, when our parents showed up on either side of us. I smiled to myself as they greeted each other warmly. It was as though they'd all known each other for years.

"Hermione, dear, so good to see you," Mrs. Weasley exclaimed as she wrapped me in a hug that rivaled those of Hagrid's. Ginny said you absolutely excelled at your N.E.W.T.s! Of course, we expected nothing less from you," she said lovingly, patting me on the arm. She looked at Ron. "And you at least sat them!"

Ron shrugged. "Mum, why bother with something if it's not necessary? We've been over this." Mrs. Weasley shook her head and moved to greet Ginny.

"Yes, yes, we have been over it," she said irately. "You're impossible, Ronald."

"Isn't he though?" I said dryly. He narrowed his eyes at me.

"Don't go siding with her," Ron hissed under his breath. "I just got her over the fact that Harry and I didn't go back a few weeks ago. And here you are, backtracking my progress."

I shrugged with a smile. "Well, you are impossible; she's right about that..."

I passed through the gateway after my parents, hand in hand with Ron, and waited for Harry and the three Weasleys to follow.

"So shall we plan for dinner tomorrow night?" Mum asked suddenly.

"But I thought we were going out tonight," I said, disappointed.

Mum shook her head. "Oh no, you two need some time together," she said knowingly. "I'm not going to risk my karma by standing in the way of true love. No, you two go and, er, catch up. Ron, you ought to come along tomorrow night, too."

"Well, if you're sure," I muttered, both surprised and slightly mortified that she had made a change to our plans simply so that Ron and I could have time alone together. "What do think?" I asked him.

"Sounds like a plan to me," Ron grinned. "Thanks, Mrs. Granger."

"It's nothing, really," Mum told him as she and Dad kissed me on the cheek in turns. "We've been dying to get you over for ages, really, but of course, with one thing after another...well, we'll get it all sorted out tomorrow. We'll see you then, darling!"

She and Dad took off with my trunk, and I turned to Ron. "Well, now what?"

"Well..." Ron pondered for a moment. "We could always go back to the Burrow. Or there's my flat-"

"Your flat?" I asked with wide eyes. "You have a flat now?"

"Just got it last week," Ron said proudly. I was surprised he'd been able to keep it from me that long when he was obviously bursting with pride. "It's not much, but there's not half a dozen gingers bouncing from room to room at every minute of the day."

"Why didn't you tell me before?" I asked, extremely proud. "That's amazing. Congratulations," I planted a kiss on his cheek. "I have to see it. Let's go!"

"Ah, a bit eager, are we? Mum," he called to Mrs. Weasley. "We'll probably be round sometime tonight."

Mrs. Weasley frowned slightly. I wondered how she was handling it, Ron no longer being in the house. It must have been difficult to live at the Burrow these days, I realized, especially for her. Bill, Charlie, and Percy had been gone for ages, of course. But now that George was living in Diagon Alley, and Ron was on his own, and Fred was...well, it must have been quite lonely. I had a hard time imagining the Burrow without some sort of excitement going on at all hours of the day, every day of the week.

"Alright, but we're eating at six, and we won't wait for you," Mrs. Weasley said strictly. She gave us each a hug. "Be careful, you two."

I could have sworn she winked at me as she said this.

"Oh, that's just lovely," I whined when we appeared outside an apartment complex five minutes later. "Our mothers are assuming we're running off to have sex."

"Well, aren't we?" Ron said bluntly as he grabbed my hand and led me inside.

"Well, yes, but it's almost as if they were encouraging it."

Ron laughed. "I guess when you've taken as long as we have..." He stopped outside the third door on the left and pulled out a key.

"Ron," I squealed. "You have a key!"

"Yeah," he said slowly. "They unlock things. You know, like doors."

I rolled my eyes and slapped his arm. "I know that. I just meant, well, it's your key. To your flat."

Ron smiled in spite of himself. "Yeah, it's pretty wicked, isn't it?" He flung the door open and let me in ahead of him.

I was standing in a little yellow sitting room with a cream colored sofa and matching armchair placed around a little wooden coffee table. To the left, there was a dining table and chairs. A kitchen was right behind, opposite the wall of what I was sure was the bedroom.

"It's...it's beautiful," I said in awe. "Your own flat."

"My own flat," Ron repeated with a smile. "With my own girlfriend." He wrapped his arms around me as he had earlier and pulled me as close as he possibly could. "All by ourselves."

"Whatever shall we do for entertainment?" I asked innocently. "Perhaps a game of wizard's chess?"

"Maybe we should play exploding snap."

"There's always tic-tac-toe."

"A few rounds of hangman."

"I could teach you some Muggle card tricks."

"We could always read."

"Do you even own any books?" I laughed.

"Nah, not unless you gave them to me," Ron snickered. "You know, I've just come up with a brilliant idea."

"Please tell me it involves your bed."

"I was thinking more along the lines of the couch, but-"

"I'll take the floor at this point."

"You want a nap that badly?"

"Oh, shut up," I told him and pulled his lips to mine. He pushed me against the wall, kissing me fiercely as he did so. My fingers found the buckle of his belt and set to work as his hands roamed my body. He broke the kiss and moved down to my neck, working his hands under my blouse as he did so, making me moan loudly.

"You know," he said as his fingers fiddled with the hooks on my bra. "I haven't even given you the grand tour. Where are my manners?"

"Who needs manners?" I asked desperately. "I don't need a tour, just-"

"No, you do," Ron said quite seriously. "Come on, you haven't even seen the bedroom."

I grinned madly. "Make it quick."

But he didn't. We stopped several times on the way, touring the kitchen counter, the wall outside the bathroom, the doorway of his bedroom...

An hour later, I traced circles on his chest with my fingertips as he stared at me in awe.

"I love you, Hermione."

I looked up into his eyes. "Mm. I love it when you say my name."

"Why is that?"

"I don't know." I shrugged. "It just...it sounds right. You say it so beautifully."

"Hermione," he repeated with a rather large grin on his face. "Hermione, Hermione, Hermione, Her-"

I cut him off with a slow, sweet kiss. He moaned and pulled me onto his lap so that I was straddling him. The feel of his unclothed body under mine sent jolts of exhilaration through me.

"I love you, Ron," I whispered into his mouth. He smiled and chuckled.

"I see what you mean," he said softly, "about the name thing." He rested his right hand on my lower back and played with my hair with the other. "It sounds...brilliant."

We kissed once more and I leaned against his chest. "Can we just stay like this forever?"

"Not if you want to eat dinner, we can't," Ron exclaimed before kissing the top of my head. "But we can always do it again later."

He tightened his arms around me and I did the same to him. I was going to fall asleep any moment.

"Hermione?" Ron mumbled sleepily. "What took us so long?"

"Dunno," I yawned back. "We're together now, though..."

"But it's a shame. Think of all the time we wasted."

"I don't want to think about the time we wasted," I scolded. "I want to think about all the time we have ahead of us." I looked up into his beautiful eyes one more time. Just one last time before I drifted off. "We are never going to waste time again. We have forever to be together, and that's exactly what we're going to do. Be together."

Ron smiled and closed his eyes. "I reckon that's the best idea you've ever had."

"Me, too," I yawned, lying against his chest drowsily. "Me, too."

"This job is killing me."

I slammed a large pile of manila folders onto Ron's dining room table and he looked up, startled.

"There's a reason for office hours, Hermione," he joked. "So you can get your work done there instead of having to bring it home."

"Oh, ha ha," I spat. "Look at this! I have to have it all done by Friday. That only gives me two more days! I'll never get it all done in time." I threw myself into the chair next to his and buried my head in my arms on the table. "Is Harry still coming for dinner?"

"As far as I know," Ron said absentmindedly, skimming over his own reports.

"What are you in the mood for?"

"Whatever."

"I was thinking pizza. We could have that delivered."

"That's nice."

I raised my eyebrows. "Are you alright?"

"Hm?" Ron finally looked up from his work. He looked troublesome. "Oh, pizza's fine with me. Sounds good, actually."

"Ron, are you okay?" I asked again.

"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?" The look on his face disappeared and was replaced by one of complete cheerfulness. Something told me there was more to it.

"You seem a bit distracted."

He waved an arm over the papers before him. "Just these reports. I'll have them done in a short while, by the time Harry gets here."

I had a feeling he wasn't telling the whole truth, but I let it slide. "Why don't you take a break?"

"Nah," Ron said hastily, picking up his papers again. "Might as well get it done with."

I sighed heavily. I'd never known Ron to pass up on taking a break from work. Something was definitely up.

"I'll go ahead and call the order in," I said, getting up to use his kitchen phone. "Is pepperoni alright with you?" No answer. "Ron? Pepperoni?"

"Whatever you want," his voice called lightly from the next room. I sighed, determined to put the uneasiness from my mind, and called up the pizza diner.

"Ron...Ron, that feels nice...but I have to get this done..."

Harry had been gone for about half an hour, leaving us with the leftover pizza (not that there was much left). All I had learned from his company was that something was definitely bugging Ron, something related to his case. I had tried my hardest to get it out of him. Of course, he had simply denied it, but, being the horrible liar he is, I knew there was something up.

"If you think something's bothering him," Harry had suggested, "then just ask him about it."

"Do you think we would be having this conversation if I hadn't already asked him? He won't tell me anything. He just insists that he's fine."

"Maybe he is."

"Why are you covering for him?" I asked, stung by Harry's disloyalty. Or, rather, loyalty to the wrong person.

"Who says there's anything to cover?" Harry started to add to this, but Ron came back, driving the conversation away.

"Why don't you take your own advice," Ron now mumbled against my neck between kisses, "and take a break. A nice." His lips truly felt amazing against my skin. "Well deserved." His tongue felt even better. "Break."

I moaned as he sucked right above my collar bone. "I have to finish. If I don't get this done by-oh, forget it." I threw my work on the coffee table and turned to meet his already parted lips for a deep, sensual kiss. I turned my body so that we were chest to chest and moved my thighs on either side of his, caressing his chest with my hands. He moved to kiss my chin...my jaw...my neck...I gripped his shirt in my hands as he continued to move south, pulling my shirt off with one smooth motion and leaning me back onto the sofa.

Just as he reached the top of my breasts he stopped. "No, keep going," I whined. "Please."

"I want to talk to you about something first," he said, looking up at my face.

"Tease," I accused. "Alright, what is it?"

"Well, I was just thinking the other night, when I was sitting here, all by my lonesome." He moved to lie on top of me, elbows on either side of my head to prop himself up so he could look at me while he spoke. "It gets pretty lonely around here."

"What are you talking about?" I asked, taken aback. "I'm here nearly every day."

"Yes, exactly." Ron grinned. I missed the point somewhere along the way. "You're here every day. But then night comes along, and you head back to your parents' place, and I'm all alone. It's no fun."

And there it was. "So, you're saying you don't like having this flat at to yourself?"

"That's precisely what I'm saying."

"Sounds like a personal problem to me."

"A personal problem to which you could be the solution."

"Ronald Weasley," I mock-chastised. "Are you asking me to move in with you?"

He kissed the tip of my nose. "I am. What do you say?"

He looked into my eyes with his hypnotizing blue ones. I would do anything if it meant he would look at me like that. Absolutely anything.

"Well, how soon can I bring my things?"

"Really?"

"Really."

"I didn't think it'd be that easy," Ron muttered. He looked ecstatic. "How about now?"

"How about tomorrow," I suggested, grabbing his collar and pulling him closer, "so that now, we can finish what we started on my 'well deserved break.'"

"'Mione."

"Hmph."

"Hermione, I've got to go."

"Mmmm."

"Wake up; I want to see you before I leave."

My eyelids lifted as slowly as humanly possible.

"Whyyyyy," I whined.

"Because you're my girlfriend, and beautiful, and amazing, and I-"

"No," I interrupted. "Why do you have to go?"

Ron sighed.

"You know this is part of it. Doing missions and field work."

I groaned. "But it's so dangerous."

Ron chuckled a bit nervously. "The job's dangerous, you know that."

I slid my arms around his neck, not moving from our comfortable bed. "Don't go. Call in sick."

Ron shook his head. "And leave Neville and Harry? I can't. This is a big one."

That didn't calm my nerves any. Suddenly, Ron kissed me with more passion than ever before. It was slow and yet fiery. Something about it made me uneasy. Something about it reminded me of our first kiss, the one we'd had in the middle of a battle...

He broke away slowly and held my head in his hands. His eyes flickered all around my face, as though memorizing every bit of it. His eyes looked wet and, to me, he seemed a bit broken.

"Ron, what-"

We kissed again, the urgency returning. There was something about this kiss; I couldn't quite place it. I couldn't figure out what he was telling me with it. All I knew was he loved me more than anything in the world, and I loved him equally so, if not more. I did all I could to show him that I felt the same way. When we broke this kiss, my eyes were the ones that were wet.

"Stay," I whispered hoarsely.

Ron shook his head.

"Bye, love." I scolded myself inwardly as a tear strolled down my cheek. Ron wiped it away.

"I love you more than you know, Ron," I told him tearfully. "Please be careful." I hated the look on his face.

"I love you, Hermione."

He kissed my forehead and left quickly before either of us could get him to change his mind. I heard the door lock behind him and a small pop in the hall that meant he had apparated away. A tear slid down my cheek and I pulled the comforter around me, willing myself back to sleep so I wouldn't have to live with all the worry.

The porcelain of the sink was making my elbows sore, but I could barely feel it. I could barely feel anything. The water I had thrown on my face was sliding downward and I couldn't even tell. I didn't' know how long I'd been standing there taking one deep, shaky breath after the other. I just knew that it didn't matter. It didn't matter how long I stood there, or how shaky my breaths were, or if they porcelain hurt my arms, because nothing really mattered anymore.

I finally braved a look into the mirror. My eyes were the most swollen and bloodshot they had been during the past few days. My hair was hanging bushily and without form around my face. It was far too long and unmanageable. Perhaps I'll cut it, I thought. Just get rid of it.

With one last heavy sigh, I forced myself to stop using the sink for support and dragged my unwilling body through the door.

I had never seen The Burrow so subdued since Fred's funeral. I even doubted that it had been so quiet then. It had been after a war. Funerals were expected back then.

I didn't want to be alone. I went out to the living room where several other mourners sat. Harry, with tears streaming down his own face, was rocking a sobbing Ginny in his arms, where she had assumed a fetal position. Neville sat on Harry's right, looking grim and rubbing her arm. Percy was sitting in a rather large armchair with tears rolling down his face. Some brunette girl sat next to him, patting his hand. I didn't really care who she was. I just wanted to know why she had business being there. I wanted to know why I had business being there.

George was in the opposite armchair, staring blankly into the crackling fireplace. He had no grief left; he simply looked angry. Angelina Johnson brushed past me as I watched him. She kneeled in front of him and said something very quietly. George barely glanced at her in acknowledgement, but I saw him grip her hand very tightly when she offered it to him for support.

I hesitated and started to inch toward him when a strangled sort of sound caught me off guard. I turned my eyes back to the sofa and saw that Harry had finally broken. Ginny pulled out of his embrace and pulled him into her own. His entire body shook with sobs while she rested her head cheek on his head, still crying. He started mumbling something; probably the same thing he'd been saying for days: "It's all my fault." The strangled sounds continued. Neville was saying something to him. Probably the same thing he'd been saying to him for days: "It's not your fault."

Neville must have sensed me starting because he turned abruptly and met my eyes.

I didn't want to be around other people. I turned and exited to the kitchen where Bill and Fleur sat with cups of tea. Fleur started to ask me if I wanted any, even made it halfway out of her seat, before I answered her by heading up the stairs wordlessly. I winced when I passed Mr. and Mrs. Weasley's room. I could hear Mrs. Weasley's loud sobs through the walls for the next two floors. It was the only noise I heard.

I kept going, keeping my destination in mind. Every step hurt more than the last. Each one of them left me with more anticipation than before. I could barely breathe anymore. It wasn't so bad. I wasn't sure I really wanted to be breathing anyway.

I finally came to the last door at the top of the stairs. I was frozen. Was I so sure I wanted to be here at all? What would I see? What would I feel? Would I even be able to feel? I had stopped feeling much of anything four days before. Feeling was such a foreign concept to me now. Holding my breath, I opened the door.

The place hadn't changed much since I had first seen it four years prior. The parts of wall that showed between posters of players from The Chudley Cannons were bright orange, matching the sheets on the bed, which was pushed up under the window, across from where I was standing. Old scraps of parchment were scattered here and there. A pile of textbooks sat in one corner. Pigwidgeon's old cage sat on a desk in the corner opposite.

I wanted to be here.

I spotted an old black t-shirt on the floor by the bed. Gingerly, I slid towards the bed and kneeled down to pick it up. I turned it in my hands until I could see the front. Of course, the Cannons' logo. I smiled bitterly to myself and pulled off the god awful, itchy black rag of a dress I had donned that day and pulled on the shirt and a pair of boxers from a long forgotten pile of clean laundry. He must have not bothered to wash them before leaving for his flat. The shirt smelled fantastic. Like amortentia. I looked up at the twisted sheets n front of me. In a moment, I was nestled comfortably under them, clutching them to me like a life raft. I pulled a handful up around my face. The sheets smelled just like the shirt. I shut my eyes.

I wanted to be with him, but this was as close as I was going to get.

Hours pass, and she still counts the minutes

That I am not there. I swear I didn't mean

For it to feel like this,

Like every inch of me is bruised, bruised.

A/N: No worries. This won't be the only chapter with Ron. Like I said, this fic revolves around Won-Won. All will be well.

BTW this song was difficult to pick out so...forgive me for it not fitting perfectly...but it'll probably be used in the companion chapter as well to tie it together more...