Hermione quickly checked her hair in her compact. She loved her new look, but still needed to get used to it a bit. Her hair was now just above shoulder-length, spelled to stay in loose, flowing curls. She ran her fingers through it, pushing the shorter pieces out of her eyes, and began walking down Diagon Alley.

As she passed Obscurus Books, she was tempted to pop in and have a look, but decided against it. She was early to meet Ginny and Harry, but figured she would grab a table and wait for them over a good pint.

She was quite glad to be home. Paris had been fun, certainly, but England was home. She felt she had grown up in the year she had been away. Yes, her physical appearance had changed, there was no doubt about that, and it had a lot to do with Count Gustav. He had been such a dear, and on top of the Opera and fancy restaurants he had insisted that what a girl with a broken heart needed most was a bit of shopping. On his account, mais bien sûr.

She only hoped this was enough to catch Ron's eye.

Oh, she had told the Count that she was over Ron, and had done her best to reassure Harry and Ginny of the same. But the truth was that she loved him, and true love is forever, even unrequited love.

However, she did hope that her love would be unrequited for only a bit longer.

There was the little problem of the engagement though. For the first, and she believed last time, Hermione agreed with Rita Skeeter. Ron wasn't married yet, and until both he and his intended said 'I do' she had no intention of giving up the chase.

As she walked in to The Leaky Cauldron, she scanned for a free table, but quickly changed her mind. There was far more to be gained, she hoped, by sitting at the bar.

-

Ron liked to take long lunches, and lately his lunches had become longer and involved more than one pint. George didn't like it, but didn't say anything.

Truth was, he wasn't much needed around the shop anyway. He could be a good salesman when he wanted to be, and when he was sober, but he hadn't been either in a couple of months. Well, since that Skeeter article had come out really.

That had made the whole thing real. He supposed that getting down in one knee and giving a girl a ring should have made it real enough, but it hadn't really sunk in that he had tied himself down until he saw it in print.

His mother was quite delighted by Elena. In fact, the whole family seemed to like her. George had pushed him into proposing, saying that it was about time he started acting like a man and not a boy. Why not with Elena?

So, here he sat at half-past 3pm, drinking his third, or was it fourth, pint of the afternoon, when a pretty girl sat next to him.

She was a bit dressed up for The Leaky Cauldron on a Friday afternoon; her hair in loose curls that he wanted to pull his fingers through, tight black skirt, and a green silk blouse. She was a vision, who ordered the same as he was drinking.

When Tom handed the woman her pint Ron leaned over and said 'Put it on my tab, Tom, if the lady will allow?'

'Thank you,' she responded with a bright smile. 'I've only just arrived from abroad, and the first thing I could think was how much I needed a good English pint.'

'I'm glad I could be of service. I'm Ron Weasley,' he held out his hand. 'I'm afraid I don't think we've met.'

'Indeed?' The girl looked at him a bit funny. She shook his hand firmly and he felt all tingly when she let go.

'Will you not share your name with me as well?' Ron was a bit confused.

'Oh, no. It's much more fun this way, with me knowing who you are, and you not knowing who I am,' she had a glint in her eye that was driving him mad.

'So you like to play games?' Ron smiled back at her. 'Can it be a guessing game?'

'If you like.'

'You just came from abroad. Are you in International Magical Relations?'

She laughed. 'Hardly!'

'Do you work for the Ministry, then?'

'No, in fact I suppose I'm of no profession currently.'

Ron frowned. 'Well, I'm stumped.' When she laughed at him he couldn't help but laugh with her. It was infectious.

'Let's not worry about what I do!' She said.

'Alright then. But I am concerned about what you're doing tomorrow night.' Ron tried to be deadly serious, but failed and cracked a smile.

'Oh, nothing special.' She replied. It was bloody difficult to get any information out of her, but Ron continued on.

'Well, then! It's decided. You'll just have to come to the Ministry Ball with me.' Ron leaned back in his chair to wait for her reply.

Just as she opened her beautiful lips to respond she was accosted by two people.

One of whom was his sister.

The other was his best friend.

Things got a bit blurry for a moment and then became crystal clear as the woman looked back at him, her eyes sparkling.

Hermione.

She was Hermione. He had just asked Hermione on a date. And to the bloody Ministry Ball of all places. There was hardly a place more public that he could have invited her to. Now that he was thinking of it, Elena had already bought a dress and they had planned to go.

What had he been thinking? How could he backtrack?

He began to realize that people were talking to him.

'…glad that you ran into each other,' Ginny was saying.

'Yes, it was such a nice coincidence. We were catching up a bit,' Hermione replied.

Ron stood up quickly. 'I'm, uh, Excuse me. I have to get back to the shop.' He started to push away from the tight group, but felt a hand on his shoulder.

'I'll meet you there, at eight?' Hermione's eyes were doing the sparkly thing that had been so enchanting just a minute earlier. 'I've got the loveliest dress, from Paris, that's just perfect for the Ministry Ball.'

Ron paused, not sure what to do, but those eyes pulled him in. 'Yes, I'll see you at eight.' He walked away as quickly as he could, while trying to reconcile the Hermione he had just seen with the one he had grown up with. He wasn't sure it would be possible.

-

Snape hated going to these war hero parties. Everyone was so disingenuous. He would be stopped a thousand times by people he didn't know or didn't like to have to shake his hand and be given a 'heartfelt' thank you.

It wasn't that he thought he didn't deserve to be thanked. No, he had done more than most for the Cause. It was the hypocrisy of these people that bothered him.

How many had stood up before Potter's testimony to defend his honour? How many had believed during his year as Headmaster that he wasn't pure evil? Even McGonagall was guilty of that.

He didn't blame her though. If she hadn't have believed his act he probably would have been killed much earlier, and the Dark Lord certainly would have made sure there was no coming back for a traitor.

His hand quickly went to his still open wound. He was thankful that there was no pain, but it was unsightly. He wasn't a vain man, but he still wore high collars to hide the ugly mark of his past.

He was very grateful for McGonagall's company, and knew that the only enjoyable part of tonight's Ball would be her presence. He had so enjoyed crowing over her about the Weasley boy, and with him and his fiancée in the room it would be even more fun.

She had tried to warn him, echoing that Skeeter woman. Everyone seemed to doubt the boy's ability to make it to the altar, even the girl's father. Mr. Petkov doubted, and was putting off signing the deal until the wedding was a bit closer.

The deal was getting along quite nicely though. Everything was worked out, and the distribution rates and rights were mainly in Snape Industry's favour. Yes, Snape's plans to dominate the Continent's potions market were coming along quite nicely. So long as everything went according to plan, he would soon be the leader in Eastern Europe.

Mr. Petkov would be at the Ministry Ball tonight to watch over his daughter and Weasley. At least Snape knew that if the Russian got to be more than he could handle he could always push him off on Minerva. She was far too kind hearted not to take pity on him.

And, with this last thought reassuring him a bit, he apparated to the Ministry.

-

Hermione was ecstatic.

She was in her new flat in London getting ready for the Ministry Ball. Harry and Ginny had tried to warn her yesterday when they sat down at The Leaky Cauldron, but she couldn't listen to them. She knew they were concerned, but they just had to see that once she was with Ron everything would be better.

She pulled her hair back loosely and pinned it. Looking in the mirror, she smiled. She had wanted him since she first met him. She hadn't known it of course until their sixth year, but once it dawned on her she couldn't let it go.

She had thought that they had finally broken through whatever barriers were holding him back during their search for the Horcruxes. She finally thought that he understood how perfect they were together. Apparently the flood of girls that pounced on him after the Final Battle made him forget.

Well, she accepted that, even if she couldn't understand it. Tonight however, she would finally be able to make him see. She slipped on her dress. Navy blue, tightly fitted with a low V-neck, it hit right below her knees. She toed into her nude heels and examined herself. She knew that she could out-shine any of those fame seekers. Now she just had to hope that their connection and history was enough to make him forget his finance.

She wasn't yet secure on that.

-

'What do you mean she's coming to meet you?' Demanded a red-faced George.

'I didn't know it was her!' Ron spluttered.

'Why does it matter who she is? The point is that you invited a woman to be your date who isn't your fiancée!'

George couldn't believe just how stupid his little brother could be sometimes. His whole family loved Elena and was so happy to finally see Ron settling down. On top of that, there was the fact that Snape wanted Ron and Elena married, and although George believed that Snape had always been on their side during the war, that didn't mean he wasn't an evil, vindictive and cold hearted bastard. No, Ron needed to fix this, and if he couldn't handle it then George would just have to step in himself. There was no way that George was going to let his brother ruin this.

'Yeah, I know!' Ron was getting pretty red-faced himself, but tried to calm down. They had just arrived at the Ministry and he didn't want people to start staring. 'I'll fix it, somehow. You'll just have to help me distract Elena.'

'Distract Elena?' George hadn't seen that in his plan.

'Yeah, distract her while I spend a bit of time with Hermione. You have no idea how great she looks now! I just need a bit of time alone. I feel like there might be something there!' Ron smiled a bit.

'No. Absolutely not. You are not going to just run off on Elena because a hot new girl walks into your sights.' George shook his head, exasperated with his brother.

'That's just my point. This isn't some new girl, George. This is Hermione. She's been in my life forever. Would you really put my happiness ahead of a business plan?' Ron clearly wasn't above a bit of pleading if he had to.

George sighed. 'You're my brother, and I want what makes you happy. Just don't forget what it would mean if you chose Hermione over Elena.'

'I know. I just need some time to figure out what my feelings are. I won't do anything to jeopardize my engagement unless I know that Hermione is the one for me.'

-

Elena was so happy as she walked into the Ministry with her father. Here she was, the future bride of a war hero at the Ministry Ball honoring all that her fiancée and his friends had done for the wizarding world. There certainly wasn't a better place in the world for her, and she deserved it.

Yes, she knew she deserved to have such a famous and respected husband. In fact, he was the lucky one. She was rich and beautiful. Well, she would be rich when her father died, but until then he paid for anything she wanted.

She could have married anyone she wanted, so really it was Ron who was lucky. He didn't have lots of money. Sure, he had plenty to support them, but not enough to make Elena happy. He also didn't come from any sort of good family. Most of his family were rather odd, especially his parents. She hoped he wouldn't want her to spend too much time with them, but he did seem very attached. She would just have to work on that once they were married.

As she walked into the atrium and looked around she was happy to see she was the prettiest girl there. No real competition that she could see. Immediately she spotted her Ron. He was hard to miss as he was standing with half his family, and with their horrible hair they stood out a mile.

She really hoped their children looked like her. Better yet, maybe they would skip children all together.

-

A/N: Up a bit early because I had a snow day from work Thursday and was able to proofread this earlier than I expected. It's a bit of a filler chapter, I know, but these things have to happen to get to the good stuff!