Why hello everyone! This is the forth installment in the "Left in Places of Despair".
Just letting you know that reviews are very appreciated. So please, do slip me some of your thoughts.
Chapter 4 "A Wake up Call and Some Flirtations"
Ron groaned softly, feeling his body being roughly and rudely shaken awake. A soft murmur of his name entered his ear. But when he didn't bother to respond, the murmur became much more of a shout. He opened his eyes quickly, looking into the furious face of his wife. Ron looked around, realizing he had fallen asleep in Flourish & Blotts. When they were first married, Ron had followed Hermione eagerly around the bookstore, being as helpful as possible. His over cheerfulness, he hoped, would mask his boredom. Now, four years later, he gave up this façade, blatantly showing his dislike for book shopping by falling asleep in one of the big armchairs the store offered.
His wife frowned at him, looking a bit hurt. She would never understand his dislike of her favorite hobby. "I've finished," Hermione said in a huff. Noticing his wife's unfavorable mood, he stood quickly and kissed her cheek before taking her books, all fifteen of them.
"Right. Uh, let's get going." He said uncomfortably, not knowing how long he had been asleep or what time it was now. Ron quickly walked down the stairs to the check out line, and he could feel his wife's stare at him. Normally, they would be having a row at this point. Hermione would have asked him why he fell asleep, Ron would have defended himself, and they would have fought it out. This in turn would have resulted in Ron apologizing, or on the very rare (but extremely nice) occasion of an all night make up session.
But Ron had no will to fight, not in these last days with her. He set the books on the counter, paying for them quickly, without even stopping to argue about the cost. Ron grabbed the bag full of them, shrunk them in size, and slipped the tiny package into his pocket.
Hermione was watching him carefully, he had noticed, but he quickly took her hand and led her out of the store. Slapping a smile on his face, Ron turned to his wife, "Where to now love?" His stomach sunk at her look of concern. She saw past his act and his guilt hit him like a tidal wave. He couldn't keep lying to her, but how to tell her now? In the middle of Diagon Alley?
"We're going to go to visit Fred and George…" Hermione said to him, looking at him in an overly concerned, motherly way.
Motherly. If he didn't feel guilty already, this just about knocked him over. Ron barely noticed that Hermione had taken his hand and was guiding him down the busy street. They passed children running out of Honeydukes, large bags of sweets at their sides. He smiled softly at the children who laughed at each other as they skipped down the street.
Ron barely noticed that he had been steered into his brothers' joke shop. He nearly ran into a group of teenage boys before he caught himself. Before he could compose himself, he felt the familiar taunting from the other side of the shop. Fred and George were loudly making fun of him from different sides, Fred from back in the storage room and George from the cashier's counter.
"Oi! Our baby brother has stopped by to pay us a visit George!" Fred shouted loudly, grinning from ear to ear. The customers in the store turned and watched this spectacle, noticing that two famous war heroes, Hermione and Ron Weasley. After the end of the war their stardom skyrocketed: Hermione graced the cover of Teen Witch! and Witch Weekly a few times, and Ron was always a headliner. Even now that the war had been over for a few years, their fame had not fully diminished.
"Yes! It appears he brought his gorgeous wife with him! Our lucky day!" George shouted back to him, walking over and thrusting Hermione into a bear hug. Ron watched as his wife laugh heartily and kissed George on the cheek. He buried the jealous feelings deep within him, the twins, like Charlie, always made playful passes at Hermione to give Ron a rise. However playful they may be, Hermione was bloody gorgeous, so Ron could never be too careful.
"How are you George?" She said with a smile, and looked him up and down carefully. Ron knew his wife never approved of the joke shop, mostly for the fact that the twins routinely tried out their new products on her. Most of the time she was too clever to fall for their traps, but every once in a while they got her. The last time they had turned her hair neon green for a week and had tried every possible spell and potion to change it back, but to no avail.
"Oh great as usual, although I'm not looking forward to another family dinner at the Burrow." George mused, grinning as he flicked his wand at a young boy, binding him to the ground as he tried to steal some merchandise. "Fred! I've got another present for you!"
"ANOTHER shop lifter!" Fred said excitedly, running eagerly out of the back room. Ron grinned softly. Normally he loved the playful torment that Fred and George put upon the young 'criminals' who tried to steal the shop's jokes. But now he couldn't seem to muster the needed humor for the situation.
Hermione rolled her eyes, "Really, you to should just let the ministry handle him." She said in a slightly amused voice. Ron turned his detached gaze to look at her. Her lips were once again pursed in annoyance, and the twins turned and grinned at her. She would now be the subject of their torment.
"Hermione! Tsk, tsk, tsk. You taking your frustration out on us does nothing darling!" Fred said grinning; he began to circle her, tauntingly. He gave George a knowing look and he started to do the same.
Ron's stomach sank. He watched nervously as his wife put her hands on her hips. "This won't work on me boys, I have nothing to be frustrated about, your plan won't work to make me angry and annoyed."
"Oh really?" George said with a glance to Ron. "Nothing about our little Ronnie is annoying you at the moment?" Ron really felt scared now, they knew! They knew he was leaving and that he hadn't told her yet.
Hermione was tapping her foot in annoyance with them now, and Ron looked at her terrified. "No. Nothing about Ron is annoying me." She sad heatedly.
"Hmm, has he not been shagging you properly??" Fred said with a grin.
The enraged look flamed into Hermione's eyes and Ron breathed a half sigh of relief but his ears instantly burned. They LOVED torment her about their sex life, and although he out on the act of embarrassment, he was more than happy to let the world know that he bagged Hermione Granger. "FRED!" Hermione almost shouted, and the customers, the twins, and Ron stared at her in half amazement, half fright. "We do NOT need to discuss our sex life with you!"
George was almost rolling on the floor with laughter at this point, the prim and proper Hermione never wished to discuss such crude matters in public. The twins always taunted him for marrying a prude in the beginning, but they quickly stopped that talk when they had walked in on them at the Burrow. When they realized Hermione was a vixen in the bedroom, they cut Ron some slack, but Hermione's torment only increased. "Hermione, love, if he's not handling you properly, I know more than one man in the room who could get the job done!" George said with a laugh.
A cry of 'Here, Here' came from the teenage boys in the corner, and Ron sent them an angry glare, while this just made Hermione blush scarlet.
"Really Fred and George!" Hermione grinned, and Ron knew she had found her comeback. "At least ONE of the Weasley boys is actually getting any!" She said triumphantly, and Fred fell to the floor, grabbing his heart in mock pain.
"Oh Hermione! You've got me! You've wounded me deep!" Fred shouted up at her with a grin, George joined him on the floor and was pretending to look up Hermione's robes, which caused Ron to pull his wife into his arms.
"Alright, alright you two that's enough!" Ron said quietly but sternly, his jealousy creeping up the back of his neck. On any other day, he could handle the teasing, but today he was much too much on edge to handle his brother's flirtations with his wife.
Hermione smiled down at both of them, "It seems I'm the winner of this battle anyway!" she said while taking Ron's hand and leading him outside.
"You wish!" Fred and George shouted after her from the doorway, grinning and waving after them.
"We'll see you at dinner!" Ron shouted as she dragged him farther into the street. He turned and smiled softly at his wife, who was still laughing at the twins in the doorway, who were now making crude sexual gestures at them. Ron grinned a bit and led Hermione further away from the store. "Where to now love?" He said softly into here ear as he wrapped his arms around her waist. Ron breathed in her scent from her hair, the wonderful combination of vanilla and cinnamon.
"I was thinking we could go back home now, we have to be at the Burrow in a few hours, and I'd like to bake something." Hermione said softly, almost in a whisper as Ron placed soft kisses down her neck. If he had his way, they wouldn't be baking. Hell, they wouldn't be going to the Burrow at all.
"Yeah, right…" He breathed in her ear, noticing the goose bumps rise on the back of her neck. Ron held onto her tightly, Apparating them back to their house quickly.
They landed just outside their house, already locked in a passionate kiss. There was going to be no baking this afternoon…
