Here's chapter 3! This is Ron's POV leading up to the reunion in the last chapter, to give you all a glance into his life. So I am going to be focusing on Heroes Again this week, since I'm off, but I might still get an update for this.

So reviews, I was really happy with them, and especially by how many I've gotten so far so please keep giving me your opinion, and I will make sure to respond to them. I'm going to answer non-signed ones here.

Rosalind: I mostly agree with you, but I think it will be revealed more later that Hermione chose to disappear for most of the time, if that helps show you the logic in it. As for the R/HR in the story, I have though for a long time on how to make it believable, so I hope I end up getting it right.

Guest: I read that story, and I suppose I agree with you. The basic plot is very, very alike. I'm really sorry about that but I thought it was original. The only thing I can say is that my type of writing is very different to that author's, and the further along I go, it will be a very different story. I must say that story was excellent though, I really enjoyed reading it.

Jo: Thank you so much! I really have put so much more thought and effort into this one, so I'm glad I'm improving.

Also, I'm not completely sure if I got the meaning of irony correct when Ginny mentions something that is ironic, so please tell me if it is wrong. Review Please

Chapter 3

Ron Weasley groaned loudly as the sun burst through his bedroom. He squinted in an effort to get rid of the burning in his eyes, which always came with the bright light. Almost immediately, he was aware of a pounding in his head, and cursed himself for going out last night. He sat up and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes before glancing quickly at his clock.

"Shit!" He exclaimed, jumping out of bed and grabbing the nearest set of robes he could find.

"Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit!" He muttered, as he threw on the auror robes.

He was late, he was really late actually. He was over an hour late for work, not to mention some meeting.

When Ron was finished dressing himself, he grabbed his wand from his bedside table and ran down the hall to the kitchen. He stared longingly at the cupboards filled with tasty foods, before realizing that he simply didn't have time. He quickly searched through the highest cupboard, and his hands found the small vial easily, considering that the cupboard had a few vials of it.

It was a shining purple, Ron had always thought the colour to be very misleading. It gave the impression that the potion was nice and refreshing, when in fact, it tasted like eating dried bogies. Sighing, he gritted his teeth and gulped down the potion. He winced as the taste hit his throat, but he didn't have time to grab something to wash it down with. He immediately felt a small relief from the hangover potion, although it was not too much and he still he looked a mess.

He rushed clumsily to the fireplace, putting on his shoe as he did so. Ron ran a hand through his tousled hair, and grabbed some floo powder. He threw the powder in the flames and stepped in.

"Ministry of Magic!" He called.

A few seconds later, Ron found himself stepping out into the Atrium of the ministry. He glanced briefly at the large clock and sighed with relief, he had 10 minutes before he had to be at the meeting. Thank Merlin! He didn't fancy facing his boss if he was late.

Ron quickly made his way to the lifts, and was relieved when he noticed he was the only person there. He stepped into the lift and it took him swiftly up to the auror department. While he was in the lift, he began looking over the case file that they would be having a meeting on. He would have to give his report, although it was a fairly boring mission to be honest. It was just a burglary, he and Harry had gotten a tip that the Three Broomsticks was about to be robbed and they had staked it out until they found the guy.

Ron sighed, he had been getting a lot of missions like that recently. He knew he should be happier that the world was safer and all that, but still, he missed the days when coming into work was exciting, or at least the days when he would be required to think at work. He smiled to himself, he knew that it would surprise quite a few of his old school friends that he missed having something to think about, especially-

The door screeched open, and Ron pulled himself from his thoughts. He walked into the auror department confidently; he still had about 5 minutes before he had to be at the meeting.

"Oi, Weasley!" Seamus called to him, from his desk.

"Hey mate," Ron greeted.

Seamus began sniggering,

"You look like hell!" he exclaimed, "Busy night?"

Ron laughed as Seamus waggled his eyebrows,

"Nah, not really. We stayed out to about three, after you left." Ron answered.

"I had to leave. Lav was going to kill me if I stayed out any longer, she barely let me into the flat when I got home!" Seamus grinned.

Ron shook his head.

"Whipped." Ron coughed under his breath, as Seamus punched him on the shoulder.

"Shut up! She blames you anyway, apparently, you're a bad influence, always with those different girls, she says," Seamus said, and Ron put on a face on mock hurt.

They both laughed, a second later Harry came rushing into the department.

"Well, look who's late." Ron teased, maybe no one would notice how late he had been if Harry was late too.

"Oh, don't start. I've already been in. I was at your place there now to remind you about the meeting." Harry answered.

Ah well, maybe not.

"Come on, we better get in here quickly." Harry said, Ron nodded and walked on beside him, waving over his shoulder to Seamus as they did so.

"How're you then?" Ron asked, as they approached the meeting room.

To his surprise, Harry did not give the customary "fine", instead his face split into a wide smile.

"What happened?" Ron asked, intrigued now.

"We're going to tell everyone tonight, at the family dinner." Harry said.

"No, no, no, no. You can't do that. You can't tell me that there's something that you've got to tell me and them not tell me until you tell everyone." Ron protested.

Harry looked a confused.

"Did that make sense in your head?"

"It did." Ron confirmed.

"I suppose that's all that matters then." Harry said, rolling his eyes.

"Come on Harry. I am your best friend! You have to tell me!"

"Ginny would kill me!"

"Don't be a wuss!"

Harry glared at him.

"Fine! But not right now, this is too big to say in a few seconds. I'll tell you straight after this, yeah?" Harry said, not giving Ron much time to answer as he had already went into the meeting.

Needless to say, Ron couldn't concentrate during the meeting. He wondered briefly what Harry's news was. Maybe he had been promoted? Nah, there were no promotions available at in the department. His mind drew a blank after this.

He gave his report to the group, it was brief but gave all the essential details. He was shocked to see that Reynolds (his boss) looked very happy with him, maybe that meant that he didn't notice he was late? Hopefully.

After the meeting he and Harry went to Harry's office. They were both senior aurors now, meaning that they got their own office. It still, kind of star struck Ron to see how far they had come. Harry's office was clattered in photos, mostly of Ginny, but there were quite a few of the whole family. Ron avoided the photo at the very end of the fireplace, it was tucked away so much that most people wouldn't have seen it unless they knew it was there. Ron was always aware of it but he refused to look towards the three teenagers in the photo.

"Well," Ron said, sitting down in front of Harry's desk, "what's the big new, then?"

Harry smiled again, a weird smile. He looked both ecstatic and nervous.

"Ginny and I…well we're…Ginny's pregnant!" Harry stammered excitedly.

"Merlin! Wow, congrats mate!" Ron yelled, standing up and pulling Harry into a brotherly hug.

"I know! I know! I'm going to be a dad!" Harry said, looking like he was in a daze.

Ron smiled at him, he was so happy for harry and his sister. They were going to be parents! They were going to have a baby! He swallowed the small amount of envy he was feeling, this wasn't about him.

"I'm going to be an uncle!" Ron cheered.

Harry broke out of the daze he was in to look at Ron strangely,

"You're already an uncle, in fact all of your brothers, except Charlie, already have kids." Harry said, looking as if he were concerned for his friend's mental health.

"Well, yeah," Ron said, rolling his eyes, "but this is you and Ginny! It's different."

Harry laughed,

"Whatever you say, mate. Actually listen, Ginny and I were thinking about who should be the godparents, and well, we both agree that you should be the godfather, what do you say?" Harry said nervously.

Ron grinned, Godfather! He knew, on some level, that he would always have been a godparent to at least one of Harry's children (as Harry would be to him, if he ever actually had any), but it was weird that it was actually happening. He was already little Freddie's godfather, but there was something really exciting about being the godfather to Harry and Ginny's first born.

"Obviously, who else would you pick? You don't exactly have that many friends after all." He joked, but he patted Harry on the shoulder to show how much it really meant to him.

"Great." Harry said.

"Who's going to be godmother then?" Ron asked casually, he knew who it would have been if this happened four years ago.

Harry shrugged,

"We haven't been able to decide, you know?" Harry's expression became mischievous after a second, "But there is a rule, you, under no circumstances, are to have anything to do with the godmother!"

"What'd you take me for Potter? It's not going to be any of Ginny's teammates, by any chance, is it?" Ron said hopefully.

Harry shook his head ruefully, "We might just pick Luna, but we aren't sure because if we have another kid then Neville would be godfather, and they'd probably want to do it together."

That knocked the grin off his face, while Harry smirked at him, no, he would not be trying anything with Luna. Harry became serious again after a second,

"Ok, so I told you, but you can't tell anyone. And, you know, act shocked when we tell you, or Gin will kill me!"

Ron laughed, but agreed anyway.

"So who's all coming tonight, to hear the good news?" Ron asked, after a few minutes.

"The family, obviously, then Neville and Luna, Hagrid, Andromeda, Kingsley, and maybe some of the old DA ones. Ginny's with your mum, organizing it all day. Oh, shit! That reminds me."

Ron watched Harry scuffle around on his desk for a moment, before grabbing one of the sheets that the ministry supplied for memos. Harry scribbled something down quickly, and used his wand to send the memo flying out the door.

"What was that about?" Ron asked curiously.

"I had to invite Kingsley, I just asked him to come by the Burrow in an hour or two."

"Sure. See you later then." Ron called, as he left Harry's office before he could be caught slacking off on his work.

"Ron" Harry began, "I'm serious, be there at exactly 5. That's two hours from now, you can't be late again."

Ron waved dismissively over his shoulder, honestly, he knew when 5 o'clock was!

oo00OO00oo

"Where's everyone else?" was the first thing Ron asked, as he came into the kitchen of his childhood home. The only people there were his parents, Harry and Ginny.

Ginny looked up from the deep discussion she seemed to be in with their mother, and smirked at him.

"Since you're always late, we told you to be here half an hour early. Isn't it ironic that the first time we do that, you are actually on time?" She said.

Ron rolled his eyes, muttering under his breath about that being "completely unnecessary".

"How was work son?" His father asked, as Ron took a seat beside Harry at the table.

"It was fine, we weren't really that busy. Just had some paperwork to fill out."

"Don't sound so disappointed Ronald! You should be happy that there is nothing dangerous out there for you to be dealing with." His mother reprimanded angrily.

"Of course I am, mum." Ron said, with a roll of his eye. "What's for dinner?"

"Beef stew, and you will not be getting any until everyone else is here, so don't ask."

"Blimey," Ron muttered under his breath, "What's with her today?"

Harry heard him and leaned in,

"She's annoyed because Gin won't tell her what the news is." He whispered.

Ron supressed a snort at this, his mother was too nosey for her own good sometimes.

"Did you boy's see the cannons match at the weekend, then?" His dad asked them.

This was all it took for a Quidditch discussion to take over. Ron defended his team's dismal performance by pointing out that they were slowly improving, Ginny then began rattling off statistics of the Harpies' latest game, pointing out that they were much better than the Cannons. Ron ignored her and looked for support from Harry and his dad, although they weren't very enthusiastic about the Cannons either.

The discussion passed the time quickly, and before he knew it everyone was there. Ron realized Harry had underestimated the amount of people that would be turning up, since practically the whole DA had joined them. There were so many people that they were going to have the dinner outside, they set up a tent and, despite it being October, they were all quite warm inside with all the tents.

Ron was seated between George and Charlie, the second eldest having flooed home for the occasion, and was enjoying catching up with his brothers.

"So, a little birdie told me that you were out again last night." George began, while trying to keep a five-month old Freddie from wriggling out of his arms.

"Jealous, George? You don't go out much anymore, do you? Since, you married Angie." Ron retorted calmly.

George feigned mock-hurt, while Ron and Charlie exchanged high-fives.

"Disgraceful, little brother. For that you can take Freddie."

Ron sat up a little straighter as the baby was thrown into his arms. Ron smiled at the baby, who watched him intently, as George got up to get them a bottle of Firewhiskey, as had become their tradition every week.

"I will never understand what possesses people to have a kid," Charlie shivered as he watch Freddie drool.

Ron grinned, they had all realized long ago that Charlie was terrified of babies. Put an older child in front of him, like Teddy or Victorie, and he would be great, their favourite uncle, but if a baby was anywhere near Charlie he began to freak out. Ron found that he just couldn't agree with his brother, he loved kids. He thought, once, that it wouldn't be too long until he had one, but that hadn't worked out. Ron pushed these thoughts from his mind, best not to dwell on "what-ifs", he reminded himself. He glanced around to see where George was with that Firewhiskey.

"When are we eating mum?" Bill called.

"Sorry dears, we are just waiting on Kingsley, he must've got held up at work." His mum answered.

Before anyone could react, a pop was heard and Kingsley appeared before them. He looked a tired, and a little frustrated, a far cry from the confident man that Ron was used to seeing.

"Speak oo' the de'il," Hagrid slurred a little, Ron suspected that the half giant had already found the Firewhiskey that George was looking for.

"Oh, excellent, there you are Kingsley, we can start eating now-"

"Actually, Molly," Kingsley said apologetically, "Something's come up. I'm here on business."

"Oh," His mum looked devastated that her dinner would be wasted.

"But please, don't stop on my account. I just need to speak with Ron and Harry for a while." Kingsley said pleasantly.

Ron got up immediately, as did Harry.

"Come on, we can talk in the living room." Ron said, as he led the way to the house.

What had happened? In all his years as an auror, never had Kingsley, the Minister of Magic, come personally to talk about anything business-like. Had something really big happened? At this thought, his stomach swirled uneasily. He had an odd feeling about whatever Kingsley was going to say. Like something had happened that would change everything. Ron tried to ignore these thoughts. Maybe something had come up, and since Kingsley was coming here anyway, so he said that he would tell them. Then why does he look so worried, a small voice in the back of his head asked him.

Ron and Harry sat down on the sofa, while Kingsley sat across from them on an armchair, he leaned towards them but before he got a chance to speak, Harry had interrupted him,

"What's happened? Do we have to go into work now?" he said.

"No, nothing like that's happened," Kingsley said tiredly, "It's more of a personal matter, actually."

Ron's mind was reeling. It had nothing to do with work. So that meant it had to be something that he and Harry, were specifically involved in, something that they would be notified of. He couldn't think of anything like that, except…no, that was impossible.

"What happened?" Ron said, with urgency in his voice.

Kingsley looked at him with sorrow and regret in his eyes.

"It's about Hermione."

Ron took a sharp intake of breath, as his eyes became unfocused. Hermione. It felt like a wall came crashing down on him, a whole new sense of dread filling him inside. It had been four years, four years of absolutely nothing, no news, no letters, no contact, no sleep and now, something had happened. Had the ministry tracked her down, or did she walk into Kingsley's office and ask for a job? Was she hurt, was she alive? He began to shake a little at the thought. He had prayed for so long to find answers, to know why his fiancé had disappeared, and now that the answers were here, he wasn't sure if he wanted them. No news was good news, after all.

"What about her?" Harry said shakily, Ron looked over and found that Harry looked a little pale, and disconcerted.

"We found her, or she found us, rather," Kingsley said.

"She just walked into the ministry? Did she say where she was? What happened to her?" Harry asked.

Ron was grateful that Harry was there to ask the questions that he wanted to, because he was certain that his voice had left him since her name was spoken. He had been doing so well, never thinking about her, and now to have it sprung on him like this…it felt like his world was being torn apart.

"I haven't been completely honest," Kingsley began, "I'm sorry about that, I really am, but we thought it was best for everyone. We were wrong, obviously."

"What are you talking about?" Ron demanded angrily, Kingsley was babbling and Ron wanted to know exactly what was going on, right now.

"I can't tell you everything, the information is confidential. Basically, Hermione has been doing something for us, the ministry-"

"YOU KNEW?" Ron shouted, as rage overtook every other emotion in his body, but he wasn't sure who he was angry at, as he digested this new information. Hermione left for a job. Kingsley knew about it.

How many times had he been in Kingsley's office, after she disappeared? He had been falling apart, practically crying, saying that something awful had happened that someone had done something to her, that he needed to find her. And Kingsley had sat there the whole time, comforting him, assuring him that the ministry would look into whatever had happened her. It was Kingsley, two and a half years ago, that had even convinced him to accept that she left him, that no one had kidnapped her.

Ron turned away from Kingsley, in an effort to prevent himself from going to Azkaban for attacking the Minister of Magic.

"Why didn't you tell us that? We looked for her for over a year." Harry said softly, but the accusation was very clear.

"Harry, it was like an auror mission, it was vital that what she was doing was kept completely private. Even those who organized it were put under an oath." Kingsley went on, "We lost contact with the group that she was with, fairly early on and haven't heard anything since…until today. They came to my office, seven out of thirty…it was a brief meeting, I didn't find out much, I think I was too shocked to actually ask them anything."

Kingsley trailed off, a sad look came into his eye. Ron didn't know what to think anymore. She had left for a job, and then she abandoned the job, since she stopped contacting the ministry, and then she turns up four years later. It didn't sound like her, like the woman he had been in love with since he was 14. But that woman wouldn't have left him without a word, not without a reason.

"So she's back." Ron said, trying to sound indifferent. "Why're you telling us, it's nothing to do with us?"

Harry turned to Ron, looking shocked, but Ron ignored him. He would not go rushing to her, and pretend that everything was ok.

Kingsley looked a little thrown by his answer but recovered quickly,

"I thought that you two might want to talk to her, considering that you spent nearly two years banging on my door non-stop."

Kingsley's voice was cold, like he was disappointed in them. Ron supressed a snort at the nerve of Kingsley, expecting them to feel bad, after he had just admitted to knowing what happened to Hermione the whole time.

"You should have told us, Kingsley."

"I know. We thought they were all dead…I thought it kinder to let you think that she had left." Kingsley said.

Ron flinched automatically at the idea of her dying.

"She's at St Mungos now. Go to floor 4 and wait in room 13, I'll get her for you."

"What makes you so certain that we'll be going? And why the hell is she in St Mungos?" Ron snapped.

"Because no one else is going to go." Kingsley snapped back, ignoring his second question.

This shut Ron up. He tried not to feel remorseful at the image of her staying in a hospital room alone, but he couldn't help it.

"What about her parents?" Harry said.

"I've just come from there, actually," Kingsley explained, "and it was not exactly a warm welcome. Her mother said that she had no intention of speaking to her again, and well, no one's seen the father in a while."

Harry looked shocked by this information but Ron wasn't. After Hermione disappeared he had looked out for her parents for as long as he could. But the cracks had started showing before long. He supposed it was the stress of their daughter disappearing, again, just after they had finally been on good terms. Robert had hit the bottle, he began drinking all the time, and when he was drunk, all he talked about was Hermione. This was in contrast to Jean, who was determined to act like her daughter never existed. It was fair to say that they began to clash. It became uncomfortable for Ron to be there, with them fighting all the time, especially since he was barely coping himself at the time. He knew that they got a divorce though; he also knew that Jean started to blame Hermione for everything, or maybe it was more the Wizarding world in general.

"Room 13?" He asked Kingsley determinedly.

Kingsley nodded, while Harry stood up beside Ron.

"Let's go," he said to Harry.

After everything that happened in the last four years, he needed to know. He needed to know why she left, why she abandoned him, why she didn't stay and marry him, why she left her family. A small part of him also wanted her to know what she had done. What she had done to her parents, to Harry and to him. He needed the answers he spent four years waiting for.

Song for this Chapter: Missing You by John Waite