A/N: It's still not mine. Please leave a review! They make me happy!

Chapter 4

Ron made his way to the edge of the grounds of Hogwarts through the pouring rain, lugging his school trunk with him. Professor McGonagall had reluctantly given him permission to drop out after he visited her office the previous night after his fight with Sandy. To be quite honest, he hadn't left McGonagall much of a choice.

He was nearly to the edge of the magical protective boundaries, when he heard someone call his name. He turned sharply and scanned the horizon, but he saw no one. Sighing and deciding that he must have imagined it, he continued onward.

"Ron!" called the voice again, sounding more desperate this time.

Now he was sure someone was calling his name. He dropped his trunk unceremoniously onto the ground and turned around. This time, he saw the figure of his former fiancée (at this thought he bit back a few tears) hurtling toward him. She stopped short a meter away from him, breathless and staring at him with wide green eyes. "Well?" he said, after a moment. "I know you didn't run all the way out here just to stare at me."

"Please don't go," she said simply, her green eyes full of… fear? Hurt? Ron wasn't sure.

"Why should I stay?" he asked, running his hand through his bright red hair in frustration. "I thought coming back to Hogwarts, back to the first place you considered home would help you. I owled McGonagall and told her not to make me Head Boy so that I could be there for you. But you won't even talk to me! You won't let me in! Please, tell me, Sandy- why should I stay here?"

She inhaled a shaky breath, and then her face crumpled as she burst into tears. She buried her face in her hands, hiding herself from view as best she could. Ron crossed the distance between them and wrapped her up in his arms. "Hey, don't cry," he whispered into her ear. "I didn't mean to- Sandy, please, just tell me what's going on."

She sobbed into his chest for a few more moments, before she pulled away and looked up at him. "I… I wouldn't talk to you, because I just couldn't," she admitted softly. "I couldn't bear to face you."

"What do you mean, love?" he asked gently, brushing a lock of hair out of her face with such tenderness.

"I… the guilt was taking over my life," she told him, looking down at the ground. "It still kind of is." She swallowed hard, then looked back up at him. "It's my fault that Fred died."

Ron gaped at her, his mouth open. "Sandy, what are you talking about?"

"I- I was dueling Thicknesse in the Great Hall," she said, closing her eyes, reliving the horror. "And I saw you, Harry, and Hermione dash by. We had gotten separated in all the chaos, all the confusion, and I wanted to chase after you three. So I…"

"So you what, love?" he prompted her.

"I asked Percy and Fred to take over for me!" she cried, burying her face in his chest again. "If I hadn't- if I had just finished off Thicknesse before I left, Fred would still be alive."

"Alexandra Potter," Ron said, his tone scathing. Sandy winced visibly. No one, not even Harry, ever called her by her full first name, and only Harry, Ron, and Hermione knew that Alexandra was her full first name at all. "Don't you ever think such things. Don't you dare blame yourself for Fred's death."

"But-" she started, but he cut her off with just a look.

"Don't. It's not your fault. You needed to catch up with us, the four of us needed to be together. You are in no way to blame for Fred's death. Pius Thicknesse is. Voldemort is. Not you," he told her emphatically.

"I'm so sorry, Ron," she said, burying her face in his chest again. "I'm sorry for pushing you away. I just… I felt so guilty, and I couldn't take rejection from you… not again." He bit his lip, knowing she was referring to how he had ditched her, Harry, and Hermione in the forest, knowing that by doing so he was ending their relationship. "And then I couldn't do magic…"

"Yeah, about that," he said, peering down at her. "Don't you dare think that something silly like that could alter our relationship in anyway, Sandy. I'd love you even if you were a Muggle."

"Really?" she said, looking up at him with her green eyes shining with unshed tears.

He nodded. "You and I… we make our own magic," he said.

She mimed retching. "Ronald… that's sweet… but honestly? You're laying it a bit on the thick."

He chuckled and hugged her tightly to him. "It's good to have you back, love." Pulling away slightly, he said uncertainly, "You… you are back, right?"

"Well," she said, looking off to the side and shrugging, "I don't know if I'm one hundred percent yet. But I promise to let you, Harry, and Hermione- but especially you- in more."

"Good," he said, and he bent down and captured her lips with his. Her arms automatically wound their way around his neck, pulling his face closer to hers. He moaned softly as his tongue tangled with hers and he tasted her sweetness for the first time in weeks. When he pulled away, he leaned his forehead against hers and murmured, "I love you so much, Sandy."

"I love you too, Ron."

AAAAA

Harry and Hermione were pleasantly surprised to see both Ron and Sandy enter the Head dormitory. "How'd you two get in here?" Hermione asked good-naturedly, purposefully avoiding the elephant in the room.

"Harry gave me the password," Sandy piped up. "I hope you don't mind."

"Not at all," she replied.

"So," Harry said slowly, looking from Sandy to Ron to their entwined hands, "you two work things out?"

Ron nodded. "Yeah, I reckon so."

Harry, however, noted that the engagement ring was still missing from Sandy's finger. He bit his lip, but said nothing.

"I'm sorry," Sandy said, addressing both Harry and Hermione. "I'm sorry that I've been so distant, and that I haven't been letting you in. I don't know how long it'll take me to get back to one hundred percent, but I promise that I won't push you lot away."

"Good," Hermione said curtly, nodding her head. "You ought to know by now that the four of us do things together." Her voice softening, she added, "We can get through this together, Sandy. All four of us."

"Harry?" Sandy said tentatively, turning her gaze to her seated twin.

He merely started at her for a moment, then, in the blink of an eye, he was out of his seat and tackling Sandy in a tight bear hug. "It's so good to hear you say that," he said, hugging her tightly. "It's so good to have you back. You have no idea-" He stopped himself, realizing that she did, in fact, know exactly what these last few months had been like. She had understood him perfectly, just like always.

"I'm sorry, Harry," she said, and they rocked back and forth on the spot, still locked in a brotherly embrace. "I'm so sorry. I'll never do that to you again, I swear it."

Ron finally managed to pry the twins apart. "Hate to break up the party," he said, grinning at Harry, "but I'd like to spend some time alone with my girlfriend, if you two don't mind."

Hermione narrowed her eyes at him. "Just have her back for dinner. And I get her after dinner, I've missed my best mate."

AAAAAA

"What are your nightmares about?"

Ron and Sandy were cuddling on Sandy's bed in the otherwise deserted girls' dormitory, when the words suddenly came tumbling out of his mouth before he could stop them. She turned to face him, a look of pure horror plastered on her face. "I'm sorry, love," he said, cupping her face with his large hand. "Too soon?"

She shook her head mutely, pulling away from him a bit. "No," she whispered quietly. "I promised I'd let you in… so I'm going to tell you the truth."

"Take your time," he said softly, propping himself up on his hands and looking at her intently.

"The nightmares… they vary slightly. Sometimes, I dream about Fred dying and as he's dying, telling me it's my fault. Sometimes… Voldemort kills Harry as I watch, and then he refuses to kill me too. Sometimes, I'm watching Hermione, you, Lupin, Tonks, your parents, anyone I've ever cared about die in front of me. And sometimes…"

"Yes?" he said, wiping away a few of the tears that had made their way down her cheeks as she spoke.

"Sometimes I dream that you leave us in the forest… and you never come back. And I die, angry at you, and you at me," she whispered quietly, looking away from him. "I see these things every night when I close my eyes… that's why- well, you know what it's been like, apparently."

"Yeah," he murmured. "Look, love. Why don't I just forgo my bed entirely and just sleep up here with you? Maybe you'll sleep a little better if you fall asleep knowing that I'm here."

"Parvati and Lavender-" she started, but he shook his head.

"Love, they've been the ones fetching me every night when you wake them up with your screaming," he told her gently. "If this works, we can all sleep a little better, eh?"

"All right," she nodded, closing her eyes briefly. He kissed her on the forehead tenderly. "I just… this is so much harder than I thought it would be. I thought once we defeated Voldemort, I'd be free of all the darkness in my life. I guess I was wrong." She laughed in a hollow sort of way.

"Sandy, love," he said, wrapping his arms around her tightly, "we'll get through this. Okay? Together. Not just you and me, but Harry and Hermione as well. You can do anything with us by your side, right?"

"Right," she nodded into his chest. "You're right, Ronald. Thank you."

"Sandy," he said, pulling the engagement ring out of his pocket, "I know this is a bit ridiculous, considering that this is the third time I've asked you to marry me, but you deserve the best. Sandy Potter, you are the love of my life and my entire world. Will you do me the honor of being my wife?"

"At this point, you don't even have to ask," she murmured, allowing him to slip the engagement ring back onto her finger where it belonged.

"So," he said, eager to discuss wedding plans for the first time. They had never discussed it while they were hunting Horcruxes; he suspected that neither of them wanted to get their hopes up since Sandy's future wasn't a guarantee. And then after Voldemort's fall, Sandy had retreated into her shell. Until now. "When are we going to get married?"

She gave him a withering look. "Ron, just because we're engaged doesn't mean we have to go and get bloody hitched tonight. We still have school! We still have N.E.W.T.s!"

"You're starting to sound like Hermione," he grumbled, looking downcast. He had been hoping to get married over the Christmas holidays while at the Burrow.

"Don't look like that," she told him softly, kissing him on the lips. "Ron, it's not that I don't want this as badly as you do. Trust me, I do. I just want to be able to enjoy being a normal teenager for a while… I've never had much of a chance to do that. And neither have you."

He sighed, annoyed that she was making so much sense. "Of course you're right. After graduation then?"

"Yes," she nodded. "But we'll cross that bridge when we come to it."