Alone at Last
As it was Christmas the family decided to have a get together and they had the Christmas turkey, with all the trimmings and almost everyone fit around the table. Hermione smiled at this as they had put an extension charm on it. With Mr Weasley carving the turkey it was a perfect Christmas, they all fitted together like a one big family.
The turkey was great and Hermione found herself feeding bits of it to an awaiting Ron, and it was so cute when he smiled back at her for it. He had broken his arm in a rather rough Quidditch game the day before, and instead of being easily fixable, it was caused by one of Ginny's hexes so nothing could be done until it was healed. He looked like a sad puppy around the table but was all too happy to have Hermione wait on him.
After dinner the presents were handed out and Hermione had done her usual and bought a thoughtful book for all of them; she had acquired and extra special one for Ron who laughed at the title. 'A fail safe way to charm Hermione' She had written him a book of ways too charm her and it was only small but she thought he might find it useful.
"Did you write this?" She nodded.
"Turn over the first page." She said smiling broadly. He turned over the cover and the inscription wrote. 'To my Ronald, this book you might find useful to add to your ever-growing collection. Your Hermione. Ps: All you have to do is kiss me.'
He kissed her and then replied. "You're amazing, you are." They kissed again.
"Always the tone of surprise." They laughed as those words echoed the year before when they were in such terrible danger, a contrast from the innocent fun they were having now.
Mrs Weasley had knitted everyone jumpers again, and Hermione was surprised to find she had her own one this year. She finally felt part of the Weasley family and could show how much she belonged with Ron. She hugged Molly tightly and thanked her profusely until she was satisfied she'd been thanked enough.
Then suddenly it was Ron's turn. He had spent actual hours thinking about the perfect gift for Hermione and had come up with something she had written on one of her notes in his copy of '12 fail safe ways to charm witches'. It was a large book that looked very plain and simply. Hermione looked puzzled and he told her to open it.
When she did she was surprised to be greeted with a blank page only, filling the entire cover. She looked even more confused now. Ron chuckled at her puzzlement and tapped the page saying...
"Show me 'Hogwarts: A History'" The book complied and the pages filled with the many words that made up 'Hogwarts: A History'. She still looked bewildered, so Ron said. "It shows you whatever book you want to read, just tap the cover and say what book you want and it shows you. It's a library in one book, I hope you like it. Merry Christmas Hermione." And with that he kissed her and she even dropped the book to deepen the kiss. They broke apart when they heard Harry say something from behind them.
"All right, all right. That's enough of that thank you. Save it for later mate." They both laughed and looked to Ginny who was shaking her head.
"Oh come here you." Ginny kissed Harry, surprising him. Then she dragged him upstairs.
Hermione switched her focus to looked back at Ron. "I love this." Pointing to the book. "I am going to take it everywhere we go. And I love you." She kissed him and he ran his hands through her curls, making the kiss more passionate and with much annoyance and wolf whistles they took it upstairs to their bedroom where they continued snogging for many minutes.
The day after Christmas Ron, Hermione, Harry and Ginny found themselves rather alone in the large house. As Mr and Mrs Weasley had decided to go and see Charlie in Romania the house had emptied rather quickly, the Christmas tree was still up and the sitting room looked quite messy; it was coated in a thick layer of wrapping paper and the table was still laden with half-eaten food.
It would be a few second fix with magic but as everyone had gone to bed at different times to continue different conversations and actions. No one had really had the time to look around and clear up.
"Morning gorgeous." Ron had woken quite early that morning and had been watching Hermione sleeping peacefully until she startled and arose from her slumber.
"Morning. Were you watching me sleep?" The tops of Ron's ears turned a bright pink and Hermione could sense that she was right and continued. "I'll take that as a yes."
"Well I woke up before you and you looked too perfect and sleepy to be woken up so i watched you for a bit. I couldn't help it." She smiled at him and kissed his cheek placing her hand on his heart.
"I remember the first time I kissed you on the cheek, before that Quidditch game. Do you remember?" She looked up at his face and stroked his chin with her finger.
"Yes I do remember that, but only because I spent weeks thinking about how I wanted to feel your lips on me again. And it made me realise how much I liked you." She kissed his lips this time and said.
"Like that."
"Like that. I suppose I could spend a day thinking about how soft your lips are, but your here next to me so I don't need to think." He kissed her again and after, outlined her lips with tip of his finger, making sure to hold her tightly in his arms.
"Why don't we do something different today? Somewhere we haven't been to in a while. They should have finished rebuilding everything by now." Ron thought about somewhere he'd quite like to go but pressed on.
"What do you have in mind?" Hermione paused thought very hard about something she had wanted for a long time and said.
"We could go to Diagon Alley, we haven't been there since before the war, and we could go to other places on the way, like a little tour." Ron contemplated this for a while.
"That sounds like an excellent idea, but to make it happen I'm afraid we are going to have to get out of bed." She rolled her eyes at him and got up to go and get dressed. However Ron had other ideas; she was wearing her Weasley jumper she had gotten the night before and it made her look extremely adorable. So he got up himself just to pull it off her.
"Ron, what are you doing?" She sounded slightly panicked but he brought the jumper over her head and kissed her passionately. Absentmindedly, he started to unbutton her pyjama top, Hermione was also to wrapped up in his kiss to notice and when they broke it to breath. She had to remind him of how they needed to be out of the house quickly in order to go to all the places they wanted to go to. He reluctantly agreed and they got dressed and headed downstairs.
When Harry and Ginny came down, she was gripping his arm really tightly which reminded Hermione of Lavender slightly. She dismissed it though as she knew they were nothing like that, they were just very happy and truly happy.
Hermione had a mug of tea in her small hands and watching her blow on it was tough not to act on but he managed to keep his urges at bay.
They left the house and apperated to the Leaky Cauldron, where they enjoyed a few pints of Butterbeer and eventually got through the wall to Diagon Alley. Hermione wanted to visit a few shops but in the end they ended up in Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, where they spoke to George for a bit. Hermione picked up a couple of jokes for Ron and some other things and when they were all shopped out they found themselves sharing ice cream in Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour.
"Oi, get off, you always get the flake." Hermione was consciously watching Ron about to eat the flake and she wanted it bad. She poked him with her spoon and made him laugh.
"All right, you can have the flake just this once."
"Thank you Ronald." He loved that about her. She always got her way and he couldn't help but let her; it was her bossiness combined with her cuteness that made Ron give in so easily.
The dipped her spoon in and wiped some of the ice cream onto Ron's nose, like she had done on their date. He left it there though as a reminder that she was always right.
They disapperated to 12 Grimmauld Place; Ron had wanted to visit as they had really bonded in that place and visiting it might reawaken old memories. When they arrived Hermione sat down at the piano and started to cry.
"Hermione, What's wrong?" Ron reached over and pulled her to him into a warming hug.
"I just remember so much about this place." She lent on Ron's shoulder and her crying stopped a little with his comfort. "We have so many memories here, it reminds me so much of Lupin and Tonks. And we felt so scared for each other; I was so worried about losing you and all that fear has come back to me." She snuggled a bit closer to his chest.
"I know; we were so frightened of what was going to happen and yet here we are." She smiled at this. "It is sad that we lost so many people, but we live on Hermione and that is what matters." He placed his hand under her chin and looked sad himself.
"You're so brave Ron. How do you do it?" She sniffed a bit and he wiped the tears from her eyes. She was slightly mumbly but he could understand what she was saying.
"I'm not brave, I am just happy that I have you. You keep me sane Hermione; without you there would be no me just a puddle on the floor." She laughed and hugged him tighter still.
"Thank you. For cheering me up and taking care of me. I don't know what I'd do without you."
They had a go at the piano and Ron tried to remember how to play it, but with Hermione's help he got there in the end. They looked through the rest of the empty black house, reminiscing on what they'd lost and what they would find in their future together.