"Hermione, I know"

She gasped and jerked into conciousness.

It had been one of those blurry dreams that jumps from one thing to another, leaving her nacious and frightened.

Hermione sat up and cradled her head in her hands forcing herself to breathe at normal increments.

She hadn't dreamt about the war in months.

Glancing sideways she noted that her fit hadn't disturbed Robert. He was a deep sleeper and was still spralled across the bed.

She need not wake him for something as silly as this, Hermione reasoned, still willing her heart to stop racing.

She carefully shifted her bare legs from beneath the sheet and placed them on the cool wood floor and crept out the door.

I'll just get a cup of tea, that will calm me down, and then – she cut herself off. She hated going back to sleep alone after a nightmare. Well, Robert would be there, she reasoned to herself.

Hermione continued down the steps, subtly placing both hands behind her on the wall as every creak of the stairs struck more fear into her heart.

She finally reached the last step and peaked into the kitchen.

Her breath caught for the second time that night. Ron was slumped over the stove watching the kettle.

Hermione thought quickly about turning around and going straight back to bed, but the thought of walking back up all those stairs to a dark room was worse than staying here with Ron.

She cleared her throat and watched as Ron whipped around on the defensive.

"Hermione!" he said, his voice sounding breathless.

He stared at her for a moment, cocking his head sideways as if he was trying to determine whether she was real. Hermione was suddenly very aware of her tiny purple pyjama shorts and tattered yellow vest and blushed under his stare.

"Ahem" he cleared his throat and gave his head a small shake, studying her again. "Is everything okay?"

"Um.." her voice sounded feable. "Yes, fine, just a.." she paused to consider what to tell him and settled on the truth. "Just a bad dream."

His eyes welled with concern and he took two long strides across the kitchen so he was right in front of her. "Are you alright?" he said in a deep and serious tone.

Hermione melted for a moment. He understood.

There was an overwhelming desire to close the remaining distance between them and fall into his arms. She looked up into his blue eyes, wide and studying her with concern, and changed her mind.

"I'm fine. I'm…I'm okay" she stuttered, "Just haven't had one of those in a long time"

"Really?" he asked, breaking the trance between them and turning back to his tea. "I'm still about once a week."

His statement had been casual but she suddenly felt very guilty, and she couldn't think why. She looked at Ron again, his shoulders were slumped and he never seemed to stand to his full height anymore. Hermione realized that the war still consumed his whole life.

"I'm sorry Ron," she said sincerely.

He turned again and studied her.

"s'not your fault" his voice was reduced to a whisper again. "Just can't seem to…"

"You have to stop living in the past. It's over. You've got to move on. You have…You could be…There's just so much more than this for you, I know it" she ended her interruption with a weak smile.

The kettle let out a high pitched howl, breaking their trance again, and Ron's form snapped back to fetch it.

"Tea?" he asked, Hermione tried not to notice how shaky his voice sounded.

"Yes please" she said. "Two sugars and one –"

"Hermione, I know" he cut her off shortly.

They sat across from each other in silence for a moment, awkwardly sipping their tea.

Ron cleared his throat again.

"So, you cut your hair" he said, still looking down at his tea.

Hermione laughed.

"Yes about two years ago."

"Right." He smirked sheepishly. "Looks good." He spit out before taking another long sip of tea.

"Yes well – anything would be better than that bush around my head like when we were at school" she laughed again.

Ron looked at her began to laugh too. "It was a bit…out of control" he choked out.

"A bit? Absolutely mad is more like it"

"Yeah, I suppose it suited you"

Hermione began to take offense at his jibe until she looked up to see him smirking slyly at her.

She burst into laughter again.

"Ron stop!" she slapped his hand on the table and composed herself into a playful scowl. "It's not nice to make fun of someone's appearance you know!"

"Aw come on, at least you've fixed it up a bit" he fake pleaded, "I'm stuck with this shaggy Red mop whatever I do!"

She laughed again and stood to take their empty cups to the sink.

He stood with her and walked to the sink as well.

"You want to go for a walk with me?" he asked, still smiling from their teasing.

Hermione looked up at him and her smile faded, he was too close to her again. She could feel the heat radiating from his body, fighting the urge to be next to him was getting more difficult as she looked into his eyes. The laughter had erased every piece of fear in her heart, but somehow she still wanted to run to him – to feel the safeness of Ronald Weasley's embrace.

"I shouldn't," she choked out, but her body betrayed her, stepping closer to him though she willed it to step away.

"Hermione…" he whispered, the moment had suddenly turned serious.

There eyes were still locked and their toes were almost touching. There was nothing left to break the trance and Hermione couldn't seem to turn away on her own. Her heart was racing again and it felt amazing. Her whole body was heating up at his closeness and butterflies were fluttering in her stomach.

She nodded her response, not taking her eyes off him.

He looked down at her lips, back at her eyes, then at her lips again.

She was aching all over. She knew what was coming next but she was powerless to stop it, so she mirrored his actions.

When she looked back at his eyes, she was shocked by what she saw. This was not just an undeniable attraction, an itch they were scratching, this was…

He leaned forward and gently kissed her lips, timidly at first, but then more forcefully.

It was as if every muscle in her body let go of every tension, she melted against him and allowed her head to cloud over for a moment. It was as if nothing had changed, their mouths moved in sync and she heard herself sigh with pure contentment. His arm had snaked around her back, holding her weak body against him and she felt warm all over despite her tiny outfit.

Finally their lips parted, and he leaned his forehead against hers. She was leaned up against the counter now, her eyes still closed, savouring the moment before reality set in.

"Ron…I…"

She didn't know what to say next. It had felt so…perfect to kiss him, but what did this mean.

She finally opened her eyes and backed away from him. She looked into his eyes and searched for the answer.

"Hermione…"