The house was down a small leafy road. It was quiet and peaceful, lined with trees and bushes and the odd flower bed. There were a few cars parked in the road, but most were safely enclosed behind gates on driveways or in garages with brightly painted doors. Not that they really needed to be. This area was in no way rough. In fact it was so safe, that a little way further down from where he stood, two kids rode their bikes round and round, whilst a younger looking child chased after them clutching a large football in her small chubby arms. As he stood there watching for a moment, he began to wonder if that was what Hermione's childhood had looked like. He tried to imagine it. A little Hermione, with huge bushy hair and braces running up and down this very street with the other neighbourhood kids. It seemed unlikely somehow. Hermione was very much an indoor sort of person.

They had talked for a long time in Kingsley's office the other day. He and Hermione told her parents everything that had happened to them. They answered their questions, then the conversation moved to how they were going to rebuild their lives. How they needed to restart their dentist surgery and how they needed to bond again with their daughter after such a long time apart. How they wanted Hermione to come back home, at least for a while. Hermione had agreed after much pleading, but only if Ron could stay for a bit too.

He turned to his right and there it was. The blue painted door of number eight. Hermione's house. Ron smiled at the thought. Behind that door and behind those walls was Hermione. They hadn't seen each other in days and it amazed him how much he had missed her. Especially at night, hugging a pillow just wasn't the same. It didn't keep the nightmares away. He made his way up to the front door and knocked. He was tired now, trains took a long time. Really it would have been easier to use floo powder, but the Granger house only had and an electric fireplace and since he still hadn't passed the apparition test that was out too. It had been a long journey and the only thing that had really kept him going was counting down the hours till he got to see Hermione again, till he got to touch her, to kiss her, to hear her voice.

To hear her voice. There it was. Just on the other side of the door. His heart flipped, the way it always did when she was around. He grinned as the door swung open to reveal a beaming Hermione. She squealed in excitement as she reached to hug him, actually squealed. Ron grinned even harder, he'd never heard Hermione squeal before, it made her seem girly, feminine and happy. He liked that, and liked the fact that it was he who made her feel that way. Ron quickly dropped his bag beside the doorstep and enthusiastically hugged his girlfriend.

"Too long" he murmured into her bushy hair, "never leaving you again."

He leant down to kiss her, but before he could Mr Granger walked into the hall munching on an apple, that days newspaper clutched in his hand. They leaped apart guiltily, both blushing as Mr Granger said "God Hermione, don't just keep the poor lad standing on the doorstep! Come on in Ron." Ron bent down and scooped up his bag, Hermione standing aside to let him through the door.

"Good to see you again Ron." Mr Granger said, tucking his paper under his arm and holding out his hand to Ron.

"You too Sir." Replied Ron taking Mr Granger's hand with his free one and exchanging a firm handshake.

Ron let go of his hand and looked around the room. The front door had clearly opened onto some sort of hallway. It had pale blue painted walls and a cream carpet that flowed up the stairs on his right and he assumed, continued along the upstairs landing. It was a very clean room, with nothing much in it except a small table that held a pile of unopened letters and what he recognised to be a telephelone or a telphon or something like that anyway, Dad was often playing around with one anyway and he'd tried to use it to contact Harry one summer. It hadn't gone well and he hadn't tried to use one since.

Just then the door at the end of the hall opened had Mrs Granger's head appeared. "Oh hello Ron" she called smiling at him. "Hermione dear why don't you show Ron to his room, that bag looks awfully heavy. Dinner's going to be about half an hour so that'll give you time to settle in before we eat."

Hermione nodded and motioned for Ron to follow her upstairs. "Mum's made up the spare room for you. I think you'll like it, it has its own…" but her voice was drowned out by Mrs Granger who had just spotted the apple Mr Granger had been eating.

"Hugo Granger, I told you dinner was soon, don't eat anything! And that had better not be the apple for my fruit salad!"

Looking back, Ron saw Mr Granger look sheepish as he quickly tried to hide the half eaten apple behind his back. Hermione chuckled, happy that her family was getting back to normal. They continued up the stairs Hermione opening the first door on the right. They entered the room, Ron gasped. The room was huge, easily the size of his dormitory back in Gryffindor tower, except this time, it was just his. There was a large wardrobe and a big double bed that looked so soft that he just wanted to dive straight under the covers and to take Hermione with him. He had a feeling that that would be the cosiest he'd ever been. A lovely warm Hermione and a big squishy duvet. Before he could act on this however, his eye was caught by a door in the corner.

"Whats behind there?" he asked Hermione, beckoning towards the mysterious door as he did so.

"Oh yeah, that's was I was trying to tell you about." She grinned, "Go have a look."

He was curious and exited as he stepped towards the door. He pulled at the handle and opened the door to reveal his very own private bathroom. A simple "wow" was all he could manage. He'd never been in a house where the bedrooms all had their own bathrooms, and it was seriously cool. Now he didn't have to worry about the possibility of running into Mr or Mrs Granger wearing pyjamas in the middle of the night.

"This is awesome." He said turning back to Hermione who was still standing in the middle of the room watching him take in everything.

"Yeah it's pretty cool. Fairly new too, mum and dad did just before I… er… just before we left with Harry."

He nodded, walking back over to her and pulling her into a hug. It was clearly still difficult for her, deep down she'd probably thought she'd never see her parents again, never return to this house. Once again, he leant down and was mere millimetres away from her lips when an almighty wailing sound rung through the house.

He jumped and pulled out his wand on reflex. Hermione, who had jumped too, touched his arm reassuringly. "Don't worry; it's just the smoke alarm." She sighed "I should have warned you, mums an even worse cook than I am! Looks like we're having takeaway tonight then. How do you feel about Chinese?"