"Good morning Mrs. Weasley," Hermione said as she entered the kitchen. She took a deep breath through her nose. She loved the smell of Mrs. Weasley's cooking.
"Why good morning dear, would you like some pumpkin juice?"
"Yes, please." Hermione sat down at the table as Mrs. Weasley put a plate of eggs in front of her and set a glass and a pitcher of pumpkin juice on the table.
"Morning Mum!" Ron greeted as he hopped into the room. He took the seat on Hermione's right.
"Good morning dear!" Mrs. Weasley placed a plate in front of Ron, who took his fork and proceeded to stuff eggs into his mouth as fast as he could.
"Ronald, don't eat so fast. You'll get sick," Hermione cautioned.
"I oo is ah eh ime!" Ron protested with his mouth full.
"I don't care if you do this all the time, there's a first time for everything!"
Ron swallowed his mouthful. "What are you gonna do if I keep doing this? Take the food from my mouth?" Ron gave Hermione a smirk.
"Don't tempt me." Ron stuffed more food into his mouth and made a face at Hermione, who giggled.
Mrs. Weasley turned around and gave the two at a table a suspicious look. Hermione caught it and quickly stopped giggling. She could feel her face heat up. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Ron's ears twinge red.
"Good morning Mum! Hi Rooon, hi Hermioneeee," Ginny sang as she entered the room. She put her arms around Ron and Hermione's shoulders. "How are we this morning?"
Ron gulped his food and watched Ginny walk to the other side of the table. Before she could sit down he whispered to Hermione, "You told her?"
"No," Hermione whispered back. "She guessed."
Before the two could say anything more Harry entered the room, greeted Mrs. Weasley, and joined Ginny in sitting across from the new couple. They both had huge grins on their faces.
"You told Harry?" Hermione whispered fiercely as Mrs. Weasley set plates in front of Ginny and Harry.
"No, just like Ginny, he guessed!"
"Well you kids don't have much time before the term starts again. Only three days, isn't it?"
"Yes, Mrs. Weasley!" Hermione said cheerfully. She was obviously quite pleased to be going back to school. The other three faces around the table said that she was the only pleased one.
"Oh Mum, please don't remind us," Ron pleaded. "I'd like to enjoy these three days."
"Well, I know that I'm going to start packing today," Hermione said.
"You would," replied Ginny.
"Hermione, we have three whole days before we have to be ready. Wouldn't you rather be outside? It's gorgeous out! Pretty soon we're going to be stuck in dingy, dusty classrooms all day," Harry said.
"Oh Harry, it's much better to pack now and then we're not in a rush to pack right before we leave! If we get this job done now, we don't have to worry about it!"
"She's got a point, mate," Ron said. Suddenly four pairs of eyes were on him, including Mrs. Weasley's, who put down her spatula and started to watch the four closely.
"Oh, you're only saying that because she's your—" Ginny said but she was cut off by Hermione.
"AHHH!" Hermione shrieked. She jumped into her chair.
Everyone stopped what they were doing and gave Hermione a questioning look.
Hermione could feel her face go from pink to red. "Uhh…sorry. I just, I just... I'd better start packing." And with that Hermione fled from the room and went up to Ginny's room and opened her school trunk.
Hermione was stacking books on her bed when she heard a knock on the door. "Who is it?" she called.
"It's me, Mione," Ron said as he opened the door tentatively. "Are you alright?"
Hermione took one stack of books and began to layer the bottom of her trunk with them. After a couple of books she set the rest of the stack down and looked at Ron. "How are we going to tell your mother?!?! I'm a guest in her house, and here I am, dating her youngest son! She's going to be so upset and she's going to kick me out, and you shouldn't even be in here! Once she finds out and then remembers that we were in here alone, she's going to be so upset!" She plopped down on the bed with a sigh.
Ron sat on the bed next to Hermione and put his arm around her shoulders. "Mione, relax! First of all, the door's open. Nothing suspicious can be going on in here. Second of all, my mum loves you! She's not going to kick you out any faster than she's kicked Harry out. As for actually telling her, I thought we'd have a nice formal dinner, I'd put on my dress robes and you could wear a dress or a skirt, and we could tap our knives against our glasses and make a toast."
Hermione raised an eyebrow at Ron and laughed, falling onto his shoulder. "I might just have believed you if you didn't suggest that you wear your dress robes. Those things are hideous!"
"Now I know what to wear next time we go into public together."
Hermione laughed a short laugh and then became serious again. "But really, Ron. How are we going to tell your mother? How does anyone tell their parents that they're going out with someone, especially when that someone's staying in the same house?"
"I thought we'd just let Ginny tell her, although your scream seems to tell me that's a no-no."
"Hmmm…" Hermione sat up and stared blankly into the wall. "Maybe you're on the right track…"
Ron put his hands over his heart and fell back onto the bed as if he had fainted. "Don't tell me that I'm right!"
"Oh stop it. No, you're not right. You're almost there, though. What if we just let your mom find out the same way Harry and Ginny did? Just let her figure it out for herself. I mean, it's not like we're engaged or anything."
Ron sat up. "Sounds like a plan to me. Now, there's just one more thing we have to fix."
"What's that?"
Ron got off the bed and started taking Hermione's books out of her trunk. "We have to keep you from running away to school early!"
A/N: I know, it's a little shorter than usual, but it felt like a good place to stop. I'm thinking one or two more chapters, and then I want to continue the story into the next school year. I'm obviously not following the storyline exactly, but a couple people have asked me when this is taking place. For the sake of age, etc, it's between 6th and 7th year. Not much to do with the books, though, as you can see. I hope you enjoy!