Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters.

A/N: Thanks to ObsessedRHShipper, who is beta-ing this story.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Dinner at the Grangers

Hermione was nervous as she looked through her closet trying to find something to wear to dinner tonight. She found it incredibly annoying that she was this worried about going over to her parents for dinner, but she couldn't seem to calm herself down at all.

"Did you tell them I am a wizard?" the reason for her nerves asked and she looked at him not seeming to understand what he had just asked her. Ron repeated his question, looking amused, but more than a little nervous himself. "Do they know I'm a wizard?"

"Oh, yes. Of course, I told them that," Hermione said, trying to turn back to her closet, but he seemed to be demanding more time from her.

"Would it be okay if I wear my robes then?" he asked almost hopefully this time, as if he knew what her answer was going to be and he was praying he was wrong. But he wasn't, of course.

"No," she shook her head. "You have to wear muggle clothes; I know you have a few nice things."

"But …" Ron groaned, knowing he always felt uncomfortable whenever he wore muggle things.

"Please, Ron. They know about wizards and stuff, but it would make them uncomfortable if you were wearing a robe," Hermione pleaded and he bowed his head and reached for some of his better muggle clothes. Hermione watched as he pulled out some black slacks and a dark blue shirt/sweater thing and suddenly she knew what she should be wearing too.

She pulled out her best black skirt and the light blue blouse that her mum had given her as a Christmas present this year. She could tell the outfit really went well with what Ron was wearing and she knew that her mum would appreciate that she wore the gift. Having the outfit now organized, she felt slightly better, but she was still worried.

Her parents had been quite shocked when she told them that she had a boyfriend, and she couldn't really blame them. It was the first time since Viktor that she had ever even brought up a boy's name to them. Not to mention the fact that she had previously shot down every one of her mum's attempts to set her up. It didn't help matters when she explained that she had actually been seeing Ron for quite a while and things were really serious between them. She had not mentioned that they were now living together, because she did not want to drop too many bombshells on her parents who already seemed to be shocked beyond words.

That was why she was so nervous now. She wanted her parents to accept Ron because they meant so much to her and so did Ron, but she was terrified that something would happen and they wouldn't like each other. She didn't tell Ron any of her fears, but she had a feeling that he knew what she was thinking and that had increased his own nervousness. For since his first mention of wanting to meet them, he has begun turning pale whenever she talked about this dinner.

"Shall we go?" Ron asked, breaking her out of her musings and she realized that she had been dressing herself absentmindedly. She looked at the clock; it was indeed the time that she had told him that they should leave, and she wondered where the time had gone. She looked in the mirror, making sure nothing was out of place and then she looked over Ron, who looked uncomfortable but very nice. She nodded her head, so Ron took a step to her and wrapped his arms around her; she then Apparated them to the spot she always did when she visited her parents. It was a block's walk away from her parents' house, in a little corner no one ever noticed.

"Well, here we go," Ron muttered to himself, taking a deep breath before he knocked on the door. The thirty-second wait before her mum opened the door nearly killed Hermione, but her mum was smiling at them, and she felt herself relax immediately. Her mum hugged her and invited them in. They made their way to the living room to meet her dad, who had obviously just turned off the TV.

"Hermione," her dad smiled at her and hugged her. When she released him, she looked back at Ron who was standing awkwardly in the room.

"Mum, Dad, this is Ron Weasley," Hermione said, "and Ron, these are my parents, Juliet and Duncan Granger."

"Nice to meet you," Ron said holding out his hand to her mum, but Juliet decided to hug him instead. This put Ron at ease, until he turned back to Duncan, whose expression didn't seem too friendly towards him.

"Nice to meet you," Duncan repeated in returned. Duncan's voice was a bit too formal for Ron's liking and Duncan only offered him a stiff handshake.

"So, you have to tell me how you two met," Juliet said, shooting a look at her husband. "Hermione didn't have time to go into many details when she told us about you over the phone."

"Well, it was about seven months ago when I was celebrating after one of my cases," Hermione said, having to come up with a way to tell the story that was suitable for her parents. "Ron was one of the Aurors that had captured the guy."

"Auror?" Duncan said.

"It's like a please man," Ron said, knowing that's what his dad said the Muggle term was.

"Policeman," Hermione corrected and Ron's ears turned red. She mentally kicked herself for correcting him; she actually found it cute that he used the phrase please man, but she could tell that he was embarrassed that he made a mistake like that in front of her parents.

"So you're a policeman?" Duncan said thoughtfully and Hermione had a feeling he wasn't impressed at all about that.

"Actually, Aurors are more like detectives," Hermione said. "It's a very difficult job; a lot of people try to be an Auror but not many are accepted."

"It sounds like an impressive job," Juliet noted.

"Hermione makes it sounds better than it is," Ron mumbled, rubbing the back of his head. He, after all, didn't have to go through the difficult part of extra classes; he skipped all that when the Ministry had offered him a job right after the war. Sure, he did take the classes while he was being trained in the field, and he had made good marks, but he never had the pressure of having to do it right or he wouldn't be taken on as an Auror. He often wondered if he would have handled the pressure well or not.

"I am not," Hermione rolled her eyes at his comment. He could feel her eyes on him and he was sure that she knew what he was thinking, but wasn't going to say anything in front of her parents, which he appreciated.

"So, you were celebrating …" Juliet prompted and Hermione went back to her story.

"We found that we had a lot in common. We hit it off from the very beginning, but we weren't really able to see each other that much over the next three months because of my work schedule."

"I really wish you wouldn't push yourself so hard," Juliet commented.

"There's nothing wrong with working hard when you're young to make sure you will have a secure future," Duncan countered and Juliet rolled her eyes.

"You should enjoy your youth while you have it, because you're only young once. You can always make a stable life for yourself in the future," Juliet countered and it was Duncan's turn to roll his eyes.

Hermione just smiled at her parents. She had heard this argument a lot, especially anytime her mum would ask her about her relationship status. Her mum was all for her finding a guy sooner rather than later, whereas her dad thought it was better to wait until she had established herself before she worried about that. Before now, she had always agreed with her dad and appreciated his stand, because it made it a lot easier to say no to the guys that her mum tried to set her up with. Now, however, she was hoping that her dad would see that she was happy with Ron, and not think that she was too young.

"Well, that's neither here nor there now," Juliet shook her head and looked at Hermione pointedly.

"Yes, well, Ron was very persistent and patient with me," Hermione said, smiling at Ron at this point. She realized Ron was probably the only person that would have stood for her hesitation while loving her at the same time. "And asked his best friend to get me to go to lunch with him at the Ministry …"

"What! … I never asked him to do that. That was all Harry," Ron protested.

"Yeah, sure it was," Hermione rolled her eyes.

"It was," Ron insisted this time. "He thought that it would help me out. It was his idea and he knew he would have been killed if it hadn't worked."

Hermione chuckled at this, not doubting Ron's threat at all.

"I'm sorry, but who is Harry?" Juliet asked.

Ron chuckled at her question. It wasn't a funny question, but it was just odd that there were actually people out there that didn't know who Harry Potter was. "He's my best friend and partner."

"Yeah, I got a chance to meet him and Ron's little sister the weekend before Harry had asked me to lunch. We all hit it off pretty well," Hermione added. "Evidently, he had decided all on his own that he would invite me to have lunch with him and Ron at the Ministry; about a week later, Ron and I were dating."

Ron looked at her then, wondering if that was true. He had always thought that he had started dating her when they had met, because it was then that he had considered himself as being committed to her. However, she had a point that seeing each other once a month didn't really sound like a relationship. Once they started having lunch together at the Ministry, they were then seeing each other three times a week, which did feel much more like a real relationship.

"Well, it looks like you owe a lot to this Harry guy," Juliet said smiling. Her eyes were on her daughter as she noticed how happy she seemed.

"That's true, but seeing as he's dating my sister, I figure we're pretty much even," Ron said with a nervous chuckle. It wasn't long after that that the buzzer on the oven went off and Juliet left to get the dinner out of the oven and set everything up. The room felt considerable colder without her in it, because Duncan didn't seem to be much of a conversationalist and didn't seem to be that open towards Ron. Eventually, he started a conversation with Hermione that pretty much excluded Ron because he didn't know what they were talking about.

At first, Hermione didn't really notice this, because she was enjoying the conversation. Later, when they got to the actual dinner, she couldn't help but notice the coldness in her father's voice whenever he said something to Ron or how happy he was to leave Ron out of the conversation altogether. By the end of the dinner, she was rather annoyed and that fact was clear to everyone there. Although Juliet tried to ease the tension, it did no good.

"Why don't you just say whatever it is on your mind, Dad?" Hermione finally asked when her mum had gotten up to clear the table and Ron had offered to help her. He looked at her, taking in the look she had so he could judge her mood; he noticed that her brown eyes, the eyes that she had inherited from him, were narrowed. In fact, he noticed immediately from how thin her mouth was that she was setting herself up for a fight. He had seen that look many times before when they had argued on opposite sides of an issue, but it had never been this serious before.

"Ron seems like a nice guy," Duncan started in an appeasing tone in hopes that it would soften her up a bit, but as he had expected, it did nothing.

"But?" Hermione said, because she knew there had to be a 'but'.

"Do you really think he's the right type of guy for you?" Duncan questioned, knowing that stating that he didn't think Ron was right for her would only make her angrier.

"You've only known Ron for an hour and a half and you're concluding that he's not right for me," Hermione said in a dangerous and cold tone.

Duncan didn't have a thing to say to that that would make his case sound stronger, so he went on to another topic. "You might be having fun with him now," he said and the blush that formed on Hermione's cheeks confirmed what he expected, "but what do you two have in common?"

"We have plenty in common," Hermione said, as her eyes were back to glaring at him.

"That doesn't answer my question, Hermione," Duncan shook his head. "I can tell that you're serious about this boy, but to have a lasting relationship you have to have something in common or it won't last. I'm sorry, but I don't see what you could have in common with a 'please man.'"

Hermione eyes bored into his and he felt a little ashamed at poking fun at the boy's terminology. "What do you expect from me, to only date other lawyers?"

"It doesn't have to be a lawyer," Duncan said. "Don't you want to be with someone with some ambition? I'm not saying that it's not admirable being an Auror, but it's not …"

"Just stop!" Hermione cut him off. "You obviously have no idea what you're talking about and I don't want to hear any more of this."

"Hermione, I just want what's best for you," Duncan said, his expression softened but hers didn't.

"Then back off," Hermione said firmly. "And maybe actually try to learn something about Ron before you judge him, because, Dad, he's going to me in my life whether you like it or not!"

She got up, planning on getting Ron and then leaving, but when she found Ron in the kitchen, it was clear that he had something else in mind. It was also clear that both Ron and her mum had heard the conversation that had taken place with her dad.

"I'm sorry about him," Hermione whispered when she went to hug him.

"Like I told your mum, you don't have to worry about it," Ron smiled at her, and she could tell that he wasn't so bothered by this. "I'll probably act this way too, when I have a daughter."

"You better not," Hermione said glaring at him.

"Sorry, Mione. I don't think I'll have much of a choice," Ron shrugged. "I'm not going to like any guy my daughter brings over, and being the over protective git I am, it won't be pretty. Just ask Harry how bad I was when he dated Ginny the first time … and she's only my sister."

"Ron, are you just trying to make me angrier?" Hermione glared at him and he shook his head, giving her a sheepish smile.

"Nope, I'm just letting you know I get where he's coming from," he said taking a deep breath. "I'm also telling you that it's probably best if I have a word with him."

"I'm not sure if he will listen to you right now," Hermione said frowning. "My dad can be really stubborn when he wants to be."

"Hmm … then it's a good thing that I have practice dealing with s stubborn Granger before," Ron said.

"I don't think your charm is going to work on my dad," Hermione pointed out.

"Even so … I think it's best if I say my piece now," Ron said. She knew that she wasn't going to change his mind so she let him go.