FanFiction 100

36. Smell

Ron fears opening his eyes for he afraid that he had never really found them in the first place. He fears the past weeks were only just dreams, or horrible nightmares. The pungent smell of sea salt is too familiar. Ron knows that if he opens his eyes he will be in his small room at Shell Cottage.

There are hushed voices outside the door, probably Bill and Fleur. Ron cannot bear another moment knowing whether he is truly at his brother's little shack or in the cramped canvas tent. He tentatively opens his eyes. Surprisingly, the room looks a bit different from how he remembered it. Before it was just a plain room with a tiny dresser and gas lamp, but now the windows are lined with yellow curtains and a painting of a lonely woman eating in a café hangs on the wall.

But memory trickles through his mind like sand in an hourglass and suddenly he remembers everything. He remembers pulling Harry up through the icy lake, destroying Tom Riddle's locket that fed on every bad feeling in his soul, visiting Xenophilius Lovegood, the smell of Fenrir Greyback's breathe in his face, the cavernous rooms of Malfoy Manor, and "bloody hell!" He thinks. The sound of Hermione's screams.

Ron wrestles with his body to get up though every muscle has fallen asleep. He skids a bit on the blanket he was wrapped in and immediately remembers that she is okay. Fleur had taken care of her and not too long ago he had had been standing next to her at Dobby's grave. "Fuck!" He thinks again. Dobby died! That elf saved him. He saved her!

He had always liked Dobby come to think of it. Always called him Master Weasley and brought him those little sandwiches.

He glances at the little clock on the dresser to find it was 6:37 P.M. Harry was still standing out on the little sand dunes with Dobby's grave. He was so elated with the fact that he had found them and so filled with the grief of what had just happened to him with in the past twenty-four hours, he did not realize Hermione staring up at him from the bed.

"Ron?" She whispers gently. "You're up."

"God, I'm such an arse! She's just been on the brink of death and here I am taking a bloody nap. Nice, Weasley." "I was sleeping?" He says lamely.

"You fell asleep in the corner." She explains.

"Ah, that's why I can't feel my legs." He attempts to joke.

Hermione smiles and stiffly pats the bed, indicating for him to sit down, though when the mattress shifts under his weight, she cringes at bit.

"Sorry!" He croaks and nearly stands up.

"It's alright." She replies. "The Skele-Grow hasn't fully worked yet."

Ron nods and guilt continues to course through him. The sound of silence buzzes uncomfortably in their ears. Hermione opens her mouth to speak, but something seems to catch in her throat and she stops only to have her eyes fill with tears.

The bruises that line her sides are tender as she shifts to on to her side, buries her head in Ron's arm, and grips his pant leg. He wants to pull her closer to his chest, but he knows the slightest touch will splinter her body. So he settles for gently holding the hand that is on his leg and stroking her hair.

"How do you feel?" He questions, and then mentally kicks himself for asking such a stupid question.

"I'm alright." She also attempts to joke.

Ron raises an eyebrow.

"Oh, alright." She huffs. For a brief moment everything is all most back to normal. They are not in Bill and Fleur's little cottage, they are not the world's only saviors, but they are just two friends (or more) back in the safety of their school. He is Ron, who has pointed out that she, Hermione, is wrong and she cannot bear it. "I feel quite terrible, but I'd rather not let on."

"You're a tough woman." He said.

He feels her face curl into a smile against her arm. He wishes to keep her smiling forever.

"I heard you, you know. When you were in the cellar." Hermione says.

"Yeah?" He replies. Ron is all most shocked he isn't embarrassed by the outward display of his emotions back in the dingy vault of Malfoy Manor. Hermione will one day tell him otherwise, but he always tried to hard to conceal his emotions. When he did attempt to show her he really did care he would always end up replaying the scene in his mind until he was convinced he was the world's biggest prat and he should never utter another word to her again. On the contrary, he's quite glad she heard him.

"Yes. I-I was touched."

This, of course, made the tips of his ears turn red. "Yeah?" He repeats, unsure of how to continue.

Hermione smiles again. "Yes, Ronald. I was touched."

He laughs. "I'm going to try hard to make sure I never had to make you feel touched again."

"Yeah?" She says.

"Well, I'll make you feel touched in some other way."

It's Hermione's turn to blush. "Yeah?" She mocks.

"Argh!" Ron moans. "I didn't mean it like that! I meant th-…"

"I know what you meant, Ron."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

In their silence they both burst out laughing though Hermione winces once again. She lets out a shaky breath, smiles at him, and whispers, "thank you," before burying her head in his arm once more. Ron, too, breathes and leans against the bedpost. Her fragile body is warm against his.

And suddenly the smell of the ocean isn't so ominous. In fact, it's a rather beautiful and calming scent.

a/n: oh…oh hey. I am so sorry. It's been like a whole trimester of school since I've posted and I feel like SUCH an arse. And I've still gotten all this support. I've been lazy and I've been busy. I would keep apologizing, but I know you probably don't want to read an extremely long A/N.

I loved Deathly Hallows. Sure, they were a ton of things that irked me, BUT overall I was very happy with it. Dance scene aside. I'll talk about it more later. Ask me about when you review ;).

I was in a melancholy mood as I wrote this. I tried to find a balance between Ron's humorous side and "deep" side for lack of a better word.

PLEASE REVIEW EVEN IF YOU FEEL LIKE PUNCHING ME IN THE FACE. Thanks! Suggest a prompt (authors note chapter)

Also, I think many people found this story from my Tumblr. If you'd like to find me I'm www. something- about- .com Links do not work on so you can remove the spaces or find the direct link on my author profile. SORRY AGAIN. This has been a long authors note.