"So Monday and Tuesday we're at Ilvermorny for the No-Maj Studies lectures—Monday are the OWL classes, Tuesday is NEWTS—and then we have that alumni dinner in Boston on Wednesday night."

Fortunately, I had a four-day jaunt through Massachusetts to take up a chunk of time before my parents arrived for Christmas, and then Ron for New Year's. I was only partially listening to Anna as she ran through our trip itinerary, and hardly at all paying attention to what I was reading, distracted as I had been since I returned from London three days earlier.

"We'll have most of the day free in Boston, so I thought I'd show you around a bit. You'll like Boston, there's a lot of history there. Although, it's mostly no-maj colonial. Do English people still care about losing the colonies?"

"What?" I glanced up from the parchment I was supposedly reading. "Oh, um, no." I just caught Anna's bemusedly raised blonde eyebrows before I had my nose back in the report.

"Anyway...Thursday is lunch at the Salem Institute, and then we're back in New York by dinner." I made a non-committal sound of acknowledgement. "So I thought I might take that Friday off."

"Sure, no problem."

"And I know you hate flying, but I've arranged hippogriffs for the travel back from Salem. Thought we could ride them through Times Square, give our buddies over in the Obliviation office some work to do."

"Okay. Brilliant."

Anna tutted and flopped dramatically into the chair opposite my desk. "What on earth are you reading? It must be fascinating."

"Oh, it's..." I shuffled through the pages on my desk, looking for the title. All I knew for certain was that the topic of the report was not Ron Weasley, my boyfriend, and how wonderful he had looked all covered up with suds my last morning in London, but that was the only thing my brain had chosen to focus on at the moment.

"So, you're not listening to me," Anna said, not fooled in the least. "You're not paying attention to what you're reading. What is going on in the brilliant mind of Hermione Granger?" Anna propped her chin on her hand and looked quizzically at me.

"Well...it's Ron."

Anna looked cautiously optimistic as she scooted to the edge of the chair and asked, "What about Ron?"

"We're..." I couldn't stop the smile spreading across my face. "Dating."

Anna shot out of her chair and stuck her head into the hall. "Alice!" she yelled shrilly. "Come here!"

Anna slid over to the chair further from the door, leaving the other one for our boss, who appeared swiftly in the doorway. "Is everything okay?"

"Hermione here was just going to tell us all about how she came to be dating Ron while she was in London," Anna said with a grin.

Alice was nearly forty and didn't usually take part in the departmental gossip of her younger staff, but she quickly sat in Anna's vacated chair and shut the door behind her. "Leave nothing out."

I spent most of the week preparing for the trip, and then Ron was spending the weekend out on a mission, so we only had a few opportunities to talk, and for no more than a few minutes at a time. If nothing else, being so busy was making the time go by quickly.

My guest lectures to the No-Maj Studies classes went well, so I didn't feel guilty about skivving off in Boston with Anna. She had insisted walking on the Common, even in the cold, so we cast warming charms on our coats before heading out.

"So," Anna ventured, her tone would-be casual. "When are you going back to London?"

I shrugged. "I'm not sure. My parents will be here next week, and then Ron the week after. Maybe I'll go visit him for Valentine's Day."

"No, I mean...when are you going back?"

I cast a sidelong glance at Anna, who was sipping her coffee innocently as we walked. "You mean moving. Leaving New York?" Anna's mouth twitched, but she otherwise didn't respond. I grabbed the sleeve of her coat to halt her on the sidewalk. "What makes you think I'm going to move back to England?"

She raised an eyebrow at me. "Come on, it was only a matter of time as it was. Now with Ron..."

I scowled at her. "It's been all of a fortnight. I've no plans to leave New York, Anna."

"And it was never the plan to stay there indefinitely, either, was it?"

"Well, no, but things change. I like it over here. It's different."

We walked a little ways in silence, taking in the Christmas decorations in the park. "Do you think Ron would move here?"

"Honestly," I scoffed, rolling my eyes. "It's way too soon to think about such things with him."

Anna smiled in return. "I'm just curious. You're going to have to think about it eventually."

"Assuming things go well with us."

She snorted. "That's kind of a given."

Everyone surely did seem to think so. Not that I was particularly pessimistic about our relationship's trajectory, but I wanted to keep my wits about me. It had been a while, but Ron and I had the ability to push each other's buttons like no one else could. I didn't want to take what we had for granted.

"Well then," I replied, "eventually I'll think about it."

This was something of a lie, because of course, I had thought about it. I had given the distance to Harry months ago as a reason why Ron and I couldn't pursue anything, and expressed concerns about it to Ron in London, though he hadn't been worried. Long-distance was sustainable to a point, but not forever. I had the inkling that even Harry and Ginny were contemplating putting down roots together, though where that might land them, I wasn't sure. Ginny could play Quidditch in the American League, and obviously Harry would be welcomed with open arms to the British auror corps, so they had options, same as Ron and I would. He was the head of his unit back home, and wouldn't miss a step taking up with the American aurors, and when I had last seen Professor McGonagall at Arthur's funeral, she had expressed interest in starting a similar initiative for students pre-Hogwarts to what I had built for Ilvermorny.

But Harry and Ginny were nearly five years into their long-distance whatever-they-were-calling-it, and it had worn on both of them at times. I didn't feel as though Ron and I had the luxury of quite so much time, being five years older than when our best friends had started down this path. Not that I could imagine doing this for five years; it had barely been two weeks since I had seen Ron, and I already missed him terribly, though I supposed after a while, that part would get easier. And knowing that a decision, or at least a conversation, about our divided living situation would likely come about sooner rather than later, it felt only prudent to keep one eye on the future.

"Don't worry," I continued to Anna, barely missing a beat, "you're not getting rid of me anytime soon."