Not quite the New Years Eve Hermione thought it would be...but maybe it can still be salvaged?

Can I give a quick shout out to BlueGreenandPurple for being my first ever beta?! You're awesome sauce and your commentary made me laugh haha

I followed Ron into his office and shut the door behind me fuming.

"What the hell was that?" I asked while I watched him angrily pace the office. I had never seen him so agitated!

He stopped short and turned on me immediately. "That's your bloody ex Hermione? Viktor Krum? Major League Baseball Player Viktor Krum? Top pitcher in the league Viktor sodding Krum?! That pompous git, of all the blokes in this city, is your ex? The father of your child?"

I stared at him in complete shock. I mean...what? "Yes," I finally answered. "Viktor is my ex. He's Rose's father. I told you her father plays Major League Baseball..." I really did not understand where he was going with this...or why he was so upset.

"No, Hermione...you told me Rose's father is a 'professional athlete'. That's all. You never talk about him. Never told me his name or what he plays and for who. You didn't tell me he's a big time bloody famous baseball player!"

I thought about that for a moment...and realized Ron was right. I never specifically said what Viktor does, and come to think of it I couldn't recall actually calling him Viktor...he was always 'Rose's father/dad'...

But, still, Ron was acting ridiculous. "Okay," I started as calmly as I could, "but I mean...really? When I say that he's a 'professional athlete', what did you expect?"

"I don't know, 'professional athlete' could be anything from an MMA Fighter to training for the Olympics to an unemployed has-been for all I know! But no, he's a frickin rich and famous -"

"What does it matter Ron?" I stomped and threw up my hands.

"It does matter!" He practically roared. I secretly prayed that we could not be heard in the conference room just down the hall. He clearly had the same thought, as he made a point of lowering his voice to repeat, "It does matter! And a heads up would have been nice! You knew who I was meeting with today!"

"I did not!" I screeched. "You never told me!"

"But no," he continued ignoring me completely, "instead I had to spend the entire afternoon kissing the arse of this arrogant tosser, not realizing that I'm fucking his kid's mum!"

I took a step back and stared at him wide-eyed. I almost felt as if I'd been slapped. Was he serious? Where was this even coming from?

Our eyes met and he slumped into the nearest seat. "I'm sorry 'Mione," he mumbled. "That wasn't fair."

"No," I finally said. "It definitely was not."

"I just...I mean really...who the hell am I to some rich and famous American Sports hero? How am I supposed to -"

"Supposed to what Ron? Compete?!" I all but shrieked. "Is that what this is about? Your ego? YOUR EGO?! Because you think he's somehow better than you and therefore, what? Has more claim to me?!"

"You have a child together!"

"AND THAT IS ALL!" I was fuming and was sure my hair was standing at all angles after I practically pulled it straight out in frustration. "We share a child and nothing more, Ron! I see him maybe six times a year if that! I don't even really have to speak with him anymore now that Rose has her own phone! But yet you think that, just because he is who he is, that he can strut in here and...and...snatch me away from you? Because somehow lesser than him?! Like this is some sort of competition and I'm the coveted trophy? Because I am not a trophy! I'm a person with my own mind! If I wanted to be with him, I would be!"

"Oh, bet he'd love that," Ron muttered out of the corner of his mouth. He looked up at me then, his blue eyes piercing me momentarily. "I saw the way he was looking at you. And I heard the things he-"

"He can look at me all he wants, Ronald. I'm not stopping him. But he knows as well as I do, and as well as you should, that I don't want to be with him. In fact, I figured I found something - someONE - so much better than him. You could be a poor cashier at my local grocery store and I'd still choose you over him! But you clearly don't get that."

I turned to the door and went to open it, but I paused before I did and took a deep breath. "You know, I presumed that under all that confidence there were insecurities...we all have them. But I never thought you'd be so insecure about my feelings for you. Somehow, I guess I didn't think we would have to deal with any of this."

I'm not sure how I made it across the street and to our room without shedding one tear, but I did. Luckily, I didn't see Viktor or anyone else from the league on the way out, and before I knew it I was closing our hotel room door and sliding down the back of it in tears, his words echoing in my head.

"...that I'm fucking his kid's mum!"

Was that all I was to him? Some MILF he was getting his kicks in with?

I ran down the events of the last couple of months and tried to tell myself that it wasn't it. That...it couldn't be. I mean, all the signs were there, the signs that he was really and truly into me and cared about me. Weren't they?

Or...maybe this all wasn't worth it to him anymore. I knew that dating with a child would be difficult. I always thought about the fact that dating me would come with a Rose Clause. But I never even considered that it would also come with a Viktor Clause, too. Not that Ron - or any man I date - and Viktor had to be best friends - Viktor and I certainly were not - but they would certainly see each other and have to speak to one another at times. I should have known this would be a disaster, but this… This was no doubt a much larger disaster than I imagined.

Two hours later it was after ten and Ron still had not returned. I changed into my nightgown to get comfortable. It looked like I would be ringing in the new year alone - something that up until about three months ago I figured I would be doing anyway.

I thought that time would have calmed me down, but it seemed to do the opposite. The more time I had to think, the angrier I became.

My blood boiled. I wouldn't even be able to look at him. Didn't want to think about him. I mean… How dare he?

And yet I still felt the loss heavily. It didn't help at all that I was in his hotel room, laying on his bed. And oh, did it smell like him! The….the bastard.

I considered trying to get my own room for the night, but I figured, it was just one night. Plus, it was New Year's Eve in New York City...the odds of getting another room here or anywhere were practically non-existent.

I wondered if he would return, but with each minute that passed, the likelihood dropped too.

I was just considering driving home tonight and seeing if Viktor could bring Rose home tomorrow afternoon so I wouldn't have to return, when there was a soft knock on the door. Figuring it was a hotel staff member looking for Ron, I pulled on my robe and opened the door...

To find six plus feet of redheaded idiot standing in front of me. He was leaning against the doorframe with a sheepish expression and the longest face known to mankind. His eyes were red and puffy, his hair was sticking out at all ends…he looked terrible.

And yet so stinkin' adorable.

So... I scowled. Hard.

"Do you often knock to enter your own hotel room?" I asked, folding my arms across my chest. "Or did you misplace your key? Clumsy as you are, I wouldn't put it past you."

He sighed deeply. "I'm sorry Hermione." I raised an eyebrow. "I'm sorry I acted the way I did. I'm sorry I blew up at you and said...well...everything I said. And I'm sorry that I didn't have more confidence in your feelings for me." He pulled his hand from behind his back revealing a small bouquet of flowers - red roses. "I walked around for two hours trying to find somewhere that wasn't sold out of flowers and still open...but I did. Not only for the flowers, but I reckon I needed the air and the walk too. Anyway, I...I really wanted to get you these. Because I'm a prat. A really really sorry prat."

There was silence. His blue eyes seemed to plead with me while I fought their apparent power. But it was useless. I was losing the fight slowly.

I wordlessly stood to the side so he could enter the room, then shut the door behind me and turned to meet him with the same icy glare. Yes, I was caving but I still had a reputation to keep.

"You should put those in water," I said as evenly as I could. "If you want them to last longer than a day." I sniffed and sat on the bed.

He nodded and went into the bathroom. When he returned he hesitated but finally decided to sit beside me - not so close that we were touching, but close enough that I could feel his warmth. He gingerly took my hand and cleared his throat. "I really don't know what else to say, Hermione."

"You've said quite a bit for one night, don't you think?"

He grimaced. "You have to know that's not how I see you. That's not how I see what's going on between us."

I snatched my hand away, anger building up yet again. "What? That you're not just...fucking a major league baseball player's baby mama?"

He winced even harder and put his hands over his face rubbing vigorously. "God, I didn't mean that Hermione! I was angry and I don't think straight when I'm angry." I bit down a snappy retort about his level of thinking while he took a deep breath and faced me fully. "That's… This is more than just… Hermione, I'm sorry."

I looked him over and took in just how miserable he looked. "I've...I've definitely said things I didn't mean in anger before," I said softly. "We all have at some point...I guess."

He reached out gingerly for my hand again, and this time I didn't pull it away. "I...I really don't want this to end, but I...I understand if you-"

"If I what, Ronald? If I want to call this quits because we had one argument? Like I said earlier, it seems to me that you really have no faith in my feelings for you..."

Ron nodded and sighed. "There's a reason for that," he shrugged. "And for tonight...a few actually… Between the total ambush of him being there and the things I heard Krum saying tonight... and what happened with Maggie I..." he sighed.

I thought for a moment. He'd mentioned Maggie once before. They grew up together in England and he mentioned that she was his only other important relationship. What could've happened with her?

As for Viktor, What could he have said to ignite this reaction from Ron? I needed to make sense of all this mess, so I asked, "Ron, tell me what happened. You said you had reasons to...to do what you did, so...can you explain?"

He nodded and took a breath. "I thought about what you said and you're right, you never actually talked about him - about Viktor. I realized I didn't even know his name."

I nodded. "I made that mistake, yes. I never really told you who Rose's father was, and I should have. I guess I...I didn't think that it mattered who he was. Not in our relationship, anyway. And certainly not to me. You understand that, don't you? I guess I...I didn't want to talk about him in front of you and make you feel like...like I was...I don't know…"

"Like he's a part of your life?" I nodded again. "That's the problem though, isn't it? He is a part of your life. Yours and especially Rose's. I mean, yeah I would have felt funny if you were over here talking up your rich and famous ex, you're right...but...he wasn't...real and then, suddenly, there he was with his fancy suit and flashy attitude and his exotic accent talking about…" He stopped and shook his head.

"What things did he say tonight, Ron?"

"I…I don't want to cause problems between you two."

"It's a bit late for that I'll say, given the way he acted tonight" I said a bit more haughtily than I meant to. I had already made a decision that I should have a discussion with Viktor as well. He had no right to act this way anytime he met a partner of mine.

I squeezed his hand gently, urging him to keep going. He finally spoke after a moment. "We were on the tour and, honestly, I was already super annoyed by him...he was just so arrogant and acting like a real tosser. Then he starts talking about this woman in his life. His teammate asked how 'that' was going - I figured meaning his relationship with said woman - and Viktor said she turned him down for tonight but that he'd eventually wear her down. Of course, at that moment I didn't know...but then, when he spoke to you, I realized that this woman was...you."

"You really think that he would take me from you?"

He shrugged. "Wouldn't be the first time it happened."

And there, realization dawned on me. Maggie.

He had begun to rub his thumb over my knuckles, so I made a point to rub him back. "What happened with Maggie, Ron?"

"No, it's not really fair of me to put the blame on her."

"It's not putting the blame if you're still affected by what happened," I said softly. "If it's affecting your relationship with me."

He shrugged, but made a face to indicate he thought I was right.. "I cared about her, might even say I loved her but, who knows?...We were young. Anyway, I thought she felt the same way...until she met Dave. Sodding Dave McCallister. He was everything I wasn't - successful, wealthy, overly confident...old money, you know? He came from the kind of family where they didn't have to build up a business as we did - his life was already lined up for him what with his inheritance and huge financial head start. My dad was just picking up momentum with TB back then, so we were nowhere near where we are now - at that point I was bussing tables at the hotels' restaurants whenever they needed extra hands. We were just beginning to discuss my options to take a position in the company...but, apparently, Maggie wasn't ready to invest her time or heart into "potential", as she put it. 'You have so much potential, Ron. But Dave can take care of me in ways that you can't...' So, a few months later, she became Mrs. Maggie McCallister."

"What a bitch," I said simply. He looked over at me and suddenly we both laughed.

"Almost three months talking to you every day, and I've never really heard you curse," he chuckled. "And yet that's twice tonight!"

"Yes! Well...she is. A right...hussy. A gold-digging hussy!"

He laughed. "I don't know what a hussy is...is it like a bitch?"

"A...a lousy bitch. Yes." We laughed again. "Oh, Ron," I put my hand on his cheek now, my icy facade completely melted away. "I get it. All of that - including my own mistake - built up and clearly jolted you tonight. But I need you to get me. I'm with you because I want to be. I'm with you for who you are. Not for what you have or don't have, not for what you can or can't do for me, and definitely not for what you do for a living. My ex, my daughter's father, yes he's famous and top of the league or whatever. But I don't care, because Viktor is not right for me - no matter how much he is or isn't in my life. He never was. You, however, I really think... you are."

He turned into my hand and kissed my palm. "Did I tell you how sorry I am? I almost fucked this all up didn't I?"

"You might have almost messed up our New Year's Eve, but I think it would have taken more than that to mess us up." We smiled at each other, but then a thought occurred to me. "You didn't mess anything up with the league though, did you?"

He shook his head. "No, it doesn't look like it. No one saw our little...incident, except for Chloe, and she said they seemed in high spirits when she led them out. So, unless Vicky says something…"

"He won't," I assured with a chuckle, shaking my head at Ron's new nickname for him. "If I know Viktor, he wouldn't want his colleagues to know that you're 'dating his kid's mom'. How would that make him look after all?"

"Well, lucky for us then, yeah? Looks like we just made it out of the night somewhat unscathed."

"Look at us, navigating through our first fight."

"Is that what that was? Blimey…" He glanced at the clock then. "We have less than an hour before the year turns. How should we spend it?" He looked down at me and I smiled pretty wickedly up at him.

"Why, Ron Weasley...you can't mean you have no idea what comes after a fight?"

I could see the moment things clicked in his head. His smile widened then and his eyes darkened as he pulled on the tie for my robe. "Shall we get to it then?" His smile faltered a bit when my robe came off. "I just realized I didn't get to really enjoy you in that dress," he said as he pulled me onto his lap. I could already feel him hardening under me. "You looked so fucking hot tonight love."

"And," I pulled my nightgown over my head, "how about now?"

"Mmmmm," his lips attached themselves to my skin as he pulled me as close as possible. "This is...so much...better," he said in between nips and kisses. I cupped his face and brought my lips to his. The kiss was long and slow but so passionate I felt as if I would melt.

Before I could catch my breath, he was as naked as I was and moving slowly inside me - rocking me into the soft bed with his hard body. I chanted his name over and over, whispered just how much I wanted him in his ear, repeated again how amazing he felt - how amazing he made me feel.

"That's all I want, love," he groaned. "Come for me, let go…"

"You know," I whispered a while later - it was past midnight now and our bodies were entangled in a sweaty postcoital mess under the sheets, "there's this thought that you should ring in the new year doing what you hope to end the year doing."

Ron chuckled as he ran his fingers lazily up and down my bare side. "Well in that case sweetheart, looks like we'll be ending this new year in the best way possible."

I settled into his chest and sighed contently thinking about how much I was looking forward to a year of Ronald Weasley.

When we returned to Connecticut the following day, I took Rose out to dinner as a New Year's treat. But I also had an ulterior motive. Although Ron and I parted ways again that morning, he was going to come up the following weekend to take me to dinner - Rose had a birthday party to attend. So I was in pretty high spirits this time following my departure. On top of our pact to have a discussion on April first, we also decided that we would never say goodbye without a definite plan for the next time we would see each other - and I added that we should do our best not to go longer than two or at most three weeks because it's just not fair.

But, I knew that it was definitely the time to talk to Rosie - especially as her father now knew and I couldn't completely trust him not to let it slip.

Pick up that morning was a bit cold - Viktor was acting like a child. He didn't say anything about our New Year's Eve encounter, but his demeanor was definitely cold and calculated.

I decided I could not be bothered by his man's tantrum, nor was it the time to have the discussion I needed to have with him, so I focused on Rosie instead - Although I told him I would be calling him this week for a talk.

"So," I started, once Rose and I had placed our orders and our menus were collected, "there's something I want to talk to you about." Rose's eyes opened wide.

"Am I in trouble? I swear I didn't know that it was Gramps' teeth in the container, Allie dared me and I -" she stopped when I started laughing.

"I know nothing about what you and your cousins got up to with Gramps' teeth, but you'll have to tell me all about that in a bit!" She sighed in relief. "No, Rosie, you're not in trouble. I want to talk to you about...me. Well, it pertains to you too, but...well...okay." Goodness, I realized that I never did this before and it was a bit more nerve-wracking than I thought! I mean, what if she didn't like the very idea of it all?

There was only one way to find out. And then we would deal with it from there.

I took a deep breath and let it out. "Rose, I have been dating someone, a man, and we're both getting closer and -"

"Are you getting married, mom?!" Her eyes were wide again and I was stunned into silence for a moment.

"What? No, I'm not getting married!"

"Oh, because Natalie's dad totally sprung her stepmom on her. He didn't tell Natalie anything about her until they were getting married!" I scrunched up my face, but quickly fixed it. I didn't want to judge Natalie's dad - I couldn't even remember which parent was Natalie's dad...the softball coach maybe? I couldn't be sure.

But honestly, was that the way to go about this? Surely not! I couldn't imagine waiting until Ron proposed marriage to tell Rose about us! To each their own I guess...

The thought of Ron proposing put a smile on my face and I must have zoned out for a moment.

"Mom," Rose snapped me back to the present. I shook the far away thought from my head and cleared my throat.

"Sorry I...well...no, I wouldn't dream of waiting until I was getting married to tell you about a new relationship."

Rose shrugged. "You never told me about any other relationships so, I figured if you were telling me about this one it must be serious."

I smiled. "Well, there really were not any other relationships to tell you about if I'm being honest. Or I definitely would have." I took her hand across the table and squeezed it. "I want you to always be comfortable if there's to be a change in our family as big as this - even if there's the possibility of a change. We've been a duo for so long, and we're talking about the possibility of one day bringing a third person into our family. I wouldn't dream of not involving you."

She smiled and nodded. "Okay, that's good to know. Because Natalie was not at all happy to have a new stepmom out of nowhere. And I don't think I would be very happy if you or daddy sprung something like that on me."

"I can understand that."

Rose sat up straight and put her hands under her chin. "Okay, so who is he? What's his name? Where does he live? OH! Does he have kids too?"

I laughed at her sudden excitement...so far so good! At least the thought didn't repel her. "So, no, I'm sorry to say he does not have any kids." I chuckled at her pout then continued. "But, his name is Ron - Ronald Weasley, but he goes by Ron mostly. He's my age, perhaps a few months younger, and his family actually owns the hotel where we were staying."

Her eyes lit up. "Was he there? How come we didn't see him?"

"No," I shook my head with a smile. "He wasn't there. His family is actually all in England -"

"Oohh!"

"- so he was away until the day after Christmas."

"So...while I was at dad's, you were with...Ron? Mr. Weasley? ...what should I call him?"

I nodded. "I spent the week with him while you were at your dad's, yes. And that is up to you and him, once you meet. I can't see him wanting you to call him Mr. Weasley though - he seems to get enough of that from work."

She nodded and thought for a moment. Our food arrived then and, after we thanked the waitress, we started to eat in comfortable silence while I let her absorb this new information.

"He lives in the city then?" She finally asked. I nodded as I had just taken a bite of my food. "Does he have one of those cool apartments in the city? Like a loft or something? I've always wanted to live in the city," she added wistfully.

I raised my eyebrows as I swallowed and took a sip of my drink. "Have you?" I asked. "I didn't know that." I stored that piece of information away for later. "To answer your question, yes he lives in the city, but at this time he lives at the hotel. He now resides in the room we were in actually. He moved out of the hotel outside of the city - the one where I stayed in October - right before he left for England. Then when he returned he started staying in the one in the city where we were."

"I guess living in a hotel could be cool too," she shrugged.

I studied her for a moment. "I'm sure it has its perks," I chuckled.

"So, is that when you met him then? When you stayed there in October?" I nodded again and suddenly her eyes lit up. "He took you to the ball!"

I choked on the sip of water I had just taken. "And how did you work that out?"

"Well, you said you were invited to the ball through the hotel, and he owns the hotel, so I can only piece together that he invited you to the ball!" She looked at me expectantly.

I mean, I shouldn't be surprised, she was exceptionally bright and intuitive, my kid. I often wonder where she gets it...

I smiled. "Yes," I said. "Ron invited me to the ball. It was a lovely night."

"When can I meet him?" She asked.

"When do you want to meet him?"

She thought for a moment then shrugged. "Maybe soon, but not too soon. Wouldn't want him to get too attached to me, being that I'm such a lovable kid." She grinned at me and I rolled my eyes.

"The most lovable kid I know," I laughed.