Chapter Six: To Find A Place Again

Ron couldn't believe it. He glanced down at the parchment in his hand again and again, waiting for it to turn into a pigeon, like it would if he were dreaming. But the paper stayed paper. This was real. He, Ron Weasley, was going to be an Auror.

He sunk into the sofa cushions once they all arrived home again, the living room of the Burrow actually looking like a living room again. It had seemed that this final mourning would be the marker for their lives to settle into a quiet calm for the summer, but this was so much better. Now it would mark the start of the rest of his life. Friday would be the first day of his career as an Auror. A bloody Auror! Who would have ever guessed he'd end up in such an elite line of work?

"If you rip that in half, I'm not going to duplicate you another one," Harry said, sitting on the loveseat with Ginny.

"Oh, shut up, will you?" Ron said, still holding the invitation with both hands. "You always knew you'd end up being an Auror. I didn't think I had a chance."

"Of course you had a chance," Hermione said, her hard tone clashing with what should have been words of encouragement. "You were taking all the right classes, and you would have done well enough on your N.E.W.T.'s to apply." She sat as far from him as she could get on the sofa, her arms crossed and lips pursed. The whole Kreacher situation must have really gotten under her skin to still be upsetting her.

Ron thought it best not to poke the beast. "Maybe, but now I don't have to sit those bloody exams at all. It's fantastic!"

"You should still take the exams, both of you, at least the autumn ones. You need something to fall back on in case you decide to leave the Auror department."

Harry stared at Hermione as if she'd grown a second head. Ron scoffed. "Why would we ever do that?"

"Oh, I don't know," Hermione said in a huff. "Perhaps because being an Auror is an extremely dangerous job, and you've both endangered your lives enough, haven't you? The excitement will wear off, and you'll want to do something more sensible."

"Sensible?" Ron exchanged a look with Harry, double-checking someone else was hearing the same thing. "Since when is being an Auror not a sensible job?"

"Did you miss the part about putting your lives in danger every day?"

"I'm sure not every day. I've seen the paperwork the Ministry puts my dad through. The Auror department can't be any different."

"You're sole job is tracking down Dark Wizards. This wouldn't be just some office job!"

"Bloody hell, I know!" Ron raised his voice to match hers, slamming the invitation into his lap. "But it's not like I had any other plans after Hogwarts. This seems like a pretty sensible thing to do. I can see you transferring out with every department fighting over who gets you, but where else am I going to go?"

"Transferring? Who said I was accepting Kingsley's offer in the first place?"

Ron froze, Hermione's words not processing in his brain. "What d'you mean?"

"I mean, I'm thinking of declining," Hermione said with a nod of finality.

"But…"

Ginny jumped in with a light-hearted tone, saying, "Of course Hermione isn't going to pass up a chance to go back to school and take exams. She actually enjoys learning, unlike the rest of us."

Ron blinked at Hermione, ignoring Ginny's words. She completely missed the point, anyways. He, Harry, and Hermione were a team. Every time they had gone on some adventure at Hogwarts, they did it together. From finding the Philosopher's Stone and the Chamber of Secrets to fighting together at the Department of Mysteries and the Muggle cafe on Tottenham Court Road. He couldn't imagine doing this without her.

Hermione wouldn't meet his gaze, keeping her eyes on Ginny and jumping on the chance to change the subject. "I would at least like the chance to take the N.E.W.T.'s. And to actually graduate. Seems silly to go through six years only to miss graduation by one."

Ginny chuckled. "You know it's a ridiculous idea if Fred and George did it first." There was still what now seemed like an obligatory pause after mentioning Fred's name, but it stung a little less this time.

At least it jolted Ron out of his blank stare. He sunk back into the sofa, strategizing his next move. He shouldn't have been surprised that Hermione wanted to return to Hogwarts and sit her N.E.W.T.'s, but couldn't she see the bigger picture? There were still DeathEaters at large throughout Britain, and the Minister for Magic was asking them personally to bring them to justice. How could she say 'no'?

"We'll have to get this out to people as soon as possible," Harry said, motioning towards the pile of duplicated invitations he'd set on the coffee table. "Maybe we can get all the DA together, this weekend maybe. Do you still have your enchanted Galleon, Gin?"

"Always," Ginny said, plucking the gold coin from her pocket. "Though I think sending out owls would be a tad more sensible." She and Harry chuckled to themselves as Hermione rolled her eyes. Ron could tell by the set of her lips that the comment bothered her more than she was willing to let on at the moment.

Ginny flipped the Galleon in the air, catching it in her palm before tossing it again. "But I do like the idea of doing something with the DA again. It feels like none of us had much of a chance to celebrate the end of the war, and you three should be the ones celebrating most!"

"Guess the coin isn't as bad of an idea then," Harry said, snatching it out of the air before Ginny could catch it again. "Saturday night then? Seven? At The Leaky Cauldron?"

"That's a little public, isn't it?" Ginny asked, plucking the fake galleon from Harry's hand. "The pub will be swarmed by reporters before we even order a drink."

"The Hog's Head then. Aberforth will love hosting the lot of us."

The two of them laughed as Ginny sent out the message, Harry describing in detail how amazing of a venue the pub would be with its dusty floors and the lingering smell of goats. Meanwhile, Ron and Hermione still sulked in their separate corners of the sofa. Ron had built up enough arguments in his head to last for days. All he needed was an opportunity to bring Kingsley's offer up again.

"Do you think everyone will still have their galleons on them?" Harry asked. "Someone might've lost theirs during the battle."

"We can send a note with Kingsley's invitation in the post too," Ginny said, "but we used these a lot in the last year. Most everyone kept them handy. Besides, I'm sure we'll see plenty of the DA at Hogwarts tomorrow."

The four of them, plus most of Ron's family, had made official plans to travel to Hogwarts the next morning, his dad itching to work on rebuilding the castle. Apparently, word that McGonagall was finally allowing volunteers onto the grounds spread fast because almost all of what remained of the Order of the Phoenix would be there as well.

"Yes, that'll be perfect," Harry said. "And I can find Kreacher before we leave for Andromeda's too. I might need some time to convince him to come with us."

Hermione suddenly jumped up from the sofa and marched around to the stairs, her short curls bouncing with her heavy steps. They heard her stomp all the way up to the second floor and slam the door to her bedroom shut.

Harry sighed, ruffling his hair as he slouched into the cushions. "How long do you think she's going to be mad at me?"

"Oh, she'll get over it," Ginny said with a wave of her hand.

"I dunno. You know how she gets about House Elves. And normally I agree with her!" Harry added quickly. "But even after Dobby was free, he went to Hogwarts to work. I'd free Kreacher if I didn't think it'd kill him. If I'm stuck with him, I'd rather he be somewhere useful."

"And she'll either realize that or not, but either way, she'll have to come to terms with it," Ginny said. "She can't dramatically run out of the room forever."

"She doesn't like Andromeda," Ron said defensively.

"Yeah, we all saw that," Harry grumbled. "She didn't even give her a chance."

"Did you expect her to?" Ron received dubious looks from both Harry and Ginny at his question. "She didn't exactly make a great first impression, did she? Insulting Kreacher as soon as you brought him up?"

"Sounds like she had good reason to," Ginny said.

"And she's not going to act on it," Harry added.

"I'm not disagreeing with you," Ron said, putting up his hands. "All I'm saying is I can see where Hermione is coming from."

"You should go talk to her then," Harry said, waving Ron towards the stairs.

Ron felt a cold sweat at the simple idea of going after Hermione. With him bursting to argue with her about Auror training and her fuming over Harry's decision over Kreacher, a row was sure to ensure. He'd been trying hard not to pick a fight with her ever since reading that book about charming witches, but especially in the past week since they'd actually gotten together. The stakes were higher now. He could say the wrong thing, upset her even more. Shit, she could break up with him.

He looked to Ginny, hoping she'd volunteer or at least bail him out, but she shrugged and said, "That's your job now. Welcome to a committed relationship."

Ron groaned, rubbing a heavy hand over his face. "But she's mad at me too."

"Then do you mind casting a Silencing Charm before you go in there?" Ginny asked. "Everyone here would greatly appreciate not having to hear you two yelling at each other for the next hour."

"Fine," Ron said, pushing himself up from the sofa and pointing at Harry and Ginny. "But the two of you are in charge of dinner tonight."

Ginny rolled her eyes, and as Ron started up the stairs, he heard her say to Harry, "Well, you heard him, Potter. What are we eating tonight?"

Ron couldn't hear Harry's response, but Ginny's laughter radiated up the staircase, chasing him up into the silent landing. How the hell did those two do it? They conversed so easily and light-heartedly while he and Hermione trudged along together in their misery. And now that he felt like he had something to be joyful about, they were slammed into an inevitable argument.

When he reached the closed door of Percy's old bedroom, he thought for a moment about walking away. Dread coated his palms in sweat. Maybe if he let her be alone and cool off, everything would be better. Then again, maybe she would refuse to leave her room for the rest of the night, be even angrier in the morning, break up with him, never speak to him or Harry again, and disappear to Australia with her parents forever.

Shit. He needed to fix this now.

"Hermione?" he said as he opened the door, ready to slam it shut again if met with a bombing of canaries. No birds attacked him, though. Instead, he found Hermione sitting at the edge of her bed, rubbing tears from her cheeks.

Instinctively, Ron sat beside her and put an arm around her shoulders. He'd gotten used to the way she usually leaned in closer, but this time, she turned her head away from him, then stood to escape his embrace. Fuck, what was he supposed to do now? Talk to her?

Yes, you git, Ron thought to himself, though he had no idea where to start. "Hermione… the whole thing with Kreacher–"

"Don't try to tell me it's alright," she said. "It's not right to give him away like a piece of property, especially not to her."

She said that last word with the kind of disdain and contempt he'd only ever heard her use towards one other witch. Ron suddenly realized it wasn't only Andromeda's cruel words towards Kreacher that had made Hermione dislike her. "Hermione, she isn't Bellatrix."

"I know that!" Her defensiveness then hesitation afterwards gave her away though. She turned around in a huff, refusing to even look at him. "But you heard the way she spoke about him. She obviously hates him."

"Probably because he tried to kill her more than once," Ron said. "Can't blame her for being worried about bringing him around Teddy."

"Kreacher wouldn't hurt him!" Hermione spun around to face Ron with fire in her eyes.

"We know that. Andromeda doesn't have any reason to trust him besides our word."

"And we don't have any reason to trust her besides Harry's word."

Ron couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Since when isn't that enough?"

"He hasn't always been the best judge of character, and he barely knows her himself. He's blindly trusting her just because she has Teddy."

"He's trusting her to take care of Teddy," Ron argued. "If he didn't, you know he'd be trying everything he could to raise him himself. And if Harry can trust her to take care of his godson, we can trust her with a bloody house elf."

"It still doesn't make it right!" She stomped her foot on the ground to accentuate her point.

They had argued over what was right for house elves so many times, Ron fell into his argument easily. "But it's what's best for Kreacher. He was happiest at Grimmauld Place when he was cleaning and cooking for us; it's just what house elves do!"

"And the entire magical community takes advantage of that!"

"What else would you have him do? It's not like he can go out and get a job and buy a house for himself. For Merlin's sake, he looks about two thousand years old and ready to keel over at any moment. Harry's only got the best intentions for him."

"But even he doesn't like Kreacher all that much."

"I don't understand why you do, after all that nasty things he's said."

"Because the war was supposed to change things!" Hermione threw her hands down to her sides in frustration.

"It did change things!" Ron stood from the bed, grabbing on to this novel shift in an otherwise run-of-the-mill argument. "It stopped Pureblood supremacy so you can practice magic and be free and not… and not…"

"And not be treated like a House Elf," Hermione finished for him, the steel in her eyes cutting through him. "So I have my freedom but they still don't have theirs? How is that fair?"

"It's not the same thing! House Elves have been serving magical families for centuries–"

"That doesn't make it fair!"

"It's not fair! But I don't know what you want me, or Harry, to do about it right now. Honestly, what do you expect him to do?"

"I expect him to be more sensitive towards Kreacher, especially after Dobby."

Ron threw his hands up in the air. "You're being so bloody unreasonable!"

"Good!" Hermione shouted back. "I'd hate being reasonable towards such an injustice!"

By this time, they stood less than a foot apart, Hermione's hands in front of herself as she accentuated her words and Ron's arms out to the side in a giant gesture of 'I don't know what to do.' Usually at this point in a row, where no solution made itself clear and they had both said all they could say from their side of the argument, one of them would have walked away by now. For the first time, they'd reached this point and stared at each other in silence. Ron grasped at the air with his fingers, as if he could find the right answer floating beside him. Merlin, this hadn't even been the fight he'd been expecting to have. He'd thought this would be a simple task of pointing out that she didn't hate Andromeda, she hated her sister, and they could get on to Kingsley's offer. Was it possible to even steer them back to that at this point?

"I give up," Ron said, throwing up his arms before slapping them to his sides.

Hermione's glare shifted into shocked confusion without losing an ember of the anger. "What?"

"I'm giving up. I forfeit. You win, alright? You want House Elves to be free? I'll sign the fucking petition. But I'm not going to tell my best mate to do or not do something that affects his godson."

He saw something flash in her eyes and swore he knew exactly what was on the tip of her tongue: she was going to accuse him of taking Harry's side like he had accused her of back in November. Now that was definitely not a fight he could win. He would call her out, and she'd point out it wasn't the same, that she'd stuck with Harry for the sake of the Wizarding World. Maybe she'd even call him a horrible boyfriend. Maybe she'd break things off.

As that scene played out in Ron's head, Hermione seemed to think better of her words and swallowed them back down. "Fine," she said, crossing her arms over her chest again.

Ron took a moment to take in her word. "Fine," he repeated, not sure what else to say. Silence stretched between them, their tense postures deflating as the seconds ticked by. Stuck inside his own thoughts, Ron weighed his options of whether to bring up Auror training or not. He wasn't particularly fond of starting another argument at the moment. The satisfaction that used to come from a good row felt lacklustre now. Back at Hogwarts, he was happy when the two of them were getting along, sure, but it also felt slightly bitter as he held back his growing feelings towards her. Their fights were a passionate rush that brought them closer together physically and emotionally. There were other things they could do together to get their hearts racing now, things that only happened when they were happy with each other.

Yes, it was definitely best to smooth things over. "Dinner tomorrow night will sort everything out," he said optimistically. "Seeing Kreacher happy with Andromeda and–"

"I'm not going tomorrow."

Well, so much for smoothing things over. "Why?"

"I'm not going to support this," Hermione said matter-of-factly.

"It's not…" Ron let his words fade before he said something completely wrong. "It… It… It's supporting Harry. And Teddy."

"And the giving over of a House Elf like an object."

Ron stood with his mouth open, not having the energy anymore to think up an argument. He couldn't even say he disagreed with her. "Alright, fine, we won't go to dinner tomorrow. But I'm not the one who's telling Harry."

Hermione blinked at him. "We? You can still go. I know you want to see Teddy again."

"Not without you," he said automatically. "There'll be other chances to see the little blue-haired tyke." He shrugged, shoving his hands into his pockets.

Out of nowhere, Hermione ran forward and hugged him around the waist. Thank Merlin, he finally did something right, even if he didn't know exactly what. He wasn't going to pass this up though. He held her close and voiced his thoughts. "I like this better than yelling at each other."

Hermione chuckled. "Me too," she said, looking up at him. "Especially when it's not even you that I'm mad at."

"Could've fooled me," he said, though he couldn't help but smile down at her. When she smiled back, he had to lean down and kiss her quickly on the lips. For the first time, it didn't feel completely right. The unspoken tension of Kinglsey's offer hung around them.

He thought Hermione felt it too. She chewed on her bottom lip as she thought about saying what was one her mind, but then she stepped back. "I should do some reading on construction spells before we go to Hogwarts tomorrow."

Ron felt the moment slipping away, solidified when Hermione jumped and exclaimed, "Oh no, I don't have a wand yet! What am I going to do tomorrow?"

"You can use this one," Ron said, pulling out both wands from his pocket and handing her Wormtail's old wand. "It's not the most well-behaved, but it's better than no wand at all."

"Thanks," Hermione said with a smidge of bitterness, hesitating but then taking the wand. She glanced at the beaded bag on her dresser. "I don't know if I even have any books on how to repair a castle."

"I'm sure you do," Ron said, fiddling with his wand. He hadn't appreciated the familiarity of it before. Hermione twirled the chestnut wand in her hand as well, adjusting her grip on the handle again and again before setting it down. She reached for her bag and glanced at Ron, making him feel like he should do something. "I should see if Harry wants any help sending out those letters," he said, accidentally building on top of the unspoken tension.

"Yes, good," Hermione said with a quick nod. Ron backed out of the bedroom slowly, not at all confident in his decision. He should just get it over with, right? He should gather his courage and tell Hermione he was taking the Auror training and he wanted her to be there too and she could take the N.E.W.T.s in September if she wanted but please don't go back to Hogwarts.

He left the room, shutting the door behind him to give her quiet in her research. An uneasiness not unlike the one he'd felt after leaving Hermione and Harry during their Horcrux hunt turned his stomach upside down. Of course, he knew the right thing wasn't to let this disagreement fester. Things seemed to go better for them when being honest and direct and often their arguments were enjoyable and productive. But Ron found no joy in this disagreement. There were things they could agree to disagree on, but that wasn't an option. He wanted them to both join the Aurors, and she wanted them to both return to Hogwarts, and if they both just did what they wanted, it would mean an entire year apart. That compromise felt like setting up a future where the end to their short-lived relationship was inevitable.

"Shit," he muttered under his breath as he trudged downstairs again. He found Harry and Ginny in the kitchen, addressing envelopes to send out duplicates of Kingsley's invitation. Harry had just suggested adding Oliver Wood to the list when Ron walked in.

Ginny smirked when she saw him. "You're lucky Mum and Dad went out to the shops. Didn't I tell you to cast a Silencing Charm?"

"Shove it," Ron grumbled, out of energy to play nice. "Have you two finished yet?"'

"Actually, we have," Ginny said, tapping the envelopes loudly on the table as she straightened them together.

Ron shrugged, taking a heavy seat next to Harry. "Guess I won't offer to help then."

Ginny rolled her eyes, but Harry finished off Oliver's address before she mumbled another snide comment. "So you talked to Hermione then?"

Ron felt the tips of his ears go red. The last thing he wanted to do was rehash his conversation with Hermione. "Yeah," he said.

"Good," Harry said, thankfully ending the topic before going into it. Ginny was still giving him a look like she knew there was more to it and she wanted to know.

The front door opened and shut, making all of them jump. "Anyone home?" Bill called from the living room, coming into the kitchen a moment later.

"Just us," Ginny said. "And Hermione upstairs somewhere. Mum and Dad should be home soon, though."

"That's alright," Bill said, walking around the table to sit opposite the three of them. "I actually wanted to talk to Harry. Do you remember our discussion about the Gringotts goblins and giving them a gift of goodwill?"

"The Sword of Gryffindor, you mean?" Harry asked. "Yeah, of course."

"Good. Because I've finally gotten them to meet with you, and Ron and Hermione as well. Tuesday, at 9 o'clock sharp. And they're expecting the sword."

Harry nodded, his eyes slightly wide as his gaze drifted away from Bill. "Guess I better figure out where the sword is then."

"You don't have it?"

"No, but I can get." Harry sounded much more confident than Ron would have in his position. The last time he'd seen the sword, Neville had been chopping off a snake's head with it. "We're going to Hogwarts tomorrow, anyways. It might be there."

"Might be?" Bill sighed and ran both of his hands across his face.

"I'll have it by Tuesday, don't worry," Harry said. "It has to be in Hogwarts somewhere. I've faced worse chances of finding an object before."

"Doubt the sword is going to just show up again, though, mate," Ron said, "especially if you're planning on giving it away. If I were it, I'd be hiding from you as best I could."

"I'll find it," Harry said, his voice teetering between determination and annoyance.

"I hope you do," Bill said. "I don't know how much longer Diagon Alley can take."

"What do you mean?" Harry asked. "We wanted to go there before it got too late to mail these at the owl post." He motioned to the pile of envelopes that were too many for one normal-sized owl, let alone Pig.

Bill shook his head. "That would not be a good idea. I'm glad I came in time to stop you. You might've caused a full-blown riot. Diagon Alley has been crawling with people since the war ended, first to celebrate but now to protest Gringotts closing their doors. Not that it's doing much good. No one can get inside, and the crowd could light the entire street on fire and the goblins wouldn't care. Still, people want their money."

"But I thought shops had started reopening?" Ron said, remembering hearing that from someone at one of the funerals they had been to.

"Yeah, that turned out to be a mistake. Shops open but hardly any of their customers have money? People started stealing so much that many shops closed again immediately. Expect Ollivander, I think. I heard he's been giving wands away for free."

Harry's face had clouded over with guilt. "So how are we going to get to Gringotts on Tuesday? Or deliver these?"

"I can handle those." Bill took the pile of envelopes and shoved them into the pocket of his jacket. "I can drop them off before I go home. As for Tuesday, you'll have to glamour yourselves. And we'll use the secret entrance."

"The secret entrance to what?" Hermione appeared in the doorway of the kitchen, holding a large book to her chest.

"To Gringotts!" Ginny answered. "We're going there Tuesday morning."

"You don't have to go, Gin," Bill said. "I doubt the goblins would let you in. It's Harry, Ron, and Hermione that they want to negotiate with."

"Well, I'm not going to just sit around here all day. I'm at least going to Diagon Alley."

"Did you not just hear me explain how unstable Diagon Alley is right now?"

"Are you going to try to stop me?"

Harry smirked, and Bill pointed a finger at him. "Don't encourage her." With a sigh, he looked at his sister and said, "Fine. Do whatever you want," then turned to Hermione. "The goblins have agreed to meet with you three to discuss terms."

"They don't still want a dragon, do they?" she asked, standing next to Ron's chair but not sitting down. "Because they aren't getting one."

"No, they want the sword," Ron said.

"And possibly a dragon," Bill said a tad reluctantly. Even a man as brave and adventurous as Bill flinched at Hermione's glare. "They haven't given up on that yet."

"They're going to be disappointed then," Hermione said in a steely voice. "I won't agree to that."

"Then you better find another solution before Tuesday." Bill sounded more tired than Ron ever remembered his eldest brother being. "Right now, the goblins hold all of the power. If the bank stays closed, there will be riots. Or worse. The entire British Wizarding World could collapse. At this point, Kingsley is willing to give them anything they want."

"They aren't getting a dragon."

Ron wasn't sure if Bill completely understood the determination brewing inside of Hermione. There was no doubt in Ron's mind that she would figure this out, maybe by tonight. He smiled at her. Merlin, his girlfriend was fantastic. He couldn't lose her.


Author's Note: Soooo it's been a hot minute since I last posted a chapter. I needed some time away from this story to sort out where to go from here. I'm two chapters ahead in my writing and was starting to feel a little overwhelmed with the length of this story. Originally, I only expected this fic to be about seven or eight chapters long, but now I'm at that point and not feeling at all close to the end. I took some time to actually figure out an outline and plan ahead (twelve chapters if you're curious), and get myself excited for this story again.

Anyways, all that said, I hope you enjoy this long-overdue next chapter. I really enjoyed getting to write a famous Ron/Hermione argument. I promise more kissing for the next chapter. :) As always, thank you so much for all the support for this story, from reviews to faves to follows. I really feel like I've found my direction with this story again so hopefully will update again soon!