A/N – Short chap, but it's more a lead up than anything else. ~so much wasted in the afternoon~ Shez
~
"Can't go in," Ron said feverishly, pulling on the back of Hermione's uniform. "I'm leaving."
"Ron, don't yank at me," she protested, turning around. "What are you talking about?"
"I can't. I can't."
They were standing outside the Great Hall, about to sit their History of Magic exam. This was the first of their N.E.W.T. tests, and he felt horribly ill. The week had gone by in a blur, and it was only in the last few days that he realised he had to pass his tests. Had to, or risk being shouted to death by his mother, or future unemployment, or the twins' teasing – probably all of those, actually. He'd spent much of the past 72 hours in the library, this time with Hermione in his ear, telling him to calm down.
Calm down? Calm down? All very well for her to say that – she'd been studying for this her whole bloody life! He'd had three days (or chosen to use three days) and now his palms were sweaty and his head was spinning with nervousness.
Harry came up behind them and raised a hand hello.
"Where were you?" Hermione asked, over Ron's shoulder.
"Ginny wanted to wish me good luck, and you two."
Ron and Hermione had made it up with Ginny the day after their spat at dinner, but things were still rather tense. They hadn't told her about the prophecy (keeping their promise to Lupin), but she knew something was being kept from her, on Harry's part as much as Ron and Hermione's. She tried to be graceful about it, but her frustration was frequently evident.
"Hermione!" he hissed, and she refocussed, placing a hand on either side of his face.
"Ron," she said firmly, "you are going to be fine. Just breathe – are you breathing?"
He breathed noisily and she grinned. Harry clapped a hand on his shoulder.
"'Mione's right. You'll be OK. You know this stuff."
"I don't!" he said wildly, but then the doors were swinging open, Hermione was planting a quick kiss on his lips, and he was swept forward with the crowd.
By some odd twist of fate, Ron was seated opposite Malfoy. The Slytherin was engrossed in checking his quills, but looked up as the test papers appeared in front of them. He met Ron's eye. They stared at each other for a moment, and Ron muttered: "Good luck."
"You too," Malfoy returned, and then Ron could have sworn he added, under his breath: "You'll need it."
Before he could tell the guy where to get off, there was a call for silence, and he jerked his brain back into gear. Next thing he knew, it was "You may begin", and he couldn't think about Malfoy anymore.
~
"How was that?" said Hermione as the three of them walked out into fresh air.
"It – wasn't so bad," Ron admitted. "I mean, it was pretty bad, but I think I knew enough to get by."
"I hope I got that twelve-mark question right," Hermione said, and then quickly brushed it off when she saw his face. "I'm sure I'll get part-marks at least."
She was trying not to dwell on it for his sake, and he realised that he loved that about her. He slid his arm around her waist and pulled her close to him as they wandered.
"I'm going to the library," Harry said suddenly.
"What, why?" Hermione asked, disentangling herself.
"Study some defence," he said shortly, and then headed back to the castle.
"Do you think we made him feel left out?" Hermione asked anxiously, and Ron shook his head.
"No – though I wish Ginny was here. I think he really does want to study more Defence stuff, for when – you know. He's been at it every day this week, and at weird times. Caught him heading out at dawn on Friday."
"How is he going to do that, and prepare for N.E.W.T.s?"
"He'll scrape his N.E.W.T.s without much effort," Ron said. "Remember what you told me that time? Harry's just naturally smart."
"You're naturally smart too," she said, nudging him with a shoulder. "You just don't naturally study."
He grinned. He felt, somehow, very relaxed. One test down – several to go, but at least he'd begun. Voldemort seemed so far away when they were doing all this normal stuff, and he was about to mention this to Hermione when she said it herself.
"Isn't it funny? I haven't thought about Voldemort all day." She sighed. "It must be awful to be Harry. I don't see how you could ever get it off your mind, especially with everything the twins said."
"I don't think it is off his mind," Ron pointed out soberly.
"I suppose not. I'd spend all my time in the library too if I knew I had to fight Voldemort."
Ron looked sideways at her. "You don't have to fight him. I mean, you won't."
There was a brief silence.
"Well," she said, mildly indignant, "I will if I have to."
Ron stopped in his tracks and eyed her. "Ah – no. No you won't."
She stopped too, and put her hands on her hips. "What do you mean, 'no I won't'?"
"I mean, you won't. You can't. You can't go fighting Voldemort."
"Excuse me?" she said, raising her eyebrows so high that they almost disappeared. "I'll do whatever's necessary, Ron Weasley, and if that involves fighting him, like in fifth year …"
"Don't even mention fifth year," Ron cut her off. "You shouldn't have been there."
"I can't believe you just said that! You'll be with Harry if you can, won't you?"
"Of course."
"Then so will I."
"'Mione!"
"Ron, don't be such a sexist prat!"
She began to march off ahead of him, and he ran to catch up.
"I'm not being sexist," he said angrily. "I'm not. But you think you can do anything, 'Mione, and you take risks when you're so sure of yourself."
She whirled about to face him. "Don't you think a girl can handle herself?"
"Oh for Merlin's sake, this has nothing to do with you being a girl!" he said, putting his hands in his hair and trying to keep his voice down.
"Then what does it have to do with?"
"With you being my girlfriend, that's what. I wish I could lock you up in the bloody castle sometimes, but you'd charm your way out of there before I even got the door shut. If you – if anything happened to you – if you were killed, I'd never forgive myself, and I'd – I don't know what I'd do," he finished, dropping his hands rather helplessly.
She looked at him for some time, and then shook her head.
"You're the one with the scars here, Ron. Don't you think I feel the same way?"
"I don't know," he said lowly, and kicked at the ground with one foot.
"I do."
He looked up, and she took a few steps forward so that she was close to him again.
"I can't stop you from being at Harry's back, and you're not going to stop me either," she continued, and managed to get a hold of his hand.
"I know," he admitted. "Just thought I'd try."
"I'll be careful, if that's any consolation," she said, and he shook his head and smiled a bit.
"No you won't," he said. "But it's OK. We'll be together, anyway."
She bit her lip. "We shouldn't make plans like this when we don't know what's going to happen."
"We're not making plans," Ron replied, feeling rather weary. "Come on, I don't want to talk about it now."
They walked for a while longer about the lake, and then went back to the castle, Ron to get ready for his Divination practical, Hermione for her Runes exam.
~
When N.E.W.T.s were finally over, it was an anti-climax – but these things always are. They all just put their quills down, blew on their parchment to dry it, handed in their tests papers and walked out. Nobody cheered, but there was quiet murmuring and a generally lighter atmosphere.
Harry, Ron and Hermione were walking together when somebody stepped out of an alcove in the corridor and tapped Harry on the arm. He turned, and it was Ginny, smiling widely.
"Hello," she said.
"Hello," he returned, surprised, and hugged her. Ron and Hermione stopped and waited for them. "What are you doing here?" he asked.
"Truanting from Care of Magical Creatures," she said cheerfully.
"Gin." Hermione's tone was reproving, but Ginny hushed her.
"Oh, who cares? It's my last class for today, and I wanted to congratulate you. So congratulations." She turned back to Harry, who still had his arms around her. "Congratulations," she repeated, more softly, and a slow smile spread across his face. Ron hadn't seen one of those in a while, and found himself exhaling, as though he'd been holding his breath.
"Well – thanks," Harry said, flushing, and glancing at Ron and Hermione. "Er – I'm going to hang out with Ginny for a while."
"Sure," they said, almost in unison. They looked at each other, and then Ron nodded a bit. "Sure," he went on, "that's fine. We'll go – hang out by ourselves."
"Have fun," Hermione added, even as the two ducked away. Then she sighed happily and hooked her arm through Ron's. "That's so nice, even if she was skipping her lesson."
"Yeah. Some shagging will be good for him."
She slapped him on the arm, hard, and he winced. "What?" he protested. "It will be!"
"Boys, honestly."
"Girls, honestly," he said, mimicking her, and she slapped him again. He caught her in a headlock (fairly gently) and messed up her hair. She giggled and fought him furiously, nearly dislocating his shoulder at one point, but he held on for dear life. He loved playing this kind of game with her, and wished they did it more often. She would never ask him to stop, instead wriggling around until she was out of his grip, no matter how long it took. It was kind of like their tickling games – except those usually meandered into messy snogging.
This time, however, Ron released her fairly quickly. Malfoy was watching from a bench against the wall, and he felt uncomfortable with the Slytherin's eyes on them.
"What?" Hermione asked, bewildered, as he dropped his arm and flattened her hair.
"Nothing," he muttered, but she'd already seen Malfoy.
"Ron," she said in an undertone, "you are the most ridiculous boy on the planet."
"I don't like him looking at us," Ron said, after they'd passed. "It's bad enough that he knows we have sex."
"You said sex," she whispered, exaggeratedly wide-eyed.
"Laugh if you want to," he said, a bit bleakly, "but I don't like him and I never will."
"He's stopped patrolling with me, pretty much."
"Really? Altogether?"
"He shows up occasionally. We don't really talk like we used to."
"You used to talk?"
"We used to have conversations, at least. Have you noticed how – silent he is this term?"
"It's because he wants you and can't have you," Ron said. That was explanation enough, in his books. "He's still his obnoxious Slytherin self under it. Made a rude comment to me in our History test."
"Oh well," Hermione said, as though washing her hands of the matter. "Perhaps he's settling down."
"And perhaps he's not coming to get you for patrols because he knows you're – otherwise engaged?" Ron suggested.
She looked at him sideways as they went up the stairs. "Where are we going now?"
"I don't know. I was following you."
"I was going to my room."
Ron pretended to consider this for a moment, and then shrugged in mock-reluctance. "Well, I guess I'll just have to come with you."
He felt glad and easy and comfortable – and he should have known it was the calm before the storm.
~
A/N: Hang on for what's upcoming. Next few chaps may take me a little while, but I'll do my best. In the meantime, I leave you with these words: "Guys were watching The Fifth Element on the bus today - I sat down, but after seeing no reference to Boron for 20 minutes, I left disappointed. Hollywood is all false promises." Hehehe. ~Shez.