Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling owns the Harry Potter series and its characters.

a/n: I survived my finals and am now on my long deserved vacation J Sorry you all had to wait a long time for a new chapter. I hope this one will make up for it J.

Chapter 6

Snogs and Rings

            "Harry, would you like some more peas, dear?," Molly asked as she lifted up the bowl of peas. "Yes, please. Thank you, Mrs. Weasley." replied Harry as he took the bowl from her and put a big spoonful of peas on his plate. Harry always had dinner with the Weasleys on Thursdays, partly because of Ginny, but also because it was his own way of keeping in touch with the whole family. It wasn't easy to forget the family who treated him like one of their own, even if he wasn't dating the only daughter.

            Across the table from Harry sat Ron, who played around with his peas, trying to poke a pea on each prong of his fork. He was doing great, but just then, the pea he was working on slipped from his fork, flew across the table and bounced off Harry's nose. Ginny giggled as Harry playfully said, "Hey Ron, aren't we a bit too old to be having a food fight?"

            "Sorry, Harry. It slipped," Ron apologized as he blushed slightly.

            "Ron, dear, aren't you hungry? You've hardly eaten half of what's on your plate," Molly asked, concerned.

            "Oh, his mind is just elsewhere right now, Mum," Ginny answered.

            "And where is it exactly?"

            "It's on tomorrow. I'm having lunch with Hermione, supposed to catch up with our lives, and then have the pleasure of dining with Draco himself," Ron answered sarcastically, punctuating his sentence by rolling his eyes.

            "Hmm..sounds peachy," joked Molly.

            They continued to enjoy their dinner as Arthur shared about his day at work in the Ministry. Nothing interesting, really. Just the usual inspection of Muggle objects. After dinner Arthur went into the garage, with his collection of Muggle objects. Molly washed the dishes, Harry and Ginny went for a walk, and Ron went up to his room after helping clear the table.

            It was still pretty early in the evening but Ron wanted to get a head start for tomorrow. So he went through his closet and attempted to conjure an appropriate outfit for the next day. He sat on his bed, facing his closet and pointed his wand. "Alohomora!" The closet opened to reveal his disorganized clothes. Ron surveyed his closet, looking for anything that remotely looked like a decent pair of pants and shirt. He found a pair of nice beige slacks that he just bought a month ago and pointed his wand."Accio! Wingardium Leviosa!" The slacks were floating in the air, in front of Ron, as if they were on an invisible mannequin. Now, pick out a shirt to match. Then again, I could go shirtless. My body is still fit. I'm sure Hermione wouldn't mind seeing a piece of this, Ron joked with himself, as he shook his head. He eyed a light blue button down long-sleeved shirt. "Accio! Wingardium Leviosa!" And there in the air in front of him was tomorrow's outfit.

            By now, Ron felt pretty tired and just wanted to go to sleep. So that's what he did and still floating in the air was his outfit.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

            There was a loud banging on the door. "Ron! Time to wake up! " Molly yelled.

            Reluctantly, Ron sat up in bed. He just had a dream and Hermione was in it. He dreamt that he was at her wedding. She looked beautiful in her wedding dress. She said, "I do." Ron turned to look at the groom, expecting Draco to be there, but that wasn't the case. There was a groom there, all right, but he couldn't see his face. And then that's when Molly started banging on the door and woke up Ron.

            That was such a weird dream. Why couldn't I see Draco's face?

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

            After Ron had showered, changed into his clothes, and ate breakfast, he Apparated to the joke shop. He was only working from 8 -11 a.m. today. Fred and George had given him the rest of the day off. He opened up the shop and checked the register for enough change. After that he rearranged a few of the displays and then tended to a few customers. However, his mind was on one thing only. Lunch with Hermione.

            At five to eleven, Fred and George arrived at the joke shop to take over for Ron. Ron put on his robes and made sure his wand was in his pocket. "Do send Draco our love, will you?," George joked. Ron glared at him before he Apparated to The Leaky Cauldron. *pop*

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

            Hesitantly, Ron entered The Leaky Cauldron. As he walked in he scanned the establishment for Hermione, to see if maybe she was already saving them a table. He didn't see any sign of her, however, so he just assumed she was still up in her room. He decided to save them a table. A curvy witchtress with black hair and full lips, dressed in tight robes, stopped at Ron's table and asked for his order.

            "Well if it isn't Ron Weasley of the Chudley Cannons! You are much sexier in person," the witchtress said as she ran her hand down Ron's left arm, feeling for his muscles. Ron was used to this type of reaction; he got it all the time, especially when he still used to play for the Cannons. "What'll be your pleasure, Mr. Weasley?," she said seductively.

            "Oh, I'm meeting a friend of mine here for lunch. She's not here right now so I'll just have a mug of butterbeer for the time being," Ron replied politely.

            "One mug of butterbeer coming right up!," said the witchtress, flashing Ron a very flirtatious smile, before she turned and walked away.

            Five minutes later, Ron observed the witchtress walking towards him with his mug of butterbeer. One witchtress, but no Hermione. What's keeping Hermione? Ron thought. Finally, the witchtress arrived at his table again. She leaned over more than was necessary to put the mug in front of him. Once her face was level with his, the witchtress whispered, "One butterbeer. Would you like anything else?" She kept eye flirting with Ron.

            "Errr..nothing else. Thank you."

            "Are you sure?"

            "Yes, I'm quite sure."

            "Well, okay then. But first…" She leaned closer and closer. Then she planted her lips on Ron's lips and never let up. And why would she? Ron wasn't resisting at all. He quite enjoyed it actually.

            "Ahem." They didn't hear the other person's voice.

            "AHEM!," the other person yelled louder.

            This time Ron heard the voice and when he saw who made it, he hastily pushed the witchtress away. "HERMIONE!," Ron shouted as he stood up and embarrassingly straightened his shirt. "Umm…hi!"

            Hermione laughed at him, "Was I interrupting something?" she innocently asked.

            The witchtress was not amused, however. She tried to stare down Hermione, but Hermione was way too experienced with staring down people and the witchtress looked away first. "Yes. You were," she replied snottily.

            "Errr..no, Hermione. You weren't interrupting anything," Ron stammered. The witchtress looked at Ron, betrayed. Then she looked from Hermione to Ron and to Hermione again. "Hermione…Granger?? Draco Malfoy's fiancé? You just had to have two of the most gorgeous men of the wizarding world, didn't you?," she questioned jealously. "Hmmph. I'll get the both of you another witchtress." And with that she quickly turned around and headed for the bar.

            Ron held the seat out for Hermione, like a perfect gentleman. "I'm sorry about all that, Hermione."

            "You didn't look sorry at all, from what I saw," she smirked. Ron sat down and his cheeks turned as red as his hair.

            "Well, enough of this nonsense," Hermione changed the subject. "I hope you weren't waiting too long. I got tied up at the flower shop. I just couldn't decide which flowers I wanted. But I was running late for our lunch so I told the lady I would stop by again after. Do you have somewhere else to go after lunch?"

            "No, I don't. Fred and George gave me the rest of the day off."

            "Fantastic! Would you mind going back to the flower shop with me then? Maybe you can help me pick which flowers to get."

            "Umm..no, I wouldn't mind at all."

            Another witchtress stopped at their table to take their orders. After they finished telling her what they wanted, they Ron and Hermione continued their conversation.

            "So how you been these past six years, Ron? I only get bits and pieces here and there from Ginny, so I don't really know much of the details. The last time you and I talked you were busy with the Cannons. What ever happened with that?"

            "Oh, I played for three years. It was fun at first, but after a while it just lost its zeal somewhat. I felt like I was missing something in my life. It didn't completely satisfy me, so I decided to resign. After that, went through a little bit of a depression. Then Fred and George offered me a manager job at the joke shop. There's still something missing, but at least for now I'm content. It's a nicer feeling working with my family."

            "I'm sorry I wasn't there to help you out; being in medical school kept me so busy. But I am glad that you had your family to lean on and help you.'

            "Yeah. For them I'm truly grateful. But enough about me. What about you? How were the past six years for you?"

            Hermione sighed. "Well, like I said, medical school kept me real busy. There were so many times when I just wanted to quit and forget about being a docwitch all together. But I remembered a friend telling me once that anything was better than wondering 'What if?' later on. So I kept up with my studies. Then the rest of the four years went by fast and I eventually graduated as valedictorian of my class. Soon after graduation I was offered a job at Godric Hospital for Magical and Muggle Maladies. There I was reacquainted with our old Hogwarts classmate, Draco Malfoy."

            "Was he admitted with a malady?"

            "No, he wasn't. He was now my colleague. He's a docwizard."

            "A docwizard? Malfoy?!," Ron shouted at the thought.

            "Yes, it's true. Apparently, he attended a medical school in France; graduated valedictorian of his class and also accepted an offer to work at Godric Hospital."

            "I'm sorry, Hermione, but I don't understand how Draco can be a docwizard. I never thought it was possible for him to care about anyone else other than himself."

            "Hmm…I think I'm supposed to take offense to that since I am his fiancé. But I'll let that go because I also reacted the same way as you just did when I found out he would be working with me. I also thought there was not one single caring bone in his body. I mean, come on. Malfoy as a docwizard? Healing people, and at a hospital that treated MUGGLE maladies? It just didn't make any sense."

            "So how exactly did you get from that point to being his fiancé?"

            Hermione chuckled. "It is strange, isn't it?" Ron nodded profusely.

            "Well, at the beginning, Draco and I were both wary of each other, given our history of course. Our relationship was strictly professional; if we had to talk to each other, it was always only about patient and hospital issues. One night, however, we had the same shift and a patient with an unusual case was brought to the emergency room. We were both assigned to this patient, who had a case of West Nile virus. But since the patient was a wizard, the virus affected him in a much different and difficult way than it did Muggles. Being a member of the Muggle world, I knew what the West Nile virus did, but for the first time in my medical career, I was at a loss for this patient. Draco, however, was calm and he knew what he was doing. He was determined to let this patient stay alive."

            "He managed to keep the patient in stable condition, but earlier the next morning, the wizard flatlined. When Draco was informed of the death, it deeply affected him. It was his first casualty. He really took it to the heart and I found him in a dim lit stairwell, with his head in his hands. What I saw him do the night before implanted in me a newfound respect for him. Clearly this couldn't be the same Draco as the one at Hogwarts; he could've cared less. But this Draco, with his head in his heads and in so much anguish, did everything possible to save that man's life. This Draco actually valued life. I had to respect that. And I respected it enough to sit next to Draco on the stairwell, whether he liked it or not."

            "Draco was surprised of my presence there, but he didn't make me leave. He needed to talk to someone and I was there. I found out why he became a docwizard in the first place. Ever since he lost his parents, he was alone. He inherited everything, but he didn't have any other relatives that he knew of. As much as he despised his father..yes, that's right, he hated his father,…he would've given anything to have some family around him. He also felt that since he wasn't able to save his parents, the next best thing he could do was save other people's lives, be they magical or Muggles. That was why the wizard's death affected him so much, because he felt like he failed everyone."

            "As days passed, we became more comfortable with each other. We went out to dinner together on our days off. We grew closer and in a matter of time, we felt ourselves falling in love with each other. However, we still weren't comfortable with telling our friends about our relationship. I couldn't even tell Ginny or Harry or you. It went on for about a year when finally we decided we couldn't keep this to ourselves any longer. So I told my parents and Ginny, who I assumed would tell Harry and the rest of the Weasley family. But obviously, she only told Harry. Anyway, fast forward to two months ago, Draco took me on a mini vacation to France. It was there that he proposed to me."

            At this moment, Hermione showed Ron her left hand, her ring finger clad with a beautiful diamond ring. Ron couldn't believe he didn't notice it the day before at the joke shop; it was a very hard to miss type of ring. As the diamonds sparkled, so did Hermione's eyes.

            "Just can't help showing off your ring, can you?" The voice came from behind Ron. Hermione looked up smiling and Ron turned around, to see Draco Malfoy smiling back.

a/n: there is supposed to be a link to a picture of Hermione's engagement ring. If it didn't work, here's the address. http://www.zales.com/products/large.asp?Item=15204852

I initially picked out a Tiffany & Co. ring for Hermione, but the one above just looked far better. And also, I like how the words "past, present, future" are inscribed inside the band. It sort of ties in with where and how I want this story to go.