Forever is Only Years Away
Chapter 2: Because I Love You

Hogwarts was never going to be same for him or those students that came after him. It felt more like a graveyard than anything else, it was a reminder that too many people had died there, that it's floors were once flooded with the blood of the good.

It was cemented on its deadly fate. Voldermort had wanted it that way. There was a loud and clear "Amen" at the end of almost anything he had wanted. All except Harry dying. And so the prophecy had come true and he had been defeated. It had been a victory for them all... but too many lives had been lost because of it, there was too much raw wounds that were slowly closing and healing but their scars would always prevail in their souls.

"You're doing that adorable brooding thing you do."

Her voice startled him out of his thoughts, Harry turned to look at her. "I do that often, do I?"

Ginny was no longer the young girl he had met so long ago (life times ago?). Her hair was short; softly brushing her ears, still bright read and so very soft, if he inhaled it smelled of cranberries and fuzzy peaches. She was almost as tall as him, living up to her Weasley height-phenomenon; her waist was narrow but had the most beautiful pair of legs he had ever seen. (not to mention that he had spent night counting the freckles on her knees)

"Yup, I passed by the other day while you were having your 3rd years write down questions, you were oblivious to Lacey Peterson and Noelle Wright making googly eyes at you." She said, wrapping her arms around his waist and leaning into him, letting the smell of her perforate his senses.

He smirked, thankful he was wearing loose robes to hide his body's reaction to her touch.

"Jealous, were you?" he leaned in and kissed her lips softly.

She pulled back and gave him that innocent face of hers. "Jealous? Of breast-less students?" They chuckled. "I think not."

"I like your breasts just fine," he smirked, looking behind her to make sure they were alone in his classroom.

"Yes, and so named breasts are still sore." Ginny informed him. "This having your child business is not at all enjoyable to me, you know."

Harry placed his hand on her slightly swollen stomach. "But I'm eternally grateful."

She smiled and leaned into his embrace.

"Then Mrs. Potter has no problem with it." Ginny muffled into his robes. "Sore breasts be damned."

Harry smiled into her hair and inhaled her scent. "I fully intend to make it worth while."

A loud throat clearing made them wrench themselves from one another.

"Professor Potter, Professor Weasley glad to have found you."

Both of their faces flushed scarlet. "Professor McGonagall, we apolo-"

"No need to apologize, Professors." said the headmistress. "It's good to see a little cheer in these halls. But I need to talk to you regarding your opinion on a Ministry matter." She walked. "It's concerning a friend and family member."

Harry's stomach dropped. "Are Ron and Hermione ok?" His hand reached out to grasp his wife's hand.

"Miss Granger and Mr. Weasley are... for right now. As you both know Miss Granger has been searching for Mr. Weasley for years now, with your approval as we all know--"

"We just haven't heard from Ron since--" Ginny's voice cut off, trying to suppress her emotions.

"I know, Professor." Minerva said kindly. "I understand, as I understand Miss Granger's position in the matter. She's finally tracked him." The older woman took a deep breath, straddling her nerves.

Ginny gasped, forcing herself not to jump for joy. "Is he ok, where is he--"

Minerva raised her hand to stop her from asking too many questions. "As you know the ministry has kept it's word went they said that Mr. Weasley's whereabouts where only known to Remus Lupin, his supervising officer. As we've known for the past few years Remus has been reluctant to disclose your brother's location and occupation." Minerva walked around one of the desk in Harry's classroom for Defense Against the Dark Arts, a class he'd been teaching for almost five years now and contrary to the wizarding community stating that he was too young to handle himself or that the position was cursed he had proven them quite differently as he had been the best Defense Against the Dark Arts professor they'd had since Dumbledore himself.

"Has my father been informed?" Ginny asked, her face pale and sweaty.

The headmistress took a deep breath and nodded. "Yes, but he has stated that unless Ronald wants to make the contact with him he will not intrude on his privacy."

Ginny snatched her hand back from Harry's. "This is--this is typical Ron! How can he be so cruel?" She nearly shouted. "He just left after we lost--"

Harry was there before she could say something she'd regret and berate herself for later on. "Shh, baby."

She sagged against his strong embrace, holding on to his robes as if it were the pure essence of life.

"I think it's best she retreats to your quarters, I'll take over the transfiguration class for today." McGonagall said quietly, her face the extraction of understanding, reminding Harry of the soothing nature Dumbledore's face use to have when there was a hard situation.

"Yes, Professor." he said, holding his wife against him. "That will be a good idea."

"I'll have Professor's Snape take over your class today... I doubt he'll complain." she smiled softly at him.

Harry still disliked Snape (more than McGonagall would ever know). "I'm sure of that also." He answered through clenched teeth.

McGonagall nodded and watched them leave.

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Harry made her some tea with soothing Chamomile, it was always her favorite. He knew a simple incantation (which she had taught him to begin with) that gave it a soft blackberry taste. She loved the combination.

"Drink this," he told her softly, placing the warm mug in her clammy hands.

She gratefully took it from him. "Don't leave me, Harry. Stay with me."

He didn't move but rather leaned over her, so his presence could sooth her in some way. They had both lost too many people for each other to be away. In that aspect he understood her anger and hurt with Ron.

"I'm not leaving. Snape took over my afternoon 5th year class." He whispered, kissing her forehead.

"I bet he loved that." she smiled, but her smile didn't reach her eyes. "Why is he doing this to us... to me and the twins... to you and Hermione... and to himself?"

There were months that went by without Ginny thinking of her older brother, it was as if he were a ghost from a time far away. But he knew she always thought of him, just as he did. Ron had been the closest he'd ever had to a brother and not having him for these past seven years when he'd had him before was just as much torture.

"Some people take longer grieving." He said after a while. She sipped her teat some more, her brows knit. He took the opportunity to climb up on the four-poster bed with her; bringing her head to rest in the crook of his neck.

"If you can be sure of something is this; if there's one person who can bring him back is Hermione." Ginny told him, levitating the almost empty cup of tea and placing it neatly on top of the night table.

Harry nodded, softly running his hand over her white arm. "Let's just hope they don't kill each other before that."

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"She is a nightmare!" Ron roared at Lupin, hands placed even on each side of the older man's ample desk (which, at the moment was filled with hundreds of papers).

"And she is all you've got--you have no choice but to work with her, the Ministry demands it, Ron." Lupin explained calmly, passing on a parchment to Tonks.

She laughed at the situation.

"Well I refuse to." Ron hissed, stubbornly.

"Me thinks the gentleman doth protest too much." Tonks snipped, her jet-black hair was highlighted with orange strikes, cascading to her mid back in a SHIMMERING delight.

"I agree." Lupin said after her, placing his sight on the parchment before him.

"Prote--why is it that suddenly I'm the bad guy?" asked Ron, sagging against the leather chair beneath him. The chair fit his body perfectly, molding its movable leather to his form.

"Comfy?" it asked.

"A bit of hot therapy mid back, please." Ron told the chair who promptly went about it's seater's request.

"Listen to me, Ronald. I've understood all these long years your need to stay away, to be by yourself. You eat, hunt, sleep and drink. That's all you do, I've sat back and watched you do this to your life." Lupin placed his hand in mid air to stop Ron from protesting. "I've even gone as far as denying the Ministry no-access to you. And you're the best Auror to come along since the early days of Moody, everyone knows that -- but it's time to let the past rest." His kind eyes looked at the younger man.

"You cannot change the past, Ron. And hunting, killing and cursing Malfoy will do nothing but kill you just a little bit more." Tonks told him, sitting next to Lupin.

Ron stood up abruptly.

"I am ordering you to work with Miss Granger on this, you have no choice. And if you have to face the past in order to survive the future then so BE IT." Lupin told him, calmer than what he felt.

"You're wrong." said Ron through clenched teeth. "You cannot forget the past... then you forget..." his voice broke off and he took a deep breath. He couldn't bear to look up. To see Lupin and Tonks serene looks of parental understanding. "I'm not caring what the Ministry thinks, what my father thinks or what you think. I will find Draco; I will hunt him down and put him out like a dog. Then I'm leaving, to a place where neither you nor the ministry has any say or control over my actions. So consider this my early resignation."

With that he stormed out of the room.

"He's still hurting, Remus." Tonks said sadly, closing the door with a whisk of her wrist. Then turned to look at her partner.

"I think we're all still hurting, Nymphadora." Remus told her softly.

Tonks looked back at the door and sighed. "Yes, but none lost as much as he did, darling."

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She hated seeing him like this, she truly did and she knew she was the cause of it. But she was tired of it too; it had been too many years, too much time alone to be left to wondering, wishing and forgetting.

She didn't want to do that anymore. She longed for something beyond.

Something with Ronald Weasley, and not even Ronald Weasley was going to take that away from her.

Because, sometimes, things you gave were not things you simply took away.

He stood before her, scarlet in face, cheeks puffed, biting his lower lip in a way that clearly indicated that he was embarrassed about something.

"Ron, what's wrong?" she asked him, all her sense on her best friend before her.

"Hermione... I-I...." another deep breath. "I wanted t-to," a loud gulp. "g-ive you a birthday present..."

She instantly relaxed. "Ron, don't be silly it's not my birthday!" She didn't think it was possible but he turned even redder than before.

"Right, I-I know." He looked around wildly thinking that somehow the whole school was looking at him when it was only them two waiting for Harry to leave Dumbledore's office in the beginning of the school year. "I just.... I saw it in Dolores & Dolores' Charmed Jewels and I t-thought of you a-and I just--"

"Dolores & Dolores?" she cut him off. She knew Ron had an extreme problem with the fact that he was not as financially fortunate are herself or most importantly, Harry. "But Ron, that is very expensive!"

He ducked his scarlet face and pulled a small box out from his robes. "Well... I worked all Summer--whenever I could--"

"And he spent all of his money on it!" Both of them jumped as Fred and George came around, obviously listening in on all of their conversation. The twins had been asked back by Dumbledore who had insisted on a proper graduation for the two despite their very successful Joke Shop. They were only going to be back for a few weeks but the mere fact that they were as much a celebrity as Harry when he first arrived made Hermione wonder if they minded at all.

"Ron! Really!" Hermione chided him, exasperatedly.

This placed shy-Ron away and brought out the Ron she lo-.

"Well, it's my bloody money! I can do what I like with it!" With that he threw the velvet box at her and stalked off.

"Oh Ronikins! Don't be such a romantic sap!" Fred said behind him.

Hermione carefully studied the box; it was the softest purple with golden trimming a decoration that told a story. She knew people had now stopped around her to look at the scene unfolding but this was important... this was more important than anything she'd done in a long time.

With ease she opened it and gasped. A golden sent ring with a large heart shaped ruby.

"Oh..." was all se could say. He had spent all Summer working and instead of getting himself a better broom, which is what she knew he would've wanted, he got her...

Harry came trotting out of Dumbledore's office that moment and saw people standing about Hermione and the twins. "What's going on?"

"Ron just confessed that he spent all Summer working and saving his galleons to buy Hermione the beautiful ring she now holds in her hands!" George announced like some quidditch announcer overseeing the play of his life.

Harry blinked. "Why would he do that?"

Ginny, who had placed herself next to him, sighed. "Honestly, men are completely clueless." Harry, who had just noticed she was there scoffed.

The force that had been pinning Hermione to the spot seemed to shake off and she jumped, clutching the pouch to her heart. "Ron!"

She began running. "Wait! Ron, wait up!"

The students began emitting a cheering sound as she ran down the hallway, searching for Ron.

You could hear the whispers (who where nothing like whispers but more of a hissing sound).

"Did you just hear? Ron Weasley has got a thing for Hermione Granger!"

"I thought she liked Harry and him back!"

"Wasn't she dating Viktor Krum?"

"I think Ron is dreamy! If she doesn't want him--" and they would burst in a fit of girlish giggles.

"Ron, wait!!" she had finally seen him, hands tucked inside his robes, face down heading towards the front entrance.

Hermione run up to catch him with and even the fact that her small 5'4 frame was nothing to his 6'1 height and grasped his shoulder and spun him around.

"Hermoi-" his face was a puzzle, like it often was.

But she didn't wait any longer and pulled his head down, planting her lips firmly on his, which made his eyes bulge and the halls around them erupt in a sea of cheers and whistles.

He felt her tongue seek entrance in between his lips and all he did was gasp at her bravery, giving her all the access she need.

The moment her wet tongue entered his mouth he was lost for it, he closed his eyes and grasped his waist, pulling her off the floor, her arms left their grip on his shoulders and they tangled themselves in his red hair.

The cheering grew louder, it pounded at their ears and it seemed that the only thing to do was keep kissing because the moment they did they would have to face the crowd.

But as they soon found out they both needed air so they pulled back, both panting, red in the face and completely at loss at what just had happened. Something had changed; something would never be the same.

And all he could think of saying was; "Why did you do that, 'mione?"

She had to smile at him. "Because I wanted to."

They had both received detention from the one and only Snape for their little display but it had been a known fact since that day on that Quidditch captain, Ron Weasley and bookworm Hermione Granger we're the school's couple. He was an inspiration to all the rest of the males left in the school and she was a source of envy because her finger carried the prized proof that she belonged entirely to him.

Hermione looked down at the ring still in her finger. It had become a promise ring. She knew she was not going to let go of this so easily and seven years was not long enough to forget Ronald Weasley.

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Ron had taken up drinking once more, it pleased him immensely that he didn't have to think of anything... much. Luke had tried to pry the bottle off his fingers but had given up and tried greener pastures.

Angry, upset, hurt and cornered had nothing on him, he was feeling well beyond that. All of the sudden he felt like a child once more, a child Remus had taken in after... after the accident.

As if the past five years of hunting and bringing in more death eater than anyone in the past century combined meant nothing. Just because he couldn't find that one person... the person he had hunted for too long. His life would be complete once he found him.... at least that is what he kept telling himself.

"It's not your fault. It never was."

And there she was once more poking and probing in his life, she'd done more of that in the past few hours than anyone else had done in the past five years.

Hermione took the seat next to him, looking straight at him, unfazed.

"Why are you even bothering?" He sighed, putting down the bottle of Portkey-Punch (his personal favorite).

She brought her small, delicate hand that had seen too many un-innocent things to face him.

The ring. The ring that had started it all.

He loved and hated that ring.

"Because we made each other a promise, Ron. You remember?" she asked softly.

He took another swing from the bottled and clicked his tongue. "Yeah, 'mione I remember." He turned his head from her. "There are things I can't forget."

She was silent for a moment, a moment of silence he treasured.

"It was not your fault, Ron.," she said, and if he could've picked something worse to say he wouldn't have been able. Because he wanted it to be his fault and they both knew it.

"Go away, 'mione before I show you how much I've really changed." he growled.

"No." she simply said. "I'm not going away until you accept and realize that your mother's death was not your fault."

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TBC....
(I love evil cliffhangers, you know)

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