A/N: I'm back!! Yay! It's been about a month since I've written and now I can write again! So hope you all like this chapter. I left it at a cliffhanger. Sorry guys!!! Oh…and um, I haven't edited this because I wanted to get it out ASAP…so if it sucks, I'm sorry! I'll read it again soon and repost if there are too many problems.

Disclaimer: Well, as you should know by now, I own nothing, cept for hundreds of pictures of Rupert lol.

Setting: Hermi's flat and Ron's work and the burrow.

Rating: G

Characters: Hermione, Ron, Rebecca, Harry, Toby.

Pairing: R/Hr

Summary: Ron gets an unexpected visit from someone and is called over to Hermi's house.

Chapter 6

Days passed slowly while I wrote the article on the new 'couple'. I was too worried about what she would say if I called her, so I hadn't seen or talked to Hermione in weeks. Toby never asked me about the day at the bar, and I was grateful for that. It had been a month and a half after the interview when I got a visit from someone who I hadn't expected to see.

"Becca?" I said in astonishment. Rebecca and I hadn't been in contact at all since the night at the bar but there she was.

"Ron! I've been wondering when you'd get here. Toby and I were just catching up. We used to be good friends at Hogwarts."

"How did you know I worked here?" I asked, putting my bag down on Toby's desk.

"Oh, I'd seen your name on one of the articles. By the way, when does that story about Hermione come out?"

"In about," I looked at my watch, "twelve hours it will be printing."

"That fast? Hmm, it won't work then." I looked at her with a questioning glance before looking at Toby. He appeared to be half in a daze and half in awe and I rolled my eyes. I really wonder if I was that obvious around Hermione.

"I had this idea," Rebecca said, bringing me back to my senses, "that we could get you back together with Hermione before the article came out but I'm thinking that isn't possible now."

"Twelve hours is hardly enough time Becca." Toby told her reasonably, though he was still looking at her with awe.

"I'll think of something. The real reason I'm here is that Jacob hired me to be the photographer for the whole newspaper. I've been telling every department."

"You're working here?" I asked. I definitely needed to sit down. Weird things were always happening in my life but this was too coincidental. "You know how to do photography?"

"Yep. I've done it all my life. Dad was a reporter for the Witch Wireless Network when I was little but he didn't think radio was his thing, so he started at the Salem Siren. That was when I was two. He gave me my first camera at four and I've had one ever since."

"You're something else Becca." Toby told her, shaking his head in disbelief. "Why didn't you tell us this before? I knew you liked photography at Hogwarts, you always had a camera, but I never knew that you were doing it for a living. That's really great. Congrats on getting the job."

"Thanks Toby. Well guys, I'd better go finish my introductions. I'll see you two again soon."

We said our goodbyes and went onto the day's work. The final preparations for our story had to be finished. It had taken many postponements from Viktor and lots of editing but after almost two months, the article was almost published.

I was proud of it for the sheer fact that I had not written with a biased point of view. It was written fairly well for something I'd torn up at least thirty times. I only hoped that it would suit the couple well. I heaved a sigh as I tried to push the thought out of my mind. Hermione really did look happy with him. It was tearing me up inside trying to live with the fact that she wasn't, and would never be, mine. When I had seen her in that interviewing room in January, I remember just how much I missed her.

If I had known that day in the Three Broomsticks would be my last chance to hold her I wouldn't have let her go. I would have kept her near to me, told her exactly how much I loved her. I wouldn't have let her doubt how I felt about her. She deserved so much better than I could give her, but with out her, I felt nothing. Pain is too small of a word to express the feeling of knowing you lost the one good thing you ever had. I would-

"Hey, Ron, you all right?"

I looked up from the papers I'd been staring at on my desk. Toby had turned around to look at me with concern.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm all right. Just, thinking."

"Oh, well, ok. What about the article then? You want to have Mintra deliver it to Jacob now?"

"Yeah, sure. That's fine." I said distractedly." Toby gave me another weak smile before taking the final version of the story and leaving to hand it to Mintra. Deciding to finally put Hermione out of my thoughts, I sighed heavily and turned my attention back to the task at hand.

Toby returned with an envelope in his hand, which he flipped onto my desk. "It's from her." I'd already known that she had written it by the neat cursive handwriting, which wrote out my name. So much for not thinking about Hermione.

I opened the envelope hastily and tore the letter out, flattened it against the desk and read it to Toby.

'Ron-

               I'm sending this to you in hopes that most of your resentment toward Viktor I gone. I would truly love you to come to our wedding because you have always been a good friend. [The word good had been crossed out and replaced several times] I would also like to tell you that I think you have the chance to take, since I am going to need the space. I'm sure they'll come in need sometime in your life. If you'd like to sift through, you can drop by my place and we'll sort them. Best wishes to both you and Mr. Romero.

Love,

Hermione G.'

My life was about to get much more complicated. I wish she would just throw it all away. She didn't want any reminders of our relationship. That had to mean she was moving on, and if she could move on and find someone else, what was wrong with me? Obviously, there was no chance of me ever getting her back. I felt sick but managed to pull through the day.

I went home to think things over and was about to go upstairs again when a tall raven-haired and be speckled friend of mine appeared out of nowhere.

"Harry!" my countenance changed for the better when I saw him. "It's been too long since we've seen each other. What are you doing here?" It brought so much relief to see him again after so many months. Both of us had been busy and we hadn't had time to do talk much at all.

"Your mum invited me over for dinner. She said it was lonely here without anyone and she missed seeing my face here." He gave me a wry grin. "Personally I'm guessing it's because she always makes too much food and she needs me to eat to some. Not that I'm complaining. Your mum's food is the best!"

I smiled and suddenly felt very sad. I really had missed my best friend. It was very lonesome with out anyone here. And Harry was right. My mom really did need help learning to serve in smaller portions. The happiness of having such a close friend, almost a brother to me ever since I had met him on the platform, felt bittersweet. The chance to see him now was good enough for me. I hated getting sentimental about things like this but it's hard when you feel so close to someone.

That night's dinner seemed so small and quiet compared to the feasts I'd usually shared with my family. The last few months, work had been so hectic that I hadn't felt awake enough to sit at the dinner table and eat. I would come home exhausted, mum waking me up on a few occasions to ask if I needed anything. Though the meal was smaller and far less chaotic than normal Weasley dinners (I even began missing the twins' incessant explosions) the memories it brought back were what caused the sadness.

  Suddenly the thing I wanted most was an unreachable dream in which I went back to Hogwarts. In the dream, Hermione still loved me, the Burrow was full of people shouting at each other, and the trio was back to our own devices…saving the day and risking our lives for noble causes. But as Harry said his goodbyes later that night, I had to return to reality. The events of the last year rolled past. My heart felt heavy once more. I looked at my watch. Seven-thirty. It was still early, and I did have to talk to her. I looked at the phone and felt my heart skip a beat. The phone, of course, I could call her.

I walked to the phone as if enjoying the last few moments that I could live with out having to realize that she'd moved on. Picking up the receiver, I dialed the number in quickly. The call went through in a matter of seconds and in no time I heard, "Hello, Hermione Granger speaking." I grinned in spite of the fact that this was not a phone call I should be happy to be making. Hermione always had to sound so professional.

"Hermione, it's Ron. I didn't want to barge right into your house so I thought I'd call to ask if I could come over and pick up my stuff."

"You can come right now if you don't mind. Viktor is moving in next week, so I need to make space for his trophies. There's quite a few of them, and I don't want to think about asking him to give them away."

I sighed, "Let the trophy wife-isms begin." I muttered darkly under my breath. If she heard me, she chose to ignore it. "I'll come over. Just give me the address so I know where I'm apparating to." She told me where the flat was located and in seconds, I had taken it down in my memory and hung up. I gave a quick goodbye to mum before apparating with a pop.

A large building stood in front of me. It was a quiet style, large crown molded window frames, sleek white door, a very muggle style. Walking up I saw that there was a list of names and buttons nest to the door. I had never used this before and was rather confused as to what I was meant to do with it.

I pushed a button at random and jumped three feet in the air when a screeching voice replied, "What do you want? Is this Johnny? I told you to go away! I'm never going to give you the cat so leave me alone!"

"I-I'm sorry miss! Wrong, um, button." So! These buttons talked back to you! There should be a Hermione button up there somewhere that would say something to me. I scanned the list and found the silver button next to the words 'H. Granger'. I pressed it and heard in a far more pleasant voice, "Hello?"

"Hermione? Is this the Hermione talking button?" I heard a laugh from the button's voice box and then I heard it say, "Hold on Ron, I'll let you in." I stared at the box. How did it know my name? Some muggle things were too smart for their own good. It was almost scary.

The door I was standing in front of suddenly buzzed. I stared at it strangely for a second before grasping the doorknob and pushing it open. Muggle objects were so odd…buzzing and talking to you when you don't know they're supposed to. Despite dad's interest in it, electricity (as Hermione had finally forced me to say correctly) was one very intimidating thing. All that power, power that couldn't be controlled, the concept of it was frightening.

I turned down a hall not sure where I was going, thinking I should have asked the Hermione button where exactly I could find the flat. I was going to lose hope, when I saw her rushing down the hall toward me. "Ron, I'm so sorry. I forgot that you didn't know my flat number."

"Yeah, that talking button of yours was not very helpful! And some other person's talking button was yelling at me about some ridiculous nonsense. She thought my name was Johnny and that I wanted to steal her cat!  I don't understand all your crazy muggle contraptions."

"You'll have to get used to them Ron. You'll have to spend some of your life in the muggle world. Besides, they won't kill you. And what do you man my 'button'?"

"Your button." I said simply, as if it should be the most obvious thing in the world. "The one that said hello to me, and opened the door for me, and knew my name!"

Hermione laughed again as she led me down the hall. "That was me talking you dolt. 'Muggle contraptions' as you call them are not that confusing. Everything uses the same techniques. The 'talking buttons' are like telephones, um, sort of."

"Oh." I stared at her and tried to understand what in the world she was talking about. All of the telephones I'd ever seen were nothing like the talking buttons. However, I had no more time to think about what she had meant because we had reached a door with packages lying in front. Hermione unlocked the door and we stepped in.

My eyes almost bugged out as I saw the very untidy and unorganized room in which we were walking into. It was so unlike Hermione to have things lying about in disarray.

She must have known what I was thinking because she turned with an embarrassed laugh and said, "It's been a little hectic trying to move Viktor's things in while I still have all of these books here I'm thinking of just…giving them all away." She sounded a little sad and I stared at her for a few seconds, wondering if I should say anything about that. I decided I was already in bad favor, making it worse now wouldn't bother me.

"Why is it that you have to give away all of your books to make way for him? Why can't he auction off some of his trophies? Or buy a big house with all the money he has? Certainly he can't expect you to sacrifice everything for him?"

"In relationships, you have to give up a few things Ron."

"So how much are you giving away exactly?" I asked as I sat down on a book-laden couch.

"Only those." She told me motioning to the corner where six large cardboard boxes lay. I stared in surprise and went to the boxes. Opening the nearest one I picked up a huge tattered book. The letters had chipped so much that I couldn't read them. I opened to the first page and felt anger flare.

"He's making you give up 'Hogwarts: A History'?" I asked feverishly.

"That book is very old…and besides, there simply isn't enough room Ron. It's one of the biggest book I have."

"But, but you loved this book!" I told her. I'd read most of it the year before, trying to impress Hermione because I'd read her favorite book. (Not that it gave any result…she had just smiled and laughed when I told her.) She'd never left the book alone and the one time she did, she had a fit, running around the common room, screaming bloody murder and threatening to hex the person who took it. It had been under her bed the whole time but that's beside the point. The point was, she loved the book, and there was no way I'd ever allow Viktor to force her into believing that what he was doing was ok.

"Yes, I did love that book." She said thoughtfully before snapping out of her thoughts and saying in a stern voice, "but thinks get older and you learn to move on."

I sighed and ran my finger down the book's spine. "Well, if you don't want it can I have it?" I asked slowly. I looked up at her, seeing that she was looking up at me suspiciously.

"I suppose, since I'll be giving it away anyway. Yes, you can keep it Ron. But let's stop worrying about all this. We have to go through your things." I sighed. I had been trying to distract her from remembering the reason why I was there. "Everything is in here Ron. I had saved all the things since first year, the pictures and yearbooks. I even have that article about the wizard chess championship you played in during fifth year."

"Mum has it too. It's framed and hanging in the laundry room still."

"Sit here, this might take a while to go through everything. Would you like some tea?" I nodded and sat on the couch she had motioned to. This room was some sort of giant storage closet. There were at least ten cardboard boxes all with the same three letters written across them "RON". Obviously, we had a lot of work ahead of us. I pulled a box close to me and opened it up.

More books. I swear, you'd think Hermione a librarian if she if she wasn't as pretty as she were.

Either way, I pulled the first one out and discovered with delight that it was a picture book. I blew the dust from the cover and looked at the title. It read simply 'Hermione Granger's Photos' I opened the cover and had to stop myself from grinning too broadly. A small (unmoving) picture cut into the shape of a heart had been placed in the center of the page. It was so obviously the subject of my affection that I had to take a deep breath. The picture was of a baby Hermione, only a few months old, with those gorgeous chestnut eyes and the beginnings of dark curls sprouting from her head.

I continued to look and was to the part in the book talking about her first year at Hogwarts when Hermione came in with the tea. "Ah, you like the picture book? Where did you find that? I've been looking all over for it."

"It was in a 'Ron' box." I told her, handing her the book and pushing the box closer to her with my foot.

"I wonder why it was in there. I wouldn't ever give this away. Oh! Look at this. It's darling!" I laughed as she came to sit next to me and pointed to a picture of Harry and I in what appeared to be our first year. I looked so young. It was hard to believe that this picture was taken almost seven years ago.

"We look so little."

"Oh please, you've never looked little Ron! You must have been at least five feet four inches tall in first year…and now look at you. You're a good six feet tall, probably a whole foot and a half taller than me. You've always dwarfed me."

"How tall are you now?"

"A measly five feet. Far smaller than you, or anyone else for that matter."

"Wow, you are tiny, Hermione." I laughed as she scowled at me. "Tiny Hermione. I think I like that."

"You're intolerable Ronald Weasley." She told me, rolling her eyes and turning back to the box. "Come on, you're wasting time. It's nearly eight fifteen now." She said suddenly, breaking the very comfortable feeling that I had. Again came the painful reminder that I was only here with her to take my possessions from her sight. We both pulled boxes open and began to look at their contents. There were all sorts of things in her from the seven years we had been friends…birthday cards I had given her, Christmas gifts she'd no longer needed and only served the purpose of reminding her we had broken up.

We decided to throw away a few things and give away others. In the end, I had a box full of things that I could not bare to part with (including 'Hogwarts: A History'). It was ten-thirty by the time we were done and we were both tired. It had been an extremely long day for me. What with work and the article coming out, Harry coming over, talking buttons, and tiny Hermione all in the same day, I was truly exhausted.

Taking my box full of memories in my arms I followed Hermione upstairs to her living room.

Thank you for doing this Ron. It was a lot of help to me. I really appreciate it." She said, her back facing me.

"It was," I stopped for a second and just looked at her, "beautiful."

"What?" She asked, spinning to face me quickly.

"I said, I said it was nothing." I replied, not looking at her directly in the eyes.

"Oh," she nodded, "that's what I thought." She was lying. She'd heard me clear enough. Hermione hardly ever lied, so I could always tell when she was (or at least I'd like to think I could).

"Hermione," I said desperately, "Hermione what if you knew you had made a terrible mistake? You would try to do anything to fix it wouldn't you? Anything, even if it risked making the problem worse?"

She looked at me searchingly for a moment before saying, "I don't know if I would go that far. If I thought something would go wrong-"

"What about this, Hermione," I interrupted. "What if you wanted something terribly and you knew that it was right for you. Would you try everything you could to get that? If it was killing you inside not to have it, would you try to get it?"

"I-I suppose. Ron, what are you getting at?" She looked a little frightened at the strength and the force I was speaking with.

I swallowed hard, put the box down next to my feet and looked at her for a full minute, not saying anything.

"Ron?" She even sounded scared now. "Ron, it's getting late, maybe you should-" Before she could finish, I had wrapped my arms around her waist and pulled her into a kiss. It wasn't as romantic as it was a necessity for me. It had been nine and a half long months since I had been able to do that. It felt like I was finally able to live again. Her hands were on my chest having once tried to push me away but I realized that for a few seconds, she wasn't struggling.

Then reality must have hit her because she struggled out of my grip and stared at me. She looked at me questioningly, her eyes wide. She stayed silent. We both looked at each other for two long minutes before I broke the silence between us.

"I'm sorry," I said quickly, in shock, flushing red with my heart beating a mile a minute. I grabbed the box and apparated back to the Burrow.

I have the best ways of making things more complicated, don't I?

A/N: *ducks away from all the angry reviewers* I know…I know I ended that with a cliffhanger…I'm sorry! But I had to! This was how this chapter had to end! I hope you all don't try to kill me or throw rotten food at me!…I'll try to get the next chapter up soon. I'm thinking that there will be about…hmm…six chapters more? Around there. I hope you aren't bored out of your minds because of this and I'd really like to give special thinks to TK's Angel! You're such a great reviewer!! And I'm so glad you love the story. Isa too J I'm glad Willy's doing fine now! I'll write more soon!

~Addy