Hello everyone. Again thanks to my wonderful beta who helped a lot on this chapter. And to Adam, Britt, Kami and Wendy thanks for all you do to keep me sane and for not mocking me in this attempt. Also please review everyone, I would like to know what you think.
Disclaimer- I still do not own anyone of these characters. Blast! Maybe someday right? (well a girl can dream)
Chapter 2: Once there was a time like no other time before- hope was still an open door once upon a dream.
She did not like to remember that next day; the images of the battle never seemed to leave her. They still haunted her dreams even five years later. "We won," she kept telling herself, "Harry beat him, Ron saved me and Ginny." She remembered how she had woken up at Grimwald Place a few days later; Ron was asleep in the chair next to her. She had sat and watched him- he had been willing to give everything for her, he almost had. She had promised herself at that time that she would spend the rest of her life showing him how much he meant to her. What had gone wrong? They had been so happy once, they completed one another, yes there were the occasional fights still but that was part of them. Fighting was second nature to them, they had always done it and in some way it was how they showed their affection towards each other. They could never give that up you might have well asked them to stop being...well...them.
There had been no fight this time though. They had just stopped talking; silence prevailed in their home now. The home that had once been filled with warmth and love was now seemed empty. What scared her was the change had been so gradual she hadn't even noticed until it was complete. "Why?" she thought again as she turned the page in the album- showing the next set of pictures. They had been taken at the Weasley Family BBQ. There was a picture in the corner of her and Ron curled under a tree, Ron's back against it and her head on his lap. That had been a wonderful day she remembered..
The two of them had never discussed what happened the night before the last battle. In most respects, their lives had gone back to how they were before; they stole glances at one another and when their hands occasionally brushed against one another they would move away quickly, blushing. They only thing that had changed was that Ron would slip into her room to make sure she was okay as she slept and to comfort her after the recurring nightmares. At night it had been easier not to pretend, not to hide the feelings; during the day though pretending became second nature.
The day of the Weasley Family Party was the day the pretending had ended.
Ron and Harry had been outside decorating while she and Ginny were taking care of the inside cleaning. She watched the boys out of the kitchen window as they charmed lights onto the trees and set impervious charms to keep the gnomes from disrupting the festivities all the while smiling to her. She watched them out the window smiling to herself. Things were alright now and the four of them were okay. Harry had started to spend just a little more time with Ginny and things were slowly progressing. She and Ron were not where she wanted them to be in their relationship, but the commitment they had to one another had deepened in the last few months and she valued his friendship more than anything.
"Something on your mind Ms. Granger?" Ginny asked from behind her "Or is it someone? Hmm?" Ginny had come into the room while she had been watching out the window, feeling slightly embarrassed she said,
"It's nothing Gin, just thinking how great it is to finally be free of Voldemort. We are all together now. I don't think I have felt this peaceful since before I met those two." She said moving her head towards the boys outside.
"Yeah, it is nice isn't," Ginny replied "but enough chatter we have a ton of work to do still and if this house is not clean from top to bottom by the time Mum gets home we are in for it." With that Ginny made her way toward the living room.
She marveled at how much Ginny sounded like her mother more and more everyday. She resumed her efforts in the kitchen, after a while she heard Ginny calling her-
"Hermione, can you come in the living room for a minute please? I need your help with this."
She made her way into the living room looking at Ginny questioningly as she walked to where her friend was standing, "Hermione, there is a boggart in the bureau and I don't want to bother the boys with taking care of it." she had started to protest but was cut off "I know that you hate them but you are so much better at getting rid of them then I am, so can you please take care of it for me?" Ginny asked her eyes pleading for assistance.
She had hesitated for a moment and then realizing that this was a losing battle sighing she said, "Okay Gin, just this once, but while I am doing this can you go start on that salad I promised your mum I would make? Just peel the potatoes I will be there in a minute."
Ginny left leaving her alone in the room with only a boggart as company. Now she was nervous, ever since Professor Lupin had introduced boggarts to them their third year these had been her down fall. She could handle them much better than her 13 year old self could but there was still something about facing your worst fear, especially when you tried so hard not to let anyone see that there was any fear in you at all. She had learned at a young age that to appear in control meant that you had to control your emotions. Nobody could ever see them. No one could hear you admit defeat and you could never admit it to yourself, if you did you had failed; and failure wasn't an option. Unfortunately this reasoning did not work with a boggart, they saw past the facade she had herself and that was why they scared her so much. They showed her exactly where she was weak.
Wand in hand she muttered the spell to open the bureau and waited for the boggart to come out. She was preparing herself to face Voldemort or even one of the Malfoys ready to kill her and her friends but what came out of the closet shocked her- it was Ron.
She stared, why did she fear him? He was her best friend; he loved her and would never let anything happen to her. She was confused and puzzled and as she went towards him she heard him say,
"I hate you."
These words stopped her in her tracks. She looked at him confused.
"I hate everything about you," he hissed "You are a prissy know-it-all that we only kept around because we felt sorry for you. Yes we used you Hermione, both Harry and I. It has been so easy to sit and watch you do the work for the both of us we knew that we would need you to defeat Voldemort. Well guess what, we don't need you anymore. Voldemort is gone; Harry doesn't need the bookworm around anymore."
She turned on him and before she realized it had slap Ron across the face.
"Honestly Ron could you be any more pathetic?" she questioned "Do you really expect me to believe that? Do you honestly think that after nine years I don't know you? I know that my Ron would never do that would never say anything like that. He is one of my most loyal friends and he wouldn't hurt me for anything."
"If I were you Miss Granger, I would learn to keep my mouth shut!" and with that he smacked her. She was in shock, Ron had never laid a hand on her, he wouldn't treat anyone like that, especially her. In her mind she knew that this wasn't Ron standing in front of her she kept trying to tell her self it was just a boggart that a simple spell would take care of it, but she just couldn't make her self truly believe it. It was this fear that the boggart fed on, this is what fueled it to keep going.
"You are really weak you know that? You try to hide the fact but we knew, Harry and I have known all along. You know that you are nothing, we never wanted you. The only reason we rescued you from the troll that night was because neither one of us wanted to get kicked out of school. I meant what I said that day you still don't have any friends because you are a no good mudblood Granger."
During this tirade she had started to back away from Ron and move towards the wall, her wand hand slowly dropped and her fingers unclasped letting her wand slip silently to the floor. Tears were flowing freely down her cheeks and she tried to speak,
"No Ron, don't, please just stop just stop now."
"I never loved you." He replied to her "I only told you that because I thought it might be fun to mess with you. Who could love a know-it-all freak mudblood? You were always a good one for a laugh, Hermione. Why couldn't you have died when Malfoy had you? Why couldn't have Voldemort have taken care of you himself? You know Harry and I wanted you to die, then so why can't you just die now?" he spat raising his wand to her chest.
By now she had dropped to her knees and was sobbing "No Ron, please don't. Stop saying these things, stop talking, I don't want to hear anymore."
Her sobs had brought Ginny, Ron and Harry rushing into the room wondering what was wrong. They had arrived to hear the end of the boggart's speech but were all too dumbfounded to do anything immediately. It was Harry who finally reacted and jumped in front of the boggart drawing its attention away from her and made quick work of dispatching him.
She had brought her knees to her chest and slowly rocked back and forth sobbing; Ron had moved towards her but the moment that she saw him she shattered. Taken a back he looked at Ginny, she just shrugged and encouraged him to try again. Ron got down on his knees next to her and began to talk in the most soothing manner he could muster.
"Mione, ssh it's okay, nothing is going to hurt you here. It's me Mione; it's all going to be okay now I am really here. Have I ever let anything hurt you at all?" she seemed to be calming a little but the tears were still flowing and sobs still racked her body. Placing his hands on her shoulder he pulled her to him. "Mione, please calm down. It is killing me to see you like this. You are going to be okay; it was just a boggart, whatever it told you wasn't true. You know that I would never want you to die, what would I do without you, how could I go on? You push me you know, you push me so I do better- why without you here I would probably end up working at Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes or worse with Percy." he said with mock horror in his voice.
A small smile escaped her lips as she felt her self calm down, this was her Ron. She relaxed against him now, no longer resisting his touch.
"Do you want to tell me about it?" he asked and she quickly shook her head in a definite no.
"Hermione," Ginny pleaded, hating to see her friend in so much pain "Please tell us. All we saw was Ron standing over you wishing you to die and..." With Ginny's reminder she felt her body began to tense again. Ron looked at Ginny as if to say- not another word or I will kill you.
"Ron, Harry can you give us a minute, I just want to talk to Hermione for one second. We won't be long."
She saw the boys look at each other and nod, they probably thought that Ginny was right, but Ginny wasn't the one she wanted to talk to, she wanted to talk to Ron. He squeezed her shoulders as he stood up to follow Harry. Trembling she reached for his hand "No Ron, don't go, please don't leave me."
Ron was immediately at her side again taking her in his arms and stroking her hair as she cried.
"Never. I would never leave you. You know that right?" Still seeing the tears in her eyes he asked her again, "What did it say to you?"
She bit her lip still refusing to answer, "Mione please," he begged, "this is killing me, please love tell me?"
She finally was able to talk through her tears, "You said that you hated me, that you and Harry had felt sorry for me and had only kept me around to do the work for you."
"Mione, that is not true, you know that. The two of us love you more than anything in the world." he told her looking over to Harry for his agreement.
"You also said that you wish I had died that night and..." she had paused here and looked up at him "you didn't love me. You said you only told me that because you wanted to mess with me, that I was good for a laugh and that no one could ever love a know it all freak mudblood." she said collapsing in his arms again, just wanting to be protected from the horrors that she had just experienced.
Ron held her while Harry and Ginny, knowing where they were not wanted stood up and headed towards the door. Looking the two of them Ron had nodded indicating that he was okay and could handle the situation from here. As soon as they were gone Ron spoke again.
"Mione, I want you to look at me." he said, she glanced up her tear stained eyes barely recognizing what she saw in his face. "You are the brightest, loveliest, kindness girl I have ever known. You have gotten Harry and me through so much - we probably would have died our first year in school if you hadn't been there. You have always been my hero and friend Hermione." He stopped and shifted her so she faced him. "I love you, I always have. When you never said anything after the battle I figured you really did regret what we had said to one another that night and that you just wanted things to go back to the way they were before. I will never leave you- you are my world Hermione Granger, I could never hurt you like that." and leaning in he kissed her.
The memory still brought tears to her eyes, now it felt that her worst fears from that day really were coming true. He was leaving her, oh not in the physical sense of course, he still came home every night and they still slept in the same bed, but he had left her emotionally and she had left him. The closeness they had shared even a year before was gone now. They were moving farther and farther apart, when before their fights had been quite vocal they were now fighting a silent war in which she knew there would be no winner. She looked at the two twenty year olds in the picture and yearned for the comfort and peace that they had. Two months after that day they had become engaged she had laughed bitterly at the memory- they thought they could conquer the world and in many respects they already had. She turned the page trying to forget the hurt but her eyes immediately misted over again when she saw the next photo-
The day was going to be beautiful, she thought looking around her room, from the closet she could see the white dress robes hanging all pressed and ready for her to put on. She rolled over and looked at the clock 6:30 a.m., the house was already bustling. She could hear Molly downstairs yelling at the twins about something. They were a handful those two but she loved them. They had told her last night had Ron never come to his senses and marry her they had planned to 'take matters into their own hands'. Though the possibility of what the twins could have done frightened her, she loved them all the more for it, this was a sign they accepted her. This was her family in every sense of the word. She was going to be more than an in-law to these people she was going to be a Weasley. She remembered Molly saying that she had always been one of them, now it would just be legal.
After today she was going to have a real family. Ever since her parents had died in the last muggle attacks in London she had ached to have a family again. She wanted everything that the Weasleys had the love that existed in the family never ceased to amaze her. They all cared for one another, they were always there to stand up for one another, she wanted that with Ron. She wanted a half a dozen kids, a cozy house that was only held together by magic, she wanted to make sure that love was in every corner of that home. She knew she could do it, this is what she had always wanted and she was willing to give everything for it.
Realizing that she would not have much time to herself later today, she decided to slip out and take a walk before anyone could miss her. Quickly changing she apparated outside and lost herself in the splendor of the morning.
"Want to tell me where you are?" a voice near her said making her jump,
She smiled and turned around, "Harry, you scared me. I had no idea that you were up this early too?"
"Well Ron couldn't sleep last night, kept jumping up and pacing repeating his vows over and over again." he chuckled at the memory "So rather than listening to him drown on and on about you, I decided it would be better for both of us to escape for a while. Hermione, I do believe the stupid git loves you, you know."
"I do know Harry," she said beginning to walk again "I love him too. This is going to be good it is going to work, I know that we still probably won't go a day without fighting about something but hey that's us right. We wouldn't know what to do if there wasn't something to disagree over. Plus making up does have its advantages now."
Harry laughed at this "Hermione, that is my best friend you are talking about, I really don't want to hear it." They continued walking in a companionable silence just enjoying one another company. After a few minutes Harry broke the silence, "You know how I told you a few years ago that I would always be watching out for you?" she nodded smiling at the memory "Well I meant it, look if Ron hurts you in anyway you just let me know and I promise to pound his bloody..."
"Language Harry," she laughed grabbing his hand "anyway you know that is not going to happen, if anything it will be me pounding him into next week. I do have a nasty right hook you know."
"Don't worry, I remember- I just want you to know that no matter what I am still always here for you watching out over you."
"Thank you Harry," she said stopping and kissing him on the cheek. "So you want to tell me what is going on with you and Ginny?" he reddened at her name
"Uh, nothing," he said a little too quickly.
"Oh Harry, you know that she is the only one for you. I swear you are more thick headed than Ron sometimes, and that is saying a lot."
"Hey I heard that," said a voice from behind her "and now you are going to pay." Before she could turn around Ron had picked her up and swung her over his shoulder.
Turning to Harry he said, "Morning to you mate, just going to take a little walk with my girl."
"Ronald Weasley! You put me down right now do you hear me?" she laughed pounding his back with her fists. Don't make me scream for your mother."
"A little help here Harry?" Ron asked laughing
"Nope she is yours now Ron, I wash my hands completely of her. No more having to get her out of jams- what will I do with all the extra free time I will have?" Harry mocked.
"Why you little traitor!" she cried "Let me at him Ron, I am going to get him for that comment, he is going to rue the day he made fun of me"
"Mione," Ron started "You can't kill my best man, at least not before the ceremony. Do you think you can wait just a few more hours love?" he asked setting her down and kissing her on the forehead.
"I don't want to kill him Ron, I just want to make sure he know that he can't ever mess with Hermione Granger, no, Hermione Granger-Weasley, no that doesn't work either, Hermione Weasley, yes that's it Hermione Weasley- and walk away unscathed." she finished.
At this comment the boys were doubled over in laughter, Harry was laughing so hard that he could barely stand up "Now I am really glad she is yours Ron, I don't know if I would be able to deal with her when she is like this."
"Harry James Potter, you are asking for it." she said pulling out her wand ready to hex him into next Tuesday.
Ron, still laughing, grabbed her around the waist and said "Harry I would run if I were you mate, I don't know how long I can hold her back."
Harry began to run but yelled back "Don't be gone to long guys, Molly would freak if she knew you were together this morning, I will do my best to keep her occupied though." and with that he dashed off back down the road.
"Why that little git, running away from me. I am going to get him Ron, and where do you get off on stopping me? He was being a total prat and with all his 'I am glad she is your problem now Ron' of all the low down..."
Before she could finish Ron pulled her into a kiss and she became lost in thought. When they broke apart several minutes later he asked her with a grin "Still mad at Harry?"
"Harry who?" she grinned back, and taking his hand they began to walk silently down the path together.
"Ron," she asked breaking the comfortable silence "do you feel like you are stuck with me like Harry said? Because I don't want you to feel that at all, if this is not something that you want we can call it off, it is not to late we can wait another six months a year and see how things go, I just want you to be happy and I don't want to be a burden and..."
"Mione you are rambling, you might want to take a breath sometime." he said cutting her off, "Good- listen you are not a burden, you are not my problem and I am definitely not stuck with you. Understand I want to marry you today; I have been waiting for the past six months for this day to come, no wait I have been waiting for the past ten years for this day to come. It is finally here and I am planning on marrying you this afternoon and would like it if you were there too."
He smiled down at her moving the hair that had fallen into her face behind her ear. Her hands wrapped around his waist she asked him "Are you sure? Are you really sure that you want to do this today?"
"With all my heart" was his response as he leaned in and kissed her again. Leaving no room for doubt in her mind of the sincerity of the statement.
"Good" she said when they broke apart "because I want this more than anything in the world, you are my everything Ron Weasley and you always will be, no matter what happens." She kissed him again then grabbed his hand and walked back down the lane towards the Burrow. "Now let's go get married" she said.