Chapter 2

Ron and Hermione

The sun was just beginning to rise at 12 Grimmauld place, in London. Although the house could not be seen from the outside, the inside started to fill up nicely with golden sunlight. A milkman had just delivered milk to both neighbors without even noticing a house was in between. Since Harry took over his ancestral home, he had decided to sell the deed to the house to both Ron and Hermione for 1 Galleon; Ron and Hermione had refused profusely, but Harry didn't need the money, and he felt it was better for someone to use the house then for it to fall on hard times, like when Sirius had been imprisoned. He had also made them promise that they would always make it available for the Order of the Phoenix; when put in those terms, both Ron and Hermione felt honored to host any meeting and would ensure that they would always be ready. The house was starting to look well lived in, to the point that it was getting a woman's touch that it so badly needed. Of course, books of all sizes could be seen crammed in every nook and cranny. When Ron and Hermione signed the deed, Harry gave them a welcome gift of a large magical shelving unit that would constantly rearrange the books in the users preference: Title, Author, or Subject matter. As a joke, he had also given Ron what looked like a Nimbus 2005, but when Ron went to push off the floor, it didn't work and Ron fell to the ground in a heap. Laughing, Harry just said, "Ron, that is just a replica, it actually is for sweeping; you'll need it to keep this place looking spiffy. I'm not sure Hermione would take to having too much dust all over her books." When everyone but Ron laughed at this joke, Harry removed the Hex that prevented the broom from flying. It wasn't long before Hermione put up the first house rule- 'No Flying in the House'.

Remus had just moved out when Harry presented the offer to Ron and Hermione, since taking over the teaching position of DADA at Hogwarts, and becoming the head of Gryffindor meant he now slept at the castle. Harry did make it a point to Remus that he would always be welcomed at his home in Godric Hollow, as he was the closest thing to family, other then the Weasleys, that he had. But, as Remus put it jokingly, he would first have to build his own room just to be able to live there.

That morning, Hermione was the first to wake; since no one could see inside the home, they never really bothered with curtains, so they always woke early. She shook Ron to tell him to get up, and then made her way to the bathroom for a quick shower. Once she was done, she again went to Ron to get him up, and as usual he just rolled over and went back to sleep. Since they had promised Harry they would be over at first light, she just levitated Ron, still in his pajamas, and brought him in the shower, where she let him take a nice cold shower.

"What the heck did you do that for? I was getting up."

"Well, now your up and you have five minutes before we need to leave, so move it."

Hermione went back to the bedroom and cleaned up the mess they had made last night. It was becoming a habit of theirs to practice dueling before going to bed. It helped keep them on their toes, "constant vigilance" as Moody always put it. The other effect was it really, really got them in the mood for sex, with all the adrenaline pumping, and the thrill of the hunt. Sometimes they used the whole house to play hide and seek, with the winner usually taking advantage of the others plight. Last night, they had kept it to just the bedroom, but she had to repair a few holes in the walls. Ron had cast a Marble Mouth Hex on her, which prevented proper pronunciation of her words. She tried removing it with the reverse, but somehow had cast a blasting charm instead. Thankfully, Ron had been quick enough to dodge out of the way. He then cast a full body bind on her, just to stop her from causing more damage. He was proceeding to remove the hex, but decided to have fun instead. She was powerless to stop him, and whenever she was close to breaking the Hex, he would cast a tickling charm on her just to break her concentration. This lasted through to the early morning before they both finally went to sleep. Now that she thought about it, no wonder they were tired.

As Hermione started to take robes out for her and Ron, she was looking at the different emblems each had. Ron now worked for the Ministry of Sports, and his main responsibility was ensuring the smooth running of everything related to Quidditch. He was always nervous the night before a big match. She remembered during the semis between Puddlemere and the Tornados that since she was not available for their usual sexual romp the night before, he had convinced Harry to go out on the town with him. They hooked up with both Fred and George and literally painted the town red. The muggle police thought university graduates had done the prank, but since no one caught them, they thought they had gotten off. The problem for them was that Hermione still got her newsprint from the muggle world and found out, so when she confronted Ron about the fact that some of his robes had red paint on them, Ron broke down and confessed everything to her. He had not been allowed out for three days upon threat of her telling his mother. She had also told Angelina, Katie and Ginny, but they had turned around and were upset with their men for not allowing them to come along with them. In a huff, Hermione left them, mumbling to herself that next time she will just go to Molly instead.

Like Ron, Hermione had not changed much after graduating last year. As she is the most organized, it did not take her long to discover that a rune breaker, or de-coder as Harry liked to put it, was her choice of fields. She had been accepted right away, passing all the given tests. Before the summer had been out, she had joined the Ministry of Magic as an apprentice, and within 6 months became a full-fledged member, completing the course in half the time required. She now spends most of her time deciphering Runes, going through the Ministry's library books like a kid at the candy store, as its collection far surpassed what Hogwarts carried.

After graduation, Ron and Hermione moved in together without a second thought, although both hers and Ron's parents did not think it was a good idea without first being married. Ron had never broached the subject about marriage, and Hermione herself was not sure. She still found Ron to be a little immature as he still got bouts of jealousy over Harry, and so Hermione decided that they, as couple, were not ready for the commitment, although she loved the sleeping together aspect; Ron had been her first and only lover, and though she had wondered how it would have been with Harry, since Ginny could not stop talking about him and his 'unending stamina', she knew that she had found her soul mate. Like the saying goes, "opposites attract"; you could not have two more different characters. Hermione had always been limited to using her head and and rarely used her 'gut instinct', while Ron almost never used his head. They both loved each other very much, which was evident during the war when, during the first wave of the final battle, both had risked their lives to save each other.

Ron was actually one of the first to discover the attack while he was in the Gryffindor common room getting ready to leave. He had seen Giants approaching the castle from the Forbidden Forest, and with instinct driving him, shouted the alarm, and ran to their dormitories. Once there, he grabbed his broom and Harry's invisibility cloak and took off towards the fight. While flying as fast as he could and trying to keep the cloak on, he noticed that Ginny, Hermione, Neville and Luna had started to gather up the defenses and get as many of the younger students back to Hogwarts. Both Ginny and Neville, who had been Harry's best students, were really causing trouble for the first wave of Death Eaters; it was up to Ron to charge the Giants. Although his magic was not strong enough to drop a full giant, it was enough to distract them enough to allow everyone to retreat to the school. During the retreat, Hermione was hit with a stunning spell and dropped behind the group unnoticed. Seeing this, Ron raced to interpose himself between the approaching Death Eaters and Hermione, getting hit by a laceration spell and by an exploding hex. Right before passing out from the pain and blood lost, he cast 'Enervate' to get Hermione up. Once Hermione saw Ron down and bleeding profusely, she went ballistic, casting spells faster then anyone had seen in a long time. She simultaneously kept two Death Eaters at bay, managed to actually stun a Giant, and levitated Ron to safety. When the group finally managed to get Hermione and Ron behind the defensive line, Hermione collapsed to her knees and, seeing that Ron was dying from his wounds, cast the Soul Transfer spell, which, if cast successfully, would transfer a bit of her life essence to help keep Ron alive; the downside was that often times the caster died, or at the very least shortened their life span. No one but her and Harry, who had figured it out later on, knew what had happened. After she had cast the spell, she fell unconscious and only awoke when Harry came and healed everyone in the group to prepare for the second wave of the assault. She had made Harry swear that he would never reveal that information to anyone, as she did not want Ron to find out. A few days after the battle, she noticed a scar over her heart, marking the path that her life essence passed to reach Ron; Ron had questioned her about it, saying he had never seen it before, but she just replied it must have been from a spell. That is what she was rubbing when Ron stepped out of the shower.

"I see your ready for another round", Ron said with a smiled as he noticed her rubbing herself, not really noticing that she was rubbing the mark over her heart, and not her breasts. He whipped out his wand and prepared to cast. Quicker then the eye could see, Hermione tackled Ron to the ground, leaving him with no choice but to enjoy the ride. Ten minutes later, both were satisfied (for now) and hungry, so they Disparated to Harry's place.

They arrived in the kitchen, as it was the safest place to arrive other than Harry's room. Two months ago, they decided to drop in on Harry to see if he would join them for lunch, as they knew he was home, and appeared right into his bedroom, as they had done in the past, only to discover that he was not alone. It appeared that Ginny decided to take her Hogsmeade pass and go see Harry, since they had not seen each other since Valentines Day. Ron went ballistic when he saw his sister and Harry having sex, but before he could do anything stupid, Ginny stunned him and Hermione, apologizing profusely (noted the new position they were using), and took him home. It took Hermione two days to get Ron to snap out of it, reminding him that they themselves were sleeping together and that Ginny was of age.

Harry's kitchen was probably as big as the main level to Grimmauld place. It was big enough to rival Hogwarts own kitchen, although only Dobby, and even sometimes Harry, ever cooked in it. Harry had discovered the joys of cooking since it was not for his Uncle, Aunt, and cousin; at first it annoyed Dobby, but later gave up and just enjoyed being in the company of Harry. Harry had actually cooked the Valentine's dinner for Ginny and himself. When they arrived, they found that breakfast had been cooked, but that their host was not present; sitting on the kitchen table was a steaming platter of bacon just removed from the pan with a fresh stack of toast, porridge and eggs, with pumpkin juice, tea and coffee. Without thinking, Ron strolled over and made himself a quick sandwich.

"Ron, what are you doing? Its not polite to start eating without our host."

"Hermione, were talking about Harry, he won't mind. Actually, were is he?"

"I'm not sure, let's go announce ourselves."

As they left the kitchen, they saw Harry and Dobby descending the stairs carefully as to not end up falling through one the many holes. Hermione still had problems adjusting to the size of the place. Although the place was a disaster, with what appeared to be a new hole in the roof, she could see the brilliance of the details that had been put in to the original construction. She knew that once Ginny moved in, that they would get the place rebuilt quickly. Although Ron was surprised that Harry did not hire anyone to help with the rebuilding, Hermione knew that Harry had his own personal reasons; it was as if the building represented a new phase in his life, and that he wanted to share it with only his closest friends. Upon seeing them, Harry invited them to join him for breakfast, smiling at the fact that Ron had started without them. Both Harry and Ron discussed Quidditch, what they should expect next year, and other 'manly' things as Hermione liked to put it. Hermione remembered when her dad would have his friends over and they would start talking about cars, golf and fishing, and her mom would politely excuse herself as she knew they were discussing men things. Hermione could not believe that Harry was so calm about today, but I guess when you've stared down the point of Voldemort's wand, not much could get you nervous. Unlike Ron, Harry was quite confident around women, especially Ginny; he had changed since his early years, and it made him a better person. Dobby joined them when they finished eating, and, without anyone noticing it, she hid a pair of elf size socks she had knitted the day before, hiding it between a jug of Pumpkin juice and a pot of porridge.

She was going to go see some Runes that Harry found.

On the way down, Harry described what he and Dobby had been doing, mapping out the lower levels, finding a cold room where it was enchanted to keep stuff cold and/or freezing, a large store room where magic keep everything preserved as if it had just put in, and even a wine seller that could compete with some of best in the world. Once, he and Dobby came across a colony of what looked like large Flubberworms. Harry had been able to communicate with them through Dobby and made a pact that they could stay in the lower levels without being disturbed, and in exchange, they would map out the rest of the lower levels for him. As they approached a blank wall, Harry revealed a solid stone door, engraved with runes. Hermione approached the wall and could feel the strong enchantments. She cast a detection spell on herself to get some information about the nature of the ruins, and all she got was very powerful magic, very old and powerful magic. She made a life size copy of the door and headed back upstairs. Once there, she made her excuse to leave and go study these ruins and would see them later, allowing the two best friends some time together to work on the manor. Ron had never been good with this part of the construction, and probably made more of a mess than anything, but he felt it relaxing to have to concentrate on nothing but levitate stone, secure stone, levitate stone, ect...; he and Harry continued the conversation they had started in the kitchen. When the time came to leave, Harry went off to get Ginny, and Ron headed for the ministry to get Hermione.

Once at the ministry, Ron went straight to the Ministry's library to find Hermione hidden behind some ancient scrolls and old tomes. He waited a good five minutes to see if she would notice him, then cleared his throat to get her attention. When that failed, he stealthily walked behind her, made sure no one was around, then reached one hand around to grab her breast, while the other one covered the scream that she was about to let go. One thing Ron had not considered, was she had been trained by one of the best duelers in the world, and it did not take long for her to go on the offensive. Before she could even notice it was Ron, she slammed her elbow below his waist, which caused a reflexive action to let her go. Then she slammed her chair back into his face, then rolled out of the way and pulled out her wand, and yelled out "Stupefy". To Ron, this happened in a blink of an eye; in one instant he had her boxed-in, thinking himself smart for getting a little action, but ended up stunned on the floor. For Hermione, it had taken too long, and she was cursing herself for being to slow. She looked down at Ron as a group of people came charging in after hearing the commotion. When they saw who was down, most just laughed and walked away. Hermione Enervated Ron with her wand then kicked him in the shoulder.

"Never, ever do that again, or next time, so help me Merlin, I will turn you into a Newt and let you loose in Harry's dungeon."

"Wow, that was amazing, a little painful, but still bloody brilliant. Now help me up, we have to get out of here. So are you in the mood for a little reconciliation"

"Don't you think of anything else other then sex? I can't believe all men are like that. I should ask Harry if..."

"No you don't. I don't want to know if he thinks about Ginny like that. It was bad enough the last time we found them together in that silly position, but to think that he thinks like that is not bearable. Now, how about we stop by the first aid station, I can feel the welt starting to rise on my lip." As Hermione looked, she can see the bruising over his lip start to swell. She tried to heal it, but it was just not her strong point. They made their way to the first aid station where they got a potion to help heal and reduce the swelling. Once done, they Disparated to the field and waited for Harry to show up.

"So, you think that was pretty good huh?" asked Hermione.

"I think that you could give Harry a run for his money."

"I don't think so, although I would love to beat your sister at least once. With all the training we've been doing, and the fact she does not see Harry as often, I can probably be her match now."

"I love the way you get intense at the talk of competition; it seems to make you go flush, and well, it excites me. Very much." With that, Ron got a hold of her and they started snogging right there at the back entrance.

"Excuse me, but maybe you can continue this at a later time?"

Both Ron and Hermione broke away, both flushed from kissing and growing redder at the sight of Ginny and Harry standing there hand in hand.

"Sorry mate, but well, I can't stop myself, she drives me crazy"

The group made their way down the tunnel, Ron showing Harry where to get to the change rooms, then he and Hermione went the opposite direction towards the box, with Ginny not to far behind. Once there, they noticed that the box was about half full, and that his brothers had gotten him a Butterbeer Extra, and in turn (hiding it from his mother and Hermione), Ron pulled out a bottle of Firewhiskey, which he passed first to his brother Bill. Fred and George had just let loose some Wizbangs that turned into candy. Everyone cheered as they started to eat the candy, a nice orange flavor Ron noticed. At first, he wasn't too sure if the Firewhiskey was causing his eyes to miss focus, but he noticed that soon his hands were changing color.

"Fred, George, stop that now or you'll embarrass your father."

"Sorry Mum."

Soon, the Hogwarts group arrived, and the box turned into a big party, with everyone changing into Chudley yellow and orange, like the rest of the fans. Ron even noticed Dobby was wearing orange, although the costume was a little over the top. Soon the teams came out to warm up and the crowd was going wild. While most of the crowds cheered for Harry, those in the box cheered for Angelina, Alicia and Harry, as they had played for Gryffindor back at school. Once the teams went back in, the tension started to rise as it was only a few minutes before the start of the match.

"Ladies and gentlemen welcome to tonight's final match up, Chudley vs Puddlemere. Here are your Cannons: Captain Oliver Wood, the Chasers Angelina Johnson, Alicia Spinnet, and Thomas Flint, your Beaters Tom Snow and Julie Smith, and the Seeker Harry Potter!"

The crowd went wild, drowning out the announcer's voice as he introduced Puddlemere's starting lineup. The Ministry's box itself shook from the impact of everyone jumping up and down; even Hermione and Molly got into the mood. Soon, everyone went quiet as the referee asked for both captains too shake hands and the box was open...