A/N: Thanks to all who reviewed - your comments are very much appreciated. Now, I'm trying very hard to make the characters grow up - capture emotions and such that they should be feeling/ have the right to feel at this age 18-20. With that said - carry on….

Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling owns this world and all the characters who live in it. I am merely borrowing them for a bit. I am making no profit from this story whatsoever. It is for entertainment purposes only.

Rain, no matter its intensity, always brought the memory of the Final Battle back, as though it had only happened yesterday. And Hermione was forced to surrender to it each time, resigning herself and filling up with the horror and the fear all over again. Usually she ended up alone whenever rain fell, but not tonight. Tonight was the last night before she left again on business - this time bound for a month in Italy, and some very stubborn Goblins. Tonight Harry was away at practice, diving and spinning through this rain, Ginny was probably holed up at the Daily Prophet - but Ron was with her, off somewhere in the kitchen.

Currently she was sitting on the couch, the echo of the rain on the nearby window making her shiver, while the glow of the fire provided the only light for the moment inside the modest, newly purchased, co-owned Weasely/Potter flat. Hermione had grown to love it here, she preferred the coziness of it to her often abandoned, lonely flat in the heart of London.

But then her train of thought halted as the memory swept her up in it's clutches, and suddenly she found herself standing at the edge of the Forbidden Forest, in the middle of a pounding rainstorm that night nearly three years ago now.

She had beaten her ring of Death Eaters, when a flash of brilliant light had appeared to the East, signaling that it was all over. Hermione had sunk to the soft, wet earth overcome with exhaustion, fear and relief. She hadn't the strength to struggle back to the center of the horror yet. Her voice hurt from all the spell screaming, and her muscles were screaming in agony, but it was her fear about who she might have lost tonight that kept her rooted to the ground.

And then she heard him, yelling her name, and she looked up and he was running frantically towards her, slipping occasionally on the slick grass. Before she knew it Ron had pulled her up and into one of the tightest embraces of her life. If possible she cried harder then - so glad was she that he was alive. He was shaking slightly and kept whispering her name as though to confirm her reality. She was sobbing out her fears onto his shoulder, her hands fearfully clutching at his robes as though he was going to vanish any second.

And then she did feel him slipping away, as he pulled her back and looked down at her tear streaked and exhausted face. And then without hesitation he had cupped it and was kissing her with an assurance she hadn't seen from him before. Her shock was overcome by the powerful surge of emotions that hit her then, too many and too fast for her to sort through then….and then he had pulled away, and was pulling her with him into the light, safety and the future.

The future - where Hermione had allowed them to be pulled apart. She was so happy that they were all alive that she didn't want to risk mentioning that one fleeting moment, no matter how much it was ingrained in her memory. She attributed it to emotions, mere emotions and nothing more.

But now, that their "futures" had become the present, and the threat of danger was gone she began to think about that night more. Ever since the wedding, she wondered if it could have meant more than she had forced herself to believe. She had never been one to be deterred by romantic entanglements - she had always had more important things to focus on, like school, and the state of the world, and her career….but that was all settled now. Now when she had the time to think about it - she realized how lonely she truly was. She kept picturing the wedding and how happy Fred and Angelina were - she wanted that happiness. She thought again about the wedding, but this time she remembered dancing with Ron. Especially on a night like tonight, with nothing but the rain and fire and each other - Hermione almost wished for more to be between them. She now believed that this was how life was supposed to go, this comfort of knowing that you have someone else in your life. And to be honest, she couldn't put any other man but Ron into her picture.

She couldn't get the notion out of her head that it really was ok to pursue relationships now - there was no danger - except well, her damn job, and Ron's too. They had both been so bloody blind.

Annoyed she tossed a couch pillow across the room.

"Oy!" Ron hollered from the kitchen, "What the bloody hell did you do that for?" He asked, picking up the offended cushion and sitting beside her, "You alright?"

She sighed, "I was just think about the wedding and the final battle and everything. It's doesn't seem like its been that long you know?"

"I know." He said quietly, but then added, "You know I never did tell you that you looked amazing that night. You absolutely killed in that dress. It was made for you - ginger haired and blondes couldn't pull it off."

She colored, "Thanks - you - you didn't look that bad either you know."

He nodded but said as though to offer an excuse, "It's all the Auror training."

It was the truth. Hermione had noticed a real change in his physic lately. He was now broader in the shoulder, not merely arms and legs and ginger hair. Now, others could plainly see the massive strength he possessed merely by looking at him. Personally Hermione like the change - he seemed more mature now, in body as well as his mind. Hermione had to admit that she too, had changed for the better. She was still a petite 5'3, while Ron stood at 6'2, but she had filled out a bit was well, and was now completely comfortable in her skin. Her hair was still a massive quantity of curls, though it had lost its bushy quality, and now cascaded gently down her back in larger, more defined ringlets.

Again, Ron was looking admiringly at her.

"What?" she asked quizzically, she wasn't used yet to his doing that.

"Nothing, I'm just going to miss you that's all. Harry isn't all that great to look at in the mornings you know. You're a wonderful contrast to that."

She laughed, "I'll miss you too - and this place. I love it here, really, it rivals the comfort of the Borrow you know.

"It reminds me of the Common Room," he said gesturing to the fire. And then his face took on a more serious expression, "you mentioned the Final Battle before - why, you weren't having those nightmare trance things again were you?" He looked sternly at her.

Ron had been around for the first few while they were still at Hogwarts, "Yes - it's the weather, I can't help it. I can't shake the feeling that it isn't all over - the danger I mean."

"Of course it's over." he sounded shocked, "Hermione its been almost three years -"

"I know, but the danger is still there - I mean you had to choose that STUPID job-"

"What? What are you talking about?" he sounded hurt, "I always thought you were proud of-"

"I am! I am, I'm just afraid that something will happen to you that's all. I can't go through that again." She added quietly.

Ron's temper disappeared as quickly as it had flared up, "I'm not planning on anything happening to me. Besides, what about your job? There's danger there is there not? Believe me, I don't want anything to happen to you either - every time you leave …I go through it too you know. I can't - you have no idea what that night was like."

"Of course I do." she added without thinking, "I was on the other end of that kiss you know."

Ron gaped at her, as Hermione blushed furiously at her stupidity.

Ron said nothing, so Hermione suddenly decided to continue on and voice what had been bothering her constantly, "Ron that night - what, what did that mean."

He looked at her then, shocked and indignant, "It meant, well it meant everything."

"So it wasn't an emotional-"

"Of course it was emotional!"

"But only emotional - I mean, was there anything behind it?" She blushed at her own forwardness, but suddenly she had to know. She couldn't wonder anymore. She needed answers.

Ron looked confused, "It's not some sort of puzzle Hermione. It was….a reaction, an expression, of how I feel about you."

"Yes but-"

"But what? Hermione this is not something you can figure out. There is no hidden answer here. I know you love resolutions, black and white problems but this was an emotional thing, an impulse and -"

Now it was her turn to look confused, "But I simply want to know if-"

Now Ron's temper was getting the better of him, "Hermione, for God's sake there is no IF! Everything - I mean - you feel it then. You just - know - then. There are no explanations, there is nothing to decode." And then a thought occurred to him, "You - you did feel something didn't you?" He had never thought that she might have had no reaction to what he had done, after his own reaction had been so strong.

"Well yes but-"

"Hermione, you can not analyze emotions!" And before she could retort he cut her off with a sound kiss - as emotionally charged as the first, and just as confusing to Hermione, "There!" he said pulling away, "Analyze that."

"I can't." she said quietly.

"You shouldn't have to." He sounded hurt, "It should just be there. I can't explain it better than that, Hermione. It's supposed to just click." He paused, "It clicked for me. I know how I feel."

"But I've never been-"

"Well neither have I! Hermione why are we arguing about this! You just don't trust your heart you know. You always have to check the facts over and over - to make sure you're sane. You've never allowed your emotions a chance to have a say in things. It was always head over heart with you."

"Well I'm sorry-" she sounded offended.

"Hermione, stop." He held up a hand to silence her, " I never wanted this to turn out this way, I can't believe we're having a confrontation about this! Look - that night, and right now - it felt right, natural. I have nothing else but that. You may not feel that way, and there's nothing I can do about that." His ears were bright red, and his eyes were ablaze, but his voice was even, steady, "So - how do you feel?"

"I feel…" She took a breath, "Well - I feel like that was right, but then I feel frightened and confused - but sure at the same time…" She sounded utterly bewildered.

Ron grinned widely at her, and allowed humor to take over, "Ah miss - " he feigned a lower voice with a thick French accent, and placed his hand on her wrist as though searching for a pulse, "you have the classic symptoms of - why - miss, you're in love."

She laughed, then, and suddenly felt as though everything had fallen into it's proper place. It was as though he had passed his assurance onto her by simply touching her wrist, "well Sir," she said a little breathlessly, I must be - but - I don't know who with - he seems to have left the room."

He swatted her with the once offended pillow, dropping his accent, "I have not."

Hermione raised her eyebrows "Who said I was talking about you?"

He looked shocked at her statement, and then burst out laughing, "Leave the humor to me, Miss Know-it-All, you're not that good at it."

"Oh no?"

"No - but you do this quite well." And he kissed her again, softer now, with more confidence, and less of a shocking charge. One hand touched her face, at the very edge of her jaw and the nape of neck, and for the first time, she kissed him back.

And she felt whole then, like her searching was over. In that moment she knew what Fred and Angelina, George and Katie, even her parents felt about one another. She had figured out what she had been missing - Ron had filled that hole, he had sealed that emptiness in her, and in himself. The whole time all they had needed was each other…and now that they finally had each other, she could consider herself complete.

Finn

Well - should I drag this out again ---hmmm, perhaps - don't know…..