CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE: Distractions

Though Hermione was an earlier riser, she still didn't quite understand Harry's urgency to bring her and Ron somewhere that early in the morning. Ron grumbled about it, but then he seemed to grumble about almost anything these days. Since Malfoy had joined the Auror program more than a week earlier, he seemed to be stuck in a permanent grouchy mood. At first, he had tried to hide it, but it was all too obvious what was bothering him that it did not take her long to figure out what was going on. He seemed dead set on finding out the real reason the Slytherin was there. Though he had promised her he wouldn't go after Malfoy deliberately – not because she cared about the Slytherin, but because she didn't want anything to happen to Ron – the more she began to wonder if he would keep his word. She hated to doubt Ron like that, but it must have taken incredible restraint on his part not to have harmed him yet.

"Are you going to tell us where we're going yet?" Ron said as they walked. He knew the path they were taking quite well. It was the one he and Harry would run through almost every morning, but that still didn't tell him what their destination was.

"You'll see soon enough," was all the answer Harry gave him.

"Since when did you get all secretive?" She asked, throwing a quizzical look his way.

"He's always been like that, or haven't you noticed?" Shot Ron.

She tensed. She looked to see what Harry's response would be, and to her surprise he was smiling. She wondered when the two of them had switched roles. Ron, who walked around brooding most of the time, while Harry was smiling and even cracking the occasional joke. It was an odd sight indeed to see how much the two of them had changed.

"You're just going to have to trust me," he said to them both. "Another couple of minutes and we'll be there."

Hermione still had no clue what there was. There was nothing around them except the open country and the occasional small neighbourhood of houses, so when Harry stopped in front of a house with a front porch and about half the size of the Lupin home, she was even more confused than before.

He turned to his friends. "What do you think?"

"It's a bit small," she replied, examining the house more closely.

"Not for one or two people," he countered.

She understood exactly what was going on then. "Harry, you didn't buy this did you?"

"Not exactly," he said, watching Ron's eyes widen as he stared at him in astonishment. "I sort of rented it," he told them, scratching the back of his head uncertainly.

"What the bloody hell for?" Ron demanded, staring at him in utter disbelief.

"I thought it might be nice to have a place of my own," he answered, not taking offense to Ron's outburst.

"Did you tell Remus about this?" She asked him.

"No, not yet," he admitted, the smile disappearing off his face. He was sure Lupin would support his decision to live on his own, but he didn't want him to think his reasoning behind it was because he didn't want to live with him. It was complicated – he wasn't even sure he could explain it to Lupin. "Let's go inside and I'll show you around," he suggested.

Ron grunted some incoherent response and marched up the front steps and into the house first, leaving Hermione and Harry alone outside.

"He'll be okay," she said to him. "He just needs some time to adjust to it." Even as she said it she knew Ron would never admit that Harry moving out bothered him.

"It's not that I don't want to live there," he started, shoving his hands into his jean pockets. "I don't want you guys to think I'm not happy with all of us there, I just – I need something else." His face was serious now, and had that look Hermione had grown all too accustomed to seeing on him since the day they met.

"It's okay, Harry, I understand," she told him, and she meant it. She may not have understood him as well as she understood Ron – mainly because he had the tendency to wear his emotions on his sleeves – but she knew him well enough to know that this was probably the right decision for him to make. She linked her arm through his and led them both up the front steps of the porch.

"Maybe you should talk to him," said Harry as they stopped just outside the door.

"Talk to who?"

"Ron." He felt her arm slip away from his and hang at her side. He knew as well as she did how much being around Malfoy's presence every day bothered Ron. It bothered him too, but it seemed to be affecting Ron the worst. "It's not that I think he would ever actually do anything. It's just I know how hard it is for him when he's forced to work with Malfoy, but it might actually get through that thick head of his if you were the one to talk to him."

"Me?" She said, the skepticism clear in her voice. "Honestly, Harry, Ron won't listen to me. He never thinks with a clear head where Malfoy is concerned."

"He never thinks with a clear head when it comes to you either," Harry responded to her remark. "You'd be surprised though. He listens to you a lot more than you think." Then he opened the door for her and they both walked inside.

Later on that same day, and when Ron's mood had gotten so foul everyone in the house was avoiding him, Hermione decided it was time to take matters into her own hands. She grabbed some of her books and dragged Ron outside with her. Predictably, he had protested profusely, wondering why on earth she wanted to bring him along so she could study. At least studying was what she had told Harry and Ginny she would be doing, and Ron's reaction had been perfect so they wouldn't suspect otherwise. She led a complaining Ron well into the cover of trees that hid them from sight of the Lupin home.

"I will never understand you," he continued to complain when they finally stopped. "You've got a job you love and here you are wasting your time studying for – "

He never finished his sentence because Hermione had pressed her lips against his to silence him. It took a second for him to figure out what was going on before he responded to the kiss. He pushed them both forward until Hermione's back came to rest the nearest tree trunk. He grabbed both her hands that were still clutching her books and helped her to drop them uselessly to the ground.

"You had no intention of studying when you came out here, did you?" He said, his breath hot against her ear.

"Not really," she said before his lips descended on hers again.

"I think you just enjoy getting a rise out of me," he said, grinning for the first time that day.

"Maybe," she said, pretending to think it over. "Or maybe I was trying to keep you from scaring away everyone who lives here."

"What's that supposed to mean?" He had been leaning down to kiss her again, but he pulled back.

"It means you've been acting like a prat for days and you're completely unbearable now that Harry's moving out."

He moved away from her and threaded his hands through the back of his hair. "I'm sorry I've been such a git lately," he said with his back to her.

She remained standing where she was. "You need to get over your prejudice of Malfoy, Ron."

"This isn't about him," he snapped, clearly telling her otherwise. "And even if it was, I don't trust him and neither should you. Look at all the shit he's put us through the last six years."

"Fine, let's say Malfoy's joined the Aurors for less than honourable reasons, but you're making things easy for him, Ron. All he had to do was show up and look what it's doing to you. You're letting him get to you and he hasn't had to lift so much as a finger."

"I already told you I wouldn't go after him," he said, turning around. "What more do you want from me?"

"I want you to stop letting him ruin our lives."

He blew out a frustrated breath of air. "Do we have to talk about this anymore?"

"No, we don't," she said, bending down to gather up her books. She had been right when she had told Harry he wouldn't listen to her. There was nothing she could say to make him see things differently.

"So we're fighting now?" He arched an eyebrow at her.

"No," she answered, not quite meeting his gaze.

"Oh, yeah, that sounded real convincing," he said with a roll of his eyes.

She sighed. "I'm not mad – I'm not," she said with more force than before. "It's just that for the first time in a long time everything is – well, I wouldn't call things perfect, but it's pretty close. Look at Harry – he's actually happy these days. I think with Remus's help he's finally moving on from blaming himself for Sirius' death." She left out that Harry seemed to be in the best of moods when he was around Ginny. "And there's been no sign of activity from Voldemort or any of his Death Eaters since Harry's capture almost two months ago. Then there's your dad who the wizarding community made their next Minister of Magic and no one deserves it more than him. And there's us," she said, locking her gaze with his.

"What about us?" He said, moving himself to a crouching position so that they were almost at eye level. He reached out with his hand and touched her cheek, causing her to lose sight of what she was going to say next. Only Ron could make her draw a blank like this – make her forget she was supposed to be angry that he was letting Malfoy get to him the same way he had at school. But none of that seemed to matter at the moment as she felt her face being drawn nearer to his.

Before long, she had her fingers tangled in Ron's hair and was flat on her back on the grass-covered ground. He captured her lips in a fierce kiss before moving them down her neck and then down to her collarbone.

Loud whistling caught their attention, and Ron scrambled to get to his feet, nearly falling over in his haste. His eyes were two burning blue orbs or fire.

"Damn it, Fred!" He roared. "You were spying on us, you bloody pervert!"

Fred chuckled. "If we wanted to spy on you, you sure as hell wouldn't know about it." As he finished, his other half apparated beside him. "It seems we caught these two in quite the private moment," he said to his twin.

George grinned broadly at the two of them. "It looks like our little honest Hermione may not be so innocent after all. I think Ron's corrupted her."

"That's enough!" Ron shouted angrily.

Hermione didn't even know how Ron could shout at the twins. She was too mortified to say anything. She knew the dark shade of red Ron's face had turned had as much to do with anger as it did embarrassment.

"Don't you two have a shop to run?" He said shortly.

"Actually, with the business booming we've hired a few extra hands to help us," said Fred. "They mind the shop, so we can be out testing new creations or finding new products to sell."

"Yeah, well we're not going to be any test subjects so why don't you get lost," Ron said tersely.

"Someone's a bit snippy, aren't they?" Teased George, who plunged on before Ron could interrupt. "We have some fantastic news – and for once it has nothing to do with us."

"Go on, tell us what it us," Ron encouraged him.

"We're not going to tell the story twice," Fred said. "Let's round up Harry and Ginny and we'll tell you altogether."

"Of course you two might not want to look like you've been rolling around on the grass together," George added with a wink.

Then the twins disapparated before Ron could utter a single threat on their lives.

By the time he and Hermione made it back to the Lupin house, the twins were seated in the sunroom with Harry and Ginny, talking animatedly.

When the two of them entered the sunroom, Fred said, "what took you two so long? Did you get lost or something?"

"Maybe they needed a chaperone to help them find their way back without getting distracted," George piqued up.

"What's this fantastic news you've got?" Said Ron, speaking through gritted teeth. He was determined not to look too embarrassed otherwise Harry and Ginny would figure out exactly what position the twins had caught them in.

"Patience, patience, little brother," Fred told him. "We had to come all this way just to tell you, since none of you bother to write – "

"Or visit," George chimed in.

"Except Ginny," Fred finished.

"Just tell us already," said an exasperated Ron.

"We want to throw a party in dad's honour," said George. "Just a small family gathering, nothing fancy."

"We went 'round to Grimmauld Place first to tell mum of the planned festivities. You should have seen how excited she was. She was already making a list of things to bring. She must have thought George and I were Bill and Charlie through all her tears because she started hugging us like mad."

"Shouldn't you be asking for Remus's permission first," Hermione said. "This is his house after all."

"Of course we will, but since we already know he'll say yes we can move on to the planning phase," Fred explained to her. "We're going to help set everything up. Mum won't have to do a thing."

"Except bring the food, because we don't cook or bake or do anything of the sort," George added.

"So what do you need our help with?" Harry dared to ask.

"Just help us carry some supplies from the shop to here, and help with the set up. We're going to have it next Saturday, so come by the shop on Thursday and we'll give you everything you need," Fred told them.

"But now we must be on our way," George said, jumping to his feet. "Time is money as they say, and we don't want to stay away too long with the newbie's minding the shop. Be seeing you," he said, waving good-bye to them and walking through the back door of the house.

Fred followed him in before poking his head back out. "Hermione, I've been meaning to ask you, what's that thing on your neck?"

In horror, Hermione reached up and felt the large welt there. When she looked up again, Fred was smirking at her before he disappeared inside the house.

Ginny's eyes were wide. "Hermione, is that a – "

"It's nothing," she said quickly, using her hair to try and cover her neck. "I'm going inside," she announced, standing up. She had already endured enough humiliation from the twins, she wasn't about to sit there and hear more of it from Ginny and Harry. She glared at Ron, who promptly took the hint and stood up.

"Hey, so where are the books you brought with you to study?" Harry asked when her hand was on the door.

There was a teasing look playing across his face, and for the first time she wished he could have stayed in his dark and brooding mood instead of deciding to embarrass her as well.

"I must have forgot them," she said, keeping her back to them. Once she and Ron were safely inside, she could hear the two of them laughing loudly.

It wasn't until well after dinner when she worked up the nerve to go back out and retrieve her books.