For a young man with far too many brothers, walking into a girl's bedroom was an emotionally turbulent, if not completely unnerving, experience…especially if the girl in question happened to be your best friend and quite possibly the love of your life. He didn't know what he expected, but this certainly wasn't it. There were books, yes, whole bookcases full of them taking over every available shelf-like surface, but there were also pictures, stuffed animals and dolls. She had nick-knacks and a CD player. She was a teenager. Everywhere he looked he saw parts of her life that he didn't know anything about, parts that didn't include him and his heart sank. He could hear her sorting through boxes in her closet, trying to get everything she would need for the wedding and whatever hell came after it and he looked desperately for some part of him in there. He knew she had pictures of the three of them at Hogwarts, but he couldn't find any in her room. What he did find however, was a picture of some girl and boy in what had to be muggle formal wear standing before some hideously constructed backdrop with the words "Winter Ball" and a date printed neatly under them.
"Hey, Hermione?" he called.
"Yes Ron?"
"What's this?" She came out of the closet with a strange look on her face I swear if I find him sorting through my underwear drawer, I'll…
"What's what?" Ron pointed at the picture.
"That's a picture."
"Well, yes, I bloody well know it's a picture- I haven't been confounded or anything- but what's it of?" She looked at him confused.
"Of my old friend Clara and her boyfriend at the Winter Ball…"
"I didn't know you had muggle friends." He interrupted looking down and she registered the hurt in his voice.
"Well, you know, I haven't really spoken to her in years. We don't keep in touch or anything. I met her in the street last Christmas and she gave it to me. I didn't quite know what to do with it, so I put it on my bulletin board." she fingered the edge slightly and smiled up at him "It just seemed wrong to throw it away, you know?"
"I didn't know muggles have balls too." He said quietly.
"Yeah, they do." She answered just as quietly. "Kind of a rite of passage." Just then, they heard a knock on the door. It was Harry.
"Are you ready to go? Your mum and dad are waiting to say goodbye." Ron saw her eyes flood with tears and he wanted to reach out and hold her, but the way she stood, her head held high and her chin resolute, he knew she couldn't take that right now: she needed to be strong. He grabbed her bag and nodded toward the door. You ready? He asked with his eyes. Hermione looked back at her room, at the light blue walls and the bed she'd slept in since she was two, and she said goodbye. Yes, she nodded.
Her mum and dad were waiting at the door- sad and tired after what would be the first of many sleepless nights- but their child was the way they'd raised her to be and so they hugged and kissed her goodbye, pushing all their unspoken hopes and dreams into lingering seconds. And then they watched her walk out the door. She stopped at the end of the walkway the way she had on her first day of school eleven years ago and waved before disappearing before their very eyes.