1LETTERS FROM BEYOND
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters, because if I did then Ron and Hermione would already be together.
Author's Note: Sorry for the long wait but a new chapter is finally here, just wondering when people think that I should have Ron/Hermione tell Harry and Ginny and everyone else that they're together.
CHAPTER 10-IT'S ALMOST HERE
It was now a week before Viktor would arrive and Hermione had noticed that as the days drew nearer to his arrival Ron was becoming more and more anxious. As best she could she would try to calm him down, using almost whatever means necessary. Rather than try to use his studies to ease his anxiety she had instead done something that she considered drastic, taking up her broom and going flying with him. She had been terrified at first to do it but Ron had been incredibly supportive and his words of encouragement had helped a great deal. They had made sure to have her maiden flight be during a time when most of the students were away at Hogsmeade. Despite his usual want to leave the castle every chance that he got flying with Hermione was enough to keep him from even caring about the missed trip. The night before Hermione had talked Ginny into make sure that Harry got out of the castle and had a good time. Ginny had been a little overly eager to help in this matter though before Hermione could ask her about it Harry and Ron had come in through the portrait hole and had explained their latest tussle with Draco. That had ended the conversation right then and there as much of the rest of the night was taken up by Ginny and Hermione trying to calm Ron and Harry down while agreeing with them about how much of a git Draco was.
After her first flight Hermione had devised another way to try and ease Ron's anxiety over Viktor's impending visit. With two weeks left to go she had stopped him from slumbering off to his bedroom and shutting the door behind him and pulled him over to the couch. He had tried to ask her what she was doing but she hushed him and soon the two were asleep on the couch together, with Hermione wrapped warmly in Ron's arms. That arrangement became the norm for the two, as every night would end with Hermione taking a bath after Ron, slipping into her nightgown, and then curling up in Ron's arms on the couch in the main room and falling asleep to Ron telling her one story after another. To her credit Hermione had noticed that at those times, where it was just the two of them under the glow of the firelight, that Ron did indeed begin to relax, if only a little.
"And what did Ginny do then," Hermione asked softly with a content smile on her face as she snuggled up closer to Ron and took in the familiar scent of candy, figuring that Ron had dipped into his secret stash while waiting for her to take her bath.
"You should have been there Mione, she cast a bat bogey hex on them that lasted for three whole days, they don't usually last that long but mum was so mad at them that she made Fred degnome the garden while George had to clean the entire house, dad took their wands away so that they couldn't fix it themselves, it was hilarious," Ron replied with an amused smirk on his face as he twirled one of Hermione's curls around his finger and gently rubbed the back of her hand with the thumb of his other hand.
"You should have taken a picture, then you could have used it against them the next time that they played a trick on you or Ginny," Hermione offered with a helpful smile on her face as she turned her head and looked up into Ron's face as he couldn't help but smile back at her. Within seconds of staring deeply into each other's eyes their lips met.
"We shouldn't be doing this," Ron said suddenly with a nervous and guilty look on his face as he pulled away from Hermione a bit and looked away.
"What...why not, I thought that," Hermione started to say with a very surprised and slightly hurt look on her face and tone to her voice as she tried to get Ron to look her in the eye.
"We shouldn't be lying to Harry and Ginny, they should know that we're together," Ron said with a guilty and slightly scared look on his face as he was finally able to look back at Hermione. Almost instantly her greatest fear subsided and she switched gears.
"Ron, I thought that we'd already talked about this, we're keeping Harry and Ginny in the dark about us to protect them," Hermione said with a still worried but slightly calmer look on her face as she lifted her hand up and gently caressed Ron's cheek.
"You told Krum, and he's coming here, why is he any," Ron asked with a confused look on his face as he shook his head and then twirled a bit more of Hermione's hair around his left index finger.
"Because I know that I can trust Viktor to keep our secret, and if he doesn't then I'm sure that you can tell him of our displeasure," Hermione replied with a sincere and honest look on her face as Ron searched her face for any hint of untruth, but after having not found any at all he relaxed.
"Sorry...it's just perfect being with you and I don't want anything to go wrong and," Ron started to say with an embarrassed and guilty look on his face as his shoulders sagged a bit and his bottom lip jutted out somewhat in a defeated pose before Hermione decided that she had seen enough. Shaking her head while smiling Hermione reached her arm around Ron's head and pulled him down into a kiss that she hoped would leave nothing to be misunderstood. Ever since she and Ron had started dating she had found herself doing things that she had previously thought were definitely not her. Getting all giddy towards the end of a class with the thought of seeing his smile in mere moments, lying all of the time to cover up their secret rendevous', and caring about her appearance more than studying.
"We're fine Ron, nothing's going to go wrong, we'll tell Harry and Ginny about our relationship when the time is right, I don't know when that right time will be but I can assure you that it is not now and it will not be the right time while Viktor is here," Hermione said with a very certain look on her face as she sat up and turned to Ron, interlacing their fingers as a sign a support.
"I hope you're right, the last thing that we need is for a stranger to be the one to tell Harry, he'd never forgive us," Ron said with a very concerned look on his face before Hermione reached up and softly rubbed her thumb across his cheek, hoping to allay at least a few of his fears in the process.
"Not to mention Ginny, she'd throttle you if she found out that you were hiding something this big from her," Hermione said back with a sly grin on her face as she balled up her fist and lightly tapped Ron on the chest with it.
"Don't remind me, but she couldn't be any worse than Fred and George if they found out before we were ready for them, I'd never hear the end of it," Ron groaned with a fake look of annoyance on his face before his face broke up into a cheeky grin.
"Actually I think that they'd be happy for you, but probably not without a bit of ribbing," Hermione countered with an optimistic smile on her face before she leaned in and laid her head on his shoulder.
"Then Fleur would start asking you all kinds of questions...she'd want to know everything," Ron joked with a sly grin on his face as he gave Hermione a squeeze.
"Yeah well she can continue to wonder, I'd tell Ginny and Harry myself before I'd ever let that...before I'd let her know about us," Hermione countered with a frustrated and unhappy scowl on her face as she lifted her head up off of Ron's shoulder and looked him squarely in the face.
"You don't think that Lupin or Tonks have said anything about us to anyone, they said that they wouldn't but you know how Tonks can get when she's excited about something, she could blurt it out without meaning to," Ron said with a suddenly worried look on his face as he then stretched his legs out a bit as they had begun to cramp up.
"I don't think that they've said anything, they said that they wouldn't and I believe them, they don't have anything to gain from telling anyone, they'll keep our secret just like Viktor will," Hermione said with a resoundingly confident tone to her voice and look on her face before she leaned in and kissed Ron again.
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The next few days were peaceful for the most part and nothing more was spoken about telling anyone about their relationship until the night before Krum was supposed to arrive and Dumbledore asked them to come and see him before they went to bed. Hermione was ready and sitting impatiently on the couch in the main room when Ron had staggered in after a particularly tough practice and wasn't in any mood to go anywhere. But after a bit of convincing he had disappeared into the bathroom and twenty minutes later emerged looking mostly read to go see the headmaster.
"Come on Ron hurry up we're going to be late, here let me do that if I let you do it it'll take a fortnight," Hermione said with an impatient scowl on her face as she batted Ron's hands away from his tie and started to tie it herself as he switched to buttoning up the buttons on his shirt.
"It would not," Ron said back with a pout that he had intended to make himself look angry but instead Hermione found it looking sexy and almost irresistible. To combat that she focused on his tie and only looked back up at his face once she was completely done with it and had composed herself accordingly.
"I guess that we'll never know," Hermione joked back with a soft giggle as she turned and picked up Ron's robes before dumping them into his hands and soon after leaving the room. Hermione was halfway to Dumbledore's office before Ron caught up, thanks in no small part to his long legs.
"What are you in such a hurry for," Ron asked with a slightly annoyed frown on his face as he caught up to her and slowed down to her pace.
"If Dumbledore asked us to come so close to the holiday and with what he said earlier about Voldemort likely attacking soon then any meeting would be very important," Hermione replied with an interested look on her face as she stepped around a corner and saw the entrance to Dumbledore's office at the far end of the hall.
"But if he thought that Voldemort was going to attack us anytime this week then wouldn't he have said something to the other teachers, they all seem eager for the break, not the least bit ready for battle," Ron argued with a confused and still unsure look on his face as he finally managed to get his robes fully on and not flopping about his ankles.
"He probably didn't want to alarm anyone Ron, think about it, if he had told the other teachers then they might have tipped off the students that there was something wrong, if there were a spy here at Hogwarts then Voldemort might have found out that he had lost the element of surprise and then who knows what he'd do...fizzlebies," Hermione stated back with a very confident and together tone to her voice as she gathered up her robes and hiked them up a bit so that she wouldn't trip on them as she spoke the password and the stairs appeared before them.
"I hope you're right, but if that's what we're here for then why isn't Harry here, shouldn't he be the first one to know if ole Dumbledore found out that Voldemort is going to definitely attack us soon," Ron countered with a somber expression on his face as he followed Hermione up the steps. She started to reply to his statement but realized that he was right and could only scowl lightly in his general direction as they walked into Dumbledore's office.
"Good afternoon sir," Ron and Hermione said together as they walked towards the headmaster, his head bowed a bit as he was slipping on his half moon spectacles.
"Ron...Hermione, so glad that you could come on such short notice, rest assured that I would not have asked you to come if it were not of the gravest concern to me," Dumbledore said with a thankful but still slightly nervous look on his face as he stood up to warmly greet the two heads.
"We completely understand sir...don't we Ron," Hermione said back quickly with as polite of tone to her voice and smile on her face as she could muster as the two sat down in chairs that magically moved back and forth to aid in their sitting down in them.
"R...right, sure," Ron stammered out with a nervous and confused look on his face as he sat down and looked back and forth between Hermione and Dumbledore.
"Now the reason that I've brought you here is that...the night before everyone leaves for holiday we are going to have a winter ball here at Hogwarts," Dumbledore said with at first a serious look on his face before he broke out into a warm smile. Ron and Hermione stared at him silently for several seconds, with looks on their faces that seemed to suggest that they believed that he had gone mad.
"Sir...are you sure that it's wise, you said that Voldemort was probably going to attack any day now, is it wise to hold a ball so close to his attack," Hermione finally asked with a confused look on her face and concerned tone to her voice as she sat up straight in her chair and looked straight across the desk at Dumbledore.
"While your concerns are valid Ms. Granger I do not believe that Tom will attack the school while it is filled with students and faculty, he more than likely will wait until the holiday break when he believes that Hogwarts will be easy picking and his victory assured, by that time those who will fight him will be ready and waiting and those that would only be hurt in a battle will be safely far away at home," Dumbledore answered with a kind and warm smile on his face as he let out a deep breath and slowly nodded his head.
"Okay...so we're going to have another ball, but why are you telling us this, shouldn't the prefects be here to," Ron asked with a nervous and confused look on his face as he looked first to Dumbledore and then to Hermione, emboldened by the supportive look on her face.
"They are not here because I am putting the two of you in charge of this ball, if Tom is to attack soon after it then I want to make sure that Harry has a chance to have a little bit of fun before the war hits home, and who better to make sure that happens then his two best friends, plus you can be each others date for the ball and say that as Head Boy and Head Girl that you had to go together, thus not risking the truth about your relationship being revealed before you're ready to do it yourselves," Dumbledore replied with an honest expression on his face as he reached back, opened up a drawer, and then pulled out a file and set it down on the top of his desk in front of Hermione.
"What's this sir," Hermione asked with a slightly confused tone to her voice as she reached out and picked up the file, but looked back at Dumbledore before opening it.
"It is at the same time a file of the names of those that I believe are up to the challenge of confronting Voldemort and his Death Eaters as well as information about the ball," Dumbledore replied with a slight twinkle in his eyes as Hermione started to read down the list of names with Ron looking over it as well by leaning almost fully out of his chair.
"There isn't very many names sir...and are you sure about this ball, they never seem to go to well," Ron grumbled with a worried expression on his face as he stopped looking at the file in Hermione's hands and looked back at Dumbledore.
"That's only because you weren't with me," Hermione quipped with only the subtlest of smiles on her face as she continued to read through the file while Dumbledore answered.
"You are correct Ronald, there aren't many names there, however I believe that those names listed will be good enough when joined by the Order and auror's from the ministry, we just might stand a chance of ending it all right here," Dumbledore answered with a calm but yet serious look on his face as he momentarily glanced over at Fawkes as the phoenix squawked oddly.
"I hope you're right, I honestly don't know what I'll do when Voldemort is gone and this is all over, it just won't feel right," Ron said with a confused frown on his face as he sat back down in his chair and looked straight across the desk at the headmaster.
"What you will do when this is all over is go on with your lives and live them to the fullest, this war has gone on far to long and cost to much pain and suffering, the world will be a better place for all of us when it is over, but for now the two of you should be worrying about the ball, I'm looking forward to it," Dumbledore said with a very serious look on his face as he scooted his chair back and then stood up, prompting Ron and Hermione to do the same.
"We won't let you down sir," Hermione said with a very calm and honest tone to her voice as the two saluted the headmaster and then left his office. Ron kept quiet until the two were halfway back to their dorm.
"Hermione, can I ask you something," Ron said with a nervous and slightly embarrassed look on his face as he stopped Hermione and looked her in the eye.
"Yes," Hermione wondered aloud with a bit of concern in her voice as she closed the file and looked up at Ron, just barely being able to stop herself from taking one of his hands in her own as a small group of first years walked by at that moment.
"Will you go to the ball with me, you said that the next time there was a ball that I should ask you first and not as a last resort so," Ron started to say with an oddly nervous and scared look on his face and tone to his voice before Hermione stopped him with a finger on his lips.
"Yes," Hermione whispered with a voice full of love and relief before she replaced her finger on his lips with hers and the two backed into a closet to snog in peace.
END OF CHAPTER 10