Chapter 9

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Little robins and blue jays were chirping happily outside the next morning. There was a slight breeze outside, showing as the leaves on the braches lightly moved outside, also making the appearance of the blazing hot sun, shooting its rays through Hermione's window. Hermione's hair was splattered all over the pillow as she lay there asleep so peacefully. Her eyes slowly opened and she saw that Ron was no longer sleeping beside her. She sat up on the bed and looked around the guestroom but, there was no sight of him. The door opened,

'Morning, Mione,' he said, coming in with a tray. And on the tray was a full meal of breakfast.

'Ron….' Hermione said tiredly, 'what is all this?'

Although she couldn't help but smile, Ron walked over carefully not wanting to drop anything on the tray. He placed it on the bedside table then sat back down on the bed beside Hermione.

'Well, I wanted to make you some breakfast so I got up a little earlier than usual…your mum helped me a bit,' he said, while blushing.

Hermione smiled and kissed him on the cheek, scrunching up his hair.

'Ron that was so sweet of you, but you didn't have to make anything for me. After all you're the guest here.'

'True, but I'm also your boyfriend, aren't I?' Ron teased, poking her on the shoulder. 'So I get to act as if I live here with you.'

Hermione laughed, as she brought the tray of food to sit on her lap, on the plate it had: some fry-ups, little bangers, toast and egg, along with some orange juice, which Ms. Granger had told Ron it was all Hermione's favorites. She took a bit out of the toast and one of the bangers.

'So…? D-Did I make them alright?'

Hermione chewed for a little while longer, before shaking her head.

'No they're not alright, Ron.'

Ron's face fell; he looked down at his fingers. "I could never do anything right for her", he thought.

'Oh, I'm sorry, Mione I can--

'They're not alright, they're perfect,' she said, giggling. Ron blushed again, as he rhetorically sighed in relief. 'Thanks, Ron.' He smiled then leaned in and gently kissed her, 'so where's mum?'

'She said she needed to go out shopping.' Hermione turned to look at Ron, her brown eyes suddenly filled with worry.

'She went by herself,' Ron quickly pulled her closer to his side.

'Yes, but don't worry it's only 5 minutes away from here where the shop is.' Hermione nodded, taking a sip of her orange juice. 'And…David's still asleep in his room. Bloody Hell, the bloke snores louder than me.' For some reason Hermione didn't know either to laugh at that or just stay silent, she just shrugged her shoulders and continued to eat. But then she placed her fork down at the side of the tray and softly laughed,

'You know…I remember when I made David breakfast in bed. I was only 7, and it was Father's Day. Unfortunately, when I brought him a tray…he yelled at me for waking him up because, it was too early in the morning,' Hermione said, not looking at Ron directly in the eye, 'that was one of the worst days.' Ron sighed; it hurt him as much as it did her when she told him about all these painful memories of her past. He gently moved the tray over to the side and took both her hands in his. Hermione innocently smiled, she wrapped her arms around his neck and gathered him up into a big hug. 'When I got accepted to Hogwarts I figured everything was going to be the same…but when you saved me from that troll, I knew things were going to be different.'

Ron pulled back and rested his forehead against hers; Hermione stroked the naps of his hair,

'If you had told me about your dad back in our first year, I don't think I or Harry could've done anything about it…now 7 years later and look where we are now. We're together.' Hermione grinned at the sound of that and so did Ron. Ron kissed her passionately; she kissed back ignoring the food beside her. He rubbed his hands up and down her back, then slipped one under nighty, which Ron thought was really hot, as he explored her waist with his hand, Hermione moaned against his mouth, Ron was about to move his hand, but she clearly didn't want him to.

'Ron…'

Ron gently pushed her back so she was lying back first on the bed and he was on top of her. The two snogged harder and harder, not even breaking for a gasp of breath. Hermione clutched the waistband of Ron's pajama trousers, he groaned huskily. He lifted his pelvis away from hers; he didn't want her to feel literally what a pervert her boyfriend was. Hermione pouted, and then moaned as she pulled his lower half back down on top of hers. She wrapped her arms around Ron's neck as they began making out again. But before Ron could explore with his hand again, there was a noise from outside which made the two break the kiss. Hermione quickly gestured Ron off of her and sat up, she quickly straightened her hair up and readjusting her nighty.

The bedroom door opened and David stood there looking in on the two, sitting there awkwardly trying to act as casually as they could. David glared over at Ron suspiciously; Ron wanted to scowl at him but didn't want his cover to be blown.

'Am I interrupting something here, Hermione?'

Ron desperately wanted to answer for her and yell out "yes", but he didn't want David to get in Hermione's face.

'No…dad, we were just talking,' saying this, Hermione was looking totally uncomfortable and a bit frightened, afraid of what David might do or say not only to her but to Ron. He folded his arms then cleared his throat, before shooting another death glare at Ron.

'Ronald, I would like to speak with my daughter alone, if you don't mind,' Ron didn't like the sound of that, but when he felt Hermione give his hand a tight squeeze, he nodded getting off from the bed and heading out the door. David waited till he was a far distance heading to the stairs before shutting the door behind him. But after shutting the door, Ron quietly scooted back over to the door and pressed his ear against it to listen. He just so happened to have his Extendable Ears with him that Fred and George had given him.

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'You really have the nerve, Hermione,' David shot at her.

'The nerve…W-What did I-I do?' asked Hermione, trying hard to keep her focus.

'You've lied to me before and I think I remember teaching you a valuable lesson of what happenes when you lie to me,' David sneered slyly, 'don't you dare deny it, girl, you were snogging that punk weren't you!'

Hermione's silence gave David the answer he was looking for.

'Wow, I can't believe you've got yourself a friend let alone a boyfriend.' He was making fun of her, Hermione tried so hard not to cry, as her father stood above her laughing to himself. 'Wait…last night you told me he was only your friend! You've been lying to me since the moment he stepped foot in my house!'

'I didn't know how you would react if you found out he was my boyfriend!' Hermione "accidentally yelled". David was now furious, he moved closer to her looking as if he were about to explode.

'How much have you told Ronald? How much does he know!' Hermione was now backing up on the bed scared out of her mind.

'I didn't tell him anything, I swear! He just wanted to come over and I said it was ok, that's all!

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Ron desperately wanted to bust down the door and to a repeat of what he did to Malfoy to David. His head started to pace, wondering what to do, if he started causing trouble physically David would know that Hermione had told him about what he's like. For a moment he didn't hear anymore yelling so he pressed the Extendable Ears back against the door.

"Don't worry Hermione, I'm right here", he thought to himself.

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David now had Hermione by her shoulders, he had not beaten her yet but from the look in his eyes he anxiously wanted to. He made sure she was looking straight at him.

'Now you listen to me, Hermione, I don't care what you do or how you do it. Get your so called friend, Ronald out of this house!'

Hermione now stood up from the bed and faced her father with a glare in her eyes.

'No.' David looked shocked at this his eyes widened in angriness.

'Excuse me? Did you just answer back to me?'

'Ron isn't going anywhere, he hasn't done anything wrong! You can't make me get rid of him!' Just before David could strike, there was a knock at the door, when he opened it Ron was standing there, with his hands behind his back.

'Sorry to interrupt, but Jacqueline is back and she needs some help getting the bags in the house,' Ron said this with a bit of slyness and attitude, which only Hermione was able to catch. David didn't say anything but just nodded his head, Hermione quietly walked out of the room with Ron. He held out his hand for her to take it, as she did. As the two walked down the stairs hand in hand, he pulled her to the side and put his hands around her waist pulling her against him causing her to put both hands on his chest.

'What's happened? Are you ok? Did he do anything to you?' Ron asked in a hurry, sounding really worried. 'I had to act quickly before…something happened.'

Hermione put her hand on his face gently rubbing it, trying to calm him down,

'Ron, don't worry, relax nothing happened you came in just in time.' Ron nodded in relief, he bent his head down for his kiss, but Hermione shifted her head to the side. He his head back looking confused and worried,

'What's wrong?'

'Ron…I-I think we should cool off for a bit, not act so close like this.' Ron looked shocked and a bit hurt; he bent his head down and looked at his feet not knowing what to say.

'Hermione-you…you want to break up?' Hermione had a couple of tears running down her face; those were the words she was afraid he'd say, she rapidly shook her.

'No, no! Never, Ron, I want to be with you for the rest of my life…it's just; David wants you out, and quick. So I figured that if we'd just acted like how we used to just for a while…because I'm afraid he might hurt you.' Ron looked as if he was about to cry himself, he merely just pulled Hermione closer to him.

'Mione, you're more worried for me than you are your own self…not that I disagree with your idea but,…you know how hard it's going to be for me to keep my hands of you, I love you so much, I'm crazy about you.' The two embraced into a long caressing hug, Hermione let go to face him,

'I love you too, Ron,' she said, 'but this is only for a short time until we've figured out what to do, ok?' Ron had a cute expression of a sad 5 year old, and then nodded his head. Hermione leaned in and kissed him, Ron wrapped her up in his arms not wanting to let go but he knew he had too. Hermione looked out the window and saw that her mum was really coming this time. 'I better go help mum, she slowly released her hand from Ron's and headed out the door, leaving him looking depressed.

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All through out dinner, Ron and Hermione were quite, they hardly spoke to each other. The only time they actually said things was if they needed something passed to them. Even though David was sitting on the settee, he often turned to smirk at them. Jacqueline too noticed the tension and was getting a bit concerned. Hermione excused herself from the table; she took some Herbology and Ancient Runes books and went outside.

Jacqueline started to knit some of her cloths together, while Ron just sat there quietly.

'Is everything alright, dear?'

'Yes, well-no…I don't know not really,' Ron moaned, into his hands. Jacqueline placed her needles down and wheeled herself over to him; she put a hand on his shoulder.

'Tell me what happened.'

'Well, earlier on today while you were out shopping, Hermione and I had a little talk; she wants us to act like how we did before we got together like,…normal friends,' Ron stuttered out, 'she's worried about what David might do to me, she worries to much about me, Ms Granger. I know her instincts are true and loyal but…it's just hard, I mean I love her.'

'Ron…you know Hermione Jane loves you a lot and she only wants the best, just like with her grades at Hogwarts, it must have hurt her like crazy to tell you that.' Ron nodded; he stood up to look out the window.

'Yeah, I guess, that's –

But then he suddenly stopped in mid-sentence not taking his eyes off what ever he was looking at. Jacqueline looked at him concerned.

'Something you find interesting out there?' Outside, Ron saw Hermione talking and hugging some bloke who looked about their age. He had brown hair with blond highlights, a blue and white stripped shirt, with black jeans. She then pecked him on the cheek smiling,

'M-Ms Granger, who is that bloke with Hermione out there?' Jacqueline wheeled over to the window, she looked out and the chuckled,

'No need to get jealous, Ronald. That's Jed Owens, he's been Hermione Jane's closest friend since they were kids, and 'she told him, 'why don't you go meet him he's very nice young man.' Ron knew Hermione wouldn't cheat on him, so he did what Jacqueline had said; he opened the door and walked out. He walked across the green grass going over to the two, Ron walked over to Hermione and snaked a hand around her waist. Jed gave him a friendly smile.

'Oh, Ron hi,' she said, he smiled back at her, 'Jed, this is my boyfriend Ronald Weasley.' Jed smiled he held out his hand and Ron surprisingly shook it without any hesitation.

'Nice to meet you, Ron.'

'You too, Jed.'

'Well anyways, I better be going back in, thanks for visiting, Jed,' Hermione said hugging him, 'come back and visit anytime.' Hermione walked back into the house. Ron turned his attention back to Jed, who stood there silently.

'So, Hermione's told me a lot about you, Ron and Hogwarts, it must be a cool school,' Jed replied. Ron chuckled and said,

'Yeah, it's magical.' Jed laughed and then sighed,

'Listen, Ron, I just wanted to thank you for making Hermione so happy, I've never seen her glowing like this before, not even when we were little…you're very loyal to her promise me you'll protect her from that bastard.'

'I promise, mate, you sound like you're a good friend to Hermione too,' he said, smiling.

'Yeah, she's been my best friend since we were kids; I never want to lose her.' Ron now couldn't help but ask, even though he trusted Jed already,

'D-Did…you ever fancy her?' Jed blushed,

'When we were about 12 or 13, but then after I realized that we're better of just as mates,' Ron nodded in understandment. Jed checked his watch and then brotherly slapped him on the shoulder, 'well I better go, nice meeting you, Ron. And take care of Hermione for me.' Jed walked off heading towards the hills,

'Hey, Jed!'

'Yeah,' he said, turning back around.

'Keep in touch, mate. Not just with Hermione…but with me too.' Jed smiled and winked at him,

'Sure thing, Ron.'

Jed Owen was an ok bloke to Ron, Jacqueline was right. Ron liked him, he was way better than Viktor Krum, that's a definite.

A/N- Read/Review as much as you can! - Danielle (dandin)