Sorry it took so long to update. My power cord for my laptop was AWOL. :( It's OK now, so I should be updating more.

Chapter 3

Ron got up from the bed in a frenzy. He searched all through her flat but she simply wasn't there. He went to the kitchen- No Hermione. He went to the bathroom- No Hermione. Finally he stopped. She obviously was not in the flat. But where was she? And why would she leave like that? It didn't make sense. The only thing it did make was Ron angry. He'd just told her; she'd just promised. This sort of thing wasn't supposed to happen. He was supposed to be able to keep her safe. How could he do that if she didn't tell him things? She'd promised him. She had promised. He'd remembered almost exactly what she'd said. She told him that she promised to let him take care of her, to keep her safe. Maybe she was at work. Of course she would be at work. Where else would she be? Unless someone else got her. No way. Hermione's a strong girl. She can at least stop that. But still, he had to check.

He apparated straight into Hermione's office and found Hermione at her desk looking more than frazzled. She wasn't in her pajamas, but only in a pair of pants and one of Ron's button up shirts with her hair pulled up into a messy bun. "Hi Ron." She said very tirely.

"Why didn't you tell me you were leaving?"

"I didn't have time. This was an emergency and I had to take care of it right away. It's my job."

Ron stopped. He looked at her, she'd never said anything like this before. It was cold, cold and painful. Not painful to him, but had the noticable sound of pain in her voice. "What's happened, Hermione?"

She looked up at Ron with tears in her eyes. "It's Percy, Ron. He's been killed. He attacked a young muggle girl and she moved out of the way. The curse hit a mirror and came back to Percy. He's dead."

Ron stood in the center of her office looking at Hermione with a mixture of anger and pain. Ron felt pain for the loss of his brother, naturally. But the anger stemmed from that pain, as he still did not feel much for Percy after he left and hurt his mother the way he had so many years ago. He felt sympathy towards Hermione more than anything else. Of all the people in this department, they'd chosen her to handle this situation. She'd obviously been trying her best to finish the paperwork before she had to tell Ron and she looked exhausted. There was no telling how long she'd been there. The more he thought about the situation, the less and less he began to feel about Percy and the more he felt for Hermione. Percy, after all, hadn't really been a member of their family, he'd been more or less dead anyway. Now, Ron supposed, it was just official. He'd already gone through the pain of losing a brother, now it was just worth it.

"You need to go see your mother." Hermione said.

"No." Ron said in return. He walked over behind her desk and sat on the window sill. "I'm not going without you."

Hermione turned around. "Ron.. I have to set these papers in order for the Muggle ministry. I won't be able to leave for a while."

"That's fine." Ron said, continuing to gaze out the window. "You're my strength, Hermione. You're almost all that matters to me anymore. If you're not there, I won't be there."

Ron heard the sound of a pen hit the floor and heard Hermione start to cry. He got off the window and picked up Hermione's coat. "Come on, 'Mione. Let's go home. Bring your papers with you if you want, but I don't want you here anymore."

"I don't want to go home, Ron."

Ron smiled. He knew she'd say something like that. "I thought you might not. Well, come on. Just hold my hand, I know exactly where we can go- away from all the rest of the world, yea?"

"Yea."

And with a quick pop, they were off.

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Ron told Hermione to head upstairs while he got all thier bags. As she walked up the stairs, she had to sit down. She was too emotional to just apparate in the room, but she was still having a difficult time standing. Everything had happened so quickly that morning. The owl had arrived with the message about Percy and without even thinking, she had darted off to the office. Then, for the next four hours her body was numb with the paperwork she was being forced to do. She didn't have time to stop and feel. She didn't have time to stop and realize that Percy was dead, and now it was all flowing into her like some cruel river.

She looked around. All the walls looked very familiar, and she heard the faint noise of chatter from somewhere far away, or somewhere close with a door shut. The place smelled slightly of firewhiskey and pie, and in some inexplicable way- it calmed her.

What was she doing? She's Hermione J. Granger! She is in charge of Muggle-Wizard Relations for all of London, near all of England. She didn't get upset, she didn't get involved in her business and she certainly didn't mix work and home. That was simply unheard of with her. She loved Ron more than anything else in the work and refused to allow this or any situaiton seperate the two. She wiped off her eyes and attempted to stand up. So far so good. She walked to the door with the number B-22 and opened it. Almost immediately, she felt her knees collapse as she fell to the floor. Luckily though, this time someone was there to catch her.

"Gods, 'Mione!" Ron shouted as he quickly ran to her to make sure she didn't hit the ground. "You've got to pick yourself out of this." He picked her up and walked her over to the bed and gently laid her down. "You didn't do this. You never caused this to happen and you can't act like you did. Percy did this. He knew what he was doing when he threw the curse, and now the price's been paid." Hermione heard him let out a long sigh from the edge of the bed. "I mean, to me at least, Percy's been dead since fifth year at Hogwarts. He left my family and I had to hear my mother crying late at night. I had to hear her crying because she thought Percy didn't love her- because he was ashamed of our family. And you know what, Hermione?" Ron started, rather angrily. "My family might not've grown up like a ruddy Malfoy, but we were happy and we knew we were loved. Mum and Dad always put us before themselves, ALWAYS. And it was a damn slap in the face for Percy to leave us there just for his ministry career. Dad kept it hidden pretty well, but not Mum. It was so often that she burst into tears sometimes at the dinner table. Me and Gin and the twins, we just got mad. We all hurt for Perce, but it was easy to get over with yours and Harry's help."

They sat there in silence for a bit as Hermione took in all that was just said. She couldn't really reply, it wasn't her situation. So she did the only thing she knew to do. She pulled Ron down to lay beside her. "Let's just lay here for a while. Then later we can do down to dinner, yea?" Hermione said with a smile on her face.

"Yea." Ron replied as he gently rubbed the side of her face. "You're amazing when you smile, you know that?"

Hermione smile became even larger, if that was possible. Then all of the sudden, a look of shock lifted the smile off her face. "Ron.."

"Yea?"

"We.. We forgot. Harry proposed to Gin last night; Today they got the message about Percy."

"Gin's a tough girl. It'll hit Harry harder than Gin, and Harry barely knew Perce."

"But- won't she be upset?"

Ron let out a laugh. "'Mione, you've been upset enough for every single Weasley that ever knew Percy. Come on, let's just take a nap and then we'll go get food and have a little night on the town. Maybe there's a place to eat with a view of the lake."

"That sounds nice." Hermione said as she drifted off into sleep.

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It was Percy. Percy was there and worse, he had Hermione. He had his dirty hands all over her and she was crying. It was just the three of them, they were alone in a room of darkness. All he could hear was the muffled screams of Hermione and the inconstant sniffle every few minutes. He looked up to Percy. He had a huge grin on his face and he bent down and kissed Hermione on the cheek. Ron could not figure out What was wrong with him. He couldn't move. Percy must've had thrown Full Body Bind at him and was now being forced to watch Percy as he placed his hands all over her body and then began unbuttoning her shirt. Ron wanted to scream and run to Hermione's aide, but then everthing got silent- save Percy's voice.

"This is how it is, Ron. You try your best to protect her, just like I tried hard to protect mine. It won't happen though, someone wil always be there to hurt her. I can't protect mine anymore. At least be ready, Ron. You know just like I did, you know they want us because we won't help. You love her, Ron. You always have.." He dropped Hermione to the floor. She immediately curled up into a protective stance and cried. "Don't let her be like this. Something bad is going to happen to her, Ron. You can feel it. Don't let it." And Percy was gone. He could move. He ran over to Hermione and pulled her up into his arms.

"Why did he do this to me, Ron? I've never... He just won't leave me alone. Make him stop, Ron... Make him stop..."

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He woke up, rather confused but worrisome. He looked over and saw Hermione fast asleep. He got out of bed and went to the shower. He wasn't sure what that dream meant, or how much he just made of his own fears. THough it did seem oddly specific. Perhaps a bit too much specific. Why would Percy... It didn't make sense. He stepped under the shower and let the water run all over him. The warmth was calming, very calming. He was fucking sick of these dreams. He was tired of everything. It was so infuriating. Whenever he looked at Hermione, he saw something that he'd never seen in any other girl. Not that he'd ever really dated very many people other than the fling with Lavender Brown. She'd wanted to do much more, but Ron couldn't bring himself to do it. He looked at Lavender and saw a girl with two colors for a name who was with Ron for the sake of fun. He looked at Hermione and saw something beautiful. Something wholly lovely and angelic that he couldn't place with any other girl. Something that felt so perfect and comfortable- he never wanted to leave. Quite the opposite actually- He wanted to be with her for the rest of his life, and he knew it. But he wanted that to be perfect as well. He didn't know what to do. Oliver had offered some suggestions, but still had no real ideas. After all this was Hermione, and he knew if she said yes that they'd be together forever. He'd never leave and he knew she wouldn't either.

Ron continued to stand while the steam filled the room and he finally relaxed. He wanted his dreams to end. He realized something that second. He'd wasted so much time worrying about his dreams and their meaning that he'd nearly neglected Hermione. He'd forgotten her. No wonder that they'd never slept together- he'd been so worried that something bad will happen to him that he hadn't even attempted anything besides kissing that could be considered couple behavior. He thought back to the ring sitting in his loo at his flat. He wanted to give it to her. He wanted her to say she'd be his forever. He wanted to tell her how much she meant to him and how when he saw her the rest of the world blurred away and she was all he saw was her. But how could he do that when he hadn't even told her how much he loved her?

He felt stuck, suffocated and hopelessly attached to the girl lying in the next room. He turned off the water and dried off. After he was dressed, he stepped out into the room. She was still asleep, snoring a little, even. He grinned at the immense cutness of a slumbering Hermione. He kissed her lightly on the cheek to wake her up. "Come on," he said. "Let's go out on the town."

"But where will we go?" Hermione said drowsily.

"I don't know but it doesn't matter. I just want us to go somewhere." Ron replied.

"All right. That sounds fun." Hermione replied with a smile.

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Hermione,

Glad to know you and Ron are OK, but you're both a set of gits for not coming to see me and Harry before you left. Especially since you both knew. We're really excited and we both want a spring wedding, so we're thinking sometime in April. I'm so excited. There's something I need to ask you when you get back, so do drop by the store and see me. I want you to help me with my dress anyway. I think I have one in mind (I've been saving it) and I want to know what you think. Anyway, you think Ron's really getting back into his Quidditch needs? I bet he misses it. Oh well, the season will start soon anyway so hopefully he'll be OK. Well, now that me and Harry are going for it, Mum reckons that just leaves you and Ron. But don't tell him that! Anyway, I hope you two have fun.

We had a small ceremony for Percy yesterday. Mum wanted Percy close, so we buried him beside the lake at the Burrow. In a way it's sad that he's gone- but at the same time, it's OK, I suppose. I mean, Percy was my brother- but I guess he didn't feel like much like I was his sister, if you can understand that. I'll always love him, but I just can't feel like I miss him.

I'm so excited about my ring! Isn't it lovely? Ahh, it's amazing! Too bad I can't tell you more. Maybe when my dear brother steps it up a bit, we'll chat. Until then.

Love,
Ginny (soon to be Potter!)

Hermione grinned as she put the letter down. Ron had been repeatedly attempting to read it over her shoulder and each time he'd been shocked by a small curse placed on the letter by the soon-to-be Mrs. Potter.

"Oi, 'Mione. Come on. Tell me what it says."

"Honestly, Ronald. It was nothing much. She just wants me to come help her pick out a wedding dress and she told me that they had a ceremony for Percy. It was small, but a ceremony none-the-less. He's buried beside the lake at the Burrow."

"You're a dirty liar, Miss Granger."

She gave Ron a devilish grin. "Well, we are talking of your sister. In any way, I believe I was promised some sort of treat, Mr. Weasley."

"Ahh, that you were, Miss Granger. All right then, I'm off. I'll be back in a few with your chocolate frogs and whatever else you wrote on this list. Bloody girls..." Ron finished as he closed the door.

Hermione had a huge smile on her face as she collapsed on the bed.

Her smile continued to grow as she remembered the previous night. She and Ron had come very close, painfully close to making love. So much so that she thought she might've wanted it more than Ron. Her facial expression turned more serious as she remembered the motions and feelings of Ron's hands on her body. How hot she'd felt and how much she wished that her clothes would leave her body. Unfortunately, an urgent owl had popped in for Ron from Oliver Wood. Apparantly one of their players had been injured and he very much needed Ron's help. This came the promise of the sweets.

"Fond memories there, Granger?" A frigtening voice asked her as she immediately popped up from the bed.