A/N: If I've planned this out right there will only be one more chapter after this one, and I will do my best to get it to you faster than I did this one. However, there may be another chapter afterward just to be sure I covered everything, or if I get enough reviews. This chapter is semi- juicy, but the last (with much work) will top it off. Sorry about the superficial Ginny and Hermione. However, girls can be girls and it helped me cover a lot fluff and plot. Thanks again for the reviews! I love you all more than you will ever know!!

Ron was pacing back and forth across his and Harry's new flat. He had been ready for dinner since five that evening. Tonight was the big night; he had to be ready. He was going to ask Hermione on a date. And not just any date - he was planning on taking her to a local wizarding museum and to dinner afterwards. The museum part was all Harry's idea, and the dinner part was Ron's. Ron's original idea was to take her to a quiditch match and than dinner. However, Harry was probably right about Hermione wanting to go to a museum rather than a quiditch match. He looked around the flat.

They weren't completely unpacked, but most of the day had been spent fixing up the place as well as trying to put stuff in its correct place. In the same letter written to tell Hermione and Ron's family about their return, they had asked Hermione to scout for a semi-cheap flat that was near where she stayed. The closest she was able to get them was with in a miles distance.

"Are you done burning a track into our floor?" Harry asked grinning at his best friend.

Ron stopped and blushed before coming up with a lame excuse. "I was just thinking about where I should work is all."

"Right, and I'm the minister of magic." Harry smiled.

"I'll meet you there, Hermione." Ginny said before apparating back to the burrow.

Hermione collapsed into her sofa and let out a long breath that she didn't even realize she was holding. Ginny had forced her through an hour of hair and make up. Hermione liked getting semi-dressed up every once in a while, but she found herself feeling so tired after each expedition. She was about to get up to fetch a book to read while she waited for time to pass, but she heard someone calling for her from her living room. She went to her fireplace to see Percy's head floating in it.

"Good evening Hermione. How are you doing?"

"I'm a bit tired - "

"Is it alright if I come over before we head out to dinner?" Percy interrupted.

"Err, sure Perc. Is everything alright?"

He turned a shade of pink before nodding. "Of course Hermione."

The fire went out and he appeared right beside her.

"So, uh. how are you?" Percy asked.

"You've already asked me that. What's wrong Percy?" Hermione folded her arms across her chest and waited for an answer.

Percy paled a bit and moved closer to her. "You look lovely, darling." He closed the distance between them and lightly kissed her on the lips. Normally Percy would then back away and continue to talk, but today was different. He moved in for yet another kiss; a more passionate one. Hermione's mind was racing as they continued to kiss each other fervently. It just didn't feel quite right. His hands rested on her gently curved hips and his eyes slid shut. Hermione was about to say something about how they should be going soon, but with his lips pressed against hers it came out sounding like a moan. Percy must have thought it was a moan of pleasure and he moved his hands from her hips around to the bottom of her butt and he pulled her closer to him.

Hermione let out a gasp, but Percy continued on in his mission to take her to bed. His hands roamed her body freely as she kept her own to her sides and tightened. Percy began to trail kisses down her neck. Backing away quickly, Hermione gasped her loudest then.

She stared at him with wide accusing eyes.

Percy flushed a crimson red and began to stammer excuses.

"I think we should go to dinner now," Hermione said trying to ignore what had just happened.

"But - Hermione - " But Percy was too late. She had already apparated to the restaurant. He let out a sigh of frustration with himself. It had taken him over a week to come up with the balls to even try something like that and he had ruined it. However, tonight was the big night. He and Hermione could love each other for the rest of their lives, together.

Ron and Harry arrived to see that they were the last to get there. Everyone else was seated at a large round table in the center of a candle lit room. Ron hurried in to try and find a seat next to Hermione, but she was already sitting between Percy and Fred. He scowled at his misfortune. If Harry could have been just ten minutes faster at getting ready he could have gotten a seat next to her. Instead, he took a seat beside Harry and George, which was the closest he could get to Hermione.

The waiter came around and took all their drink orders and Mr. Weasley even ordered some appetizers. Small talk became a common thing as they all began discussing the latest news with everyone and quiditch. All of them but Ginny was sipping away at their alcoholic drinks and becoming more and more giggly. Even Percy laughed at a few of the twins jokes after a few glasses of Long Island iced tea. The main course came and went, and all Ron did the whole meal was stare longingly at Hermione, even with a full plate of food in front of him. Everyone finished at their own pace and began opening up various discussions.

"So when will you and Hermione tie the knot?" Bill shouted over the commotion. He sat next to Fleur Delacour, his fiancé, and presently the carrier of the first child to be a part of the generation of the "Weasley Grandchildren", as Mrs. Weasley put it after she found out.

Ron was so convinced that he was referring to him and Hermione, as everyone did before him leaving. However, it was always a more joking thing, because they had never declared their feelings for the other. He would always turn red and she would go off on a tangent of how they were best friends and nothing more. This time would be no different; or so he thought.

There was another person at the table turning red at this comment; two additional persons. After turning beet red, he looked around to see that no one had noticed his drastic change in color and that they were all staring at a pink Hermione and - wait a second - Percy?!

The color quickly drained from his face as his eyes darted around the table to see who would laugh first. But everyone turned silent and waited for an answer.

"Actually," Percy said while getting up out of his seat only to kneel again beside Hermione's chair. "Hermione Kathlyn Granger, will you do me the honor of being my wife?"

All thoughts drained out of Hermione's head when she soaked in these words. It seemed the world was fading as well, because everything was turning from yellow to black rather quickly.

Hermione slipped from her chair rather gracefully for a faint and Fred barily caught her before she hit the ground.

"Well, I guess I wasn't expecting that sort of reaction." Percy commented.

A few people laughed half-heartedly, but were now leaning out of their seats to see if she was alright. Ron was the only one staring blankly at where Hermione used to sit, as pale as could be. He didn't get up to check on her like Harry or Ginny. He sat suspended in his own world, letting his negative thoughts get the better of him. He never thought she would move on. Granted, he never asked her if he meant more to her than just a best friend or even let her know how he felt for her. He just thought it'd be assumed. Wasn't it obvious the way he looked at her or was always there for her? However another thought invaded his already cluttered mind.

He had left for three years. How could she not have moved on? She was a beautiful and brilliant witch. She deserved so much in life; so much of it he wasn't there to give her.

But Percy was.

He was stupid to assume that they would just get together when he got back. He was going to wait a few months before they realized they couldn't live with out each other and would propose to her and she would accept while giggling madly into his shoulder. They would have a few kids - maybe eight or nine. He always thought that pregnant women were the most attractive and arousing thing in the world. They would've loved each other each night and every morning and she would be his life line. Like she was before, but in the future as his wife, he would love her and depend on her to be his sanity when he would need it. And in turn he would give her whatever it was she wanted. He would surrender his heart and soul to make her happy.

All of his dreams came crashing down, leaving his head and heart empty. With out even thinking he slipped out of the room, trying not to attract any attention, but a woman who had just awoken had noticed.

Her heart went out for him as he left the restaurant. She wanted to follow, to know that he was okay. She wanted him.

"So? Hermione." Percy asked.

"Yes?" Hermione asked.

"You will marry me, then?"

"What?! No!" She replied hastily as she began looking over his shoulder for a sign of Ron.

"Wha - what do you mean, Hermione?" Percy asked. His usual stone demeanor fell from his face. He looked mortified at her answer and Hermione was plagued with the guilt that she had been the one to break his heart this way.

"I'm sorry, Percy. I just don't harbor the same feelings I did for you before."

"Before what?" Percy asked rather coldly.

Hermione thought about his question. What had been the reason she began falling out of love with Percy Weasley? She was about to answer with some lame excuse when he answered for her.

"It's my baby brother isn't it?"

Before she could object he had stormed out of the restaurant with out even looking back. She had hurt the man that loved her and if she was right in assuming that Ron had left because of her; she had hurt him as well.