Disclaimer - Only the plot is mine the characters aren't (unfortunately!)

A/N: Thanks for the reviews, keep them coming please. This one kind of continues into chapter 9 so ends a bit abruptly. Chapter9 is nearly finished so it won't be long till it's up. Hope you like this one though. ;)

Step

Chapter 8

Hermione arrived back at her flat to find it almost as she had left it this morning. The breakfast things had been washed and put away by Harry, and a pile of letters – all for her green-eyed flatmate – were unopened on the kitchen table, left to be read later on. She put the kettle on to boil and put a teaspoon of instant coffee granules in her favourite mug. She walked through to the lounge and switched on the television. It being three o'clock, children's TV had just started on most of the channels. She switched it off and pulled her notes out of her bag

As she finished writing the title of today's lecture she heard the click of the kettle, telling her the water had boiled. She stood up and walked to the kitchen, noticing one of Harry's letters had very girly writing on it as she passed the pile. She made her coffee and took it back into the lounge placing it on the coffee table before she took her previous seat on the sofa.

She had discovered within the first few weeks at the school of Witchcraft and Wizardry that she learned things a lot quicker if she re-read and re-wrote her notes soon after she had been presented with them. The sooner things were transferred into her long-term memory the better; it certainly made revision slightly less stressful.

It took her three quarters of an hour for Hermione to write all her notes out and when she'd finished she went upstairs and changed her t-shirt for a fresh one and one that was a bit more interesting to look at. Because her room was south facing it had been drenched in sunlight all day and it was like walking into a wall of heat when she entered.

She changed her top and decided it was warm enough to put her flip-flops on instead of her trainers. She went back downstairs and checked that all the doors were still locked from the inside, something that – ashamedly – tended to slip hers and Harry's memory now they apparated everywhere, and were responsible for their own house, not having anyone else to remember for them. When she found that they were still locked she apparated to the hospital for – like so many other days – the second time.

The ward was unchanged from the last time Hermione was there, except this time there was someone sat next to Ron's bed with shoulder length red hair and dark brown eyes. Hermione smiled as she saw her best friend. It had been a while since she had seen her, with the both of them training in their chosen field of work they were both often busy and tired.

'Ginny!' Hermione said as she moved next to her friend. Ginny looked up from the copy of the Prophet that Harry had left earlier and beamed.

'Hermione!' Ginny stood putting the paper on Ron's bed. The two of them hugged. When they pulled apart Ginny conjured another chair for Hermione next to her own. Before Hermione sat in it, she walked to the top end of the bed and gave Ron a hello kiss.

'Good afternoon Ronald, I'm glad to see you haven't strained yourself whilst I've been away.' Ginny laughed at Hermione's comments. The older witch sat down on the newly made chair.

'So how've you been Gin?'

'Not bad, training's mad though. I knew healing was hard but this is just insane!'

'I can imagine. When I was little I wanted to be a doctor, I didn't think of doing anything else, until I got my letter that is, then I had no idea whatsoever!' Ginny laughed.

'When did you figure out what you wanted to do?'

'About a month ago! Whilst the war was raging I didn't like to plan too far ahead, anything could have happened and I wanted to be as commitment free as possible. Well, apart from this one,' she nodded her head towards Ron.

'That seems sensible enough. So how have you been?' Ginny asked.

'Fine really, I'm still not sleeping though.'

'How long haven't you been sleeping properly?'

'To be honest I don't think I've had a proper night's sleep since the war started but it's been pretty bad for over a month now.''

'Why don't you take a sleeping draught?'

'I've thought about it but I just wanted to try without one, I might start needing one soon though.'

'There aren't any side-effects to them if that's what you're worried about, and the odd one isn't going to do any harm, believe me. I took enough of the stuff this past year with you three off on Harry's hero mission, and I had my NEWTs to contend with. Do you want me to brew you some up?'

'Are you sure you aren't too busy?'

'Not so busy that I can't help my best friend out.'

'Well, if you're sure,' Hermione said with an appreciative smile.

'Absolutely positive. So what are you up to tonight?' Ginny asked.

'Well, I went home earlier to see mum and apparently dad's been clearing out the loft which has quite a lot of my old stuff in it, and he wants me to sort through it, see which stuff can be thrown, which can be given to charity and which I want to keep. It could take hours?'

'Yeah it could on your own. Do you want any help? Me and Harry were just going to have a lazy evening in so we can help if you want.'

'You seriously don't mind 'cause that'd be a huge help. But I don't want to ruin your evening with Harry.'

'Hermione, you know I wouldn't have offered if I didn't want to, and besides, this way I might get to see some embarrassing photos of you growing up!'

'Oh please don't mention photos in front of my dad, we have thousands and you won't escape for weeks! Comes with the territory of being an only child I'm afraid.

'Merlin, I can't even imagine!'

'I'm not surprised. Oh, by the way my mum said they can come to the Burrow on Friday for dinner.'

'That's great, mum'll be pleased and dad'll be ecstatic!' Hermione laughed.

'Well to be fair my dad will probably ask as many questions about the wizarding world as your dad will about muggles.'

'We'll just have to make sure they're sat next to each other at dinner, that way they won't be interrupted.'

'Yes we will.'

'Do you know if anyone else is visiting tonight?' Hermione asked Ginny.

'I don't know actually. Mum will be here at five as always. You know, I'm sure that's to check up on you as much as Ron. She knows you're here at five regardless of whether you're in work at nine or eleven, so she knows she'll catch you.'

'I know, I don't mind at all though. You've all become family to me.'

'Well I can safely say you are to all of us, well maybe not Ron, 'cause that'd be weird, but I can definitely say he loves you in very non-brotherly ways!' Hermione laughed.

'You know that's how Harry realised he was falling for you; he kept wanting to do very non-brotherly things to you. He told himself his jealousy of Dean Thomas was an older brother's protection of you when he was blatantly wishing he could have been in his place.'

'Aww bless him, if only he'd realised earlier.'

'You think you had problems?' she asked Ginny, looking at Ron as she did.

'Yeah ok,' Ginny said with a smile, 'you know, when we were at school I just wanted to slap him sometimes and tell him to stop being so thick when it came to you.' Hermione smiled.

'Well, the four of us got there in the end.'

We did indee-' Ginny stopped at Hermione's sudden movement. She had suddenly turned her head to face Ron as fast as she could without breaking her neck. She stared at Ron's face not knowing whether she imagined or actually saw his eyes open and close.

'Hermione?' Ginny said trying to get the attention of her friend. 'Hermione what's wrong?'

Hermione stayed still, and continued to look at Ron.

'Hermione!' Ginny said louder. Hermione blinked and turned slightly towards Ginny.

'I…I thought I saw his eyes open.'

Ginny sighed, slightly relieved.

'It was probably just a shadow from outside that made you think that. I used to do it all the time. Every time a bird flew past the window and made a shadow on his face I thought he was waking up.'

'Mmm,' Hermione agreed. She leaned forward and rested her chin on her hands, her knees supporting her elbows. Her eyes were on level with Ron's. She focused on his eyelashes and remembered the last time they spoke properly, her left fingers subconsciously feeling for the silver band on her right hand.