A/N: I don't own Harry Potter or any related characters
Word count: 389
Late at night, he could hear crying, could her begging the wireless to find the right signal, to figure out the right password to hear his voice. Ron knew the truth about Hermione, knew that she didn't love him, that she loved his brother. He'd seen the way they had sneaked off all summer when they were supposed to be helping set up for the wedding.
He'd seen the way they looked at each other when Bill and Fleur had exchanged vows, seen the way they'd danced with each other, dance after dance, only separating when someone cut in. He wasn't blind. Somehow, over the summer, his brother had stolen the girl he'd thought he was in love with. Maybe she had never seen him like that, never liked him like, but she had been so jealous of Lavender, but maybe she wasn't the right one after all.
His mum had pushed him towards her, the same way she pushed Ginny towards Harry, claiming they were perfect for each other, but Ron didn't see it. He tried to see it, to see what she claimed was there, but he couldn't. They didn't have a lot in common if one really thought about it, really looked deeper. Fred and Hermione, they worked together, worked well in fact. She tempered Fred, kept him from doing anything too dangerous, from making something that could accidentally end the world.
Ron had always been certain that the world would fall at his brothers' twin hands, that they'd do something so incredibly mad that it ended up destroying everything. Hermione was the solution to that, he realized, and he wanted to help her, comfort her, but he wasn't the one she wanted, wasn't the one she loved and needed. Instead, he watched her, whispering words of encouragement, trying to find the right password when she wasn't fiddling with the wireless herself.
He'd managed to guess them a bit easier than she and when he did, when he found the right code and Fred's voice filled the air, Hermione's smile lit up the tent and Ron knew he'd have to make sure Fred ended up with her, that he treated her like the witch she was, and if he ever, ever hurt her, well, Ron still hadn't forgotten about the spider prank and his sworn revenge.