I'm glad you're all enjoying this so far. I'm enjoying writing it. You're getting this chapter a few hours earlier as I really need to write an essay tomorrow and I know this will just distract me! Enjoy x

-With Auror Mid-Term Assessments looming, Ron starts to feel frustrated when he fails to grasp healing charms -

The afternoon spent in the Ministry library seemed to help Hermione and Ron bridge the gap between just being friends and being friends who are starting to date. They both seemed to start making extra effort to keep in contact with each other most days. If they hadn't had time to meet for coffee during work or send each other interdepartmental memos, they'd try to floo each other quickly at the end of the day.

Harry and Ginny eventually arrived back home after their fortnight honeymooning in the South of France. They had stayed in a magical beachside community and had been incommunicado for the entire two weeks, which was fine by Ron – he really didn't want to know what his best friend was getting up to on his honeymoon with his little sister.

The day before Harry and Ginny arrived home; George, Ron and a very reluctant Percy had filled the newly married couple's small house with one of Weasley Wizard Wheeze's new products; "Can't Pop, Won't Pop" balloons. These were large, iridescent balloons that were indestructible and there was only one specific charm to get rid of them. Unfortunately, George had failed to leave them the instructions and it had taken an angry floo from Molly before the trio had apparated back to the house to finally tell Harry and Ginny how to clear their house.

After a while, Harry had eventually forgiven them and had agreed to spend time revising with Ron. They'd begrudgingly asked Hermione to draw them up a revision schedule, although they'd been disappointed when she had left them with barely any time to sleep or socialise. Still, they tried their best to stick to it – after all these years, they knew she was still the expert on studying and exams.

With only one more working day and a weekend before their exams started, Harry and Ron found themselves still in the depths of the Auror office; even though the rest of their fellow trainees had already gone home.

Ron let his head fall to the desk with a heavy sigh. "I give up! Healing charms just won't stick in my head! It's okay though, right? I can still be a top Auror without them as long as we do our best not to get injured on a mission…"

Harry dropped his quill and rubbed the scar on his forehead. "I'll just ask to transfer to a new partner, what's almost two years of studying together anyway? I've done so well to survive with everything that's already been thrown at me; I don't really want to die because you can't remember the wand movement to go with episkey!"

Ron scowled at his friend. "Fine… I'm done protecting your scrawny backside anyway…"

Harry laughed. "We could ask Hermione? She's great at healing charms and potions. She spent hours learning them before the hunt…"

"We've asked enough of Hermione the past two weeks and she has her own work to get on with. Anyway, Ginny, Luna and Hannah have dragged her out – you know how much those three love drinking on a Thursday and it's gone 7pm. We're the only two idiots still stuck in work…"

Harry raised his eyebrows slightly at his best mate. "How do you know where Hermione is tonight?"

Ron shrugged. "We talk most days, but I'm pretty sure I just heard Ginny whining at her on Sunday that she never goes out with them…"

"Hmmm…" Harry watched his best friend closely. Ron wasn't one for memorising the ins and outs of Hermione's social diary, even when they had been dating. Harry was already intrigued at how closer the two of them had seemed at Sunday lunch at the Burrow but when he had tried quizzing Ginny, she had just told him they were probably working on their friendship and to keep his nose out of their business. "So you talk most days, huh?"

"Yeah…" Ron's eyes narrowed. "Don't you?"

Harry shook his head. "Not really. We don't need to. I thought we'd gotten to that level of friendship where we didn't need to speak every day…" He continued to watch his friend closely.

Ron started to feel irate at Harry's questions. "Well I've been helping her with her project and anyway, I don't see what business it is of yours…" He started to shove his notes back into his bag. He knew he was overreacting, but he was already so stressed out with the amount of time he'd spent studying over the last few weeks. Being interrogated by Harry was the last thing he needed.

Harry threw his hands up in mock surrender. "Okay, sorry… I was just showing interest…"

Ron sighed as he slung the last of his books into his bag. "Sorry mate, I think all the revision is getting to me…" He offered Harry an apologetic smile.

"Good idea!" Harry jumped up and gathered his things quickly. "I might go meet the girls at the Leaky – I'm starving! Do you want to join us?"

Ron contemplated it for a moment, but he could feel the start of a headache coming on.

"Nah, I'm just gonna grab a beer at home and get an early night. Thanks though…"

"See you tomorrow mate…"

Ron left Harry to finish packing up his things. As he walked to the elevator and rode it to the atrium he tried to think back through the list of charms that he should have already committed to memory by now. All it did was make him feel more worked up that they just weren't sticking. He crumpled the list in his hand angrily as he walked to the Ministry fireplaces and took the floo home.

He dumped his bag in its usual spot next to the front door, chucking the balled-up list of healing charms on to the coffee table before wandering through to the kitchen to make a quick dinner. As he cooked, his thoughts drifted back to Harry's interrogation; why was he so keen to find out about what was going on anyway?! Even if he and Hermione hadn't agreed to keep things only between them, nothing had really happened anyway aside from a handful of chaste kisses, mostly on the cheek. Sure, they'd been talking every day but it was mostly about work or revision. He didn't want people to think he was just letting her back in easily. It was a lot harder than that – he needed to know Hermione wouldn't just up and leave the next time a job in another country took her fancy; not at least without discussing it with him first. It was going to be a long time before he could completely let her in – although he had to admit they were already taking some good first steps towards it.

Sometimes, he thought the way his family and friends meddled in his life was really infuriating and it just cemented the fact he and Hermione should definitely keep things between them for now so they could work things out without their interference. He pulled his food out of the microwave angrily and cursed as he burnt the tip of his fingers. He urged himself to take a deep breath as he carried his dinner through to the front room; he was supposed to be trying to calm down not get himself more worked up after all.

Ron barely had chance to sit down on the sofa before the familiar sound of the floo filled his ears. He lifted his head from his food with a soft sigh and frowned as he was greeted by Hermione's face. He knew it wasn't her fault, but the sight of her in his fireplace when she was supposed to be out with her friends added to his mounting annoyance. Especially with that concerned look on her face.

"I thought you were out tonight?" Ron turned back to his dinner.

"Hello to you too. I am out, I'm just using one of the fireplaces upstairs at the Leaky Cauldron. Harry just showed up and said you'd turned down an invitation for a beer and I thought that's not like you so I said to him I'd see if I could persuade you to change your mind!"

Ron lifted his head again, a frown now on his face. "So you left your friends straight away after hearing I was being unsociable? Did you tell them you were coming to floo me?"

"Of course I did. It's no secret we're friends…"

"Great! Why?"

"What do you mean why?"

"Why did you do that?"

"Because I wanted to check you were okay, I thought that's what friends did?" Hermione's frown matched Ron's. She was trying her hardest, but she really couldn't work out what she had done wrong.

"Stop acting like you're my girlfriend; you're not!" Ron shoved his dinner onto the coffee table, in too much of a bad mood now to carry on eating. "Go back to your friends – I have three days to learn a whole load of healing charms or I'll lose my job…"

Ron immediately knew he had done something wrong when he saw a hurt look flash across her face. But he was in no mood to do anything about it.

"Right okay. Good night then Ron…" Hermione's face disappeared from his fireplace quickly.

"Fucks sake…" Ron threw his head back against the back of the sofa. He'd been getting really good at controlling his temper recently but sometimes the littlest things got to him and it was usually those closest to him who took the brunt of it. He usually just went for a run or hit the gym at the Auror training centre to vent his frustrations.

He got up to throw the rest of his dinner in the bin; this would definitely take some fixing.

Ron woke up early the next morning, still feeling guilty about how he'd treated Hermione the night before. He decided to run to the Ministry to shake off the last of his bad mood. Running created a great headspace for Ron; he used the time to process his thoughts and sometimes came up with his best solutions to whatever problem was in front of him.

On his way to the Ministry he stopped in his favourite muggle bakery to pick up breakfast and coffee, placing a charm around them so they wouldn't spill as he finished his run. Once he got to the Ministry, he grabbed a quick shower before taking the elevator to Level 4. As soon as he stepped off, he started to look for Hermione's desk in the mess of office space that constituted the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. He eventually located it in one of the furthest corners of the office and he took the empty seat at her desk, smiling at the collection of photos on her desk. He picked up one at random, smiling as it was the same one he kept on his desk. He stood in the frame with Harry and Hermione, all three of them waving. It had been taken at Harry's 17th Birthday party. He had another copy of the photo in his bedroom; it was his favourite of the three of them.

He was still staring at the photo when Hermione appeared at the edge of her desk.

"Ron? What are you doing up here?"

Ron stood up, holding out one of the brown paper bags and a cup of coffee sheepishly. "Brought you breakfast…"

"Thanks…" Hermione eye him suspiciously as she sat down in the seat he just vacated, taking the bag from him. "Why?"

The tips of Ron's ears turned bright pink as he watched her. "You know why. I was a git last night. You were only concerned. I was in a bad mood but it wasn't your fault and I shouldn't have taken it out on you…"

Hermione sighed slightly and gestured for him to sit in the spare seat next to her desk. "It's okay. I guess I did overstep the mark a little. You must be so stressed out about these exams…"

"Yeah. I'm really finding them hard but it's not an excuse. I am sorry…"

"Apology accepted." She toyed with the edge of the bag thoughtfully. "Look I know I'm not your girlfriend yet, but I am here for you."

"I know. Things were going okay up until then, huh?"

"It's still going okay…" Hermione finally peered into the brown paper bag. "Bringing me pastries helps!" She took a bite happily and sat in comfortable silence until she'd finished chewing. "So if you'd let me talk to you last night, I would have told you that Harry said you were struggling with healing charms and I have a way of helping. This is everything I learnt before the hunt and how I chunked up the charms and potions so I could remember them all…" She pulled a piece of parchment out of her handbag and slid it towards him.

Ron looked it over with a grin. "This is brilliant Hermione, thank you so much!"

"You're very welcome!"

"So I know we've already got plans to go to Hogsmeade together to speak to McGonagall next week, but I thought maybe we could make the day a bit of a date for us?"

Instead of immediately answering yes like she wanted to, Hermione took her time to think Ron's offer over. "So you want our first date to include Professor McGonagall and you want me to pay?!" She gave him a teasing smile.

"Yeah or we can split the bill and agree that the date only starts after your meeting with McGonagall."

"That sounds really good…" She gave him a more genuine smile. "It would be great to finally go on a date with you!"

"That settles it then!" Ron balled up his brown paper bag before getting up. "I better get to work. Thank you again for these…" He waved the piece of parchment around.

"You're welcome, again!" Hermione stood up too and leaned in to kiss his cheek. "I know I'll see you anyway Sunday but good luck next week. You know where I am if you need anything but I'll try and give you some space for study too."

"Okay… thanks Mione…" He returned the kiss on her cheek before leaving her to go to work, taking one last glance at her desk with a smile before he left the department.