Thank you for all your patience with all the boring stuff about Dobby's Law etc. Here's a nice fluffy chapter to reward you! :-) xxx
Hermione tries to distract herself from the wait for news about Dobby's Law by throwing herself a birthday dinner.
Having nothing in particular to focus on or work towards was one of the worst things that could happen to Hermione. With Dobby's Law going through the final stages of the Wizengamot process and her translation project still being proofread by Professor Babbling and Professor McGonagall, she had taken to browsing the aisles of the Ministry Library; sometimes with Betsy but mostly by herself. The wealth of books and knowledge contained in this one department overwhelmed Hermione, but it also gave her a kind of peace knowing that she would never run out of things to learn about the Wizarding World.
It was at the bottom of an aisle of books about Time that Ron found Hermione during his lunch break on the day of her birthday. He smiled to himself as he found her sat on the floor, a pile of books by her side. She couldn't be more Hermione right now if she tried. Going to the library was Hermione's answer to everything. He watched as she flicked through the book in her hands in an agitated way before wandering over to her slowly.
"You don't know how long I've fantasised about finding you alone in a library. Although usually you're in a school uniform…" He smirked as he got to her, catching a glimpse at the title of the book in her hand. "Why in the name of Merlin's wrinkly balls are you reading about Time-Turners?! Surely you should be the expert on them by now?"
"I'm trying to work out a way to make time go faster so I can finally get the verdict on Dobby's Law!"
"Well a Time-Turner isn't going to help with that…" He carefully crouched down in front of her and gently eased the book out of her hand. "For one, they're only useful for going back in time. Second, we destroyed the whole lot of them, remember?"
Hermione sighed and looked up at Ron with dull eyes. He hated seeing her this way. She'd never been good with down time, especially if she had to spend it alone and a week of sitting around and twiddling her thumbs must be driving her mad.
"I'm so bored Ron!" She sighed again and Ron pouted at the sad look on her face.
"Well that's why I'm here!" He placed the book at the top of the pile. "It's your birthday; Harry and I want to buy you cake!"
She gave him a small smile. "You don't have to do that. You're both probably so busy and you're coming over later for dinner anyway…"
Ron rolled his eyes and stood up. She was as bad as him once she got into a mood. Fortunately, he knew the way to get her out of it. "Hermione, you cannot spend the entire of your 21st birthday moping around the library. I won't allow it. You're going to let Harry and I buy you lunch and then I'm sending you home. Did you know that it's an actual law that you're not allowed to work on your birthday?!"
Hermione laughed despite her mood. "No…"
"It's true…" He grinned and held out a hand. "But first, I need a kiss…"
She let him pull her to her feet, a grin creeping over her face as Ron slid his arms around her waist and gave her a long kiss. She immediately reacted, sliding both hands into his hair to pull him closer to her, easily melting into the kiss. He started to carefully walk her back until she was pressed up against a rack of books, still kissing her. She moaned against his lips as she felt one of his hands slide from her waist to trace down her side and take hold of her hip.
A sudden noise from behind the shelves interrupted them and Hermione pulled away, resting her forehead against his with a smile. "Can you not come home with me and carry on doing that? I feel that's the only way to save my birthday…"
Ron let out a low laugh. "Oh I wish I could but I have a whole afternoon learning how to detect the Trace ahead of me!" He pulled her back to him tightly, pressing his hips against hers and grinning at the moan that escaped her lips.
Hermione was breathless and her stomach was full of butterflies. "Lucky you!" She started to move in for another hard kiss but grumbled as Ron stepped away teasingly and took her hand.
"Come on, I'm starving…" He held onto her hand tightly and started to pull her down the aisle. With a flick of her wand, she returned the pile of books to their correct spots on the shelves before following him out of the library. She reluctantly let go of him as they neared the Ministry cafeteria and laughed as she was greeted by a table full of her friends as well as Arthur and Percy.
The hour went by too quickly. Harry had bought her lunch before she could even find some galleons in her robe pockets. The small group had obviously been briefed to not bring up anything about her work but despite this, the conversation flowed easily and to top it off, Arthur had presented one of Molly's birthday cakes for them to share.
"Molly says you can eat this now and she'll make another one when you come over for your birthday lunch Sunday! Knowing her, she'll probably bring one to the game tomorrow too!" Arthur smiled fondly as he put the cake in front of Hermione.
Hermione felt in a better mood when she finally left the Ministry. Instead of heading straight home, she decided to take herself shopping and treat herself to something nice to wear for her party that evening. She wasn't usually one for retail therapy, but it was her birthday after all.
When she got home, she quickly unpacked her bags and took a quick shower. She took her time doing her hair and makeup before changing into her new green, wrap dress, finding the whole process quite therapeutic. By the time she was finally ready, her thoughts had moved from Dobby's Law and to her upcoming party. Pleased with her appearance, she headed down to the kitchen; feeding Crookshanks before putting on some music as she started to cook. She was so distracted by the music that she didn't hear the sound of someone apparating into her living room.
Ron apparated into Hermione's cottage deliberately early and was greeted by a wall of music. Smiling, he followed the sound of the music to the kitchen. He was slightly surprised to see Hermione dancing around the kitchen barefoot and he leaned against the kitchen doorframe, vaguely aware that this was the second time he had watched her that day.
"Hey you!" He laughed as she turned and jumped a mile.
"Merlin Ron! You scared the life out of me! You're lucky I didn't have a knife in my hands!"
Ron laughed and wandered over to her slowly. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you!" He pressed a soft, slow kiss against her lips. "Happy birthday! You're in a much better mood this evening. What's happened?"
Hermione smiled as she returned his kiss. "Oh nothing much. I took myself shopping after lunch…"
"Yeah… I can see that! This is new, right?" He ran a finger around the neckline of her dress, grinning as he saw her visibly shudder.
"Yeah, do you like it?"
"I love it!" He gave her another kiss. "So it's just the dress making you happy then?"
"Oh, well also the guy I'm dating is coming over soon and I'm cooking a nice big meal with my friends. We're going to drink lots of wine and have a really good night!"
Ron raised his eyebrows with a smile. "You are one lucky witch. Has the guy you're dating brought you a present?"
"No… but I don't need one…"
"Oh…" Ron pretended to look upset as he let go of Hermione and pulled a small parcel from his pocket. "Not sure what to do with this then…" He placed the parcel in her hands and tapped it with his wand to make it grow to it's true size.
Hermione grinned at the wrapped gift. "Presents are always welcome…" She weighed it in both hands then shook it, trying to guess what it was. Carefully, she started to unwrap it.
Ron suddenly found himself feeling quite nervous. It had taken him a while to think of something suitable to buy Hermione. He knew 21st birthdays were big in the muggle world, but he wanted to be careful not to choose something that could be interpreted the wrong way, such as a piece of jewellery. It was still fairly early on in their new relationship.
"It's not much…" He found his nerves melting away as he watched a huge smile creep over Hermione's face. "They're first edition Jane Austen. I found them in an old muggle bookshop. I know how much you love reading muggle books but if they're not what you like, the owner said I could take them back and swap them for something else…"
"Oh no Ron, this is perfect!" She placed the set of books carefully down on the table before wrapping her arms back around him and giving him a hard kiss. "You really didn't have to get me anything though. Just having this second chance with you is enough…"
Ron grinned, tightening his grip on her as he returned every kiss eagerly. "Yeah I know… but I'd be a shit boyfriend if I didn't get you anything and I'm sure you'd just use it as ammo in the future…" He gave her a cheeky grin.
"Boyfriend?" Hermione raised her eyebrows at him without letting go of him. Despite the fact they'd been spending increasing amounts of time together, they'd not put a label on what was going on.
Ron avoided eye contact with her, blushing bright red as he realised his choice of words. "Uhm yeah, I mean… I guess that's what this is?"
She laughed and placed two fingers under his chin, pushing his face up to look at her. "That sounds perfect!" She kissed him again, feeling completely elated. Everything was going so well; she'd completely forgotten about work. She stayed wrapped up with Ron, kissing him eagerly until they heard her floo activate. Pouting, she pulled away from him.
Ron sighed slightly. "One step at a time, yeah? I promise we'll tell everyone soon…" He pressed one last kiss against her lips before moving away from her, busying himself by getting drinks for the new arrivals.
Hermione soon found herself distracted from her frustration as more of their friends arrived. Most of them stayed in the kitchen with her, chatting away and helping her to prepare the meal. The others came back and forth, helping themselves to more drinks. Most of them were making the most of having a whole weekend free of work ahead of them, apart from Ginny who had a game the next day.
Hermione's cooking had improved greatly since their time on the run and Ron was thankful of this as they all settled around the magically enlarged garden table. They'd all decided to make the most of the Indian summer and the unseasonably warm weather it had brought. He had tried his best to engineer how they sat so he could sit next to her, but Harry had distracted him last minute with talk about tomorrow's Quidditch game and Ron had found himself sat between Ginny and Luna.
He watched with a smile as Hermione was forced into a seat at the head of the table seeing as she was both the hostess and the birthday girl. He was amazed at how easily she had found throwing herself a party as she wasn't the most sociable out of all of them. That didn't mean she didn't like spending time with her friends, far from it, but he knew she usually preferred to stay out of the limelight and let her other friends dictate what they did.
He suddenly found himself quite frustrated with the secrecy of their relationship, even though he knew he was the one pulling the shots on it, pushing her to keep it secret. It was mental. He had this beautiful, brilliant witch as his girlfriend (and Merlin, it felt good to call her that) and he couldn't even sit next to her at her birthday party or kiss her in front of their friends. As Neville and Hannah started going into detail of their latest attempt at a disastrous date, he felt a twinge of anger. He got up suddenly and mumbled something about needing more wine before striding back into the house.
Hermione watched Ron leave the table with a small frown. Luckily, nobody else had noticed his sudden exit or his change in mood. She pretended to look interested in the conversation taking place between Seamus and Ginny about something Quidditch related as she finished her glass of wine before carefully getting up and heading back into the house after Ron.
She found him in the kitchen trying to work the muggle corkscrew she'd shown him earlier. She raised an eyebrow as she watched him throw it across the room in frustration and point his wand at the bottle, finally freeing it of the cork.
"What's got your wand in a knot, Ron?" She cocked her head to one side thoughtfully.
"Nothing…" Ron filled his own glass before moving to top hers up. "I'm just annoyed, it's a bit irrational really…"
"Tell me…"
Ron sighed and sat against the kitchen table before mumbling quietly. "I'm pissed off because I'm not sat next to you…"
Hermione tried her best to supress a giggle, knowing that it would probably push him over the edge. Instead she tried to rearrange her face into something more sympathetic. "So why didn't you sit by me?"
"Because I've been an idiot trying to hide what's going on between us because I didn't want everyone to get involved…"
"I think you'll find we both agreed to keep it secret and that we were enjoying the secrecy…" Hermione reached up to push his fringe out of his eyes carefully. "Are you saying you want this to change?"
Ron shrugged and put down his wine. Maybe he'd had too much to drink and it was causing him not to think properly. "I don't want a huge fuss, or to make your birthday about me but maybe we should stop hiding?"
"How about we go back out there with hands held and sit down at the table together? Most of them have drunk far too much wine to even notice now anyway! And we'll just take things from there?"
Ron nodded and gave Hermione a soft kiss in response.
"Come on then…" She moved away from him, tangling her fingers with his before taking a deep breath and walking back out into the garden, holding on to him tightly. She spotted two vacant seats and settled into one happily. As soon as Ron was sat next to her, she leaned into him, pressing a soft kiss against his lips with a smile.
The table suddenly went quiet as they finally took notice of the couple. The sound of Harry slamming down his cutlery forced them away from their kiss.
"I bloody knew it!" Harry had a huge grin on his face. "Your brothers owe me a lot of money. I've been driving myself…"
"…and me…" Ginny interrupted with a smirk.
"…and Ginny absolutely mental trying to work out what was going on with you two. Everyone else kept on telling me nothing was going on, that you two were just friends and there you are, just snogging away! How long has this been going on?!"
Hermione grinned and placed her hand firmly on Ron's thigh as she turned back to her friends. "Since your wedding, I guess?"
"Yeah, that's when we decided to give it another try!"
"A month and a half?!" Harry shook his head, though it was obvious he was only joking. "You two call yourselves best friends…"
Ron laughed. "What about you? Betting against us with my brothers?"
"Hey! I was betting for you!" Harry grinned and carried on with his food, stopping to eat every so often to tell Ginny 'I told you so'.
Hermione laughed as their friends carried on with dinner with only some further light teasing. As she sat there, happily entwined with Ron and basking in the warmth of her friends, she marvelled on how a day (and her mood) could change so drastically. She didn't even give Dobby's Law another thought as the party went well into the night. Her 21st Birthday was a lot better than she expected.