Author's note: Enjoy!

Disclaimer: The following characters belong to J.K. Rowling, and this story derives from her original works, storylines, and world. Please do not sue me, I can barely pay tuition.

Dedication: For Amber, happy birthday!

Hogwarts: Assignment #6, Task #6 - Salmon Rose: (Enthusiasm/desire/excitement) Write about someone beginning a new, exciting chapter in their life (a new relationship, a job promotion—be creative).

Warnings: Suggestive ending

Clocks Ticking, Cups Breaking

She tapped her foot as her eyes scanned the lines of the report. She knew that she was all but skimming her readings now, and she knew that she would have more patience and interest had her undersecretary had forgotten to use the Oxford comma again—but every little thing was getting on her nerves at the moment. Even the pitter patter of the rain outside which, ordinarily, would have put her in the mood for a long day of drinking tea and reading now got under her skin.

She reached out for the cup of coffee she'd hoped would keep her going like some kind of inner midnight oil. Hopefully, the bitter drink would give her that final push of energy she needed to get through her last bit of work… But she reached out without thinking or even looking up, and she tipped over the cup. And then, even more stupidly, she tried to rescue her favourite coffee cup to rescue it as it tipped off the table, only to manage both shattering the ceramic and cutting her hand. The crunch of broken glass and the splash of perfectly good and now wasted coffee sprung through the house.

Ron emerged in the dining room door, the sleeves of his plum sweater rolled up to his sleeves since he'd been working in the kitchen.

"Blimey, you alright?" he asked. The worry lines that appeared in his forehead completely threw off the familiar constellations of freckles she'd memorized. It was one of the many reasons she didn't like to see him worry.

"I'm fine, completely fine, just stupid and distracted," Hermione sighed. She tried to flex the fingers of her injured hand and winced. She reached out to grab her wand from the dining room table and attempted to soak up the coffee on the floor.

"Put that down and hold still," Ron ordered before disappearing into the kitchen.

Over their last fifteen years of their marriage, Ron had gotten more and more into the habit of doing little things the Muggle way—at first to show her that he wasn't quite as useless as she'd once thought he was, then to fit in better with her family, and then to show the children that magic wasn't everything. She smiled as she saw him come to her rescue with the little first aid kit they kept in the medicine cabinet.

"Alright," he said. "What have we got here…"

"It's nothing, Ron, I can manage…"

"Don't put a brave face on for my sake, this is definitely going to take an expert hand," Ron said.

He took his wand out from his back pocket and muttered one of the cleaning spells he excelled in to gather up the shards of broken glass she'd gotten scattered all over the floor. Then, when the coast was clear, he pulled up a chair and sat next to her. He took her hand and examined the cut.

"How'd you manage that?" Ron muttered.

"I was being silly," she explained as she watched him tear open a disinfectant wipe from the first aid kit and dab at her hand. "Trying to rush through some things…" She sighed. He wasn't asking her to explain, but she knew he was focused on his task and would quietly listen to her and so she couldn't help but explain. "I was out the door before dawn, I was late to dinner, and I didn't want to postpone our movie date any more than I had to. That's all I wanted to accomplish today, and now it's nearly midnight..."

"Why the haste?" Ron said. "It's not like we haven't watched The Princess Bride before."

It was true. Hermione had made him watch it with her a thousand times when she's slowly begun his cinematic education and she had taught her children well, meaning that they had also made him watch it a thousand times apiece.

"I just don't want you waiting around for me more than you have to," Hermione said.

"You're worth waiting for," Ron said. He dabbed an antibiotic ointment on the cut and shot her a smile before reaching into the kit for a bandage.

"So you say," Hermione smiled. "Still, I feel like you do a lot of that."

"Part of the joys when one is married to the Minister of Magic," Ron said nonchalantly.

"I wasn't quite Minister of Magic when you married me," Hermione said.

"I knew it was only a matter of time," Ron said, clear blue eyes still focused on the bandage he was wrapping around her hand.

She smiled and leaned back in her chair, letting him do the work.

"Still, I like our time together," Hermione said. "I don't like wasting it."

"You're forgetting something very important, love," Ron said, tying the bandage into place. "Both of our children are now at Hogwarts for over half of the year. We have no shortage of time."

He shut the first aid kit and its soft click punctuated his words.

"That's… very true," Hermione mused. She couldn't believe this hadn't occurred to her before. Of course, she had known that Hugo would be joining his sister at Hogwarts. She'd gone through the Diagon Alley shopping trip and the thousand and one questions and the anxious last minute packing to prove it. But the implications of an empty house as such… well, that was a new angle through which to see their son's recent milestone. Perhaps a good way to spin a positive on their empty nest situation.

"When's the last time we've had that, hmm?" Ron asked. He held her injured hand gently and his thumb ran in circles along the sensitive skin of her wrist.

"The children must have been tiny," Hermione said.

She chewed her lip.

"You know… is watching an old film we've seen a thousand times really what we should be doing with an empty house at our disposal?" Hermione asked.

Ron offered her a smile that flipped her stomach upside down. Then he picked up his wand and, with a wordless Reparo, reassembled her favourite mug.

"Finish your reading first Madam Minister, then we'll talk," he said. He put the mug back on the table for her and kissed the top of her head before waltzing back into the kitchen.

She was momentarily stunned.

Ronald Weasley, telling her to finish her readings—no, baiting her to do it?

Fifteen years really did change a lot of things.

Stacked with: Hogwarts; Shipping War; Spring Bingo; Link Maker

Individual Challenge(s): Gryffindor MC (x2); Rian-Russo Inversion; Ethnic & Present; Old Shoes; In a Flash

Word Count: 1060

Spring Bingo

Space (Prompt): 5C (Rain/Drizzle)

Shipping Wars

Ship (Team): Ron Weasley/Hermione Granger

List (Prompt): Spring Big List (Ceramic Mug)