Being Ron Part 4
Ron was unearthing the last of the onions, while his mother tied them together with string and hung them in bunches from the trellis the runner beans had been growing on, when Hermione arrived.
She had been beaming and clutching a roll of parchment but, while her mouth opened to announce the reason for her unexpected arrival, no words of greeting were spoken as she caught sight of the person she had come to see.
Ron was stripped to the waist, skin sweaty and dirty from his afternoon of hard labour, and hair damp and clinging to his face. He was hardly a vision of Adonis but there was something very manly about the skinny young man grunting as he drove the fork into the earth and wrestled out the matted roots and king Edward potatoes.
His shoulder blades protruded from his back like wings fighting to break through the skin and his shoulders and arms took on a whole new shape when he used muscles in them he never normally used.
Hermione felt the scroll crumple in her hand and snapped out of her trance at the realisation that she was gripping it so tightly that she'd screwed it up in the middle.
"Hermione dear!" Molly said as she clambered over the mini harvest scattered in baskets all over the ground between them with her arms wide.
"Hello Molly," Hermione had to clear her throat to sound a little more like herself, "putting him to work I see."
Ron looked over his shoulder at wiped his brow with his forearm. He smiled at her. She noticed a smear of dirt on his nose but didn't say anything about it. She simply waved the crumpled scroll at him and smiled back.
"Apparently if you want heavy duty gardening done, you call an Auror," Ron said before driving the prongs of the gardening fork into the soil and leaving it standing before him.
He wiped his dirty hands on the seat of his jeans and approached her with a tilt of the head.
"That for me?"
"Uh...YES!" She snapped out of her reverie and thrust the parchment at him. "Your results came. the came to Hagrid's hut and I thought you wouldn't want to wait until Monday so I brought it...to you...here."
Ron's smile had slowly faded into an expression of dread. As he paled his skin lost the healthy glow of hard work and the glistening droplets covering his skin made him look as if he'd broken into a cold sweat.
"I know it'll be all right," Hermione said as she stepped closer and pushed the scroll into his roughened hand.
"I forgot about these, they were so late, school already started. I thought I'd got away with starting the Aurors without NEWT results," he babbled.
"I happen to know that they did come during the summer but a certain ratbag...colleague who no longer works at the school...otherwise I'd have killed her..." Hermione kept having to stop herself from getting angry or smirking, she was there on a professional capacity after all. "Let's just say you had to be reassessed and marked again because there was an accusation of cheating."
"I was accused of cheating on the NEWTs?" Ron said in horror. "I'll lose my job before I even really started it!"
"Not you, Ron, me. I was accused of fixing the results." Hermione nodded down to the parchment, that Ron was now crushing with his own hand.
He took a deep breath, pushed his hair away from his face, and then broke the wax seal and unfurled the parchment. He looked at it for a moment, then leaned in and looked closer, and then his eyes widened.
"Wow."
Hermione smiled.
"I take it they believed you didn't get any outside help then."
"Oh wow," Ron said as he put a hand to his mouth and reread the results one more time, "this is...you gave me a..."
Just as a stunned Ron looked up at Hermione to boggle at how well his transfiguration mark was she held up both her hands and cut him off.
"I didn't mark your exam, I just taught you for a year, that was given to you by the impartial examiner."
"Wow," Ron said as he shook his head and looked down at the marks with an exhalation of astonishment.
"And considering I gave you some distractions in class, some unprofessional distractions and quite unnecessary treatment, I'd say you did wonderfully."
Ron looked at her and frowned.
"You were a great teacher. You are a great teacher."
She might have hugged him had he been fully dressed. There was no way she was going to press herself against a sweaty, grimy, soil-flecked, malodorous body.
Ron chuckled.
"It's okay, I wouldn't hug me either," he said as he lifted an arm and sniffed at his armpit, "I reek!"
Hermione laughed but couldn't help dwell upon what she had been holding back for. While getting dirty was one of her least favourite things she'd have got dirty to congratulate Ron for wonderful exam results. She'd stopped because she didn't want to enjoy it. She didn't want to be close enough to think of things so much dirtier than the body before her.
Ron stooped to pick up his discarded t shirt and wiped himself with it. The sheen was smeared away, dirt smudged deeper in, and the lose specks of grit fell away. He threw the now filthy t shirt over his shoulder and nodded towards the house.
"I'll go in for a shower, you wait until you hear water running and then give her this," he handed the parchment to her, "by the time I come back down she should be vaguely tolerable."
"Ron!" Hermione slapped his arm and then gave a shrug to admit that Molly would be unbearably proud of him.
He was about to step over a large sack of potatoes behind him when she grabbed his arm and held him back.
"Wait, I just wanted to let you know I'm really pleased for you. I knew you had it in you. I'm so proud."
"So I escape mum but get you instead," Ron teased.
"My pride comes at a reasonable volume," Hermione pointed out.
She let her arm drop but Ron caught her hand on the way down and squeezed it.
"Nobody ever thought I could be good at...well, anything, apart from you. Percy sometimes, but mainly you." Ron grudgingly admitted.
"Now that's not true."
"It is," Ron insisted with a nod and another squeeze of her hand, "you really did believe I could do better."
"Well remember this next time you tell me I'm wrong about something," she said, finding Ron's seriousness hard to deal with and filling his usual role of throwing humour into the conversation.
Ron looked down at their joined hands and let go with a sigh.
"I'm sorry you wasted your time waiting for me." He mumbled.
"Stop that," she slapped his arm harder this time, "for one thing you are never a waste of my time, for another I was never going to give up on you coming back."
"But sorry anyway."
She looked at his face for a moment and then decided to tell him something she hadn't considered ever mentioning up to that point.
"Ron, while I waited for you, my friend, I didn't stop living my life."
"God no, of course not. I wouldn't have wanted you to. I'm glad you didn't." He fell over each sentence with the next as he tried to convey every thought in one.
"Because I wasn't totally lonely and sad during those five years, you know? I did...have a couple of boyfriends."
Ron looked a little taken aback, as if she'd shoved him away because of an unwelcome advance he'd just made, and stammered over his apology.
"S'rry I never meant t... Y'don... Y'jus-"
"I know," Hermione said as she reached to reassure him but shrank back from the bare skin again, there was something about Ron being bare chested that was stopping her having any kind of physical contact with him, "I didn't want you to put yourself down, thinking that I waited for you like that. I didn't. I waited a long time but not the whole time."
"Y'didn't have t'wait at all. We hadn't even..." Ron blurted.
"I know you're feeling guilty about Gabrielle, whatever you might have done during the summer, but don't be because it's not as if I'm a virgin either."
Something indescribable happened behind Ron's eyes and Hermione wondered if she'd just bruised his ego, maybe there was a little selfish jealousy, but she kept those observations to herself.
"So we're both different people to who we were before," she continued, "but exactly the same friends. If you ever want to talk to anybody other than Harry about Gabrielle you can come to me. All right?"
Ron nodded and swallowed. He was about to step back but his heels were already bumping against the sack of potatoes behind him. He flung out his arms and 'windmilled' a little before regaining his balance and stepping forward.
"I'll er," he gestured to the house, "just go and shower."
"And I'll put in some earplugs and let your mum know she's got two academics in the family," Hermione grinned and waved the results letter before her.
Ron nodded and set off without a word.
There was something about letting go of the secret that made it stop feeling as if she'd cheated on him. Of course she hadn't. She hadn't betrayed Ron by having sex with her boyfriends any more than Ron had betrayed her by doing it with Gabrielle.
Speaking of Gabrielle...
Crack!
"Professor!" The young woman gasped as she saw Hermione, "My letter, eet came, 'as Ron 'eard yet?"
"Yes he has, Gabrielle, he did brilliantly. He even got an Outstanding in one subject." Hermione smiled with pride.
"Oh! I 'ave to congratulate 'im!"
She ran into the house and Hermione followed, knowing Molly would soon be demanding to see Ron's results now that Gabrielle was about to announce their arrival.
Ron started the shower and threw his dirty t shirt into the washing basket. As steam began to billow around him he toed off his grubby trainers and pulled his unpleasantly damp socks off too. He heard a knock on the door and threw the smelly things into the basket before calling through the closed bathroom door.
"Five minutes!"
"Ron, it's me!"
Ron froze for a moment and then opened the door a crack to peer out at Gabrielle.
"Gabs, what're you doing he-"
"I 'ave my results at last and I came to see if yours came too!"
"Oh right, yeah," Ron said as he opened the door a little more and leaned against the doorframe. "So how did you do?"
"I exceed all expectations!"
"Every last one of them?" Ron gasped.
"I know, amazing isn't it?" She bounced on the balls of her feet. "'ow did you do, apart from your Outstanding of course."
Gabrielle beamed and lunged forward to smoosh a kiss against his lips.
"How did you know about that?"
"Professor Granger told me. She's gushing with your muzzer right now."
Ron nodded and folded his arms across his rake thin, mucky chest. He listened to Gabrielle's delight for both of them and thought about what Hermione had told him.
She had had sex with two different people and it was okay because he was having sex with Gabrielle. It was normal and healthy and waiting for somebody you never thought you'd have was silly.
He leaned in close and kissed Gabrielle deeply. She hummed with pleasure and stepped into the bathroom, closing the door behind her.
"Would you like me to scrub your back?"
Ron licked his lips, looked to the shower, and immediately felt like chickening out.
"Maybe you should wait in my room."
"I would miss all the fun," she said with arched eyebrows.
Ron leaned in and kissed her again before breaking away a little and speaking as softly as he could over the sound of the running water.
"You sure?"
She smiled widely and pulled off her flimsy scarf.
"I've been sure for weeks," she said with glee, "and you are too much of a gentleman. Now get out of these," she plucked at his grubby jeans, "and into that." She nodded towards the bathtub with the shower running into it.
"We maybe...uh, maybe a..."
"We can get you clean togezzer!"
Ron pulled off his jeans and kicked them into the corner. Gabrielle slipped out of her skirt and laid it on the towel rail. Ron looked at her, then lunged for the door to make sure it was locked behind her, and then waited for her to unbutton her blouse.
"Get in," she said as she shimmied the thin fabric off her shoulders.
Ron hooked his thumbs inside his pants and hesitated.
"I've seen one before Ron," she laughed.
"You have? When?"
"I 'ave seen Fleur's suitors climbing out of 'er bedroom window late at night. My bedroom is beneath 'ers. Lots of dangling."
"Bloody hell, does Bill know?"
"Bill was a virgin, was he?"
Ron rubbed his face, roughly and Gabrielle reached behind her to unfasten her bra. He became distracted by her actions and she giggled.
"People 'ave sex and it's fun and they aren't bad people. Zey also don't 'ave to get married." She said as the bra fell between them and Ron became unbearably aware that he was wearing nothing but his least sexy pants.
She began to push down her knickers and Ron made a noise at the back of his throat and then looked away.
"You are allowed, I am your girlfriend." She said, kindly not mocking his old fashioned manner.
"My mum's downstairs," he heard himself mumble.
"And ze door is locked. Come on."
She stepped under the hot water and began to massage it through her long hair. Ron nodded to himself as he remembered Hermione's declaration that she still had boyfriends and sex while he was gone.
Now Ron had a girlfriend. He had a girlfriend naked in the shower. He had a girlfriend who was naked in the shower and waiting for him to join her. He hurriedly yanked off his pants and threw them into the same corner as his filthy jeans.
"I've been gardening, I'm wearing my crappy stuff 'cause it was just gardening. If I'd have known-"
"You would 'ave put on your best clothes to shower?" She teased.
Ron laughed at himself and climbed over the edge of the bathtub, into the shower with her, and the water instantly plastered his hair to his forehead and over his eyes. Gabrielle slicked it back with both hands and then reached for a bar of soap to lather up.
"Would you...?" Ron began before losing his bottle and leaving the thought hanging, unspoken, between his dripping lips.
Gabrielle started to wash his chest and shoulders, smiling up at him.
"Go on, I'd do it if you just asked me to," she laughed.
"How did you know what I was gonna say?" Ron blurted.
"I didn't but I'll do whatever you want. I'd climb naked out of zis window if your muzzer knocked on the door."
Ron finally laughed and as he gave her a peck on the lips she lowered her hands and lathered up his stomach.
"You're still gonna come to Hogsmede to see me this week right?"
"Of course, a room at the pub for the night is arranged, why?"
Her hands moved around to his sides and her slippery thumbs rubbed against his skin.
"I was thinking," he stopped because he'd started to squirm and chuckle, "Gabs, not there, tickles."
She rolled her eyes and slid her hands around to meet behind his back.
"Anyway, I was thinking...that thing you wanted to do this summer? I think I can do it now. I mean I always could do it. I can do it!"
She giggled and lifted herself up on tiptoes to kiss his neck.
"Silly thing, you are ready to do it in our room during the week, no?"
"Yes! I mean, not yes, no, but yes that's right."
"Now you know you're a clever boy who deserves me eh?" She beamed, proudly.
"Yeah," he said with a relieved nod, "that's what was stopping me before."
She pressed him into the bathroom wall and kissed him thoroughly.
Now he knew he was allowed to he could do it.
Now he knew he wasn't saving himself for anyone it was time.
