Author's Note: Hello, hello! Now to the conclusion of Ron & Draco's fight. And, also the conclusions to other things. :3 Enjoy!

Disclaimer: JKR is fantastic, brilliant and magical.

Chapter fourteen

You don't have to settle for me at all

Ron heard another voice as he walked onto Hermione's porch. He looked through the window of the door and saw Draco's blond head bending down by Hermione. Ron had to time this right. He silently watched as Draco was starting to stand up. Ron silently conjured the blasting charm.

Seconds later, the front door burst open and splintered everywhere. A few large pieces hit Draco to Ron's satisfaction. Ron quickly looked around the room and saw Hermione bleeding profusely. He quickly ran over to her, training his wand on Draco's still form. Ron bent down and stared at Hermione.

She was pale as can be and she was losing a lot of blood. Ron was about to heal her when he saw her eyes widen in horror. He heard her try to warn him, but it was too late. He felt a spell hit him in the back.

Hermione let out a small scream as she saw Ron get hit by a stupefy spell. Draco staggered as he fell into the chair. He lifted his head back and closed his eyes. Hermione watched him and slowly reached down for Ron's wand. She looked over at Draco who was still trying to recover.

Hermione racked her brain to think of the spell that could bring Ron back to consciousness. She had to hurry before Draco felt better and finished the job he finished. And also, she felt like she was going to pass out. The spell came to her as if she got splashed in the face with cold water.

Hermione wordlessly cast the Rennervate spell. Ron gasped and looked up at Hermione who weakly smiled at him. As she did, she passed out. Ron blanched and quickly grabbed his wand. As he turned around, he saw Draco had recovered.

"Oh, look. Weasley has come to Granger's rescue!" Draco sneered.

"Oh, look, Malfoy's up to no good. And as usual, his plans never work out," Ron said smirking at him.

Draco's smirk quickly fell from his face. Ron's smile widened.

"Weasley, you underestimate me."

"No I don't. I know you may be capable of things, but nothing great."

Draco narrowed his eyes at Ron.

"What's the matter, Malfoy? Did I strike a nerve?"

"You'll regret that!" Draco said venomously.

"Petrificus Totalus!" Draco yelled.

Ron quickly threw up Protego charm. The shield deflected the spell away from him.

"You're going to have to try harder than that!" Ron laughed as he sent over a Stupefy charm.

Draco quickly dodged the charm and hid behind the chair he sat in moments ago. Draco breath was coming in quick spurts.

"Is that all you have, Weasley? A simple Stupefy spell. How pathetic!" Draco said trying to sound as if the narrow dodge had been nothing.

"It's a lot better than trying to bind my whole body," Ron's voice came from across the room.

Draco leaned around the chair to gauge Ron's position. He wasn't where he last was. Draco leaned around the other side to see if he could find him anywhere. The living room wasn't that big, so where could he be?

Just then, Draco heard Ron running at him from the left side of the chair. Draco quickly flicked his wand and yelled Cruico. Ron flicked his wand and blocked it with a Protego Horribilis charm. Ron quickly cast a Langlock curse taking Draco by surprise. Ron kicked Draco's wand out of his hand and stood with his wand pointing under his neck. Draco stared down at Ron's wand as Ron smirked at him.

"I told you your plans never go as planned. I told you that you'll never do anything great," Ron said with fury tainted his voice.

Draco couldn't say anything since his tongue was currently glued to the roof of his mouth. Draco looked positively frightened.

"Conjunctivitus!" Ron said as Draco's eyes began to swell and close. He also cast the body binding curse to make sure Draco wouldn't be able to move.

Ron picked up Draco's wand and ran over to Hermione's lifeless form. He bent down and looked at her pale features. Ron flicked his wand and cast Vulnera Sanentur to heal her cuts and to replace her blood. The whole time he was healing her, Ron's worry grew. He hoped he wouldn't be too late. When he got to her, he couldn't see really see if she was breathing or not.

When Ron got Hermione healed up, he sent his patronus to Harry explaining mostly what happened. He turned back to Hermione who was regaining a bit of her color back. Ron let out a sigh of relief. He held her hand as she grasped his. Her brown eyes opened and she looked into his blue ones.

"Hermione, you have no idea how happy I am that you're alive," Ron said looking at her face.

Hermione gave a small smile.

"I'm happy you came to save me," she said quietly.

"Me too. I'm going to take you to St. Mungo's right now. Do you think you can walk? If not, I'll carry you," Ron said getting up.

"My legs are still locked. Where's Draco!" Hermione asked just remembering.

"He's on the floor over there. I bound his whole body, swelled his eyes shut and glued his tongue to the roof of his mouth. Oh, yeah. I have his wand here also," Ron said amused and smiling at her.

Hermione smiled back at him.

"Harry's on his way over to here to take Draco to the Auror's department," Ron said casting the Reparifors charm on Hermione's legs.

She slowly moved her stiff legs. She put her legs on the ground and Ron decided to pick her up and apparated straight to the hospital.

Harry got the Hermione's house as soon as he received Ron's rat terrier patronus. As he made it through the wreckage of Hermione's front door and living room, he saw Draco lying on his side near the recliner. Harry walked over to him slowly. Harry bent down next to him.

"I see you got your ass kicked again, Draco. You didn't have anyone here to help you this time," Harry said into Draco's ear.

"Mobilicorpus," Harry cast as he flicked his wand at Draco.

Harry grabbed a handful of Floopowder and threw it into Hermione's fireplace. Harry said clearly The Ministry of Magic: Auror's department. He sent Draco through first and then himself.

Ron sat outside in the waiting room with his head in his hands as he waited to hear anything about Hermione. He knew she was going to be all right, but he wanted to be able to see her.

When he brought her in, the whisked her away to make sure she wasn't bleeding internally or anything. Every since then, which was about 40 minutes ago, Ron was sitting in the waiting room. He didn't know when Harry and Ginny were coming. He wasn't really worried about that, all that was on his mind was Hermione.

"Mr. Weasley?" A female voice said from above his head.

Ron lifted his head and nodded.

"Miss Granger is doing fine. You can go in and see her now," she said with a smile as Ron's worried blue eyes lit up.

"Thank you!" He said as he followed the nurse up to Hermione's room.

Ron opened the door and discovered the light in the room to be dimmed. He walked slowly over to Hermione's bed. She was awake and sitting up reading some pamphlet.

"Hey," Ron said as he grabbed a chair to sit next to her.

"Hey," she said smiling at him.

"How are you feeling?"

"I feel all right. Nothing was really wrong with me since you healed me beforehand. Thank you so much for that by the way," Hermione said putting all of the emotion she could muster into her brown eyes.

Ron grabbed her right hand and rubbed it.

"Honestly, it was no problem. I was terribly worried and scared. I'm just really glad you're alive. I feared I was too late," Ron said as he grew pale thinking about not being in time to save her.

"Don't think about that, ok? I'm fine," she said rubbing his hand.

"I won't," Ron said looking up at her.

"So, what did you want to talk about before we were, uh, incapacitated?" Hermione asked.

"Oh, it's nothing now," Ron said.

"Well, I still want to hear about it," Hermione insisted.

"I was just going to talk about how Malfoy had set up a meeting with me two nights ago after I came home from Harry and Ginny's. He told me some pretty wild things, but I didn't believe him, but of course I wanted to talk to you about it," he said quickly.

"What did he say?" Hermione asked starting to get angry.

"Oh, he just said that you didn't want to be with me and that you didn't love me. Basically he wanted me to stay away from you. I can figure out why now, but still I wasn't falling for it. I just want to know why he could say these things," Ron said lost in thought.

"He probably did because two nights ago, I had dinner with him. He wanted to be 'friends' and I thought, hoped, he changed. Obviously I was wrong, but I gave him the benefit of the doubt. Bad idea," Hermione said grimacing.

"Very bad idea," Ron said with a slight smile.

Hermione smiled back at him.

"You know, for being so smart, you did do some unintelligent things," Ron said with a bigger smile.

"I know, I know. I suppose I've just haven't been myself lately," she shrugged.

"Why?"

"I don't know. I guess since I've been such an idiot when it comes to you and our whole situation. I'm sorry by the way. I really am. I just felt like I was in a daze. Plus, with our whole 'break' from each other, I just felt strange as well. I'm so used to you and my feelings towards you, that that was just a shock to my system," she said.

"It's all right. We've both been immature prats about this whole situation. And I don't want to do that anymore. I think we're old enough to say that we love each other and that we want to be together, right?"

"Yes, that's very true. I do want to be with you Ronald. Krum didn't mean anything to me. I just got caught up in him like I did years ago," Hermione said quietly.

"I'm really glad to hear that, considering I hated him. I know you were friends with him, but I hated him. It was mainly because was jealous. He had you and I didn't, but I want you now. Now and forever," Ron said staring into her chocolate eyes.

Hermione smiled. "I want you, too, Ron. I always have. I was always jealous of you and Lavender all those years ago. And of course of you and Jordan, no matter how brief it was. I need you in my life, more so now than ever," Hermione said staring into his blue eyes.

Ron took his right hand and stroked her cheek. Her cheek instantly turned a rose color. Ron scooted closer and leaned in. Ron's lips crashed into Hermione's and they were both in total bliss. Hermione started to tear up. Ron pulled back for a moment and a look of concern spread upon his face. Hermione shook her head at him and she continued the kiss. After minutes of snogging and making out, they heard someone clear their throat. The pair looked up and saw a smiling redhead and brunette at the doorway. Hermione and Ron both blushed.

"I'm sorry. Are we interrupting something?" Ginny said as her smile broadened.

Ron sat back in his chair and Hermione re-arranged her covers.

"No, not at all, you wankers," Ron said sarcastically.

"Good. We came to see if Hermione was all right and clearly she's fine," Ginny said smirking.

"Yes, I'm fine," Hermione said smiling at her two friends.

"Obviously," Harry said walking into the room and taking a chair.

"So, tell us what happened!" Ginny said sitting down next to Harry.

Hermione retold her part of the story and when she finished, Ron told his part of the story.

"So, what happened to him, Harry?" Ron asked after he was done.

"I flooed him to the office and everyone was shocked to see it was Draco. They barely recognized him. Nice work, mate," Harry said beaming at his friend.

"And?" Hermione urged on.

"Well, after I reversed all of the spells, I locked him up in one of the cells in the back. Boy was he livid. I filled out the paperwork on him and now he's awaiting trial," Harry finished.

"Brilliant, but the bloody arsehole needs more than a trial," Ron said.

"Well, he did get the pants beat off of him," Harry said.

"True," Ron said.

The four of them talked and laughed for a bit more. The nurse from early came in and bustled them all out. They were keeping Hermione overnight to make sure she was 100% better and would be released in the morning if she checked out all right. Harry and Ginny hugged her goodbye, but Ron lingered for a few moments. He walked over to her bed and sat on his chair again.

"So, where were we?" He asked as he leaned in again.

"Oh, you know, right here," she said closing the gap and snogging him. Ron reluctantly pulled back a minute later and kissed her forehead before he left. Everything seemed to be falling back into place.

The next morning, Hermione checked out to be fine. Ron was there to help her. After leaving the hospital they both apparated to Hermione's house.

Hermione walked up to her porch and discovered a new front door. When she went inside, she found her living room to be spotless. It was like the duel had never happened.

"I figured you didn't want to clean the day after you came home from the hospital," Ron said sheepishly.

"No, not at all. Did you do this?" She asked raising an eyebrow.

"Harry and Ginny helped, of course," Ron said.

"I must thank them. Thank you," she said hugging him.

Ron rubbed her back and kissed the top of her head.

"Before you thank them, I want to do something," he said blushing slightly.

"What's that?" She asked.

Ron's hands fumbled with something in his pocket and he slowly got down on one knee. Hermione stood there in shock.

"Hermione Jean Granger, after yesterday's events I realize I don't ever want to be without you. Even before yesterday I realized that. I just don't want to lose you and I want to be there to protect you for as long as we live. So, will you marry me?" Ron asked as his icy blue eyes sparkled.

Hermione put a hand over her mouth and her eyes started welling up with tears. She nodded her head slowly. Ron got up and placed her ring on her finger. It was a white gold band with a large diamond in the middle with a blue sapphire on one side and an aquamarine stone on the other side. It was a representation of them (their birthstones) being joined together by one thing, their love. Ron hugged Hermione tightly and kissed her with as much passion as he could muster.

"I love you," Hermione said looking up into Ron's looming face.

"I love you, too, Hermione," he said kissing her again.

A/N: Let's all saw awww. Anyways, don't worry! There will be an epilogue. I promise. But Ron and Hermione are FINALLY together. Happy, happy, joy, joy.

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