Authors Note- Sorry for being so depressing for the last chapter and most of this one but I don't think that they would all have gone back to normal after everything that happened! I wanted to make it realistic and have Fred's funeral and everything. Anyway, hope you like this chapter, give me some reviews please :)

Waking Up

Fred's funeral had been awful. One of the hardest things that's he'd ever had to do in his life. As he and his older brothers carried the coffin into the church he had looked around at the faces of the people standing there. There were loads of them. Some faces he knew but many, he didn't recognise. How was it that after 18 years of his life, 18 years of knowing Fred, he had no idea who most of the people were that had come to pay their respects to him? He supposed that Fred had touched so many people along the way, with his sense of humour, kindness and way of speaking to people it was difficult for anyone not to like him. And then of course there was Weasley's Wizard Wheezes; the shop that Fred and George owned in Diagon Alley was infamous because of the many exciting joke products that the two of them had invented and had probably made the twins famous to almost every child in Britain. So this was the reason for the number of people then, they weren't here because they had known Fred personally. These people hadn't experienced the warmth of his heart or his hilarious stories. They had never known him properly. No, they had just bought some joke items out of a shop and turned up to his funeral as some 'claim to fame.' Maybe some of them had even hoped to catch a glimpse of the famous Harry Potter while they were here. For a moment, this made Ron angry, that so many of these people didn't really know or care about Fred, but as he looked round at their faces and saw the sadness etched upon all of them he realised that it didn't matter. Fred wouldn't have minded the reasons for all these people coming here, he would have just been glad of a bigger audience to show off in front of. In fact, it might even have made him happy to know that his products were such a success during the dark times in which they had sold them that he was famous enough to have random people come to his funeral.

Then there had been the speeches- George, his dad and Lee had taken it in turns to get up and talk about Fred and all the happy memories that they had of him, all the funny stories from when he was younger and all the trouble he and George had gotten into at Hogwarts, including of course, the huge firework display they had produced to annoy Umbridge before they had left the school in their 7th year. Many of the people in the seats had laughed a lot during the speeches. Ron couldn't bring himself to laugh, all he could think about was that Fred would no longer get into trouble along with his twin; he wouldn't be there to tease Ron about his relationship with Hermione or annoy their mum with their constant pranks. He couldn't see how George would ever be the same again either as he watched him talk about Fred with a dead, haunted look behind his eyes. George had been very quiet since the night of the battle, choosing to keep to his room most of the time and when he did emerge he had permanent red marks around his eyes. Ron couldn't blame him, of everyone that would miss Fred it was undoubtedly going to be hardest for George, his best friend and partner in crime since the moment of their birth. Ron had sat next to Hermione throughout the entire service and hadn't let go of her hand once, tears had silently poured down her face the whole time but she was here for him, like she said she would be. And Ron knew that he couldn't have got through it without her.

As someone said his name, Ron looked up into the face of his mother and realised that he had been staring into space, thinking about Fred's funeral for almost 10 minutes. He really needed to stop losing himself in his thoughts so often otherwise he would miss what was going on in front of him.

'Ron, I was saying that you should go and help your father bring some drinks through for everyone' she said kindly.

Right, of course, they were back at the Burrow along with the family and some of their closest friends to 'celebrate Fred's life' or some shit like that. As if anyone felt like celebrating. He almost laughed at the irony of it all, a celebration was meant to be happy and cheerful, yet here they all were looking thoroughly depressed and half of them close to tears. But it was his mum's idea and if it helped her and made her feel better then he would suck it up and look happy. So he managed half a smile as he replied to her, 'yeah, sure mum, no problem.'

His dad was already in the kitchen pouring out glasses of firewhisky, butterbeer, pumpkin juice and whatever else he could find in the cupboards. He looked up as Ron walked into the room, setting down the bottle he had been about to open.

'Mum told me to come through and help you,' he said not fully meeting his dad's eyes. He was scared of what he might find behind them if he looked anyone directly in the eyes, to see the pain and suffering reflected back at him would be too hard.

'Okay Ron. Um…I couldn't help but notice - I mean - you and Hermione have become rather close,' it wasn't a question, merely an observation that he wanted to speak to his son about.

'Em, yeah. Well, you know - we... uh - yeah.' Ron's ears started to burn and go red as he looked at the floor; he really didn't feel comfortable talking about this with his dad. They didn't usually talk about things like this.

It was clear that Arthur was not entirely comfortable with the conversation either as he was also looking at a spot on the floor near his feet but he carried on regardless. 'Well I just wanted to say that – um - I'm happy for you son. You've got yourself a good one there! And, it's nice that we've got a bit of happiness in the family after everything…well, you know.'

Ron hadn't been expecting that, he looked up to see his dad giving him a praising smile. 'em, thanks dad. Sh- shall we take these drinks through now?'

He was glad that his dad was happy about his new relationship with Hermione but he certainly didn't enjoy talking about it. He only hoped that his mum wasn't about to make a big speech about it too. He'd rather fly on the back of a dragon again than talk to his mum about feelings and stuff.

Everyone had left the Burrow and the bottles of drink were significantly reduced- there had been a whole lot of toasts to Fred. The remaining Weasleys, plus Harry and Hermione who were staying with them, were tidying the Living room, picking up empty bottles and dirty glasses when Ron realised that someone was staring at him from across the room. He looked up and realised that it was Hermione, looking slightly bleary eyed (he didn't think she'd had that much to drink) and smiling slightly at him. He walked over to her; his head feeling a little woozy (he'd had a few firewhiskeys) and put an arm round her waist.

'Admiring the view were you?' he asked her with a cheeky glint in his eye. The drink along with the chats with his friends and family about Fred had made him feel more relaxed than he had done in months. He was beginning to feel like he could be happy again at some point. Maybe his mum had had the right idea with this celebration. She had said that muggles often did this sort of thing after funerals and that they called it a 'wake.' Well it had definitely 'woken' him from the depression he'd felt over the last few days. Damn, why did she always have to be right?

'It just makes me happy to see you interacting with your family again. I've been worried about you since Fred – well – since that night,' said Hermione.

'Yeah, I feel a lot better tonight, dunno if it's just the drink,' he smiled then looking down at her. 'Speaking of drink, how much did you have? You look a bit tipsy Miss Granger.' He pressed his thumb against her nose as she giggled.

'I only had a few glasses of butterbeer! But you know what I'm like; they just go straight to my head!' She was trying to be serious but the effect didn't quite work as she stumbled slightly and fell forwards onto Ron's chest.

He caught her and laughed, 'I think you're cute when you're drunk.' He said as he bent down and kissed her lightly on the lips. She was caught by surprise and deepened the kiss as she pushed her body right up against his.

He was conscious then of a number of eyes on his back so he took her by the hand and gestured that they should go upstairs.

As they reached Ron's bedroom he became aware of how this must look to Hermione. He had just said that he liked it when she's drunk, kissed her and then dragged her by the hand to his bedroom. He groaned inwardly as this thought spread through his mind. He wanted her to think he was thoughtful and a gentleman, not some sex-mad animal. Not that they had actually had sex yet of course. It had only been a few nights since they had first kissed and what with how shit he'd been feeling about Fred's death and the fact that the house was constantly filled with people, there hadn't been any time for anything more than the odd kiss here and there since then. But now here they were on his bed, her head leaning against him while he put her arm round her. Bloody hell. Hermione Granger was on his bed. Not even in his wildest dreams did he think that this moment would actually happen. Yet here she was, quite relaxed and content as she trailed her finger over his hand and up his arm. The feeling was giving him shivers and sending jolts to the lower region of his abdomen. He tried hard not to think about that as he thought he might die of embarrassment if his feelings were to present themselves in that part of his body. Now that he was here with her he was starting to think that this was an extremely bad idea. What would she be expecting from him after being dragged to his empty bedroom? He wasn't sure if she was ready to go that far with him yet but then again she hadn't protested to coming to his room. What did that mean? Then he remembered that she had been drinking and he cursed at himself, he couldn't very well do anything now! It would feel as if he'd taken advantage of her. But then how would he get her to go back to her room without hurting her feelings, would she be disappointed? Fuck! Why was it all so confusing?! Just as the stress of the situation was beginning to get to him and his heart rate was rising, Hermione sighed contentedly against his chest and he thought he might explode as he felt the vibrations from her throat rumble through his body.

'This is nice' she said happily, continuing to run circles up his arm with her fingers.

'Yeah' he managed to squeak out. Damn, she was hardly doing anything and he was getting turned on. What kind of pervert was he?

'But I think I should probably go back to Ginny's room now and go to bed.'

'What – why?' He was confused, had he done something wrong?

'Well Ronald, I don't think your mother would be too happy if she found me in your bed would she?'

'Oh, yeah. S'pose you're right.'

'Besides, Harry won't want to go to his bed if we're in here. And the only bed free would be the one next to Ginny,' she said giving him a wry smile.

'Oh! Yeah, well you'd better get back to your bed then. I mean - it wouldn't be fair to chuck Harry out. No need for him to sleep somewhere else…' That was the last thing he wanted, Harry was his best friend but the idea of him and his sister in the same room…well it wasn't an idea that he wanted to think about.

Hermione laughed then, gave him a kiss and left the room leaving Ron feeling slightly resentful that he couldn't get some proper time alone with her. Then he remembered that they were planning to go to Australia next week to bring Hermione's parent's home and restore their memories. It would be just the two of them going and he wondered if he could maybe even persuade her to hold off going to her parent's house so they could get a few hours by themselves first…maybe even a whole night? With this thought in mind he fell asleep and had his first nightmare free night since the end of the war.