Author's Note: Thank you for reading and the kind reviews! This chapter is a bit short but.. the last chapter makes it worth it, I hope! Enjoy!
Chapter 20
June 2000
"That's completely mental," Ron spoke when Hermione had finished her tale of her visit with Draco.
"Exactly. Look, I don't want to get into any more details of Azkaban. It's a horrible place and I know it was a dangerous plan, but what's done is done. It's happened. Is it really worth being mad when my plan worked?"
"Well of course I'm going to be mad!" Ron began to raise his voice until her words really settled in. "Wait, it worked? You remember? Everything?"
She nodded slowly. "Pretty much," she said softly.
"Like the time with the DA when we dueled?" Hermione gave a laugh and nodded. "And all the times you did my homework for me?" Hermione rolled her eyes and nodded again. "And that time you sleepwalked naked down to the common room?"
Hermione's eyes widened. "That never happened!" she practically shrieked. She slapped Ron's arm hard when he started to laugh.
"Ouch! Hey! I had to test you!" Feeling embarrassed, Hermione shoved him and he lost balance and fell over but not before grabbing Hermione's arm so she fell with him. She landed on his chest, the two of them laughing, all signs of anger erased from Ron's expression. She reached up and brushed a bit of his ginger locks from his eyes. The fact that she could remember how his looks changed as he grew into adulthood made her feel full and complete. Without hesitating she leaned down and kissed his lips. It was simple, sweet, a mere lip to lip kiss, yet she felt the shock of electricity rush through her.
"Feels just like the first time," she murmured and was about to lean in for another when a faint pop echoed in the room. Crookshanks hissed from his perch on the couch and both Ron and Hermione's heads darted toward the sound.
"One minute you want to hex each other and the next you're about to shag? Blimey!" came Harry's annoyed voice before he turned the spot and disapparated, no doubt to report back to the Burrow that he had found them.
Ron could do nothing but laugh as he started to sit up, Hermione moving with him as a blush crept over her cheeks. Another pop sounded, this time announcing the arrival of Ginny who had Hermione's coat and purse in her hands. "Really?" she said with the same annoyed tone as Harry. She tossed Hermione's things onto the couch, making Crookshanks jump and hiss again. "Oh shut it, cat," she murmured before turning to her brother and Hermione who had gotten up from the floor. "Per our lovely mother, you have five minutes to get your arses back to the Burrow to explain yourselves," Ginny reported. "She's tiffed as it is, please don't make it worse by not showing up," she sighed. It was obvious that Ginny was still upset that her parent's had not approved of her engagement to Harry.
Hermione stepped forward before Ginny could disapparate, reaching out for her friend to pull her into an embrace. "They'll come around," Hermione whispered. "And I can't wait to be a bridesmaid." Hermione pulled back and saw a smile crack on Ginny's face.
"Thanks for not hating me," Ginny murmured, eyeing Ron over Hermione's shoulder. "I told you he couldn't be mad at you."
Hermione just laughed softly and shook her head. "Go on back home and we'll meet you there," she said softly, taking a step back towards Ron. Ginny nodded and turned on the spot, sending herself back to the Burrow.
Hermione opened her mouth to speak when she remembered an object she cherished that was in her coat pocket. She turned away from Ron and went to the couch to retrieve it, reaching into the pocket and pulling out a small glass orb, holding it in her fingertips as she brought it up to her eye level. She couldn't help the laugh that escaped her lips. "Who knew these things really worked?" she asked, prompting Ron to come over beside her. He looked at the remembrall in her hand, the one he had given her just after her accident, the one that had once blazed deep red, now filled with a dull pink smoke.
"I knew," he told her, reaching for her free hand. "I knew it would work and that you'd remember eventually." He'd invested too much time, energy, and love in her, in this one person, to merely give up completely. If he'd learned anything from being her and Harry's friend, it was to never give up. Everyone had a mission in life, a calling, a prophecy. Ron was pretty sure that if he searched the racks in the department of mysteries, he'd find a glowing crystal ball with his and Hermione's name on it. His life goal might not be as heroic or exciting as Harry's, but it was his and he was going to fulfill it, even if a few curses got in his way. "We should go before my mum's head explodes," he told her, reaching for her free hand. She nodded and gave his hand a squeeze before they disapparated together, arriving with a pop in the garden of the Burrow.