Chapter 4

I woke up in a tangled mess of limbs. It felt amazing. I kept my eyes closed and pretended to still be sleeping, though I couldn't stop the grin spreading across my face. I had not only spent the entire night in Ron's bed but I had spent the entire night in Ron's bed… with Ron. I don't actually remember falling a sleep so the fact that I did in Ron's bed was not intentional, however I certainly was not regretting this small error. His arms were currently wrapped around me holding my back flush up against his warm body, my arms were hugging his arms and our legs were loosely tangled together. My smile just wouldn't fade. I was just wondering how long it would be before Ron woke up (I was secretly hoping it would be sometime in the very distant future) when I felt him gently place a kiss on the back of my neck. The smile that I thought could not get any bigger did and nearly caused my face to explode.

"Hermione… I think your face is about to split in two."

My eyes flew open to see a wide-awake Ginny Weasley sitting cross-legged on Harry's camper bed in front of me. It took me a moment to realize that Ginny was not the only person in the room with us; the room was full of people. Bill had his arms around Fluer as he leaned against the far wall of the room, Charlie and Percy were looking down at us, smiles on their faces, Harry was sitting on his bed next to Ginny (both of whom looked quite pleased with themselves) and Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were standing at the end of the bed, arms crossed over their chests with a look of wrath on their faces. Shit!

Ron and I tried to jump out of bed with lightning speed, this of course failed. Ron tripped on some foreign object on the floor causing him to hit his head on the window sill while I got tangled up in the bedding and rolled out of bed onto the floor.

"Mum, Da…"

"Mr Weasl…"

"I don't want to hear it." Mr. Weasley cut off our attempts at an explanation quite swiftly.

"We do" Charlie was in stitches.

Mrs. Weasley turned and glared at her son causing his laughter and everyone else's to instantly stop.

"We were all just heading out, weren't we?" Charlie was looking around the room at his siblings, hoping that they would follow suit. They did and began filing out of the room leaving Ron and I alone with his parents.

"We were just sleeping Mum." Ron said while I nodded in agreement.

"Oh, I know that. But you happened to be just sleeping wrapped around Hermione. I hadn't realized that friends do that these days, had you Arthur?"

I kind forgot that no body other than Harry really new about any development in Ron and I's relationship.

"Ahh… No I hadn't. This is also news to me Molly." Mr. Weasley replied.

The four of us were standing in silence and it seemed Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were waiting for some kind of response from either Ron or I but I just couldn't seem to find anything to say. They were right.

"Well Hermione isn't just my friend." Ron said as he grabbed my hand. "She…she is…well…"

He was now looking at me like he did when he was having trouble with a transfiguration essay. He wanted help. But this was no transfiguration essay and I for once didn't know the answer.

"Hermione is what son?" Mr. Weasley asked with a smug look on his face.

I was just as interested as his parents to hear the answer. Ron's face seemed to be turning into a tomato as the three of us stared at him in waiting.

"Well… I… umm…we… I…think…thatwearetogether." He said the last part really quick and was looking to me for confirmation.

"You think?" His mother asked, now also looking at me.

A silence filled the room briefly before I realized that Ron was waiting for me to answer.

"Y-Yes, I guess we are." I said so quietly I'm surprised anyone actually heard me.

Ron was smiling at me as if Christmas had come early and I was smiling back, our lovely little moment was however interrupted when Mrs. Weasley decided to collected us in her arms and crush us.

"I'm so happy for you two." She cried.

"I thought you were angry at us?" Ron said puzzled.

"I am. We are going to have to lay out some serious ground rules."

"Are Mum… I'm struggling to breathe here."

"Oh sorry dear." she said as she released us.

"So umm… about" Mr Weasley was cut of by Ginny calling out to him.

"DAD! KINGSLEY AND MCGONAGALL ARE HERE"

"Oh we better get down there." Mrs. Weasley exclaimed and headed out the door, her husband following close behind.

Thankful for the distraction from what was sure to be an uncomfortable conversation I let out a breath I didn't realize I was holding and looked over to Ron, he seemed to have the same look of relief covering his face. I'm fairly sure he went to say something but stopped when Mr. Weasley poked his head back through the doorway.

"Come on."

We both nodded and headed down the stairs after him.

After I made a quick detour into Ginny's room for a change of clothes I made my way to the kitchen to find everyone but George at the table shoveling food down their throats, I swear it must be in the Weasley gene's. Kingsley and McGonagall were also at the table though they were not eating, they seemed too immersed in the conversation they were having with Mr. and Mrs. Weasley. I conjured an extra seat and joined the table making sure to put at least three people between myself and where Ron was sitting. I was not really paying attention to the many conversations going on around because I was still imagining Ron's arms around me when after several minutes I was dragged out of my little daydream by a question Ginny had asked quite loudly.

"So how did everybody sleep last night?"

Oh my god, she cannot be doing this.

"I slept quite well, what about you Hermione?

Bitch!

"Fine thanks" I mumbled.

"What about you Ron?" Ginny asked as she turned to now face him. He couldn't even respond, his entire face was red and I'm not actually sure if it was due to embarrassment or anger, probably a combination. "What's wrong Ron? You look like your choking."

"Just shut it Ginny." Ron said as he looked back down at his plate.

Everyone was laughing at our obvious discomfort when someone started knocking at the back door. With everyone still tense and nervous after the last several months there was a bit of commotion as many of us jumped up raising our wands. It then dawned on me who it might me.

"It might just be Neville and Luna, remember I wrote them last night." I whispered loud enough for the room to hear.

"Who is it?" called out Mr. Weasley

"It's just us Neville and Luna… we got a letter last night inviting us over."

As relief flooded everyone in the room Ron went to open the door for the new arrivals. Conversation picked back up amongst everyone and I was grateful that the attention was no longer focused on Ron and me. I noticed that Harry was talking to Kingsley and I assume that Harry must be asking him about filtering out certain parts of the story we were going to tell. When it appeared everyone had finished eating Mrs. Weasley magically removed all the dishes from the table and stacked them in the sink, then asked everyone if they would head into the living area.

As everyone filtered out of the kitchen Harry pulled Ron and I aside and informed us that Kingsley would in fact help us on the media front by retelling the parts of the story deemed appropriate for the public. He also mentioned that he didn't think it wise for us to mention the Hallows, even to those most trusted people in the room beside us.

"It will just add to an already really long story and I don't particularly want to go there." He tried explaining himself.

"But what about the wand? The story won't really make any sense if they don't know about the wand." Ron asked.

"Voldemort didn't even know that it was one of three items. I know we'll have to explain about the elder wand but I was just thinking we don't have to mention the stone or cloak." Said Harry.

"Ok, no mention of Hallows. Plus I don't really want to explain in front of Luna how we got most of our info on the Hallows from her father, that may just lead to discussion on how he tried to get us killed." Ron said with a grimace.

"Ok, are you ready to do this?" I asked the boys as we walked into the living area.

Everyone was making themselves comfortable obviously prepared for a long story. Mr and Mrs Weasley were each sitting on an arm chair, Ginny was sitting in front of her father leaning against the chair, Bill and Fluer had enlarged a bean bag so that it would fit both of them, Charlie and Percy were conjuring large pluch cushions for themselves, Neville and Luna while Kingsley and McGonagall had transfigured some of the chairs from the kitchen so that they were now large soft couches. Silence filled the room and the three of us walked in and we looked around at the crowd, I could see out of the corner of my eye some movement from the landing above us. It was George. This was the first time he had ventured out of the room he would never share with his twin again since we arrived home and everyone seemed to be delighted by his sudden appearance. George however seem incredibly hesitant to continue down the stairs, I could see the bags under his eyes and I noticed that he was even more pale than usual causing the freckles that spread across his nose to be more prominent than usual.

"Please come down and join us George." Mrs. Weasley pleaded.

When he didn't move a muscle Charlie gave it a go, "Come on George, we saved you a spot." He said as he indicated to the spare cushions beside him.

Still no movement.

"Please George?" Ron whispered, "I really want you to hear this."

George looked down at Ron then slowly started to move down the stares. Harry clasped Ron's shoulder and gave him a kind of man hug while I beamed at him. I could tell that Ron was slightly embarrassed that it was him who managed to convince his brother to take those few extra steps and come join his family but I could also see the happiness in his piercing blue eyes.

As George sat on the floor between Charlie and Percy, Kingsley indicated to the three seater couch that everyone had left vacant for us to sit on. I sat down with the boys on either side of me and even though there was plenty of room we sat close enough to each other that our shoulders were touching.

"So umm… I guess for all this to make sense I should probably start at the beginning of our sixth year."

Hi everyone, I know you were all expecting this chapter to be about the battle but I felt it needed a little bit of a filler so some things will make more sense later on. Thank you for the reviews, next chapter should be a bit longer as that's what it seems most of you want. Please keep up with the feedback. Cheers.