Chapter 15

The next morning I found myself sitting in between Ron and Ginny, I was resting my head on Ron's shoulder and held one of his hands in my lap. Ginny was leaning in the opposite direction to myself and was in a similar position with Harry, who was on her other side. It was a beautiful morning, the sun was out the sky a pretty blue, birds snag merrily and there was a slight breeze rustling the surrounding trees.

If you could focus on these things then you wouldn't hear the quiet sobs escaping many of the people sitting behind us, you wouldn't hear Mrs Weasley breaking down a few meters along the front row, you might not even feel the silent tears falling down your own face, but there was nothing on this Earth pleasant enough to distract you from the heart wrenching speech George Weasley was currently trying to get through.

He was standing before us speaking of Fred as if he was still with us, like he was still making us laugh and smile. I guess he would eventually, one day we'll be able to think of Fred and smile and laugh remembering a prank he pulled or joke he told… I hope.

George spoke of how Fred died trying to make the world a better place, not only for the people he loved but for everyone who deserved to live and love… and laugh. He finished and moved away from the old wooden podium and silently walked back towards his parents who both stood and wrapped their arms around him before Mr. Weasley eased his wife and son into chairs.

The short plump wizard running everything was speaking again but I wasn't listening to a word of it, I looked up at Ron's face and saw the grief, saw the pain, the helplessness. I squeezed his hand to remind him I was there for him; he squeezed it back but didn't turn to look at me, instead he sat perfectly straight facing the front while silent tears fell down his face and body shook with tremors.

I hadn't realized it was all over until I noticed the lack of crying in the area, I looked around to find that most of the seats behind us were empty and that the Wizard who had orchestrated most of the... anyway he was gone. Some witches were waving their wands and making the many rows of chairs vanish into thin air so I stood and pulled Ron to his feet.

"You want to head back or stay around? I can leave if you want." I said quietly.

"I don't want you to leave, unless you want to?" he said back.

"I'm not going anywhere unless you ask me too," I replied and wiped away some of the tears he hadn't bothered with.

He nodded and we slowly moved towards the stone that now had 'Fred Weasley' carved into it, Mr Weasley and Mrs Weasley were just moving away from the area when we got close.

"I want to talk to him, I need to tell him some stuff."

"Okay, I'll just wait back here."

"No, it's okay, I don't mind if you're there."

A little confused I moved with him right up to the pretty headpiece. After several minutes Ron began to talk to his older brother.

"Hi Fred. If it's true…what everyone says, and your watching us, then you probably already know but I wanted to tell you. I finally got her," he looked at me briefly but then looked back in front of him. "I'm finally with Hermione and you're not even here to take the mickey out of me. Anyway… I kind of came here to tell you…ask you…I don't know… I was thinking about helping George with the shop. I don't even know if he has thought about working yet, but when he is ready I want to help him, even if it's just serving people and stocking shelves, I think it will make it easier for him to have someone there so he isn't working alone.

"I also need a job, I need to save some money…you see I got Hermione now," he looked up at me again, held my gaze a little longer than the last but then returned his attention to the pretty white stone. "I got Hermione, so I gotta get a job, earn some money and make her proud you know? I want her to be proud of me and I want to give her anything she wants… she deserves that…she deserves everything. I still want to be an Auror but I didn't get any NEWTS, so this is my next option until I figure out how to do something on my own. I will do something on my own."

I stood in silence and tried to take in every word Ron was saying.

"If you don't want me too work in your shop then… I don't know… tell me somehow... I guess."

That was it. He had finished and was dragging me slowly back towards the apperation point.

"I think I want to go home now," he said and I nodded.

I was just about to say something when he wrapped his arms around me and turned us on the spot, essentially spinning us into the world of nowhere.

When we landed firmly in the yard of The Burrow, I took his hand and pulled him towards the tree I thought of as ours.

"You want to work in the shop?" I asked when he sat down at the base of the tree.

"Not really, not for the long term anyway. I want to help George, I want him to keep that place… it's bloody awesome. But I want to be an Auror, I'm going to be someone you're proud of."

"Ron, I am proud of you. It doesn't matter what you do for a job."

"Yes it does," he stated, "I want to do something… be someone who matters. I feel good when I help people, I haven't done it all that much but I saved a couple of kids during the battle and that made me feel good… like a good person."

"Ron you are a good person, one of best." I said in all honesty.

"Well I'm going to continue to be, and if that means I can do it for a job all the better."

My heart clenched at the thought of Ron in more danger. However selfish it was of me I didn't want him risking his life for anyone. We got out of hell basically unscathed and now he wanted to put himself back in it everyday.

The thought of Ron not coming home from work one day was terrifying.

"It's very dangerous, Ron," I said weakly.

"I know, but I'll be doing some good, I'll be helping people who need it, I'll be making you proud and providing for us."

"P-Providing?" I asked.

"Well yeah," Ron answered, oblivious to my confused yet euphoric state. "We can't live with my parents forever, I gotta get us a home, I gotta feed us, I gotta get some money so you can by all the books you want."

Was I seriously hearing this, we were just sitting at his brothers funeral and now we're sitting here… what… planning a freaking future. This is mental, the best conversation of my life, but completely mental.

"Ron, you seem to have thought about a lot of stuff… important stuff."

"Well yeah, when everyone else was our age they finished school, got jobs and then moved out of home. We may not have finished school but we're still going to do everything everyone else did."

"I'm talking more about the part where you said you gotta get us a home, feed us, you gotta get money to buy me books."

He looked at me with a mixture of confusion and hurt and sadness, "do you not want to live together?"

Was he crazy?

"Of course I do, I just didn't think you'd want to yet, let alone planned half of it out."

"Why would I not want to? We've basically lived together all year, I know Harry was there but still…"

"I know," I said in understanding. It would be difficult not being under the same roof as one another after we had been for so long.

"And I don't want to sound like a pervert or nothing but it would be good being on our own… if you know what I mean… no one to walk in and shit."

I smiled and blushed at the thought of actually being alone, "yes I know what you mean."

We sat there in silence for a few minutes before I spoke again, "Ron, living together is serious… the things you are saying are serious…"

"I'm serious, Hermione. I want to be with you, I want to live with you, make a home with you, fill it with little Hermoines if that's what you want-"

"WHAT?"

"Not now, shit calm down. What I mean is… I guess… I want all that…you know, like everything… with you."

Oh my god

"No one else. Remember?"

"Yeah I remember," I said in a whisper. I wasn't trying to be quiet I just had no breath.

"I thought you wanted that too," he said once again in that tone that told me he was hiding hurt and pain.

"I do, I want it more than you can imagine." I replied and then lent over to place a gentle kiss on his lips.

"Then it's settled," he said when I pulled away, "I'm going to somehow get a job and get us a house, and then we'll make it a home."

"Not just a house, a home, it sounds… nice."

"And serious," he then added.

"Yes, very."

When we headed back to the house everyone noticed our return, no one asked questions though, just continued to speak to the many family members and friends of Fred Weasley. Ron was quickly absorbed into a crowd of red headed people and I noticed the expression on his face had returned to the one I had seen during the funeral.

I was beginning to feel a little lost and out of place when someone came and stood beside me.

"Hi Angelina," I said when I turned and noticed who it was.

"Hi Hermione," she said back and looked back in the same direction as I had been focused on.

I remembered that Angelina and Fred had once had a bit of a thing going on, I don't think it had ever been serious as Fred didn't take much of anything serious. Though whatever it was may not have serious, it went on for a while. They went to the Yule ball together and I caught them a couple of times in a broom cupboard while on prefect duties in fifth year.

I looked back at the young women beside me, she was tall, athletic, but still had very feminie features and qualities. She was one of the girls at school that my doom mates used to bitch and moan about because they secretly wanted to look or act like her. She had been good friends with Katie Bell however she was more regularly seen in the company of Fred, George and their best mate Lee Jordan.

I was just trying to find something appropriate to say when Ron emerged from the red headed crowd and called me over. I desperately wanted to go over but felt that leaving Angelina on her own would be rude, I quickly decided that I should ask her to join us, however when I simple glanced to the side she had vanished. I spun around completely and saw her retreating form heading over to the apparition point.

"What's going on?" asked Ron when he made it over to me.

"Nothing, I was just talking to Angelina."

That wasn't entirely true as there wasn't really any talking going on.

"Everyone is starting to get ready to go to Tonks and Lupins… thing," he said and took my hand.

"Okay, I'm ready to go. Are you okay Ron? You've handled everything today really well."

A little too well if you ask me.

That evening I found myself once again washing the dishes by hand. It's not as though I consciously make the decision not to use magic but at the moment it reminded me of my parents. I always helped with the dishes and the cleaning up; busying myself around the kitchen with my parents after dinner was a kind of routine.

I had been so distracted all day with the obvious I hadn't had much time to think about the fact my parents were, as far as I new, still missing. When we finally got back to The Burrow Mrs Weasley insisted that I go and relax while she made dinner, she hadn't wanted help and Ron suggested that I let her try and go back to normal. Despite my joy at seeing Mrs. Weasley in the kitchen again, having nothing to do had left my mind drifting back to my parents and why on Earth had I not been contacted yet about their location.

"They will find them, Hermione."

I spun around instinctively and went to draw my wand, however after the millisecond it took me to react I recognised the voice at the door. Ron.

"How did you know I was thinking about that?" I asked while wiping my soapy hands on a towel.

"I dunno, I could just see you were concentrating. Not concentrating like you do when you're reading or studying but a worried kind of concentration."

"I have different expressions for different types of concentration?" I asked amused at the craziness of it.

"Sometimes I think I can read you better than I can read plain English," he said as he made his way over to me.

"If that were true I don't think we would have had half the fights we've had."

"That's true."

"Why haven't we heard anything, Ron?" I know I sounded whinny and desperate but I didn't care, I hated when things didn't go to plan.

"I don't know," he said into my hair after he wrapped me in his arms.

We stood like that for what could have been eternity, I didn't want to move out from the embrace, as it felt safe and comfortable and normal. Nothing like what everything felt like when I wasn't in it.

After some time I heard Ron sniffle, his chin was resting on my head so I could see his face but I could tell he was crying. I then found the strength to step away from him to take his hand and move outside. I didn't take us to our tree but instead started the journey out to the orchid, when we got there I reached down and removed the beaded bag from my sock.

"Why do you have that there?"

"I didn't want anyone to see me with it and that hiding place worked last time," I answered referring to the time I stuffed it in my sock when the snatchers arrived at our tent.

"Accio tent," I then said once I placed the bag on the ground.

"What the…"

"Shhh, go put up the protection we used all year."

"Hermione, what on Earth are you doing?"

"Just do it okay, I'll explain once we're done."

I had the idea sometime between leaving for the Tonks home and before the funeral began. The moment we had returned home I quickly went upstairs and grabbed the bag, grateful I hadn't bothered to unpack it properly yet. Ron obviously didn't want anyone to see his emotions, so I figured what better way to get some privacy than hiding the same way we had while hiding from the entire world.

I erected the tent and made my way inside shortly followed by Ron, before he could say anything I explained, "you don't want anyone to see you upset, so out here…in here…"

He pulled me into an embrace so tight I could barely breath and after a moment we moved towards one of the tiny beds. I lay down with him and he rested his head on my chest, as he let silent tears soak my shirt I ran my finger through his hair and concentrated on him. If I thought about nothing but Ron I wouldn't think about Fred or my parents, so I continued to run my fingers through is orange hair and concentrate on is hands holding onto me, and the toned arms that wrapped around me.

I was just beginning to drift off with thoughts of laying like this with Ron in a bigger bed, a different room…our bed, our bedroom, when I heard noises coming from outside.

"Ron… Hermione!"

Shit, I thought and then had to suppress the smile that tried to form on my lips. Ron would be so proud if he new how often I mentally cursed.

"Ron…Ron, wake up."

"No, this is comfy," he mumbled and tried to snuggle in closer to me.

Dear god, why did he have to make this so hard.

"Ron, people are looking for us, it's getting late and they are probably worried."

"Ron! Hermione! Are you out here?"

"That's just Harry," Ron said, more awake than a moment ago, "he won't care we're out here."

"Yeah, but I don't reckon he'll be the only one looking for us. Your parents would have noticed we had disappeared."

"Fine."

"Herm-, oh there you guys are," Harry said when we walked out of the protective charms. It would have looked like we appeared from thin air.

"What do you want?" Ron said clearly agitated.

"Mate, everyone is looking for you. Wait… you… were you just hiding I the tent?" he asked when he noticed I was holding my beaded bag.

"Yes, we were," I started, "we just wanted to get away for a bit."

"Jesus Christ, were you –"

"NO!" I practically screamed, realising what he was going to say.

He then looked at Ron, who had turned bright red, searching for confirmation.

"I was upset mate, I wanted to be alone… didn't want anyone to see."

Harry nodded in understanding, he new what it was like to just get away from people.

We walked back to the house and once we finished apologising to Mrs Weasley for disappearing we headed up for bed.

"Where is Ginny?" asked Ron when we got to her room.

"Right here," Ginny said appearing through the bathroom door.

She took Harry's hand and began to drag him up the stairs, "lets go to bed."

"Wait, your bed is down here," Ron said in a harsh whisper.

She came back towards us, "look, here's the plan, if you and Hermione get to sleep together so do Harry and I. Ron, I figure we should be the ones doing the sneaking because if we get caught I don't Harry and Hermione having to explain why they snuck out. I can handle getting roasted my mum, I'd prefer that than Harry and Hermione coping it."

Ron didn't look impressed but I think he agreed on the taking the blame attitude Ginny had. Without saying a word he cast his gaze to Harry, held it for a moment, then turned and pulled me into Ginny's room.

A/N: Just would like to thank everyone again for reading and reviewing. Every review makes me want to get right back into writing more. Sorry this took longer than usual, i'll try not to let that happen again. :0/