Dream On
By Siriusly Amused
Author's Note: Well here it is. The final chapter. I think this story could have been handled a lot better than what it was and maybe I'll take the concept and write another fic…maybe…maybe not.
Disclaimer: I like the song "Mr. Blue Sky".
Chapter Nine:
They won't make it home, but they really don't care... 'The Way' by Fastball
It wasn't really shocking that Ron had gone off on his own to capture Bellatrix Lestrange. For the past month, ever since he woke up, he and Hermione had done nothing but fight. She was the responsible twenty six-year-old who wanted nothing more than to grasp onto normalcy, and he was the brash eighteen-year-old trapped in a twenty six-year-old's body who wanted nothing more than to continue the adventure. Of course he didn't tell her that he was going to go after Bellatrix. Of course he didn't invite her to come along. Of course.
"Hi."
Hermione looked up from the Daily Prophet to see Ron standing in the doorway of The Burrow, looking tired, worn and dirty, but also triumphant and for the first time in a month, comfortable within his own skin.
"Hi," Hermione replied coolly, getting up from the table and carrying her empty breakfast dishes to the sink. She heard Ron walk over to the table and figured that he was gazing down at his own triumphant face on the front page.
"It's a bad picture of me," he commented lightly. "I tried to ask them to wait until I had showered or something, but you know how they are."
Hermione didn't reply; instead, she turned the tap on to fill the sink and clanged dishes loudly. She had nothing to say; she wasn't his mother or girlfriend or even much of a friend anymore; she had no right to reprimand him.
"How dare you do something like this without telling me!" she snapped suddenly, turning from the sink to glare at him. "Do you know how worried about you I was?"
Ron gazed at her steadily, his blue eyes staring so intently at her that she felt almost as though he was reading her thoughts. "You sound like my mum," he said at last, very softly. This comment caused Hermione's fingers to grip the kitchen counter in frustration; the last thing she wanted was for Ron to view her as a mother figure, but that was easier said than done…she now had eight years on him.
She opened her mouth to say something, but nothing came out. She tried once again, but ended up shutting her mouth, afraid that she might just reprimand him again, confirming her motherly status. Turning back to the sink, Hermione started to cry.
"Mione, please," Ron pleaded. She felt his hand in her hair.
"Just go," she whispered through her tears. She felt Ron hesitate, but he eventually left her, ascending the stairs to his room and leaving her in her misery. She sank to the floor, her sobs increasing, her shoulders heaving. She remained there until she heard people Apparating onto the Burrow's lawn.
"Let's go find that daft brother of mine," Ginny's voice was clear and quickly approaching the door. "I'm going to hug him and then kill him."
Not wanting Ginny or anyone else to find her crying on the kitchen floor, Hermione dashed up the stairs to her room and threw herself onto her bed, where she remained for the rest of the day. It wasn't until the sun had completely disappeared from the sky that someone knocked on her door.
"Hermione, dear?" Mrs. Weasley's voice rang out. "Can I come in, love?"
"Yes," Hermione replied, wiping the tears from her cheeks.
The door opened, a golden sliver of light shining into the room before it opened wide and Mrs. Weasley entered.
"Oh, Hermione, what's wrong, dear?" the older woman asked, coming to sit beside Hermione on the bed, placing a comforting arm around her as she did so.
Hermione rested her head on Mrs. Weasley's shoulder. "Ron views me as a mother figure," she replied.
"Oh I seriously doubt that! What makes you think that?"
"He didn't tell me about his plan to go after Bellatrix. He must have thought that I'd order him not to do it or something."
"I think Ron knows that while you may plead with him not to do something, you would never stop him from making his own decisions. I think he didn't tell you about this because he figured you didn't want to go. And maybe he was trying to protect you."
"But I would have gone with him!" Hermione exclaimed. "And he knows I can protect myself!"
"Well then it just sound like you guys have a simple matter of miscommunication," Mrs. Weasley explained, smoothing down Hermione's hair comfortingly. "All couples go through periods like this."
"We're not a couple."
"You keep telling yourself that, Hermione, dear." Mrs. Weasley rose from the bed and squeezed Hermione's hand. "Goodnight."
Hermione remained in bed for several minutes after Mrs. Weasley left, contemplating all that the older woman had told her. She stared at the shadows on the ceiling. A miscommunication.
She sprang from her bed and dashed up the steps, barging into Ron's room and throwing herself upon his bed, straddling him and pinning his arms above his head.
"Hermione!" he exclaimed, a roguish smile appearing on his face.
"Listen you twat, the next time you decide to go off hunting Death Eaters, you damn well better tell me so that I can go with you!"
"What?" Ron asked, confusion and shock washing over his features.
"You once told me that you'd never let go," she whispered, her face very close to his. She felt the tears welling in her eyes again. Ron stared at her for a long moment.
"There's a group of Death Eaters living just outside of Edinburgh," he said at last.
Hermione stared at him quizzically. "How…how do you know that?"
Ron raised an eyebrow. "We knew all this eight years ago, Hermione, remember? We figured out the whereabouts of most Death Eaters as we were hunting for Horcruxes. We were going to go after them after we defeated Voldemort."
Hermione raked her brain, and while she remembered figuring out the whereabouts of Death Eaters, she couldn't remember exactly where they all were.
"So when do we leave?"
"Whenever you're ready luv," Ron replied, he seemed comfortable again, his body was relaxed under hers and he was smiling roguishly up at her again. "So…you going to sleep here tonight?"
Hermione rolled her eyes. "I'm going to bed," she said, getting off of him and scooting to the edge of the bed. Ron wrapped an arm around her waist, prohibiting her from leaving just yet.
"G'night, Hermione," he said softly, quickly placing a kiss upon her cheek.
"G'night," she replied in a choked whisper.
.X.
All in all, Hermione wasn't as bad as she thought she was. Sure her reaction time was slow and whenever she lunged out of the way of a spell, she would sometimes pull something, but really, she was a good fighter. If only Ron could make her see that.
"Bloody hell!" Hermione exclaimed one afternoon as the two were dueling in The Burrow's backyard. "I'm never going to be able to fight Death Eaters with such a horrible reaction time!"
Ron took a minute to fully appreciate Hermione's swearing, conscious of the fact that it was all due to years of him rubbing off on her, before replying.
"Hermione, you're not as bad as you think you are. You just need to get into the habit of stretching regularly so you're not so stiff."
"Easy for you to say, Mr. I'm Eighteen Again!" Hermione huffed.
"My body's still twenty six," Ron replied, inching closer to her. He placed on hand on her hip and used his other hand to extend her arm and bring it up and over her head in a stretch. Her breath hitched at the contact and he felt her body tensed. "Hermione?" he whispered.
She broke away from him. "We can't," she stated firmly, walking back into The Burrow.
"Can't what?" Ron replied, following her quickly. "Hermione!"
She turned to face him once she reached the kitchen. "Ron, we're two different people. We're not like how we once were; we just can't go back to how things were! It would never work between us!"
Ron couldn't help but smile slightly as he inched closer, backing her into a corner. She was irrational and had forgotten that their relationship had always been the way it was now; he just need to remind her.
"And…" Hermione whispered, her eyes focused on Ron's mouth. "And…"
He brought his lips to hers, savoring the familiar taste of her and the feel of her. He pulled away and smiled at her before leaning in to kiss her again, this time deepening the kiss and wrapping his arms around her.
"Ron," she whispered between kisses. He pulled away and gazed at her questioningly. She smiled. "I wasn't asking you to stop."
He smiled back. "I wasn't going to."
.X.
It was late at night when they exited The Burrow's back door and stepped onto the lawn. They were dressed in comfortable clothes and were more than ready to confront the Death Eaters in Edinburgh; however, they hadn't taken more than a few steps before they were stopped.
"And where do you think you two are going?" Ginny asked, strolling up to them with a devilish grin on her face, Neville, Luna and Fred trailing behind her.
"Er…" both Ron and Hermione stated, obviously not used to being questioned about their comings and goings.
"You were going to fight Death Eaters without us, weren't you?" Fred accused, a sly smile across his face.
Hermione sighed. "Listen guys, you don't have to…"
But Hermione was interrupted by several loud cracks as Seamus, Dean, Parvati and Lee Jordan Apparated in. Ron and Hermione stared at the newcomers, flabbergasted.
"You're right, Hermione; we don't have to," Ginny explained, twirling her wand. "But I seem to remember someone in fifth year saying that we're all in this together."
"You guys really want to do this?" Ron asked, gazing between his siblings and the others.
Neville smiled. "Ron, we've been waiting eight years for this."
"Dumbledore's Army is going to kick some Death Eater ass!" Fred exclaimed, giving both Dean and Seamus a high five. "Harry would be proud."
"Are you guys completely sure you want to do this?" Hermione reiterated. Ginny stared at her.
"Hermione," she said in all seriousness. "How can you think that we'd do anything else with our lives?"
Ron smiled. "Alright," he said, gazing at the others and taking out his wand. "Let's go."
End Author's Note: Worst ending ever, I know. This is actually my second draft of it...I just really had a hard time with it and was like, "Well, this is as good as it's going to get. It's either this or the fic will never end." I apologize. D: