Hey guys! Sorry it's been so long, I've started a new year at Uni and it's been really busy. I was holding out to finishing this chapter over Christmas, but then we had a death in the family so I wasn't really in the right state to write, but I'm okay now so I thought I'd finally update it. Hope you like it :)
It had started off as a lovely day; Molly had invited a few members of the order over for tea, and had spent most of the day cooking whilst watching her children play quidditch in the back garden. George had even joined the rest of the siblings and Bill and Fleur had come over and helped to cook.
It was only when they sat around the table and Minerva McGonagall had asked if the children had put any more thought into whether they were returning, the table had fallen into silence.
Harry and Ginny gave a nervous glance at Ron and Hermione.
"I think I'm going to take up Kingsley's offer" said Harry, "My job isn't done until all the death eaters are locked up in Azkaban."
Everyone waited for the other pair's response.
"I- well, I'm not going back. I don't think I could." Ron finally replied nervously glancing at Hermione, who was sat next to him looking down at her lap, hair covering her face.
When Hermione didn't lift up her eyes or speak, Ron made the mistake of opening his mouth, "Hermione's going back though."
It was as though he had thrown a nasty hex at her; she lifted her head in a sharp snap and gave him the most chilling glare Molly had ever seen. Then without a word, she stood up and left the room, slamming the door behind her.
Everyone stared in shock a Ron, who swore and got up to follow her. The room held it's silence, everyone giving shocked and panicked looks. Molly started to speak, she was so embarrassed at the scene they had created, when they started to hear shouting coming from the next room.
"I TOLD YOU I AM NOT GOING BACK!" Hermione screeched, "DO YOU WANT ME TO LEAVE? IS THAT IT?"
They could only hear a murmur in reply but it was only a few seconds until Hermione started shouting again.
"WHO ARE YOU TO SAY WHAT I NEED TO DO? WAIT, DON'T ANSWER THAT! I TOLD YOU I CAN'T DO IT. I TOLD YOU THE NIGHTMARES ARE GETTING WORSE AND I WILL NOT BE QUIET!"
She dissolves into tears and they couldn't hear the rest of what was said. The family and the guests all looked slightly guilty for eavesdropping.
"Well that was awkward." Said Charlie.
"Nah" said Ginny, "You've just never experienced a Ron and Hermione fight before."
"Yeah that's just regular practice for them, you should have seen them at the Yule Ball!" Said George.
"You didn't see what happened when he came back from Bill's after Christmas. I genuinely had to hide my wand for fear of Ron's life." Harry added.
"What about the cat and rat fight!" said Ginny.
"Or Lavender Brown." Added Minerva.
Everyone looked surprised for a moment, then Ginny erupted into laughter.
"What?" Minerva shrugged, "I can't help but take notice of my student's lives when they make it so public."
Despite the humor, Molly was worried, she didn't want Ron to lose Hermione.
"Don't worry Mum." Ginny said, catching her out, "They may argue a lot more loudly than other people but it's more passion than anger."
"Yeah" Harry smiled, "They always make up in the end. It's different now too, since Ron came back he doesn't shout back as much, he's calmer."
"I wonder if I might be excused for a moment, I have something that I would like to say to Hermione." Minerva asked.
"Of course!" Exclaimed Molly, rather confused. Minerva left, shutting the door behind her.
Normal conversation resumed, as they started reminiscing of their Hogwarts days, Molly and Arthur were in the middle of a tale about getting caught out of bed after hours when Minerva and Ron came back through the door.
Molly held her breath, terrified at the prospect that Hermione must have left, possibly still angry at Ron.
"She's going to consider it." Was all Minerva said, but Ron sat down and didn't say a word for the rest of the meal.
When everyone had finished and people were starting to leave, Molly ushered Ron into the kitchen under the pretence of helping her with the dishes.
As they began to wash and dry side by side, Molly tried to think of a way to approach the topic.
"Just say it." Sighed Ron.
"Say what?!" Molly was amazed that Ron had been so observant as to figure out her real reason for asking him to help.
"That you're worried about Hermione and our argument." He set his blue eyes on her in challenge.
"Well, yes. I'm a little worried at the fact that everyone seemed to not be worried. Do you argue a lot?"
Ron took a moment to finish drying the dish he was holding. He put it down and turned towards her, crossing his arms.
"We don't argue, not really." He saw the scepticism on his mother's face and continued, "I know we shout but we don't really mean it, it's always about something else."
He realised that he hadn't really explained himself properly, and tried again.
"We used to bicker, a lot. We still do a bit, but that's never really serious, it was just the frustration of not really expressing our feelings, I guess, and now... well it's actually kind of fun," he said with a cheeky grin, "We only ever argue like that when one of us is really upset, and we know it's not really about each other, at least not anymore, so we try not to take it personally. Usually we end up apologising as soon as we've calmed down. Except once and that was different." He ended sheepishly.
Molly mulled this over while Ron continued to dry.
"What was the problem this time? Why was she upset?"
Ron sighed heavily, obviously despite his flippant attitude he was actually rather worried for Hermione.
"She doesn't want to go back to Hogwarts. Or at least she says she doesn't; I think she does really, I think she doesn't believe she can do it." Seeing his mother's confusion, he continued, "Her nightgmares have been getting loads worse, she takes the potion every night and most of the time they still push through. I don't know whether it's because she knows she has to make a choice and she's scared. The healer said that stress will make them worse. I'm a little bit, okay a lot scared that she might be losing it." Ron ended, looking down at the dish he had picked up while speaking, the suggestion of tears in his eyes.
"You mean because of what happened to her?" Molly nudged softly.
"Yeah." His voice was shaky, "I've been reading about it. The books say that sometimes the effects aren't instant and that the madness sometimes gets brought on by the pain and nightmares months after."
Molly didn't know what to say; she had heard the same things, Hermione's healer had even pulled her aside after one of Hermione's appointments and suggested she look out for anything unusual.
"Mum?" Ron asked, she could tell that he was about to burst.
"Yes darling?" She replied, resting a hand on his shoulder in comfort.
"I don't want her to lose her mind. I can't loose her."
And with that he burst, tears pouring from his eyes he clung on to his mother with heaving sobs. She held him tightly and ushered Bill away as he opened the kitchen door to see what the noise was.
"You won't loose her. She's so strong." She mumbled on with meaningless words she knew could never reassure her 18 year old son who had seen far more than he should.
When he finally calmed, she sat him at the table with a cup of tea.
"Sorry Mum." He mumbled, his face bright red.
"Don't be embarrassed, you needed to let it out, it's natural." she handed him a buscuit, which he took eagerly.
"I just... She's too clever to not finish school. She always loved it so much, and she worked so hard. It'd be sacrilage for that bitch to take that away from her too!"
Molly considered telling him off for swearing, but decided it would be rather hypocritical of her and settled on, "That's a long word, you've been spending too much time with Hermione."
She almost got a laugh out of him. He looked up at her, big blue eyes shining just as they had the day he was born.
"Love you Mum."
She nearly started crying herself, her children were never very much inclined to heartfelt declarations of love, but Ronnie was always a special one.
"Love you too sweetheart, now go on and join your brothers, I can hear a game of Quidditch starting."
He gave her one last hug before rushing outside.
He passed Bill in the doorway, who gave him an encouraging pat on the head before joining his mother at the table.
He raised an eyebrow in silence.
"How realistic would it be to consider that Hermione might still be in danger of loosing her mind?" She asked, knowing that Bill knew far more about these things than she did.
He was stunned for a moment, "It depends. Though I would say that it's probably still possible, yes.
Molly nodded. "I don't think Ron would cope very well if anything happened to her."
To her surprise Bill let out a harsh laugh.
"No. He wouldn't. He didn't." He explained, "When they arrived at the Cottage, he was a mess. He just sat there staring at her in a daze until she woke up. At one point he pretty much screamed at me, begging me to make it better. It was horrible, he wouldn't eat anything or let me look at his injuries. I felt so useless. He was so lost at the prospect of her dying or going mad, it was like he was suspended in time, just stuck until she opened her eyes."
This was what Molly had feared the most.
He shook the haunted look out of his eyes, "do you think she's going to be okay? Do we have anything to worry about?"
Molly considered, "I don't think so, at least I hope not."
And that was all that she could do. Hope. Hope that Hermione went back to school; hope that Hermione would be okay; hope that Ron wouldn't lose his soulmate (because she truly believed that's what they were), and hope that their family would be given just a moment of peace and freedom from fear.
As always thanks for reading and thanks for all the reviews, they really do keep me motivated :) x