Ron Weasley sat in his living room on what used to be a nice quiet Saturday afternoon, until Lavender had barged in, yelling at him. He crossed his arms and rolled his eyes at her, clearly annoyed at how his wife was nagging at him about the most ridiculous things. "I don't want to. Not today!" He said firmly one last time, ran up the stairs, and slammed his and her bedroom door behind him, leaving Lavender yelling and slamming things downstairs. Ron put his face in his hands and ran his calloused Quidditch Player hands through his clean-cut red hair. I'm never letting Lavender boss me around about getting a haircut ever again.
Grunting and mumbling to himself, he grabbed a piece of parchment from the bedside desk and scribbled:
Harry (and Ginny),
Is it horrible that I'm starting to hate Lavender?
-Ron.
He stared it over. It didn't sound right. He crumpled it up and threw it in the corner, missing the trash bin. He started another letter over, just to give him an excuse to stay in his room longer.
Harry, mate, (and Ginny, if you're reading this)
Why did I ever get married to the dumbest witch of our age?
-Ron.
Ron smirked and snickered slightly when he read it. Looking out of the window to see where Lavender's pesky owl Sonny was, he couldn't find him. But then he saw Hedwig, poking his head in and out of bushes. Probably looking for mice. "Hedwig." Ron whispered, trying to get the birds attention. "Pssst, Hedwig. Hedwig, you bloody bird, get over here." Hedwig blinked her beady eyes a few times, flew up to the window, and perched herself on the open windowsill. "I need you to take this to Harry."
Hedwig snapped at Ron's finger before taking the letter in her beak. She flew off down the street, right towards where Harry and Ginny lived.
Five minutes later and still no reply, Ron was getting impatient.
"Where are you going?" Lavender asked him when he went downstairs and grabbed his coat.
"I need air." Ron mumbled and before Lavender could start yelling at him, he was darting down the steps and down the street. Ron rounded past the corner where Harry and Ginny's house was. A piece of paper flew out of the window at his feet, and he read the same exact thing that he had written earlier:
Harry, mate, (and Ginny if you're reading this)
Why did I ever get married to the dumbest witch our age?
-Ron.
Either Harry is having his own problems today, or he really missed the trash bin, Ron thought. He let himself into his sister and almost-brother-in-law's house and barged through the kitchen, where he heard talking.
"SHE'S BLOODY INSANE!" He shouted and made his way towards the fridge, not noticing Harry's defeated groan and Ginny's eyes, which resembled a deer in the headlights. After he had helped himself to a butter beer from the fridge, he turned around to see not only Ginny and Harry, but a girl at the table. He raised his eyebrows at her and said, "I'm-I'm sorry, I don't believe we met. I would've remembered such a pretty face."
The girl opened and closed her mouth, then to Ron's surprise asked Ginny, "Ginny, dear, where's your bathroom?" Soon after, after giving Ron the weirdest look, a look all too familiar, she was bolting up the stairs and the slam of the bathroom door sounded.
"It's her." Ron stated the obvious bluntly, after he had thought of all the people he knew could only look like that. His only prediction, as shocking as it was, was Hermione. Ginny scoffed and rolled her eyes.
"Of course it's her." She said. "You actually thought she wouldn't come back?"
Ron stood there, a million thoughts in his head. He mumbled something incoherent and then went up the same stairs Hermione just had.
"Actually," Harry said slowly, "He did."
"Ron, you'll see her again someday. She'll come back, I know she will." Harry said assuring, but it didn't convince Ron, who was standing next to him in front of the last place they had seen Hermione- the kitchen in the burrow. Her cup that she had been drinking out of the night before no longer sat on top of the table. Her chair was not occupied by her petite body. Her sweet smile wasn't smiling back at him. He frowned, a deep, serious look on his face.
"Harry, if she left without telling us, how do we know she's going to come back and tell us then?"
Now, seven years later, seven bloody years later when Ron had "moved on", she was back. Timing really blows today, Ron thought to himself as he stood in front of the bathroom door where she was inside. "Her…Hermione?" He asked hesitantly. It went quiet in the bathroom. There weren't anymore exasperated sighs. No more running water.
The door opened and Hermione stood there in front of him, her hair no longer pulled back, but fully everywhere, making her look radiant in a way. He had to remind himself to breathe. She looked up at him with apologetic eyes and…
No, Ron told himself, That's not even a bit of longing.
Hermione looked down when she couldn't take his stare anymore. He tipped her chin up to look back up at him again. "Are…are you okay…Hermione?" He whispered. She bit her lip and nodded.
"Why wouldn't I be?" She asked.
"You've been gone for quite a while and considering I didn't know what happened to you, I didn't know if you've been safe or not." Ron said it thoughtfully, caringly, which made Hermione be surprisingly happy to see him- he made her feel as if he actually cared that something hadn't happened to her. Harry and Ginny were still angry with her, even after they learned that she had been taken care of. "You really worried me. You still do."
"Well I um," Hermione paused. She didn't want to tell him yet. The charming way he was looking at her, with adoration, was too much. She didn't want him to stop looking at her like that. "You have nothing to worry about, Ronald, because for the past seven years I've been quite well."
Ronald. For the first time, Ron grinned when he was called 'Ronald' by Hermione.
"Even though I don't love Quidditch, I think I'll have to watch a few of your games." Hermione sat in the kitchen with Ginny, Harry, and Ron. "I've always been good at cheering. Remember at Hogwarts? Gryffindor games?"
"How can I forget? 'Weasley is our king'? Oh god, those were the days." Harry laughed.
"It's a true song, what can I say?" Ron laughed while Ginny and Hermione rolled their eyes.
"Looks like you've gotten cockier since I haven't been around, Ron." Hermione pointed out.
Ron shrugged. "I'm almost tied down."
Hermione was about to ask something when her- what Ginny and Ron recognized as- cell phone rang. She scanned the caller ID and frowned at it. "Excuse me for a moment."
"Well there obviously was nothing to be worried about. Looks like she was just fine while she was away." Ron said gladly. "Lavender is really getting to me, you two." He changed the subject swiftly, to what he meant to talk to Harry and Ginny earlier about. "Every night, she wants to…you know…or she's yelling at me, or nagging at me, or complaining about something stupid. Am I really that stupid to have married her? Was I really that dumb to not have asked-," Ron shut his mouth immediately when the kitchen door swung open and Hermione came back in.
"That was Rob." She said unenthusiastically, looking hesitant to even say his name around Ron. Ron looked at Harry and Ginny, expecting them to tell him who 'Rob' was, but instead of explaining, they were looking up at the ceiling or looking down at the floor.
"Who's Rob?" Ron asked finally.
Hermione cringed. "Well, he's um. I'm…" She paused, letting out a deep breath. "He's my fiancé. I'm getting married soon."
Ron tried not to grab his chest when he felt a fast flip of his heart, almost like it was traveling to his stomach. He stared at her. Ginny watched sadly as Ron's eyebrows knitted together, the news hitting him hard. But he didn't want to sound jealous, upset, or any emotion except happy for Hermione. So he raised his eyebrows; tried to smile, failing miserably, as low as his dignity was, currently; and staring straight at her, directly at her face into her eyes, he said;
"Congratulations. Rob is a lucky man." Hermione tried to say 'Thank you', but it came out as silence when she opened her mouth. "I better get home. Lavender was mad when I left, she'll probably be even madder at me, when I show up a few hours later. I'll-,"
"Ron, why don't you take the guest room?" Ginny offered. "We've got two extra bedrooms, beds all made, you know. You don't have to go back home to that rut."
Ron looked appreciative for a moment, but still politely declined. "I'm afraid she'll go mad with worrying. Or just go madder." Ginny nodded. "So I'll see you all later. See you, Harry, Ginny." He stood up, level with Hermione now. "Bye Hermione." He whispered to her. She whispered back, "Bye." With his stomach still doing flips overwhelmingly, Ron was walking back down the street.
The pouring rain that was falling down on him was the only thing that had good timing that night, ironically; at that exact moment, Ron's feelings were draining out of him, just like the rain draining into the sewer holes.