We rejoined the party and George couldn't stop staring at me. After a short while, I excused myself and checked my reflection in the hallway mirror; I thought I had a love bite or something that made our bedroom escapade entirely obvious but there wasn't anything there. When I went back into the parlor, I poured myself a big glass of wine and perched on the arm of the sofa next to George. For the first time in the history of my acquaintance with George Weasley, he blushed. I giggled a little and casually sipped my wine.

"Hi George." I said.

"Hello." He said in a hushed voice.

"Care to share what's on your mind?"

"Erm – not really." He replied and looked away.

I exhaled and stood up, ready to join in on a game of charades the rest of our guests were gearing up to play when George cleared his throat the same way Ron does when he's trying to get my attention.

"I'm really sorry, Hermione." I turned to George and he had the saddest expression on his face.

"George…" I hesitated. I knew I should have been upset. I should have been furious. But I wasn't anymore.

"I truly didn't know. It was my intention to maybe embarrass Ron; it was never my intention for anything to happen to you."

I smirked at him and put a hand on my hip, "Why, George Weasley, are you repentant?"

"More like scared stupid of payback…" George admitted rubbing the back of his neck.

"You're scared of me?" I laughed.

"A little…yeah…" he admitted, red faced. "I remember what happened to Marietta Edgecombe. I know better than to cross you…" he said with a shiver.

I laughed. "Marietta is just fine. She works at Gringotts in Diagon Alley, haven't you seen her?"

George looked away and snorted. "I have, yes. She still looks a little bit pimply to me." We shared a chuckle over it. "She deserved it. I deserve it."

I shrugged. "I haven't ruled out payback but I promise I won't do any permanent damage." I winked at him, leaving him looking more uneasy than he was before.

We all laughed and chatted excitedly the rest of the night. I cuddled into Ron's chest while we toasted him and Harry's long careers as fully-qualified Aurors.

"The law-breakers and mischief makers don't know what they're up against now!" George joked with his champagne glass held high. I took a good deal of pleasure giving George a look that made him turn pale.

Soon it was time for my parents to start the drive back to Cambridge. We offered them our spare bedroom but they both refused, saying they wanted to get home.

"I'm glad you're feeling better, Hermione." Mum said, kissing my cheek.

"I really am, Mum." I thought for a moment she winked at me as if she knew exactly what happened. It couldn't be though, there was no way she knew about the potion. And Ginny didn't make a mistake with the silencing charm, I knew she hadn't. I tried to adjust the look on my face to erase all trace of worry.

Mum looked over her shoulder, Dad and Ron were chatting excitedly about something, Mr. Weasley soon joined but they weren't speaking loudly enough to hear.

"Your father has really taken to Ron." She observed. I nodded my head.

"They're the two most important men in my life, I'm glad they get on." I said, crossing my arms over my chest. It really was a relief that they not only got on well, but they seemed to genuinely enjoy each others' company.

The champagne and whiskey was getting to me, I didn't normally drink so much. I stepped outside on our balcony for some air and Angelina joined me. She eased herself down onto one of our chairs and rubbed a stitch in her side.

"Can I get you anything, Angie?" I asked.

"No, thanks Hermione. It's sciatica. Hopefully when Little Fred makes his grand entrance it will pass." She replied, wincing a little.

"Oh, that's right! I forgot to congratulate you!" I gave her a kiss on both cheeks. "Little Fred. I'm so happy for you." She smiled at me.

"It'll be your turn next." She said with a smile. I turned away grinning. The thought had crossed my mind that Ron would propose as soon as he graduated from the academy.

"All he needs to do is ask me." I replied.

"I wish I could tell you I had inside information," she began "I even tried to subtly try to get George to tell me if he knew. I didn't have any luck, I'm afraid. I'll have to replenish my supply of Veritaserum."

I laughed, "You keep a stock of it?"

She nodded, amused. "Comes with the territory, being married to George. He doesn't lie exactly, but he's not…forthcoming with certain information." She said, looking over her shoulder. "Know what else? He knew the baby was a boy before I did."

I cocked my head, quizzically.

"He's a sneak. I was content to wait but he needed to know so badly. He performed the gender revealing spell while I was sleeping. I caught him buying little blue baby clothes and he insisted they were for one of the cashiers at the joke shop. You need a real nose for sneakiness to marry one of these Weasley boys, Hermione. I suppose I don't have to tell you that though."

"No, I knew that already." I said with a smirk. I looked over my shoulder through the glass door. Ron was jumping around the living room making some kind of animal noises. I shook my head, unable to figure out what his charades clue could have been.

"I wouldn't change them for the world. Not a single one of them, Angie." I said.

She smiled at me and ran her hand over her stomach. "Me either."


The way my brother was looking at me and sniggering, I was sure he was the one who put this bloody clue in the box. I'd opened the folded piece of parchment and had no idea what it meant. I elbowed Harry, who was playing for the other team and showed it to him.

"What the fuck is 'Curious George'?" I asked him.

Harry chuckled, "It's a Muggle children's book. About a monkey."

"No cheating, Harry!" Ginny called out admonishing him with a smile.

Harry shrugged and sat back down next to Ginny, leaving me on my own. I was in a good mood, slightly cocked from celebrating so I thought I'd really commit to the game. I started jumping up and down making monkey noises, really going for broke. I tried to figure out how the hell to pantomime curiosity but nothing came to mind. The best I came up with was looking like a monkey reading a book.

Angelina was out on the balcony talking to Hermione but she knocked on the glass door and slid it open.

"It's Curious George!" She shouted, laughing. She slid the door shut again.

"Hey! You're not even playing!" George good naturedly hollered in her direction. She winked and mouthed "Piss off". Yep. My brother had found his soul mate.

When the game was over, my parents, George and Angelina all left. Mum gave me a kiss on the cheek and one of her Molly Weasley: Mother Bear hugs.

"I couldn't be prouder of my Ron." She said before she let go. "Congratulations, son." She stood on tiptoe to kiss my forehead like she always did when I was a child.

"Thanks, Mum. Come for dinner next week? Maybe?" I asked, looking at Hermione, who nodded enthusiastically.

"I'd love that." Mum replied. She looked around the flat quickly.

"It's lovely here. It's…perfect for the two of you." She said smiling.

Dad kissed Hermione on the cheek and shook my hand. "Good night, Hermione. Proud of you, Ron." He said before they departed.

Hermione slipped her arm around my waist and kissed my chest as she cuddled into me.

"What a relief." She said. "I was starting to worry about your mother."

"So was I, love." I replied and kissed her hair.

Harry and Ginny decided to stay with us for the night so when the rest of our company had disappeared into the Floo Network, they retreated to the guest bedroom to change clothes. They took a little longer than I preferred, if you catch my meaning, but I let it go.

Hermione was taking a shower so for a time, it was just me and Crookshanks sitting alone on the sofa. I chugged a pint of Guinness and wiped my mouth on the back of my hand. I heard a thumping noise in the spare bedroom and forced myself to ignore it. That's when I remembered a conversation I had with Harry just before our exams.

Harry smirked and I suppressed the urge to kick him. He'd just made one of his comments about Ginny, the kind that a big brother didn't want to hear. He was my best friend, I knew Harry wasn't thoughtlessly crude about Ginny, he just enjoyed getting my dander up. Making sexual comments about my kid sister worked every time.

He'd been gone all day and showed back up at dinner time, clearly with something on his mind.

"What's with you?" I asked him, ripping a bite of meat off a chicken drumstick. We had two free days to study and prepare before final exams. I had counted on working with Harry to split the study workload. How I missed Hermione when I found myself cursing at my stack of books and disorganized notes. I was sure I wasn't going to get through all of the material so I tried to eat quickly to get back to studying,

"Blimey, I'm turning into Hermione." I thought, with a slight smile.

Harry took an extra-large bite of steak and kidney pie, still grinning when he pulled the ring box out of his pocket and placed it on the table between us. I eyed it suspiciously. With George and Fred as my tormenters, I grew up knowing you just don't go opening boxes someone set in front of you; especially when they were grinning. I sighed and opened the box.

"Oi! Look! Potter's proposing to Weasley!" Someone at the next table yelled.

"You shut your gob!" I yelled back without looking.

"Do you think she'll like it?" Harry asked.

"I'm no judge of jewelry, Harry – but if Ginny doesn't like this, I'll marry you m'self." I joked. I took the ring out and looked at it closely.

"You're alright with it then?" Harry asked, sounding nervous.

"What? Of course I am! It's brilliant."

"Did you hear that? Weasley said 'Yes!'" the same voice called out.

I growled and turned to towards the unseen heckler, "Get stuffed!"

With our training complete, it would only be a matter of time before my sister married my best friend. If you'd asked me ten years ago if all of this would be possible, I probably would have asked you if you'd just gotten a Bludger to the temple.


As I was rinsing the shampoo out of my hair, two things immediately jumped to my mind. The first was that I still hadn't thanked Angelina for recommending her shampoo to me, my hair had never felt healthier. I made a mental note to call in the morning. The second was more of a reflection of how far Ron and I had come since the end of the war.

We were both so broken. Especially Ron. I watched him helplessly while he tossed and turned having nightmares about Fred and about me. He started sleeping better, nearly uninterrupted after the first time we made love but he still refused to leave the tent in the orchard near the Burrow. It was as if sleeping in his old room would affirm all of the truths in his nightmares.

I spoke to Harry about it and he made a suggestion that I really didn't like the sound of. He told me to tell Ron it was time to move on. Those who died were gone and never coming back, no matter where he was sleeping. As for his dreams about Bellatrix Lestrange and what she did to me…that was over with, too.

"I think…I think it's time to try sleeping in the house again, Ron. Separately." I said to him, looked down at the floor.

By the expression on his face, he couldn't have been more surprised if I had said I was leaving him to join the foreign legion.

"What?" His blue eyes turned grey.

"You said it yourself, we're going to be apart soon, when you leave for the academy. I think you should try to sleep without me. And I you." I said.

"But, we have all the time in the world to sleep apart – I could be gone for the better part of the next three years Hermione!" His anger and desperation comingled in his voice.

"Don't misunderstand me, please Ron. Look at me." I turned his face and held his chin. "I don't want to sleep without you. You chase my monsters away, too." I ran my fingers over the scar on my neck.

"I'll try the house again." He said resolutely. "But I don't want to go back to a lonely bed. Not when you're just downstairs. I'll have to get used to it when I don't have the option. I need you, Hermione." He pulled me in for long, soft kiss.

"I'll always be there when you need me."

That first night was rough. I don't think I slept more than 20 minutes at a time. I kept bolting up in bed, thinking I heard Ron screaming up in his bedroom. Harry promised me he'd keep a close watch, make sure Ron was alright. I felt better but the hole I felt in the pit of my stomach could only be filled with Ron's presence in bed with me. I didn't really want to sleep separately, I just thought it would be better for him to re-learn how to. He hadn't asked his mother if I could stay in his room with him and Harry, but she made it altogether clear she wasn't going to allow it. We couldn't go back to sleeping in the tent; Ron's return to his own bedroom made his parents so happy. They were clearly relieved that Ron was seemingly returning to normal.

After a day or two of spending every possible moment together and separate all night long, my clever Ron came up with a solution.

"The Deluminator. When you can't sleep; if you're worried I'm not sleeping, say my name and I'll hear you. I'll Apparate into your bed with you, or we'll go out to the orchard together."

I couldn't deny, it was a brilliant plan. His mother didn't want us sleeping together under her roof, she said nothing about the tent or the orchard. So, that's what we did. We'd say goodnight to everyone, go to our separate rooms and wait until everyone was asleep. I'd call his name and in a flash we'd be kissing furiously and stripping clothes off back in the tent, which he'd relocated to an out of the way spot in the orchard. It sounds like a randy teenaged excuse but sex helped both of us. There was nothing that made us feel more alive.

Now that he'd be a fully qualified Auror, it was another major step behind us. All I could wonder was when he'd officially ask me to marry him.