A/N: I want to thank the lovely ladies at PTB for not only getting this chapter back to me so quickly, but, also, for saying such nice things about it. Their words were some of the kindest I have ever received, so I wanted to take a moment to thank them. They are awesome. If you are looking for betas, I would definitely suggest them!

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We apparated to just outside the Weasley home door on Saturday afternoon. Without knocking, we walked into the house. Even after over ten years, it still surprised me that Molly could keep such a patch-worked house so neat and clean. How did she always find time to clean when she had seven kids? It never failed to shock me how much dedication she had to being the perfect mother and wife.

A loud pop in front of me and the sudden sight of two comical redheads scared a yelp out of me. When my heart calmed enough for me to move, I smacked the culprits on their arms. "Don't do that!" I exclaimed. Trust the twins to be there to test the strength of your heart!

Cocky grins spread across their faces as they laughed at me. "You should have seen your face, Hermione!" George said through his laughter.

"Yeah, I almost thought you were going to have a heart attack that time," Fred said.

I hit them again and began walking through the house on a mission to find the others, not paying attention to who was following.

Ron rushed up beside me and grabbed my hand. Leaning into me, he whispered in my ear, "We won't stay long, I promise. We just have to stay long enough to eat." As if on cue, I heard his stomach rumble softly.

"No, I want to stay. I love your family. Your brothers just get on my nerves sometimes," I said softly with a small chuckle. "They'll never grow up, will they?"

Ron let out a soft chuckle and shook his head. It was sad that Ron was the younger, but seemed to be so much more mature than his brothers.

"Hey, Hermione, our brother is being good to you, yeah?" I didn't turn to find out which twin was talking.

"Ya know, if he's not, there's much better Weasley blood over here," the other twin said. "Two for the price of one, ya know."

I rolled my eyes, though they couldn't see it. For years I had been trying to get it through their thick skulls that I wasn't interested in them. It never seemed to sink in, however.

Walking into the kitchen of the patchwork home, I found Molly and Ginny at the sink. "Hey, ladies!" I said to them, making them turn toward me.

Molly grabbed the bottom of her apron, dried her hands, and came to hug me. "How are you, Hermione? You haven't been around for so long."

"I'm doing great. I've just been working a lot."

"You work too hard."

I had the feeling there was more she wanted to say, but she was cut off by Harry's voice. "Don't let her lie to you, Molly. There's hardly ever anyone in that bookstore."

How dare he?, I thought, Who was this person standing behind Molly? My best friend would never treat me this way. Why? Why was he becoming such an arse? Instead of voicing my judgments, I decided to just glare at him.

Harry smirked at me and went to hug Ginny. I was beginning to worry about him.

Over the past few weeks, he had changed so much. He had gone from a fun-loving man to a petty little boy, from someone I could confide in to someone I shrunk away from, a friend to foe. How? Why would this happen? What was happening? Would I ever understand? Did I truly want to?

Later, sitting at the table, the same questions were running through my head. Harry kept staring at me. Did I have something in my teeth? For the millionth time during that meal, I ran my tongue along my teeth to check.

"So, Ron," Fred said at one point, "have any more dreams of dancing with McGonagall?" They really never would let him forget Professor McGonagall making Ron dance with her during practice for the Yule Ball during fourth year.

Ron proceeded to turn the darkest shade of red I had seen him in a long time. He had hated that day. So embarrassed was he by the professor's choice in student.

Coming to Ron's rescue, I said to the twins, "Oi, have you two turned yourselves into 80-year-old men to try to enter a tournament?"

The table fell silent. All of us knew not to say anything about their antics to enter the TriWizard Tournament because Molly knew nothing about it. All eyes were on her to see what her reaction would be. It wasn't pretty.

"Excuse me? What tournament?"

"Um, nothing, Mrs. Weasley. I was just pulling their legs."

We could tell that she didn't buy it, but thankfully she chose to leave it alone. I looked up and Harry was once again staring at me.

Ron placed his hand on my thigh. Did he sense the uneasiness that had settled over me under Harry's gaze? He whispered in my ear, "Wanna tell them now?"

A smile came over my face, realizing what he was talking about. Somehow in the midst of the afternoon, I had forgotten that we weren't only here to celebrate Voldemort's fall, but also to tell his family about our engagement.

"We have an announcement," I said gaining everyone's attention. Looking at Ron, I felt as though everything would be alright. "The other night, Ronald asked me to marry him." I turned back to the rest of the family. "I said yes!" I shouted as I showed them the ring that I had somehow kept hidden.

Everyone jumped up. The ladies ran to me and gave me hugs, while the men clapped Ron on the back. Congratulations were said in the Weasley way – loud! The only one not congratulating us was Harry. I noticed him standing away from the group of Weasleys hugging both of us, looking like he wanted to stun something.

After a few minutes of my trying to figure out what was wrong with him, he looked up and noticed my staring. All of a sudden his whole demeanor changed. He looked to be back to the old Harry. A large smile crossed his face and he ran over to us. "I'm so happy for you guys. Why didn't you tell me when I was at the store, 'Mione?" He hugged us and acted like everything was alright. Meanwhile I felt like the world was spinning. What was going on with him?

No one else seemed to notice these changes in him, though. It was like they all had blinders on and I was the only one seeing clearly. How was I the only one who could see it? Why was I the only one worried about him?

Things began to calm down and we all sat back down at the table to finish eating. Everyone was talking at once. At least three conversations were going on simultaneously. I tried to only listen to the one person talking to me – Molly.

"Have the both of you decided on a date yet?" she asked me.

"No. We've talked about it a little, but we haven't decided on anything yet. We're trying to decide between Christmas or our anniversary next year, May 18th."

"Well, I vote for the Christmas wedding! A whole year is just too long to wait. Christmas is only seven months away – which is still too long, but better than a whole year. I want grandbabies sooner rather than later!"

I chuckled at her excitement but shook my head. "No, we won't be having babies for a while yet. Besides, I'm thinking one is plenty."

Ron chose that moment to butt into the conversation. "What's wrong with more than one kid? And why should we wait to have them?"

I turned to him. "I just don't want a lot of kids, and I think we need to get some things in order in our lives before we start a family."

"What things? What's wrong with our lives now?"

No doubt sensing a fight beginning, Molly stood and started gathering plates. "Who's ready for dessert? Hermione, come into the kitchen and help me get the pie."

I glared at Ron, but let the subject go; choosing instead to do as Molly asked, to help her in the kitchen. The conversation was by no means over, just postponed. I wouldn't let him think that my feelings on this matter didn't mean anything or had no bearing on our future.

As we apparated to my apartment later that evening, I was still upset by the almost-argument with Ron. We walked into my small home, and I dropped my purse on the table near the door and my jacket on the hook.

The rest of the time spent at the Weasley's home was hard to say the least. I worked hard to keep my anger from showing, but I'm sure I wasn't successful. It ate at me. I was so mad that I couldn't begin to think of anything else.

"Alright, 'Mione. Out with it! What's eating at you?" Ron sounded exasperated. I hated knowing I had upset him, but he had to understand that he needed to consider my opinions in things, not just blow them off.

"Why do you think anything's wrong with me?" I said, deciding to just act like nothing was wrong. If he could do it, then so could I.

"Come off it, Hermione. I know something's wrong. Hell, I think my whole family knows I'm getting an earful tonight."

"Fine! You wanna know what's wrong with me?" I screamed, whipping around to face him, throwing my arms out to my side. "Fine! I believe that we should wait to have children. We're not ready yet."

Ron looked confused. "Who says we aren't ready yet? We're adults, aren't we? We understand what responsibility comes from having kids. So what's the problem?" He sat on the sofa as if nothing was wrong, kicked back, one ankle on the other knee, arms extended along the back of the furniture. How could he act as if nothing was going on but casual conversation?

"The problem is that babies cost money – money that we don't have. We can barely support ourselves. How can we expect to support another mouth to feed? I don't make much money at the store and you aren't making much money at the joke shop with your brothers."

"Who cares? Mum and Dad didn't have much money but they had seven kids!"

"I care! I don't want to be a laughing stock in the wizarding community. I want our family to be respected and that's not going to happen if they have to hand down their robes to each other. It's not going to happen if the house – that we don't have by the way – is all patched together."

His face fell and I realized what I had said. I felt horrible for making his family look bad. How could I do that to him? How could I say that?

"So that's what this is really about, huh? You're embarrassed to be with me. You can't stand being with a Weasley." He leaned forward toward me and his eyes bore into me.

"No, Ron, that's not it. I'm just saying that before we have a child we need to be financially ready, and have a big enough house. I'm not saying that your family is bad or that I'm embarrassed by you."

He just continued to sit there and stare at me. I began to squirm under his gaze and felt my heart falling as tears welled into his eyes.

"Ron, I love you. I want to marry you. Please understand that I didn't mean any of that about your family. I'm not embarrassed by you." I took a step toward him and fell to my knees in front of him. "I love you. Not for how much money you have, but for you, who you are, what you do to me inside. You have to understand that."

"No. No I don't, Hermione." His hand slipped inside his robes and he withdrew his wand. With a flick of his wrist, he was gone.

I was left alone with all my demons, all my guilt. How could I have made such a mess of things? Why did I say that to him? Why would I ever say things like that? It's not like I really am embarrassed by him. I'm not.

With a sigh, I sat on the sofa where Ron had just been. I could only hope that maybe he could forgive me for the mess I had made. If not, I don't know what I would do without him.