Disclaimer: I, sadly, do not own the Harry Potter characters, setting, spells, or basically anything that seems familiar to you.

Best Mates

(Ron's POV)

Ron awoke to the sound of fireworks and the whooshes of broomsticks. Being used to this odd awakening, he automatically reached behind him at his nightstand, his large and freckled hand grasping in the dark for his wand. Not being able to find the slender shape of the willow wood, he turned on his side to face the nightstand. Ron felt a sharp jab on his side when he turned, causing him to release a short grunt. Searching his pockets for the source of the poking, his fumbling hand found the familiar feel of his wand. As Ron never slept in his day clothes on purpose, he reasoned that he had fallen asleep before changing.

The whooshing and crackling of fireworks grew louder, emanating from his Chudley Cannons alarm. A quick flick of his wand quieted the noise. According to the flashing, orange numbers directly above the object, it was around 7:45 a.m. It had been bewitched by his mum to wake him once he had a full night's sleep. On most days, he would swear at the noisy contraption and grumpily go back to sleep, after turning off the alarm. Today though, he had too much on his mind to drift asleep.

Ron dropped his wand onto the bed, sat up, stretched his muscled arms, and let out a slow, satisfying yawn. He swung his long legs out from under the covers and over the edge of the bed, and stood up, wobbling a bit due to the early hour. He rubbed his eyes with his knuckles and stumbled over to his trunk. Reaching inside, he found an orange Chudley Cannons t-shirt and a fresh pair of jeans. He speedily changed from his previous outfit to the new one. Ron pocketed his wand once more and quietly headed out the door, ducking under the low frame. He walked down the many stairs to the kitchen and tried not to wake anyone with the banging of his bare feet on the wood.

Ron stepped into the small kitchen, with the idea of making tea and organizing his plans, only to find a steaming pot on the stove already. Even more surprising was the figure sitting at his kitchen table, sipping his own hot tea. Harry stopped drinking when he saw Ron and his eyes widened.

The two stayed there in silence for a while, neither knowing what to say. Ron and Harry's friendship had fallen off since the end of the war. Both had been so busy. Harry had been bombarded with the press and had to make hundreds of public appearances. After his fans had calmed a bit, he, being the Chosen One, had been snatched up by the best Auror camp in the business, which had occupied his time for the next several months. Ron, on the other hand, had grieved with his family for some time after the war, staying cooped up in the Burrow. After the many funerals of friends and family, his time was spent with Hermione. He had gone to Australia with her, to return her parents to England. It had taken longer than expected to find the Grangers and help them pack their things. After they had been safely moved back home, Ron had been eagerly accepted into the same camp as Harry, under the status of, "the Chosen One's partner". Harry was a month ahead of Ron in the program though, putting them into separate divisions.

Harry and Ron both stayed at the Burrow on Sundays, but never really communicated. Harry was distant from all the Weasleys ever since the defeat of Voldemort and eventually, all they had was quick, polite conversations at dinner. Nobody really understood why Harry was so distant from them. Mrs. Weasley constantly tried to reach out to him, but never really succeeded. Having just lost a son, losing Harry broke her even more, and she was often found crying silently to herself. Hermione had done the same. The two women had both settled for quick bursts of tears when they thought nobody could hear them, but somehow, Ron always ended up walking in on them when they were breaking down. Not only had the family lost Fred, but now Harry, the one who was always fighting the bad guys and keeping them safe, had left them too. Ron had thought he would grow used to Harry's absence, but you can't really forget your best mate.

Ginny hadn't been able to fully cope either. She had taken it extremely hard when Harry wouldn't speak his feelings. She had always been the one that Harry would whisper his true, honest emotions to. Ginny had never been shut out by him before, and when she was, she too shut everybody out. The youngest Weasley spent her time moping and staying silent during the summer. She had improved after her return to Hogwarts though. When she visited on Christmas, she was more of herself, but still wasn't entirely there, as Harry was still staying distant.

The entire Weasley family was breaking down and splitting apart.

After five months of training six days a week, Harry graduated one month before Ron. He moved out of the Burrow and into a new flat. He told nobody of its location in order to hide from the annoyingly curious press. Harry, much to everybody's surprise, didn't take the Auror job right away. He had chosen to "let his life calm down a bit" before starting work.

Once Ron graduated, he began to help George with the joke shop on week days instead of going directly into the Auror business. Kingsley, the Minister of Magic, had promised Ron that he would give him a job once everything was straightened out with the shop.

Hermione had been finishing up her studies on the days that Ron was at Auror training. McGonagall had given her the opportunity to finish her final year of school at the Burrow. Hermione had been sent the lesson plans and was told to owl her homework to her teachers. Having all of the material available to her, she had finished a year's worth of schooling in a few months, causing her to graduate only weeks before.

Ron actually could not think of a time when "The Golden Trio" had been alone together after the final battle. The closest they had been was when Ron had patted him on the back at the hospital. The gesture was meant to make Hermione more comfortable with the strangers, but it had made Ron realize how much he really missed his best mate.

Ron had constantly felt guilty about the distance between him and Harry, but it wasn't something that could be easily fixed. The little free time he had was spent with his girlfriend, and even if he had reserved time for Harry, he wouldn't know where to owl him. Not only was there the issue of lack of contact, Ron was angry at Harry also. Harry hadn't shown up for Fred's funeral. In Ron's eyes, Harry had left him when Ron was the weakest, on the one day that he needed more than Hermione to comfort him. He and Hermione had waited until the very last possible second for their best friend, but he had never come. The funeral was made even worse without the black haired, green eyed boy crying along with the family. Everyone was not only mourning for Fred, but was worried about Harry's safety. The next day though, they found out that he was not captured and forced to leave them alone in their time of need, but that he had disappeared of his own accord. Ron honestly didn't know if he would have rather had his friend bound and gagged then abandon him out of choice. No apology was ever given to Ron and this only greatened the gap between the two old friends. Neither Ron nor Harry had ever brought up the topic, as they had never really spoken alone.

"Uh, good morning, Ron," Harry said, setting his cup down on the long, wooden table. The tension between the pair was obvious, and seemed to hang in the air between them.

"G'morning. What're you doing down here, its way too early to be up," Ron responded, clearly still surprised that Harry was even here.

"I was about to ask the same thing," Harry said with a nervous chuckle, "You're never up before noon."

Ron smiled his lopsided grin and asked to join Harry. Harry responded with an eager smile and with a swift movement of his wand, sent a cup from the open cupboard to be filled with tea and set across form him, in front of a vacant chair.

Ron pulled the chair out and sat upon the cushioned seat, grasping his cup in one hand. Ron wasn't sure why, but he was extremely nervous. He didn't want to mess up their friendship even more by being the git that he usually was in emotional situations. His heart beat quickened and he tapped his bare foot nervously on the floor.

Although he could think of many reasons to just sit there in the awkward silence, he decided to voice his plans to his old mate. "So why are you here?" he asked, trying to start conversation.

"Oh, well, I asked your mum if I could stay for a bit, and she said I could. I wanted to help with Hermione and all. I don't have to stay though, I understand if...," Harry said so quickly that Ron could barely make everything out.

Ron hadn't expected Harry to feel unwelcome in a house where he had his own room, and he wasn't trying to accuse Harry of being in the house when he wasn't invited, he was always welcome. "No, no, I meant why're you down here," Ron responded.

"Oh, well, I couldn't sleep much," he answered, rubbing the back of his neck with his palm.

"Me neither," Ron agreed with a slight nod of his head. Another silence took over and the only noise was their nervous fidgeting. Ron ran his fingers through his bright orange hair at least ten times and Harry's eyes went to almost every nook of the kitchen except where Ron was sitting.

Ron contemplated about how to ask for help. As soon as he saw Harry in the kitchen, he had known he wanted Harry to be a part of his plan to help Hermione. They could be "The Golden Trio" once more. "I need your help," Ron voiced. He knew he should give some kind of explanation, but he needed Harry to agree first, so he could be sure that his old friend wouldn't tell Dr. Harrison. The plan wasn't exactly against what the doctor said, but Ron was sure he would not be pleased if he heard what Ron was planning.

"Sure. Anything, Ron. Is it about Hermione?" Harry asked, making eye contact with Ron for the first time. His green eyes screamed of hope, as they used to. It was the first time that Harry had shown interest in anything besides Auror work in a long time.

Ron was pleased by Harry's reaction. He had said it as if it had been obvious that he would help. Even better, Harry guessed what it was about. They used to be like that in school, so close that they knew what the other was thinking. A smile broke into his features when it was made obvious that the connection was obviously still there. At that moment, all the tension was gone. It was as if they were the best of mates once again and nothing had ever happened to stop that. All the awkward silences disappeared and the conversation went naturally.

"Yea. I, uh, kind of have an idea of how to help her remember stuff," he told.

"Go on," Harry said, intrigued.

"Well, I was thinking that maybe you and I could tell her a story each day. You know, get her thinking about the past. Like one day we could tell her about how we met or something. Just little bits of our school life and stuff," he explained.

"Ron, that's brilliant," the boy across from him said. "I was trying to think of something to help her too, but I couldn't come up with anything."

"Yea, well, there's a problem. The doctor told me not to reenact stuff from her past. But we won't exactly be "reenacting" them, so I figured it wouldn't be too bad," the redhead nervously said as he twiddled his thumbs and his ears began to redden.

"Ron, since when have we followed any rules," Harry joked, forming a smile on both boys' faces. "But I think we should let Hermione choose the stories. It'll keep her interested and it'll seem less suspicious. I really don't think she'll approve of us doing this when the doctor said not to," Harry said with a much more serious tone.

"Yea, good idea. So are we just gonna ask what she wants to hear about?" Ron asked.

"Yea, I mean she must be curious about something. She's in a magic house for Pete's sake, why wouldn't she be curious?" Harry said with a slight smile.

Ron's face turned suddenly serious. His eyebrows furrowed and he said with much curiosity, "Who's Pete?"

Ron only became more confused when Harry broke out into a fit of laughter at Ron's serious expression. Ron could feel the back of his ears burning as Harry continued to laugh. After he had regained his composure and sat up straight again, he said, "Its and expression, there isn't anybody really named Pete that I know."

"Bloody muggle expressions. 'Raining cats and dogs', 'two peas in a pod', 'apple of my eye'. They never fail to make me look like a twit," Ron said grumpily, crossing his arms over his chest.

"It's because you are a twit Ron," Harry said, laughter etched into his features.

At this moment, the tension from earlier swept over the room again, wiping every trace of friendliness and happiness from the air. It had all returned with the playful insult. They might've been friendly a few moments ago, but there was a wall between the two once more.

"I…I'm sorry Ron, I didn't mean to say it, it just came out," Harry sincerely apologized.

Although Ron knew it had been a completely accidental comment and wasn't a real insult, he still felt a small blow to his insides. For some reason, he took offense to the comment and simply replied, "Its ok. No big deal. I'll tell you when its time for 'Mione's first story," his tone indicating that it was not ok at all and that the conversation was over.

The silence returned and the two finished off their tea without speaking. As soon as Ron was done, he pulled out his wand, sent the dish to be cleaned, and walked out of the kitchen, leaving a blank looking Harry slumped in his seat at the table with only an empty cup for company.

AN: Wow, this chapter did not go where I intended it to at all. I was actually going to have Hermione be the one in the kitchen, but somehow Harry ended up being there. I hope you all still liked it though. The next chapter will be from Harry's POV so you will get the explanation of why he missed the funeral, was distant from the Weasleys, didn't take the Auror job right away, etc. I also had serious writer's block during this chapter but I hope it turned out ok.

Ok, I just wanted to say that I am not against the Harry and Ron friendship or anything. I admire how close they are in the books, but they do get into their fights. They're both bad at apologizing, so that's why it has taken so long for them to reconnect. I just always thought Harry would be distant and depressed after the war. Why he is depressed exactly, will be in the next chapter. But don't worry, I promise that both the Harry and Ron friendship and the Ginny and Harry couple will change eventually. Also, I know that J.K. Rowling said that Hermione goes back to Hogwarts for her last year, but I could never see it happening. I honestly don't think she would've left Ron or Harry for an entire year. So I tried to stick with J.K. Rowling's ending but put my own twist on it too. I hope you don't mind. Lastly, please review. They all mean so much to me and they keep me writing. I hope to get a new chapter up soon, but in the meantime, review please