Back again for another Missing Moment. This week's moment takes place after Ron's return- you know, the one after he saved Harry from drowning and then stabbed the locket? Yeah, that one. It's between him and Hermione. Review please and let me know what you think :D

Missing Moment: After Ron's Return

Hermione was cold. Harry had insisted on taking watch on that bitter cold night, and in turn she insisted that he take her blanket and several of the extra ones with him. Now, as the cold crept into the flimsy canvas tent, she was beginning to regret giving her blanket to Harry. And she would NOT, no matter how cold it got, ask Ron for one of his spares. It would freeze in Hell before she'd do that.

She rummaged around in her bag, dug until she found an oversized sweater, and pulled it on over her pajamas. Then she crossed to the stove, and put on the tea kettle. She hoped that a cup of tea would warm her.

"Mione, what are you doing?" Ron asked groggily, sitting up in his bunk.

She determinedly turned away and ignored him. Seeing that he wasn't getting an answer, he crawled out of bed and stood next to her. "Blimey, it's cold!" he muttered. "Mione, it's freezing. Do you want a blanket or something?"

She glared at him.

"Fine. Have it your way. I'll laugh when you're an icicle." He turned to head back to his bunk, but then turned to face her again. "I didn't mean that. But really, Mione, you're going to freeze if you don't get warm. And this stove's barely giving off any heat."

"Fine. Give me the bloody blanket" she said, daggers filling her voice.

He bounded over to his bed, and pulled his spare blanket from the bottom of it.

She took it and wrapped herself in it. But she still couldn't get warm, couldn't stop her teeth from chattering, her body from shivering violently.

"Don't hate me for doing this" Ron said. Before Hermione could ask what 'this' was, Ron had wrapped his arms around her, spreading his body heat to her.

Tense at first, she gradually began to relax as she warmed.

"Are you still mad at me?" he asked quietly.

"Yes- you walked out on us- on me, Ron! How could I not be mad at you?"

"I fixed it! I came back, and saved Harry!"

"Do you know how hard it was without you?"

"No" he muttered.

"It was bloody awful! Harry was moody and quiet, and then we went to Godric's Hollow and almost died!"

"Hermione, I'm sorry I left. I really am. I've screwed up a lot of things in my life, but that was definitely the worst."

"Yes it was." She pulled her body away from his warmth and turned her back to him. "I don't think you can match that one."

"What else can I say, Hermione?"

"I don't know- something!" she yelled. "After you left, I… I just felt so alone! And betrayed! I trusted you! I poured out my heart to you over the summer, after I had to send my parents away, and you promised that no matter what happened, you would always be there for me! And then you weren't! The first time things got hard, you left! How was that suppose to make me feel? You just left! And I was worried sick! I had no way of knowing whether you were alive or hurt or…"

"Or dead" Ron finished.

"Yes. How is that suppose to make me feel, Ron? You basically make me think you're dead for over a month, and then you just come back and expect to pick up right how things were left off?" He voice was filled with icy daggers.

"No. I didn't expect to- I guess I acted like I did though, didn't I?"

"Yes, you bloody well did."

"I really did try to come back though. Honestly. I would have come back right away if it wasn't for the snatchers- and by the time I got away from them, I couldn't find you!"

"Maybe it you'd never left in the first place" Hermione snipped from where she stood near the stove, her arms curled around her chest, shivering.

"I was angry, Mione! Can you at least try to think about it from my point of view, at least for a minute? I'm not trying to defend what I did, but just think: I'm the only person here that has a family to be worried about-"

She shot him a hurt look.

"Wait- I just meant that your family's safe in Australia, while mine's here, in the middle of the danger. And so many people in my family have been hurt anyway! And then the bloody horcrux was affecting me so much worse than it did you or Harry, was making me think horrible things. And… and…"

"And what, Ron?" Hermione asked agitatedly.

"Never mind."

"Fine." They sat in uncomfortable silence for a moment.

"Mione? I'm sorry I left. I really am. I just don't know what else you want me to say." Then he got up and walked back to his bunk.

Hermione looked around just as he turned his face to the wall. His blanket laid on the floor where she'd dropped it earlier. Sighing, she retrieved it, wrapping it tightly around herself, and tried to absorb any heat it had left.

Her teeth chattered loudly, and he body shook as she walked to her bunk, next to Ron's, deciding she would try to sleep.

"Hermione, you're freezing. You're not going to sleep until you get warm. And you need sleep- you look exhausted" Ron said as he rolled over to face her in the tent. He could see his breath as he spoke.

"I wonder why?" Hermione muttered under her breath.

Ron lifted his blankets. "It's nice and warm in here with me."

A silent debate raged inside her head, but her survival instincts propelled her to the warmth Ron offered.

"Fine. But this is ONLY because I can't get warm. I'm still mad at you."

"Just get in here and get warm."

Keeping the blanket wrapped firmly around her, Hermione crawled in his bunk next to him. It was blissfully warm.

"Night, Mione" Ron said, rolling over to his side, facing the wall.

As much as she wanted to sleep, she couldn't. He emotional and logical sides of her brain were waging a war.

"Forgive him"

"But he left"

"He's genuinely sorry for it"

"But he can do it again"

"He won't"

"Just forgive him"

Finally, when she was convinced by Ron's even breathing that he was asleep she said softly "I missed you."

"I missed you too, Mione" his soft voice replied.

She reached over and hit him in the arm, trying to ignore the soaring feeling in her stomach. "I'm still mad at you, you know."

"I know. At least you're talking to me in a nice tone, and not screaming at me. It's a start."

"Goodnight Ron."

"Night Mione."

She smiled and then went towards the loving confines of sleep.

Something startled her awake some hours later. Seeing nothing as she looked around the dimly lit tent, she closed her eyes. An instant later, they snapped open again. She had woken up with her arm draped over Ron's chest, and her head was partially laying on his shoulder.

While it wasn't sending the message that she was still angry with him very well, she found that she rather liked the feeling of sleeping in his arms.

So she laid back down, exactly as she had been before, and closed her eyes. Her thoughts raced. But they were calmed when Ron put his arms around her in his sleep, mumbling her name.

"What would I do without you, Ronald Weasley?" she thought as she drifted off to sleep once more. "What would I do without you?"