While Ron was at work during the weekdays the Grangers went house hunting.

"Where would you like to live?" Graham asked, leaning over a large paper map spread over their table in a cafe in Bath, they had been looking in the sandstone city as it was a place they had visited on holiday once but it didn't hold the same appeal as it had then.

"Somewhere new, and by the sea!" Jean requested, recalling their home near the ocean in Australia and the bodyboarding they had learnt to do there.

"Well it's not quite the same calibre as the beaches in Australia but what about Teignmouth?" Hermione suggested, indicating a seaside town on the map. "It's only half an hour by car from the burrow so you and the Weasleys can hang out easily. It's close to the city of Exeter where you could join a dental practice or set up your own, you can also get a train from there straight into London if you wanted to shop or visit Diagon Alley. Plus if you get a place on the edge of town you could walk to Bill and Fleur's if you need anything or would rather travel by floo."

"What about surfing?" Graham asked with a twinkle in his eye, it sounded perfect so far.

"Well," Hermione tapped away at her mother's smartphone conducting further research "it's an hour's drive from Bantham which is the second best surfing beach in Devon and less than two hours from Croyde which is number one."

"Let's go have a look then!" Jean exclaimed in excitement and Hermione giggled, packing away the map and leading them to an empty alleyway.

She landed them on the edge of Shell Cottage's garden and led the way into the town to a muggle estate agent.

Wandering from estate agent to estate agent the little family scrutinised the photos of properties in each window until finally Jean spotted one she liked.

"This one." She decided, pointing to a photo of a stone cottage that had a garden ending at the water's edge and a dock for a small boat to moor.

With a determined air she waltzed into the building and asked to see the house, glad to have business on a dreary November day the estate agent leapt up and quickly took them to visit the property.

The house stood part way along a row of old stone cottages, each had space for a car or two out front as well as a front garden and the group were warmly greeted by a friendly elderly neighbour tending her vegetable patch. Young children played further down the quiet street on their bikes, laughing as they went and a heavily pregnant lady wandered past offering another warm hello. The house was smaller than their previous one but it had three large bedrooms, one with an luxurious ensuite for them, another big one for Hermione and one for guests. Downstairs was split into two rooms, a kitchen diner and a cosy lounge with a wood burning stove, they wouldn't be able to have a floo put in but they were on the right side of town that it was only a short walk up to Shell Cottage so they didn't mind.

They all fell in love with the house and the welcoming community instantly but the back garden was what cinched the sale. A patio with a brick barbeque lay right outside wide french doors from the kitchen, followed by a large lawn with flower beds down each side and ending in a wooden dock over the estuary. A rowing boat bobbed where it was tied up to the dock and a kayak sat on top of the wood.

"Yes." Graham stated "This one."

"I agree." Jean added "Hermione?"

"It's perfect." Gryffindor's princess agreed with a beaming smile.

The sellers were happy to move quickly as they had another place lined up already and by the end of the month the Grangers were settling into their new home, painting the walls and making it their own. Graham had also bought them a pair of second hand sea kayaks from a bloke he met at the local pub and was excited to use them when the winter was over.

Having watched Ron and Hermione together in the evenings and on weekends Graham and Jean had decided that they wouldn't invite any of the Weasleys over. Once any of them had visited they would be able to apparate over any time they liked and Hermione's parents wanted her to have a safe space away from them, just in case their gut feeling ended up being correct.

The young couple acted like they always had, best friends. They rarely kissed unless they had been drinking despite being newly engaged. They were often touchy feely but in a way that said they were platonic and comfortable, nothing more than the very best of friends. Graham watched the way Ron looked at her and realised that the redhead had no idea that his fiancee didn't feel the same kind of love for him in return. Ron clearly didn't have much experience with love and thought that this was the kind of love marriages were built on, he wasn't completely incorrect but for the kind of marriage that Hermione dreamt of she would need to return his romantic love as well as the love from such a strong friendship.

On the first of December she went off on another work trip and kissed Ron goodbye on the cheek like she did with Harry. This action didn't go unnoticed by Graham so he and Jean began decorating Hermione's room so that when she broke off the engagement she would have somewhere that felt like home to go to.

They painted three walls in a dusky navy colour and wallpapered the last with a similar coloured background decorated with silver birch trees and golden stars. A light wooden four poster king size bed and matching desk and cupboards were added with ruby coloured semi transparent chiffon drapes and soft cotton sheets. They hung photos in frames of her growing up and several of her and Fred during his summer visits to their old house. The photos depicted the pair laughing in the sunshine, teasing each other while playing board games and one particularly cute one of them curled up asleep on the sofa together with a movie playing in the background, Hermione's unruly curls resting on Fred's broad chest and his arm wrapped protectively around the dip in her waist at the edge of her bandages.

"Perhaps she'll still be a Weasley one day." Jean mused to herself as she admired the photo.

Fred was thoroughly absorbed in the shop, it was the build up to Christmas and he spent almost every waking moment producing new products or working on the shop floor. Clement and Felicity regularly popped over with fresh bread for the twins at lunchtime, while Fred handed Felicity new wonder witch products to test in return. The twins now had such a variety of products that they could only fit a few of each on the shelves, meaning that restocking those many shelves became the key task for the first manic Saturday in December.

"I'm not doing that again." George panted as he collapsed on the shop stairs straight after closing. "No. Fred, you can do the restocking by yourself. I can't keep up, I'm too old."

"I'm older than you, you git." Fred replied laughing from his spot leaning against a nearby wall, equally exhausted.

"Right, what's the issue with restocking?" asked Verity, wandering over from her place at the tills and stretching out her aching arms from all the packing she had done that day.

"There are so many different products because genius over here keeps coming up with brilliant new ideas." George answered, trying to sound mockingly bitter but just coming across as proud of his twin.

"Bon soir!" Felicity greeted breezily as she slipped past the closed sign on the door with a fresh batch of eclairs to thank the WWW team for the bath salts Fred had gifted her the day before, she was testing the lavender salts that were imbued with a sleeping potion charmed to only trigger when you were dry and in bed.

"Hey Felicity," Verity ran over to give the other woman a hug and nab one of the eclairs "we're trying to work out how to restock the shelves more quickly, there's too much variety for the space."

"I've extended the stockroom out into the back alley with Dad's help" Fred explained "but we can't extend the shop front because there's nowhere left to extend into."

"Could you use the spell we do in the bakery?" Felicity wondered out loud "To keep the food fresh we store them in the kitchens and only have one of each type on display. Once that item is removed from its place a fresh one is automatically summoned from the kitchen. It would be difficult if the customer would just like to look or changes their mind though."

"That's genius!" George exclaimed, gaining the energy to sit up.

"We could have three of each on display with space for five and only when the shelf is completely empty does it restock back up to three!" Fred added "Will you show us please?"

"Only if you give me some more of those lovely lavender bath salts, they were a delight." Felicity teased lightly.

"Deal!" Fred said summoning a small glass jar from the store room "I've tweaked them to add a sweet dream potion too so hopefully they're even better now."

The restocking spell worked perfectly, as did Fred's new wonder witch lavender salts product and soon 'Dreamy Delight' bath salts were added to the Wonder Witch zone of the shop. Sales continued to go through the roof so Fred and George hired extra staff to work the shop floor as they were so busy on product creation and managing the brand. Ron was saving up money for the wedding and with Hermione away the youngest Weasley brother was glad for the extra cash and distraction in evenings and weekends, so the twins employed him as a stock producer. They trusted him with their secret recipes and the three worked well together producing and packaging their now famous products.

They chatted about everything and anything except Hermione until it was the night before she returned from her trip, the day before Christmas Eve, Fred had had a long day in the shop and he couldn't help himself.

"She comes home tomorrow right?" He asked his youngest brother over a batch of amortentia, it would later be mixed with a few other potions to create their 'mutual romance love potion' so that it only worked to enhance love that was already there. The smell of apples and roses engulfed his senses, it was the scent of Hermione that always came from amortentia for him.

"Hermione? Yeah she does." Ron answered a little reluctantly. "Can I ask you something? You can't make fun though, I need real big brother help."

"Of course Ron, we understand." George offered kindly.

"I know we talk about stuff a lot but we don't really talk about girls. I just… I could do with some advice." Ron continued sheepishly.

"Sounds like a firewhiskey chat, I'll go grab a bottle" Fred excused himself quickly, he was happy Hermione was happy but he couldn't cope with talking to her fiance about their relationship.

"What's it feel like when you're in love?" Ron asked once Fred had darted out of the room.

"Well, I think I'm falling in love with Angelina." George replied "I can't seem to stop thinking about her, I would die for her and do anything that made her happy, but that's only half of it really. With a relationship there needs to be passionate love too, I can't keep my hands off her when we're together and I ache to do things to her body…"

"I have half of that with Hermione, I would definitely die for her and have offered myself up for that multiple times already, and she really is the most beautiful witch ever but we've never really done anything more than kisses. She drives me mad just thinking about her body and I'm so horny every time we share a bed whenever she's home. Not that she's home very often." Ron finished sadly. "I really miss her when she's not here but that's mostly because I don't have her to talk to, she's never shown interest in other stuff with me though and I would never push her."

"I don't know what to say, Ron." George replied honestly, remembering his commitment to look out for Hermione he pushed away thoughts of his twin and gave the best advice he could think of for Hermione's happiness "Every relationship is different but maybe she's waiting for you to initiate things."

"Thanks for listening anyway. I do appreciate these talks." Ron said with a small but grateful smile.

"Come on," George said in a more cheerful tone "let's go find Fred and that firewhiskey before you go home."

Hermione arrived back at the Burrow late on Christmas Eve, only a few hours before Christmas Day itself, she and Ron embraced fiercely and after a round of warm drinks with Mr and Mrs Weasley they went to bed.

Casting a silencing charm around his room Ron changed into his pajamas while Hermione brushed her hair, having already put her pajamas on. As soon as she released her brush he crashed his lips into hers and dragged her down onto the soft sheets, their tongues tangling as they moved out of sync. It wasn't a scorching kiss like she used to have with Fred but she and Ron had been apart for a while so she thought that maybe that was the reason. His hands ghosted over her chest before tugging her closer by the waist, his large bulge pressed into her hips showing her he wanted her. Her hands joined in the roaming, it felt good to be touched even if the touch wasn't quite right, and soon they both lay topless and panting. Ron admired her breasts and dusky pink nipples for the first time, his cock twitched eagerly as he began sucking, a little too gently for her liking, on each one and kissing the wrong part of her neck.

They would get used to each other though, she thought, this was their first time fooling around despite the fact they had been engaged for over a month. Ron's hands slid down the front of her pajama bottoms and cupped her mound, waiting for permission before continuing. She nodded ascent and he ran a large finger from her entrance to her clit through her dry folds and back three times.

"Wait. Can we… Can we wait?" She requested, feeling uncomfortable with the situation. His hair was the right colour but the wrong texture, he had freckles but they were in the wrong places, his large hands weren't rough and calloused in the same way and he didn't instinctively make her whole body sing.

Ron retrieved his dry hand from her pajamas and sighed, resting his forehead against her shoulder.

"I'm just not right for you am I?" he asked sadly.

She didn't reply.

"Are you okay?" he asked next.

"Yeah. Can we just cuddle?" She whispered through silent tears.

"Always." Ron replied as he wrapped her up safely in his long arms.

The best friends donned their tops and spent the rest of the night holding each other close. They both knew this wouldn't be forever but they loved the other so deeply that they really didn't want to let go.