As far as I know, J.K. Rowling still owns Harry Potter.

It was a couple of weeks before things started to seem back to normal around the Burrow. Well, whatever normal really was. At first everyone wanted to spend time on their own. After most meals the members of the family would go back to their own rooms and stay there for the rest of the day until it was time to come back down to eat again. George had not gone back to his flat over the shop yet, and Percy and Mr. Weasley had not gone back to work. Although there was probably a list of things a mile high for them each to do, no one wanted to leave the comfort of home, even though there was hardly any time being spent together or conversations to be had. During these weeks Hermione read mostly. Actually she read a lot. Ron didn't mind, he said back at Hogwarts that was one of his favourite things to do; watch her read. "It was the only time I got to really look at you without worrying about you catching me," he explained to her one day. She blushed and turned back to the familiar pages of some old worn book she had read a hundred times.

Sometimes she would read out loud to Ron. He liked that a lot too. Although he admitted he often didn't understand the content of the books, but just liked hearing her talk. She usually read to him at night while he would fall asleep. She would sit at the end of the bed by his feet and read until he drifted off, and she would go back to Ginny's room to go to sleep herself. When she wasn't reading to Ron in his room, (which is where they spent most of their time,) she would read to herself while he would skim through old quidditch magazines about the Chudley Cannons. Other times, she would go outside to watch him, Harry, and occasionally Ginny fly around on their brooms. These flying sessions only lasted for an hour or so, seeing as Ginny and Harry seemed to want to spend all of their time together. And if Hermione was being completely honest with herself, she wanted to spend as much time as she could with Ron.

She didn't want to be the clingy girlfriend, that was Lavender's department. She just missed him. She missed him when he went to go take a shower, or she helped his mother with the dishes after dinner. Sometimes she missed him when he was sitting right next to her with their shoulders touching on his tiny bed. She thought that it had something to do with the stretch of time that he was gone while they were on their hunt. But then she thought back to their days at Hogwarts and realised that she had been harboring these feelings for years. Whenever her and Ron would have a row and not speak, she would go mental. She didn't want to be the one to apologize, and yet she felt as if she would explode if she had to go one more minute without him. It was especially rough during the summer holidays. Back during the time in which she was in denial about her feelings for him, she would blame it on the fact that she had no friends where she lived. This was of course true, after going off to Hogwarts at such a young age. Living in the muggle world she felt sort of different, disconnected. She knew Harry felt the same way, but a part of this feeling was due to the fact that Ron was so far away. Letters could only help so much and it seemed as if with each passing year, she was begging her parents to leave earlier and earlier to go and stay at the Burrow.

One night, while sitting by the window in Ron's room, she started to think about all of these things. She knew she had been dealing with these sorts of feelings the majority of the past seven years, but when she stopped to think on it, it was really scary.

"Hey, what's going on in that head of yours?" Ron asked her, shaking her out of her reverie.

"What?" Hermione replied, startled.

"Well you're just sitting there starting at that book and you haven't turned the page in about ten minutes," he chuckled. "Is something wrong?"

"No nothing…nothing's wrong," she answered slowly.

"Hermione, you can tell me anything you know that right?"

"Of course Ronald! What are you talking about?"

"Well something must be wrong. The Hermione Granger I know doesn't just stop reading for nothing. Do you want to talk about anything? Is there something you want to tell me?"

"No…I was just thinking about…things," she said.

"Oh, I see. Thank you for explaining that oh so clearly I know exactly what you mean," he cheeked.

"Oh Ronald," she sighed plopping down at the end of his bed.

"Why do you always sit at the bottom of the bed? Can't you come sit by me for once? It's not like I'm going to hurt you or anything like that! There thank you that's much better," he said as she adjusted to lean against him as he wrapped his arm around her.

"I just don't think it's very smart of us to be all cuddled up in your bed. What if your mother was to come up here and see this, I'm pretty sure she wouldn't be happy," Hermione explained.

"Hermione I'm going to tell you something. Every time that we come up to my room together, I lock the door. Now before you smack me upside the head, I'm not getting presumptuous or anything like that. I don't expect anything from you and I would never push you to do anything…like that just so you know. But, my time with you is just that; my time with you. I don't want anyone else barging in here and getting in the way with that. I know that selfish and that we've spent a good part of the last seven or eight years being with each other constantly, but sometimes I miss you. A lot. Actually that's a lie, I miss you all of the bloody time. It's ridiculous! I miss you when you go to help mum set the table, or when I'm flying around with Harry and Ginny and you're on the ground, or when you go to take a shower. Sometimes when you leave after I fall asleep when you've read to me, I'll wake up because I know you're not there, and even though you're a floor below me I'll miss the hell out of you. I even miss you when you sit at the end of my bed because you're not close enough to me. So trust me, my mum is not going to come in here and see anything," he finished.

"You know," started Hermione, "considering the first part of your little speech there, I should be quite angry with you. But it's pretty hard for me to do that when it was one of the sweetest things anyone has ever said to me," she grinned at him.

"Well good, I was getting a bit nervous there for a second, thought you might get Ginny to set a Bat Bogey Hex on me or something," he joked. She laughed until she felt his lips on her cheek and grinned. Then they moved to her mouth and she grinned even more. They kissed until she was out of breath and he pulled away.

"Well that was…Ron! What are you doing?" she gasped as he slowly pulled his lips from her neck.

"I'm sorry is this too much? Do you not want me to?" Ron asked nervously.

"No…it's not that it's just…"she started.

"Hermione," he cut her off, "I told you, no one is going to come up here," he said as he begin to continue his ministrations. Who knew such a simple thing as being kissed on the neck could be so wonderful? She sank lower and lower into the bed before she was lying down with him holding himself up over her. She closed her eyes and let herself get caught up in the feeling of this. This wonderful feeling that she didn't have to think and worry about because it came so naturally to her. She let her mind go wonderfully, easily blank. For the first time she did not have a million thoughts rambling through her head. She let the feel of Ron's soft lips on her neck quiet every thought, every little worry that she had ever known and lost herself in the sheer joy of experiencing something so un-Hermioneish as relaxation. The only thought that she had was of Ron and how he had read her mind. How relieved she was that he felt the same way she did, and how she wished that she could find the word to describe this incredible feeling coursing through her.

And then, she suddenly realised it. As if someone had pulled the wool from her eyes and she could see clearly for the first time. There was a word for it. She gasped at the sudden realisation and all that it meant. Quickly Ron sat up and looked at her worriedly.

"Are you ok Mione? Did I do something wrong, did I hurt you?" he asked hurriedly.

"No Ron it's fine. It's so incredibly fine! It's just…"

"What Hermione?" he interrupted.

"I just miss you," she answered before she pulled him back down to her lips. As she felt him smile into the kiss, she knew that she did in fact miss him. She didn't feel whole when some part of him wasn't touching her. But she also knew deep down, that she needed him to kiss her, so that she didn't say the wrong thing. Well, maybe it was the right thing. It was too early to tell, and she was not going to mess what they had up by doing just that.

A/N: So I know, please don't hate me. I know this took longer than I said, but hey, at least it wasn't a year long wait again! I've had a lot of school work and studying to do lately and just couldn't find the time to write this seeing as I was already staying up late into the night. However, graduation is coming soon and things have died down, so besides final projects and studying for finals I should have more time to work on this story some more before I go on vacation at the end of the month. I know this chapter is pretty short. I never really write particularly long chapters to begin with but this one was pretty short. I pretty much sat down and typed this out in about 45 minutes. It was all spur of the moment and I had absolutely no plan for this chapter which is another reason why it's so delayed. But I'm actually pretty happy with it. I know it's sort of a filler chapter and nothing particularly interresting happens but I do like it. I was trying to experiment with dialouge and there's a lot of that in this chapter which has affected the length. I think this is the most dialoge I've ever done. Anyways, I'm going to start planningout the next chapter but I would really love to know what you all would like to see happen and am wide open to suggestions so please send me some, along with your thoughts on this chapter! I don't know how many of you out there are reading this but whenever I get a story/author alert or story favourite or a review it really brightens my day. This website is so confusing so I'm not sure how to reply to reviews but when I figure it out be sure to know that I will do my best to reply to each and every one of you! It's the least I can do since you take the time out of your day to click that button on the bottom! So with all of that being said I hope you like the chapter and happy reading! XOXO