Year Six: The Normal Teenagers Kiss
The train ride back to King's Cross was quiet. Too quiet.
Ron, Hermione, Ginny, and Harry sat together in a cabin in the back of the train. Usually that section was reserved for the Slytherins, but all of them, with the exception of a very select few, had went home before the funeral.
Ginny didn't want to be there at all having been dumped by Harry the day before. And for what? To be a hero and run around the world with her brother and Hermione. It wasn't fair.
Her mind was with someone else anyways, so she decided she really didn't care. She walked out of the cabin, leaving the trio to themselves.
Harry had left soon after stating that he needed to walk around a bit. So Ron and Hermione were left by themselves.
The two said nothing as they sat and watched the world rush past them. Soon, Hermione leaned back onto Ron, her head on his shoulder. Ron lifted his arm and put it around her. She moved her head so that it was now resting under his chin.
"Things aren't going to be the same are they?" asked Hermione.
Ron sighed. "Nope. We aren't safe anymore. Its funny how I used to think that Dumbledore was invincible. Only to be taken down by Snape, that greasy haired bitch."
"Language Ron...though I will agree with you. Dumbledore seemed more than a mere wizard. And now..."
Hermione turned her head and started crying into Ron's chest. Ron put his other arm around her, holding her and stroking her hair as she cried.
At 17 years old, he felt as if he had the entire world on his shoulders. This wasn't supposed to be happening. The only worries he was supposed to be having was whether or not he would make Head Boy or Quidditch captain. Weather or not he would graduate.
Instead he, Harry, and Hermione were going to be going on be going on a wild Horcrux chase going Merlin only knew where. He didn't know how long he and his friends would be out doing this. Could be days, weeks, months. Hell, even years.
"What do you think is going to happen?" asked Hermione, wiping her tears away.
Ron tried cheering Hermione up. "Well, we are going to start off by having an amazing summer, I think. Swimming, chess, Quidditch, and then Bill and Fleur's wedding."
Hermione smiled. "You know I'm not going to play Quidditch, Ronald."
"Oh but you will. You're getting on a broom, Mione. I'll make sure of that." laughed Ron, brushing Hermione's nose with his finger.
"We shall see. And after this amazing summer, then what?" asked Hermione, starting to feel better.
"We are going to find all the Horcruxes in a week, destroy them, stab Voldemort with a quill, killing him instantly, be worshipped by the wizarding world, and then go back to school and be real teenagers." said Ron confidently.
Hermione laughed. "That sounds wonderful. If only it would be true."
"You never know, it might happen. I for one would love it to. I would love to have a year with nothing but regular wizard teen problems."
"What about us?" asked Hermione.
Ron looked down at her. "What do you mean?"
"Would we be able to do normal teenage things together?" asked Hermione, blushing.
Ron smiled. Ever since he was poisoned and Hermione visited him, they had gotten closer. They both could tell the dynamics of their relationship had shifted into something that was more than a mere best friendship. However, neither of them had acted upon it. Sure, they would have liked to by now, but with everything that had happened this past week with the Death Eaters, Dumbledore's death, and now the upcoming hunt, they didn't know if they could, or even if they should.
"I would hope so." said Ron. "I would like to."
"Well, we still have about 30 minutes until the train stops." said Hermione, sitting up. "Let's do some normal teenage stuff now."
"Like what?"
"I dunno. What did you and...Lavender do?" said Hermione, her facial expression showing disgust at the blonde's name.
Ron winced. "Other than just snog, we really didn't do anything. She didn't pay attention to what I had to say. And when she talked, she might as well been talking to a bloody brick wall because I was not interested."
Hermione rolled her eyes. "Okay. Well let's not do that then..I wouldn't want you to not listen to me."
"I always listen to you Hermione. Even when you think I'm not."
Hermione blushed. "Tell me a secret."
"A secret?"
"You do know what a secret is right Ron?"
"Don't get cheeky with me, woman" said Ron nudging Hermione. "Okay, a secret...hmmm...I saw my first set of boobs when I was 10."
Hermione gasped. "10? What were you doing looking at girls at age 10?"
"Hear me out before you call me a perv. When I was ten, the twins were twelve and I think Percy was about to turn 14, Fred had bribed me to break into Percy's room and steal this box of books out from under his bed. They told me that they were muggle comics, that they were exclusive, and we just had to read them. Well, I did manage to get the box, but there wasn't any comics in there."
"Oh...OH! Wow...I can't believe Percy would look at things like that." said Hermione, thinking about the stuffy yet studious 14 year old she had met in her first year and not being able to imagine him even being interested in girls. When he started dating Penelope Clearwater, everyone was shocked.
"Here's another secret. I used to think you liked Percy." said Ron.
"What? Me? And Percy?" said Hermione, scrunching her face.
"Well, actually it was the twins that put that idea in my head." said Ron. "They had said that they had a feeling that you liked a Weasley. I figured that since he was into books like you were, then the Weasley was him."
Hermione laughed. "Percy was okay, but he was a bit of a bore. I don't think I would be able to put up with him in a relationship."
"Really?"
"I like guys that make me laugh." said Hermione.
"Oh." said Ron. "So one of the twins then? George maybe, since Fred is spoken for?"
Hermione shook her head. "They are both way too much trouble for my taste. I would lose my mind dating one of them."
"Well, I mean you only know two more Weasley's."
"Yeah and one of them has what I have and I don't really fancy witches. So that just leaves one." said Hermione smiling and intertwining her fingers with Ron.
Ron looked down at their hands and then back at her. He started blushing hard.
"How long?" he asked
"Since you told Malfoy to eat slugs." said Hermione, blushing as well. "Although back then, I really didn't know how to feel about all that. I was only 12 after all. And I thought it would go away, but as we grew, my feelings did too."
"Mine did too. But I didn't figure it out until the Yule Ball when you chose Vicky over me." said Ron with a smirk.
"His name is Viktor, and I didn't choose him over you, you just didn't ask me." huffed Hermione.
"I did too."
"No you didn't. You had finally realized that I was indeed a girl, and then you asked if I would go with one of you because it would be sad for a girl to show up alone." said Hermione with a matter of fact look on her face.
"Yeah...not my best moment. But I wished I would have asked you properly instead of yelling at Fleur. You looked gorgeous that night." blushed Ron, thinking back when he saw Hermione in that periwinkle dress.
"Thank you. I would say the same about you, but then I would be lying." giggled Hermione.
"Oi! I was dashing. Padma said so." said Ron laughing, poking Hermione in her side.
"Padma was trying to be EXTREMELY nice." said Hermione.
"Anyways, enough of that. How long do we have left to be normal teenagers?"
Hermione looked down at her watch. "Five minutes." she said.
"That's not a lot of time. There is something else that I want to do that a regular teenage boy would do with a regular teenage girl."
Hermione smiled as Ron leaned in and kissed her. This kiss felt a whole lot different from the desperate one that had months ago. He wanted Hermione to feel what he truly felt about her. He wanted every part of her in more ways than one, her heart for starters.
Hermione straddled Ron's lap as she deepened the kiss, her fingers playing with the hair on the back of his neck. He held onto her waist, rubbing his thumb across the small amount of her exposed soft skin.
Ron felt as if he didn't want to do anything else in the world but travel on the train and be close to Hermione. She made him feel as if everything was right in the world. No Voldemort, no Death Eaters, no one trying to kill his best friend. It was just him, Hermione, and peace.
And in a mere few seconds, the peace was over. The train had pulled into the station.
Hermione and Ron looked at each other, each one disappointed that their moment had to come to an end.
Ron held Hermione close to him, not wanting to ever let her go. "I want to be with you." he whispered in her ear.
Hermione's heart sung. She had been wanting to hear those six words for such a long time. However, this was the wrong time for them to be said.
"We have to wait to be normal teenagers remember Ron?" she whispered back sadly. "We have to be there for Harry."
"Harry. Right." said Ron nodding his head sadly.
The two reluctantly let go of each other just seconds before Harry came back in the cabin. They grabbed their trunks along with Ginny's and exited the train.
Normal life would unfortunately have to wait.