A/N: Thank you all so much for reading, reviewing, following, and even favoriting this story - and most of all, thanks for making me smile :) This chapter features much more plot than the last one, and it takes place about four months after Ron's original proposal. There's quite a bit of exposition here - not the most exciting chapter by any means, but it sets up the plotlines for the rest of the story. :)

Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling is a genius and sometimes I still forget my phone number.

Life didn't get much better than this, Ron thought to himself as he padded down the narrow hallway that led out of the bedroom. It was damn near the perfect morning, actually; he'd woken up at ten on a Saturday from a restful, post-shag sleep, in the flat he shared with his fiancée, who just so happened to be Hermione Granger, and he was currently following the smell of bacon. Sure enough, when he reached the kitchen, he was greeted by the sight of a small brunette in a dressing gown setting the table for breakfast.

"Aren't you beautiful?" Ron moaned as he hugged her from behind and buried his face in her neck.

"Me or the bacon?" Hermione quipped playfully.

"Both," Ron replied, pressing a kiss to her shoulder before drawing back and sitting at the table. Hermione poured them each a cup of juice before she joined him, and they began to eat their meal in a peaceful, comfortable silence.

They had got the domestic routine down quite nicely in the week since they'd officially moved into their cozy little flat. Hermione had only just begun working in the legal division of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, and because all of the leftover reward money Harry had stuck them with was going toward the wedding, they were renting the place off of what little Ron had left in his savings after buying Hermione's ring. Ron had recently graduated from his training program to become a Junior Auror, which helped their financial situation a bit, but they still hadn't had many options when it came to purchasing a flat.

The place they'd ended up with was fairly well-kept and in a decent neighborhood, but it was quite cramped. Ron had been obliged to leave many of his belongings either at the Burrow or in the spare bedroom at Grimmauld Place, and Hermione had taken only the bare essentials from her childhood home. Neither of them particularly minded, though; they were simply happy to be living together and planning their upcoming wedding, which was set for the first weekend of September.

Moving in hadn't been a terribly difficult adjustment to make after the year they'd spent in the tent. It was easier, even, now that the pressures of a war and heaps of unresolved sexual tension had been removed, and Ron and Hermione soon found that the domestic life suited them quite well. She'd have to nag him to do his share of the chores occasionally, of course, but Ron suspected she secretly enjoyed having something to harp on him about, and he rather enjoyed when she got a bit bossy.

"Would you mind unpacking the last of your boxes before we go to my parents' later?" Hermione asked, drawing Ron out of his momentary reverie.

"Sure," Ron agreed immediately, smiling a bit. "Do you reckon we should dress up?"

Hermione bit her lip in thought. "Well, it wouldn't hurt. Why don't you wear that blue shirt of yours?"

"Okay. One more question, though; do you think I'll get myself kicked out, or will I get so angry that I'll have to leave?" Ron asked seriously.

Hermione let out a breath of exasperation. "Ron, really..."

"I'm just asking," he said defensively, shoving more bacon into his mouth.

"Just because it went badly last time doesn't mean it will this time," Hermione said firmly. "I had a talk with them the night before we moved."

"And was it a pleasant little chat, then?" Ron prompted, unable to stop himself from rolling his eyes.

Hermione pointedly ignored him. "Just be polite, maybe crack a few jokes. My mum's always thought you're funny."

"Your mum's not the one I'm worried about," Ron muttered.

"Ron, it's okay. You haven't really seen them since April; they've had time to get used to the idea now," Hermione said comfortingly.

"Right," Ron mumbled, his spirits only sinking as his thoughts turned to the ridiculously uncomfortable ten minutes they'd spent at the Granger household on the first day of Easter break. He'd sat in the dining room with Hermione's mum making awkward small talk while Hermione and her dad had engaged in a very loud "discussion" in the study.

Just as Ron had remarked to a nervous Mrs. Granger for the third time what nice weather they were having (it was raining), Hermione had reappeared in the room, pointedly levitating her trunk behind her and announcing loudly that she would be spending the rest of her break at the Burrow. After hugging her mother quickly and blatantly ignoring her father, she'd stormed out the front door, Ron following sheepishly at her heels.

Ron knew Hermione's relationship with her parents had been a bit strained since they'd got back from Australia. They hadn't taken particularly well to the news that they'd been sent to Australia essentially against their will, and it had placed tension on a bond that had been nearing its breaking point for years anyway. Hermione's parents had never fully understood her magic, and she had refrained from telling them about the darker events of her school days for fear that they wouldn't allow her to return to Hogwarts. Learning that their daughter had been heavily involved in a war had shot a hole clear through the fragile trust that remained. Though Mrs. Granger had since made a bit of an effort to reconnect with her daughter, Mr. Granger seemed to be trying to prove a point that he could be even more stubborn than Hermione.

Hermione had lived with her parents for only a few days after they'd returned from Australia before she'd decided it would be best if she moved to the Burrow for the rest of the summer. It was then that her relationship with Ron had intensified; though they'd been casually seeing each other since the war had ended, they had shied away from actually defining what they had. But Ron had been there for her as she attempted to rebuild her family; he'd held her while she cried and listened while she talked, and she'd done the same for him on his family's bad days. After all of that, neither of them could pretend that their relationship was anything less than what it was: they weren't simply messing around; they were in love, and they were going to be for a very long time, to say the least.

So, leaning on each other for the support they needed, they'd begun to sort out their lives. They threw their efforts into reconstructing their world, and everyone had undertaken the daunting task of moving on from all that had happened. For Ron, this primarily included helping George reopen the shop and rebuild his life. For Hermione, it meant working on her relationship with her parents.

Ron had accompanied Hermione to her parents' house a few times later that summer. Though the meetings were a bit tense, they had been making substantial progress. They were her parents, after all, and they loved her just as she loved them; that much had always been clear. But of course, everything had changed when Hermione had come home for Easter with an engagement ring on her hand.

Though Hermione had explained to Ron more than a few times that it was nothing to do with either of them as people, and it really had more to do with how quickly their relationship was moving, he knew that their disapproval hurt her just as much, probably more so, than it hurt him. While Ron's family had been a bit surprised to hear the news, they were largely overjoyed at the news of the impending nuptials. Hermione's parents, however, had felt as though it had all come completely out of the blue. The difference, Ron supposed, was that his family and Harry knew the history between them, and any misgivings they had about their age were eclipsed by the fact that they had all known it was only a matter of time anyway. Mr. and Mrs. Granger, however, hadn't realized that their daughter was in such a committed relationship.

"They feel like they don't know me anymore," Hermione had confided to Ron over butterbeers during the last Hogsmeade visit of the year. "I don't blame them, I suppose, but they know I've been making every effort to patch things up. My mum's not so bad, you know, she wrote to me offering advice about flower arrangements the other day, but my dad's still livid. You have to understand, Ron, people don't normally get married so young in the muggle world, and all of the sudden their nineteen year old daughter comes home with the news that the wedding's in a few months. It's going to take some getting used to for them."

"They don't have to take it out on you," Ron had insisted fiercely, but Hermione had laid a soothing hand on his arm.

"It's a tough situation, especially with me being away. I've been writing to them constantly, trying to work on it all. I think it's getting better, I really do. And besides, nothing could possibly make me less happy about marrying you," she'd said with a brilliant smile. After that, their discussion had fallen to the wayside in favor of other, more pleasant activities.

But only now, a mere two months before the wedding, had Hermione decided that her parents were ready to get to know Ron. "They really want to spend time with us," she'd assured him when she'd talked him into spending a Saturday afternoon and evening with people he was quite certain loathed him for taking their daughter away.

"You're sure they don't want to shout at us?" Ron had frowned, recalling the dirty look Mr. Granger had thrown him across the platform when Hermione had come home for the summer.

"Ron, we're getting married," Hermione had reminded him. "We're going to need to deal with things like this; it's all a part of growing up."

It didn't escape his notice that she hadn't denied the possibility of a shouting match, but Ron had tried to keep from complaining about it after that. He knew this was important to Hermione, and it was to him, too; they were to be his in-laws, after all, and he wanted them to like him. Otherwise, he was in for a lifetime of uncomfortable dinners, which was something he personally wished to avoid. So, hoping that Hermione was right about them getting used to the idea of him marrying their only daughter, Ron had reluctantly cleared his schedule for Saturday.

After finishing his breakfast and unpacking the last box of his things from the Burrow, Ron took a quick shower and dressed in the blue shirt Hermione had suggested. It had been part of a gift from his parents in celebration of his joining the Aurors; his mum had insisted that he needed nice work clothes to wear underneath his regulation robes. Ron was so ecstatic to have clothes that weren't hand-me-downs that he'd forgotten to beg for a new broom instead. He found out later that these clothes were beneficial for reasons he hadn't originally anticipated - namely, that Hermione seemed to find them quite fetching.

After dawdling about for a little while, Ron and Hermione apparated to an alleyway near her parents' house just after two in the afternoon. They didn't talk much on the walk over; Ron could tell that Hermione was almost as nervous as he was, which he supposed didn't bode well. He tried to draw strength from the fact that when he squeezed her hand reassuringly, she responded in kind.

"Right, here we are," Hermione said absentmindedly, turning onto the path that led to the large wooden door of her idyllic childhood home. "This is going to go well," she added, though Ron could tell she hadn't said so entirely for his benefit.

"Of course it is," Ron replied with the most confidence he could muster as Hermione rang the doorbell.

A few moments later, a smiling Mrs. Granger opened the door and immediately wrapped Hermione in a hug. "Hello, dears!" she greeted them in a determinedly cheery voice. "Ron, so lovely to see you again!"

"You too, Mrs. Granger," Ron replied, allowing her to kiss him on the cheek as he patted her on the back awkwardly. Hermione's mum wasn't half bad, he reasoned as she led them into the sitting room. She seemed a bit soft-spoken, though he reckoned that may just be due to her husband's tendency to be outspoken. Ron knew she had her own reservations about the situation, but she seemed to express them with more tact than Hermione's dad did, and Ron appreciated it immensely.

"Your father will be down in a moment," Mrs. Granger said kindly as she offered them seats on the sofa. "Shall I bring out some tea?"

"Thank you, Mum," Hermione said with a smile as she sat down next to Ron, who was pleased to note that she was sitting far closer to him than the size of the sofa required. He knew her presence would be soothing for him as the afternoon went on.

The Grangers' sitting room made him feel a bit uncomfortable; the whole place was unnaturally neat and spotless. The furniture always appeared as though it had never been used before, and the only sign that the room was, in fact, inhabited, and not simply an illustration in one of those home catalogues Hermione had taken to browsing since they'd moved into their flat, was the display of unmoving photographs on the mantle of the fireplace - photographs which were, of course, arranged chronologically.

A few minutes later, Mrs. Granger returned with a tea tray and Mr. Granger emerged from his study, offering Ron and Hermione an awkward cough by way of greeting. After making broad remarks about the tea, the group fell into an uncomfortable silence. Ron noticed that Mr. Granger was looking pointedly at his teacup, and he wasn't sure whether to be unnerved by the man's silence or relieved that he wasn't causing a scene. Hermione seemed to be inclined toward the former; the rapid tapping of her foot clearly indicated her anxiety.

"How are things coming along at your Ministry, then?" Mrs. Granger asked them after several moments of nearly unbearable quiet.

"Quite well," Hermione said brightly, visibly glad for the momentary distraction from the elephant in the room. "I'm really enjoying my work thus far, and Ron's just got a promotion."

"Oh? That's fantastic!" Mrs. Granger gushed, and Ron felt the tips of his ears burning.

"I've just finished my training," he said in what he hoped was a humble tone. "It means a bit of a pay raise and slightly more regular hours, so that's nice."

"He's a junior officer now," Hermione continued, clearly eager to talk him up. "He works on cases with the senior officers in the department, but they don't need to be under direct supervision anymore. It's quite important work that he's doing."

"So is yours," Ron said automatically, throwing her a grateful smile. "Hermione's already busy changing the world, see."

"As are you," Hermione added firmly, offering him a soft smile in return. "We're both very happy, anyway."

"Well, I'm happy to hear it. And how is the wedding planning coming?" Mrs. Granger asked pleasantly, pointedly ignoring the way her husband stiffened at the word "wedding." She seemed determined to act as though the elephant was merely a cuddly little rabbit.

"It's coming along very nicely," Hermione answered in a tone that was unnaturally polite. "Most of the logistics are in order now, and we'll be sending out the proper invitations next week."

"That's lovely," Mrs. Granger said, mimicking Hermione's polite tone. "Do you think you'll have it all ready in time?"

"I think so," Hermione replied. "It may be a bit of a mad dash toward the end, though."

"Well, I was thinking," Mrs. Granger began tentatively. "I looked through our old wedding albums and put together a few ideas you might like, if the two of you would like to have a look."

Ron let himself grin, relieved . "Thank you, Mrs. Granger," he said gratefully, hoping that maybe, by some miracle, Hermione had been right - maybe this wouldn't go terribly.

"Yes, that'd be wonderful, Mum," Hermione added happily.

"Excellent!" Mrs. Granger beamed. "I'll bring them down to show you after dinner, how does that sound?"

Ron and Hermione repeated their thanks, but Mr. Granger mumbled something incoherently, and Hermione's eyes narrowed immediately. "Did you say something, Dad?" she asked in an accusatory tone.

"Nothing at all, dear," Mr. Granger said bitingly, and it broke Ron's heart to see Hermione shrink back, deflated, and refuse to question him further. The Hermione he knew would have snapped at the older man in an instant, but the Hermione sitting next to him on the sofa seemed to have accepted defeat.

"Please, Peter," Mrs. Granger murmured. "We talked about this."

"Oh yes, I forgot we'd talked," Mr. Granger drawled sarcastically, apparently having abandoned the idea of remaining silent. "Our nineteen year old daughter's getting married to some bloke we hardly know, but that's alright, innit? We've talked about it, after all."

"Dad," Hermione pleaded. "Why do you have to do this now? Please, I've explained-"

"I just don't know if the two of you know what you're getting into," Mr. Granger insisted. "Seeing as I've got you both here, seems now's as good a time as any to try to address it, wouldn't you say? It'd certainly be a better use of our time than planning frivolities."

"We aren't children anymore. You don't need to sit us down for a chat-," Hermione argued wearily, but Mr. Granger was on a roll.

"You do realize marriage is meant to be for life, don't you?" he asked condescendingly. "I don't know how you handle divorces in the wizarding world, but generally they're something to be avoided."

"Actually, divorces are quite rare in our world. We know we're in it for good," Ron piped up, the instinct to protect himself and his fiancée momentarily outweighing his slight fear of the elder man.

"You won't be able to run away and hide anytime you have a row," Mr. Granger continued, as though Ron had never spoken at all. "And I understand that the two of you have had your fair share of those in the past."

"In the past, yes!" Hermione cried in frustration. "We aren't perfect, we've hurt each other terribly before, but we grew up! We had to grow up, you know that. We've talked about this, Dad, you know-"

"You're still children!" Mr. Granger insisted, the tone of his voice clearly suggesting that he believed he was the only voice of reason. "Fighting in some bloody magic war doesn't prepare you to get married!"

Ron very nearly jumped out of his seat, but Hermione placed a calming hand on his arm.

"Don't you dare act as though you know what the war was like," she said in a dangerously low voice. Mr. Granger had crossed a line, and the fiery, passionate Hermione that Ron knew so well had returned."You've got no idea what we went through, what we sacrificed-"

"Because you wouldn't tell us!" Mr. Granger pointed out. "I'm not saying that it wasn't an ordeal, Hermione; in fact, I'd bet my life and livelihood it was worse than you've let on! I'm only saying that surviving it doesn't give you knowledge and authority over everything in the world."

"Right," Hermione replied with disdain, the fight quickly returning to her voice. "It's not as though we know what love is, after all, clearly I haven't had any sort of good example-"

"Hermione!" Mrs. Granger cried indignantly. "Please, if we could calm down for a moment-"

"I'm simply trying to stop them from making a mistake, dear!" Mr. Granger hollered.

"It's not a mistake," Ron said quietly, but only Hermione seemed to hear him.

"Oh, do try to have some sort of common decency, Peter!" Mrs. Granger insisted. "You know shouting at them's not doing any of us any good. This is our daughter and her fiancé, and we've agreed that we are going to support them-"

"They're nineteen," Mr. Granger shot back. "This is ludicrous and we all know it! How can they possibly know at that age? I could barely do up my own ties when I was nineteen!"

"Yes, because doing up a tie has everything to do with getting married," Hermione spat vindictively as she rolled her eyes.

"Don't take that tone with me!" Mr. Granger snapped. "Look, Hermione, I've tried, you know I've tried to understand this, but I can't see how this is even remotely a good idea."

"Then clearly you haven't tried," Hermione replied harshly, though Ron could sense the exhaustion seeping through her tone. "I'm going to go get some air."

She left the room then, and Mr. Granger followed shortly after, muttering something about his study, leaving Ron and Mrs. Granger alone in the sitting room.

"You'll have to excuse my husband," she said hurriedly over the sound of a door slamming down the hallway.

"S'alright," Ron muttered, staring intently at his hands. "I-I understand why it'd be hard for you."

"Still, there are better ways of approaching it," Mrs. Granger replied apologetically. "Can I ask you something, Ron?"

He nodded and lifted his eyes to look at the woman who would be his mother-in-law in a matter of weeks. He was comforted by the similarities between her expression and Hermione's - their eyes had the same sort of inquiring light about them.

"You love my daughter very much, don't you?" Mrs. Granger asked matter-of-factly, her eyes piercing his.

"Yes," Ron answered, his throat dry.

"And you intend to do so for the rest of your life?"

"Yes," Ron repeated firmly.

Mrs. Granger nodded, as though she'd already anticipated and accepted his answers. "That's why I'm willing to support the two of you. I've got misgivings too, you know, but my husband…he isn't willing to give you the benefit of the doubt just yet, you see."

"I understand," Ron mumbled, knowing that if he were in Mr. Granger's place, he certainly wouldn't want to trust his daughter's well-being to a bloke like himself.

"I'll try to talk to him," Mrs. Granger promised as Hermione reentered the room, wiping the corners of her eyes. Ron held out a hand to her, and she took it gladly as she sat down next to him.

"Sorry, Mum," Hermione said softly.

"It's alright," Mrs. Granger told her kindly. "We're all trying. Even your father."

Hermione nodded. "I just wish we could talk reasonably."

"He is being reasonable," Mrs. Granger explained, "just not in your eyes. It works the same way vice versa as well."

"He doesn't need to shout like he does," Hermione insisted. "Honestly, he's one to talk about rowing."

"You can't blame him for being passionate, Hermione," Mrs. Granger said firmly. "This is his way of showing that he cares for you."

"By calling our engagement a mistake?" Hermione asked incredulously. "Please, Mum, if you're going to take his side-"

"There aren't any sides," Mrs. Granger dismissed. "Let's give him a chance to cool off, dears; he'll come around."

The chance never came, though, as a moment later Mr. Granger reentered the sitting room, looking even more livid than he had when he'd left.

"If you must communicate with ruddy owls, can you at least try to stop them coming here?" he asked wildly, waving an envelope around as he spoke. "The damn thing attacked me!"

"An owl?" Hermione asked, furrowing her brow and looking to Ron, who shrugged.

"Most likely from the Ministry," he reasoned, reaching out to take the letter from Mr. Granger, who shoved it into his hand with an air of disgust. The protective charms on their flat were very strong, and it was entirely possible even a Ministry owl wouldn't have been able to get through if they weren't there.

"What's the use in having magic if you can't use it to send a letter without some ridiculous woodland creature carrying it?" Mr. Granger asked as Ron tore open the envelope. "You've always been clever, Hermione, you ought to do something about it!"

But the change in Ron's demeanor caught Hermione's attention before she could retort. Upon reading the parchment enclosed in the envelope, he felt as though his insides were twisting and his head was pounding. The world was collapsing in on itself; it had to be, because this couldn't be happening, not now. He barely noticed as the letter dropped from his hand, and he could feel all the warmth leaving his face as he struggled to comprehend what had just happened.

"Ron? What is it? What did it say?"

True to form, Hermione didn't bother waiting for an answer as she picked up the piece of parchment to investigate for herself. Ron glanced at it again over her shoulder, and his fears were confirmed. Attached was the clipping about their engagement in the Daily Prophet, marked with a giant red slash across Hermione's face in the picture; beneath it, vaguely sinister-looking letters that had clearly been cut from the article itself spelled "MIXING DOESN'T FIX A MUDBLOOD."

Hermione turned to Ron, her expression more terrified than Ron had seen it in ages - in fourteen months, to be precise. "Please tell me this is some sort of sick joke," she managed to choke out, but Ron could tell her no such thing. "How did it find us here?"

"Hermione, take them back to ours, now," Ron said fiercely, rubbing at his temples as his stress and anxiety skyrocketed exponentially by the second. "Something about the charms is off, it must be. We're the only ones that are supposed to be able to do magic here. I've got to take this to the office now, it's not safe here."

Hermione nodded frantically. "You're right. Mum, Dad, we've got to go."

"Go?!" Mr. Granger asked incredulously. "What on Earth could be so important-"

"Just shut your fucking mouth and do as she says," Ron snapped, beyond the point of caring that he'd just cursed at his fiancée's father.

"Do you think ours is safe?" Hermione asked him worriedly as they stood from the sofa, too preoccupied even to scold Ron for his language.

"I reckon so, given the owl showed up here instead," Ron said, his mind running quickly as he tried to think of every possible explanation for what had just happened. "Triple check though, will you?"

"Yes, of course," Hermione said. It broke Ron's heart to see tears welling in her eyes, and he quickly leaned in to kiss her colorless cheek.

"I'll be there as soon as I can," he promised. "Send me a Patronus if anything changes."

"Likewise," Hermione replied. "Be careful."

"And you," he said in return. Ignoring the indignant and frightened noises coming from the Grangers, Ron turned on the spot and disapparated, hoping beyond hope that they were overreacting but filled with the sickening feeling that they weren't in the least.

A/N: LOOK it's a plot! Or at least, it's my stumbling attempt at one. Seriously, trying to word that threat in a non-stupid way was difficult and I'm not entirely sure I succeeded. So now, as you can see, there are two main plots to this story - one to do with the letter, and the other to do with the Grangers (and the others, to some extent) accepting Ron and Hermione's relationship. Spoiler: the two will intertwine. Hope you enjoyed :) The next chapter is a long one - but it's been written, so it should be up within a week. Thank you for reading!