"So we share the bottom floor, which is pretty much just the kitchen, dining room, bathroom and spare bedroom. Second floor is yours, so that you get your library, and top floor is mine. Have I got that right?" Ron frowned, concentrating on the plans of the house laid out on the table in front of him.
"Yes, Ronald, that's pretty much it."
"So, after sitting here for two hours, discussing every possible way to split it fairly, we ended up going with the first and simplest option?" Ron shook his head, incredulous. Hermione laughed lightly and nodded.
"I know, Ron. But it's fair and this way we are both happy with how much room we get." Ron nodded before pulling another piece of parchment towards him, carefully hiding the house plans. This new piece of parchment had a monthly chart Hermione had neatly drawn onto it.
"And this is our cooking arrangements?" Ron frowned at the little chart.
"So, every even numbered day, you cook, and on every odd numbered day, I cook." Hermione nodded.
"But for the first few months, when you cook, I will be too, since you don't know how to cook anything other than toast!" Ron blushed and smiled gratefully. He'd expected Hermione to hand him a few cooking books and learn from them by himself.
Hermione smiled back, happy with their planning and how they'd split the house and found a way to share the household chores. Hermione had been pleasantly surprised when Ron had been the one to suggest they take turns cooking and share the household chores – she had expected him to expect that she would simply continue doing all of those for them both.
But, after growing up with Molly Weasley as a mother, I suppose I would expect the woman of the house to do all the housework, too.
As Hermione was about to stand up to begin serving their dinner of roast chicken and vegetables, a loud bang, bang, bang from the front door made them both jump. Ron frowned at the door, muttering darkly about late night visitors as he stood up to answer it. Hermione stayed in the kitchen to finish serving up, but strained her ears so listen at the door.
"Hel – Luna?!" Ron yelled out in confusion and alarm. Hermione froze, her mood darkening instantly.
Damn him! I know I told him not to invite her over until we had the house sorted, but this is ridiculous!
"HERMIONE! HELP ME!" Hermione jumped at Ron's voice, fear and confusion sweeping over her as she grabbed her wand off the kitchen table and ran for the front door.
Too many years following Harry everywhere made me nervous and ready to jump into action at any time. Hermione thought wryly.
Hermione gasped and stopped dead in her tracks at the sight she found. It was clear that Luna had collapsed on their front door step and Ron had tried to catch her but he'd been caught by surprise, so they were both on the floor, with what seemed to be Luna's luggage just outside the house on the front step.
But it was the blood all over Luna's body that scared Hermione the most. Immediately Hermione snapped into business mode.
"Ronald, pick her up gently and put her on the guest bedroom bed, then run and get my first aid kit from my bedside drawer." Hermione ordered, helping Ron stand up before waving her wand and vanishing Luna's bags to the guest room. Before she closed the door, Hermione had a quick glance outside to see if she could spot anyone who might've just dumped Luna – didn't she have a muggle boyfriend? – but there was no one on the street.
"HERMIONE?!" Ron was beginning to get stressed and frantic, a dangerous mix. Hermione closed the door and bustled herself to the makeshift sick bed. Ron had already gently laid Luna down, sprinted off to get Hermione's medicine bag and sprinted back, only to find that Hermione wasn't treating Luna yet.
Hermione bent over Luna, examining her first for any obviously broken bones. Relieved, she couldn't find any, so next she hovered her wand over Luna and muttered a spell that would tell her if any main arteries had been damaged. Thankfully, they were all intact. Then Hermione began looking for the source of the blood. While she worked Ron knelt on the opposite side of the bed, his scared eyes flicking between Luna and Hermione, willing for Hermione to work wonders and announce that Luna was OK.
"Hermione, what's going on?" He whispered, not wanting to distract her but dying to know what was going on in that brain of hers. Hermione could work just as well thinking to herself or talking aloud, and they both knew that.
"She's got a cut along the top of her forehead, it's not deep, but head wounds bleed the most, that's why there's blood all over her face. But I don't get why it's all through her hair, too. Surely she felt the pain and stopped moving, surely she didn't run around or …" Hermione trailed off and started muttering charms under her breath to heal the cut that ran from Luna's left eye, along her forehead and stopped just below her hairline on her right temple.
"This'll scar something serious, but somehow I don't think Luna will mind too much, like most girls." Hermione muttered, once the charm had healed the wound over. With a small flick of her wrist, Hermione cleaned up the blood on Luna's face, which revealed the pair that she was bone pale, as well as the blood on Luna's torso and waist.
"So that's all the blood from the head wound, but what about the heavy blood that's on her legs? That can't be from her head, surely?"
Ron kept his eyes on Luna while Hermione worked and muttered, wishing against all odds that Luna was OK and that she would get through this. Then Ron heard Hermione mutter to herself;
"Oh shit." And his heart stopped in his throat, his stomach seemed to drop into his knees.
"What is it?!" he demanded, watching in confusion as Hermione began to rip Luna's clothes off her, stripping her of everything except her matching white bra and knickers.
"Hermione?! What. Is. IT?" Hermione stayed calm, responding to him calmly, the way she would when he would get frustrated with himself over his homework at school.
"Ronald. Look at where the blood is, follow it with your eyes and tell me where it begins." Ron did as Hermione asked, and his eyes widened when he finally saw where the blood began, and all the extreme bruising on her delicate looking upper thighs and hips. Anger and fear clouded his eyes.
"Hermione, tell me, what -?" Hermione cut him off, getting right to the point.
"Rape. Luna was raped, Ronald. We cannot do much more than clean her up, and then look after her as best we can." Ron nodded slowly, looking like he was ready to go hunt down whoever did this to her.
Hermione began carefully cleaning away the blood on Luna's legs and underwear. Once she was done she and Ron slowly and gently re-dressed Luna in one of her light and bright yellow summer dresses they found in one out of her four bags.
"Now what do we do, Hermione?" Ron's eyes were wide and filled with tears, he stood limp, seemingly defeated. Hermione's heart swelled with pride at the sight of the young man beside her – even though she wasn't in love with him, she was proud of what he had achieved in his life, and who he had grown to be. He was caring, strong, still a little careless and naïve towards girls, but he tried hard in everything he did, and he took pride in it, he learnt from his lessons.
Hermione turned away from Luna and wrapped her arms around Ron's middle, burying her face in his chest, hugging him. Ron's arms encircled Hermione after a few seconds of surprise – it had been years since Hermione had hugged him willingly.
"Now, we wait for her to wake up. Would you like your dinner?" Ron nodded slowly,
"Yes please, Hermione. But, I'd like to stay in here and keep an eye on Luna, if that's OK with you?" Hermione nodded, and finally let go of Ron to get his dinner and bring it to him.
Hermione didn't know how Ron had the patience to sit by Luna's bed all night, but he did it. He waited, simply holding her hand, barely taking his eyes off her face, and staying awake all night, just so that she had a friendly face to wake up to.
Hermione didn't sleep either, but she couldn't stay still during the night. So she began to clean out the bedroom that was previously hers and Ron's, packing all of Ron's things neatly and taking them upstairs to his new bedroom on the top floor. Hermione felt guilty at having the second floor – it was basically a hallway and with a room on either side, her (previously shared) bedroom and rather grand en-suite on the right, and her library on the left. But it was her house, so Ron had told her she ought to have as much, or as little, space as she required in the house.
The third floor was very different. The stairs led up so that the first thing you saw was a window with the best view of the sky the house had to offer. The window had charms on it so that those inside the house could see out, but absolutely nobody could see into the house. Walking up the stairs to the third floor, there were only walls to see on either side. Hermione had to walk all the way up to window before the hall turned left to where all the bedrooms were.
The top floor had four rooms, one bedroom with a small en-suite, a second bedroom across the hall that was going to become Ron's study, a small kitchen (which had been another bedroom before they'd split the house) – it was just a tiled corner of the floor with a sink and food storage, but it was enough for Ron, who would surely stock it up with foods for his late night snacking – and a small, but open living area.
All of these rooms were already furnished, Hermione and Ron had furnished the whole house when they'd moved in, planning for children at that stage. Their plan had been to have all the children's rooms upstairs, so that they would be able to hear them creep down the stairs and past their room.
Hermione placed all of Ron's now packed possessions in his new room. Looking around, she could see a thin layer of dust settled over everything. With a wave of her wand, Hermione vanished the dust off everything on Ron's floor, opened the curtains and put fresh linen on his bed before making her way down to check up on Luna.
Hermione had no idea what time it was, but the sun was beginning to rise. She was pleasantly surprised to find Luna sitting up and talking quietly to Ron.
"Hey there, Luna." Luna turned and fixed her wide eyes on Hermione.
"Oh, hello Hermione. Ronald told me you cleaned me up and fixed my head. Thank you very much." Hermione smiled at Luna gently and sat at the foot of the bed.
"No worries Luna, but I'm sure glad to see you up and talking." Luna smiled dreamily.
"Luna, can you tell us what happened to you?" Ron asked Luna, surprising Hermione with how gentle his voice was. Luna fixed her gaze on Ron, and seemed to consider whether or not to tell them. But something in Ron's earnest gaze made her open up and she began to explain.
"I was dating a muggle boy, and I thought I like him, but after seeing you these past few weeks, Ronald, I realised I wasn't happy after all. So, I tried to leave him. I packed all my bags and made it to the front door, when he grabbed me from behind." Luna's voice cut out and she sat still as a statue, looking into Ron's eyes. Ron placed on large hand gently against her cheek, being very gentle and kind to her, speaking in a low voice,
"And then he forced himself upon you." Luna bobbed her head in a nod, not moving her eyes from Ron's. Hermione stayed silent, not sure what she should do, whether she should stay or go, when suddenly Luna seemed to snap back to herself and looked around.
"Ronald, may you show me your kitchen so that I can have some breakfast?" Ron nodded and stood up, watching Luna weakly struggle to get out of bed. Hermione watched Ron carefully, trying to figure out how he was dealing with this turn of events, when tenderness swiftly followed by determination swept into his eyes and he bent to pick up Luna bridal style, and proceeded to carry her to the kitchen, despite her feeble protests.
Hermione trailed after them and watched as Ron softly placed Luna in one of the kitchen chairs and straightened up. Then he paused. Hermione laughed quietly, she'd wondered how far he'd get before remembering that he can't cook.
"Would you like some help, Ron?" Hermione offered, Ron turned and nodded gratefully. Hermione smiled and turned to Luna,
"All we've got for breakfast is sausages, egg, bacon and toast, is that OK with you, Luna?"
"That sounds lovely, thank you Hermione." Luna looked like she was trying not to laugh, probably at how lost Ron looked in the kitchen.
Hermione and Ron prepared breakfast for the three of them, Hermione teaching Ron as they went, with Luna throwing in suggestions here and there. The three of them laughed and teased each other, the conversation never stopping and flowing easily.
Right now, it feels like we're back at school. Just a relaxing day with friends. Hermione smiled to herself as she served breakfast.
The conversation stopped until everyone had finished eating, then Ron brought a new problem to light.
"Luna, do you have anywhere to go now?" Luna shook her head sadly. Hermione frowned sadly.
"Would you like to stay with us, Luna?"
"Oh, I wouldn't want to intrude on you both." Ron had told Luna the previous day about what had happened to him and Hermione, but Luna didn't want to get in the middle of anything.
"You wouldn't be intruding," Hermione began, and Ron finished her sentence,
"We'd love to have you here."
And keep you safe. They both added silently. Luna's eyebrows met in the middle as she thought about it.
"You can share the top floor with me, if you want, Luna? And we can change the cooking schedule so that we rotate between who does the cooking." Ron offered timidly. Hermione raised an eyebrow in his direction, which he didn't miss. He shrugged.
"I don't really need that much space. We can make the study a bedroom again, for Luna, and the living space can be half living, half study. And I'll learn how to cook better and faster with two girls teaching me." Luna's eyes brightened at his offer.
"That would be lovely, Ronald, thank you!" she smiled brightly. Hermione smiled as Ron returned Luna's bright smile.
"Can I go see my room?" Luna asked excitedly.
She's got Ron wrapped around her little finger, even if neither of them realise it just yet. Hermione mused to herself, watching as Ron picked her up again and began to carry her upstairs.
"You coming, Hermione?" Ron asked Hermione before leaving the kitchen.
"Nah, you two have fun, I'll send Luna's bags up then I'm going to have a nap." Hermione yawned widely. It was barely 9:00am and her eyelids were feeling so heavy after last night.
True to her word, after watching Ron disappear up the stairs, Hermione vanished Luna's luggage upstairs before making her way up the stairs to her floor. She was just about to turn the handle to enter her room when a loud hooting from behind her closed study door caught her attention. Wondering who on earth sent her a letter, Hermione walked into her study to find a very handsome eagle owl perched on the back of her chair, a letter tied to its leg.
Once the owl saw Hermione, it ruffled its feathers almost impatiently and stuck its leg out, seeming to demanding she take the letter. Hermione removed the letter then opened up one of her desk drawers, where she had a small collection of owl treats and a drinking bowl, which she pulled out and filled up for the owl. The owl eyed her before dipping down and taking a drink.
Finally Hermione turned to the envelope, which had her name written on the front in an elegant, but unfamiliar, cursive writing. Opening the envelope, she pulled out a one page letter.
-Miss Granger.
I know I only saw you yesterday, but I have a question of my own, before you beat me to the punch this afternoon and bombard me with your own questions.
Are you and Weasel living together now, even though you are no longer a couple, romantically or otherwise?
What did you do once you got home?
-Sincerely,
Draco Malfoy
Hermione looked at the page, surprised that Malfoy had been the one to send the first owl, and surprised by his question. Looking at the letter and where there had been obvious pauses on Malfoy's behalf, Hermione realised that Malfoy did not send letters for the sake of sending letters. Sending a letter just to talk to someone was foreign to him. Asking the two questions on the piece of paper must have been extremely hard for Malfoy to write. Possibly it took much time for Malfoy to come up with what to say. Hurriedly Hermione found a piece of parchment and a quill and inkpot so she could reply.
-Mr Malfoy
Yes, Ronald and I are sharing the house. Just yesterday we sat down and decided, together, how to share the house, and the household chores.
Here she paused. Did she want to tell Malfoy about Luna?
Just as we were about to begin our dinner, our friend Luna Lovegood showed up. Luna's now ex muggle boyfriend had hurt her. I healed her, but she has nowhere to go now, so we offered for her to live with us – and she accepted! But Ronald and I were up all night looking after Luna, I'm embarrassed to say that I had forgotten I promised to owl you this afternoon.
So, as you can imagine, right now I am extremely tired, I plan on sleeping until tomorrow morning. Keeping this in mind, please refrain from owling me again before then! I will owl you my questions soon though.
-Sincerely
Hermione J. Granger.
Hermione tied the letter to Malfoys handsome owl, who seemed pleased to be able to finally stretch its wings. Hermione watched the handsome owl fly out the window before closing it tightly and finally making her way to her bed.