Chapter 28: Wear It Like a Badge of Honor
Ron got home to the Burrow about late morning following his breakfast with Harry and Ginny.
He entered the abode to find his girlfriend crouched on the floor of the sitting room, playing Peek-a-Boo with Teddy. Sneaking up behind her, Ron knelt and dipped his lips into the soft curve of Hermione's neck. Feeling her gasp in surprise, he was ready when she turned to him, startled, only for that gasp to melt into a shocked moan of pleasure as he tugged her lips against his and kissed her soundly on the mouth good morning.
"Mmmmmmm….. Morning to you too!" The beautiful witch giggled, pleasantly surprised. Next moment, however, she playfully swatted her lover in the chest. "You ought to set a better example for my godson, though! Sneaking up behind unsuspecting ladies and snogging them unawares! How is he supposed to develop a proper romantic relationship."
"Oh, come off it, love! The tyke's, what, fourteen, fifteen months? Give him time to be a kid first before marrying him off!" Chortling, Ron sauntered into the kitchen.
"Where were you, anyway?" Hermione's voice wafted, following him. "I woke up and your side of the bed was cold."
"Popped over to Harry and Ginny's for a spot of breakfast." Glancing over his shoulder, Ron took in the breathless sight of his lover, chestnut hair bushy, her now red and kiss-swollen lips upturned into a smile of amusement even as her hands were placed rather sexily on her hips. She really was breathtaking, even when she was mildly annoyed with him.
"You were that desperate for a kipper that you Apparated – oh, excuse me, ran – halfway across town?" she gave him a pointed look.
"Neither. I Flooed," Ron wittily riposted.
"Semantics," Hermione sighed, waving it away. "How does the place look, then?"
"Like a regular love nest already. Merlin knows what they're doing up in the bedroom." He meant to say it in jest, so it amused him when his girl took it literally enough to seat herself across from him at the kitchen table and take his hand.
"They're happy…." she cooed. A beat, and then she snorted. "Although I am rather shocked that your parents even agreed to let Ginny move in with Harry…."
"Speaking of….."
"Godric. What a segue!" Hermione's brows lifted nearly into her hairline.
"…. Come on and join me for a second! I need your help with something."
Hermione scoffed. "When have you ever not needed my help?" she rose, shaking her head. "Just let me get Teddy."
Ron waved her off. He half-listened to the bustle of Hermione going to collect her godson, her cooing to the baby as she whisked him back into the kitchen, daintily retaking her seat with the little tyke on her lap. Teddy shrieked and Ron glanced up just in time for the toddler to cry out something that sounded suspiciously like:
"Won-Won!"
The redhead's face collapsed in utter horror. "Oh, no….. you didn't….."
"Did what?" Hermione asked, faux-innocently.
"…. Teach him that infernal…..!" Ron was starting to violently gesticulate with his hands; it was comical enough to make Hermione lift a hand to her mouth to stifle a giggle.
"I swear to you, I did not teach him that…." Though she was grinning, her brown orbs dancing.
Ron opened the newspaper, then a small file folder besides it, grumbling. "I'm starting to regret snogging you, love….."
Hermione's mouth fell open into a bright 'O', gawking. "Excuse me, I'm the best snog you've ever had, thank you very much…..!"
Her throat went dry as Ron's blue orbs blatantly appraised her, pausing over her cleavage, accentuated in the bright sundress she wore. "Don't I know it." She flushed down to her chest and shifted a little in her chair. Teddy squirmed in his godmother's lap.
"What did you need help with, darling?"
"Well…. I've been talking to Percy and Audrey, see, and they suggested that now was the time to get in on the housing market. It's a buyer's game right now, so we'd be striking while the iron is hot…"
"Sloooow down….." Hermione chuckled, bemused. "You've been talking to your brother and sister-in-law about the housing market because…. why….?"
Ron glanced up at her from where he had his nose buried in the housing listings. "Well, for when we want to move into our own little place, course…."
"That seems awfully presumptive of you, Ronald…." Hermione smirked.
She almost felt bad for the startled, even panicked look Ron got on his face. "If! I meant, if you wanted to…. move in with me….. into our own little flat…. Though I could understand if you wanted to play house here forever…"
The joke landed, enough for Hermione to take pity on the man and reach across the table. She pulled him into a long kiss. When they broke apart, she smiled at how dumbly he was blinking.
"Ron…." Hermione grinned reassuringly. "I want to move in with you."
His face dipped further still. "But you're not ready…."
"I never said that…." she smiled, flirtatious. She bit her lip. "But…. I suppose I would have to check with my parents first…. Never mind work out where we would live…."
"Things have gotten better with your mum and dad, though, right?" Ron searched her face.
Hermione shrugged. "I think Daddy has come around to us. You and me, seeing each other. But he and Mum are very clear that they don't want any magic in the house."
It made her heart melt at how heartbroken Ron looked for her. "I bet that must be hard for you…." he murmured. "You've always been so proud of your magic." He smiled. "Why, I reckon if not for the underage casting restriction, you would have been the type to show off to your mum and dad what you know!"
She shrugged again. "That was before I altered their memories and sent them away to a foreign country, Ron. I think that, even if they work their way back to trusting me again…."
"Not trust you, their only daughter? What kind of bollocks is that….?"
"….. I imagine it will be a very long time before they trust any kind of magic again!" Hermione talked over him.
"That isn't your fault. You didn't have a choice," Ron pointed out vehemently.
"It's sweet you believe that. But I'm not altogether sure if a better choice might have presented itself. In any event, Mummy and Daddy have always been very traditional; they'll be curious as to why we're moving in together when we're not married…."
"You know, I'd call them stick in the muds, but I've been around Percy too long that the effect's sort of dulled," Ron deadpanned.
Hermione smirked, bouncing Teddy in her lap. "They'll still have questions."
"For heaven's sake, Hermione, it's not as though you're pregnant!" Ron threw out. Just then, an image popped into his head: of his Hermione, her stomach round and voluptuous and great with child. Carrying his child. Their child. In yesteryear, a younger Ron might have panicked at the thought; now the possibility nearly caused him to overcome with lust and attempt to take Hermione right over this table so they could make a baby there and then. At the moment, seeing his girl holding and fawning over a baby that wasn't hers or theirs was making him damn bloody aroused.
Hermione kissed the side of Teddy's head. "If you're really that set on finding us a flat…."
"I am! But only if you're OK with…."
"Living with you? I am," Hermione nodded. She studied him intently, unafraid. "We both know where this is going. I lived without you for a good portion of sixth year, and then for two or three months when you were away from the hunt. And it was hell. I don't want to live without you again."
Grinning, even as his eyes swam with tears, Ron met her halfway across the table. Giggling, their lips met.
"Come on, then! Give me a hand!" He pushed some of the B pages across the table to her. The couple worked together in silence, perusing listings."
"Here's a nice one near Chelmsford, going for ninety quid a week…."
"Did you say ninety quid…?" Ron craned his neck across the table to get a better look. "That's cheap at the price! Cheaper than what Audrey and Perce are paying on theirs!"
Beaming, Hermione glanced down at her godson and bounced him on her lap. "What do you think, precious? Should Auntie and Uncle Ron get a flat in Chelmsford?"
"Yeah!" Teddy squealed.
Ron smiled softly. "Bloke's a smart one, he is. Mark it, circle it; I'll run it by Audrey for a second opinion….."
"I was thinking…." Hermione mused aloud.
"You don't say."
She blushed crimson at his smirk. "Shut up. I was thinking that if we're going to move in together, I would want us to get my parents' permission. It would go a long way towards building back my trust with them even further."
"Whatever you want, love," Ron murmured. An idea occurred to him. "Why not pop over to their place round for teatime? Meet them on their turf. Besides, I've never been to your house."
Hermione flushed scarlet. "You've been in my room," she reminded him loftily. At Ron's saucy grin, she almost smacked him. If she hadn't been holding a baby, she might have.
"True, but I'd like to see the rest of your house. Where you grew up." Ron beamed at her lovingly.
Hermione smiled back. Rising and lifting Teddy with her, she circled the table and pressed a kiss into her boyfriend's temple. "I'll wait until Andormeda has come round to collect Teddy, then I'll write my parents by owl."
Hermione made the arrangements for her and Ron to meet with her parents for a late afternoon teatime that very day.
"Hermione, dear!" Jean was effusive as she greeted her daughter warmly at the door, hugging her. She even hugged Ron, which left the man pleasantly flummoxed. "But goodness, why are you wearing a jumper in this heat? It's nearly July for heaven's sake…"
Ron tensed upon overhearing this, even in the midst of bravely facing Mr. Granger, who gave him a firm handshake. The nod was less curt than it was, ever since the men had come to a meeting of the minds during Hermione's Hogwarts graduation, but Ron supposed there would always be a protective father aura about the man. He couldn't exactly blame David, if….
"Really, Mum…. It's fine!" Hermione was smiling awkwardly. "And besides, this air conditioning is causing a bit of a draft in here!"
"Nonsense! We can stoke the poker in the fireplace! Take the sweater off, love. A little bit of air about the skin will do you some good."
"Mum, honestly, I'm all right…!"
"Indulge me, darling, and at least roll up your sleeves, then…" Before Ron could think of something distracting to say, or Hermione could stop her mother, it was too late; Jean was already rolling up the right sleeve.
The sleeve that covered that arm.
The blood from Bellatrix's original attack, of course, had congealed, but the scar had solidified into something crimson, almost black in color. Upon seeing the gashes, Jean drew back, letting out a kind of gasp that could have nearly been a scream. Hermione's face had landed somewhere between red with shame and white with fear.
"Oh my heavens! Love! What have you done to you arm?!"
Brown eyes petrified, Hermione turned her gaze onto Ron, pleading for help. Ron started to move towards her, let her drift into him for comfort, protection, but David was already nudging the boy aside to have a better look.
Even in profile, Ron could see how the man's jawline hardened. David turned back towards Ron menacingly, by degrees.
"Did you do this?" His voice was colder than ice.
"No!" Ron choked, offended and nauseated by the very thought.
"No, Daddy," Hermione whispered, shaking her head even as tears slipped down her cheeks. "Ron, he…. he saved me…." And she beamed at her partner with love.
"Who, then?! Who did this?!" David was thundering and nearly purple in the face with rage.
Ron gulped. "A dark witch named Bellatrix Lestrange. She served the Dark Wizard who was threatening our world, the dark wizard your daughter was trying to protect you from. When we were…. in the tent…. on this mission to destroy him…."
"Voldemort," Hermione murmured quietly.
"Yes. We…. Hermione, Harry and I…. were captured. We were taking to this house and while Harry and I were kept prisoner downstairs, Bellatrix, she…." Ron choked up, momentarily unable to finish. "She tortured our Hermione." He shuddered. "I can still hear my best girl screaming….." He noted how Jean had both hands to her mouth and was weeping quietly. "Your daughter was tortured for information on the…. things we were sent to find, but she was so brilliant and so beautiful, so amazing….." And here Ron fixated on Hermione with heartsick adoration; she smiled at him wetly. "…. That she never gave up anything, not a blessed thing…."
David was now gripping his daughter's arm and examining the scar, so fiercely that Ron was concerned Hermione's father might inadvertently leave behind a bruise.
"Mudblood….. What is this rubbish? What does it mean?"
"It's a slur that means dirty blood!" Hermione piped up, lip trembling. "It is a foul term for someone who is Muggle-born! Someone with non-magical parents! If Voldemort and this witch who tortured me had won, all non-magical people like us would have been subjugated and eradicated! That is why I altered your memories and sent you away!"
Ron observed how David had grown quieter. The redhead jumped when the older man rounded on him again.
"And did you save my little girl, then?"
Ron nodded. "I only wished that I had moved faster before that blasted word was ever carved into your arm."
Jean looked horror-struck. "But can't it be erased….?"
Ron sadly shook his head. "Not even by magic. Godric knows Harry and I have tried! Bellatrix used a cursed blade – a knife infused with Dark magic. That…. that scar will always be there…."
"That's why you've been wearing layered garments even in the summertime…" Jean whispered, and she crossed to Hermione to wrap her in a hug. "Oh, my girl…. I'm so sorry….."
Watching the women embrace, Ron and David glanced at each other, then just as quickly looked askance. Ron finally cleared his throat.
"I won't let anyone else try and hurt your daughter, Mr. and Mrs. Granger. I promise you that, if you allow us to move in together, that I'll…."
"That was your way of segueing to asking for my blessing in living with my daughter?" David frowned hard. "You really need to work on your transitions, son…."
"But you're not even married yet!" Jean gasped, if not quite horrified than darn close.
"Harry and my sister are living together near Islington, and they're not married," Ron pointed out.
"But we will be!" Hermione blurted out. At her parents and boyfriend turning to stare at her, she flushed but held her ground. "Someday." She cast her eyes down to study the scar on her arm. "Just like someday I will be able to go sleeveless again and keep my arms bare with pride." Ron beamed at her with enough pride for the both of them.
There was a moment's silence. David finally broke it by clearing his throat.
"Well….." and he glanced to Ron. "If you're the kind of man who was willing to charge into danger to rescue my little Hermione, I….. I reckon I can trust you to live with her and do right by her, even if you lot aren't married yet."
Face easing with relief, Ron extended his hand. "I intend to provide for her, sir. I love her. I'll do right by her!"
For the first time, David gave Ron a genuine smile. "I know you will."