A/N: this chapter is a light hearted one, inspired by me rewatching Friends. There's a lot of similarities between Monica & Chandler and Ron & Hermione, especially in the sense that Monica and Hermione both have little obsessive/pedantic quirks that could seem annoying to most, but Chandler and Ron both find them admirable and growing to love it about them. I thought it would be cute to write about.

Chapter 44

"Hey, how was the honeymoon?"

Ron sat back in his chair, placing his quill on the desk. The workload of an Auror was triple that of what he'd ever had at Hogwarts, and he was only considered a junior Auror — given limited work.

Not to mention that these days, most of the work was kept in the office. Everything was quiet on the front of Dark wizards, and there wasn't much field work on offer. Plus, with Harry off enjoying a holiday, the other new Aurors had been dumped with his share of the office work for the three weeks he'd been gone.

But Harry was back now, albeit a little late, and looking ridiculously happy and relaxed.

Grinning, Harry collapsed into the seat next to Ron's desk. "Fantastic," he said. "We got back late last night, and I've… never been on a holiday before."

"You haven't?" Ron asked, surprised. Although, now that he thought about it, Harry hadn't exactly been given many opportunities to go on a holiday. Unless he counted camping in a tent for months on end, trying to find parts of Lord Voldemort's soul, which he suspected Harry didn't.

"No. Imagine what a nice family holiday that would have been — tagging along with the Dursleys."

"Huh," Ron said. "Well, I'm glad you're back. We missed you around here." He picked up a pile of paperwork and dumped it on Harry's desk. "Welcome back."

Harry looked at the pile in front of him. Surprisingly, he didn't look defeated at all. In fact, his smile grew.

"You can do mine, too, if it makes you that happy." Ron smirked.

"Have any of you been out anywhere?" Harry asked, sifting through the pile of work.

"Twice," Ron said. "Not for much, though. Death Eaters are too scared to do anything wrong, I think."

"It'll pick up," Harry said. "Once we get more experience as well. For now, I guess it's just desk work."

"I don't mind too much," Ron said. "I mean… I get to see Hermione most days on her lunch break… if she's not working through it, that is." He frowned.

Harry snorted.

"She'll be happy to see you and hear all about your honeymoon," Ron said. "I'm sure you'll be enough to drag her away from whatever it is she's doing today."

"There's not much to tell really," Harry said. "Not much you'd want to hear about, anyway."

"Yeah… well, just tell the holiday parts," Ron said, turning back to the work he'd been focusing on prior to Harry's arrival. "Hermione and I finally picked a date for our wedding, and with any luck and if no one else jumps in, it'll be March twenty-first. It's a Thursday, so you better ask for that day off."

"Why a Thursday?" Harry asked.

"Because that's when we could get the place we wanted in the month we wanted."

Harry smiled. "I'll be sure to ask for that day off. I'm glad you're finally starting to get things sorted. You really know how to take things slow, don't you?"

"What's the rush?" Ron said, not bothering to mention his own concerns about doing everything slowly with Hermione a few weeks back.

"None to either of you, apparently." Harry laughed. "But that's great. Something to look forward to… and if you have a meltdown right before, I'll be there to assure you everything's okay. Getting married, it's really not as scary as it seems. Quite nice, actually. Easy."

Ron grinned. "Thanks, mate." He thought for a moment. "You know, I think marrying her will be pretty easy."

"Yes, well, I thought that until the day approached," Harry reminded him. "And you saw me. But it's easy once you see her."

Ron scribbled some more notes onto one of the pieces of parchment in front of him, smiling to himself. He had no doubt that on the day of their wedding, he'd feel incredibly nervous, but he didn't think — or at least he hoped — he'd reach Harry's level of nervousness.

"Oh, Harry, you're back!"

Ron and Harry turned around. Hermione was standing in the Auror office doorway. She smiled as she hurried forward to embrace Harry.

"It's so good to see you again. How was your honeymoon? Oh, I bet it was so romantic. Ginny told me about what you had planned for it on the day of your wedding. It sounds amazing."

"Yeah, it was pretty nice," Harry said. "I'll tell you about it at lunch."

"I look forward to it!" Hermione said cheerfully. She then looked at Ron, suddenly appearing slightly guilty. "If that's alright. I know we were going to —"

"Nah, already invited Harry," Ron said, smiling at her. "I figured if you knew Harry was coming, it would actually make you take a break. I don't seem to have the same effect."

"That's not true," Hermione said, sounding put-out. "I like it when our lunches align."

"You brushed me off the last two days," Ron reminded her.

"I didn't — I just had a really busy week. I'll be there today, I promise."

"Yeah, because Harry's here."

"Well, if you'd prefer, I can just meet Harry?" Hermione asked, her tone taking on an air of annoyance. "And, I'm not sure if I want to tell you what I came here to say anymore, Ron."

"What's that?" Ron asked.

Hermione glared at him for a moment, as if his teasing insult a moment ago really had changed her mind about whatever it was she wanted to tell him. Eventually, she seemed to accept that he was only joking and said, "Make sure you're free tonight."

"Why?" Ron said. "And I'm always free."

She smiled. "I… have something at home. An engagement present for you."

Ron stared at her for a moment. Then, "Was I supposed to get you something?" He didn't know that that was something he was supposed to do. They'd been engaged for months now, and she'd not mentioned this before. Weren't other people supposed to get them presents?

"No, this is just something I wanted to do for you. Just promise me you're free tonight?"

"I have no plans," Ron said. "Except to see you, of course."

She beamed. "Great. I'll see you tonight."

"Or at lunch?" Ron asked.

She nodded. "Lunch. Yes."

"Love you," Ron said as she hurried out of the office.

He shook his head, grinning and wondering what exactly it was that she had planned. Now that he thought about it, he'd found her a little bit frazzled at times over the past week. He'd just assumed she was stressed with work.

He wondered if it was this that had gotten her so worked up, and then he wondered just what her engagement present might be. A million ideas went through his head in that moment and most were probably impossible. But a few… well, a few he liked the idea of.

"Anyway," Harry said, bringing Ron back from his thoughts. "We should probably get through all of this stuff and hope that one day we'll actually get to leave this office and do something exciting."

Ron smiled. "Welcome back to work, mate. It's good to see you again."

…

Harry and Ginny had had the best honeymoon. Harry had spent all of lunch telling Ron and Hermione all about the three weeks they'd spent working their way through Europe, visiting many sights and discovering parts of the wizarding world in other countries.

They'd stayed with Fleur's parents in France and apparently met up with Viktor Krum in Bulgaria, and then explored the tiny wizarding villages that were spread throughout the continent.

It had been — as Harry described it — the best holiday he'd ever had. Or, as Ron had helpfully pointed out, the only holiday.

"It sounds so lovely," Hermione had sighed, and Ron had told her they could do that too if that was what she wanted — so long as they skipped Bulgaria.

She'd just smiled and said that she'd have to think about it.

If he was being honest, though, Ron didn't particularly like the idea of copying Harry and Ginny. It already felt that way because they'd become engaged only a short time after them. He wanted that to be where the similarities ended.

Harry was his best friend and Ginny was his sister, but Hermione was everything else and he wanted to do life their own way.

He'd also spent the day wondering what it was exactly that Hermione wanted to give him and why she was so keen to have him home that evening, acting as if he never came straight home after work. She'd reminded him three times during lunch and then another two times afterwards — one in person, one via a memo. Whatever it was, she was super excited about it, which made him excited, too.

Hermione never really did much in the sense of romance. That was Ron's department, but it didn't bother him. He liked doing the things he did for her and his reward was seeing how happy those things made her.

She was the one who was focused on her work, who liked to work into the early hours and then come to bed and cuddle up to him after a long day. He was the one who liked to find things to help relax her, make her smile, and in return, her happiness made him happy.

Ron was an Auror, and he enjoyed what he did, but he couldn't really see himself advancing any further than becoming a senior Auror. Not with Harry Potter working in the same field.

But Hermione was someone who could achieve anything and probably would eventually achieve all those things. And he was more than happy to sit back and watch her do that.

He'd always found her approach to everything amusing, but in an admirable way. Now he simply loved that about her.

He arrived home shortly after five, having used one of the Ministry fireplaces to do so. The living room was empty.

"Hermione?" he called. It would be typical for her to pester him about being home on time, only for her to have found something else to do at work.

But to his surprise, a reply came from upstairs. "In the study!"

The study?

He made his way — now feeling slightly apprehensive — up to the study. The door was closed, and when he pushed it open, he found Hermione on the floor, a lot of photos scattered around her, and her hair was a total ball of frizz, which meant that she was stressed about something.

He couldn't help but smile. "What are you doing?" He laughed.

She looked up, a guilty look on her face. "Oh, Ron, I tried."

"Tried what?" he asked. "To make a mess?"

"No, to do something… nice."

"What do you mean?" Ron asked, eyeing the photos scattered across the floor.

Hermione buried her face in her hands. She looked rather upset. "I was trying to be romantic."

"Er… how?"

Hermione sniffed. "I was trying to make you something… by hand… but it didn't really work out. Apparently I'm not crafty at all."

For a moment, Ron didn't have anything to say. He bent down and reached out to touch her shoulder gently. "It's alright," he said. "That's okay."

"Oh, Ron, how do you do it?" She got to her feet and turned to him. She wasn't crying, but she looked as if she might start soon.

"Do what?" Ron asked, once again looking at the mess on the floor. There were bits of paper that appeared to have been scrunched up among the photos.

"You do such nice things for me all the time, I just wanted to return the favour for once. It didn't work, though. I'm sorry."

Ron couldn't help but smile. In the few minutes he'd been in the study with her, her hair had become even frizzier. He drew her into a hug.

"I love you," he said, laughing. "I love you so much. And I've never made you anything in my life. Unless you count dinner."

"Maybe I should have cooked something," Hermione sniffed into his shoulder.

"What was it you were making, anyway?" he asked.

Hermione pulled away, wiping her eyes. She bent back down on the floor and picked up a book. "A photo album," she said. "It seems so stupid now. And it's terrible. I don't want you to look at it."

But Ron took it from her hands. It reminded him a lot of the one Harry owned of his parents, and he wouldn't have been surprised if that was where the idea had come from.

He flipped through the pages. She had stuck in a handful of photos — some from school, most from more recent times. Of them. Just the two of them. In all of them.

Hermione had apparently attempted to decorate each page, but he had to admit that she was much better at magic than she was at this.

He grinned. "I love it. I love you."

She gave a small smile. "You can tell me the truth."

"I did," he said.

"I just thought it would be a good memory to have, you know, before we were married. Something to look back on. I should have just given you the stupid photos and been done with it."

"You know, I was wondering what had you so worked up these past few days," Ron said, attempting to brush some strands of hair away from her face with little success. "I thought it was work."

"The whole romance thing works better when you do it," Hermione said.

"I can guarantee that had I attempted to create a photo album myself… well… I never would have. We can suck together. Anyway, who needs to be able to do that when you have a wand?"

She smiled again, looking up at him. "So, you still want to marry someone who can't even make some photos look nice on a page?" she asked.

"Somehow even more than I did five minutes ago," Ron said. "And I didn't even think that was possible."

Hermione wrapped her arms around his waist and rested her head on his chest. Ron held her, the album still in his hands.

"You can throw that out," she said.

"Never. I'm going to keep it. Forever. I'll be looking at it when we're both one hundred, remembering the times when I wasn't old and grey with lots of wrinkles, and then feeling really grateful for the amazing fiance — hopefully wife — I was lucky enough to have in my life after all those years."

She hugged him tighter.

"I just wanted to do something nice for you. Next time I'll just take you out for dinner or something."

"Nah, this is better," Ron said. "I love it, and I mean that. You amuse me in a very good way. I love this side of you."

"What? The super-stressed perfectionist side?" Hermione asked. "The side of me I've come to realise doesn't like to fail?"

"Yeah, it's my favourite part. Maybe the part that I loved about you first. The rest is just a bonus. As I said, you amuse me."

"Well, how about to make up for my pathetic attempt at handmaking something, I make us dinner tonight? What do you feel like?"

"I'll eat anything," Ron said. "I'm really hungry."

Hermione smiled. "Good, because it's the end of our shopping week, and unless you've had time to get things, I don't think we have much left."

"We are very organised, aren't we?" Ron teased. "How many times have we reached the end of our food supply? When we have kids, they'll go hungry often."

Before Hermione could say anything, he added, "You know, when you said you had something to show me tonight, I briefly wondered if you were going to tell me we were having a baby."

Hermione pulled away from him, her smile slightly wider. "And you know that there's a spell to prevent that from happening and I am very particular about ensuring it is consistently effective. Spells are something I can perform very accurately."

Ron grinned at her. "Yeah, I know. But the thing is, the thought didn't actually terrify me. As brief as that thought was," he added hurriedly at the look on Hermione's face.

"Do you want dinner, Ron, or do you want a baby?" Hermione asked, smiling at him.

"Tonight, just dinner," Ron assured her.

Hermione raised an eyebrow, but said nothing else. She left the study with Ron trailing slightly behind her. As they went downstairs into the kitchen, Ron couldn't help but wonder if him bringing up the topic of babies had frightened her or intrigued her. It was sometimes hard to tell.

He hadn't even intended to say it. No one had said anything to him during the day. It had just been a thought that had occurred to him that maybe… even though he knew how pedantic Hermione was with all of that side of things. It would be virtually impossible for anything to happen by mistake with her. He definitely knew that.

And even though the thought hadn't scared him, Hermione had been pretty dismissive of the topic, which was a massive hint. Maybe he'd bring it up again in a year's time. Maybe then she'd be more willing to discuss the idea. Besides, they had a wedding to plan first.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Sometimes it's nice just to have some fluff haha.

Thanks for all your support :D