Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters.

Chapter Thirteen

I Want to Know More

Hermione woke up the next morning feeling giddy as her head rested on Ron's chest, like it had so many times before, but this time felt so different. And it wasn't only the fact that they were lying naked in each other's arms, though that felt incredible, and made her stomach squirm just thinking about it. However, as she replayed everything that happened last night, from their conversation about their misunderstanding and how that lead (so seamlessly) to Ron confessing what he was … telling her how he was different. How that confession had banished the last bit of hesitation she had and made her want to express her love for him.

She had gotten the idea of taking this step with Ron on his birthday weeks ago, as their physical relationship had progressed naturally and she felt that she was ready, though she hadn't been sure if she could wait that long. Then the party issue came up and it made her hesitant, as she was reminded so pointedly that there was something Ron had to keep from her. She remembered the look that Ron gave her last night when he told her that he was worried about how she would react to his news, and she was sure that he needed that conversation too. So, they could once again be on the same emotional page. And then they were, and she made her offer, and then ….

"What are you thinking about," Ron asked softy kissing her on top of her head, he had woken nearly an hour ago and was enjoying watching her sleep. He enjoyed watching her wake up more, as the smile widened on her face and a blush had colored her cheeks.

"Last night," Hermione answered simply as she snuggled into him.

"I've been thinking about that too," Ron knew his smile was the biggest of his life, and yet it only got bigger when their eyes met. Then she was threading her fingers in his hair as she moved up his body so she could capture his lips. When they broke apart sometime later, she started nuzzling his neck. "If you keep doing that, I'm going to be doing more than just thinking about last night."

"Mm," Hermione hummed and then moved to whisper into his ear, "that's what I wanted you to say."

O

"Why did we wait so long to do this?" Hermione said, breathing heavily as she turned to snuggle into Ron.

"Because you weren't ready and I didn't want to force you to be," Ron answered honestly, but he had a proud smirk, loving seeing how enthusiastic she was. "You have no idea how many times I've wanted you."

"Oh, I think I have some idea," Hermione was smirking too.

"I had to cast a calming charm on myself a couple times in the beginning," Ron admitted truthfully, liking that he could talk to her about magic, but was a little nervous as they hadn't really discussed the magic issue yet.

"You needed magic for that," Hermione looked at him shocked, focusing on him a little while longer, but she knew that the magic issue was going to make its way to the forefront of her mind soon. "What … you couldn't handle little old me without it."

"You have no idea," Ron laughed. "But honestly, on that first night after that glorious snog, I had no idea how to handle all the powerful emotions you caused in me, but I wanted to stay with you. The charm hardly seemed to work that night anyways, if you remembered how I kiss you just seeing you again."

"I remember," Hermione smiled then asked, "and the other time?"

Ron's ears turned red as he remembered when they had been dating a few weeks and he had been sitting on her couch waiting for her to finish getting ready for their date. "The first time you wear your black dress … Merlin, I wanted you so bad!"

"So that is the reason why you rushed to the bathroom," Hermione was now smiling smugly.

"As if you didn't know you drove me wild," Ron grumbled playfully.

"You know if you told me it was this good, I might have done this sooner," Hermione said slyly.

"Trust me Mione, if I knew it would be this good, I would have," Ron smirked back at her.

"You don't have to say that," Hermione said, suddenly dropping her eyes.

"I meant every word I said," Ron said forcing her to look into his eyes, "you know that's true with everything we shared before … we must be made for each other because I've never felt more complete … more bloody satisfied than when I'm with you."

Then he was kissing her hard, feeling like he had summoned her to his lips and he had no mind to stopping … but his stomach had other ideas as it growled.

Hermione pulled away giggling, "it sounds like it might be time to eat."

"Just ignore it," Ron said moving towards her again, but she only laughed and pushed him away.

"I think I might be hungry too," Hermione said starting to move so she could get dress, "Besides we have all day."

"Fine, but I'm not leaving this bed," Ron gave in, wanting to get through this so he can start spending this 'all day' she was talking about. He reached over to grab his wand, that was charmed to stay on the headboard so he could have easy access to it whenever he needed it. When he turned back around, he noticed that she was watching him, her eyes on the wand in his hand and she was biting her lip. Suddenly feeling nervous he asked, "is this okay?"

"Yes," she answered immediately as she looked back into his eyes, this was the first time he would openly do magic in front of her, and she was a little nervous. However, she wanted him to be himself around her and magic was normal to him. It was now time for her to let all her questions she pushed away the night before to come to the surface.

"Okay," Ron gulped, seeing she was still a little apprehensive, but he concentrated on what he needed and waved his wand, chanting the spell.

"Wow!" Hermione felt her mouth drop as a tray, that had two bowls with cereal in them and two glasses of pumpkin juice, suddenly appeared out of nowhere. "Incredible!"

"Sorry it had to be cereal," Ron decided to say knowing that she needed a few moments to process what she had just seen. "I can't make food out of thin air, so it couldn't be anything cooked."

"Then how did you get this?" Hermione gulped, asking a question knowing that learning something new would help her mind to relax. Ron nodded to her spoon to indicate he wanted her to eat, and she complied.

"Thanks," Ron smiled at her shyly, hoping that if she went through her normal routine it would help. "I didn't make this food, it was more like I summoned it, though there was a little more to it than that. If I just summoned it, it would have come flying through our flat, so it's more like I conjured it … I don't really know how to explain it right. All I know is that I thought of our cereal and pumpkin juice and then I said the enchantment, and then it appeared."

"Fascinating," Hermione said, "do you have a book where I can read how the enchantment works?"

"Of course, you would ask for a book," Ron laughed, and Hermione soon joined him. "Unfortunately, I didn't learn this particular spell from a book … Bill taught it to me a few years back. But yeah, there are tons of books about how to cast spells. I even have my schoolbooks in the closet if you want to read them."

Hermione's eyes immediately shot to the closet, she even moved towards it before she shook her head. "Yes, I want to read them, but that can wait until later."

"Do you want me to do more magic?" Ron asked.

"Why don't you eat first," Hermione said, noticing that he hadn't touched his food yet. She waited until he started eating before she took the last bite of her cereal and then turned to her drawer and added, "I have something I need to give you."

"What's this?" Ron asked when she placed a box next to him on the bed as he continued eating until he finished.

"It's your birthday present, silly," Hermione smiled albeit nervously, biting her lower lip. "Go on, open it."

"I thought you were my birthday present," Ron couldn't resist saying with a smirk.

"Yeah … well … I thought you might want to unwrap me more last night," Hermione teased and smirked back at him, "but I still want you to have this."

At the moment all Ron wanted to do was throw away everything in between them and revisit the present he got last night, but upon seeing Hermione's hopeful and nervous expression he started opening the gift. It was a scarf that was blue and brown, that he noticed was almost the exact shade as their eyes. As he looked at it, he could see little imperfections, and he could definitely tell which end she started from, because it was obvious, she made this herself.

"You made this for me," Ron whispered as he continued to look at his gift.

"Yes, you said that your mum always made you a sweater for Christmas, and I thought I could try and do something like that for you too," Hermione said really fast as she blushed. "But you don't have to wear it or anything if you don't like it … I know I messed up on it a lot and the start was just dreadful … I did get better but I still contemplated buying you something instead …."

She couldn't say anymore because he had kissed her. "Mione, I love it," he said in the way that she knew he was being completely honest. "I know how busy you are and just the thought of you taking your time to do this for me … I love you," he finished and then pushed the tray away from them.

"Ronald!" Hermione gasped looking at the mess he just made. "You can't just leave this on the floor like that!"

"Fine then," Ron said picking up his wand again and then vanished the mess, loving the fact that he could do that in front of her now.

"Much better," Hermione said looking at him excitedly, there was something so amazing about him doing that, that made her want him even more than ever. She pulled him towards her so she could kiss him hard, a kiss he happily returned.

O

"Merlin, I love you so effing much," Ron said breathlessly pulling her closer to him. "I don't think I said that before."

"Not those exact words, but I definitely got the message," Hermione laughed. "And you use Merlin a lot … is that something wizards do?"

"Yeah," Ron chuckled. "Did I say Merlin before today?"

"A few times, but it wasn't too noticeable," Hermione shrugged.

"Have I done other things that made it noticeable I was different," Ron asked, "I know I'm not always comfortable in the Muggle world … er … Muggle means someone with no magical powers … not just people that didn't go to Hogwarts like I told you before."

"I figured it was something like that," Hermione nodded her head. "Like I said, I never thought your world was limited to just Hogwarts. And yes, I noticed a lot of things that were different about you, the odd things you would say at times. Or the way you would give me flowers minutes after we would fight. Or how quickly you cleaned the kitchen after the first time I tried to cook something new for you … I couldn't understand how you were able to get that done in the time it took me to go to the bathroom to clean up. Now, I literally just saw how you did that one."

"So, you noticed everything, you just never said anything to me about it," Ron sighed.

"I thought you told me everything you could," Hermione shrugged, and then frowned, remembering what he said yesterday. "What did you mean, last night, when you said you still couldn't technically tell me?"

"There's this thing, the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy, that doesn't allow wizards to tell Muggles about our world," Ron started to explain. "As an Auror …."

"Auror?" Hermione frowned in confusion.

"Yeah, I'm actually an Auror, not an inspector," Ron sighed, "they mean basically the same thing … at least that's what Harry thought anyways."

"Oh," Hermione said still frowning, she supposed she knew what he was talking about when he said he had been lying to her this whole time. It was a little jarring hearing that she hadn't even known what he did for a living before now. But it was just a term really, he was doing the same job, just for wizards … using a wizard's title … and magic. "You were saying."

"Right," Ron sighed, knowing that she was struggling a little with this, but thought it was best if he just continued. "As an Auror, I thought it wouldn't have been a good idea to break the law. However, I talked to Kingsley yesterday … er … he's the Minister of Magic …."

"What!?" Hermione gasped at this information, not sure if she was more shocked that the magic community had a Minister or that Ron just brought him up like it was no big deal (and that the Minister was at Ron's birthday party).

"Kingsley fought with us … he's a really good bloke too, so it was a good thing when he was able to take over as Minister after everything was over," Ron tried to explain but he wasn't sure if he was doing a good job, because Hermione just shook her head and motioned him to continue. "Anyways, we got to talking about you …."

"Me!?" Hermione gasped.

"Yeah, you were supposed to be at the party after all," Ron reminded her. "Anyways, he said that I would have been skirting the line of the Statute if I had actually brought you to the party, but he didn't really see that as a problem. He reminded me of a few of the bylines of the law. You see a Muggle could be told about magic if they are in a serious relationship with someone for six months, living together for one, or planning on getting married or start a family. None of those things are technically true for us, but if you put them all together, I think that's where we are."

"You do?" Hermione breathed in, and looking in his eyes she could see that he was serious. They had never talked about their future before, but she had thought of it, so she smiled at him as she said, "I do too."

"I'm glad to hear it," Ron smiled at her.

"Were you planning on telling me you're a wizard last night before you came home," Hermione wondered, it sounded like he was.

"I don't know," Ron shrugged. "I was still afraid, like I said last night, about how you would react to the information, but with permission and after what happened, I probably would have brought it up. Being at the party showed me how much I wanted you to know about magic."

"What do you mean?" Hermione asked.

"Dad was charming the Burrow so that it wouldn't show any signs of magic, but it never would have been enough," Ron explained. "Not to mention all my friends and family would have talked about magic things … they wouldn't have been able to help it. It would have all been too obvious to you."

"Probably not as obvious as what George had done …" Hermione said and then added when Ron looked at her questioningly, "what did he do to that picture, anyways? I've been afraid to touch it, or anything in the living room since then."

"You saw him cast that spell!" Ron gasped. "I'm going to kill him."

"Don't overreact, it didn't affect me in any way," Hermione said, not mentioning the mini panic attack she felt when she saw him cast the spell.

"Didn't affect you, except that you've been worried the picture might bite you or something," Ron frowned.

"Honestly, it's not like I saw anything too magical … I just saw a blue light and the picture moved a little afterwards," Hermione explained.

Ron sighed, the description of what she saw wasn't as bad as he originally thought. "You don't have to worry, Bill fixed it, so the picture is no longer cursed."

"Good to know," Hermione said, and then bit her lip.

"Is there something on your mind?" Ron asked noticing her mood change.

"There's so much more I want to know, I have a million questions about your world and how everything works … about magic itself … so much," Hermione said becoming overwhelmed just thinking about it.

"Don't worry, Mione, we have a lifetime to go over this," Ron said, and he loved hearing Hermione's breath catch at his words.

"That's true," Hermione beamed, but then became worried again.

"What is it?" Ron questioned, he thought she was just overexcited before but clearly there was something more on her mind than that.

"There's something I never understood about what you told me about the conflict," Hermione said sadly, knowing that Ron didn't like any mentions of this time of his life.

"It was a war," Ron said closing his eyes so that he could get his emotions in order. "I used conflict before because I didn't think you would believe there was a war that you've never heard of."

"I wouldn't have," Hermione agreed softly, looking at him and waiting for him to look at her so she knew he was ready. "It's not really about the war, it's about what happened to Ginny."

"Oh," Ron sighed, glad that it wasn't about the war, but this subject wasn't much better. "What do you want to know?"

"It never made sense before," Hermione said. "I couldn't understand how Ginny would be affected the way you had described if she was shot. Even if she had suffered brain damage because of lack of oxygen … I couldn't see how that would work."

"Harry said it wouldn't make sense to you," Ron sighed, remembering the conversation he had with his friends so long ago. "When I was trying to figure out what to tell about the war, I went to Harry. He figured it would be best to tell you everything, just leave out the magic."

"Did you go to Harry because he knows more about my world?" Hermione asked, wanting to confirm her theory.

"Yeah, he was raised by Muggles, as I'm sure you figured out," Ron nodded. "He was the only one that I could ask to help me, but it was a bloody difficult conversation to have."

"I can only imagine," Hermione sighed, knowing that neither of them liked to think about their past in detail, but Harry seemed to brood over it more. "I'm glad he helped you."

"Anyways, he told me that I should say Ginny was in a car accident or hit in the head by something. But I couldn't do that."

"Why not?" Hermione frowned.

"It would have been a lie," Ron shrugged. "I know I was keeping things from you, but I didn't want to lie. And saying that Ginny was in an accident would have been worse than just lying to you. It wouldn't have explained what Harry had done … or shown that Ginny was fighting bravely when it happened. I couldn't do that to them."

"That makes sense," Hermione said, and it was just so Ron. After a few minutes of silence, she realized that he wasn't going to continue. "I assumed a spell hit her."

"It was a curse," Ron corrected. "A curse that was designed to hit its intended target no matter who got in the way."

"That's why Harry couldn't stop it," Hermione sighed as Ron nodded his head.

"Yeah, Bellatrix Lestrange was sadistic, completely mad and very powerful, and she loved causing as much pain as possible," Ron spat out bitterly. "I wish I was the one that killed her!"

Hermione gasped at his harsh words, and she could feel how angry Ron was about this, but she could also see the pain he was in talking about this.

"If Harry hadn't taken the curse first, weakening it, Ginny would be catatonic all of the time except for when she was throwing a fit," Ron explained, hating the thought of how much worse his sister could have been. "After a few years of taking care of Ginny, the Healer realized that the effect of the full curse was worse than he believed before. You see, with Ginny being able to act almost normally at times, the Healer was able to realize that there were two different stages of being catatonic the other patients experience, one that was active and one that was passive. In the active stage, the others would still be able to understand their surroundings, but they wouldn't be able to react to them … well except to show enough emotions to throw a fit."

Hermione, with tears in her eyes, pulled Ron into her arms and she could feel how much emotional pain talking about this had caused him. She hated that she had put him through this because she needed to have more information. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have …"

"No, Mione, it's okay," Ron said, now repositioning them so he was now holding her. "I love that you care about my family and want to know more."

"I just wish it didn't hurt you so much," Hermione sighed.

"Me too," Ron sighed as he focused his mind on the feel of her against him and added, "but having you in my arms … it's like a soothing balm … healing my open wounds …."

There were more tears in Hermione's eyes at his words and she brought her hand to his cheek, and he leaned into her touch, closing his eyes as her hand stroked his face. He leaned down and kissed her slowly, taking in the love and support she was offering him.

O

"I should have waited a few days to bring this up," Hermione said hours later, she was drawing patterns on his chest, as he played with her hair, just like they always seemed to do when they were lying in bed in peaceful silence. Though this time the silence was more melancholy than usual, given what they last talked about.

"But this was a weekend bedroom conversation," Ron said, his voice was rough with the emotions he was still feeling. "And tomorrow I have to go to work."

"That's true," Hermione sighed, though she hated that she brought up this heavy conversation when they should have just enjoyed themselves, she didn't think she could wait until next weekend to know this information. It had been on her mind since before Christmas when she had her talk with Bess about Ginny. "I think I might have another weekend bedroom conversation to bring up," she said hoping that this would be able to lighten the mood.

"Oh … what is it this time?" Ron groaned dramatically; he was a little wary, but he could tell by her tone she thought this would be a good thing.

"I think it's time that I officially move in with you," Hermione said worrying her lip.

"Oh, you do, do you?" Ron said smiling as his heart lightened at the thought of that.

"Yes, we've practically been living together for the last month anyways," Hermione pointed out.

"Really … I hadn't noticed!" Ron teased her and then kissed the top of her head. "I think that's a brilliant idea!"

"Really," Hermione beamed at him, and he nodded his head. "I know it's silly, but I've been a little worried about bringing this up. I've been keeping my flat as a safety net of sorts, but I don't want to do that anymore. I want to live here; I want this to be our flat … our home."

"I want nothing more than to live here with you so we can make this place our home," Ron said staring straight into her eyes as they both felt the exhilaration after their declarations.

A/N: I will be posting a new story called Different Worlds: The War, starting later today and I will be updating it a chapter a day until it is finished. In the original story, this is where I had Hermione asking about the war and it took two and half chapters (of Harry and Ginny's point of view) to get through that. I'm putting this in a different fic for two reasons. The first is the reason I mentioned in the first chapter and why I am re-writing this fic, I didn't want these chapter to slow the pace of this story. The second reason is I don't need that conversation in the story because I had Ron talk about the war in more detail in the six chapter of this fic, so I just had the part where Ron explains Ginny's condition in more detail. I then added the part where Hermione asked to move in because this chapter is shorter than my other ones, and I thought it would work here.