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

Chapter Sixteen

Diagon Alley and Anniversary

"Are you ready to go!" Hermione asked impatiently, as her feet tapped on the floor.

"Yeah … I guess," Ron said pressing his lips together so he wouldn't laugh, but since she was glaring at him, he knew that he was caught. She realized he was stalling so he could work her up, not that he really needed to, but he couldn't help it. He loved it when she was frazzled like this.

It was now Saturday, and they were going to Diagon Alley for the first time. After two weeks of knowing about magic and learning as much as she could about that world, she was dying to go to a place in the magical community. Of course, she had been to St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries when she visited Ginny, however they would always Apparate directly into the long-term patient private room area. So, she hadn't come across that many signs of magic while she was there, it actually wasn't much different than going to a residential building.

Hermione was most looking forward to visiting the bookstore, even more so when she had discovered the limitations of the magic bookcase that Harry owned. Though Hermione was able to use the bookcase the last two weeks to get enough reading material, she knew it wasn't summoning all the books that it should. At first Harry suggested that Diagon Alley might have been out of the bookcase's range or there was some kind of magic shield that prevented the bookcase to work properly. However, through several experiments Hermione discovered that she could only summon A History of Magic and Fantastic Beast and Where to Find Them out of all the textbooks that Ron had in their flat. However, when she had brought Ron's copy of Standard Book of Spells, Grade One to Grimmauld Place, that exact copy of the book appeared on the bookcase. With that she realized that wizards must have come up with some kind of spell to prevent magic books from being copied by the bookcase (or by any other means) so people would still have to buy the books if they wanted them. After confirming this with Kreacher, the elf explained that the only magic books the case could conjure are the ones that the Blacks owned (whether physically stored in the house or in the Gringotts vault, which now included the Potter vaults since Harry had inherited the ownership of the house and vault). The bookcase could also include magic books that the authors were too stupid to protect by the spell, whether by ignorance or generosity it didn't seem to matter to Kreacher (who she was sure was quoting Mrs. Black, judging by the tone he was using).

They had decided to go to Diagon Alley the Muggle way instead of using the Apparition point or the Floo, since it wasn't that far of the walk to the Leaky Cauldron. However, before they could even attempt to walk into the pub, Hermione stopped and blinked at the door.

"I know, it doesn't look like much, but trust me, once you get inside, you'll see," Ron tried to explain, thinking that she had stopped because of how the Leaky Cauldron looked to Muggles.

"No that's not …" Hermione said trailing off as she looked at the door and then looked down the street and back nodding her head. "This is the pub where I got Crookshanks."

"You've been here before?" Ron asked raising an eyebrow, as a Muggle she never should have been able to notice the pub. "You can see it?"

"Well, I saw these two people with cloaks on walking into the pub, and I was curious," Hermione shrugged.

"Oh," Ron said slowly, he supposed that would explain it, and then held open the door for her to enter.

"Wow," Hermione gasped with an open mouth as she watched some glasses floating to the customers at the bar, and then she noticed the various people in wizarding robes.

"I'm guessing it wasn't as crowded the last time you were here?" Ron chuckled at her astonished expression.

"I don't know, Crookshanks had ran up to me as soon as I got inside," Hermione said. "Though, I really hope I would have noticed the flying glasses if I saw them at that time."

"You know it makes sense that you found Crookshanks here, seeing as he's part kneazle," Ron said only now realizing that he had never told Hermione this since she learned about magic.

"What? Crookshanks is a magical creature?" Hermione gasped. "Wait … is that why you had me explain things to him after we got back together?"

"Yeah, kneazle are very intelligent and can be very protective of the person they bond with … er … and they are also good at detecting untrustworthy people," Ron said rubbing the back of his head.

"You think he didn't trust you?" Hermione asked, noticing his discomfort as he added the last part.

"Well, I was hiding something from you, but I think he figured out what I was when I figured out what he was," Ron shrugged. "He's almost been nice to me since I started doing magic around you."

"Huh," Hermione said, realizing that Ron was right and Crookshanks had been a lot more friendly towards Ron the last few weeks.

"Come on, we can talk about that later, we still have a lot to see today," Ron chuckled taking her hand and leading her to the back alley. "Are you ready?"

Hermione nodded as she watched as Ron tapped the wall with his wand and then the wall seemed to melt away until it formed an archway, which was shocking enough, but looking at what was beyond the arch made Hermione's mouth drop. There seemed to be magic coming out of each of the shops her eyes fell upon all the way to the end of the alley where the marble building that was the wizarding bank.

"Where do you want to go to first?" Ron asked again trying not to laugh at the astonishment on her face. "I was thinking we would go to Gringotts first, so we can have enough Galleons for the mountain of books you're going to want to buy. We can either take the cart and go to my vault or you can exchange Muggle money for the Galleons."

"Can we do both?" Hermione asked as she gathered some control over herself. "I'd like to see your vault, Harry explained the cart ride is like a roller coaster, so I think that would be interesting, but I want to buy my own books."

"I'm not sure the goblins would appreciate us 'wasting their time' if we did both," Ron said thoughtfully. "It sounds like you'd rather use the cart, and if you're so fussed about paying you can just give me your money and I'll exchange it next time."

"I supposed that makes sense," Hermione sighed, knowing that he was just humoring her with the giving him money thing. Just like he had when she had given him money for rent, now that they were living together. He had taken the money without argument once she explained herself, but she could tell he didn't really think it was necessary.

"Or," Ron just had a brilliant brain wave and hoped that she would agree to it. "We could add you to my vault. It wouldn't take that much longer; I'll just have to sign some contracts and you might need to sign one too. Then we can give them your Muggle money and they can just added it to my … our vault. They probably would have preferred if you just exchanged the money, but they would have a higher opinion of you if you wanted to see the vault to make sure it's to your liking."

"You want to add me to your bank account?" Hermione asked flabbergasted that he wanted to make that move, but it was clear by how excited he was, that he liked this idea.

"Why not," Ron shrugged, trying to regain control over himself. "We're living together, you know about magic … it just makes sense."

"Okay," Hermione said smiling at how natural he seemed to think this step was.

"Here take this," Ron said pulling out the Muggle money that Hermione had given him for the rent. He had thought there might have been a chance to exchange it or deposit it into his vault today, so he brought it just in case. When he had taken this money from her originally, he wasn't really sure what to do with it. It's not like he needed the money to pay rent because had been able to handle that without any help since he moved into the place. However, he knew that he couldn't refuse the money, knowing that it doesn't feel good thinking that you didn't pay for your share of things. So, he decided to just add the money to his vault, and it would just be part of his savings for the future. He smiled as he thought that it could now be part of their savings for the future.

"I don't know," Hermione started to protest.

"Of course, the goblins aren't going to refuse the request no matter who supplies the money, but they would appreciate you more if you contributed to the vault as well," Ron explained. "They would appreciate me more too, seeing as I'll be adding someone that's conscientious about money, too."

"You seem to care a lot about what goblins think," Hermione noted as she took the money he was handing her.

"After the war the goblins weren't too happy with me or Harry," Ron said in a voice that she could barely hear, and she had a feeling his voice didn't travel any farther than her ears. Then his voice was at normal volume, "I found it's best to be as respectful as I can be to the goblins and their culture. I'm just lucky that Bill was able to help me so much, especially with how to handle my finances."

Hermione wondered why the goblins weren't happy with Harry and Ron but knew that he didn't want to talk about it here in the open, so she let that matter drop. The actual process of adding Hermione was a little longer than Ron had hoped, but the goblins worked efficiently, and they were done with the paperwork in no time and were shown to the carts by the goblin in charge of Ron's vault.

Though Hermione might not have enjoyed the cart ride as much as she had thought (Harry had described it as thrilling and fun and she would have called it jerky and scary), she was glad she went to the vault. It was so interesting seeing the many caverns that seemed to twist and turn as they traveled through the underground bank. When they got to the actual vault Hermione was impressed to see that they could walk into it and that it was full of Galleons, though there was a fair number of Sickles and Knuts as well. While they were there, the goblin had brought the money that he would be adding to the vault (through the Muggle exchanged) and she noticed it was only a small portion of what was already there.

"How much do you think we need for supplies?" Hermione asked Ron.

"I'd think we can get by with thirty, but I'm taking fifty just in case," Ron said thoughtfully, "knowing you, you'll want to get half the books the sell at Flourish and Blotts."

"Then fifty wouldn't be enough," Hermione said trying to be indifferent to his light teasing. Hermione knew that of the 237 Galleons that she had added to the vault that roughly 200 of that was for rent. So, she made note that she could only spend 30 Galleons.

"You know I'm okay if you use my money," Ron said, letting her know that he noticed her calculating things, and that he thought she was barmy for worrying about that now.

"Should we take any Sickles or Knut?" Hermione asked ignoring his last comment, and hoping she pronounced the wizarding currency correctly.

"It's up to you," Ron shrugged. "It just depends on if you want to get change afterwards of if you want to try to pay exactly what you own. I think it's just easier for us to only get Galleons then trying to match up what we think we're going to buy."

"Soundly reasoned," Hermione smiled at him as he rolled his eyes.

It wasn't too long after that they found themselves walking into Flourish and Blotts, though Ron had suggested going to almost every shop along the way, knowing that she wanted to get the bookstore already. Hermione felt like she was a kid in a candy shop as she looked over the various books that vastly differ from book to book. Everything in the store seemed to be unique except for the back section that was obviously school textbooks and had multiple copies of each book. She stayed away from that corner, already having Ron's copies she knew she didn't need the textbook, so instead she started reading the titles of random books.

Ron had no idea that just watching someone browse through the aisle of books would be so entertaining, but he loved watching how Hermione's eyes would widen when she read something that shocked her. How she would bite her lips when he thought something might be interesting but didn't know. And how when something was too fascinating for her to resist, she would reach out and open the book and read for several minutes before forcing herself to close the book (sometimes he would have the clear his throat to get her to stop reading if she took too long).

After nearly two hours, Hermione had collected more than twenty books and she hardly covered a quarter of the store. She had immersed herself with Hogwarts, A History for much too long. Ron noticed one of the clerks looking disapprovingly at her, but he stopped when he caught Ron's glare.

"I don't even know why you're looking at a book about Hogwarts," Ron commented and had to smile when she startled and then blushed.

"I've been interested in Hogwarts since your first mentioned it," Hermione admitted, and she couldn't hide her excitement over what she was reading. "I just want to read one more passage …."

"Hermione, you've been reading that book for twenty minutes now," Ron pointed out, "I'm pretty sure we're going to buy it."

"Oh … right," Hermione blushed again.

"I also think you have plenty of reading material for now," Ron added putting his hand on the sizable stack of book that was next to her. "We can always come back if you need more books."

"But I hardly looked at all the subjects," Hermione complained pouting, causing Ron to chuckle more.

"I promise we'll be back her soon, love," Ron said, fighting not to lean down and kiss her (knowing that he wanted to do a lot more than that with her right now).

"Fine," Hermione sighed, and they gathered all the books she selected seeing that she had picked mostly theoretical and history books, trying to learn more about the wizarding world. "Oh … wait, I think I need that book."

"No Mione, we have enough …" Ron said shaking his head as they were nearly to the front where they could pay.

"But it's The Muggle-born Guide to the Magical World, Ron," Hermione practically whined. "I think that would be a very good book for me to read."

"Fine," Ron sighed, rolling his eyes and picked up the book and added it to the large pile in his hand. "But this is the last one."

"Thank you," Hermione beamed at him and then they got to the counter. It ended up being 41 Galleons 10 sickles and 24 Knuts, which Hermione was displeased that she went over her budget, but wasn't about to put one (or more) of the books back.

"Do you want to go anywhere else?" Ron asked as the left the shop, he had shrunk the bag with the books in it and put it in his pocket.

"I'm too excited to stay here," Hermione admitted.

"I was hoping you would say that," Ron said wrapping his arms around her and Apparating them back to their flat.

"Give me the books," Hermione said and Ron obliged, he loved watching her as she watched him do magic.

"Thanks," Hermione said, taking the bag and digging through before pulling the books out one at a time. After the first few books she would start to arrange the books in some kind of order, though Ron couldn't tell what that order was (all he knew was it wasn't alphabetic or by subject matter). After she got all the books on the table she stared at them for several minutes, worrying her lips and making some changes in the order (and sometime she would switch something back to the way it was before).

Once she gave her satisfied smile Ron asked, "What are you doing?"

"I'm arranging the books in the order I'm going to read them of course," Hermione said as if that should have been obvious and Ron chuckled as he shook his head.

"Well, you're not going to be reading any of them right now," Ron said as she reached her hand out to pick up the first book (Hogwarts, A History), but Ron grabbed her wrist.

"What?" Hermione said distractedly, still looking at the books until he was able to fully turn her around and cupped her face.

"Do you have any idea how hard it was on me to watch you in a bookstore," Ron asked in a husky voice. "I never knew watching you read could be so sexy."

"Sexy?" Hermione repeated, finding that hard to believe, but looking in his eyes, she knew he was telling her the truth. His eyes were filled with passion. When she had been passionately reading books all day, he had been studying her with a similar kind of passion … a passion she was starting to return.

And then he kissed her with a fever.

O

Hermione was happily reading Hogwarts, A History, it was the next day and Ron had left several hours ago to go to the Burrow. Ron had teased her that most people reading this book were children about to go to Hogwarts for the first time, but she didn't care. She had been fascinated by the magic school since the moment she had heard about it and though she now knew that Hogwarts wasn't the center of Ron's world as he had once told her, she also knew it was still very important. After all, nearly all of the witches and wizards in Britain had gone to the school.

Hermione was more than halfway through the book by the time she got hungry and decided to have lunch. After she had finished eating, however, she had noticed the Muggle guidebook and couldn't resist picking it up. After all, she hadn't even gotten a chance to skim this book as it was a last-minute grab. However, she was only able to read the first chapter when Ron suddenly appeared in the living room with a loud crack.

Though Hermione was rather unnerved about what she had just read, and the implications they might have for her, she couldn't help but be worried about the noise she had just heard. Ron had been Apparating into their flat since she learned about magic, and she never heard a crack like that (usually he hardly made a sound at all). Then there was the fact that it was very early for Ron to be home already, so she put down the book and hurried to the living room to find him standing in the middle of the room looking lost.

"Ron … what happened?" Hermione said softly as she reached out to hold his hand and he immediately pulled her into his arms, holding her tightly.

"I didn't realize … it came up so quickly …" Ron said after a moment of holding her, taking comfort in the support that she was giving him. "When Mum mentioned the anniversary of the war was this Wednesday and going to the Burrow after the public ceremony … I just went numb."

"Sh … it's okay," Hermione said holding him tighter as she now understood where his panic and pain was coming from.

"Everything has been going so great since I met you, and I've seen so many things improve in my life, but when Mum mentioned the anniversary … it was like I was stuck back to right after the war." Ron went on in more details, "I knew as soon as I got back to you, I would be able to think straight again."

They didn't say much more, and soon Hermione guided Ron to their bedroom so that they could get more comfortable. Ron didn't really same much as he thought about the war and all that he had lost.

"I just don't know how I'm going to handle this on Wednesday, without you there to help," Ron sighed serval hours later and he was feeling more like himself again.

"What are you talking about, I'm going to be there for you," Hermione said leaning up so that she could look in his eyes.

"I know you want to be there, and I want you there, but it can't be that way this year," Ron sighed and smiled weakly at her when her frown deepened, and she made to protest. "I don't want the first time you meet my parents … really get to know my family … to be at the war anniversary … or at the Burrow when we visit my brothers and drink a toast to them. We … were not at our best that day."

"I understand," Hermione said gravely, because she knew it would be harder on him if she wasn't there to help him, but he was thinking more of his family, who would be grieving and didn't need some girl they didn't know to be there intruding on them. He was also thinking about her, and how awkward that meeting would be for her. She wanted to argue with him. Tell him she didn't care about anyone else but him and what he needed, but she knew he wouldn't let that change his mind. "I'll be here for you all day before you have to go, and the moment you get back."

"I know," Ron smiled at her, knowing what she was thinking and loving her for wanting to be there for him. "And it will help."

O

On Wednesday Ron was very grateful that Hermione was with him all day before he had to go to the Hogshead for the public 'celebration' of the anniversary of the final battle. Normally, he would start drinking Firewhiskey by ten in the morning just so he could numb the pain enough to get through the day. However, this time he was able to talk to her a bit more openly about things that happened to him, though he stuck more to talking about good memories he had with his brothers.

At five o'clock he had Apparated to Hogsmeade, and for the first time he was able to remember the good times he had here. Usually, his mind would be focused on his painful memories of the war especially the night that he had Apparated inside of the run-down pub and the final battle had begun. He shook that thought out of his head, trying to keep his mind focused on the better moments but it was more difficult the longer he was here.

It only got harder as the ceremony went on and he had to talk to all the people that came up to him, thanking him for all that he had done for the wizarding world. Even harder though, was seeing the family members that had lost someone (the ones he hadn't known personally) and he always wondered if they blamed him (and even more Harry) for not being able to finish the war quicker. He knew he blamed himself for that, seeing as they had taken nearly two years to find the Horcruxes, and the first year he and Harry barely did anything productive.

When this thought invaded his mind, he tried to repeat what Hermione had told him after he confessed to her how he felt about this:

"Anyone who thinks that doesn't know what they're talking about, you and Harry were just boys, set a task that was nearly impossible to achieve. You did everything you could to stop the war and if it wasn't for you, it never would have stopped!"

He knew she didn't have all the details about the war, but her words were still a comfort to him and just thinking about them helped him keep his composure.

Still, he was glad when he was able to leave the pub with the rest of his family, knowing that the more emotional part of the night was about to start. He was right, but drinking with his family as they shared their memories, starting with the same ones they bring up every year, and then moving on to new ones as the night continued. Usually, by this time of night Ron would have been so plastered that he could barely speak, and he was in no condition to talk. Tonight, however, Ron found that he was the one that was talking more often than not, trying to bring up as many good memories as he could. And he thought he could see his family appreciated his effort as this gathering seemed more peaceful than he remembered from the past.

However, it was when he got home, and Hermione wrapped her arms around him almost the moment he appeared in their flat, that he felt his body relax and he allowed himself to feel all the emotions that he was holding in. He didn't have to act cheerful anymore so that he could help his family … he was allowed to be himself and he knew she was going to do everything in her power to support him.

A/N: This is a completely new chapter that wasn't in the fic before, and I thought it would be nice to show Hermione going to Diagon Alley and also the anniversary of the war. I wasn't sure if I liked this chapter at all, it sort of feels like a filler, but in the other fic I never mentioned the anniversary of the war and I thought it probably should be in this fic. The whole Gringotts part happened while I was writing this, it just sort of came to me and I thought might be interesting to have that in here.