Ch 8

Ron sighed, clenching and releasing his fists, trying to maintain the appearance of calm despite the pit of anxiety and nausea in his stomach. He glanced over at Hermione who was fussing with her beaded bag. She caught his glance and gave a forced smile. He could tell she was trying as hard as he was to look calm and confident about the days and weeks ahead of them.

"The portkey leaves in five minutes," Harry said quietly. "Are you two sure you have everything?"

"Well, Harry, if it isn't in my bag I can't imagine I really need it," said Hermione.

"A truer fact has never been told," Harry said. "That bag has saved my life more times than I can count." Smiling he reached out for Hermione, "I'm going to miss you, you know?"

"I know," she sniffed. "But if you make me cry right now, Harry James Potter, I swear your life will not last much longer."

"There's my girl," Harry laughed. "I love you, Hermione. And you know if you need me I'll be there in minutes."

"I know," she said, fighting tears. "I love you, too."

Hugging him tightly she whispered into his ear, "Take care of him for me, Harry? You'll look out for him and let me know how he's really doing?"

"I promise," he whispered back.

She nodded, hugged him tightly and then pulled away, wiping a tear from her cheek.

Harry turned to Ron, patting him on his back affectionately. "I'll see you in a few weeks, mate. Can't wait to hear all about New York when you're back."

"Will do," Ron nodded solemnly. Taking a deep breath he turned back to Hermione, "Ready? It's about time."

She nodded and reached out for the salt shaker that would whisk them to North America. Ron held the salt shaker in one hand and reached to clasp her hand in the other. Hermione gave one last look to Harry, and then they were both pulled into the portkey transport.

As the world swirled around them, Ron thought back over the past few weeks. Harry had taken their news well. He'd been concerned about them both, but was encouraging and promised to be there for each of them if they needed anything. Ron had been most nervous about telling George he would be leaving to go to the Auror Academy for training. But, George had assured him that he would be ok and that Lee and Angelina had promised to help. Ron also felt good about Verity moving into a manager position as well, which would help George have time to continue to come up with new product ideas.

The rest of their families had quite predictable responses – Molly fretting over both of them, Charlie thrilled for their adventures and Arthur delighted about Hermione's muggle adventures ahead. Hermione's parents were quite thrilled she would be continuing her education, but were naturally concerned about once again being on a different continent than their only child. But, her mother was excited about the chance to visit her in New York and explore a new country and promised to visit often. And all of them had been at The Burrow for Hermione's sendoff party the night before.

When they had decided to move ahead with this plan, they had also decided it would be safest to keep it relatively quiet. There weren't active threats against either of them, but their histories spoke for themselves, so neither felt the need to announce to the Daily Prophet that Hermione would be soon living alone in New York. And, Ron had also insisted that he would only be ok with this whole plan if he could go to New York and see for himself where Hermione would be living and studying. And that is why he currently found himself clutching Hermione's hand as they were transported to New York.

Suddenly his thoughts were interrupted by the ground in front of him. His feet thudded against the ground, and he braced himself trying to keep his balance, reaching to keep Hermione up at the same time.

"Welcome to New York," said a kindly gentleman. "I'm Frankie, and I'm happy to welcome you to the good old U S of A."

"Um, thanks," muttered Ron.

"Take a moment and get your bearings and balance," Frankie said. "It's no problem at all. You two are better than most as you're still standing and not puking at all."

"Right," nodded Ron, feeling better as he took a few deep breaths.

"Anyway, as soon as you two can walk, we can fill in your paper work and register your wands and then you can get on with your day."

"Right, um, here's my wand," said Hermione.

"And mine," said Ron.

"Thanks," Frankie said as he logged in the two wands. "And what is the purpose of your visit today?"

"I will be studying here at Columbia, and he is here to help me get settled before school starts."

"Oh that's great," he said enthusiastically. "My cousin Janice went there. Well, she's a squib so she just went to the NoMaj side, but she really enjoyed it. Janice may have been a squib, but she definitely got all of the brains in our family, that's for damn sure."

"Um, are there safe neighborhoods near the school? We have to find a good place for her to live, and I want to know it's really safe."

"Yeah, sure, there are great neighborhoods all over the place if you know where to look. My cousin Tony's wife, Francine, is a real estate agent. I can give you her information if you want. I don't know if she's an expert in that part of town, but she could tell you who is."

"Oh, wonderful. That would be brilliant. Thank you," Hermione said as she reached for the card the man was handing her.

"Oh, she has a cell phone number?"

"Yeah, most of us do in New York. It's good technology, and once someone figured out how to rig it so our magic doesn't constantly have it on the fritz all the time it just made sense to use it."

"Huh," said Ron, both bewildered by the interaction and yet intrigued by the business potential. "Well, I think we'll be getting one for each of us I suppose."

"Absolutely," Hermione agreed.

After a few more minutes they had both Francine and Frankie's contact information as well as rough directions to the main shopping areas in the magical community.

"I think we should take a muggle taxi to the hotel so we can see a bit of the city and begin to get our bearings," Hermione suggested. "Does that sound ok to you?"

"Don't you mean 'no maj?'" Ron smirked.

"Clever, aren't you?" she scoffed playfully. "Well, I'll be talking like a regular yank soon enough, but if it is quite alright with you I'd like to go find a cab."

He bent down to kiss her cheek softly and gestured toward the exit. "Lead the way, my lady."

Soon they were in the backseat of a grimy yellow muggle taxi cab. The driver, which the sign helpfully noted was named Syed Singh, did not appear to speak much English at all. But, he recognized the street address Hermione had given him and nodded as he gestured at them to get in the car. They crawled in and Hermione looked rapidly for a seatbelt, so Ron copied her motions. The blast from the car's air conditioning was a welcome respite from the oppressively humid heat that seemed to be radiating up from the streets and sidewalks. But, despite the cool air flowing from the vents, the sweat was pouring down Ron's back, and Hermione's hair had willfully escaped from her ponytail seemed to be framing her face in tight curls he knew she didn't like. Within minutes they were strapped in and inching across town in a neck breaking pattern of zooming forward and screeching to a halt. The music coming softly from the car's radio wasn't anything Ron recognized, but he didn't think Hermione did either.

He glanced a look at his witch. Her frizzy hair and flushed cheeks from the heat contrasted with her calm body language as she sat looking out the window with her hands clasped neatly in her lap, appearing the picture of calm to anyone who didn't know better. But Ron saw how she worried the bag strap with one finger and chewed her biting her lower lip. Seeing this, Ron reached across the seat and took Hermione's hand with a soft squeeze. She looked up at him and smiled softly.

"Not exactly London, is it?" Ron offered.

"No," she laughed. "It most assuredly is not."

Before too long Hermione had them checked into the muggle hotel near the university campus. With the time difference it was barely lunch time, and between the emotional stress of the day and the oppressively humid heat they had walked into they decided to go to the sandwich shop next door to the hotel. There they sat at bench facing out the front window where they could watch the world go by from the relative safety of the air-conditioning.

Hermione was clearly making a concerted effort to try to eat at least some of her lunch, but Ron could tell her heart wasn't in it. He was hungry, but even he felt like he was too hot to eat much.

"Let me get us some more of that iced tea," he offered. "That sign says free refills and I saw some of the other customers doing it. It's too bloody hot to eat much without cooling off first."

Hermione nodded, handing him her cup with a smile. "Lots more ice too, please."

"Right," Ron nodded with fake assuredness.

He'd seen Hermione fill their cups with ice by pressing some button on the muggle machine before they sat down, but he hadn't paid enough attention. So, he was very grateful there was a group of muggle students in front of him refilling their drinks as well. He watched carefully as they pressed their cups against the metal lever and had ice dump into their cups, and so he did the same. He pressed the first cup firmly against the lever and yelped back as an avalanche of ice chips covered his hand and spilled over onto the floor.

"Bloody hell," he muttered. He bent down to pick up the spilled ice, and after a brief glance to assure no one was watching, cast a nonverbal spell to clean most of the mess while picking up a few pieces. He risked a glance at Hermione who was clearly biting her lip trying not to laugh. "Thinks this is hilarious, doesn't she," he muttered to himself. But, then he squinted his eyes carefully at the lever and this time successfully filled both cups with ice by applying just the right amount of pressure. Then he filled each of them with iced tea, delightedly adding a handful of the little white sugar packets to his. Then he spotted the little plastic lids and straws the other students had used and proudly added those to his cups. Once both cups had ice, tea, lids and straws he turned back to Hermione with a proud grin lifting both in the air to show off his accomplishment. Proudly heading towards her, he suddenly tripped over some weird black cord one of the muggle students had trailing from his table to a spot on the wall. He managed to catch his footing and after some impressive acrobatic moves he was able to get to the table with his neck in one piece and both cups still filled with iced tea.

"Guess that's why they give out lids," he said, trying to suppress the embarrassed flush he knew was spreading up his neck and across his face and ears.

With that Hermione burst out laughing, unable to contain her giggles any longer. The initial sting of embarrassment was quickly replaced at the joy of seeing Hermione lost in laughter. Blimey, he thought. It had been way too long since he'd seen her laugh like that. Damn, he'd missed her laugh the last few days.

"Oh, God, Ron," Hermione gasped through her laughter. "I do love you." She took her cup from him and hugged him tightly.

"Well, good," he smiled. "I don't brave the wilds of this city to bring tea for just anyone, you know?"

"My brave knight," she said as she kissed his cheek.

"What the hell is that weird black rope thing anyway?" he asked her quietly. "Clearly a safety hazard!"

"Well," she said, no longer even trying to stifle her amusement. "See how they all have the little things they are typing on?"

"Yeah...what are those?"

"They are laptop computers. Like the computers in the library you took me to, but these are portable so you can carry them around. But, they need to be recharged with electricity every now and then, so they have these electrical cords that can plug into the computers and the electrical outlet at the wall."

"Huh. Why do they need to carry them around like that?"

"Well, I think more and more that muggle university students write their essays and such on the computer."

"Will you need one?"

"I hadn't really thought about it, but I probably will. At least for the muggle courses. Can't imagine the professors would appreciate me turning in a four foot essay on parchment." And just the thought of it had her laughing. "Bloody hell, Ron – I am going to be in muggle classes again!"

"Well, shit – is Hermione Granger cursing about school?"

She was laughing, almost hysterically now, and Ron couldn't decide if he was delighted or concerned.

"I mean," she laughed, "what was I thinking?! I haven't been in a muggle class in almost ten years! I don't even know what's expected anymore. I mean, I know a little from things – but it would be computerized; that would only make sense. But how am I ever going to learn how to use it? I'll look like a fool; no one will want to sit next to the fool; it's going to be just like when I was little..."

Ron was watching her descent into anxiety with increasing concern. At first he was amused by her laughter, but he saw that it was quickly turning from amusement into a swamp of self-doubt and terror. So, he did what he knew how to do best and distracted her with a searing kiss.

She was caught off guard by his lips, but eventually responded enthusiastically. When she pulled back slightly to catch her breath he held her cheek to his and whispered in her ear, "you are amazing. You will be amazing. And it will be a fabulous experience. And if you ever want to leave and head to London, you can be there in only a few hours. It's going to be ok, Hermione."

She leaned her forehead against his shoulder and asked quietly, "how are you always so confident?"

"Well," he said, moving his arm around her waist, "I happen to be living proof of the fact that you are brilliant and solve unsolveable problems. If you didn't, we'd have both died years ago. And this one doesn't strike me as unsolveable at all. In fact, I predict that you will be ahead of your classmates by the end of the first week."

"You can't know that, Ron. This is Columbia – both the muggle and magical students have to work really hard to get here. Just because I did well at Hogwarts doesn't mean I will do well here."

"Yeah, yeah – I get it – a whole school of Ravenclaws and such. But, there is no chance at all that you won't be amazing here. Last I checked in the pamphlets you gave me there was no requirement for a flying class or any sort of required sports activities, and no chess. So, since those are the only things I've ever seen you do less than perfectly, I think you're in good shape."

She gave a forced smile and said, "I'm glad you believe in me. But in all seriousness, I do think this will be much harder academically than anything I have ever done."

"Good. Isn't that the bloody point? If you were coming here to just make a bunch of twenty somethings look bad at a place of higher education you could have easily done that back in England. The point was that you felt this was the only place where you could come to learn things and gain experiences you couldn't get back home. If you came in already knowing everything then I would be rather furious that you were putting us both through this for no good reason. But, since it is the right place for you and you will learn a lot and gain new skills I think we both agree this is the right thing. Am I wrong?"

She shook her head no.

"Good. And, well, trust me when I tell you that it will be a character building experience for you to actually have to work to be top of the class."

"Not fair. I worked damn hard at Hogwarts."

"Yes. Yes you did. You worked harder than anyone ever had and learned more than anyone ever had and managed to do the work of four students. But I think if you had slacked off you still would have been the top of the class."

"Four? I could give you three..."

"Four. If it was just three you wouldn't have needed a time turner."

"Oh."

"Yeah. Oh. But no time turners here. You promised."

"No – no time turners. No matter how crammed for time I feel."

"Hermione," he said seriously. "This is supposed to be a wonderful experience. Please don't let it overwhelm you. You have to stay healthy. That means eating and sleeping on a regular basis. I fully expect you to study like crazy and become best friends with the librarians. But, you have to promise me that you will stay healthy and safe. That means eating regularly and sleeping regularly and staying relaxed and rested enough to be safely aware of your surroundings."

"I know. I promise to do my best at that part too. I won't always succeed, but I promise to do the best I can."

"Good," he said as he kissed her. "Now, let's take these fancy teas and go figure out what we need to figure out so we can use these next two weeks to get you as set up as possible, yeah?"

"Brilliant," she grinned.