Ever wondered what Ron and Hermione would be doing while Harry was spending his blissful afternoons with Ginny? Maybe, Ron wasn’t complaining very much. Maybe it gave them the time they needed to untangle their feelings?
Genre: Romance
Rating: T (Brace yourself for Ron’s language and thoughts, rest is safe)
Words: 6.6K
Era: 6th Year Hogwarts (Post Ron’s 17th birthday)
A/n: This story is a personalized gift for one of my internet besties and beta @callieskye . She loves sixth year Ron, Romione and fluff, so expect all of those in here. Additionally, as this story is a surprise for her, she hasn’t beta-read it (yet). Errors, if any, are all mine. Special thanks to another dearie @jenn582 for providing her valuable inputs. Happy Reading! A review will be highly appreciated.
(edit: Yay, she proofread and made it all shiny!)
PS: I have never written anything so fluffy, so if it causes diabetes, blame @callieskye :P
"Did ya see that coming?" Ron indicated vaguely at a couple in the distance. Hermione glanced up briefly from the book she was absorbed in, responding leisurely, only after completing the paragraph she was reading.
"For a while now, yes. Didn't you?"
Ron looked away from the tree that was partly obscuring his view of a raven head, that was far too close to a glorious red one. Exhaling softly, he lay back on the grass, arms tucked under his head.
"I guess, I just assumed she'd have outgrown her crush by now," he admitted.
"Not all of us outgrow our crushes, Ron. Sometimes the feelings remain, get stronger even-", she shrugged without taking her eyes off her book, "-you just learn to mask it better," she added casually, and he stopped trying to figure out what his sister and best mate were doing and turned sideways to watch her instead.
Was she saying..? Did that mean... Could she have-? Nah, he had messed it up horribly, he was sure. But then...
Ron watched the petite girl sitting on an old Gryffindor bedspread; a couple of books lay next to her while she held one on her lap. Her soft blush could have been due to the sun, but it was a pleasant spring afternoon; in fact, there was still a fair bit of chill in the air. Moreover, she was hidden in the shade of the enormous oak tree under which they sat.
With his heartbeat picking up a little, he watched as she paused and pretended to be engrossed in the book again – pretended for sure- he had known her long enough to know she wasn't reading anymore.
"Perhaps Ginny dated other guys only because she got tired of waiting for Harry to notice." Her voice was so soft that he had to wonder if she wanted him to hear her at all.
"How could Harry not notice? She was right there in front of him all this time."
The irony of his words struck him hard and he averted his eyes sheepishly before being drawn to the sound of her soft laughter. Merlin, he had missed that sound and more than that, missed making her laugh.
She shook her head as she chuckled, the curly ponytail swinging enticingly as he watched mesmerised. It took him a minute to realise that he was grinning like a dork and adjusted his expression quickly. Hermione finally snapped the huge volume shut and placed it next to her, hopefully, to give him her full attention.
"You know, Ron, boys can be idiots." she observed playfully, mirth reflecting in those pools which Ron realised he had been gazing at for a while now. Once again, he looked away quickly, ears embarrassingly red.
"I have to agree with that," he confessed trying his best to rub the redness of his neck away. But by then his eyes found something new: Hermione's hand was on her book, tracing the odd Rune symbols on the cover.
It was absolutely barmy the way she made him feel. In the past, he would have assumed that he was just a horny, female-companionship-deprived teenager. But he'd had his fair share of 'companionship' in the last few months, however, nothing, not even those intense snogging sessions with Lavender, compared to how he felt around her. His heart ached for Hermione in that delicious sort of way that made his brain go all fuzzy. And it happened all the time- even during the most mundane moments like when she was in class busy taking notes or during dinner when she sat next to him, reading while she ate. It even happened when she was not around him at all. He was not a confused fourteen-year-old anymore, and knew well enough what his feelings for her were. Unfortunately, a six-feet-three-inches tall, seventeen-year-old ginger moron called Ronald Weasley had gloriously fucked up his chances with this girl.
Hmmmm.....ok, I have one. When you first start a fanfic do you map the whole plot/ending in your head and stick to it or does it change throughout? Have you ever written a fic and thought it would end one way but ended up in a totally different directions? Also...just curious..what if you didn't like your hubby? Could you have said no to the arranged marriage?
Yes, I do plan it out. I map out the chapters and add notes about the major plot points I wish to include in it. Then I sleep over it and let Ron and Hermione act the situation out in my head. I start posting only when I feel I know where it will all come together.Lol, yes. It wasn’t like I was blindfolded and married off. I actually spoke to him pretty frequently and the wedding was fixed only after I said I was okay with him. But if we are talking about love, then it happened later. In a way, I married a friend and then fell in love with him. edit: (i forgot one question) A Bad Case of Amnesia is one story which has taken a slightly different route from what I planned. Once it’s all wrapped up, I’ll disclose what I initially had in mind
Prompt: “He’d literally picked her up, saved her from her own darkness.”
Prompted by: @jenn582
A/N: Okay, so this is a weird one. The “prompt” is actually just a line from my previous fic (Day 23) that Jenn mentioned she would like to read a full fic about. I think this is probably cheating, but I wrote this little fic this morning after seeing her lovely comment. I hope you enjoy it! x
For a few confusing seconds, when Ron opened his eyes to the almost pitch dark, he had no bloody idea where he was. The bed was too big, the walls too far apart, and the softly rattling white noise coming from the window to his left-
Suddenly, he recalled, like fading in from amnesia, the Muggle air-conditioner Hermione had told him about.
Hermione. He was there with Hermione. Australia. They were looking for her parents, and they were sharing a Muggle hotel room, but she wasn’t in bed with him.
He sat up, hair a tousled mess and eyes still adjusting to the dark.
“Ermynee?” he called in a rough, unused voice.
But he found her before she could reply, if she’d even been able to, anyway. She was huddled on the floor in the farthest away corner, knees tucked up to her chest and clutching them tightly with both her arms, head ducked down so she looked so very small.
He was out of bed in half a second, dizzily on his bare feet and rushing over to kneel in front of her.
“What’s wrong?” he asked breathlessly, reaching out to touch her forearm.
A sickening flash shot through him, memories of Malfoy Manor. Would he always go back there, when she was ill or in pain? He shook the memories free to focus on the present.
“Hermione.” Her head was still ducked forward, and he couldn’t see her face.
“Lost them,” he heard her wheeze, as if she hadn’t even been breathing.
For one ridiculous second he was ready to ask what she meant, what she’d lost, and then he could have cursed his carelessness. At least he hadn’t said the words aloud. Her parents, of course, the reason why they were there, three days into a search with no real progress.
“No,” he said, regaining strength in his now-alert voice. “Gonna find them. I know we will.”
She didn’t move or respond. He wasn’t even sure if she’d heard him. His heart was beating uncomfortably, startled from waking up so disoriented, compounded by anxious fear over finding her like this.
He slid his hand up her arm, and her skin was like ice. He remembered that she’d wanted the air to stay on, sending gusts of chilly wind across their room. The previous night, it had felt alright. Now that he was out of bed, naked from the waist up, his muscles tensed against the cold.
He moved closer so his knees touched her legs, gently clasping both of her upper arms in his large hands. Her small vest and knickers left so much bare skin, and she was frozen, though she hardly seemed to notice.
Shock, he thought. She had woken up, panicked, he’d been unconscious, and now she was here. It had happened before, only not quite like this. Before, she’d spoken in ranting waves of irrational fear. Now, he just needed to know she was with him.
“C’mere, you’re freezing.” She made no movement, no sound. “Hey. Hermione.”
Her shoulders tensed, and he could tell now that she was silently sobbing. An intense sort of sadness clenched his chest, mingled with nauseous worry for her, and she deserved to be happy, relieved that the war was over, not scared and responsible for her family.
“Fuck, m’sorry,” he said roughly, sniffing. “Wake me up next time, please, love.”
She lifted her head then, to his surprise, a few stray curls stuck to her cheeks and tears coating her face. He somehow knew he’d accidentally gotten through, unintentionally calling her something he’d never said before. Sod it, he’d told her he loved her a week ago. He didn’t have the energy to be embarrassed, anymore.
Whatever had kept her frozen suddenly broke, and her body shook with the cold and her broken sobs. She reached for him, grabbed ahold of his hands, too tight and nails digging into his flesh, but he didn’t care. He wanted to get her back to bed, under their blankets to warm up, but she was furiously shaking and he didn’t think she could walk. He didn’t dwell on it before he did it, prying her hands off his only to wordlessly crouch at her side and scoop his arms under her legs and her back, holding her against his chest and half-balancing with a shoulder pressed to the wall as he stood and picked her up.
For a brief second, she seemed too startled to cry, quickly clutching him around the neck, eyes flashing to his in the dark. He swallowed, took a step, and she closed her eyes, trusting him. It was a short few strides to the bed, and she was nearly weightless to him just then, recalling how he’d carried her unconscious body from the beach to his brother’s house mere months ago.
He placed her gently on the mattress, and his arms shook for a moment as he steadied her weight before letting go. She tucked her knees up and he climbed in with her, facing her, tugging a tangled sheet and thick blanket over them both.
She opened her eyes, tears still pouring down her face, and she stared across at him. He should know what to do, he reckoned, but he felt quite helpless and lost. Over the past two weeks, he’d grown closer to her than he’d imagined. They’d spent almost every waking and sleeping second together. Some had been absolutely brilliant, snogging (and more) in his bed in the middle of the night, finding moments during the day to sneak away and be alone. Some had been hell, cleaning up the rubble from that final, deadly battle, and his brother’s funeral…
But they had been together. And so long before that, he’d known her. He would have presumptuously guessed he’d known her better than anyone. Now, he should know what to say.
He draped an arm over her shoulder, trying to get a bit closer, blocked by her knees. His fingers weaved into her hair, and he was afraid he couldn’t fix this. And maybe he wasn’t meant to.
Discontent with this thought, he kept on looking at her, searching for an answer. His mind quickly wandered to how lovely she was, even in the middle of the night and falling apart, and he thought, not for the first time, that it was a bloody miracle that he was the one who got to be with her like this.
She finally slid her knees down, cold, bare legs rubbing against his warmer ones. He shoved his arm under the pillow they were sharing and touched his forehead to hers and kept looking back into her blurring eyes. Slowly, his hand moved halfway down her back, then up into her hair again. His fingers combed absentmindedly through it, and she blinked slowly.
As minutes passed, she seemed to be calming down, and he was compelled to lift his head and softly kiss her cheek, pulling back to swipe his thumb across the spot. The smallest smile tugged at the corner of her mouth, and he felt immediately relieved.
“What can I do?” he asked. Anything she could say, he would do it.
“You’re amazing,” she answered hoarsely instead, and he felt very far inferior to her compliment.
“I’m not,” he whispered back, but she shook her head and angled her mouth against his in a gentle kiss.
“Sorry,” she whispered back when they broke apart. “I’m alright now.”
“Scared me a bit…” he confessed.
“It just feels so hopeless sometimes. And I know you don’t think I have, but what if I’ve m-made a mistake and they’ll never be right again? Even if we find them…”
“But what if we do find them, tomorrow, you do the spell you’ve read over so many times you could perform it in your bloody sleep, and we’re on the way back to London in a week?”
She had no quick response for this, apparently, but she eventually rolled to her back and scooted so her shoulder was against his chest.
“You really think that’s what will happen?” she finally asked.
“Why not?”
She glanced sideways at him, and he tried to read her expression, but he didn’t get much time before she flipped to her opposite side so her back was toward him, reaching for his arm and tugging it over her waist.
“You make a good argument,” she teased, and he could hear the smile in her voice.
“Cheers,” he grinned back, closing his eyes and snuggling up closer to her, much warmer now.
He wasn’t quite sure, but he thought he could feel her heart beating through her back, and he hugged her tighter, her hand gripping his and pulling it up to her chest. He could certainly feel her heartbeat there. A comforting wave washed over him, knowing that in spite of everything difficult - that swirling pit of fear inside her that frantically sought a place to go, now that the worst was over - they were alive, together.
“I know this isn’t easy,” she said quietly, and he sensed her voice wavering with nervousness, “but I’m so happy I’m with you.”
Augh!!! This is so good! Alright pal, time to write more!!! :)
@jenn582
replied to your link
“Perfect, a harry potter fanfic | FanFiction”
You. Must. Write. More.
Awww thanks guys!!! Want to know a secret.......? There’s a small chance (meaning don’t hold me to it, but I’ll probably try) that I’ll be writing a second ending to Perfect where we leave all attempts at canon behind and Fred doesn’t show up.... any interest? ;)