The Burrow was quiet; all Burrowers were still tired after the wedding. They had just finished lunch, and everyone had gone back upstairs. Molly loved this kind of blessed silence. When her children were not underfoot, she missed them terribly, but when they were home, they set the house on an uproar. Right now, though, they were near and dear and sleeping, just filling the house with their breathing.
Molly descended the stairs and resisted the impulse to look in on any of them, especially Ginny, who had been morose since coming home. It didn’t help that Harry was as broody, and only the flurry and scurry of the wedding had kept Molly from grilling either of them, or Ron and Hermione who”
“I thought everyone was sleeping,” she said quietly, seeing the pair ensconced in the bay window of the sitting room. That window seat was small, not good enough for two, but there they were, quite cozy. Molly held in the smile that was threatening to form in her face.
“I’m trying to convince Hermione to play chess with me, Mum.”
“He always beats me, why would I bother?”
Molly smiled then and lowered herself on her rocker. “If you want to read, dear, light the lamps. I think it’s going to rain, look at the gloom. I’m just glad it was sunny yesterday,” she said, taking out of her pocket a certain eye mask that her husband and children were familiar with, because of her dire orders not to touch it. It was a Prewett heirloom, of sable acromantula silk woven by faeries, passed down from daughter to daughter, and had the secret of shielding the eyes of the wearer, but not their vision. Not at all. Molly had been amused by what her husband and children did when they thought she wasn’t looking.
“Oh, I’m alright, Mrs Weasley,” Hermione answered, putting down her book.
Molly nodded, reclined in her seat, and rocked.
It began to rain. It fell softly, as if only half-inclined. The sound added to Molly’s peace, and those two by the window looked out, their faces near touching, in that familiar way that always made her want to giggle like a girl. She wondered how long she will have to wait for these two to come out.
“I hate it when it rains in the summer.”
“It’s only high time it rained, look how your garden seems to drink up every drop.”
Ron was smirking. “Imagine if it rains on your honeymoon, I bet you wouldn’t be this stoic. I imagine Fleur is having a tantrum right now.”
“Missing her already, aren’t you?” Now, Hermione was smirking.
“No!” Molly noticed his ears though, and had to fight to keep her face impassive beneath her eye mask.
Hermione gave him a disdainful look, no doubt noticing his ears as well, and then she shrugged again. “They’re in Egypt. I doubt it’s raining there. I can’t understand why they’re there either!”
“What! I thought you’d like it there!”
With a roll of her eyes, Hermione said, “Ron, yes, I’d like to see the tombs, but all that dust and sand doesn’t seem very ideal for a honeymoon, in my opinion. Maybe Fleur was just too used to France’s charms and would like a different vista.” Another shrug.
“Where would you go then?”
“On my honeymoon?”
“Yeah.”
Molly then understood why Ginny and the twins had been exasperated with this pair. She wondered how Harry could have borne with this. They had said those words nonchalantly, but both their faces had gone strawberry-red.
“Well, hmmm, Italy. It’s rather considered overrated, but it’s really beautiful. Rome would be nice, and Venice! And then there are the beaches in Asia.”
They watched the rain in the silence that followed, neither daring to catch each other’s eyes, both with cheeks still pink. Molly shifted in her rocker, to prop her elbow on the chair arm, so that she could cover her persistent grin with a hand.
“Italy’s not far from here.”
“Just south of France and Switzerland, yes.”
Ron rolled his eyes. Hermione slapped his thigh.
“What are you getting at, Ron?”
“Nothing,” Ron said, rubbing his thigh and glaring at Hermione.
“You had an easy time criticizing my shoes yesterday, but you just couldn’t tell me anything else, could you?”
“Well, those stitelos were ridiculous, they made you trip all over the place I always had to hold you.”
“I didn’t ask you to! You were the one who hovered over me worse than a nursing dragon and wouldn’t let anyone or even your father dance with me. And they’re stilettos, idiot.”
“What would you have had me do? Harry and Ginny were both sulking and if I left you for one minute, Charlie would have had excuse to bring Krum over to you, and Aunt Muriel would have pounced on me.”
Krum was a sensitive subject with these two, and Molly wondered now if she should intervene before her darling son was set with canaries again, or worse. But after taking a deep breath and with another roll of her eyes, Hermione just shrugged again. “Harry and Ginny are in a dilemma. I think they’re both regretting splitting up, but couldn’t even dwell on that regret because of the danger, so you couldn’t blame them for being grumpy””
Ron was shaking his head, which made Hermione frown at him. “What?”
“You’re so good in reading minds, why couldn’t you”” He paused.
“Why couldn’t I what?”
Poor Ron. Arthur had been exactly this tongue-tied before. Ron’s more of a Weasley than a Prewett every day.
But then he looked up. Molly couldn’t see his whole countenance, but Hermione’s held a second’s worth of surprise. Ron spoke so softly afterwards the words barely made it to Molly across the couch.
“Why couldn’t you read mine?”
Molly thought Hermione had never looked even more beautiful than when she blushed then. The poor girl was actually for once shaken. Though she remained composed, Molly recognized the nerves behind her steady movements: she turned to the window, looked at her lap, flicked at a non-existent spot on her skirt, tucked a lock of hair behind her ear, and blinked. As this passed, Ron waited quietly, just watching her”well, her faint reflection in the windowpane. He couldn’t look at her.
“Ron,” Hermione called softly, with a glance toward Molly, before continuing even softer. Molly cursed the rain’s patter then, but she could still hear Hermione (voice slightly trembly now), who had now tucked her hands under her thighs. And it was not for chills, Molly was certain. “Why don’t you just tell me?”
Ron squared his shoulders, a move that nearly convulsed Molly. And then he babbled. Molly bit her cheeks at the expression that came and went in Hermione’s face then. “Though you probably see me as a brother, I don’t see you as a sister. Not like Ginny, okay? I mean, I will protect you as much and that’s why I wouldn’t let Krum near you, but it’s something more, alright? I know I made a git of myself with Lavender and everything but I didn’t mean anything by it, I mean, I meant, I was only trying to”I was just””
Ron lost his steam and quieted as suddenly as a boiling kettle taken away from a fire. Hermione looked dazed, her eyes shining, her cheeks pink. And then she gave a half-snort, half-laugh, which she stifled behind her palm with another glance at Molly.
“I don’t see you as a brother either, Ron, like how I see Harry, but that doesn’t mean I like you less, alright?”
And here, the sweet girl peered into Ron’s face, conveying her message from her eyes to his.
Ron nodded. He brought up a hand to brush away a lock of hair on Hermione’s brow. The hand stayed, only to move to her cheek. Molly squinched her eyes then, her mother’s conscience scolding her, but she couldn’t help peek, and she could have crowed when she saw Ron actually kissing Hermione, daintily, their lips barely brushing, just together. After many moments in which Molly had to resist sighing, they broke apart.
“I see now you’ve been using my toothpaste, how could you!” Hermione said, mocking disgust.
Ron laughed, causing Hermione to slap his arm to quiet him, and then she looked aghast at how hard she had hit him, causing Ron to laugh again. He pulled the hand she was rubbing his arm with until she was flush against him. “I love you, Hermione,” he whispered absently, still laughing.
Hermione looked as startled as he was, but then she smiled, wrapping her arms around Ron’s waist. “I love you, too, you idiot.”
Molly closed her eyes, blissfully.
She suspected later that perhaps Remus or Tonks or Arthur had cast a Silencing Charm around her rocker to let her rest because when she opened her eyes again, the lamps had been lit, it was dark outside the windows and Ron and Hermione were no longer in the bow seat. She nearly ripped her eye mask away from her face, thinking of dinner, but then she blinked, momentarily confused.
The sitting room was full, of quiet people, looking in a general direction to the hallway. Molly followed their gaze and understood, and even giggled. Retreating to the kitchen were Ron and Hermione, hands clasped, fingers interlaced.
Author's Note: Loved it or loathed it? Let me know! Thanks for reading!