THE COMMON ROOM FIRE
There is only one J.K. Rowling. She owns Hogwarts, the Burrow, Godric's Hollow, St. Mungo's, Spinners End, Grimmuald Place and all who reside there. I thank her for letting me borrow them.
Warning: HBP Spoilers
Summary: After a physically and emotionally draining day, Ron and Hermione find themselves alone with their thoughts - and each other - in front of the common room fire.
Ron didn't know if this time of day was very late at night or very early in the morning. He just knew that he was awake and he needed to sleep. Harry, Ron knew, was not asleep either; Ron also knew his friend well enough to know he also didn't want to talk. So Ron lay awake trying to organize the night's chaos into something his mind and heart could grab onto. Judging from the sounds around him in the darkened dormitory, Seamus and Dean hadn't had any trouble dropping off. Neville was in the hospital wing, probably snoring loudly from one of Madame Pomfrey's sleeping potions. Ron hoped so; Neville deserved to be well cared for.
The hospital wing ... Bill was there, too. Seeing the angry, red slashes across Bill's face had almost undone Ron. What would happen to Bill? Fleur showed her colors, though, standing up to Mum like that. All of them, Mum, Dad, Fleur, Fred and George had remained at Hogwarts for the night to be close to Bill. Ginny was in the guest rooms as well, at her parents' insistence. Ginny protested of course, saying she needed to be in Gryffindor Tower in case Harry needed her. But Harry persuaded her he would be alright and that he would feel better knowing she was with her family in case something else should happen during the night. Harry and Ginny; Mum and Dad; Bill and Fleur. Everyone seemed to have someone to turn to tonight; even Fred and George had each other! Everyone but me, Ron thought. Well, there was Hermione, but she was probably asleep, too. Even if she wasn't, he wasn't sure she would want him intruding on her thoughts.
It had been the longest, hardest, most traumatic day of his life. He would never have imagined that he could feel this tired, lost, sad and angry all at the same time. What was it he had said to Hermione about Cho Chang's feelings about Harry and Cedric? Oh, yeah, a person couldn't feel all that at the same time or they'd explode. Man, was he ever wrong.
Dumbledore was dead. Dumbledore was dead and even though Snape had killed him, it was Malfoy's fault. Who would ever have thought that Malfoy would be the one to figure a way into the castle, bypassing all of Dumbledore's wards and protections as if they weren't even there? Maybe, Ron thought, maybe if I had listened to Harry and his theories about Malfoy this all could have been prevented somehow. Is it really my fault? Hermione hadn't listen to Harry either. Was she feeling this way, too? Hermione again.
This is stupid, Ron told himself. Lying here listening to Harry not sleeping isn't helping. Ron swung his long legs over the side of his four-poster, quietly opened the dormitory door and went down to the common room. What he found there surprised him - somewhat. If he had thought more carefully he would have known she wouldn't be sleeping either.
"Hermione? What are you doing down here by yourself?" Ron stretched out on his favorite cushy sofa closest to the fire, his head in his hand.
"Couldn't sleep - you, too?" replied Hermione, not at all surprised to see Ron.
"Yeah - just too much stuff jostling around in my head. Harry's not sleeping either - he's gone to that place he goes in his head when he's really troubled," Ron answered. "Have you been down here long?"
"Not so long, I guess." Hermione paused a bit and then said, softly, "I think I was waiting for you, actually. I'm glad you didn't have to go to the guest rooms with your folks and Ginny."
Ron blushed at her admission. "Me, too. It's kind of strange - I know I would have had an awful row with Mum if she had insisted I stay with them, but, still, I feel safer knowing they're close by. Silly, I guess, like I was a still a kid."
Hermione smiled at him, "It's not silly - I feel better, too, knowing adults who care for me are close. My parents wouldn't understand any of this and would yank me home in a minute if they had any idea what this was all about." Hermione grew quiet - as if the thought of having to be home in the muggle world while her beloved wizard world fell apart was just one more thing she didn't want to think about tonight. But she was Hermione after all and thinking was what she did best.
"Ron, where do you think they disappeared to? Snape and Malfoy, I mean," she asked.
"Who knows? They could be anywhere by now." Ron flipped over to his back and lay gazing at the common room ceiling.
They were both quiet with their own thoughts for a bit when suddenly, as if energized by some strange force, Hermione was up from her chair and pacing. "Ron, don't you care about finding them? About avenging Dumbledore and Bill? About helping Harry on whatever hero's mission he's set for himself to find the horcruxes?"
"Hermione ... I care about all that, I just ..."
"You just what? Don't want to think about it right now? Well, now is the time we have. Tomorrow and the next day and the next day will be full of the Ministry's questions and packing up and going home and who knows what will happen after that or if we will all even be together?"
"Hermione, stop pacing, you're making me dizzy ..."
"No, Ron. We have to figure this out. We should start by trying to figure out what the remaining horcruxes are and where they might be. We can do this! Dumbledore trusted us to do this and we can't let him down!"
Hermione's frantic pacing had taken her back to the couch and as she moved past Ron he reached, grabbed her hand and pulled her down to the couch, next to him, and put his arm around her. He turned her towards him and put his fingers gently over her mouth. "No, Hermione, for once you're wrong. Not tonight. Tonight we need to rest and not think. There will be time to figure it all out, I promise. And we will always be together - um, the three of us - I promise that, too."
Hermione's words sputtered around Ron's fingers, "You can't know that so, please, don't promise me."
"Hush," he said gently. "Here, lie down. You need to rest - we all need to rest." Hermione gave in and stretched out next to Ron, her back to his front, and together they lay gazing at the dying flames of the common room fire. Ron gently stroked her hair back from her temples and each time she started to speak, he would say, "Hush, not now." Much as his mum had done with him when he was small and upset about something. Soon Hermione was relaxed and feeling safer and more protected than she had in a long while. Just being with Ron did that to her, always had. After what seemed liked a wonderful eternity, Hermione ventured another question,
"Ron?" she asked softly.
"Hmmm?" he murmured, never ceasing his gentle caressing of her hair.
"Have you ever noticed that there is always a fire in the fireplace here? Even in warmest weather, there is always a fire on this hearth. Sometimes it burns really strong and hot and other times, like now, it's quiet and warm, but its always there. Funny, all these years and I never noticed it before."
"I never noticed either, but you're right." 'Tell her!' his inner voice said. 'Do it now - who knows when you'll have a chance like this again?' Blushing fiercely, Ron reached down and took of hold of Hermione's hand where it was nestled by her breast and almost stopped breathing when she gently intertwined her fingers with his. After a pause, his voice softer, he said, "Um, what you said, about the fire, kind of reminds me of us - of you and me. How we fight like cats sometimes and other times, like now, we're easy and quiet with other. Hermione, what I said before, about us always being together? I meant it. I don't think I could bear it if we weren't."
Hermione gently kissed the place where their hands were joined before she replied, "I love you, too, Ron Weasley."
No further words were needed and, after a time, warmed by the common room fire and the love they now knew they shared, they slept.