Title: It was Here
Pairing/Character: Hermione/Ron with Ginny/Harry around and about
Rating: G (there's a kiss if that changes things?)
Wordcount: 1,211
Summary: Tomorrow Harry, Ron, and Hermione leave for Godric's Hollow, but for today they're enjoying some peace and quiet with Ginny
Author's Notes: I keep saying I can't write Hermione (I'm still going to say it!), but I'm never going to be able to if I don't try, so I've tried. My first go at writing Hermione, with a goodly helping of Ron too.



It was Here

Even though they, or more accurately Harry, had decided not to be together for now at least, it seemed right to give them time on their own just to talk, or be quiet. Both Ron and Hermione respected that, though it had never been voiced between them. Tomorrow morning, early, they were going to leave Ginny and Apparate to Godric’s Hollow where Harry would for the first time visit the graves of his parents. For now though the four of them were taking a walk along the River Otter, enjoying the peace and quiet, the stillness of a balmy summer’s evening. The calm before the start of the storm perhaps?

Ron liked spending time by the river, though he’d not done it that much in recent years. When they were little his dad had dragged the whole bunch of them down here to give his mum a few minutes’ peace and quiet. It was by the river he’d learned to spot the difference between a redshank and a greenshank, a ringer plover and a grey plover. In the wintertime, when the waters were higher and rushing faster, there had been competitions to see whose tree branch boat appeared under the other side of the bridge the fastest. Once they’d done just as their dad had said and gone instantly quiet and still, and in front of them in the water as ripples got bigger and bigger they’d seen the nose of one of the otters the river was named after emerge from the water. Ron had been very small then, he’d rushed all the way back to tell his mum and forgot what the animal was called the moment he’d got there. Now he smiled to himself as he remembered how he stamped his foot in frustration and how the twins teased him about it as the tears built up behind his eyes and then rolled slowly down his cheeks.

“Just there,” he muttered to himself, pointing to a little inlet.

“Ron?”

“That’s where I saw my first ever otter.”

“Oh,” Hermione smiled back at him as they restarted their footsteps. Harry and Ginny were quite a way in front of them now. “Maybe we’ll see one today?”

“Yeah, maybe,” Ron agreed. “We’ll have a look on the way back if you like.”

Sometimes it was awkward being together. If they were doing something, reading (Hermione a book, Ron a Quidditch magazine usually), or planning (Hermione made notes on the possibilities of Horcruxes, Ron checked out the places on his dad's maps from the old bookcase in the front room), or playing a game of wizard’s chess then there was no trouble. But other times, like now, when they were the focus of their attentions it was like something was missing. Ron supposed that something was actually a someone, and that someone was Harry. They’d been a threesome, in the non-romantic sense of the word of course, for so long now that when Harry was missing for whatever reason it was like he’d lost an arm, or a leg, some part of him.

Hermione knew differently. She’d known what the problem was for some time. She’d not said though, even when Ron’s eyes at looked at her enquiringly as if he wanted her to make everything right, just as she’d worked out the Potions riddle in the first year, the final piece of the puzzle in finding the key to the Chamber of Secrets in the second year, and the background of Remus in the third year for instance. She wasn’t going to let him in on the answer to this one however. He had to do that himself. She just hoped, she’d even crossed her fingers once or twice however illogical she knew that was, that he’d do it soon.

Ron’s stomach did that thing it did when Hermione smiled at him like that. Like she knew something he didn’t know. “What?” he asked, managing to stop himself from stumbling over the word.

“Nothing,” she answered, giving him the smile again. “Come on, let’s keep walking.”

Harry and Ginny were on the bridge now, leaning over and watching the summer stream drift underneath the stones slowly and leisurely just as their walk had been. A few moments before Ron and Hermione got there, Harry looked at Ginny and grinned his characteristic grin which Ginny returned and they set off again, down the opposite side of the river.

“Be like that then,” Ron muttered.

Hermione just smiled. It seemed like years ago that she had from somewhere found wise words for Ginny, telling her to wait for Harry and to give him something to think about, that by seeing other boys he’d notice her and it had worked – eventually anyway. Hermione had it in her mind that Ginny and Harry were returning the favour now. If they kept the thing from the pair, the thing that Ron perceived made them whole, then perhaps he would realise what was missing, and perhaps he’d put it right. Perhaps!

“We’ll stay on this side, shall we?” Hermione asked as she turned back to retrace their steps along the path they’d just trodden. They could meet up with Harry and Ginny back at the Burrow, after the other pair had walked down to the next bridge and doubled back to the most amazing house Hermione had ever seen or stayed in.

“Yeah, okay.”

It was hard not to smile at Ron’s uncertain and slightly nervous voice. Did he think she was going to throw him into the waters? Or worse still make him recite the dates of Goblin rebellions in order, with countries to boot?

They stopped at the place Ron had seen his first otter and turned to look at each other, eyes locking for a moment before one or the other, or perhaps both, blinked and broke the moment.

“It was here then,” Hermione said, stating the obvious but needing to break the stillness between them.

“Yeah, just here. Hermione …?”

“Ron?” Her voice was small, replying to his nervous one, as their eyes met once more. This time neither blinked, and Hermione was aware of Ron’s lack of confidence. She’d promised herself it wouldn’t be her, that he had to work it out for himself. But he had worked it out, she knew that now. He just didn’t know that she’d worked it out too. Hermione couldn’t help it, she laughed and didn’t stop for some time.

“Hermione?” Ron’s voice was bemused now. His hand lifted to his cheek. Did he have a smudge on it? He brushed his fingers through his hair, it felt okay. “Hermione, what is it? Hermione?”

Her shoulders were lifting up and down, he couldn’t remember the last time Hermione had laughed like this. With a grin, and without thinking, Ron moved to place a hand on each of her shoulders. “Are you okay?”

“Yes,” Hermione replied, lifting a hand to rub a tear away from the corner of her eye. “Yes I’m fine.” Slowly she moved the hand and reached out for Ron’s cheek. “I’m really fine.”

“Well that’s another first then,” Ron muttered.

“Ron?”

“First place I saw an otter, first place I kissed you.”

“You did?”

“Yeah, I did,” Ron replied with a small nod and did so.