Disclaimer: Don't own Harry Potter :(
Author's Notes : Based on the idea of what would have happened if Ron and Hermione had had to go back to Hogwarts for their 7th year without Harry. There will be three parts. Please read and review:)
REVISED AUTHOR'S NOTES: Thanks to a reviewer who pointed out I didn't clarify why the two would need to be cousins. To clarify: In the 7th book, we're told that the Ministry begins rounding up "muggle-born" under the claim they have stolen magic. Being put into the Weasley family tree, Hermione would be able to prove she hadn't "stolen" her magic, but gotten it from her family. This is actually suggested in HP7 by Ron, but because the trio is on the run anyway, they don't have to resort to it.
Hidden
Part I: The Decision
He hadn't considered it a sacrifice when he had said it. In fact, he hadn't considered it at all. It had just slipped out of his mouth. No, not slipped…that made it seem like an accident, and it was no accident. He had said it without thinking, not because he wouldn't have said it if he had thought it through, but because it was so instinctive. It was an automatic response, like the quick, defensive movement of a mother's arm over her child when the car stops short. It was easy to do things without thinking when you were trying to protect someone you loved.
So he had told them Hermione was his cousin. She had thanked him and refused the offer, incapable of imagining the guilt of something happening to the Weasley's because they had tried to help her. They all tried to think of a better plan, but as often happens, gut proved wiser than brain and a few hours later, Mr. Weasley had manufactured a place for her on the family tree.
"Please," Hermione said as she watched her name being stitched by a floating needle onto the enormous old quilt that held record of the Weasley family tree. A mix of guilt, love, and fear mixed inside her stomach and felt prodded with every poke of the needle into the fabric. "I can't let you do this."
Mrs. Weasley rested a comforting arm on Hermione's tense shoulder. "You've always been a part of our family, dear. This just makes it official."
The overwhelming emotions that had been swirling in Hermione's stomach begin to make their way up to her face, burning and drying her throat so much that her voice was barely audible. "If the ministry finds out…"
Mrs.Weasley opened her mouth to speak, but Ginny beat her to the truth. "Families fight for each other, no matter what."
At last, Hermione allowed herself to break into tears, and she threw her arms around Ginny, burying her sobbing face into her bright red hair.
Though the entire thing had started as Ron's idea, he had become strangely silent as everything began. He felt a pull on his own stomach as he watched his sister and his best friend embrace. He had always somehow expected Hermione to be part of his family…but this had never been part of the plan. He felt weak somehow now, helpless even, as he watched Mrs.Weasley join the crying embrace.
When the three woman finally let go and Hermione's face was visible again, her eyes darted from Weasley to Weasley, Ron's heart sopping and speeding up when her gaze fell on him. "Thank you," she whispered.
As usual his response was an awkward one, full of attempted (and failed) nonchalance. He became noticeably red as she threw her arms around him and hugged him tight enough to say thank you more than she ever could with words. He hugged back, overwhelmingly relieved that he was able to make her maybe just a little bit safer.
The hug lingered a second too long, and Fred was the first to try and break the seriousness of the situation. "Hey you two, let's not get too affectionate," he grinned, pulling them apart. "Remember you're cousins, after all."
Hermione blushed a little with a giggle that seemed to force out more tears. She laughed harder and wiped them away. Fred's joke echoed a little too seriously on Ron, though. That queasy feeling he was so used to feeling around Hermione was amplified ten fold. They were cousins now, after all...
It was a fact he had to remind himself of over and over again in the coming school year, a fact that he was reminding himself of at that very moment, as his eyes slipped up Hermione's legs to the knee length skirt she was wearing. He silently scolded himself and immediately turned (or at least tried to turn) his attention back to the Charms lesson.
The year wasn't even half way through, and it had already been record breakingly horrible. Harry had stayed true to his decision to quit school but had refused to let Ron and Hermione join him on his quest until the very last moment. When he was ready (but who knew when that would be) he would send for them, and they would leave school to join him. Ginny was always in a mood because Harry was gone. Hermione was always ignoring everyone, trying to read her way to defeating the Dark Lord, and Ron was in a mood because he couldn't seem to ignore Hermione (or more specifically, his feelings for her) any longer, and she was very suddenly his cousin.
Ron had hated himself more than once for letting himself feel so awful about the situation. There were a million things he should be worried about, an impending war which could lead to death, destruction, and chaos. Yet for some reason he could not get his mind off of how hard it was to keep his mind off of his surrogate cousin, Hermione Granger.
Sometimes he wondered if she found the same problem with him, but as much as he wanted to, could never convince himself of it. He was sure that she was just as busy with the more important things as she looked. That of course, just made him feel a million times more miserable and inadequate. It was just like Hermione to be making the right choices even when he was making the wrong ones.
And so the days went on like that for a long time, and Ron did what he could to avoid Hermione all together. When they were together, he tried to make himself feel somewhere else and would leave his mind entirely, which often ended up leaving others irate that they were being ignored. He tried as hard as he could to forget it all, or to at least pretend like nothing was bothering him, but he had never been a very good actor.
Most of all, he tried to distract himself, to throw himself into work just as Hermione had. It was one such day that he was sitting at the library, writing a Transfiguration essay that wasn't due for another three weeks. Though he didn't want to, his eyes followed Hermione as she entered the library. He tried to force his eyes back to his paper and managed to, until he heard the noise of a nearby chair. Hermione had sat down with a book, not next to him as had been custom for so many years before, but leaving an empty chair between them.
There was silence for a few moments as Hermione pretended to flip through some pages. "I'll look over that essay for you now," she said, eyes never leaving the pages. Her voice sounded commanding, yet she somehow hid a softness deep within it that only Ron could hear. Not fully understanding why she would use such a complicated tone for such a mediocre event as looking over an essay, he handed it over with no further question.
She never once brought her gaze up, and Ron followed suite, despite how tempting the sound of the scratching of her quill against his parchment made it to look up. However, when the noises stopped, he couldn't help but give into temptation. He looked up at Hermione, who had seemingly instantly gathered her things, stood, and handed him his paper.
"These pages in Hogwarts: A History should help," she said so matter-of-factly that Ron almost forgot that his essay was on Transfiguration. She was out the door before he even had a chance to nod.
Despite the automatic urge to run straight up to his room and retrieve the copy of Hogwarts: A History Hermione had let (well, more forced than let, really) him borrow a few weeks ago, he resisted. If Hermione was going through all this trouble to stay secretive, he wasn't going to let his over-eager curiosity ruin it.
When he had stared at his paper for as long as he could bear, he packed up his things and headed to the boys' dormitory. He said a quick, "Oi'" to Dean and Seamus, who were so bored they were playing a less-than-spirited game of "count-the-planks-of-wood-on-the-ceiling," and then immediately retrieved his Hogwarts: A History.
Ron flipped quickly to each of the pages Hermione had written down for him. He was distressed (to say the least) when page after page seemed irrelevant to anything at all. He was sure that Hermione was trying to tell him something, but in all her planning, she must have overestimated his detective skills. After all, that had always been her and Harry's job. Ignoring his building frustration, he read on, not content to rest until he figured out something; anything.
He was so close to giving up hope entirely that he nearly missed the small quill mark on the third to last page on the list. Ron read over the sentence at a pace that, if he had kept it up, would have let him have the whole book finished in a matter of minutes.
In response to the slain dragon's moaning, the recently mentally-unstable Harfie Hassalender responded, "Yeah, well, you aren't the only one."
Under the words you aren't the only one Hermione had made two thin quill marks. Ron's heart leapt. Though he was fairly sure that was the only message Hermione had wanted to get across, he checked the last two pages, just in case. That was it. All that just to ensure Ron that he wasn't the only one feeling this way.
Or at least…that's what he assumed it meant. He had realized a long time ago that his mind and Hermione's didn't exactly function on the same wave length. To him, those words could mean only one thing. He could only hope that's what she meant them to mean.
Please review! It will definitely encourage me to get up the next part as quickly as I can ;)