Chapter 1 The funeral

The sun was shining brightly on this summer's day, birds were singing in the trees as the light breeze was blowing through the branches, however the atmosphere in the Burrows garden was anything but bright. There sat everybody that had ever known Fred Weasley, the red headed prankster that brought laughter to many, unless of cause you were on the receiving end of a prank but even then you eventually saw the funny side of it.

Every person he ever loved sat there in straight rows of chairs unable to hide the pain they felt by his death, some however just sat there not displaying any emotion what so ever. For today was the day of his funeral, two weeks had passed since the day that the dark lord was defeated, although this was a happy and joyous occasion for many, for the Weasley family and indeed anybody who had lost somebody in the war, this was still a somber time filled with hurt and grief.

"And so today we lay to rest the boy …. No the man who will always be remembered as a person who fought for everything that is good in this world, but mostly he fought for laughter and happiness." faint sobs could be heard throughout the garden, mostly those of Mrs. Weasley, who on the same day had gained the son she thought she had lost but had also lost the son she always had and who had never left her. "So here shall lay forever the body of Fred Weasley, beloved son, brother and friend. May the braches of this tree give shelter to anyone who is grieving his death."

At this Mrs. Weasley slowly walked up to the grave an laid down a single rose, which had been enchanted so that its petals would never wilt and would always shine with the bright colours of Gryffindor as a reminder of her sons bravery and courage. After this the rows of people slowly started to get up and pay their last respects to him. George however merely got up in a slow manner and walked over in the opposite direction to the pond at the very edge of the garden, where he sat down, knees at his chest and hands on his head, here he stayed only occasionally looking over his shoulder at his brothers mourners.

Soon it was only Harry, Ginny, Hermione and Ron who remained seated. Ginny slowly got up hand in hand with Harry and walked towards the gravestone, as Harry passed Hermione he put his hand gently on her shoulder and looked into her dark brown eyes that were now red and swollen, he said nothing instead he merely looked at her then lowered his head and continued on with Ginny.
During all of this time Ron never moved, he just sat there looking at an invisible spot in the distance. Hermione hadn't let go of his hand for the entire service.

"Ron maybe we should go and say goodbye to Fred, it's getting late, the suns setting".

He stayed silent and just shook his head. Hermione was worried about him, she knew that Fred was always Ron's favourite brother, although he would never admit it. She never pushed the subject any more instead she just stayed there with her head on Ron's shoulder. They sat this way for hours and neither said a single word to the other. Occasionally Hermione would look up into Ron's eyes, usually when she looked into his eyes she was greeted with the piercing blue of them, they reminded her of the still calmness of the sea, but now they reminded her of a grey storm, she couldn't look at them for too long.

Eventually Ron stood up, reached out his hand, the one that Hermione wasn't holding and gestured for Hermione to take it, as she reached out he let out the tiniest of smiles, which for a moment she imagined she had seen. Together they slowly walked to the Burrow hand in hand, Hermione shivered slightly because by now it was late into the 

night and the moon was out.

"Your cold aren't you?" he said in a cracked voice, as if he hadn't spoken a single word in days, this was close to the truth.

"Only a little" she said with a slight smile and look of joy on her face, she was just so happy to hear his voice, even if she could still sense to grief in his tone.

"You shouldn't have stayed with me you know you should have just gone in"

"But I wanted to stay with you I didn't want you to be alone at a time like this, I wanted to be there with you" she said sobbing slightly.

At this Ron raised his free arm and placed it over Hermione's shoulder and began to rub slightly in an effort to warm her up. Although this wasn't really enough to warm her up, her body slowly became warmer just by his touch on her bare skin. She felt like she could stay this way forever, she hadn't felt this close to Ron since they shared their first kiss two weeks ago in the corridor of the seventh floor at Hogwarts, although they were in the middle of a war she had never felt so happy or so loved in her entire life.

At this moment in time she felt that she was finally getting the boy she fell in love with back, the Ron Weasley that was awkward around her, the Ron Weasley who would protect her even if it was from something so silly as the breeze, the Ron Weasley who would make her feel so good inside. She wanted that Ron back she didn't want the Ron who never spoke, she wanted the one who wouldn't keep his mouth closed even if it was to have an argument with her, she didn't want the boy who take himself off to be alone, she wanted the one who would sit there on the couch with her, Harry and Ginny for hours. In the back of her mind she knew that it would take time to get the Ron she loved back after all she knew it would take time for him to recover from the loss of his brother. But she also hoped in the bottom of her heart that this was the beginning of Ron's recovery.

After what seemed like a life time they both reached the door of the Burrows kitchen, the lights were still on because Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were both sitting there looking into their cups of tea, as if they were looking for answers to a question that never had an answer, which Hermione had guessed was stone cold because there was no steam and neither looked as if they were considering taking a sip. They suddenly both jumped as they heard the door closed behind Ron and Hermione.

"There you are dears, I was wondering when you would be coming back, I kept a plate of food for you both, it is over here in the oven."

"thank you Mrs. Weasley, do you want me to warm yours up for you Ron?" she said whilst walking over to grab both plates from the oven, she felt that the question she had just asked was rather pointless for she had never known Ron to pass up the opportunity of a meal no matter what type it was.

"No thanks I'm not hungry" with this Hermione quickly spun around with the shock of this answer.

"Come on dear you need to eat" said Mrs. Weasley, who didn't like seeing her youngest son upset, even more than this she didn't like to see her youngest son upset and not eating. She knew that something was desperately wrong with her son at this point

"Nah mum, its fine I'm just not hungry" he then turned around and left the kitchen door to go back out into the garden.

Hermione quickly noticed this and went to follow him but before she could the door closed and Mrs. Weasley had grabbed her gently be the arm.

"Hermione dear, if you love my son you need to understand that the men in this family cannot be pushed into things, they will come around in the own time, I'm sure of that, I'm not too sure how long it will take but when he does eventually come around you need to be there for him." she said in a sweet yet sympathetic tone

"Thank you for the advice Mrs. Weasley" said a defeated Hermione, after all she knew Mrs. Weasley was correct after all who knew the Weasley men better than her.

Hermione then made her way through the kitchen leaving Mr. and Mrs. Weasley to stupor over their cold tea. She passed the living room and saw out the corner of her eye a sight she so longed for, Harry and Ginny were asleep in each other's arms, she guessed that Harry must have been comforting Ginny as she cried and eventually without knowing it they had both fallen asleep hugging each other.
Hermione would have given anything for it to be her and Ron asleep on the couch, instead he felt it was better to do it alone, something she expected of Harry but not from Ron, she so badly wanted him to open up to her. She gave the peaceful couple one more glance over her shoulder and continued across the room upstairs in to Ron's room.