Sorry, I'd like to change something from the summary that's oh so obvious...

This takes place in the Sixth Book.

Just to let you guys know...

~*~

Chapter Three

Sudden Sever

Ron sat on the edge of the cold bed early that night.

He had had a full day of "welcome homes" and homemade food that he hadn't seen in months. No matter how noisy and how loud it could get in his house, especially around Christmas, he still loved to be there. Having to spend nine months away from where he grew up for eleven years was...nice, but coming home did have its advantages and a full stomach was worth the torment his brothers were reeking.

Harry had taken up some of his time too. He knew that Harry liked to come back to the burrow when things were starting to get bad. Ron also knew that no matter how many times Harry came over to his house he was still completely struck by how things worked around there.

When he wasn't surrounded by everyone else he was able to slip out back and make his way toward the pond and sat under the large oak tree there after changing into a pair of old sweats and sweater. He was able to sit there for about an hour thinking about the last summer before someone had came out to find him.

He looked out over the water as he thought about that time he was finally able to drag Hermione out of the house to come out here with him for an afternoon and swim.

He could remember that the whole day had been filled with the annoying pestering of Fred and George until he was able to sneak away by using Ginny as a diversion. His mom was busy telling his dad something so he had snuck Hermione out of the house and took her out back.

They had walked for a while, talking about what was going to happen with Harry and the exams coming up. The fact that Fred and George were gone a lot recently had been brought up too. They each had their own suspicions.

Then they had reached the lake where Hermione had immediately sat down and brought out a book Ron hadn't even seen her carry with her. He had looked behind him at the blistering sun that was slowly falling into the fields and at the water only feet away. Then he looked back at Hermione and rolled his eyes.

Quickly he had found his way behind the tree and stripped down to his shorts. Then he remembered thinking to himself for nearly five minutes for the right incantation until he was finally able to mutter a spell and become satisfied with was he was given.

He looked around the trunk of the tree at Hermione who was still fully in her book. He started at a run and jumped into the pond, splashing Hermione and her book, unknowingly. When he came up for air he was laughing.

"It's not funny, Ron. You got my book wet!" Hermione shook out her book and set it to the side, and kept the pages open.

"Come on, Hermione. We've only got a few more days until all hell breaks loose. Might as well enjoy 'em!"

Hermione glanced from Ron toward the house where both of them had heard the miraculous sound of nothing. Only silence.

She shook her head and stepped behind the tree and out of Ron's sight. Then only a minute later had she stepped back out and walked toward the waters edge.

Ron remembered staring at her until she had said something. He had never seen her in anything less that her everyday robes and clothes. Now, she had a two piece bathing suit on that didn't cover nearly as much as he supposed her undergarments did. Over the years he hadn't noticed how she had filled out until that moment. Or how much baby fat that she had lost, or how much her hips had widened and her legs had grown.

Then she had made her way through the weeds and walked up to the waters edge to stick her toe in. "Ron, it's cold."

"Not nearly as cold as it usually is. C'mon it's hot. This'll feel good. Trust me."

Hermione bit her lip and stared into the water long enough so that she didn't see Ron take a hand and grab her, dragging her into the water.

She shrieked as she came to the surface. "Ron! It's freezing!"

He laughed and shrugged. "Forgot to tell ya. The further you go down the colder the water is."

She growled and pulled her hair away from her face, not succeeding and instead causing her hair to fan out into a spiderweb form across her face. "Gah! Ronald Weasley! You... are... so...in...furiating!"

She started to make her way out of the water until an arm came around her and pulled her back in.

"You're already wet. It'll be colder in the air."

He had held her longer than he should have as she struggled in his grasp. When he had finally let go, it was too late and she had turned to face in in with a serious expression.

He hadn't even been remembered the sight of her until last night when he had seen her in that white tank top and short shorts.

When she showed up, she was wearing the something along the lines of the other night with short pajama shorts and a black wife beater on.

The shook herself in front of him to get rid of the heaviness of the dreamworld she was in and then spun around to look at him.

He waved. "So, how's Paris so far?"

Hermione fell onto the bed and dragged a pillow underneath her head. "Exhausting. We've only been there for one day and already my feet are screaming at me." She clenched her toes. "We haven't even really gone anywhere yet either." She rolled her head over to look at Ron. "How's the Burrow?"

He turned toward her. "The same. Mum's given orders. The majority of my time was taken by peeling sprouts by hand." Ron glared at nothing. "Fred and George could have just used their wands, but no they couldn't help us. They had to go out and pick up some girls without us."

Hermione raised an eyebrow. "You already have a girlfriend, Ron."

Ron shrugged sheepishly. "Not like I'm not allowed to look. Just means I can't do-or say- anything to 'em."

"Wow. Your knowledge of the general rules as acting boyfriend amazes me." Sarcasm covered her voice.

"Apparently I've been doin' well, since Lavender hasn't left me yet."

"Are you expecting her to?"

"Don' know." He stretched his legs out in front of him. "Wonderin' what she thinks nowadays."

"What do you mean?"

Ron leaned back and closed his eyes. "Well, before she used to talk about...things...and then it all just stopped. Now she doesn't really say anything. It's all about..."

Ron didn't have to look at Hermione to feel her tense up.

Instead of getting hounded, though, thankfully she cleared her throat. "Well at least you're able to get away from her for a little while."

Her cracked an eye open. "Hermione, I'm surprised at you. If Id've said that you'd call me, what, an insensitive jerk?"

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Please, you know what I think about Lavender."

He played with the hem of his shirt. "So...did you send us your gift? We did last night. Thought it might be better when the teleports aren't all backed up."

Hermione nodded. "Did just before I fell asleep."

"And?'

"And?"

"What'd you get me?"

Hermoine shook her head. "Not until Christmas morning."

Ron rolled over to look at her. "What's the point of not tellin' me. How do you even know if I'm real or not? Unless you've sussed that out then?"

"I haven't yet."

"Then, let's tell. Harry and I've kinda combined our efforts to get yours, we think you'll like it more now that you've got-"

Hermione covered his mouth with her hand. "I don't want to know, Ron. In the smallest chance that you are real, I don't want to get rid of the excitement of opening the gift."

The conversation continued peacefully as the nights did. They told each other what they did each day in every detail they could to pass the time. For a time they filled the awkward moments where somehow the fact of whether this was real or not, or Lavender's part in Ron's life would sneak into the conversation, with laughter.

Ron did what he could on Christmas night to steer away from what Lavender had gotten him, even though every time the conversation started to quiet Hermione would ask about it.

Eventually Christmas came and passed at ease.

Percy's visit with the family hadn't gone as smoothly as it could have and with that had come the burst of tears from his mom every now and then. When things were brought up about Christmas or when they were reminiscing on the old days his mother would have to leave the room even though everyone could still hear her.

Nothing had changed between Ron and Hermione except that Ron started to notice that every night he had the tendency to fall asleep only a little earlier than usual and Hermione would follow his lead. There were a few times when he'd arrive in dormant room only to find Hermione asleep on the bed, evident that she had been there a while.

They had also found out things about the room. If they wanted things bad enough or thought about them hard enough, they'd turn up somewhere around the room. The first time it had happened Ron had been desperate for them to do something. He had thought about something they could do in a room with just the two of them and chess was the only thing that could come to mind...that they were both willing to do. That's when he got the sudden urge to look in the closet where he found the chess set. From there, he was able to expand what he thought of thinking up.

When it had finally been time to leave for Hogwarts, Ron had been relieved. With how well things were going between he and Hermione, he imagined that once they got back, they'd be on better terms. Neither of them had brought up the subject of how they were going to act once they got back, but Ron had hopes.

Until he had been completely ignored when Ron had tried to tell her about what had happened with the Minister at Christmas. It hadn't helped that the moment Lavender had spotted him she'd completely tackled him and claimed his lips right there on the spot. Only a few feet next to Hermione.

He was dreading falling asleep that night, sure he had a pickle to settle with her, but he knew that there was only going to be yelling. Most coming from to opposite end that didn't agree with him.

He was the one there early that night. Hermione hadn't shown up for nearly two hours after he did. Apparently she had been dreading it more than he had.

As soon as she appeared she had her hand raised and she was pointing at him in fury. "Don't say anything, Ron."

Ron held up his hands, staying on his seat on the chair and he kicked his feet up to have them up on the bed. "I didn't say anything."

"Well, it's not like you weren't going to."

"Well, of course I was going to say something. After you completely ignored me like that? Was I suppose to take that lying down?"

She glared. "Is something the matter with you? I knew that you were going to let Lavender jump all over you like that! I just knew it! And after all that time of you complaining about her. That's why I didn't talk to you, because I knew nothing had changed."

Ron took his face into his hands. "I don't get it." He motioned toward some invisible things as he stared at nothing. "You and me are gettin' along fine. You want me to break up with Lavender. Then you yell at me for complaining about her. You act like everything's alright. Then you don't talk to me when we see each other. What am I suppose to do, Hermione? Tell me, because obviously I don't know."

Hermione's arms crossed over her chest. "Well, obviously you don't get it. You shouldn't have to ask."

"Well, then lets just leave it at 'Ron's a git who doesn't get anything'. Will that make you feel better?"

Hermione shook her head and turned from him, chuckling. "No. That won't do anything except make you look completely idiotic. Which by the way...not telling me about the Ministers visit isn't making you look like the real Ron to me. If I were you, Id've told me as soon as I had seen me that night."

Ron sighed. "I don't know why I didn' tell you. It didn't come into the conversation. Remember? We were too busy playing chess and you hittin' me with those chips."

"Because it would have been so hard to say 'Oh, and by they way, the minister stopped by and started to interrogate Harry today'." She sat down on the bed. "I've been looking everywhere. I can't find anything that has to do with enchanting peoples dreams." She seemed to be talking to herself, as she didn't wait from Ron to respond.

"The only thing remotely close I've come to think of is the incident that happened with Voldemort and Harry last year. And there's no connection like that between you and I. So, unless either of us has learned Occumency, then at the moment I've found no solution to what's been happening. I don't think that anyone else would have gone through the trouble to learn it just to do this either, or, to be frank, is capable of it."

Ron hadn't caught half of what she had said. He did know that she hadn't found anything out though and from the tone in her voice, it meant that she was frustrated and stumped. "We'll figure this out. We always do. It might not be when we wanna know, but it'll come around."

Hermione rounded on him. Her face was furious and her knuckles were white from the tension. She was practically shaking and her face had started to turn red. Then it was gone and Hermione took in a deep breath, getting to her feet and pacing around the room.

"It's not all that bad. I mean you could be stuck in a room with Malfoy." He paused. "I could be stuck in a room with Malfoy."

Ron grinned to himself when he heard Hermione chuckle, even though she tried to hide it from him.

"Knew I could get you to laugh."

She glanced at him. "I'm still mad at you."

"Didn't expect you not to."

She nodded stiffly and continued to pace.

There was silence until she acknowledged him again.

"I was ten."

Ron raised a brow at her. "Ten? What's that have to do with anything?"

"You asked me when I had had my first kiss. It was a week before Hogwarts."

Ron thought about it and blinked. He had asked. He hadn't exactly phrased it like that though.

"What are you talking about?"

"Ginny. She's gettin' on my last nerves. If I have to hear her ask about Harry one more time, I swear I'll curse off my ears. I know how to now 'cuz George tried to do it the other day."

"Oh please, Ron. She likes Harry. A lot. And it's not like Harry's been making any attempt to get her attention. She'll get over it eventually."

"Well...I don't like the fact that my baby sister has to like him. Of all people it had to be Harry. I can only imagine what it would be like if they got together. Wouldn't be able to be in a room alone with them. Ever."

"They wouldn't be bad. Besides, just because you haven't any tolerance for that sort of relationship, doesn't mean Ginny doesn't. Even if she is younger than you. Girls tend to mature faster than boys."

"Well...it's not like you've had any of that sort of experience...have you? I mean not like it matters, but I've never seen you out with a guy before." He huffed. "Besides Victor. Unless more happened in the library than we thought."

"What does that have to do with anything? Look Ginny is going to do what she wants with or without your say. That's it."

Ron huffed again and turned away from her to look across the water and the sun starting to set.

Hermione cleared her throat. "The first time I kissed a boy was when I was ten and it was only a week before we boarded the Hogwarts express." She stopped pacing to look at one of the bad paintings on the wall. "It was a boy that I had liked for a while, but had never even spoken to me before. He told me that now that I was leaving...it didn't matter what happened. So, he kissed me. Turns out that he liked me too, but because I was such an...outcast... he didn't bother to tell me."

Ron licked his lips and stared at her back.

"Pathetic isn't it? My first one was with such a prude like that. Only when it was too late did he do anything."

Ron chuckled to himself and shook his head, pondering on whether or not he should tell her the truth too.

"Na." He started slowly. 'That's not all that bad." He sighed deeply as his heart began to race. "My first kiss...was only a few months ago."

Hermione stopped and turned toward him with wide eyes. "Lavender?"

Ron nodded stiffly once. "Lavender."

Hermione stared at him in disbelief until something in her mind shook her loose. This was Ron. She couldn't help it and she broke into hysterics.

Ron glared at her. "It isn't funny. I didn't laugh at yours."

He watched her as she clutched at her stomach until he couldn't help it. Finally, his face broke and he started to laugh along with her.

Ron knew that he had only delayed the argument, but that was okay. Things were going to be okay. For now.

~*~

Yes...I think I am draggin this out...but is it really a bad thing?

If you're wonderin' why things didn't go smoothly with Percy at Christmas, then if you read my Deleted Scenes, comin' up is that little encounter while Harry's with the Minister.

Haven't finished with the forth chapter yet, unlike I have for the other ones.

Lata's, and Love Yalls!