Summary: Shortly after the war, Ron and Hermione are dating. Things are going back to normal and her parents have come back from Australia...after missing out on the whole war. Yes, things are perfectly normal. Now she just has to convince them that Ron is the right wizard for her. He's her knight with freckles and Godric Gryffindor's sword. Thanks!

**A Knight with Freckles**

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1.

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"You'll do fine." She kisses him on the top of the head, as if he is some child she is raising and not her boyfriend she is currently grooming to meet some obscure muggle standard.

He's sitting down on their bed, his lightly freckled hands folded together, as she does up the muggle tie she insisted he wear.

He's a wizard; he's never done a tie up (let alone without magic), but he watches her nimble hands do up the tie, in wonder, and he is reminded that she is from a muggle background. The pearl beige of her dress clashes and rubs against the black tux and white shirt she made him wear. He has to admit, he looks good in the suit.

"You'll do fine," she says again, more firmly. "My parents will love you."

"Hermione," he says with mild irritation because he's starting to feel like some turkey she's dressing up for Thanksgiving dinner. "I've already met your parents, several times. I'm not nervous."

She plays with a strand of his light red hair, curling it around her thumb. "I know. You just seem a bit off kilter about the whole thing—"

"Hermione, I helped you and Harry win a bloody war and save the world from destruction, I think I can handle your parents."

He crosses his arms, and she leans in towards his lap over the bed, to kiss him again.

"Make sure you mention that, several times. Drop it into the conversation. For some reason, they still think that Harry was the one that did everything. It's kind of irritating. As much as I love Harry, Merlin knows, Harry couldn't have done it without us..." she says as she twists her own hair back up into a ponytail. "...let alone find the Deathly Hallows."

"Hermione," he asks as he watches her fix the pin holding her hair up. "D'you think your parents would have preferred you date Harry?"

"Harry?" she laughs as if the idea is offensive. "Besides feeling like Harry is a brother to me, I thought we got over that insecurity in the forest when you destroyed Tom Riddle's locket?"

Ron grins ever so slightly. "You know that would be a good tale to bring up. Destroying that locket was probably of the of the best things I ever did."

Hermione presses her fingers along his lower lip and jaw, tracing its firm, masculine design. "I actually thought kissing me after the final battle was your most brilliant moment."

"That too." Ron stretches up from the bed and cradles her face in his hands. "I have lots of brilliant moments."

"Let's hope this is one of them." She fixes him with a stern look. "Like that time you won the Quidditch game when you thought you took Felix Felicis but you actually did it all on your own, a lot of things are psychological."

"I wish I could have a drop of Felix Felicis right now." He strokes the edge of her neck behind her ear, where it meets her hairline. A spot he knows she loves him to stroke.

She smirks. "We could always pretend again that I gave you a cupful."

He took her lips in his own; her lips were all the Felix Felicis he needed.

"Nah, I'm fine." He says before stealing one more kiss from her fair fountain of good luck. Hermione did bring him good things after all.

"Let's go, then," Hermione tugs him towards the Floo network.

~o~

2.

The tension in the room is awkward and so thick you can slice it with a knife.

"So when did you two...well?"

"We were always friends, mother."

"Of course." Her dad smiles at Ron like's some dental patient that just sat in his chair and was about to get anesthesia. "We met your mother and father many times over the year at Diagon Alley and the train station. A good man, Mr. Weasley."

"You have many siblings," Mrs. Granger adds awkwardly.

"He has less now," after the war, Hermione is tempted to add. But she decides not to embarrass her own mother further. She has no idea Ron is still grieving Fred Weasley's death.

Underneath the table, her hands are intertwined with his for moral support.

"Your sister seemed like a bright thing the last time we saw her, how is she?" her father asks cheerfully.

"Currently engaged to Harry Potter, sir."

"Oh, remarkable. She must be happy?"

"Yes, she is," Ron says, but he does not return his smile.

Mr. Granger still has no idea that he lost one of his brothers just a few weeks ago either, so he chuckles. "Don't be glum about it Ron. It's said if you can marry a friend's sister, you're rich, son."

Mrs. Granger brushes a curl from off her face; she has similarly frizzy hair to her daughter. "So while..we were in Australia...you, Ron and Harry, you said, were in some tent?" She coughs the word uncomfortably as if expecting her daughter was having some kind of giant sleepover during that time and being frivolous, whilst the parents were conveniently under a spell on the other side of the world.

"We were hunting horcruxes," Hermione corrects. "We were also being hunted by Voldemort and his followers, so the forest was the only safe place to be."

Mrs. Granger's eyes look watery. "What are horcruxes again?"

Ron smirks. "They were parts of Voldemort's soul he tried to store away in different objects for his own immortality...I suppose it doesn't matter now. We had to destroy them and they're gone."

Hermione smiles proudly at Ron and stares at her parents. "Ron helped destroy two of them. Using Godric Gryffindor's sword."

"Oh, remarkable," Mr. Granger says, his mouth ajar, and yet it is clear that he doesn't understand the full implications of what they had to go through to destroy Tom Riddle's little trinkets.

"Using a sword?"

"It was a magical sword. Thousands of years old."

"Of course."

Sometimes she gets the feeling that her parents don't believe her and she is telling them tall tales of a magical war that never happened. Even though the war is over scarcely 3 weeks ago and she still has some of the scars and bruises on her body and mind.

"A bit like Arthur and the sword in the lake then?"

"Actually, a lot like that father," Hermione says sarcastically. Because she knows that a part of the magical world will never be real to them and belongs in the same myth-lands as King Arthur and his knights. They don't understand, and she wants to be angry at them, but, of course, they don't understand. It's her own fault too, she sent them away without their consent to Australia for the whole duration of the war. They never got to see her struggle, or in fear of her life.

She gets the feeling that since she played with their memories, they don't really trust her anymore. Perhaps they are skeptical this is a tall-tale too; except she has a piece, a living proof of the war, right beside her, in Ronald Weasley. Her trusted steed, her knight with no armour except a black-suit-and-tie and a smile ready to please her parents.

He's real and he's right beside her. The wizard that fought the war alongside her. Though her parents perhaps would prefer Harry Potter, because they've always known he's famous and somehow because they saw his name in many books, they are more willing to believe him.

"How is Harry?" her mother asks, as if right on cue to shove their preference for Harry and revive Ron's insecurity.

"He's recovering," Ron says politely, but Hermione tugs at his arm.

"Mum?"

"Yes, dear?"

"I love Ron."

The balls drops and the room is absolutely quiet for a moment. Except for Ron's smirk, and it is worth the sudden proclamation to see that. He'd been so glum a moment ago when her parents insisted on talking about Harry.

But then her father is reaching over the table towards the lanky young man with red hair and shakes his hand. "Congratulations, Ron."

Hermione watches in amusement as her father shakes her boyfriend's hand. Her mother looks less comfortable.

"Of course, congratulations, dear." Her mother quips a bit unhappily and barely looks at Ron. "Does anybody want a piece of cake?"

"Cake?" Mr Granger sniffs at the suggestion like it is sub-par. "I think this celebration is more due for champagne!"

"This is a bit sudden dear, though, don't you think? We've barely met him.."

"Mum, we've known each other almost ten years."

"Ten years?" her father chirps. "Good god, that is a long time you had to endure my little Mione!"

She swats her mischievous father. "It wasn't like that!"

"Yes, we didn't actually start dating until a month ago, sir," Ron says quickly. because there are some creepy connotations with the idea that they started dating at 11 years old.

"So what took you so long, Ron, to realize you liked my daughter?" Mr. Granger asks with genuine confusion. "It didn't take me more than a few minutes after meeting Mrs. Granger to realize I was in love with her."

Ron's ears tinge slightly red. "I didn't know it at the time." His green eyes stare at her across the table and their eyes lock and she understands why. "Guess I was too young and blind to see. I wish I had seen it sooner now."

Hermione feels her heart die a little inside at his admission.

Her father pats Ron on the back again. "Of course, you did lad. Well, bring out the bottle of champagne."

Her mother trots off to get the bottle, less happily, but when she returns she whispers in Hermione's eyes. "I think it's actually sweet dear."

"He is very sweet," Hermione agrees. And a prat, an obnoxious jerk, jealous, insecure and silly. But when he wants to be, Ron is also very sweet. "I didn't know it at the time either."

~o~

[Prompts I was given: "I opened my eyes to a world I never knew and I know I found it all with you"] and Hamilton Prompts 9. A WINTER'S BALL: [lyric] "If you can marry a sister, you're rich, son." [scenario] Write about a party. [character] Ron Weasley [object] bouquet. I didn't use the bouquet but in a sequel chapter I might try to incorporate the bouquet of flowers.]