This is just something I've been thinking about. Let me know what you think.

Disclaimer: Neither Harry Potter or any of the characters featured are my own, they belong to the great J K Rowling.

She never really considered that she wouldn't die. Why else would she throw herself into battle with such ferocity? Why else would she send her parents away? Why else would she kiss him?

It was so spur of the moment. This is it, she had thought, I either die alone or I die and I let everyone think I was happy. So, she did it. She kissed him. Because that's what everyone expected; that they would get together, that it would all be okay and they would grow old, have a few kids and live the rest of their lives just her and him.

The thing is no-one had actually ever asked her, or him for that matter, if that's really what they wanted. And after so many years of being told one thing, eventually it becomes some twisted form of their reality. But the thing is with forced realities is that they never actually work.

She didn't love him. And he didn't love her.

It was quite simple really.

"So…" Ron finally spoke.

They were sat in the common room. Harry had just left them alone, his four poster bed calling to him.

"So," Hermione replied, "What do we do now?".

The truth is neither knew what to expect. Neither had expected to survive. To them they were living now in some alternative future that no one had dared to even consider.

"We…" Ron trailed off, "I suppose we live. We move on with everything, buy houses, get jobs really it's going to be pretty boring in comparison." He finished with a chuckle.

Hermione laughed, and they fell into a comfortable silence.

"Hermione… about what happened in the room of requirement…" Ron nervously pulled at a loose thread on the couch seemingly determined to look anywhere else but at the witch sat opposite him. "Can I ask you something?".

Hermione gave a short nod of her head praying silently he was feeling the same was she was.

"Did you feel anything?" He finally looked up as if needing to see the answer in her eyes.

"I," Hermione faltered, she closed her eyes tightly trying not to well up. She was so emotional today, lack of sleep and a billion emotions running around her head was well and truly catching up. She opened her mouth ready to say the words that she prayed wouldn't break her best friends heart.

But Ron beat her to it. "I love you Hermione". She felt as if she couldn't breathe, she looked at him through terrified eyes as he continued, "but I'm not in love with you. I'm sorry Hermione I just don't, I've tried really, I have but I just don't, I felt nothing when you kissed me, it was nice yeah kudos for that you're like a solid 10 out of 10 there, but you know those fireworks you're supposed to feel, that lightning bolt moment it just didn't happen. I'm sorry I really am, please don't cry Hermione please!" He looked desperately at the shaking girl. She had her hands over her face and he remembered for a minute that this was the girl who, in sheer anger had once set a pack of very angry yellow birds on him.

Just as he was considering running for his life for what would have been the millionth time that day she put her hands down and let out the most unexpected sound. She was laughing. Not just any laugh, a full-blown belly laugh, one he hadn't seen her do in longest time. He smiled slightly before faltering, wondering if she had gone mad, and then she spoke.

"Thank Merlin!" She smiled still barely containing her laughter, "You had me worried there! I thought you were going to announce your undying love to me and honestly Ron I have no idea what I would've done". She had happy tears streaming down her face now making obvious marks in the grime that covered it, "Honestly Ron I love you too, you're my best friend. I'm sorry for kissing you, I just wanted to know what it would feel like, to kiss you I mean, and it turns out it felt wrong, like I was kissing my brother or cousin or something!".

"One question," Ron began smiling nervously, "Who's going to tell my mum that you're not going to be her daughter in law?" Winking at Hermione who began to laugh at the image of the Weasley matriarchs face when she found out the wedding she had been (not so secretly) preparing for was not going to happen and before long both were reduced to floods of tears, laughing hysterically. To anyone watching they may have appeared mad, but truth be told they both needed a good laugh. Eventually they began to settle down both smiling happily as if for the first time realising that things may finally begin to be normal again, now the war was over.

Ron looked over at his bushy haired friend and smiled. He couldn't believe they'd made it through. His heart pained for those who had been lost, he knew eventually he would have to go down and accept that his family were one short but for now he was content to be here with his best friend, all the while knowing that Harry was upstairs happily sleeping without the fear that the most dangerous wizard in the world may be about to kill them all.

BANG

The portrait flew open. Hermione and Ron leapt to their feet wands pointing at the new-comer.

Bill stood with his eyes wide and arms raised above his head looking slightly alarmed and the image of his not so little brother and his friend pointing their wands at him, both clearly ready to fight. He wondered to himself what the teens before him had been through to warrant the need for such quick reflexes. He then remembered why he had ran so quickly from the great hall to retrieve his brother.

"Fred's alive".