Easter Break was just around the corner, and it was not a minute too soon. Hermione was happy to have a time turner free week, as well as have her two best friends back in her life. She needed them now more than ever, as the pressures of her class schedule was starting to wear on her in little ways she had not even considered. She knew she hadn't actually aged all that much, really, but somehow felt old and creaky anymore. Next to the Gryffindor fireplace she was longing for a nap, but something warmed her through far better than any fireplace could.

Ron had just walked into the Common Room and made a beeline for her, a lopsided grin gracing his freckled face.

"Mum sent Easter gifts. You got one too," Ron said, handing her a wrapped package, the paper covered in little finely drawn quills.

"That was nice of her," Hermione smiled, ripping into the paper much more delicately than Ron. Inside was a large chocolate egg with a hand-piped orange cat on it. She would have pointed out out the cute cat, but she had been avoiding mentioning Crookshanks in front of Ron the past few weeks. She was so happy for them to be on speaking terms again she was willing to never speak of her cat again.

"Well?" said Ron through a mouthful of chocolate. "You should eat some. You've had a tough week,"

It had indeed been a tough week. She'd slept through a Charms class, slapped Draco Malfoy, and even quit Divination. Ron had said he thought she was cracking up, and she wasn't so sure he was wrong. He happily tucked in to his Easter egg before he took out a great deal of paperwork.

"What are you studying? Perhaps we can work on it together," Hermione offered, breaking off a small piece of chocolate to nibble.

"It's Buckbeak's appeal. Wanted to send it off before the break," he said, carefully writing something on it. She'd never seen his penmanship look more legible. Something about this made a tiny thrill rush through her.

"Yes. That's a very good idea," she said, feeling herself flush.

"You doing alright?" Ron asked, looking up from his neat papers.

"Oh yes! Yes I'm fine!" she said, leaning over to look through her book bag. Cheering charms. That's what she needed to study. They spent the next twenty or so minutes in silence as each saw to their own tasks. She didn't mind the quiet when it was her and Ron together. Harry was away at Defense lessons with Lupin, leaving just the two of them together. The companionship Ron provided was always welcome, though. Any time he was near her she felt just a little more capable, a little lighter, and a little more calm. It was no wonder she had been falling apart so much this year. She'd had to spend months out of his, and Harry's, company. If it weren't for that, she was certain her very busy schedule would not have made her so overwrought. Harry was nice to hang out with as well, but he just wasn't quite the same as Ron.

"And… I think that's done then," Ron beamed looking down at his work. "Hermione, you mind looking this over?"

"Of course not," she smiled back. She read page after page where Ron cited prior cases similar to Buckbeak's, cited formal texts on Hippogriff behavior, and had many witness statements regarding Buckbeak's behavior both before and after Malfoy's run-in with the beast. It was more meticulously done than any paper of his she'd ever read.

"This is very good, Ron."

"You think so?" he hopefully asked.

"I know so. If this doesn't get Buckbeak cleared it's due to pure malice on the part of the committee."

"Good! I'll ask Harry if I can borrow Hedwig after his lesson with Lupin," said Ron, leaning back in his seat and putting his hands behind his head. "Don't have any work due til after break! Mind you, my hand's so cramped from writing the appeal, I don't think I could do homework right now if I tried."

"Would you mind showing me your notes from Charms?" Hermione asked. She'd missed Cheering Charms and knew they would show up on the exam. Ron quickly got them out, and she noticed they were a bit more detailed than usual. He'd done the same thing when she'd been in the hospital wing the prior year. His notes were inconsistent in quality until either she or Harry were absent- then suddenly his notes would look almost as detailed and neat as her own. They'd always had the odd doodle in them, so in some ways she preferred his notes. She found the funny little sketches to remind him of certain movements of the wand, and little notes Harry highly entertaining. She never told Ron this, of course, otherwise he'd never stay on task in class.

"Thank you."

Ron took a large bite of his chocolate egg and seemed to be preoccupied.

"Y'know, this is the third Easter Harry's been here, and that pissant 'family' or his never sends him so much as one letter," he said, wadding up the wrapping paper from his egg and tossing it into the fire.

"Well… That's not unusual for them, is it? They don't give him real presents for birthdays or Christmas either."

"Not even one bleeding letter! It's ridiculous!" said Ron crossing his arms. "I wish I had an owl of my own so I could write him more often this summer."

"Maybe we could try calling again?"

"After what happened last time on that fellytone thing? I flummoxed it up so badly, I think that fat uncle of his would have a coronary if I called. Worse, he might just put bars on Harry's windows again."

"Oh don't!" Hermione cried out, not wanting to even think about how horrid Harry relatives were. "Those people are such monsters. It's a miracle Harry turned out as well as he did."

"Yeah…" Ron said looking down. "Well, I'm hoping to get Harry out of there early this summer, if I can."

Hermione smiled. She loved how quick Ron was to find ways to help Harry out. Then a little thought began to form at the back of her mind.

"Ron… I was thinking. Maybe we can practice phone calls this summer," said Hermione, eyes suddenly bright.

"Like I said, I don't want to get Harry in trouble. That Uncle of his–"

"No no. Not You and Harry. You and me." Before Ron could put forth any reservations, Hermione quickly went on. "It would be purely for getting better at calling people! Who knows, maybe Harry's relatives will let him have a phone call. Either way, it would be good to practice. Who knows if you'll need to call someone in the future."

Yes. It was purely for practical reasons she wanted to practice phone call with Ron, and not at all because she would love to hear his voice over the summer.

"You don't need to sell me on it," Ron said with a laugh. "I can walk down to the village again. It'll give me a chance to get out of the house without my whole family breathing down my neck."

Hermione beamed, somehow looking forward to a phone call that was months away, even though Ron was right beside her.

Ron kicked a pebble along the dirt road as he made his way to the village of Ottery St. Catchpole. He'd been down the road hundreds of times at this point, but had never felt quite so nervous before. He wasn't sure why he was so filled with nerves. It was just a phone call, and it was just to Hermione. He talked with her all the time at school, and wrote to her more often than he cared to admit to his family. When he'd told his mum he needed to go to the village to call Hermione his mum had insisted he bring a basket to pick up a few things from the farmer's market around the corner. He was glad to have this as an excuse to give his siblings. He knew they would tease him for calling Hermione, just as they teased him for everything else.

Ron spotted the family pub just down the street and popped in, wiping his sweaty hands on his jeans.

"Excuse me," Ron said, giving a small wave to the same bartender who had been there last summer. "Is your felltone- I mean— er— telephone available for a call?"

"We 'ave the same phone booths as last time you was 'ere," the older heavyset man said, giving a nod to the set of phone booths at the far end of the pub. They each had old-timey phones in them, according to his father, making it a bit of a tourist attraction. And they were free, which made them a lot more attractive to Ron. Ron had been screaming into one of the phones last summer, so it was no surprise that the gruff man remembered him so sourly.

"They's for payin' customers only, though."

"Right…" Ron said, sorting through the cash his mother had given him. "You have anything cold to drink? Butterbeer?"

Ron winced the moment it was out of his mouth. Butterbeer was a wizard drink! Why was he so bad at this? The barkeep's red face scrunched up into a frown.

"Think you're funny? I ain't givin' you no beer."

"Er, whatever's cheapest then," Ron said with a shrug. The man rolled his eyes and took out a long snake-like tube and pressed a button, filling a glass with bubbly water the color of coffee. Ron thanked him and shakily doled out change. The man seemed impatient and Ron nearly dropped all the wonky coins he was so nervous. He managed alright, though, and finally made his way to the line of phones, fizzy drink in hand. He fumblingly got Hermione's letter out of his jeans pocket and scanned it for her phone number. Dialing was an arduous process, and the phone's dial tone was obnoxious to listen to as he turned the dial for each number. Her number had three nines in it, making it even worse to dial on the wheel of numbers. And then it was ringing. He took a nervous sip of the drink and nearly gagged at the overly sweet taste of it.

"Hello?" said a voice clear as a bell. Hermione!

"Pshlab," Ron let out with a gagging noise.

"Hello?"

"Sorry!" Ron said rather loudly into the phone, before forcing himself to lower his voice. "Sorry. Had to buy one of those muggle drinks to get to use their phone. It tastes awful!"

"Ron! I'm so glad you called!"

He could practically hear her smile over the phone. Even with the bartender glaring at him, and the prospect of the twins teasing him about the phone call, he couldn't help but smile back.

Hermione had been worried about their first phone call, as Ron's previous experience with phones had gone so poorly, but it had gone very smoothly. She had given him fair warning not to yell into the set, and conversation seemed to flow just as easily over the phone as it had back at Hogwarts. He didn't need to practice after the first call, but somehow Hermione didn't want their phone calls to end. Ron didn't seem to want their phone calls to stop either. A few times a week Ron would hoof it to the village to call Hermione, and tired of the teases from her parents as she tied up the downstairs line, she took the phone from the guest room to her own bedroom. Her mother caught her as she was carrying the phone, its long springy cord trailing behind her on the floor.

"Where are you taking the guest phone?"

Hermione blushed.

"I didn't want to make my phone calls to Ron downstairs. There's always noise of some sort, and it's quieter up here, but more comfortable in my own room. I didn't need a phone until now, and it's not like any guests are using it, so I decided to borrow it for the summer. If that's ok, of course. Sorry I didn't ask," Hermione babbled.

"You're at the age where you're having long calls with boys. Oh dear!" her mother teased, making Hermione blush harder.

"It's not boys. It's only Ron," Hermione muttered.

"You write him so often, I didn't think you'd keep up with the phone calls too," her mother noted.

Hermione really could have stopped writing Ron, but there was something fun about doing both, then talking about the letter they received. She thought they might have nothing to talk about, but they actually had loads. Each phone call was getting longer and longer. That was why she wanted to do it in privacy as well. Her father would look at her, point at his watch, then continue to walk by.

"Well… It's ok for me to take the phone, then?" Hermione hopefully asked.

"Of course. Just do it when your father's out. We still only have one line, and he gets nervous when the line is tied up for too long."

Hermione beamed, and ran the rest of the way to her room. She could have her phone calls with Ron and have them in private now.

Their next phone call was just as pleasant as ever, and Hermione found it so much more relaxing to lay on her bed as she talked to Ron. She could just imagine him there beside her as they talked, and a rush of girlish giggles making their way out of her mouth at the thought.

"You know what, at first I thought they'd be barmy, but I actually like telephone calls!" Ron said into the receiver. "I just wish I could see you, though. That makes Floo calling a bit better."

Hermione beamed and wrapped the cord around her finger.

"Oh! We could see each other! Let's practice Floo calls! I've never done one, and I don't want to be the only witch at Hogwarts who doesn't know how."

Ron fell silent a moment.

"Well… The telephone calls are private…" he said, suddenly not sounding very enthusiastic. Was she that bad to look at? Or did he not want anyone to know they were talking?

"Oh… Well, if you don't want to."

"Oh I do! I really do," Ron said fervently. "It's just… They would be in the middle of our house, and I it's so mad around here we'd barely be able to talk."

"I understand," Hermione said, unable to completely hide her disappointment.

"You know what? Let's do it. But it'll have to be after everyone goes to bed, otherwise it'll be nothing but the twins and everyone else butting in. We can even do it tonight, if you like. You're already connected to the Floo network for when you come here next week. I can send Pig with some powder and you can try your hand at it. Around eleven?"

"Ok then! It's a date!" Hermione let out, excitement making her wiggle in place.

"Er yeah! It's a— yeah see you at eleven!" Ron said back. With that their phone call ended, and Hermione, for the first time she could think of, started to worry about what she should wear and what she should do with hair. She hadn't seen Ron in nearly two months, and didn't want to look poorly for him… Perhaps she should plait her hair? Should she still be dressed in her normal clothes? Or as it would be so late at night would it be more natural to have her pajamas on?

Ron had sent Pig to Hermione's earlier that day, but Pig hadn't gotten back yet. Perhaps Hermione had borrowed him to send something to Harry? He hoped Hermione had gotten the powder alright. It was only a few minutes to eleven, and Ron couldn't stop himself from pacing the floor. He wasn't sure if he should wear his normal clothes or not, given the late hour, but thought he looked more presentable in them than his tatty pajamas. Percy had given him a pair of rarely worn jeans that fit alright, so he decided to wear that and a t-shirt that almost fit right, even though it was a bit tighter through the shoulders than it had been earlier that year.

Right at eleven the fire grew and sparked a bit.

"Ron?" He heard Hermione's voice say through the fire.

"Yeah, I'm here!" Ron said, sitting down on the ground with his legs crossed. "You can put your head through, if you like."

"Are you… Are you sure it's safe?" Hermione said, sounding nervous. Ron chuckled a bit at Hermione being nervous about something. She was always such a little firebrand about things, so it was almost cute to hear her fret about something so common place to him.

"I promise, it's as safe as a phone call," he said, trying to hold his laughter as bay. He did his best to not laugh or tease people brought up with Muggle things when it came to new experiences in the Wizard world. Merlin knew he was clueless enough at Muggle things, so he tried to be as patient and aware as he could. He'd felt awful guilty the times he'd overlooked informing Harry or Hermione about something they should know.

The flames danced brightly for a bit, then Hermione's face came through the flames, her prominent top teeth biting her lip.

"Oh!" she let out nervously. "This is so strange! Can you see me?"

"Yeah, I can see you," Ron said with a smile. "You can see me too, yeah?"

She nodded before letting out a laugh.

"It doesn't even feel warm. It's so odd! I can't believe it. It feels the same temperature as the rest of my house! I was worried it'd burn my hair, but it hasn't."

He could see her wild hair was plaided down the side of her head. It looked different than usual. He preferred it when her hair was all over the place, but wasn't about to tell her this. In fact, she looked a bit different all over her head. Her eyebrows were a little thinner, and her eyes somehow looked a bit bigger?

"Your eyelashes look different," he noted.

"Oh!" It was hard to tell in the flames, but Hermione's tan skin looked a touch darker on her cheeks. "Well… I tried to… My mum gave me some mascara…"

"What's that?"

"It's a sort of… A sort of makeup that girls put on their eyelashes."

"Why?"

"To make the eyelashes longer and darker."

"Oooh. Do they make that for guys? Half the time I think I look like I don't have eyelashes at all," Ron said with smile, fluttering his light lashes at her. Hermione laughed at this and whatever was making her nervous seemed to dissipate.

Their Floo call was going quite well, and they'd been talking for well over an hour when Ron heard a scream on the other end of the Floo and Hermione's eyes went wide.

"Oh! Mum! It's fine!" Hermione cried out, pulling her head out of the fire. Ron could hear her mother sobbing as Hermione comforted her.

"It's fine! It's just magic! Let me say goodnight to Ron so he doesn't worry. Look, watch this!" Hermione said, and then her face was in the flames again. "Ron, I have to go. I just gave my mother a terrible fright."

"Yeah. Yeah, no worries. Sorry about that Mrs Granger!" Ron called back into the fire. The flames went out after that, and Ron had a great deal of trouble falling asleep.

The next morning he woke up to Pig dancing about his bed, a roll of parchment in tow. It took a moment to grab the excited little blighter, but after a few jumps he grabbed the little owl and untied a letter from Hermione.

In her even hand it read:

Dear Ron,

I'm so sorry our call had to be ended so abruptly. Mum was very hysterical to find her only daughter's body lying headfirst in the fire. It took quite a long time to calm her down. I really liked getting to call you like this, but perhaps we should stick to letters until I come next week? I'm ever so excited to see you (And Harry and everyone else.)

I hope Ginny won't mind me being in her room. She's always been so nice all the times we've talked before, but I hate to put her out!

Maybe we can have one more phone call before I come over? Get that last bit of practice in for the summer?

I would write more, but it's well past midnight.

Love from,

Hermione

It had taken almost an hour for Hermione to calm her mother down after she had walked in on the fire chat with Ron. She couldn't blame her mother, of course. It must have been a ghastly sight to come across at almost half past midnight.

Neither of her parents had been exposed to much magic, despite Hermione having been at Hogwarts for three years. There was little chance for them to learn, really, given how Hermione wasn't allowed to use magic, and they'd only been to Diagon Alley a few times. She wished she could show them all the different spells and potions she'd mastered, but frankly they always looked perplexed as she described the lessons to them.

They failed to see how turning a teapot into a tortoise was something that would translate into a job down the road. Hermione tried to keep to lessons that made more sense to them, but couldn't fail to see the mild disappointment and confusion that would cross their faces as she described class. They could understand making great grades, though, so she tried best she could to emphasize that, and lessons that pertained to history, healing, or performing useful tasks even they could appreciate. She had to be careful to avoid all the political bits of school, such as the Blood purists, the corrupt government officials, and the school board.

She also had to avoid mentioning how in danger she was each year. They had no idea how close she had come to dying each year, and the school didn't deign to contact her parents about much of anything when it came to her exploits. Their hands off approach was rather shocking to Hermione at first, but over the years she came to appreciate it, as she could almost fully control what information her parents were given about her goings on

Convincing them to let her travel to the Burrow by Floo took a good thirty minutes, but when they were assured over the phone by Ron that he and his father would escort her personally, they finally seemed ok with the choice. Her mother was not entirely happy with this, and let out a small scream when the fireplace broke out into tall emerald green flames, and a soot covered Ron had to crawl out of their low, by wizard standards, fire place.

"Hey Hermione," he said with a smile. Ron's father came up right after, and did a quick spell to clean them, as well as the carpet and hearth, of all the soot.

"Hi Ron!" Hermione smiled, and gave him a large hug after he was dust free. He returned her hug with gusto, his ears burning, probably since everyone's eyes were one them. He seemed taller than he had been just a few months ago, and he was wearing a pair of jeans that fit him much better than most of his others.

Ron's Dad was every bit as excited to see her parents as he ever was, so Hermione took the opportunity to give Ron a quick tour of her house. At first he seemed quite keen, but after the first few rooms his mood seemed to dip low.

"Are you alright?" she asked, seeing him frowning a bit.

"Yeah… It's just… Well, you're house is really nice," Ron said with a forced smile.

"Thanks."

"Yeah… Yeah…" Ron said starting to look worried.

"Are you sure you're ok?"

"Course I am. Just… Well, you're coming to stay at our place, and I think I could fit three of the Burrow in your living room, and we have almost four times as many people who will be under one roof. It'll be tight, and not as nice as this…"

"I'll be with you," Hermione said with a smile, before catching herself, "and everyone else. I'm sure I'm going to enjoy every single second there. Plus, I've never been in a magical home before. It will be amazing, I'm sure."

"It's just my home…" he trailed off, still looking uncertain.

"That's why I'm sure I'll love it," she assured him. He seemed to get out of his funk as they entered her room.

"Oh wow," Ron said, letting out a whistle.

"What?"

"It's just, this room is a very Hermione-ish room, isn't it?" he said with a laugh.

"What does that mean?" Hermione asked, uncertainly twisting a curl around her finger.

"Nothing bad," he said with a lopsided grin that made her toes curl. "You just put your mark on it, didn't you? Tons of books, the way the photos are all lined up just so, the wall calendar. It's just very you."

He gave an inhale.

"Yup. Smells like a Hermione room."

"It smells like me?" she almost squeaked.

"Yeah, smells like books and that chapstick you always have around. The vanilla smelling one."

"Oh… I… Oh…" Hermione didn't know how to respond. Ron was commenting on how she smelled, but it seemed to be in a flattering way. She felt as nervous as she did before exams.

Ron let out a laugh and pointed at the far wall.

"Who in the world is that bloke?" he said, pointing to a poster of Einstein where the scientist had his tongue out.

"A famous Muggle scientist. He's known for the theory of relativity."

"I have no idea what that means," Ron said with a shrug, "but he sure knows how to take a picture."

"He did the Muggle equivalency of arithmancy, and figured out a lot about how the universe works, including gravity."

Ron nodded at this and was about to say something when they heard her father call up the stairs, "Ron! Hermione! It's about time to go!"

They went downstairs, and Hermione gave each of her parents a large hug. Her mother in particular didn't seem to want to let go.

"You will write us often, won't you?" she asked.

"Of course I will," Hermione said, feeling a touch guilty knowing she wouldn't see them for more than nine months.

"She can borrow my owl any time she needs to, Mr and Mrs Granger," Ron supplied, and Hermione felt proud of how polite and courteous he was coming across. Ron then walked her, and her parents, through how they would Floo over. Apparently Mr Weasley had already explained the Floo Networks logistics, but they seemed to calm a bit more having a boy know how it works and treats the task as quite mundane. Ron threw the powder into the fire place, stood in the flames, and said 'The Burrow' very clearly.

Hermione received another firm hug from each parent before she followed Ron's example and walked through the flames the same way, with Mr Weasley following behind with her trunk.

The Burrow smelled of freshly baked bread, and some other undefinable flowery scent she was almost certain she'd smelled at Hogwarts at one point or another. There was a brush magically scrubbing pots all on its own, a clock with pictures of the whole family pointing to different locations instead of times, and all the photos were moving. It was tight, but homey and Hermione felt immediately at peace as she walked further into the room. Ron bit his lip and looked a bit uncertain, until Hermione took his hand and gave it a squeeze.

"This is the most amazing home I've ever been in!" she let out, and the beaming smile he gave her was so warming, she was certain she could power a Patronus with it, even though she'd never tried to do a Patronus Charm before.

"You know, I know it sounds barmy, but I think I'm going to miss our phone calls a bit," Ron said as he pulled her towards the stairs.

"We can always do it again next summer."

"I'd like that," Ron grinned back at her.

She felt pleased down to her tows as he lead her for a tour around the house, her hand still in his.