This came to me at work, which was highly annoying as I had to wait until my lunch break to write it! Ah well! Short and sweet, you may need to brush your teeth afterwards! Step ;)
He had be a little shocked and surprised when Hermione's parents hadn't made a big fuss about her seventeenth birthday. It was, after all, quite a big deal, and for her mum and dad to, not ignore her coming of age, but to just treat it like any other birthday bothered him more than it should have done. So much so he had asked Hermione about it on her birthday night when they were both sitting in the common room, Hermione doing her homework and Ron not doing his.
'Hermione.'
'MmmHmm?' she looked up at him from her parchment.
'How come...how come your parents didn't send you anything special for your birthday?'
Her brow furrowed in confusion.
'How do you mean, special?'
'Well, you've come of age! Surely that deserves something more than books!'
Hermione's look of confusion turned to understanding and then she frowned.
'Well, I did really want those books, Ronald! I know reading isn't a favourite hobby of yours, but they happen to be very rare and my dad was lucky enough to find them. But as for my coming of age, well I haven't yet, not in their eyes.'
Ron frowned.
'But you're seventeen now!'
'And in the Muggle world I still have one more year before I am legally an adult. Seventeen isn't an age worth celebrating in the Muggle world. The only extra thing you can do is learn to drive and at the minute that's not on the top of my list of priorities. Next year is the birthday my parents are likely to make a fuss over. Their only daughter turning eighteen is probably quite a big deal to them!'
'So in the Muggle world, turning seventeen isn't a big thing?'
'Only if you're desperate to learn how to drive, and, as I said, it isn't something I'm that bothered about at the minute. Eventually, yes, but not right now.'
'Oh, right, okay then.'
Ron added this fact to the list that made Muggles even more strange than he originally thought.
Hermione woke up and stretched. It was a second before she remembered what day it was and when she did a twinge of unhappiness made itself known in her stomach.
She ignored it, not really wanting to sink into unhappiness before the day had even started. Guilt was something that would take her there in an instant.
She walked out of 'her' bedroom in the dark and somewhat gloomy house and went into the bathroom. The bath filled while she brushed her teeth and then she soaked for half an hour.
She would have like to have said that it had been a very relaxing bath, but her brain had refused to stop thinking over things she had begged herself not to think on too much. Her guilt had grown inside her. Her parents would hate to realise they hadn't been with her for her eighteenth birthday. The over-the-top party the three of them had attended in July for her parents' Godson had been her warning of what her birthday party was due to be like the following Christmas when she returned home from Hogwarts. Of course her parents didn't know that she wouldn't be returning to School, or that they wouldn't remember they had a daughter who was turning eighteen that year.
When she entered her room, her hands wrinkled from spending far too long in the bath, she discovered a folded piece of parchment on her bed. Intrigued, she picked it up and a heavy, silver key slipped out. Confused, she looked at the front of the folded parchment and smiled when she read the words 'Happy 18th Birthday' which were written in a familiar hand. The number 18 was large and filled most of the paper and there were stars drawn untidily around the edge.
She opened up the paper and tears prickled at her eyes.
Hermione,
Happy 18th birthday!
I'm sorry there's no present, when this is all over I'll make it up to you. The key is, I've been told, traditional for Muggles to receive when they turn eighteen, so this is yours, hope it's okay.
Ron x
P.S They're safe and well and you'll see them again. Promise.
She couldn't help but cry at those last words. He had known she would be thinking about her mum and dad and had reassured her things would be all right. Granted, he couldn't actually guarantee what he had said, but it didn't matter, she needed the hope, and Ron had given it to her.
It wasn't the best eighteenth birthday, but Ron had made it a whole lot better than it could have been,