Work Text:
Dawn broke, cascading the light of morning across the castle land. The fresh dew sparkled and from a distance it made it look like everything was new again. The sky was painted with splatterings of pink, blue, and yellow. It’s strange how mornings like this can follow such horrid events. A beauty that was both needed and scary.
So much loss had happened here. So much it made Hermione’s stomach twist. The thoughts of the last 48 hours of her life played in a loop in her head. She shouldn’t be here, none of them should, and yet all three of them had survived.
She had never given much thought to what would come after or what would be the next step after Voldemort was defeated. She spent so much of her time wondering how they would get to this point, but there was no plan for what would come after. For once, Hermione felt truly lost, with no sense of direction.
She found a spot to sit near the bank of the lake, and reminisced briefly on when she would come here during the school year to study or relax. Often, the boys would join her, and it was in those moments that she was able to set some of her weighing thoughts down. The amount she used to worry about Arithmancy or Ancient Runes seemed silly now. Back then she felt like a girl, but in the aftermath of the war, she felt older than ever. She had been through things that aren’t typical for the majority of teens, and she wondered if she’d ever feel her age again.
She heard a crunch of the grass from behind her. Turning around, she spotted a familiar patch of red hair, the sunlight reflecting off his dirty, but pale, skin. She could just barely make out the trail that his tears had left across his face. Earlier, when she had seen him in the Great Hall, standing with his arms around his mother, his face looked so defeated - so sad. But now, even though every muscle in his face seemed to protest, he still gave her a weak smile.
“Hi,” she said through a raspy voice, she wondered how long it had been since she last spoke. Wordlessly he came near her and reached out a hand. When she took it she felt a tingle of electricity as he lifted her up.
Hermione may not be sure of where to go from here, but she knew that she wanted Ron by her side. She had never felt so confident.
Facing one another with their hands interlocked, his thumbs began to make small circles on top of her hand. Their eyes met and the intensity in his matched hers. It was like they were having a conversation without words, desperate to make the other understand things that they had always pushed aside… up until now.
“Do you want to go on a walk with me?” he said, finally breaking their silence.
She gave him a slight nod and he dropped their hands down to the side, keeping them laced together between them.
They walked around the pond and across the grounds. A calm quiet surrounded them as everyone else seemed to be inside, trying to find comfort by busying themselves with tasks.
The birds were chirping as the sun continued its ascent into the sky, and in the distance she could hear the soft sway of the Whomping Willow. More time passed and still, neither one of them spoke, which some would surely consider uncomfortable. Yet she had never felt so comfortable in her life. Words weren’t needed between them, not yet.
They continued their silent walk amongst the beauty and the rubble past the greenhouse and back again to the bank where he found her.
Together they looked out over the massive lake, and she moved her gaze to Ron. His eyes were squinting in the sun as he continued to look into the distance. All Hermione could think about was what must be going on in his head.
He let out a deep breath that sounded like he had been holding it in, and she could see it visibly release some of the tension in his body. With that, he released her hand and sat down in the grass.
“I remember all those warm days during school, where we would come out here and just — be. One of the few breaks we ever got from having to think of things much bigger than us over the years,” Ron said, glancing up at her.
“You mean like our potions essay?” she responded with a grin, gaining a laugh from Ron.
“Mind coming down here and joining me in the illusion for a bit?” he asked with a smile.
The person she was before the war would have taken this moment to remind him of all there was to do now, and that there was no time for illusions. Questions of if they should go back to Hogwarts or apply for jobs at the Ministry. But she knew they would have time for all of those decisions as they came. For now, she liked the idea of them just being Ron and Hermione for a little while.
“I wonder what it would have been like,” she wondered aloud, taking her seat next to him, and continuing her gaze at the lake “If we had realized things a lot sooner — on days like that.”
He let out a small laugh, “Merlin, we were thick.”
“The thickest” she agreed, bringing his hand into her lap, wrapping it in hers.
He leaned over and rested his head on her shoulder, making her head fuzzy with thoughts of the things they could have gotten up to. Only growing fuzzier when she remembered that these things were now possibilities.
-
Maybe he was completely mental for thinking so, but as they sat by the lake he got lost in Hermione's unwavering beauty. Her hair was wilder than ever, the curls jutting out in all directions despite the bobble that tied it back. There was exhaustion written all over her face, but she looked absolutely breathtaking.
There were so many things threatening to come to the surface, but he successfully pushed them away as he allowed himself to drink her in for a few moments — to just appreciate the sight before him. She must have felt his eyes on her, and looked at him with a smile.
This is the moment. There was no more room for hesitation. Slowly he leaned towards her and closed the gap between them and captured her lips with his own.
It was the easiest and the best decision he had ever made, to return her earlier gesture and kiss her a second time. It felt like they had been doing this their whole lives, or at least like they should have been.
Her lips were tailor-made for his, melting together into one. His hand snaked around her and rested at the small of her back, instigating a moan from her as he pulled her nearer. The sound made him want to cry out as his lust for her grew. After some time they broke apart, each breathing heavily and smiling.
“I can’t believe how long we went without doing that,” she said with a giggle. The amount of joy on her face made him break into a grin.
“Me either,” he agreed.
They remained there for most of the day, kissing and talking about all of the signs they had missed from one another over the years. Just for today, nothing outside of them was real. Like the dark wasn’t all that dark once there was finally light.
The following months would bring so many hard things they would have to face, but together they could make it through anything.