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It was possible to hear a Christmas jingle sounding in the distance as little snowflakes fell around the Grimmauld Place number twelve and Ron changed his clothes for what seemed like the thousandth time that day.
He had the impression that he would never get used to wearing Muggle clothes, as if none made him look presentable enough, especially when it came to that particular occasion.
The truth was that the meeting between him and the Grangers had been postponed countless times by Hermione, who said it was better to give her and her parents time to return to normal dynamics after having recovered the memories of their own lives. The point was that everything around was more complicated than that and months went by when Ron just had superficial contact with his in-laws in the post-war chaos and only now, in December, would he have a chance to meet them truly.
He had bought specific flowers that, according to Hermione, were his mother's favorites. He had also memorized as much information as he could about the field of dentistry to impress her father, without her knowing it. Even with all this, Ron couldn't be more insecure about seeing them again.
“Ron, aren’t you ready yet?” said Hermione entering the room that now belonged to him, without worrying about knocking. “You know I don't want to Apparate when the snow is even more intense.”
She kissed him briefly before sitting on the edge of his bed, where she used to read her books while Ron watched her from the desk in the far corner.
“What if they can see the scars on my arms while I'm dressed as a muggle?” asked Ron, again, evaluating his own image in the mirror he had in the room. “What if because of them they think I'm not good company for you?”
Reddish lines had filled Ron's two arms since the day he was attacked by a brain at the Ministry of Magic mystery session when he, Harry, Hermione, Luna, Neville and Ginny invaded the place in search for Sirius.
Hermione laughed at the question, getting up and going towards him, she put her arms around his shoulders.
“They always adored you! If they thought that way, they would never have allowed me to spend so many summers at The Burrow”.
“They always adored me as their daughter's friend, as a boyfriend is different.”
“Ron, they met you as my boyfriend when we were in Australia and they didn't seem to be against it at all! Besides, I've been talking about us ever since.”
Hermione's statement did not reassure him, however. They were in Australia as lovers, yes, but he remembered how her parents were more concerned with understanding how they had forgotten their own lives than with dealing with their daughter's relationship status.
"Anyway," continued Hermione as he kept his arms around her waist. “They called us to ski, your arms will be covered by the cold clothes that we will have to wear. No one will notice any scarring.”
Ron still understood little, almost nothing, of the Muggle tradition of using boards on his feet to slide on the snow, but he decided to accept Hermione's opinion and convince himself that he was ready for dinner with the Grangers, which would come before ski morning.
He and Hermione left Grimmauld Place in the care of Kreacher, heading to the end of the street where it was safest to Apparate. It was funny to look back and realize that the house, once used as headquarters for the Order of the Phoenix, was now what Harry was trying to call home, provisionally sharing his inheritance with Ron.
X
The snowstorm was getting more intense when they reached the street where the Grangers lived. Hermione clasped her hand in Ron's before guiding him to the townhouse at the end of the street, the roof of which was already covered with snow, as well as the ground on which they stepped.
Hermione's parents greeted them with sincere smiles and hugs or the closest to that when they arrived at the door. The truth is that it had been a few months since their return from Australia and Ron couldn't help but notice how the couple, who had previously been overly affectionate with their daughter, now seemed distant and even afraid of her.
“So.” began Mrs. Granger while they were still at the entrance to the house and hung their heavy coats on the hanger next to them due to the hot air from the house heater “Was it difficult to get here?”
“No, mom” replied Hermione after receiving a superfluous hug from her father .“We Apparated from Ron's house here.”
Mrs. Granger just nodded, not seeming inclined to question more about the apparition and, who knows, to start a longer conversation with her daughter.
“This is for you, Mrs. Granger.” said Ron, handing the bouquet he had brought there to Hermione's mother. “Hermione said how you love these flowers in particular.”
Hermione's mother received the bouquet looking at the flowers fondly and, for a moment, seemed close to giving her daughter a slightly warmer look, but she seemed to change her mind after Mr. Granger suggested that they leave the entrance and finally enter the house.
Ron realized how the house they were in was the same house that Hermione lived in when they were still studying at Hogwarts and he, together with his parents and brothers, were going to pick her up for the summer at The Burrow.
The Grangers 'house was nowhere near as large and chaotic as the Weasleys' house, with all the furniture and objects neatly arranged within the bright walls of each room. Even the kitchen was perfectly planned for that little family and Ron couldn't help feeling a little out of place sitting at that small table between them.
Dinner was perfectly served at the table, and Ron did his best to try to act naturally in the face of the complete silence that ensued between the four during the meal. Sitting next to Hermione, he didn't know what to do about the way Mr. Granger looked at him.
“Hermione commented that you and Harry are not with her at Hogwarts this time.” said Mr Granger. “Don't you intend to finish your studies Ronald?”
Ron felt his stomach sink when he heard his name being pronounced that way, but kept Mr. Granger's gaze as he put his fork back on the plate he was eating. Hermione seemed to want to speak up for him, but he was quicker.
“Harry and I received, as an invitation from the Minister, the chance to finish looking for wizards allied with the magic of darkness, the so-called Death Eaters.” replied and Hermione added then.
“Ron is an Auror now, as I mentioned earlier, father. But we don't need to talk about it now, do we?”
Hermione had rested her hand on Ron's in support.
“I think it's very noble to work protecting people's safety, Ron.” said Mrs Granger to him. “Especially if this is done without preventing them from having their own choices about it.”
Ron noticed Hermione shudder beside him, but she said nothing, returning to focus on the plate in front of her as if her mother had not spoken. He wanted to be able to do or say anything that would cause her not to be affected so much by the way she was being treated, but her hands were tied since she also wanted to be well regarded by the girl's parents.
“I heard that the number of people using dental braces has grown in recent years.” said Ron in an attempt to break the silence between the four. “But of course I don't understand it as much as you do.”
“The percentage of people who need devices has grown.” replied Mr Granger in a tone that understood the subject, much like the way Hermione used it in the classroom. “Not everyone has magical means to straighten their teeth, even without parental approval to do so.”
Ron noticed, once again, Hermione squirming uncomfortably in the chair next to him and finally decided to give up trying to have a friendly conversation with his in-laws, concentrating on finishing eating the dinner that they made.
Mr. Granger was quick to indicate the sofa where Ron was going to sleep when the meal was finished and both he and Mrs. Granger recommended that they do not delay in going to bed as they would wake up early the next morning. "So as not to take long lines at the ski resort." said Mrs Granger before retiring to the room under the stairs beside her husband.
Ron and Hermione insisted on staying to remove the dishes and wash them, which was not questioned by Hermione’s parents. While doing the dishes side by side, Ron could not prevent his thoughts from drifting to what had been said by Hermione's father earlier. He didn't seem to approve of the fact that he didn't finish his studies like Hermione did, and Ron couldn't help but question whether he was taking the right steps by deciding not to return to Hogwarts. What if Hermione, like her father, thought it was unwise for him not to finish his studies? What if, even supporting her ambition to be an auror, she didn't consider him worthy of it without the N.E.W.Ts grades? His thoughts were interrupted when he realized that Hermione had started to say something.
“They will never forgive me, will they?” she asked, passing the sponge on one of the used dishes. “It's been months since they returned from Australia and nothing seems to be the same as before.”
“You just need to be patient, Hermione.” said Ron, wiping one of the glass cups. “They need time to process everything, from the obligation to go to St. Mungus at least once a month, to the fact that they have to deal with you being away again, I mean, you have had little time since they came back from Australia and you went to Hogwarts.”
Hermione sighed. That was a fact, after all. Finding the Grangers in Australia had been more difficult and time-consuming than they had expected, and when they finally managed to contact their parents, Hermione had little time to return to the school of magic and witchcraft, thus leaving few moments of reconnection between her and her little one family. Ron would never fully understand that feeling, but he knew how difficult it was to be distant from his own family.
“Maybe you're right.” she said, to Ron's relief. “I have only a few months left to do my exams and finish my studies. Maybe things will get better when I get to be there more often.”
“Yes, I'm sure.” said Ron, now ready to expose his fears to her. “Hermione, do you think your parents think that I--”
“ We don't need to waste so much time on this crockery.” she said, apparently not having heard what Ron had started to say. “Let's leave them to clean themselves while we take the time to ... Other things.”
With a wave of her wand, Hermione caused all dishes, pots, glasses and cutlery to be cleaned by the bewitched sponge and, causing any other thoughts to drift out of Ron's mind, she placed herself on her tiptoes and reached his lips as he laced his fingers through his thick curls.
He loved touching her hair when they were close like that and felt that he could stay that way for hours, feeling his heart beat faster by the way she responded to his kiss with the same intensity and affection that he did.
Moments like that, relived memories of when they were younger, when they made rounds together as Hogwarts prefects, talking and laughing through the school hallways, he remembered the way their eyes met during DA meetings, as if it was inevitable to find each other even in the midst of spells and other students who, still did not know, but were preparing for something bigger.
“Let's go upstairs, it's getting late and I think the dishes have been washed some time ago.” said Hermione smiling at him, Ron, however, did not follow her when she pulled him by the hand.
“ Your father said the couch was ready for me, so I think this is where I'm staying tonight.” he said.
Hermione rolled her eyes but didn't try to convince him otherwise. Saying goodbye with one last kiss, she went up the stairs to her room, leaving him alone between the kitchen and the living room.
X
In the darkness, all Ron could hear was the distant meow of Crookshanks that was probably with Hermione in her room. "At least one of us can be close to her tonight," thought Ron, turning to the other side on the uncomfortable sofa that faced a rectangular box he had heard Hermione call television.
He was doing what he could to make a good impression on the Grangers as it was important for him to have Hermione’s parents' approval of their relationship if he hoped to keep what they had and then move on to something even more serious and consolidated, but he feared it was not enough.
He was feeling his eyelids start to weigh with sleep when he noticed a familiar perfume approaching him.
“Hermione?” he said, sitting down on the couch he was lying on. “Why did you come back here?”
“I was having nightmares.” she replied, sitting down beside him. “Same as always, you know.”
Ron approached her by wrapping an arm around her shoulders. He knew how the nightmares related to war, torture and losses they suffered haunted Hermione as much as they still haunted him.
“All I wanted was for them not to shy away from me like they are doing now.” said Hermione and Ron realized that some tears were starting to fall from his eyes. “I just wanted to protect both of them from any danger they might be in because of me.”
Sobbing harder, Hermione accepted the handkerchief Ron had in one of his pockets while laying her head on his shoulder. Being that way was more common than they imagined, and it had been since Dumbledore's funeral when they were in their sixth year. There were many difficult times and that was undeniable, but they were there for each other in all of them.
“I wrote to them every day since I came back to Hogwarts.” continued Hermione. “And yet…”
“Maybe all they need is to make sure you don't use magic against them anymore. And I know that your intention was to protect them.” Ron added when he noticed that Hermione was starting to open her mouth to hit. “But all they see is a breach of trust. You need to show that they can trust you again, just as I needed to prove myself to you and Harry when, you know, I came back after I left you.”
Ron's speech made Hermione dry her tears to face him with her expressive brown eyes now red from crying.
“You know that Harry and I have forgiven you a long time, Ron. You were under the influence of Horcrux and we know that.” she said, shaking Ron's hand with affection. “It's really late now, we better get up”.
“Maybe I better stay here.” said Ron fearfully.
“I don't want to have other nightmares Ron. Come with me, please.”
Upon hearing the last request, Ron didn't think twice about taking the covers he was wearing on the sofa and taking them to where Hermione was guiding him. They would be alone in their room but it was no secret to anyone, perhaps not even Hermione's parents, that they had already shared a bed countless times before and after their trip to Australia.
The sensation of Hermione's hair against his face as he wrapped one arm around her waist was already familiar and so they both fell asleep.
X
It seemed to Ron that the alarm clock had started ringing just minutes after he fell asleep and realized that that morning, whose first sun rays were still shyly manifesting, would be even colder than the night before.
He and Hermione went down together towards the kitchen when they were ready and bundled up to go skiing. They were greeted with sleepy "good morning" greetings by the Grangers who, contrary to what Ron feared, did not seem to object to the fact that he had not spent the night on the living room sofa.
"So, do you have any idea how to ski, Ron?" asked Mrs. Granger as they ate the pancakes made by Hermione's father. Ron felt his stomach churn at the question.
“Actually, wizards don't have the habit of sliding through the snow like that, but maybe I can learn, it can't be as difficult as flying on a broom.” Ron said, feeling, then, that it seemed to be a wrong answer or something close to that when he noticed the silence that followed during the whole time they finished breakfast.
The truth was that Ron feared that the jokes of his older brothers in saying that Hermione was too much for him, had a real background, after all, it seemed to him that the young witch's parents were silently agreeing with that statement .
When they got into the car, Hermione intertwined her hand, covered with a woolen glove, in his that was protected in the same way, while they were both in the passenger seat of the vehicle that belonged to her parents and kept in touch all the way to the car ski slope, smiling at each other and exchanging affectionate looks along the way
“We're here.”announced Mr Granger after parking next to a set of wooden houses covered with snow, as well as the ground, which read “Snowboard and Skiing” on an entrance sign.
Upon entering one of the docks, they were instructed to wear the jackets, helmets and eye protectors provided by the ski team that owns the site. It was absurdly cold and the snow was falling heavily outside, so when they received their ski boards and were guided to the place where there were people practicing the activity, Ron made sure to check that none of the Muggles around was paying attention when he used one of the spells to warm up on Hermione, making sure that she didn't feel cold or was at risk of getting sick.
One instructor was enough for Ron to get at least an idea of how to slide down the snow-covered slope in front of him. Hermione's parents led the way and then the two of them slid together to the other side, where a large number of pine trees were located and it was possible to see the wooden houses in the distance.
They repeated the same path a few times while Ron rehearsed what he needed to say to Hermione but couldn't say it the day before. When they finally took a break from the slides, he removed the helmet and eye protector that they were obliged to use in order to finally be able to look and speak properly with her while they were sitting on one of the wooden benches next to the docks and off the ski route of the place .
“I was thinking ... maybe it's a good idea if I go back to Hogwarts next September and do the N.E.W.T’s” he said, still a little breathless due to the physical activity performed.
To his surprise, Hermione's response was to look at him as if he had just said that he was going to spend a few days at the Black Lake with the giant squid. Her hair was even more voluminous now and the way her expressive brown eyes were turned on him made her look even more adorable to his eyes.
“Why this now?” she asked, removing her gloves just as she had done with the helmet and goggles. “Kingsley said that you, Harry and Neville did not need the final exams to practice the Auror training, as you are already doing.”
“But maybe it's important.” continued Ron. “Your parents may be right when they say it is unwise for me not to finish my studies.”
“They didn't say exactly that, Ron. And why what do my parents think is so important, since you convinced your own parents that you didn't need to go back to Hogwarts?” asked Hermione, taking off her own scarf and starting to fan herself as if it were hot.
Ron shrugged. He knew that years of friendship between them made it difficult to hide any aspect of his personality from Hermione.
“ I just want them to make sure I'm on the same level as you, Hermione. I don't want you to think that you're wasting time with an inferior person.”
Saying those things was difficult enough that he could no longer maintain eye contact with her, focusing on the volume of snow beneath his feet. Hermione, however, rested one hand on Ron's and squeezed it gently, to get his attention back to her.
“They admire you going with me to Australia to look for them, even after so many personal losses that you went through.” she said. "They've loved you and your family since we were eleven, Ron. They would have no reason to think that we are not on the same level just because we have different lives. They are being overprotective, that's all, they need to deal with the fact that I live in a different world from theirs, as I always have.”
Ron sighed.
"You wouldn't be Hermione Granger if you didn't come back to Hogwarts to graduate and have a place at the Ministry of Magic in your own right, would you?" said Ron, finally looking back at her.
"And you wouldn't be Ron Weasley if you didn't stay and help your best friend find Outlaw Death Eaters looking to make the wizarding world safer for people like me." said Hermione. “And we love each other for those exact reasons, right?”
"Yes," said Ron, bringing Hermione's body closer to his. “We love each other for those exact reasons.”
They kissed without paying any attention to the people around them or to the increasingly cold wind that surrounded them. That last fact seemed to bother Hermione even less, who had removed her own wool cap from her head when they parted lips, complaining about how something must be wrong because she was feeling hot on such a cold day.
“I think I used the spell to heat up more intensely than I imagined.” said Ron, apologizing and discreetly removing his wand from his robes to undo the spell. “I just wanted to keep you warm.”
His statement had been unpretentious, so Ron was surprised by Hermione's reaction to kiss him again with even more affection and intensity than before, holding him in a hug to which he responded with enthusiasm, doing his best to ignore his feelings muscles that now started to ache due to the intensity of physical effort to go up and down that slope.
X
The Burrow was warm by the crackle of the fireplace and cozy due to the affection shared by those who were there. The place was beautifully decorated for Christmas Eve with Christmas lights, a pine tree with gnomes tied around its branches and gifts wrapped around it.
It was their first post-war Christmas and, as painful as the lack of people like Fred, Remus and Tonks was, their memory was alive in little Teddy Lupin, who played on Harry's lap while Ginny conjured soap bubbles from the end of his wand and the fact that George was able to convince Percy to leave dung bombs around the chair on which Aunt Muriel would sit. They did their best to find happiness in the midst of grief.
Before joining supper, Mr. Granger agreed to play a game of chess with Ron, which he lost after thirty minutes of play.
“Hermione always commented how good you were at this game, Ron, I just didn't think I would lose so badly.” said Mr. Granger, making Ron smile at last being called by his nickname by his father-in-law.
The Weasley and Granger family had gathered around the kitchen table and Arthur and Molly were talking to Hermione's parents like old friends while Aunt Muriel grumbled about how full the house was across the table, and Ron told Harry and Ginny what it was like to ski in the middle of so much snow.
Following the Weasley tradition, gifts were exchanged after the Christmas dinner in the living room in front of the fireplace and Ron had his fingers crossed hoping he could get what he had bought for his in-laws. He was so focused on their reaction to opening the book and cufflinks that he had bought, that he hardly noticed when Hermione tore the package delivered by Molly, revealing a blue sweater whose print revealed an "H" embroidered in gold.
“It looks like Hermione won a Weasley sweater this time.” said George, smiling suggestively.
“You were always like family to us, dear.” said Molly to Hermione, Arthur nodded beside his wife. “And now more than ever, isn't it?”
Her gaze went from Ron to Hermione and they both blushed at the hint, but Hermione smiled and thanked her for the gift and, wearing the coat that matched Ron's, she sat down next to him just as they were during dinner. They didn't say anything to each other, they didn't need to, there was a mutual silence there that could only happen between two people who understood each other completely.