Playing The Cards

You´re all I want, you´re all I need, you´re everything. How could I stand here with you and not be moved by you? Would you tell me how could it be any better than this?

-Lifehouse

Hermione heard Ron´s car splutter to a stop outside and let out a low growl. Today, she didn´t bother walking over to the window above the sink and blowing him a welcome-home kiss. Today, she simply continued scrubbing the kitchen floor, attempting to remove the enormous Not-yet-frozen strawberry Jell-O stain from the hardwood before it soaked into the grain. She gritted her teeth when she heard the back door slam and Ron´s cheerful, "`Mione! I´m home."

"If you walk through my kitchen with those wet, muddy, snowy, dog feces-on shoes I will strike you with your damn new Christmas golf clubs and I will not call the hospital."

A minute later, Ron appeared in the kitchen, in his socks. He took in one glance of Hermione, on her hands and knees, determinedly scrubbing the floor. "Erm... bad day?" He asked tentatively.

She staggered to her feet, gripping her 8-month pregnant stomach, and started yelling in one fluid motion. "Bad day?! This day puts D-Day to shame! This day has been worse than all bad days in the history of the world!"

"Now, `Mione, it´s not like you to exaggerate like that..." Her eyes started widening and the vein in her temple started to become even more prominent. Ron could sense that she was seconds away from an explosion. And that would just be any explosion, Ron knew. It would be synonymous to the atom bomb. So he acted quickly. "You know, that dress is really lovely with your coloring."

Hermione frowned and looked down at her droopy yellow housedress. "I wear this dress practically every day. It has stains all over it and it´s probably ten years old... does it really compliment my coloring?"

Ah. Now he was getting somewhere. "Yes, of course, Herm, all that yellow looks practically made to go with your hair. By the way... did you want me to wash the dishes?"

The vein on her temple was noticeably smaller already. She sent a tired glance at the sink, piled high with dishes. "Oh yes, Ron, that would be lovely. I just... just need to get this out of the wood."

"Erm... Hermione, why don´t you just use a cleaning spell on it?"

She looked as if a light bulb had just gone off in her head. "Oh gosh, I am so daft, I always tend to forget that I can do that when I´m at home..."

Ron grinned. Hermione frowned. Ron´s face fell. Then, the corner of her mouth turned up, and she said gently, "Go get changed. I´ll clean this up and start the dishes, and then I´ll dry when you get down here."

He smiled at her, and then turned the corner, briefcase banging against the wall as he went. Ron dumped his briefcase beside the front door, and started up the stairs, loosening his tie as he went. When he reached the upper landing, he peeked his head into his sons´ room. The boys were twins, their first birthday rapidly approaching. Alex´s strawberry blond curls gleamed in the dim light, and Ben´s darker auburn head nestled into the crook of his arm. Ron tried to resist the urge to smile, but it was impossible. If anyone had told him ten years ago that he would be the father of twins, he would have laughed in their face. Marriage had not been in the plan. But apparently, it was in the cards he had been dealt, and he knew how very, very lucky he was.

"Ron Weasley!" Hermione´s voice traveled up the stairs. "If you don´t hurry up, you´ll be washing dishes alone for the rest of the week!"

"Coming sugar lips," he responded insolently. He ducked into their (immaculate) bedroom, and pulled on a pair of Muggle sweatpants and an old t-shirt. He galloped down the stairs, and entered the kitchen with a smile on his lips.

"Would you shut up? You´re gonna wake the boys up and it took me hours to get them to sleep. God they were awful today," she murmured, shaking her head. Ron stood in the doorway and looked at her. She really was beautiful, he decided. Even with her hair falling down from her messy bun, framing her face in brown curls, even in an old yellow housedress, which did, fortunately, show off her legs. Hell, she would be beautiful in- "Why are you staring at me?" Hermione asked him sharply, trying to pretend she wasn´t self-conscious.

"I was just thinking that even if you were wearing a cone bra, eye shadow like Mimi´s on Drew Carey, and combat boots, you´d still be very, very beautiful."

He didn´t get the reaction he was hoping for. Instead, she snorted and rolled her eyes. "Come on, which movie did you get that from? I knew we shouldn´t have had that stupid TV installed, now you´re quoting lines from it about me, for Christ´s sake."

"I didn´t get it from a Muggle movie."

"Where´d you get it then?"

"I just made it up."

She clasped her hands under her chin and looked about the room starry eyed. "Oh Ron! How romantic! What ever would I do without your extravagant praise?"

Ron `harrumphed´ and made his way to the sink, elbowing her out of the way. He picked up the little flower pot brush that had dish soap in it, and attacked the dishes with a vengeance. Meanwhile, Hermione reached out to touch his shoulder but he brushed her away.

Finally, she picked up a dish from the growing pile and started to dry it gently, keeping her eyes on Ron´s face. His ears were tinged pink, and he washed the china so hard, she feared the silver gilt rims would be washed off. "Erm, Ron, I´m sorry I was so horrible to you when you walked in." She offered a weak smile, but he didn´t turn around and look at her, just continued attacking the dishes.

"I´m sorry, I just had such a horrible day - the boys were simply dreadful - they broke my mother´s vase that she left me, and they were in a mood something awful. And I was just so frustrated and I took it out on you because I had no one else to blame it on you, and I promise I´ll try hard not to do it again, because you´re not just my `person who I can take out all my frustrations on´, you´re my partner, and you were in a perfectly fine mood when you walked through the door, until I started in on you, and I just wish that you would-"

Suddenly, he dropped the dishes back in the sink, and without so much as a word, didn´t even rinse the soap and water from his hands, he reached behind her head and took the clip out of her hair. She stood there gaping in astonishment as he buried his sudsy hands in her curls and bent down to kiss her, taking advantage of her open mouth. Ron was nearly a foot taller than she was, being almost 6´4", while Hermione barely topped 5´5". He held her against the wet counter top, and after her initial shock registered, she stood on her tiptoes to better reach him. Eventually, she reached up and grabbed his wet hands out of her hair and entwined them in her own. Her big belly pushed against his... important parts, and he groaned. He removed her hands from his and started for the buttons of her old dress. Ron was halfway finished when suddenly, Hermione pulled away from him. "R-ron, we can´t, not tonight..."

He leaned down and started pressing soft kisses against her neck. "Why?"

"G-g..." She let out a soft moan, whimpering.

"What´s that? Nothing? Very good then."

"No... no, Ginny `n... Ginny and Draco are coming to talk about the-" She was interrupted by the doorbell.

Ron groaned like a man in agony. He lifted his head and pressed a soft kiss against her forehead. "You sure we can´t pretend we didn´t hear the door?"

She was already moving away from him, buttoning buttons and straightening hair. "No, of course not." She stopped at the mirror in the front hall and plucked at both their clothes, trying to remove all traces of evidence. Ron rolled his eyes and followed her obediently to the front door, where he stood in stony silence as his Herm greeted Ginny and... Ginny´s fiancée.

"Goodness, that took you a while!" Ginny exclaimed good-naturedly as she hugged Hermione. "Hermione, why are you all sticky?" She sniffed the air. "It almost smells like... Palmolive."

Draco, however, put it together much faster than Ron´s baby sister. He sent a glance at Ron´s dripping, sudsy hands and Hermione´s beet red face and smirked his characteristic smirk. "Busy, were you? I suppose we could always come back again tomorrow... or the day after."

Ron rolled his eyes. Ginny and Draco had been dating for a very long time, and he had come to be used to Draco´s comments. Ginny glanced at her brother´s hands and also turned pink. "Well if you two would like us to come back at another time I´m sure-"

"No!" Hermione exclaimed. "Come right in, the boys can watch the football match that´s on, and you can show me your bridal magazines. Have you chosen your dress yet?"

They all headed into the little house, carefully avoiding the kitchen. They entered the family room, and Ginny and Hermione sat down on one couch. They both shot pointed looks at their respective significant others, and those significant others sighed and sat down on the other couch. With Ginny and Hermione `Ooh-ing´ and `Ahh-ing´, every five seconds, it was a bit hard to concentrate on the football match between Spain and Argentina. Therefore, Ron was forced to resort back to the old, `civilized conversation´ trick. "You watch a lot of football?"

"No."

"Oh..." Ron cracked his knuckles to fill the silence.

"Don´t do that Ron," commanded Hermione from across the room without looking up. "You´ll get early arthritis."

Draco sent a furtive glance at Ron. Ron sent one back at him. "You got an XBox?" Draco asked with a quick look at Ginny.

"Yeah," Ron replied, with a similar look at Hermione.

"You got the game... Halo?"

"Who doesn´t?"

Ron later thought he might have imagined it, but he could have sworn Draco blushed. "Well, Ginny says it´s too violent."

Ron snorted.

"Shut it Weasley," Draco snapped.

Five minutes later, they were on their stomachs on the floor, playing XBox.

"Do you like this dress, Draco?" Ginny called from across the room, without looking up from the magazine.

"Love it," Draco replied absently as he proceeded to shoot at Ron.

Ginny looked up and began to start in on him for not looking, but stopped when she saw the boys playing. "Hermione. Look at the boys."

A smile that would have melted butter appeared on her friend´s face. "I can´t even believe that they´re coexisting peacefully, much less enjoying it."

And so, for the next hour, Hermione and Ginny watched their boys playing video games on the XBox that had been such a struggle for Ron to convince Hermione to let him buy. Regretfully, Ginny looked at her watch and announced it was time to go home.

"Do we have to?" Draco whined. "I was just about to win!"

"You were not," Ron said smugly.

"Weasley..."

"Come on, Drac! Time to be getting home," Ginny exclaimed cheerfully.

He groaned and stood up, stretching his long frame. He walked to Ginny and took her hand. Ron followed suit and he and Hermione followed them to the front door. Though neither Ron or Draco said anything remotely resembling a good bye to each other, a gaze passed between them. It was something that had never passed between them before, ever.

It was respect.

Ginny and Draco made a run for their car that was outside in the street, as it had started raining. Draco opened Ginny´s door for her, and kissed her before she climbed in. Ron started to step forward, but Hermione´s hand on his arm stopped him. "Don´t."

"Herm, that´s my little sister!"

"Yeah, and your little sister is twenty-four years old. She´s old enough to kiss the man, for Christ´s sake."

""Mione..."

She turned and looked at him as he shut the door. "They´re in love, Ron."

"Well, y´know, maybe somethin´ll happen..."

"Nothing is going to happen. He loves her every bit as much as she loves him. I´d even stake a guess that they love each other as much as I love you," she whispered, one side of her mouth smiling.

"Are you suggesting that you love me more than I love you?"

"Well, maybe - of course not!"

"Okay, good, because if you were, I would have just had to..."

"Well if you don´t shut up, then I´ll clobber you over the head with... that fire poker," she remarked, pointing.

"Jeez, `Mione, why you always so violent?"

She grinned. "Be that as it may, we still have to finish washing those dishes."

Ron, who had been very ready for a continuation of what they had been doing when Ginny rang the bell, followed her glumly. She whirled around. "Oh I must remember to owl Harry tomorrow, he sent an urgent message saying he had to tell us something."

He wound his arms around her waist. "´Mione, right now, I don´t think there is anything I care less about in the entire world than what Harry is doing right now."

She laughed. It almost could be called a giggle, but Hermione Granger-Weasley never giggled. It was a dignified chuckle. "Y´know Ron, I think I´m awfully glad about the cards I got dealt."

He laughed. "Me too, `Mine. Me too."

And as it turned out, the dishes didn´t get washed that night.