Half a Man

"Ron, please slow down," Hermione called. She was running behind him, trying to catch up with him. "You can't get angry every time Harry wants to play Quidditch."

Ron was flying his Airchair rapidly through the Weasleys' garden, knocking over the garden gnomes who got in his way. He could hardly hear Hermione's pleading voice over the loud shrieking of the indignant gnomes, so he slowed down to normal speed so that Hermione could catch up with him. When he looked over his shoulder he saw her almost trip over a gnome which then tried to hit her with a short stick. Ron couldn't help himself, but that sight made him smile. She shouldn't have followed him.

"You know that Harry didn't get many opportunities to fly this year," Hermione said, a bit breathless when she finally reached him in the back of the garden. "He used every free moment to research a way to defeat Voldemort. Playing with your brothers and Ginny today is one of the first chances he had in ages."

"Sure," Ron spat out the word. "Harry-the-Great didn't need any help with that. He did all the work himself. Me? I was just enjoying a bit of Quidditch while he found that spell. Oh, I forgot. Who was it again who spent so much time in the library with you that he was kicked out as Captain of the Gryffindor team? Oh right, that was me."

"Oh - I didn't mean to - Ron, I am so sorry," Hermione said. "I know that you did that - and more." She stepped in front of Ron to stop him from moving. He floated so that he could look into her eyes. Hermione's apologies sounded sincere and she looked hopefully at him. He couldn't fight like this.

But he also couldn't tell her the truth. Couldn't tell her that he wasn't only jealous about Harry playing Quidditch. In the four days since Hermione's arrival, Harry had started talking again. Not much, but more than his usual 'pass the salt, please.' And Ron had seen Harry smiling for the first time in weeks.

Last night, when he had entered the living room, Hermione and Harry had been talking with their heads close together, almost whispering. When he had asked what was going on, Harry had joked about Ron's birthday, which wasn't for another eight months.

After that, when they had been alone, Ron had slyly asked Harry if there was any girl who he fancied.

"Nope," had been Harry's exact answer. But he'd said it with his 'straight' face, the one he usually reserved for lying.

The thought of Hermione and Harry getting together had hurt Ron more than he could have imagined.

All right, so most readers of Witch Weekly thought that it would happen. The magazine had even done a survey: 'Who will save The-Boy-Who-Lived-Again from his lonely heart?' Eighty percent of their readers suspected a passionate romance with Hermione.

Ron had never believed it. He knew his friends didn't like each other that way. He had never had worried about that. Until now.

But Ron could not tell Hermione this.

So he did the next best thing. He apologised. "I'm sorry. Didn't mean to bite your head off," he said. "It can just be so frustrating sometimes, not being able to play when I want to." He didn't feel comfortable talking about this, so he tried to change the subject. "Right, er, what was it that you wanted to say before I started shouting?"

Hermione, fully prepared to deal with an angry Ron, looked confused. "Well then, since everybody else is off playing, your mum made us some lunch. I brought it with me; I thought that we could picnic somewhere."

When she smiled her warm and lovely smile at him, Ron knew that he had made the right choice not to argue with her. Maybe, just maybe, they could have a nice afternoon together. Hermione was here with him and not cheering Harry on while he played seeker. That must mean something, right?

They found a spot by the large pond in the garden. It wasn't much, just a few trees by the water, which was big enough to swim in. If you didn't mind to swim very small circles that is.

But it was the place where Ron had captured frogs when he was little - and when he was not so little. Here, all the Weasley boys and one Weasley girl had learned to swim. When they'd become older, this was where they came to cool down on hot summer days after coming home from Hogwarts. Usually, that ended with a big friendly fight in the pond with the twins trying to pull down Ron's swimming trunks, nearly drowning him on more than one occasion.

Ron had Levitated himself from his chair and was now lying down in the grass, enjoying the feel of the sun in his face.

"Well, you've got appetite back," Hermione joked as she looked at the empty picnic basket. "You ate six BLT sandwiches. That's more than I've seen you eat in days. I started to worry, you know. Ron Weasley not eating. That is almost as unbelievable as--"

"Hermione Granger not reading," Ron interrupted. "But I haven't seen you with a book in a while. You've given it up, have you? Finally realised that too much reading is dangerous for the brain?"

Hermione rolled her eyes. "No, that's not it. The problem is that I haven't got anything new to read."

"You haven't got anything --? How can that be? Wait, I know," said Ron. "You've read every book in the world twice and you've got to wait till Flourish and Blotts get the next consignment. You read more than any publisher could print." He pushed his upper body up with his arms so he could sit up straight and look at her.

"It's just that I've read everything we had to learn for Hogwarts and all the advanced books. And then I've got all the Extra Advanced Literature. Now I am at a level where I need help to learn new things, a professor or somebody like that."

A small ladybug was walking over Hermione's leg, distracting Ron's attention to how lovely the leg in question was. When the ladybug flew away, he turned his attention back to what Hermione had said. It was quite disturbing, how brilliant Hermione was. Even Bill, who had to be very smart to become a curse-breaker, hadn't read any extra advanced books, Ron was sure of that.

He wondered what Hermione was planning to do now Hogwarts was over. They had talked about it in the beginning of the seventh year, but with Death Eater attacks all over Britain, plus Voldemort's increasing power, chatting about career options had never seemed relevant. Until this moment, Ron had tried to ignore the subject.

But this wasn't about him, it was about Hermione. And maybe, just maybe, Ron could help her. Even though he hated talks about the future, he asked her anyway what she wanted to do after the holiday.

Hermione sighed. "It's a bit of a problem. If I wasn't a witch, I would be going to a university. I like the idea of studying some more instead of getting a job immediately after school. But there isn't a wizard university, and I don't want to go to a Muggle school. Now that I know about the magical world, going back seems impossible. So, for once in her life, Hermione Granger doesn't know what to do." She watched the ladybug that now had landed on Ron's arm.

"That was part of the reason why I came here. My parents kept nagging me about my future and since they found my information about possible careers they keep suggesting all kind of unsuitable jobs. Last night my dad asked me if I wanted to work with dragons! He thought it sounded interesting."

"I know, that gets old very fast," said Ron. My mum does the same, except she uses the word 'ministry' in every four sentences. He spoke in a high-pitched voice: "Do you want some tea with a ministry, Ron dear?"

"Can't blame you for wanting to study," he continued. "Everybody knows that you're the best in that field. I bet you can become whatever you want to, being the smartest witch in our year and all that." Ron studied his shoes as he said that, feeling his ear tips burning. Giving compliments to Hermione wasn't something he was used to.

Hermione looked very pleased, and her cheeks were a bit red. "But being clever doesn't help me figuring out what to do, now does it?"

Ron stared at the sky as an idea formed in his head. A few white clouds drifted by while he tried to remember something Percy had gone on and on about a week ago. When it all came back to him, he knew it would be perfect for Hermione.

"Ever heard of something called SMART?" Ron asked. "It's the Scholastic Ministry's Apprenticeship for Rare Talents, bit of a mouthful if you ask me. The thing is, that in two years you can work at all the departments you like, for three months at a time."

Hermione was frowning a bit, listening very carefully.

"The best about it, for you that is, is that you've got to take an exam every three months. That way they can find out if you learned enough. If you fail, you have to leave the program; if you make it, you go on to a different department. Because it's so fancy, you can get almost any job you want after two years."

"Is this new?" Hermione asked. "I haven't read about it in the folders I've got from Hogwarts."

"Just started," said Ron. "When that git Percy came back home for the first time after the war, he kept rambling on about it. Turns out he couldn't be part of it, since he already worked at the Ministry. So, what do you reckon?"

"Oh, Ron, what a wonderful idea!" Hermione moved closer towards him as if she wanted to hug him, but changed her mind halfway through. Her arms fell to the ground instead, knocking over the bottle of iced tea Molly had given them. She didn't even notice it falling.

"Do you know where I can sign up? I want to do it as soon as possible. It's perfect." Hermione's eyes glowed with excitement, and she looked as if she was ready to run to the Burrow and owl the Ministry right there and then.

"Hold your horses," Ron said, amused by her reaction. "It's Sunday. Not even my dad is working on the weekends anymore, not now that the war is over. I reckon that tomorrow will be soon enough to send them a letter."

They talked about the pros and cons of the plan for a while. Actually Hermione talked about the pros: the exams, the experience and the salary. It figured that she would list the exams first. After they had discussed every part of the subject, Hermione wanted to talk about something else.

"Enough about me," she said. "What about you? Have you applied for a job yet?"

Ron had been dreading this moment since the day she'd arrived. Harry was so busy remembering the last months that he hadn't started worrying about the future yet. Unfortunately, Hermione wasn't like that. She was always thinking one step ahead.

Ron could lie to her, of course. He could tell her that he didn't have a clue what to do, or that he wanted some vacation first.

But he couldn't. Not when she was interested in him this way, really wanting to know what was going on in his head. So he grabbed the crumpled letter out of his pocket..

An owl he hadn't recognized had delivered it to him on their last day at Hogwarts. The day that had turned out so very badly. He knew the contents by heart after reading it over and over again. It said:

Dear Mr Weasley,

We are glad to inform you that you have been selected to do a tryout for the position of Second Keeper on our team.

If you are interested in playing Quidditch for the Chudley Cannons, we shall expect you on 1 August at our stadium, one o'clock pm sharp. If not, please reply to cancel.

Yours sincerely,

Harold Smith

Chudley Cannons Captain

AN: All of my reviewers: thank you. Your comments make writing this story so much more fun.

And also a big thank you to Helen, Kewii, Kedavra77 and Buckbeaky. This chapter would've been unreadable without their help.