Marry Me

Hermione had changed out of her muddy clothes, showered, and slid into some comfortable silk pajamas before she smelled that horrible burning smell.

Ron was sitting there on the couch deep in thought obviously not smelling whatever that wretched smell was.

"Ron, were you cooking something?" Hermione asked as she headed to the kitchen. The sight before her not only frightened her, but it angered her. The stove was spitting out puffs of smoke around the sides and it looked as if it were about to explode.

Ron ran up behind her and stared blankly at the stove . This didn't light Hermione's mood at all. She ran back to the bedroom, grabbed her wand off the counter, and headed back to the kitchen where she put the stove out with an Extinguishing Charm. She turned back to Ron, strands of hair flying in every direction.

"Were you just going to stand there?" She asked upset. She turned to see the candles and then turned back to see Ron's sad expression. Unfortunately, her mood gotten the better of her.

She blew out the candles and flicked on the kitchen light.

"Order some Chinese," she said rather curtly and headed back to the bedroom, where she slammed the door once again. Only this time, it did not slam in Ron's face.

It seemed as if she had to do everything for Ron. If he ever got in trouble in school, she would rescue him. When he needed some references for his job at Gringott's, Hermione helped him. If he couldn't break some stupid curse, she would do it for him. She wouldn't really do the job for him, but she ended up taking over.

It wasn't just Ron that bothered her. It was men in general. They seemed to always want credit for things that sometimes wouldn't be done if it weren't for a woman.

"Just like today," she said to herself. Hermione knew fully well that this job was going to be hard work. But it's nor hard with teamwork. She was always so used to having some sort of help in difficult situations; even if Harry always took the credit, and Ron always gave the credit to him. Men were absolutely ridiculous.

She knew what she had to do. She had to get away from men as quickly as possible, before she hexed or cursed everyone she saw.

"Especially Ron."

Hermione stopped and thought.

"Why am I so angry with Ron? He just tried to fix a nice romantic dinner."

Then Hermione's softness slowly faded away, "I'm mad at him because he's a man. If it were me, that dinner would BE perfect. There wouldn't be any mess-ups and that's another thing..." Hermione sat, more like fell down on the bed and put her head in a pillow.

"When is he going to propose to me?" She screamed at the top of her lungs, but thankfully the pillow muffled it a bit.

"All right." Hermione was definitely talking to herself now. "All right. If he won't propose to me within the week, I'm going to... I'm going to..." she then screamed so loud that there was a crashing coming from the living room, followed by Ron knocking on the door.

"Are you okay!" He asked concerned.

"Uh yeah, I'm fine!" Hermione sighed.

"No I'm not," she said quietly. "What's wrong with me?" She suddenly didn't want Ron to touch her. On her way home, she saw Harry and didn't say 'hello' to him, and she wanted to kill Draco today. Well, she's always wanted to bury him somewhere, but she's never been that rude to Harry. Okay well there was that one time when she was angry at the world, but that was when her parents died. There was no real explanation for her being angry this time.

She just seemed to be fed up.

"With what?" She asked herself. This was the most ridiculous feeling she had ever felt.

"Tomorrow I'm going to see Mrs. Weasley and talk about at least one of my problems."

Eventually she fell asleep, forgetting about Ron, the Chinese, or Draco for that matter. Sleep soothed her.

~o~

She awoke to an empty bed; surprised that Ron wasn't there. It was after all, very early and she didn't think he'd even be halfway into his dream.

Hermione showered and dressed for work. She was definitely not in the mood to fix breakfast, so she didn't. Instead, she made herself some toast and water and headed for the fireplace.

"The Burrow," Hermione said unenthusiastically as she was whisked away.

~o~

To Hermione's non-surprise, Mrs. Weasley was sitting at the small dining table reading the Daily Prophet and drinking a cup of tea. She didn't even look up when Hermione came in the kitchen, instead she said, "Morning Hermione."

When Hermione sighed instead of reply, she looked up worried. "What's wrong, dear?" She asked consolingly.

Hermione shook her head and sat down.

"All right then," Mrs. Weasley went back to her paper, then she added, "but if you're going to sit and look so pathetic I know there has to be some reason." Mrs. Weasley then looked back up from her paper and smiled.

Hermione immediately told her exactly what the problem was.

"So you're saying that you're fed up with men entirely. You want nothing to do with them. And you think that if Ron isn't ready for a step-up, then you're going to take a... break?" Mrs. Weasley asked.

After hearing Mrs. Weasley say all this, Hermione thought that this suddenly sounded stupid.

"It sounds silly, doesn't it?" Hermione sighed.

Mrs. Weasley instead laughed. "No, it doesn't sound silly. In fact, I quite understand how you feel. I am after all, married to a Weasley man myself. And believe it or not, Ron possesses qualities quite like his father. The best thing for you to do dear is to tell him exactly what you told me. It works every time. When you get in home from work, you go straight up to Ron and tell him that you want some time alone, or whatever it is young people say. Trust me, don't look so worried."

Hermione did have to admit she felt a bit reluctant about this advice, but if Mrs. Weasley said it work, then of course it would work.

~o~

So after she did get home from work, (another horrible day involving Draco) she had made up her mind to tell Ron exactly what she had told Mrs. Weasley, if nicer.

And just as she suspected, Ron was sitting on the couch watching television (a Muggle item he couldn't refuse) and eating a slice of pizza. But when he did look up to see Hermione, he had once again gone sickly green.

Not wanting to know what the problem was, Hermione sat down and immediately began her 'talk'.

"Ron, I think we really need to talk about where our relationship is. I mean it's not in any bad shape... It isn't. I just... Well, I just think it'd be best if we had some time alone. So we can think out where this relationship is heading. We've been dating since fifth year. Actually, sixth... But I do count fifth, too. Well anyway, I am at a point in my life where I want to kill every man around me. That's not healthy for me, and that's definitely not healthy for you. So, while I'm in there packing... Yes, I'm giving you the flat. You need to be thinking hard, Ron. Really hard."

~o~

Instead of what she wanted to happen, Ron had left when she came back outside to see if there was any progress.

So she did exactly what she said she was going to do. She packed all her clothes, the little that she had, some of her books, and was on her way.

"All I'm waiting on is 'will you marry me'," Hermione said sadly and closed the door behind her.