Marry Me

Ron looked at the door Hermione had just closed in his face. Well that was it, wasn't it? She had just stated her case. Either you do it or you don't.

But as soon as he pulled out that brown velvet box, he choked on his own heart.

"Spineless," he whispered to himself.

So he tried a new approach. He was going to leave the box there. Oh, that didn't make any sense, Hermione would definitely not accept a proposal if he wasn't there to ask the question.

"Bloody hell, Hermione."

Ron tried this approach anyway, though. He sat the box on the coffee table and tried his best to assure himself that this would be the best and ONLY way he'd propose since he could never even get the words 'will you' when she was in the same room with her.

So, he had left. The best thing that he could do now after this brave move was to calm himself. He had gotten all jumpy after just five minutes of even thinking about mar... he couldn't even think the word. So he Apparated to Diagon Alley and went to the Three Broomsticks to get a Fire Whiskey.

~o~

"Ah, being famous is nice," Ron said smiling when he headed out of the noisy pub. The unfortunate part of fame in a pub is that the drinks never stop coming. So Ron was more than calm and he had spent more than a few minutes, as usual. But it did clear his head, and that was the plan after all.

Ron opened the door to the flat calling out drunkenly, "Hermione! Hermione!" But he didn't get an answer. This sobered him up rather quickly.

"Oh no." Ron fell back on the couch.

"She turned me down. I should've known it wouldn't work. He immediately pounded himself on the forehead with his palm and repeated the words 'stupid' with each pound.

"Let's think about this, Ronald," he said aloud as he paced around the room. "Hermione wouldn't just leave me."

Oh but she will and she has, a voice said.

"Maybe, I better talk to Ginny." Ron ran over to the chimney and grabbed the Floo Powder. He knelt down and threw the Powder in and stuck his head inside. "Godric's Hollow!" He had said this so many times in this particular chimney that after a while, he didn't have to use the whole address.

Ron looked around and saw Ginny sitting at the kitchen table, glaring at him.

Instead of a nice hello, Ginny received a, "Where's Hermione?"

"Believe it or not, idiot brother, she isn't here. I sent her off somewhere. She kept snapping at Harry. She had to go." Ginny stuck her thumb up and threw it over shoulder.

"Ginny, I've been really stupid."

"Surprise, surprise," Ginny said coolly.

Ron stuck his hand through the chimney, quickly flipping Ginny the bird, and was gone. When he pulled back, he laughed mockingly at Ginny's hand reaching through the chimney. She returned the favor and her hand slipped back through the fireplace.

He sighed. "Well, I could always go over to mum's. Hermione could be there. Or maybe Ginny was lying. She was strangely good at it in school." Ron scratched his head and thought about it for s short while.

"Why am I the one making a big fuss? She saw that box, I know she saw that box. It was right there!" He pointed to the coffee table.

"I think that sometimes I'm getting the raw end of the bloody deal! Hermione knows that it would take me a hard time to do something this big! That's right! This is a big step! For all I know she could turn me down. That's right!"

Ron fell back on the couch. "Who am I kidding? What I just said made no sense whatsoever. I know in my heart that I want to do this. I'm just... chicken."

And Ron eventually put himself to sleep talking about the huge mistake he just made.

~o~

Hermione sat across from Ginny staring at her.

"You're not drinking your tea," Ginny said quietly.

Hermione rolled her eyes and pushed the tea away from her. "I don't want tea. I want Ron."

"What?" Ginny said laughing. "Why'd you leave?"

"Because I was upset."

"And why were you upset?"

Hermione didn't say anything. She looked at the cup of tea and sighed. "I wasn't upset at Ron. It started at work. I told you about this already. Draco was being himself as usual, and I had to suffer the consequences. But when I came in and I saw Ron, I sort of snapped. He burned the dinner, and then the bedroom wasn't clean. I was covered in mud and all he could do was just stare at me like I was wearing gold."

There was a crash coming from the living room and Ginny jumped up. "Hermione, before you leave, because I know you are."

"You always do!" Ginny said when she saw the look on Hermione's face. "Will you please remember this?"

Ginny held up a finger. "My brother was the first one to bring up the fact that you liked each other."

She held up a second finger. "Ron kissed you first."

She held up a third finger. "Ron asked you to move in with him."

Ginny put her hand down.

"Don't you think it's time you made the first move? After all, you are the one that's stressing the idea of the 'M' word."

Before Ginny could say anything else, there was a loud crash and then a little giggle and Harry yelling, "Ginny help!"

Hermione stood up with her bag on her shoulder. Now what was she going to do? There was always The Leaky Cauldron, but she never liked sleeping there by herself. Every time she would have to spend a night there, Ron or at least Harry would be there to keep her company.

"I am a Gryffindor. A Gryffindor! I'm going back to that apartment. Besides, it isn't fair for me to always expect Ron to make the first move!"

With that, Hermione headed for their apartment.

~o~

Ron didn't stir in his sleep ever, but the door slamming knocked him awake and he had his wand pointed at the frozen Hermione. At least she wasn't muddy.

"We need to talk, Ron!" Hermione closed the door behind her and dropped her bags.

"Yes, we do," he replied.

And for two people that had so much to say to each other, they were completely silent for a long length of time.

"Ron..."

"Hermione..."

Ron ran his hands through his red hair, while Hermione bit her bottom lip.

They both smiled at each other and said, "you go first" at the same time. This only caused nervous laughter that didn't help the situation any bit.

Ron and Hermione took a deep breath and said in outburst of noise, "willyoumarryme".

And then there was the silence, followed by the annoying nervous laughter.

"Marry me, Ron," Hermione said exasperated. It sounded more like a plea than a question.

A lopsided grin spread on his face.

"Only if you'll marry me."