One Step Closer-Ron-Hermione New Year contest2012

Sixth Year-January 1, 1997

"Hermione, would you like me to help you with anything?" asked her mum while she picked up the tray with the empty teacup.

"No thanks." Hermione replied, giving her mother a drowsy smile.

Mrs. Granger leaned over and kissed her daughter's forehead. "Your Dad and I will be downstairs if you need anything else darling," she said "Let me know if you want to talk."

"Thank you Mum," Hermione replied as her mother nodded and closed the door behind her.

Hermione took a deep breath, and pulled out a new piece of paper and a quill. Her gaze drifted to the corners of her bed, where a half a dozen crumpled paper balls had gathered. They had started all the same way-as her New Year's Resolution list.

I, Hermione Jane Granger, resolve to do in the New Year:

1. Make a Better Effort to spend time with Mum and Dad.  

Hermione rubbed her eyes, before new tears formed. She had two wonderful parents who had always loved her and supported her, and while growing concerned about many of the things that were happening at Hogwarts, like what had happened at the end of last year, they had not shunned her or pulled her out of Hogwarts like the parents of many other Muggle-born kids had done. They had promised her that no matter what happened they would be there for her. It was now that she realized how she had taken them for granted in the last two years. And With Voldemort back- she needed to be there with them as much as possible.

2. Improve Tactics of promoting S.P.E.W.

3. Help Harry with Voldemort issue.

4. Stop being friends with R-[crossed]
4. Throw away every gift given by-[crossed]
4. Don't speak to Ron Weasley Ever Aga-[crossed]

This time Hermione didn't bothered to wipe the tears that were now falling unrestrained from her eyes, splashing onto her list.  
This was one of the things Hermione's parents had tried to help her with. They were surprised when Hermione had come straight home for the holidays, as opposed to pass by the Burrow or stay at Hogwarts for Christmas, but they had asked nothing. It was only later on Christmas morning when Hermione had received  two packages delivered by Errol, that they noticed something was clearly wrong. One of the presents had been from Ron. It had included a note saying, "Everyone missed you at the Burrow" and "I'm Sorry".  Upon reading the note Hermione had finally broken down and explained everything to her parents. About when and what she she realized she felt for Ron, The misunderstanding over the Felix Felicis Potion. Lavender.

Her parents had tried to make her feel better as best as they could, her father even suggested that the relationship between Lavender and Ron didn't seem like it would last much longer, while her mother said that it seemed to her that Hermione and Ron have had several big rows like this in the past and those had turned out alright in the end, for Hermione to just give it time.  The subject had been dropped after that, her parents managing to distract her from her heartache by taking her to the new library and the new Shakespeare in the park play. At night, they had stayed at home, and her father had read her Jane Austen like he used to do when Hermione was younger.

But now it was the first of January 1997, and Hermione knew she would have to go back to Hogwarts, not only to be reminded of the War and Voldemort and anti-Muggle sentiments, but also she would be seeing Ron with his arms wrapped around Lavender as if he would never…

She bit her lip to prevent herself from crying anymore. She had tried to reason through it, she had even thought of throwing away the present Ron had sent her, Card and All.

But she couldn't. No matter what she told herself she couldn't make her feelings for Ron go away. When she was at Hogwarts she could walk out of the room when he and Lavender snogged, or  simply ignore him. She had even tried to make him jealous, but that had hurt her more than it had affected him…

"What did I do Wrong?" Hermione lamented. She had thought her and Ron were... that they were moving forward towards being more than friends.  She had been wishing for it ever since the end of fourth year, maybe earlier. And Ron had smiled when he emphasized that he wanted to go to Slughorn party with her… but then all the sudden he was giving her the cold shoulder, and then….

Hermione sniffed. She didn't know what to do about it anymore. She missed Ron, but as long as he seemed to have eyes only for Lavender… there was nothing she could do. That's why she, at the suggestion of her father, was writing a New Year resolution list. He had thought that it could help her keep things in order. But she couldn't think of any good resolutions that would help her problem with Ron.

"Fine then. If he wants to be that way and keep snogging that, That Lavender Brown….."

She picked up her Quill again and wrote,

4. Keep on Missing/ignoring Ronald Billius Weasley
5. Let Ronald be the one to apologize for his behavior first.

She placed the paper inside her the new beaded bag her mother had given her for Christmas, and walked out of the room to help take down the decorations.



Seventh Year-January 1,1998

Ron had expected his return to bring a change in the weather. And it had, but not exactly in the way he had expected it. Things were relatively back to normal, if you counted that Harry was talking to him, and that he was trying to make up for the time he had spent away by bringing Harry up to date with all that he knew about what the Order been doing.  He told Harry and Hermione that he had tried communicating with some of the others via Patronus, and generally helped plan out the next move in the hunt for the horcruxes. It was true that they didn't had any new leads on where the next horcrux was, but Ron was determined to keep them moving and on the lookout. Which was easier said than done, when Hermione refused to talk to him much until they had escaped the Lovegood's house.

He wasn't surprised that Hermione had remained mad at him. Or that she had tried to hit him, even if he had preferred if she had thrown her arms around him and kissed him. After all, she had spent months last year acting as if he didn't exist, because he had let his insecurities get the best of him and hurt her by getting into a relationship with Lavender, who had thrown herself at him. Now he had hurt her again, by running away over an complaining stomach and horcrux feed lies. He had been stupid to think she would forgive him quickly for that.

But he was trying. He tried to be as helpful as possible by looking up information in the portable library Hermione had brought, he did double watch shifts in the watch so that Hermione could keep looking for clues in her books. He even tried to help with the cooking for a change….
It felt like it was working though. Hermione had been, well less dismissive of him the last couple of days, and it seemed like she had smiled at him when he sided with her about going to see Xenophilius Lovegood.

And… when the Lovegood's house was falling apart, it had been Hermione's hand that had reached out first to grab him, while he had grabbed Harry's.

He sighed. He really wanted to fix things with Hermione, to apologize for everything he had done to hurt her. Lavender, leaving her and Harry, everything.

But he knew he had to give her time. Talk to her if she wanted to talk, to not push her.

He let out a heavy sigh,  visible in the cold weather. The Weather had been bloody awful as well. It had been a non-stop down pouring hell for the past week, and keeping watch while it rained would have been worse if he had not gotten better at impervious charms after the stun at the Ministry.

He picked up the old radio his dad had given him, and tapped it with his wand trying to pick up the frequency of the next PotterWatch.
Suddenly he felt someone plop down beside him, hissing angrily. He turned to see Hermione who continued ranting on and on about Harry.
"Do- Do you want to talk?" Ron asked, nervously.

At first Hermione threw him a glare that would have made him reach for his wand to use as shield, but after a second the glare soften into that of annoyance.

"I don't understand why he's being so stupid! We're supposed to be hunting for the horcruxes! Not on some old superstitious wives' tale about impossibly invincible objects! And he just…."

"Won't listen, yeah," Ron said, he didn't want to say anything about agreeing with Harry on the possibility that the hallows existed, but he did agreed with Hermione that Harry was obsessing over them and forgetting that finding and destroying the horcruxes was more important, "I'm trying to see if I can pick up any news on the radio, see if that makes Harry snap out of it" Ron said.
Hermione stopped her rant to look at Ron.

"Have you heard anything about the others? About Luna or Dean?"

Ron shook his head, "Last I heard was about large groups of caught muggleborns and "blood traitors" being sent to Azkaban, to await trial, but there was no mention of Lovegood or Dean Thomas specifically"  

Hermione sighed. Without  thinking, Ron placed a hand on her shoulder. Hermione noticed it, but didn't shrug it off.
Hermione wrapped her arms around herself. Ron knew that this was because something bothered her and she tried to think of ways to not think about it. She leaned closer to him, and sighed. Ron was surprised at her gesture, and it occurred to him this was as best time as anything to… Talk. He hoped he wouldn't blow it up and have her hex him.  She was about to open her mouth to say something when Ron interrupted.

"I'm Sorry," he said.

She looked at him puzzled for half a second before her expression changed to one of attentiveness. "Go on".

"I'm sorry about the thing with Lavender. I know I already apologized for it, but it was stupid. I took advantage of her fancying me and I hurt you,  and I shouldn't have let it go on as long as it did, but I didn't know how to break it off with Lavender without hurting her too.  I knew she fancied me more than I fancied her, but I didn't want to end up as even more of a git, and all because Ginny made me feel less of a man compared to Viktor Krum…."

"Ron…"

But now that he had started talking Ron didn't want to stop, "And it was the same thing all over again, that's why I left… The… the horcrux put ideas in my head… it knew I was insecure, that I somehow felt I wasn't good enough for you compared to Harry. I'd done nothing good enough to help with this, and the horcrux said you were better off with Harry than useless, poor Ron Weasley. And… I know I shouldn't have let it get to me. But it felt like the last straw. And I was wrong. I really shouldn't have listened to it, I should have known what it was telling me were all lies, and I'm sorry.  I really did want to come back as soon as I left. And for weeks all I could do was feel angry that I abandoned you two. You are my best friends. I know I'm probably never going to be able to apologize fully for what I did, for leaving and for hurting you, but I'm not going to do that ever again. I'll help with whatever I can to try and make up for it, but I understand if you never want to talk to me Hermione."

Both of them were silent for what Ron felt was ages. Hermione didn't say anything and Ron couldn't read the expression on her face. Suddenly she turned around to face him again and wrapped her arms around him, her head resting on his shoulder.

He knew he shouldn't ask, but he couldn't help himself, "So does that mean that I'm forgiven?"

Hermione pulled away from him and looking at him with a smile playing on her lips, "It's a start".

But  the smile on Ron's face widened.

As they got up they heard a recognizable voice coming from the tent. They looked to each other confused and alarmed before rushing into the tent, their wands drawn out.
They found Harry staring at the remnants of a wisp of glowing blue light, and realized the voice had come from a Patronus. Harry turned around to face them, and his expression seemed to have lost that over-focused, obsessive air he has had for the past few days. If Ron had to be honest, harry looked a little downcast. Harry smiled at them apologetically.

"I send a Patronus to Lupin. I wanted to ask him about the hallows and he… He didn't seem very impressed. And… I got another Patronus from.." Harry paused, "it said that we might get a box with supplies in the next town."

Hermione and Ron looked at each other. They felt relief that Harry seemed to have snapped out of his hallows-obsession. They didn't knew if that would last long, after all, Ron had tried to reason with him when Hermione couldn't, and that hadn't last long.

They decided to make the best of it while it lasted, and decided that maybe moving camp might help things. So they quickly gathered and packed everything, looked at the maps Ron had collected while he had been away to see where the next town was, and after Hermione dissolved the protective charms, they were off.

They reached the next town by late afternoon, and once they finished setting up camp they ventured into the town under the invisibility cloak. They reached the abandoned house that had been mentioned in the Patronus message, and found two large baskets with a variety of food, toiletries, and some other supplies.  They had managed to pick everything up between the three of them, when they heard voices talking about the celebrations tonight.

"Tomorrow must be New year's Eve" Hermione said.

"Well we better go back to the camp before the celebration starts, or we might get caught" Harry said.

They went back to the camp site and after much discussion, in which Ron mentioned they had plenty of food for a few more weeks so they might as well take a break from planning where the next horcrux is to relax till tomorrow, they began preparing stuff for a makeshift new year's eve celebration.  Harry remained in a good, non-hallows focused mood, but Ron couldn't help but noticed that Hermione dropped a word or two of concern about Luna and the others, in case Harry's mind wandered away from the mission again.

Ron felt it didn't took much effort to get Harry distracted right now, because he had found among the things packed in the baskets that there was a homemade Treacle Tart, even thought Ron doubted it had come from his mom. Maybe Kreacher had made the food?
For the remaining of the afternoon the talk of horcruxes and hallows had been far away from their minds. They had reminiscence about old times, and even dared to wonder what they would do once all of this was over, when they had destroyed the horcruxes and Voldemort had been defeated.

The more somber talk had been interrupted by the sound of explosions and cracking noises outsides. Pulling out their wands they went outside the tent to see a fireworks display up in the sky above the forest where they were hiding.

"Happy New Year Ron, Hermione" Harry said.

"Happy New Year," They replied. Ron then noticed that Hermione had intertwined her fingers with his.

Next to him Harry coughed. Ron turned to him and saw Harry arched an eyebrow at him as if to say "Is this the moment?".

Ron shrugged but taking a look at Hermione, who had cuddled next to him to watch the fireworks, smiled.

Harry coughed again and got up, "Well I… um I'll get some butterbeers" he went inside the tent, leaving Ron and Hermione watching the firework display.

Knowing that they were alone, and that Hermione seemed to be on speaking terms with him again, Ron decided to risk putting his arm around Hermione.

Hermione didn't seemed to mind that either, as she moved a little closer to him, and rested her head against his arm.

"This is nice"

"Yeah, it is"

"Wonder what will happened this year,"

They were silent for a few minutes, just watching a particular firework bloom and burst into red and golden sparkles.

"Hermione?"

"Yes?"

"What are you thinking about?"

Hermione was silent for a few minutes before answering. "Well I'm trying not to worry about Harry, or about what we are going to do tomorrow, and the day after, or worry about how long it will take to track down the remaining horcruxes and…"

"That seems like a New Year's resolution list to me," Ron replied.

"Well, it's not like we have something else to do," Hermione said, "What are your New Year's resolutions Ron?"

"Well they're pretty similar to yours but…" Ron said, feeling his ears go red, "I was also thinking… about you"

He couldn't help but notice that Hermione was blushing, "So have I,"

"Hermione, I know it's the last thing you want to think about right now but… if one of us doesn't make it-"

"Ron, don't… don't say that-"

"I want us to work. I want… I don't want to blow this again. I did it twice, I don't want to… to die not having told you everything-"
Hermione placed a finger to his lips. "I feel the same way Ron, I do but… We can't. Our priority should be to destroy the horcruxes and defeat Voldemort. We can't…."

Ron kissed her forehead. "It's alright, I understand"

Hermione sighed and pulled Ron closer to her, "But when you were gone… I couldn't stop thinking of all the things I could have done differently. To try and be more supportive…"

"Yeah, me too"

"Let's… let's make that our new years resolution. To try to communicate better. To be honest with each other, To…"

"To make this work when the time-"

"Is right, yes." Hermione said and smiled.

"I can do that," Ron said.

"Then it's a New Year promise," Hermione said, offering him some pumpkin juice.

Ron smiled. Hermione was right. The time was not right. He had to remain optimistic that they would find and destroy the horcruxes, that they would defeat Voldemort and all the Death Eaters, and that he and Harry and Hermione would make it in the end. Looking at Hermione, her eyes shinning bright under the light of the fireworks, Ron felt hopeful that they would be okay.

Ron took the cup from Hermione's hand, and closed his fingers around hers.