A Sleepless Night

"Daddy?"

The voice came quietly but perfectly audibly through the darkness and Ron sighed slightly as he opened the door to his daughter's bedroom.

"Rosie? – what are you still doing up sweetheart?"

In the orange glow of her night lamp, he could just see her peeking out from the top of her bed clothes, a pale little face under her curly mop of red hair, her brown eyes with the wide, glazed look of someone tired beyond sleepiness. They blinked slowly as she answered.

"I couldn't sleep … could you tell me a story?"

He sighed again and rubbed a hand exhaustedly over his face, but he knew better than to refuse. If Rose said she couldn't sleep without a story then she couldn't sleep without a story, just lie awake and come down the next morning in an almost hypnotic state that was hard to get her out of.

"Just a short one, then. Do you want anything to drink?"

She considered for a moment, puckering up her eyebrows, biting her lip and looking exactly like her mother for a minute before coming back to earth with a ravishing, gap-toothed smile.

"Yes please, I want some milk made all hot in my rabbit mug"

A few minutes later they were both cuddled up in Rose's bed with her bright head nestled on his chest, a milk moustache gracing her top lip.

"So what do you want, eh? Babbity Rabbity? That muggle one with the bears that your mother reads you?"

She shook her head firmly. "No, I want you to tell a story, not read one."

He scratched his chin for a moment in thought – but at this time of the night it was a miracle he hadn't already fallen back onto her bed snoring.

"I think I'm a bit too tired to be making up stories tonight poppet – maybe another …"

"-Tell me something real then." He looked down at his daughter in surprise, but she only blinked innocently at him as if the suggestion had been the most normal thing in the world…

"Something real?" his mind raced , she was hardly old enough to hear most of the things he'd gotten up to at the auror department – and an account of his years at Hogwarts would have taken many nights… but apart from that there wasn't really anything to tell her….unless.

"Ok," he began expertly – taking a fortifying gulp of tea from his own mug on the night stand. "So –err- once upon a time, there were these three kids, two boys and a girl - who ran around and had all these adventures-."
He saw her mouth open.

"-which I will tell you about another time." He added firmly. "And anyway  , the thing was was that one of the boys- the kind of funny looking , tall one – secretly had this giant crush on the girl , only he always thought that she didn't like him back because she kept going out with all these other id-I mean , blokes – so he kept his mouth shut
about it."

"What about the other boy they were friends with?" asked Rose, wide eyed – "did he like
her too?"

"Oh no – they were always just friends – and he liked someone else anyway – but the tall boy didn't know that , see – and his friend was really good at quiddich and had done all this great stuff so he always thought the girl would prefer him…"

"But they got together in the end, didn't they Daddy?"  He tapped her lightly on the top of the head, resisting the urge to laugh – it was so typical of Rose to cut straight to the point without passing go.

"Hey , pipe down you – but yes they did find out that they both liked each other eventually , only by that time they were both nearly grown up and living in different
places so it was hard to meet up very much – so what the boy did was this….

*************************************************************

The day had dawned as bright and dry as one could reasonably expect in October, and if the rock Ron had chosen to sit on to watch the stream of Hogwarts students make their way down to the village was slightly damper, and the sky quite a lot more hazier than he would have wished, he was just grateful it wasn't tipping down with rain.

As they reached him , a few of the students stared or nudged their friends – but most of the older ones waved or grinned knowingly at him , obviously realising that it was no coincidence that he was in the village on the day of a Hogsmeade trip.

Finally he saw her, endearingly familiar in her old Hogwarts robes and in an animated
conversation with Ginny, who tactfully held back when she spotted him ahead.

"I think you've got a visitor."

At her words, Hermione looked around her blankly for a moment before she too spotted Ron ahead.

They had written to each other every week, Ron's letters admittedly shorter and less detailed than hers, but had not seen one another for nearly two months; Ron had braced himself for awkwardness, maybe even a rejection. But there was none of that – she took nearly half a second to take in his presence , a look of such joy on her face that he knew he would never forget it , and without another moment of hesitation ran straight to him and kissed him full on the mouth. It was as if the last few months had never happened.
They drew apart slightly, both beaming.

"I'll just go then…"he heard his sister saying somewhere in the background, amusement evident in her voice.

"Harry says hi…" he replied vaguely, not taking his eyes off Hermione and ignoring her retort that it wouldn't kill Harry to come down and say it himself sometime.

They walked down through the parade of shops, not speaking yet – just getting used to being together again, every now and then catching each other's gaze and grinning. It was only as they neared the end of the street that Hermione actually spoke.

"Err where are we going exactly?"

Ron nodded innocently to Madame Puddifoots café, pretending not to see Hermione's look of total disgust.

"Oh just in there – I thought we'd have some tea, eat some –ouch! That hurt!"
She crossed her arms and smirked at him with a certain amount of dignity "Stop being so dramatic - I didn't kick you that hard -and anyway, stop teasing!"

He laughed "Fine – but I'm not telling you, it's a surprise"

He rolled her eyes.

"Oh all right then – as long as it's nowhere pink…"

They walked on for a while, talking casually, their shoes crunching over fallen leaves.

"How's George?" Hermione asked finally as he helped her over a stile, the lightest of hands on her waist.

Ron grimaced slightly. "Oh…y'know…not great – Percy's with him right now, thought it probably wouldn't be too smart to leave him on his own for the moment…"

He felt Hermione's hand sliding into his and gently squeezed it.

"Let's not talk about that right now though,"

They walked past the cave that first Sirius, then Hagrid had hidden in, before rounding the corner.

Hermione gasped.

"Oh Ron!" she looked to the spot he had picked out, on a ledge where a large picnic basket lay amongst the wildflowers, and to the phenomenal view of the valley and distant castle , laid out like a picture in a book of fairy tales. He had to admit it was one of his better ideas.

She now turned to him, beaming but a little confused.

"You did all this?"

He shrugged, trying not to look too pleased with himself.
"Well…Mum did most of the picnic but apart from that…" he checked his watch "speaking of which we'd better get going on it or you'll be late…"

She waved her hand dismissively.

"Oh well, McGonagall won't mind too much…and anyway-"she added, putting her arms around him "- I can just say I was out with my boyfriend…"

**************

"So," Ron continued, covering a yawn with his hand and scooting to the side slightly so that Rose could slide off his lap and snuggle into his side instead. "They stayed together for the rest of the year and when the girl left Hogwarts she came to live in this little flat in London with him and they were pretty happy – er, mostly anyway- so a few years after that he cooked her a special dinner and asked her to marry him."

"Did she say yes?" came a little voice from the doorway and Ron sat bolt upright for a moment in shock, before spotting his son and relaxing again.

"Hugo! You're supposed to be asleep-it's really late!"

He wandered up to the bedside, dragging his blanket behind him. "I was – but then I waked
up – an' Rose is awake too!"

Ron turned to look at his daughter, he was sure she'd been drifting off a moment ago but now she seemed all bright and bushy tailed again, he hesitated for a moment – then
gestured for Rose to make room and lifted Hugo up onto the bed too.

"Fine, I'll finish the story, but then everyone's going back to their beds and staying there, alright?"

Two small tousled heads nodded.

"Right, so – what now Hugo?"

"Did she say yes?" the small boy repeated.

"Err" Ron considered, smiling at the memory –"well sort of…."

******
He had indeed made her dinner, as well as cleaning the flat (Well, the living room anyway, there was no point in going overboard.) and was now waiting for her to get home from work , nervously going through all the advice Ginny had given him earlier that day when he had sheepishly told her his plans.

"Just be nice to her Ron! And for goodness sake don't panic – I know how you get- its only Hermione after all…"

Don't panic , don't panic , don't panic he told himself desperately , wiping his sweating palms on his robes , it's like Ginny said : its only 'mione , you've known her since you were eleven so get a grip!

Hermione chose that moment to get home from work.

"Hi darling, sorry I'm late, I had such a horrible da- why is your hair like that?" She looked at him suspiciously before surveying the rest of the apartment.

"And everything's in the wrong place, and did you cook?" her eyes were narrowed to slits now. "What have you done?"

This was such an unexpected glitch in all his well laid out plans that all he could do was gape at her stupidly.

"Don't look at me like that, you only do this kind of thing when you're trying to make up for something…what's that you're behind your back – is it something else you've broken?"  She was starting to look really angry now, and tired too. "Look, I'm really not in the mood for this I – come to bed when you've got the guts to tell me whatever it was you did…." She actually had one hand on the door knob before he managed to get past his bout of shocked speechlessness and call out, somewhat desperately.

"Marry me!"

She froze and slowly turned around, her gaze flicking quickly to the small box now held in his outstretched hand and then back to his face, trying to tell if he was serious.
Then there was a loud "eeee"-ing noise and the next thing he knew he had been thrown back onto the sofa with Hermione's arms and legs wrapped around him and she was kissing him.
"So…I take that as a yes?" he asked a while later.

Nearly a year after that he, after a brisk "good luck mate" from Harry, had given his life heart and soul to her in front of all their family and friends, and she to him. He had never been happier.

*****

"Is that the end of the story now Daddy?" Asked Rose, who was now in her drowsy state again.

"Not quite poppet" he replied "because , see, not so long after that the girl – who was now a proper grown up lady- found out that she had a baby in her tummy , and the day she was born her husband bought her a bit bunch of-"

"Roses." For the second time that night, someone had spoken from the doorway, just out of range of the lamplight. It was his wife this time, slightly rumpled looking from sleep but grinning as she joined them on Rose's bed, which was now rather squashed.

"Roses like Rosie!" giggled Hugo, prodding his sister with his foot.

"Exactly" Ron still addressed his children but held his wife's gaze. "And she was the most beautiful girl in the world, and a few years after that they had a son too.

He noticed Hermione looking fleetingly at Rose, who it was true, had been suspiciously quiet during this revelation, (although she had probably already figured it out) and then raise her eyebrows slightly at him so that he turned to look at their daughter too. She was finally asleep, face buried in her pillow and auburn eyelashes fluttering against her lids.

Ron eased himself and Hugo off the bed, noting Hermione gesturing at him to be silent, before planting a dry kiss on his daughters' cheek and creeping out of her room. He waited in the corridor for his wife to similarly send Hugo off to the land of nod, and when she finally emerged he just held her in the darkness of a while, face buried in her

hair and whispering things that he could somehow never remember afterwoulds.
After what could have been minutes or hours, she took a step back from him and reached out a slim hand to take his warm, freckled one and, together, they walked back to bed.