Up a Tree - R/Hr - PG
Title: Up a Tree
Author: shocfix
Artist: cork
Pairing: Ron/Hermione
Words: 1172
Rating: PG

Happy Birthday to the awesome mudblood428, who is just about the only person who keeps me grounded in the purity of Ron/Hermione.

Commas controlled by magicofisis.

And there is a little extra something, at the end, for those of you who manage to read the whole thing without succumbing to a sugar overdose…


Up a Tree
****
There were red heads everywhere, but not my one and it took me half the morning to finally get away from the frantic wedding preparations and track him down.

He was about fifteen feet above me, high in a tree, and all I could see were his dangling feet.

“Ron?” I called up to him. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong,” his voice floated down to me. “I’m just up a tree.”

“Can I come up?” I asked.

The branches shook and Ron’s face appeared between the leaves.

“A tree?” he demanded.

“What?”

“You,” he said. “Up a tree!”

“Well, you’re the one that chose to climb the tree,” I pointed out. “So, if I want to talk to you, I’ll have to come up.”

“I just can’t imagine you climbing a tree,” he said.

I tutted and concentrated on Destination, Determination and Deliberation and appeared on the branch in front him, demurely side-saddle, while he sprawled, astride.

“That is totally cheating,” he protested.

“Since when are there rules about things like that?” I asked, trying hard to balance.

“You have to put some effort into climbing a tree,” he insisted, leaning against the trunk and watching me wobble.

“You’re just jealous, because you don’t have your licence yet,” I said.

He snorted. “I would never Apparate up a tree,” he said. “Even the twins would never Apparate up a tree.”

I wobbled again and grabbed his knee to steady myself.

“Oh, come here,” he huffed, reaching for me.

I hid a smile as I turned on the branch and wriggled closer, throwing one leg over the branch and leaning back against his chest.

I heard his breath hitch, but he looped his arms around me and held me safe.

“So,” he said.

“So?”

“You wanted to talk to me?”

I placed my hands on top of his and nodded, making him catch his breath again.

“You know we have to talk, Ron,” I said quietly.

“And you know I’m really bad at this stuff,” he said.

“I think you’re better than you think you are.”

“You always do,” he sighed and I felt him rest his cheek against my hair for a second.

“I always do what?” I asked.

“Think better of me than I do,” he said. “I wish I knew why.”

“Really?” I whispered.

Because that would be it, wouldn’t it? If I told him why I saw the best in him – wanted the best from him – knew he could do absolutely anything if he really tried.

If I told him that I loved him.

His arms tightened and I felt him swallow.

“Can I say something, first?” he said seriously.

“Of course,” I said, trying to turn and look at him, but he held me in place and I could understand that it may be easier for him if I wasn’t watching his face, so I settled back in his arms and waited.

“I’ve been thinking and thinking about this,” he said, slipping his hand into mine. “Us. And I know what you want me to say, but I just can’t.”

“Ron,” I gasped.

“Please,” he whispered. “Just listen to me. You’re not just some girl I could ask out; this is so much more important than that. You deserve the best and I can’t give it to you.”

I pulled my hand out of his and squirmed round, to find him looking miserable but stubborn.

“What if I think you are the best?” I demanded.

He huffed.

“Not like that,” he said.

“Then like what?”

“I can’t give you the best of me,” he said. “You… you’re… this is too much… this could be so much… and I can’t put you first.”

“First?” I echoed.

“I have to put Harry first,” he said in a small but serious voice. “I can’t ask you to be with me, knowing that I will probably die protecting him – that I would have to let you die to protect him.”

“Oh, Ron,” I breathed, looking up into his dear face.

His arms tightened around me again and he pulled me against his chest, where I rested my cheek and listened to his heartbeat.

“Being together wouldn’t make that any worse, you know,” I said.

He grunted.

“I’m not going to think ‘oh well, he did the right thing, he died heroically, but he wasn’t my boyfriend, so it doesn’t matter’,” I said, wriggling closer. “It’d still break my heart.”

“Maybe,” he conceded and I pinched him.

“Not maybe,” I said sternly. “And I think it’d be worth being together, even if it’s only for a little while.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

He sighed and held me for a while and I waited.

“You know, Harry would never forgive me if I let you die,” he said.

“Tough.”

He snorted. “Yeah,” he said. “If we don’t get any choice, than neither does he. We’ll put him first, whether he likes it, or not.”

“But he’ll never forgive us if we don’t get together, either,” I pointed out.

“He’s a bloke,” Ron protested. “Blokes don’t think like that about their friends.”

“A bloke’s friends don’t usually discuss whether they should date or die for him.”

Ron sighed heavily and I felt a kiss being pressed into my hair.

“OK,” he said. “You win.”

“I win?” I said, leaning back to look up at him. “I win what?”

“Me,” he said, with a grin.

I glared at him.

“You talked me into it,” he said. “We’re together.”

“Just like that?”

“What?”

“Well,” I frowned. “Shouldn’t you actually ask me?”

“No,” he said. “Haven’t we gone beyond that, having discussed certain death and stuff?”

“And what do I say when people ask how you finally asked me out?” I demanded.

“What people?” he asked, looking worried.

“Your mum,” I said. “Ginny, Luna, Tonks, Neville…”

“Neville?” he squeaked.

“I’m not going to say ‘he didn’t ask me, we agreed we were going to die, so we deserved some kissing, first’.”

“Kissing?” he asked, with a broad smile, leaning down towards me.

“Not until you ask me,” I said, putting one hand on his chest, in a futile attempt to hold him off.

He covered my hand with his own, far larger, one and his smile turned almost bashful.

“Hermione,” he said, with a huge, put upon sigh. “Will you go out with me?”

My heart skipped a ridiculous beat and I grinned up at him.

“Absolutely,” I said reaching up for his kiss.

It was everything I had hoped for, and more, and we grinned at each other stupidly for a while.

“Are you gonna say we were up a tree?” he asked.

“What?”

“When people ask how I asked you – will you say we were up a tree?”

“I… I don’t know,” I said. “Why? What difference does that make?”

Ron shrugged.

“I actually asked you out, plus you were up a tree,” he said. “Just seems like that’s an awful lot to get people to believe, in one go.”

“You’re right,” I laughed. “Even Luna won’t believe us.”



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