Who: Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger When: 24 September 2001 Where: Rosemary Cottage What: Hermione needs to talk to Ron. Warnings: None Rating: PG Status: Private/Complete
Hermione was pacing back and forth across the living room floor, occasionally stopping to stare out the window as though she were expecting it to rain or something. Wouldn't surprise her, with the day she'd had. And it didn't help that she was dreading Ron coming home, because she really didn't want to have this conversation.
Sighing, she collapsed on the windowseat in the front window, pulling one of the throw pillows into her lap and hugging it to her. Normally sitting here she would have a good book, one that was dog-eared and falling apart from being read so many times, but today she was so fraught with nerves that she almost immediately jumped back up, unable to sit still for even a moment.
Ron got home from work, taking off his cloak and shoes, and maybe even taking a surreptitious sniff of his socks to make sure they didn't smell. Much.
Nothing seemed to be burning, which meant that Hermione wasn't cooking anything yet. When he found her, though, she seemed edgy and didn't seem to want to look straight at him. Ron could almost feel his stomach plummeting. What had happened? Was something wrong? Oh, Merlin's balls. She wasn't pregnant, was she?
"You alright, Hermione?" he asked warily.
"Do I look all right?" she said testily, and then her face fell. It wasn't his fault, she really shouldn't have snapped at him. "I'm sorry, I just- have sort of had the day from hell." She pressed her hands to her face, sighing, before dropping them and taking his hands in hers, pulling him over to the windowseat.
"I need to talk to you."
Ron's eyes widened slightly at the tone of her voice. He hadn't expected her to snap. Circe's pink knickers she was crazy and hormonal already. He wasn't ready for this.
He watched her carefully, nodding and sitting down with her. "What's going on?" he asked, bracing himself.
"I'm quitting my job."
She sat for a moment, looking down at their hands, his dwarfing her smaller ones, his with freckles, hers with her ring and the light pink polish that was starting to chip. Finally she dared to look back up at him and bit her lip, eyes slightly worried.
"See, I want to go into a different branch and it requires more study," she explained, realizing that she should probably tell him the rest so that it made sense, "and I just wanted to discuss it with you before I did it. Since we're getting married, and we share financial responsibility and all."
Okay... that wasn't what Ron had expected to hear her say. But it wasn't as much of a relief as it might have seemed to begin with.
"Yeah," he said slowly. "I didn't know you were thinking of quitting. But can we afford it? If you're studying, you're not going to be earning much, are you? Might even cost money. We'd be living off my salary."
Ron raked a hand through his hair, exhaling slowly. "I mean, I'll support whatever you decide to do. Obviously. And I'm used to money being tight. What is it that you want to do instead?"
"Law," she said immediately. "There are things that I want to do and I simply can't do them from where I am. I've tried and it's just not effective in the slightest. The werewolf legislation being halted by what happened to that poor little boy was the last straw for me."
She sighed, gathering her hair into a sort-of ponytail on the back of her head and then letting it drop. "I don't know how much it costs, but I'm sure it costs something. I can get a part-time job while I'm studying, I just know that I can't continue working at that Department. I'll lose my mind. But that's why I wanted to talk to you- I wanted to make sure it's all right with you, to make sure that you thought we could afford it. I'm almost positive I have a job waiting for me when I finish- I've talked to the head of that department before about maybe working there in the future and we get along rather well, there's no reason I wouldn't get hired-" Hermione Granger logic at work "- and I should make the money back. I just- we're supposed to make these decisions together, right?"
Ron nodded slowly. "Yeah. Reckon it's part and parcel of marriage, making decisions together." He frowned. "First Harry, now you. Yet another reason I'm glad I chose the joke shop."
He thought about it. "I don't know off the top of my head, you know? But we can probably manage it. It's not like we've got kids to worry about. And Mum never worked, even bringing up the seven of us. So we should be able to afford. Wedding'll probably have to stay small."
Squeezing her hand, Ron offered Hermione a smile. "If this is what you want, then I guess we'll find a way to make it work."
"Well, I think I want to go back- I just can't see myself making the changes I want to make if I'm not working in Magical Law," she explained, settling back into the throw pillows. "You think we can do this, then?"
She smiled back, lacing her fingers through his. "I want a small wedding anyway. You know that. This is just a way to make sure your Mum doesn't go insane trying to make everything absolutely perfect," she teased, though her voice was still a little off because she was Hermione Granger and overobsessing about things was what she did.
"Quitting your job is a hell of a thing to do to avoid a big wedding," Ron said, managing a laugh. This could still be potentially life-changing, though. "But, yeah. I think we can do this."
He lowered his head to give her a brief kiss. "Reckon the wedding would be perfect, anyway."
She never tired of referring to, or hearing him refer to them as a 'we'- the fact that they were a unit, and functioned together. It never failed to make her feel safe, happy. Returning his kiss with a smile, she looked up at him.
"Course it will. I'm marrying you."
Ron shifted, pulling Hermione close to him and wrapping his arm around her. "Good. Wouldn't want you marrying another bloke at our wedding." He rested his chin on the top of her head. "You're stuck with me now."