The Letters to No One - Romione

Chapter 6

Ron was practically running by that time that he reached the town centre, but his heart began to sink in his chest as he looked up and down the high street realising that it was completely empty. No bushy haired girl stood outside a bookshop, smiling and waving at him. No one.

He was too late and he couldn't believe it, but then an even worse thought crossed his mind making him feel sick to the stomach. What if she hadn't showed up at all? It was a possibility after all and surely if she'd liked Ron she would have waited longer. But when Ron checked his watch he realised that he was almost an hour late and even he would have left after an hour of waiting, so he couldn't blame her.

Not wanting to go back straight away he sat down on the bench, not knowing that this was where Hermione had sat not too long ago, and sighed wishing with all his heart that he had managed to get there earlier so he would know if she had showed up at all. He felt awful at the thought of her waiting and waiting for him, the realisation finally crossing over her that he wasn't coming and that he didn't care. As Ron thought things over he sighed because that couldn't be further from the truth and now she would probably never know how he felt.

He could come back, Ron began to think of ways he could bump into her and explain what had really happened. He could come back and wait outside the bookshop every day. Surely she would have to come back sooner rather than later. But there was no way he would be able to spend every day for the rest of the summer outside of this bookshop without his family realising and trying to explain that he was simply waiting for a girl who may or may not show up sounded extremely pathetic even to him.

Hermione finally reached her front door and went to go into her bag to get her key and open the front door. But her bag wasn't there.

'For god's sake,' she thought as she realised that she must've left it in the bookshop and turned around slowly dragging her feet back towards the bookshop, the last place in the world that she currently wanted to be, praying that nobody had stolen it.

The second she turned the corner onto the high street she froze. There, sat on the bench where she had sat waiting for him, was the red headed boy that she thought hadn't shown up. Taking a moment to properly compose herself, she took a deep breath and headed towards him.

'Hi,' she said barely loud enough for him to hear, but he did and his face lit up in the biggest smile Hermione had ever seen.

'Hermione!' He replied almost laughing in disbelief, 'I'm so sorry that I was late, I couldn't get away from home and then I got here and you weren't here and I didn't know if you'd shown up and left or if you hadn't shown up at all and...' Ron broke off from his ramble as Hermione hugged him, surprising the both of them.

'It's fine,' she replied, pulling away and looking slightly flustered. 'You're here now and that's all that matters.'

'So what do you wanna do?' Ron asked her, realising he had know ideas what there was to do around here. He had spent all his free time playing with his brothers and Ginny at the house, his mother too afraid to let them run around the town where all the muggles lived, it was too risky.

'There's the cutest little coffee shop just down the road,' Hermione suggested, pointing in the direction of the shop. 'Or there's this really nice park just five minutes that way,' she pointed in the opposite direction.

'The park sounds great,' Ron replied realising that in his haste to leave he had completely forgotten to bring any money with him. 'After all it's a really nice day.'

'Sure,' Hermione replied heading off in the direction of the park and Ron followed. It wasn't until now that Hermione realised how much taller than her he was, as she hurried along trying to match his pace.

'I used to come here all the time with my parents,' Hermione told him as they reached the park and she instantly began to walk towards the swings where she had spent many days with her Father who had pushed her so high that she felt as if she had been flying. 'Have you been here before?' She asked.

'No, not really,' Ron replied. 'We live on the other side of time,' he pointed in the general direction of The Burrow, 'We usually just played in the garden.'

'Tell me about your family,' Hermione asked as the two sat down on the swings and began to kick there feet slowly back and forth.

'Okay,' Ron replied, not knowing where to begin. 'Well there's my parents, of course.' Ron began.

'Where do they work?' Hermione asked, wanting to know as much as possible about the boy who was swinging next to her.

'My Mum works at home mainly and my Dad works for the ministry,' he said trying to keep his answer as vague as possible.

'The Government?'  Hermione asked and Ron found himself nodding his head in response.

'What about your brothers and sisters?' Hermione asked.

'Sister,' Ron corrected with a smile. 'Okay so there's Bill, he's the oldest. He moved out a few years ago and works for the bank,' Ron said, careful to leave out which one. 'Then there's Charlie, he doesn't live with us anymore either.' Ron left it at that, not mentioning the fact that he was now in Romania working with dragons.

'Then there's Percy,' he continued. 'He's a bit of a prat really and unfortunately for us he lives at home still, he works with Dad.' Ron added. 'Then there's Fred and George, twins, they're in there final year at school but I'm not sure if they're actually going to pass any exams. They're more interested in setting up a joke shop. They actually have some pretty good ideas.'

'Maybe you can show me sometime?' Hermione asked and Ron smiled enthusiastically wondering if there were any inventions he could show her that didn't involve magic. Unsurprisingly he couldn't think of any.

'Then there's me,' Ron said 'and finally Ginny, my only sister. She's a year younger the me and I honestly don't know how she deals with having six older brothers.' Hermione laughed at this.

'Oh!' Ron said, adding one more thing. 'And we all have extremely ginger hair!'

Hermione continued to laugh, her swinging getting slower and slower until she was almost stationary.

'What about you?' Ron asked.

'What about me?'

'Tell me about your family.'

'Okay,' Hermione began. 'Well it's just me, Mum and Dad. Well they're dentists and they own a practice in the town just a few miles away and they...' Hermione stopped noticing the look on Ron's face. 'What?' She asked as he smiled back at her.

'Nothing,' he replied, feeling incredibly happy and listened as she carries on talking. It was wonderful to watch her talk so passionately about the people she loved and Ron couldn't help but smile knowing that this day was going to be amazing.