Pomp and Certain Circumstances

DISCLAIMER: I don\'t own it, except for the shoddy plot as a cover for smut. Please don\'t sue

A/N - After a huge hiatus, I\'m back and in action (no pun intended) with some great ideas for this fic. Although the smut doesn\'t happen in this chapter, I hope the plot hook will be enough to entice you to peek into their bedroom in the upcoming chapters.

Enjoy!

~~ ** Lady Tuesday ** ~~



Chapter Two – Extenuating Circumstances


Hermione looked anxiously over the rim of her mug as Harry sipped at his morning tea and read the Daily Prophet. She could barely keep herself in her chair as he mumbled about how it was all trash trumped up for ratings. When he sipped again and flipped to the sports section to read up on the Canons, she nearly went mad.

“Harry?”

“Mmm?”

She cleared her throat inexplicably. “About what we talked about last night …”

“Mmmm…”

“The … er… proposal I talked about?” She was nervous to distraction and he was barely listening to he prompts.

“Mmmhmmm ….”

“Well?”

He finally looked up from the paper. “I’m sorry, love, I wasn’t paying attention. Well what?”

Hermione sighed heavily, but smiled at the vacant grin on Harry’s face. They had been living together since August and she hadn’t had a truly dull moment since. She couldn’t help it, but all the ridiculous little habits she had only seen bits of over the years at Hogwarts never ceased to amuse her as they had in these last seven months.

Upon graduation from Hogwarts, Hermione had immediately secured an internship in London. Much to no one’s surprise but her own apparently, she found herself surrounded by the one thing she never got tired of … Hermione was now the apprentice to the head of the All-England Wizarding Library. Ron had grimaced and wished her luck when she had announced her intentions, Harry had laughed riotously. The truth of the matter was that she hadn’t the faintest idea what career she was interested in, and as such, took a position that she knew would give her the freedom to be surrounded by books everyday.

She was still having a bit of trouble watching Harry pursue his intended career. It tore her to bits the days when he came home from Auror training practical lessons bruised, bloody and haunted. But nonetheless, he woke up each day blathering excitedly about what horrors he would be subjected to next as part of his training. And she couldn’t help but grin at his schoolboy giddiness.

She cleared her throat again before answering Harry’s question. “I asked, dear, about what you thought of the … proposal I made … last night.”

Harry blushed just a bit. “Erm … well … I had thought about it.”

Hermione felt her pulse jump nervously. They had only started making love in June and she certainly didn’t want to rush him into anything. But he had asked her to be honest with him.

“Well,” she said nervously. “What do you think?”

Harry opened his mouth to answer, gaped at her a moment, and then shut it again. He quickly picked up the paper he had been reading and began compulsively folding and refolding it. Before he answered he brought the paper back up to shield his face.

“I think that if that’s what you want, we should do it.”

Hermione released a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding. “Really?” she asked.

“Absolutely,” he answered a little too quickly.

“Harry,” she began, and then pushed the paper down away from his face. She fixed his sparkling green eyes in a deep stare. “Are you saying that because it’s what I want? Or are you saying you’re truly interested?”

Harry tried to cover the gulping breath he took. “I’m … uh … I’m really interested. I just … I didn’t know how you would … you know … interpret that.”

Hermione smiled gently and laid her hand over his, squeazing it lightly. “Then you’ll make arrangements?”

Harry took a deep breath to steady himself. “I’ll make arrangements.”

Hermione smiled again and, in the easy affection of her gaze, Harry felt himself relax. “Is the spare room cleaned?”

Hermione nodded.

“Excellent. Then I’ll go out today and talk to him.”

“Excellent,” Hermione responded and cheerfully set about eating her toast.


*****


“You didn’t.”

“We did.”

“You couldn’t have! I mean … you … you couldn’t have!”

Harry couldn’t resist a smirk. “I beg to differ. We could, and we did.”

“You … Hermione? Oh, come on now, you can’t have …”

“I’m perfectly capable, as Hermione will, no doubt, assure you.”

Ron Weasley reclined into the wall behind his bed, staring in disbelief at his oldest friend. “Well, what do you know? You and Hermione. You two …”

“Yeah,” Harry said, smiling and blushing just a bit.

“When?” Ron asked, trying not to look too anxious.

Harry shifted uncomfortably on Ron’s bed. He twiddled a bit of the ragged old Chudley Cannons bedspread between his fingers. This was going to be one of the rough spots. “June,” Harry said tentatively. “Just before we left Hogwarts.”

“June?” Ron asked, still bewildered.

“Look, mate,” Harry started, his response planned out. “We didn’t tell you for a reason, you know? I mean, we didn’t purposefully keep you excluded. It’s just that … well, we thought you …”

Ron nodded and looked away, flushing with embarrassment. “Yeah, I know. I’ve sort of grown out of the idea that she was for me, mate.”

“Well,” Harry said, “I didn’t even know she was for me until that night really. You know we … never really talked about it until … well … you don’t need the details.”

“No,” Ron said quickly.

During the few moments of silence that followed, Harry looked around the room. It had both changed and completely stayed the same. Ron hadn’t had much direction following their graduation from Hogwarts. He hadn’t qualified for Auror training – much to Harry’s chagrin – and as such, hadn’t really seen fit to look for another possibility. But when the business manager of Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes had been accidentally burned beyond all recognition in a floo accident (or so they told St. Mungo’s – Harry had his doubts), Fred and George found themselves taking pity on their younger brother. Much to everyone’s surprise, Ron seemed to have an innate talent for publicity, and as such, the joke shop’s business had quadrupled.

Ron’s room was still had the visual quality of a kiln, but the orange walls, floor and bed were now littered with order forms, flyers, and letterhead of the store. His walls brandished posters that he was working on, some glossy and recognizable to Harry, as they were hung in the lobby of the Ministry, some with Ron’s crooked scrawling script making changes, spelling errors, and suggestions.

After a few moments of silence, Ron cleared his throat and then timidly inquired, “Could I … that is I’d like to … I wanted to know if I could …”

Harry grinned. “You want to ask me questions about it?”

Ron nodded, coloring.

“Go ahead,” Harry said, surpressing an embarrassed chuckle.

“What did …” he started, unsure of himself. “What did she feel like?”

Harry flushed and looawayaway as he answered. “Hot …” he cleared his throat and started again, more confident. “Not just, er, sexy hot you know, but just … this incredible heat and … and like she was everywhere on me at once. And she just tastes so good and …”

Harry looked up to see Ron gaping at him despite a deep blush on his cheeks, hungry for details.

“She’s incredible, Ron. Just … just incredible.”

Ron smiled broadly, evidently quite pleased with this explanation.

“Ron there’s …” Harry trailed off a bit before regaining his momentum. “There’s a reason I came out today … other than just to … you know, tell you this.”

“Oh, yeah?” Ron looked more comfortable now, seemingly eager to get back on an even keel with the subject.

Harry’s stomach lurched nervously. “Yeah.”

A moment or two of silence went by before Ron prompted, “Well?”

Harry’s stomach quavered again as Ron’s answer was entirely too similar to Hermione\'s previous introduction of the topic. “Well, it’s sort of … related to that topic … more or less …”

Ron nodded and waited for an explanation.

“See Hermione … she … that is to say, we … we wanted to know if … if you’d like to join us.”

“What in London?” Ron asked, but continued before Harry could answer. “I’ve been dying to get out the house, you know … I mean, Mum and Dad are great and all, but--”

“Ron,” Harry attempted to interject.

“Ginny’s all twittery over Neville now and I can’t stand her gibbering and I’d love a different place to--”

“Ron, I--”

“Because it’s just infuriating, you know? Fred and George got their own place years ago and--”

“Ron!” Harry bellowed, to which the redheaded boy looked somewhat startled and shook his head.

“Sorry mate, get carried away sometimes.”

Harry laughed nervously. “Well, we do … I mean, we have a spare room and we’d like you to move into Grimmauld Place and all, but that\'s not ... but … you see, what I meant was that in addition to … moving we’d like you to …”

Ron waited and smiled.

“We’d like you to … to join us …” Harry took a deep breath. “Ron, we’d like you to join us in bed.”

The silence in the room was deafening. Ron stared at Harry, a slightly surprised glaze to his features. A few seconds later, Harry jumped as Pidwidgeon slammed into the windowpane. When Ron made absolutely no move to let him in, Harry moved to lift the glass and admit the twittering owl. Much to Harry’s surprise, Pig hopped onto Harry’s shoulder and stuck out his leg, gibbering even louder.

Harry glanced at Ron, who hadn’t moved, and quickly opened the letter.

H,
Have you asked him yet? Has he answered yet? Was he too scandalized? Will he do it do you think?
Love you to bits
H

Harry grimaced. The girl had all the patience of a five year old. He scratched a response.

H,
Yes I have. No he hasn’t. Gegripgrip. Don’t know yet.
Same to you, but smaller bits,
H

“Ron?” Harry questioned gently.
Ron still stared forward.
“Ron?” Harry began again. “Ron, please say something … anything …”
Ron looked up, startled, as if Harry had just come in.
“Ron?” Harry asked again, but was quickly interrupted by Ron.
“When should I move in?” he asked, then looked away and blushed.

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

A/N - *announcer voice* What will happen when Ron moves into Grimmauld Place? How will Hermione take the news? Will Ron join up to make the terrible trio a Menage a Trois? Better question, will you review?!?!?! *insert creepy radio sound effects*


*giggles* Hope you liked it! Please review!