Pili's prompt: Ron/Hemione "meadow"
This ebbed and flowed with the music I was listening to - Celtic Flute.
She plucked another weed and tiny nettles rose up and flew about.
Ron sneezed again. “Why are we here?”
Hermione didn’t look up. “I only have a few more things on this list. Why don’t you go back?”
“No, I’ll stay.” And he would, sneezing or not. He hadn’t had much chance to see her over the last couple of months and summer was quickly drawing to a close. Soon it would be September again, and Hermione would leave. Even now, with her just a couple of feet away, he was already feeling depressed thinking about it.
He nodded toward the plant she had just picked. “What’s that?”
“Knapweed.” She picked several more and Ron had to move further back as his face stung with the urge to sneeze again.
The breeze lifted and teased with the edge of her skirt. It danced about her legs, toying with Ron, making him long for her as if she was already gone. She bent to examine another plant, and Ron watched the graceful line of her arm as she reached out.
It still amazed him at odd times that she was here with him, breathing, moving and talking with him. He pushed back unwanted memories, but they had a nasty habit of flying up in his head without warning, catching at his emotions before he could shove them back down.
Shoving his hands in his pockets, he turned and glanced around. They stood out in the open meadow, the Burrow in the distance, under a clear sky. The memory of exposure to the freezing damp and hunger were biting at him today, chilling him even as the sun warmed his skin and the sight of Hermione heated emotions as well as flesh.
Why was he so wound up today? It had been several weeks now since he’d had a day like this one where the memories just wouldn’t stay away. And today of all days, he should be happy - thrilled even. She was here and they were alone together. Even the Burrow was empty as everyone was at Diagon Alley today, save himself and Hermione. And yet here they were standing mere feet away from each other as she plucked weeds for Madame Pomfrey and he allowed his fears to eat away a perfect day, one he’d been dreaming of.
He glanced upward, as if looking to the sun for help. Closing his eyes, he still saw the red from the light above. He’d walked through the orchard and around this very meadow just a few days before, craving her. And now she was here. Hell.
Clearing his throat, he glanced back at her.
“Are you almost finished?” His voice came out wrong: it was hoarse and uncertain.
She glanced up and stopped. Her gaze on him, she straightened. She was looking at him in that way again, and Ron winced, thinking of that awful night when he had said too much, even if it was only to her.
The basket in her hand fell to her side as her arm lowered and she drew closer to him.
“I think I have enough.” Her gaze trailed down to the Burrow. “Do you want to return to the house?”
“No. I’d like to stay here… with you, I mean.” He did want to stay there while no one was at the house, wondering where they were, asking questions neither of them was ready to answer.
Hermione reached out with her free hand to touch his wrist, and he clasped her hand inside his. Her skin was warm and soft, her eyes were searching his face for a sign of fears he didn’t want her to see.
Damn, he had said too much.
“Would you like to walk for a while?” she asked. Without waiting for his answer she nodded to the trees beyond the meadow, away from the village. “What’s over there?”
Suddenly, he felt better: whole and warm. There was nothing in that direction but more trees and tall grasses, a lake if you walked far enough. It would be more secluded under the cover of the trees. He wondered if he could conjure up a tent like the one they’d stayed in with Harry. Only this time there would be just the two of them and no fear, no hunger.
“Come on.” He smiled, thinking how beautiful she was, how she wanted to help others, how she had put everyone - Harry and himself above her own safety, her own happiness.
Ron began walking, her hand still warm in his. “I’ll show you.”