Best HP Ship Hands Down. 

OMG! No I hadn't! I love it!

Ron giving Hermione a little Christmas Gift. Scene taken from Ron Weasley and the Hogwarts Tournament. I recommend it, if you haven’t read it yet.  Its Ron-centric and treats all the characters fairly. AO3 - https://archiveofourown.org/works/32071795/chapters/79449952 FF.net - https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13906311/1/Ron-Weasley-and-the-Hogwarts-Tournament Ron is a little more muscular and his hair has grown out because he has been very busy training. And Hermione has taken notice. They are in PJs because its early morning and Hermione found Ron working out… :) As I was reading through, I thought this was a cute moment and so I had to draw it up. I was originally going to leave it as a quick rough sketch but I was reminded that Valentine’s Day is coming up so I decided to fix it up and post it. Maybe one day I will color it in properly…

So who’s going to write the fic?

credit to @NamiYouffie on twitter for art

RWatHT - Chapter 22: Knight's Return

Bill looked at his brother. His eyes were dark, and he had just mentioned… killing someone? That did not sound like him. When he had called out his name, he had expected him to throw one of his sarcastic comments or perhaps some form of joke. Instead, in the split second he had turned to look at their family he saw his brother’s features twisted into an angry, insane and murderous expression he had never seen on his face. 

It felt a bit out of place at the moment to tell them about his new girlfriend Fleur Delacour coming to Hogwarts since Bill had invited her. It felt even worse to tell them that he was planning to marry her, and had a wedding ring already inside his pocket. Instead, he watched the hall where his brother had disappeared to and wondered where he was headed. He watched Salazar Slytherin –Merlin was that weird– along with McGonagall, and Dumbledore escort the young Slytherin girl that Ron had nearly… killed to another room in the castle. Thinking that felt even weirder, and completely wrong. His baby brother killing someone… Bill couldn’t not believe it. In fact, he refused to believe it.

However, he had seen it. They had all seen it. The effects of Ron’s curse as he fired it at a girl his age without hesitation. Yes, the girl also seemed to have thrown a curse back that looked to be pretty damaging, but Bill could feel the fire from Ron’s spell, even while being a few yards away.

There must be some form of explanation. Surely his own brother had a good reason to incinerate a girl? Alright, that sounded pretty bad even with the worst of standards. However, he refused to believe that Ron had just decided to murder a Hogwarts student. Godric Gryffindor –again, it really was weird to be talking to an ancient wizard– had prepared rooms for them inside the castle. As he followed his family to the Great Hall for lunch, he thought of the way the day started. It had started quite well actually. He had come to the Burrow to screeches and cheers from his mother, after all it was not every day that Charlie would come home. When they had arrived at Hogwarts they had been welcomed by Dumbledore, McGonagall, and Godric Gryffindor himself inside the Headmaster’s office. Afterwards, they greeted the twins, and Ginny along with Harry and Hermione.

Molly Weasley had been so excited to see Ron, and had been asking Harry and Hermione about how he was doing. Harry responded awkwardly, not really giving her an answer. Hermione for her part looked hurt, and her voice waned as she struggled to properly explain how Ron had been. Bill was perplexed by her reaction, clearly something had happened between his baby brother and Hermione.

After that, McLaggen had entered the room, crashing the door against the wall. His face was bruised and beaten badly. There was blood pouring from his nose, lip and brow. His nose was also clearly broken, and bent weirdly. His eye had sunken behind a purple swollen bruise, and his cheekbone was looking quite the same with a cut that spilled blood down the side of his face. He looked like an absolute wreck. He was panting, and whining as he pointed at his face and inside the castle.

“Mr. McLaggen?!” McGonagall gasped at the young man’s predicament. She approached him, and waved her wand over his face. “Who did this to you?”

McLaggen’s injuries began to heal over. Soon enough his face looked to come back to normal, although Bill was not really sure. There was still a lot of snot, and tears that ran down his face. And he looked smarmy and reminded Bill of the Malfoy family for some reason. 

“Weasley!” McLaggen roared. Nearly all members of the Weasley family present looked at one another, wondering who he could be possibly referring to. Soon enough, Gryffindor approached McLaggen who cowered beneath his presence. “A-and Greengrass!”

Continue Reading at AO3 Continue Reading at FFN

RWatHT Master List

Listen up!

You see a post like this? Where OP might hurt/kill themselves? You hit that button that I circled

Hit that.

Click Suicide or Self-harm Concern

Yes.

Fill in the rest of it, and hit submit. The "content you reported" will fill itself in

Tumblr will follow up and help them.

Warning: this is only for mobile. If anyone knows how to do this for desktop, please add it!

This could SAVE SOMEONE'S LIFE.

YOU HAVE NO EXCUSE NOT TO REBLOG THIS.

I DON'T GIVE A FUCK IF IT DOESN'T GO WITH YOUR BLOG'S THEME.

And yes, REBLOG. Liking does no shit at all. This isn't ig.

You reblog, people see it. You don't, people don't see it. This shit's that simple.

This could save someone's life. It's not a joke.

Reblog if you are Team Ron&Hermione

Ahaaaaa Id been wanting to put up this ask but the box wasnt working for me till now lol sorry.... Romione - Historical AU, Fake Marriage... Romione again coz im mad about it, Bar/Restaurant AU with Teacher AU...Bonus if the Teacher is Ron coz Hermione sucks at teaching tbh...m sorry but yea...And Jily Royal AU with poorly timed confessions...Love your writing <333

So this took the longest time to finish, but I wanted to make it right

Romione (Historical AU – Fake Marriage):

The Granger and Weasley families were rivals. One family warriors and adventurers working for the crown and banks. The other with more than half of them working as healers. The youngest son of the Weasley family, Ron, and the only daughter and heiress to the Granger family, Hermione, both knew that if the feud kept on going, both families would cease to exist.

There was an arrangement made between the two of them. They would marry in order for the two families to cease their seemingly eternal feud. And it worked. The feud had been over. There were celebrations, parties and balls made in the honor of the young newlywed couple.

But there was something that no one knew about the couple. And it was the mutual intolerance of one another. Ron believed that Hermione was a stuck-up nagging know-it-all that seemed to always need to be in the right. Hermione believed that Ron was an immature insensitive tactless man-child that had the apparent need to always swear.

But unknown to one another they became more and more smitten. They couldn’t let the other know. How could Hermione know that Ron thought that her wild brown hair made his heart beat somehow faster whenever he saw her in the morning? How her scrunched nose whenever she read a book was the most adorable thing he’d ever seen in another human?

How could Ron ever know that Hermione’s breath would almost stop completely whenever his large hands came in contact with her skin? How his blue eyes were the most beautiful shade of blue she had ever come across?

During a ball in Christmas Eve, Ron had a little bit too much to drink, desperate for an escape from his constant and undying pining towards Hermione. Then, Viktor Krum, a successful and famed boxer, had made an appearance and had danced with her throughout the night. She had called him out trying to stop him from possibly drinking himself to death, but Ron wasn’t having it.

“For once stop being a nightmare!” He had told her in an abandoned hallway. Her eyes filled with tears as her heart broke, and she ran towards the forests where no one could hear her crying. 

Ron could only watch the back of her head with those curls that he so desire to sink his fingers into. He returned to the party after drinking a made-up hangover tonic that was in the pantry that managed to sober him up. 

“WOLVES!” a quivering and scared voice yelled in the middle of the Living Room. “WOLVES HAVE BEEN SPOTTED NEAR THE MANOR!”

A sudden fear, so paralyzing that he thought if the world had stopped spinning for a whole minute, and then, Ron’s legs were moving before he realized.

Hermione sat on a rock by the lake. Her head in her hands as tears strolled down her cheeks. She sniffed and whined, not noticing the three wolves that had appeared just a couple of feet in front her. She raised her head. She knew she should’ve screamed for her help, but she became petrified. The middle wolf growled at her and as he went to lounge at her she covered her face, just to hear the wolf whimper along the voice of her husband.

“OI!” he bellowed. “Shit brain!”

Ron had thrown a sharp rock so hard the wolf had started to bleed, it escaped leaving two feral wolves to deal with. Ron threw another rock this time upwards hitting a large but weak branch that fell on top of a second wolf trapping him. The last wolf simply left seeing no worth in continuing the attack.

Ron was on Hermione at once hugging her as tight as she could. He laid apology after apology on her. He was crying, he realized how close he was to losing her. She was crying, she realized she hadn’t told him how she felt, she might’ve not had the chance if he hadn’t come.

They looked at one another. An unspoken agreement of blue crashing with brown. Their lips were on one another in a second, dancing with the other as they kissed for the first time. Her lips were softer than his dreams had thought of them. After perhaps making up for months constant pining and wanting they detached, their foreheads touching as their breaths hit their faces.

“Marry me,” he said. She laughed as if what he’d said was ridiculous.

“We’re already married.”

“Don’t care. I married you for them,” she didn’t need him to specify who was them. “I want to marry you.” A smile formed on her face as he kissed him some more.

“I will.”

Jily (Royal AU – Poorly Timed Confessions):

Prince James was someone who princess Lily always thought of as arrogant, pompous. A no good brat who alway got what he wanted.

They met at the engagement ball of prince Sirius and princess Pandora, the two were close to the bride and the groom, but it was more out of obligation more than anything else that the two spend time together. In preparation for the wedding the two prepared the ball, it had been nothing short of a disaster.

Prince James had fallen in love the second he had set his eyes on Lily, she was perfect, the perfect red hair, green eyes, slender figure with the wisdom of Athena. Lily herself had taken notice of James's attractive features, his brown eyes and messy hair that looked like a tornado had gone through it.

But then the arrogant idiot prince had to open his mouth and ruin everything. He was nothing short of a complete abuser of his power, making fun of people at every chance he had and boasting about his expert sword-handling. He also had the incredibly awful habit of making fun of princess Lily's closest friend Severus Snape.

It was on the week before the wedding when she had enough, prince James had humiliated Severus publicly and Lily had done her best to defend him, but when he James finally relented his continuous abusive ministrations he had called her the most awful of names someone could call another person.

She left that same day, losing a life-long friendship, but also freeing herself from prince James.

On the day of what was supposed to be prince Sirius and Pandora she had been told that the wedding had been cancelled. It was an arranged marriage, everyone knew that, but after some encouraging from prince James, Sirius had decided to run away to Potter Castle with prince James.

It was so that James and Lily didn't see each other for the next two years, but she would often hear of his adventures, his new and constant battles as he freed towns from oppressive bandits with nothing but his sword. She would hear of his charitable actions regarding the poor people of his kingdom.

When they finally met again, it was like meeting a whole different person. The cocky and arrogant attitude while still there, had died down a lot, his kindness was something truly amazing and so was his compassion. Princess Lily hated herself for even thinking it, but she was falling in love, at least that's what she thought as she had never felt what she did for prince James, for any other person.

There was a problem, however, prince James seemed to had forgotten about her. Although the two stayed on amicable terms there were no more propositions of marriage or courting only subtle nods or quick greetings.

And then the news came to her, he was soon getting engaged, his parents were already too old and they desired to see prince James married and with a child. And so being his usual selfless self prince James had organized a huge ball where multiple women, royal or not, were to attend so that he may choose a proper wife.

Princess Lily hadn't received an invitation and when she found out she didn't waste another second and set out. As she entered the ball room she saw him standing tall in front of a crowd of girls all different from the other, his mouth opened and Lily hoped she was not too late.

"I prince James of Godric's Hollow," he said. "Hereby choose–"

"Don't!" Lily shouted without really meaning to. James turned his head, shock displayed all across his features. "Don't marry them. They don't– I will– You are the most... Insensitive, pompous, arrogant and handsome fool I've ever met."

Faces and murmurs clearly didn't agree with that, but the corner of James's mouth quirked up.

"But I love you so please don't marry them," his eyes widened at her confession, and he seemed to think for a second before he cleared his throat.

"As I said," his eyes showing mirth. "I prince James of Godric's Hollow, hereby choose," it was over. Lily was too late. "Princess Lily of Surrey to be my wife."

Her head shot up, unsure of what she heard. Until he came down from the pedestal where he stood and walked towards her with a determination she didn't know was possible in a human being. He embraced her, his hands wrapped around her, his head looming closer until finally their lips met in a soft kiss.

So yes, prince James was someone who princess Lily always thought of as arrogant, pompous. But damn it, he did get what he wanted in the end.

Romione (Bar/Restaurant – Teacher AU) (WARNING: This one gets a bit spicy):

Ron sat down at the bar counter asking Rosmerta for his usual, Rum with Coke. He had finished preparing his latest lecture for his Literature Class at Hogwarts University. It had taken him almost an eternity to finish it in time, as he went to take a drink he heard a familiar voice behind him.

“Professor Weasley?” he’d recognized it anywhere. He turned around seeing Hermione Granger, the top students in all of Hogwarts perhaps. She was one his students, and the most challenging as well. Every class was filled with bickering between the two as they discussed a new novel or talked about a problematic author.

Recently he had started seeing her in a new light. As an educator he was ashamed of these thoughts, after all he was nearly ten years her senior. Well, he was barely seven years older than her, but that was still pretty bad. He had managed to become a professor thanks to the Headmaster, an old family friend.

“Ms. Granger,” he said. “What are you doing here? Isn’t it past your bed time?” She rolled her eyes, but she still smiled at his joke.

“Well, actually, my dorm mate Lavender said that I could use a break from all the studying. I don’t normally go out as much since–” she cut herself short as a sad look came across her eyes.

Ron didn’t need to finish. He had heard the gossiping around campus. How Hermione Granger had managed to score legendary football player Viktor Krum before leaving for college just for him to break up with her a few months later. He had actually heard of Krum, he was as old as him and Ron held a big admiration towards the famous athlete, before that admiration turned to disdain.

How could someone ever even think about breaking up with Hermione Granger? Sure, she could be nagging and bossy. But she was also kind, and brave. She wasn’t afraid of speaking her mind. And the fact that she was beautiful didn’t went over his head. She had this wild hair that always seemed untamable and Ron often found himself laying in bed as he pictured his fingers tangled in her mane while her mouth worked him until completion. He shook his head. He couldn’t think of that right now, and in front of her nonetheless.

“Well,” he said taking another sip of his drink. “I hope you have fun, Ms. Granger.”

“You too, Professor.”

The night went by and Ron couldn’t stop occasionally staring at her from the bar counter. In her table there were four other girls: a blonde girl who he had to guess was Lavender from the way Hermione kept calling her to get off the table; two identical brown girls, who Ron guessed were twins, one seemed as excited as Lavender and the other reminded him more of Hermione; and another blonde girl who had the widest eyes he had ever seen along with a dreamy look. 

As the evening went by many of the girls started heading back to their dorms and homes. Lavender went back with an Irish boy from Ron’s class named Seamus, the identical sisters were helping Luna who had fell from the table trying to dance in a strange way. Leaving Hermione alone in the table, Ron noticed she had barely had anything to drink. He took a last sip from his drink and left some money.

He went out the bar and walked in the direction of his home. He decided that he was too tired to walk and went to take out his phone just to find that he left it at the bar. Groaning he returned back finding a couple apparently snogging by the doorway. Ron muttered something about kids these days until he recognized the wild mane of curls and something that was definitely not good.

“Cormac!” Hermione’s voice yelled. “I said get off!”

“Shut up!” replied Cormac McLaggen. He was part of the rugby team. “You’ve been teasing me all night with that dress. And I think it’s time I have a little fu–”

Cormac’s threat was cut short as a fist flew to the side his jaw. Cormac slumped to the ground. Hermione looked scared and turned towards Ron, as the fear in her expression left just to be replaced with a crying relief. She wrapped her arms tightly against Ron. He patted her back as she cried and thanked him. 

“Are you alright?” he asked. Her head moved up and down against his chest. “I forgot my phone. I’ll go get it and then I’ll call you a taxi, alright?” She nodded again.

He went back inside the bar, took his phone and warned Rosemerta about McLaggen before going back out and calling a taxi for Hermione. When the taxi arrived he was faced with a request from her.

“C-can you ride back with me?” Ron didn’t hesitate and nodded. 

NSFW Content ahead

The ride to her home was quiet. When they reached the door to her dorm, something sparked between the two fo them. Hermione pulled the collar of Ron’s shirt and brought his lips to her own. Ron knew this was wrong, yet he didn’t do anything to stop it. They were a passionate mess of kisses, licks and bites between the two.

"Are you sure?" He asked.

"Are you asking me if I'm drunk?" She asked him, her eyes half-lidded as they gazed at his lips.

"I'm asking you if you want to shag me as much as I want to ravage you?"

"And I'm saying I really want to ravage you as well, professor."

He undressed her with the most delicate of touches he had ever shown to another human being. She wasn’t just a hook up. Not to him at least.

When they were both nearly naked, Ron only having his underwear left, Ron put her down on the bed. He laid soft kisses from her ankle, to the back of her knee, to her inner thigh until his tongue was tasting her folds, the sweet nectar of her arousal touched his tongue and he thought his cock would actually burst. She writhed in pleasure under him, she was like the prey that he had wanted to tear apart for so long.

With a long moan that went to his ears and then to his cock she came. He kissed up her body, dipping his tongue inside her belly button and circling her nipples when he got to her chest before he reached her face. She was so bloody beautiful, and he didn’t know if he could hold on for any longer.

She turned them over kissing his jaw and neck. As she kissed him down his body before reaching the front of his trousers where a very prominent bulge took a hold of her attention. She kissed it through the cloth making him throw his head back. She pulled down his underwear revealing his large and thick manhood. She looked unsure of herself, and Ron was about to tell her she didn’t have to when she closed her mouth around him.

She was unexperienced that much was obvious her licking and sucking was very tentative, like she was afraid of doing something wrong. His hand unconsciously sought out her hair, as his fingers tangled with her hair. She didn’t seem to object as one of his fantasies seemed to play out in front of him. It took him Hermione kissing the tip of his cock before he came spurt after spurt in her mouth. He tried apologizing, but was left speechless when he saw her swallowing his ejaculation.

When he entered her he was careful, he realized this was her first time in a long time from how tight she was. He took his time to pleasure every part of her, playing special attention to her clit, nipples, neck and everything that he saw was making her approach her climax.

They came together with a powerful moan that mixed their two voices. She laid on top of him as she seemed to count the freckles on his chest.

“I’ve been wanting that for months now,” she said.

“Me too,” he admitted, running his fingers through her hair.

"So."

"So?"

"What does this mean?"

Ron took a few seconds, staring at her brown eyes, his heart spoke before his head had properly giving it a thought.

"I think that was one of the best nights I've had in a long time," he said. "And I'd love to take you out on a date, Ms. Granger." She smiled a bright and wide smile.

"It's Hermione, and I'd love to, professor."

"It's Ron, and I can't wait for it, Hermione."

Hermione and her two red cats

Thoughts on Ron and Hermione as a ship?

thank you very much for the ask, @thesilverstarling!

i’ll state my position straight away: book ron and hermione are the best of the canon couples.

they will have a long and extremely happy marriage made rich by great and stalwart love, lust, fun, and faithfulness, rather than held together by duty and couples’ therapy like so many readers and authors (including jkr, who seems to have decided to spend the years since the conclusion of the series failing to understand anything about her own characters) tend to think.

i will state another position straight away: lest i seem like i’m just a fan with blinkers on, i think this even though hermione is, by far, my least favourite member of the trio. if she were real i would detest her, and i dislike how she is treated by the narrative as always justified in her negative characteristics. i like fanon hermione - perfect and preternaturally good - even less.

as a result, i think that it’s ridiculous that jkr has said that she thought ron needed to ‘become worthy’ of hermione. they belong together as equals - which is what they’re set up in the narrative as being from the off - and i hate seeing that undermined.

because ronald weasley? he’s an icon. and he doesn’t get anywhere near the respect he deserves in fandom.

there are multiple reasons for this - ron’s narrative purpose is to be the everyman sidekick, and so he is able to be less special than harry or hermione (the helper-figure); the amount of aristocracy wank in this fandom means that the weasleys’ ordinariness is less appealing to writers than making harry have twenty different lordships and call himself hadrian; the narrative interrogates ron’s flaws - especially his capacity for jealousy - much more intensively than it interrogates either hermione’s (cruel, inflexible, meddling) or harry’s (reckless, self-absorbed, judgemental) - but one i feel is particularly significant is that ron is such a british character that many of his traits are not understood as intended by non-british readers.

in particular - as is outlined in this excellent meta by @whinlatter - ron’s sense of humour isn’t indicative of immaturity or a lack of seriousness, but is, in fact, evidence that he’s the most emotionally aware of the trio.

ron is shown throughout the series to understand how both harry and hermione need to have their emotions approached - and i think there is no piece of writing which says this better than crocodile heart by @floreatcastellumposts:

That was what she liked most about Ron, she thought vaguely. He was very good at being suitably outraged on your behalf. For Harry, for her, for Neville. That sort of thing mattered, when you were hurt or embarrassed or wronged in some way. You needed to have someone else on your side, to be as emotional as you felt, maybe even more so, so that you might feel a bit more normal. It was very decent of him, and she was not sure he realised he did it.

ron’s inherent emotional awareness is an enormous source of comfort to other people. he does the work which isn’t flashy or special - he makes tea and tells jokes and is just there - but which is needed in healthy human relationships far more frequently than a willingness to fight to the death for the other person.

[as an aside, this normality - even though i think it is assumed rather than justified by the text - is also what ginny provides for harry. if you believe that hinny are a good couple but romione aren’t… i can’t help you.]

but let’s look at some specific reasons why ron and hermione belong together:

their communication styles mesh perfectly. ron is the only person hermione knows who feeds her love of being challenged and debated, and who is able to engage in this way of communicating without becoming irate when she refuses to back down. ron is good at picking his battles, but he’s also good at recognising that hermione’s tendency to argue isn’t intended to be confrontational a lot of the time - it’s just the way she works through feelings and problems. he’s far more easy-going about her tendency to nag, interrupt, try to provoke arguments, or speak condescendingly than he’s given credit for - and hermione evidently respects this, since when he does tell her not to push a situation (above all, when she’s trying to needle harry into talking about sirius), she listens to him.

that ron and hermione’s tendency to bicker is taken by fans to be a bad thing is because it’s something harry - from whose perspective the narrative is written - doesn’t understand. harry is extremely conflict-avoidant - he tends to take being pushed on views and opinions he has to be insulting; and he has a tendency to assume that he is right which is just as profound as hermione’s. he and ginny communicate not by debating, but by ginny having no time for his rigidity and refusing to indulge it - but ron and hermione bickering about everything is not a negative thing within their specific emotional dynamic.

[as another aside, this glaring chasm in communication styles is why harry and hermione would be a disaster as a couple.]

they each provide validation the other needs. it’s clear - reading between the lines - that hermione is a tremendously lonely person. the friendlessness of her initial few weeks at hogwarts seems to be a continuation of her experience as a child, and - outside of ron and harry - that friendlessness endures through her schooldays. i’m always struck, for example, by the fact that, when she falls out with ron in prisoner of azkaban, she has no-one else to spend time with, and that this is only avoided in half-blood prince because harry decides not to freeze her out. i don’t think her friendship with ginny is anywhere near as close as fanon seems to imply (ginny has no interest in being nagged either), nor do i think that she’s anywhere near as close to neville (not least because she is so condescending to him) as she’s often written to be.

and this loneliness seems to stretch beyond hogwarts. the absence of hermione’s parents’ from the narrative is - in a doylist sense - clearly just a device to maximise time with the trio all together, but the watsonian reading is that she doesn’t have a particularly good relationship with them. hermione’s obviously upper-middle-class background - the name! the skiing! the holidays in the south of france! - can be presumed, i think, to come with a series of expectations from her parents which she feels constantly that she’s not entirely meeting, particularly expectations attached to academic success.

[for example, the grangers - were she a muggle child - would undoubtedly have ambitions for her to attend an elite university and then go into a prestigious career. tertiary education of the type that they’re familiar with doesn’t seem to exist in the wizarding world - most careers seem to be taught by apprenticeship - and this, alongside all the other divides between the magical and muggle worlds which contribute to the distance between them, would be one very obvious area in which she felt the need to prove herself to them.]

ron, too, has quite a difficult relationship with his position in the family - voldemort’s locket is not wrong to point out that he seems to receive considerably less of his mother’s emotional attention than ginny or the rest of his brothers - and he too is constrained by expectations which he doesn’t know how to explain he has no interest in - above all, molly’s desire for her sons to achieve top grades and go into the ministry.

he also suffers while at hogwarts from being ‘harry potter’s best friend’, something which harry never appreciates. but hermione does. she recognises ron’s jealousy and never allows harry to minimise it (and she and ron are very much aligned on having no respect for harry’s saviour and martyr complexes). she appreciates ron’s strengths - above all his kindness and his sense of humour - and makes him feel as though he’s achieved things with them. and ron does the same for her; he is hugely observant when it comes to her, and he challenges and defends her.

the two of them clearly spend a lot of time together one-on-one while harry’s involved in his various shenanigans (including outside of school - hermione has often arrived at the burrow days or even weeks before harry, and they seem to write to each other frequently when apart). they do this within a relationship which is fundamentally equal. one issue with hinny is that, post-war, harry is going to have to get used to seeing ginny as a peer, rather than as someone he has to protect. but ron and hermione never have that issue - equality is baked into their relationship from the off.

because, to be quite frank, fandom overstates the role that jealousy plays in their relationship. it’s true that ron certainly doesn’t acquit himself brilliantly when it comes to hermione’s relationship with viktor krum (it’s because he’s bi and doesn’t know it yet), and a tendency to externalise his insecurity into trying to make others also feel insecure is one of his primary negative traits (hermione does this too, via her patented lofty voice when she’s trying to condescend to people). but this is often taken as the initial red flag for how the relationship would crash and burn, and ron’s toxic jealousy is often used in fan-fiction as the trigger for emotional and physical violence towards hermione which, frequently, seems to drive her into the arms of either draco malfoy or severus snape… who are, of course, the first people we think of when we hear the words ‘not prone to jealousy’...

but i think it’s important to point out several things in defence of ron’s jealousy over krum. firstly, hermione evidently regards his jealousy as ridiculous - she’s upset by it, yes, but her upset must be understood as being caused by the fact that she wanted him to ask her out. she doesn’t think he’s being possessive, she thinks he’s being stupid. secondly, hermione is equally as jealous over ron’s crush on fleur delacour and relationship with lavender brown. she behaves just as cruelly when it comes to lavender as ron does when it comes to krum - and the narrative only treats her actions as more sympathetic or justified both because harry dislikes lavender too, and because, by that point in the series, jkr has dispensed with any inclination to ever criticise her.

but, outside of this teenage pettiness, ron is never jealous of hermione over things which matter. he is never jealous of her intelligence or competence or ambition or success (indeed, he defends her constantly from attacks designed to undermine her in these areas). for someone who struggles with being overshadowed by harry, he is never upset at being overshadowed by her. he is clearly going to be happy to support her in any of the career ambitions she can be written as having post-war.

and, on this point, i think it’s worth interrogating why so many readers still seem to feel uncomfortable with the idea of ron and hermione having a dynamic where she is the more ‘powerful’ one. [it’s always a bit trite to say ‘but what if the genders were reversed?’, but actually that’s not irrelevant here]. if hermione ends up taking the ministry by storm and ron becomes a stay-at-home father or has a job which is just to pay the bills, what, precisely, is wrong with that? why, precisely, should hermione regard ron making that choice for himself as a negative thing? hermione so often seems to leave ron in fan-fiction because of a lack of ambition - something which seems to be particularly common in dramione - but, in canon, she is shown to not particularly care if ron and harry do the bare minimum when it comes to studying etc. she nags them to do their work so they don’t get in trouble. she doesn’t nag them to do it to the same standard that she would.

and, actually, i think that ron being less ambitious than hermione is something which is key to how well they work. because ron provides not only emotional support, but emotional clarity.

hermione is shown throughout canon to - just as harry does - have a tendency to become obsessive to the detriment of her own health. she is also often - as harry is - emotionally or intellectually inflexible, and finds it hard to move on when what she feels or believes is proven to be wrong. both she and harry are micro-thinkers, who lean towards knee-jerk assumptions and stubborn convictions (and, indeed, hermione has a remarkably hagrid-ish tendency towards blind loyalty).

ron is none of these things. ron is a big-picture thinker (it’s why he’s so good at chess). he’s a pragmatist. he’s the least righteous of the three. he understands that faith and loyalty are choices, and that sometimes these choices will lead to outcomes which are bad or hard. he is the one of the three most willing to own up to having made mistakes. he is the one least likely to act on gut instinct (and, therefore, the hardest to fool - i think it’s worth emphasising that he clocks that tom riddle is tricking harry immediately, the only one of the trio to do so). he understands that things are a marathon, not a sprint. he is the least obsessive.

and these traits contribute to aspects of his character which are underappreciated. ron worries about hermione making herself ill during exams, or when she is using the time-turner, and makes an effort to get her to set healthy boundaries and redirect her anxiety. ron stands on a broken leg in front of sirius or goes into the forest to fight aragog not out of righteousness, but out of choice. ron takes over the burden of preparing buckbeak’s defence when it is clear that hermione is approaching burnout. ron is completely right that harry hasn’t done any long-term planning for the horcrux hunt, and his anger does force harry to tighten up after he leaves the trio. ron has a clear head in the middle of battle. ron makes harry and hermione laugh. ron is unafraid of human emotion. ron arrests harry’s tendency to brood over the little things by looking at the bigger picture. ron will always come back.

ron is bringing his politician wife regular cups of tea and making sure she doesn’t work all night. he is helping his lawyer wife to feel less upset over losing one case by reminding her that she’s won ten others. he is noticing stress creeping in and whirling her off for a dirty weekend, or even just a takeaway on the sofa. he is teaching his daughter to be proud of her ambition and his son to treat women as equals and both of his children that all you can do when you fuck up is apologise and try to do better. he is making hermione smile on the worst days of her life. he is helping her strategise her long-term goals when she gets stuck on the short-term ones. he is telling her straight when she needs to get it together. he is seeing a misogynistic head of department call hermione a ‘silly little girl’ and choosing to tell him exactly what he thinks of that.

ron is the ultimate wife guy. hermione is a very, very lucky lady.

RWatHT - Chapter 20: Sweetest of Nightmares

Ron was nervous. How could he not be? Tonight was the Ball. In just a few minutes he would have to go down and dance in front of almost all of Hogwarts. It felt like the Yule Ball all over again, but a bit better. This time there were no ugly maroon robes, but instead deep burgundy velvet dress robes with golden lining. They looked good, far better than what he had last year. The design was immaculate with a sleek golden lion shoulder pad on top of one of his arms which held his blonde fur cape.

The robes had been a gift from Master Gryffindor that he had forcefully accepted. He almost rejected them, until he told him he was going to throw him in the middle of the Great Hall naked if he did not accept them. He was sure his Master was only joking. But not so sure as to find out.

His hair was managed as well, although he most likely still needed to cut it. Thankfully, Daphne had been nice enough to have given him some hair products to use. 

The Ball was any minute now. Ron descended down the stairs. Harry, Ginny, Neville and Dean were sitting on the couch waiting. Ginny and Dean were going together, and although Ron found the pairing weird he was sure it was quite harmless. Neville had been a surprise, Luna had decided to invite his blonde dorm mate, and the poor bloke had been clearly relieved of his constant search for a date. Harry was another story, he had also managed to put his date to the Ball till the last minute one more time. And now he was as stuck as one could get with a date he had no interest with.

“You look good for a change,” Ginny teased.

“Shut up,” Ron responded. He cleared his throat, before asking Ginny the question he wanted to ask. “Is… Is she…?”

“She’ll be down any minute now,” she said with a smile.

“I hope so,” he nervously checked his dress robes. “Do I look good?”

“You look great mate,” Dean said, most likely trying to assure him. Ron looked to Harry for confirmation who nodded his head. 

Then, Ron heard it. The subtle set of steps he had walked with for 5 years. He turned to look before anyone else. There she was. Hermione Granger. Her brown hair was up in a bun on her head, with some strands of hair falling down and reaching her neck essentially framing her beautiful face. She was not wearing the periwinkle dress she had worn last year, instead she wore a champagne-coloured dress adorned with red lining and an intricate red pattern at the bottom that matched his own dress robes. She looked even more beautiful than last year, perhaps she had grown or maybe it was because she had chosen him.

Her cheeks were a bit pink, although Ron did not know if it was because of her make-up or another reason. Although she was wearing some short heels, he was still nearly a head taller than her. 

“Hi,” he said with a smile on his face.

“Hi,” she almost whispered, as if they had a secret. The two remained in silence only staring at each other, when Harry cleared his throat.

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