Always- a Hinny / Romione fanfic

Chapter Thirty Four

*Hermione's P.O.V*

We unloaded off of the muggle bus, Ron grumbling under his breath. We had been riding for seven hours, and it was getting dark.

"C'mon Ron!" I called as we ambled across the streets of an Indonesian city. I had lost track of where.

Our trip was strange. We took bus rides every thousand miles, during which I was usually reading. Then we would apparate five hundred miles, which, mind you, was pushing our luck. I might be smart, but I wasn't that experienced.

All we had to do now was apparate across the ocean, and we would be in Australia. Then, we'd take a bus to the hotel, and finally- finally, we'd sleep. My eyelids were dropping as though with heavy weights already.

I scooped Ron's hand in mine, interlocking our fingers, making sure we were well away from people.

Ron rubbed his calloused thumb against the skin of my hand. Despite the cold air, I felt a warmth at his touch. Squeezing my eyes shut, I pulled us into darkness.

***

As soon as the bus pulled into the hotel, called West Bend, we sprinted, checked in, and raced eachother to our room like five year olds. Laughing, Ron stuck in the key, and opened our room.

"Bloody hell." He breathed. "What is this stuff?" He was tapping on the window of a microwave. I laughed.

"Don't worry about that, we won't need it, I'm exhausted," I flicked on the light switch, examining the room. It was fairly small, with only one bed. I noticed Ron's ears turn red.

"I'm sorry...it was all that was left...I suppose the couch pulls out..." I tried with no such luck. I thought vaguely of attempting to conjure another bed, or at least a comfy chair, but Ron insisted it was fine. Gazing at the dark mass of night outside the window, I said,

"Well, I'm going to sleep." And with that, I crawled into the bed, and closed my eyes. I felt his strong arms around me, and I sighed contently in his ear.

It was easy to doze off to sleep.

The next morning, I woke up quite earlier than I'd expected. Actually, back home, or, back at the burrow, it'd be nine a.m. Here, it was five. In the morning. I packed and repacked our bags, making sure we had everything, before waking Ron up.

"You drool in your sleep, ugh," I commented, pointing to his pillow. He wiped it off thickly with the back of his hand.

"Apparate or bus?" I asked him after we had checked out, fingers interlocked, shouldering our bags.

"Apparate." He answered quickly. I had already known the answer before I had asked.

I swayed a bit on the spot, worry fully coming at me. I was sure I had the address right, but what if something had happened, like they'd moved, or gotten divorced, or died, the possibilities were endless. I had to take a deep, steadying gasp before I pulled Ron and I into traveling oblivion.

***

As if I had a heavy weight on my hand, I lifted it to knock on the door of the house whose address I had double and triple checked. I heard the faint barking of a dog. Then, the door swung open, revealing my mom's happy face.

I burst out in tears.

"Mum!" I cried, throwing myself onto her. Then, horrified, I remembered that she didn't know who I was.

"Oh my gosh, I...sorry."

She began to sputter indignantly. I took out my wand, and put an impediment Jinx on her, just in case. Then, taking deep steadying breaths, Ron at my side, I began to perform the counter charms.