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Hermione woke suddenly. It was dark in the tent, but she could still see Harry across the room, asleep in his own bed. Ron was on watch while they slept. She sat up and reached for her wand, slipping her feet into the boots she had left by the bed. Shrugging into her coat, she walked towards the front of the tent to check on Ron.
It was cold outside and Hermione shivered as her boots crunched in the snow. More had fallen during the night, she noticed. She tucked her wand into her coat pocket as she zipped up the coat, any warmth she had had from her bed, she wanted to keep!
Ron turned as he heard her coming towards him. "Not your turn yet." He told her.
"No, I know. I woke up and well, Harry was all right, so I wanted to check on you." She came closer to him.
"Been pretty quiet tonight. I have the radio out here to keep me awake." He showed it to her, propped up against a nearby stump.
Hermione nodded, absently. The cold had snapped her awake. She couldn't imagine going back to sleep now, even though she knew Ron was all right.
"Kind of pretty tonight,too." Ron said. "Even if it is bloody cold."
"Where's your wand? You could've used a charm for heat." She pointed out to him. Ron could be rather dense at times, almost forgetting he was a wizard.
"I didn't want to. I kind of like the cold, as long as it isn't too cold."
Hermione wondered if he'd like freezing to death, which if it got any colder, he was likely to do. "We can't win the war if you freeze first." she gently argued.
He let her win the argument this time. It was rather cold and he had forgotten his wand back in the tent, although he'd never tell her that.
She pulled her own wand out of her coat pocket and waved it, whispering a charm. A wave of heat enveloped them both, in more ways then one. Their relationship had begun to change though neither could yet admit what it was becoming.
"So you forgot both your wand and your hat?" She asked, she knew very well Ron's wand was in the tent, still on the table where he had left it.
Snow had begun to pile on his red hair without the hat to protect him. He shrugged. "Can't remember everything."
"No, that's why you keep me around." She sat down on the now warm log next to him.
"That's not the only reason, Hermione, you should know that by now." He shifted to make room for her.
She didn't say anything to that, just kept her eyes ahead at the snowy forest. After a moment, she said, "The protective charms are holding well, I think."
Ron nodded. "Seem to be." He studied the forest ahead, like she was. They were quiet for a few moments. Snow was falling around them and the entire forest was muffled because of it. "I think we're pretty safe for the time being." He shook his head, her heating charm was beginning to melt the snow on his hair.
She smiled a bit as she flicked off the snow that had flown out of his hair to her shoulders. "You need a hair cut, Ron."
"And where do you think I'll be getting one? Mum isn't exactly around." He retorted.
"You don't need your mum, I'll do it." Hermione said. "It can't be that hard." She started to move her wand towards him.
He jumped back like she'd smacked him with the wand instead. "That's not how you cut hair!" He yelped.
"Would you rather I use that dull knife in the tent?" She did lower the wand.
"I'd prefer you do it the way it's meant to be done, with proper scissors and a comb!" He took a step back from her, even knowing if she really wanted to, she could still mess with his hair from a distance.
"Have you got either of these things?" Hermione doubted it.
"No, but I'm thinking you probably do in that bag of yours!" Ron was still wary of coming any closer.
She thought about it for a moment. There was definitely a comb, hers, and most likely scissors,too, she was sure of it. She'd tried to pack anything and everything they could possibly need for an extended amount of time, but that was difficult to do when a girl had no idea where they were going or what might happen. "Fine, in the morning, I'll cut your hair with proper scissors. Harry's,too." She reasoned both boys could do with a haircut.
"Good plan." Ron returned to the log to sit next to her. "It'd be nice to be home." he grumbled.
"Yeah. It would." Hermione lay her head on his shoulder. She hadn't yet told them about oblivating her parents and erasing her existence. Home didn't exist for her anymore.
They sat together, watching the sun begin its ascent into the sky.
*****************
The sun had just begun to peek above the trees when they decided it would be all right to go inside the tent. "Night watch is over." Ron said, relieved. He didn't complain,much, when it was his turn, but he certainly didn't enjoy it either.
"Yes. Let's go inside where it's warmer and we can get breakfast before I cut your hair." Hermione was starting to feel the chill as the warming charm started to wear off. "At least the snow has stopped falling."
"Something to be grateful for, at any rate." Ron squinted up at the sky. Clouds filled the sky above, promising more snow or possibly freezing rain later. "I'm glad we've got the tent at least. It's better then no roof."
"Indeed it is. That's why I asked your father for it." She reached for the door to push it open. The warmth of the tent was welcoming to both of them. "I guess I didn't realize how cold I was!"
"Bloody hell, it's warm in here. I'm never going outside again!" Ron shut the door firmly. Shaking his head, snow was flying all over the floor, to Hermione's dismay and Harry's, too, as some of the snow smacked him in the face.
"What are you doing?" Harry sleepily shouted.
"Your turn to be in the cold, mate. I'm going to stay inside where it's warm." Ron smirked. "Hey, maybe Hermione can teach you that warming charm, it did work quite well for a while."
Harry grumbled as he pulled his boots and coat on, slamming the door with a bit more force then necessary on his way out.
"You know we have to take turns, Ron." Hermione busied herself looking for scissors in her beaded bag.
"And, what? I'm not supposed to be glad mine is over?" Ron had other ideas on his mind, such as food. "What should we get up for breakfast?"
"I thought you wanted me to cut your hair?"
"Food first, Hermione. We need food to focus on properly cutting hair." He pulled out the tea tin and a loaf of bread. "Tea and toast? Wish we had some ham or something to go with it."
"Tea does sound lovely." Hermione laid the scissors she had finally found on the table along with her comb. "There, a proper pair of scissors and my comb, will that be good enough for you?"
Ron turned around from the counter where he was putting water in the teakettle. "Have you ever actually cut someone's hair?"
"Well...." Hermione trailed off. "Not actually. But, it can't possibly be that difficult! I just cut in a straight line around your head."
He squinted at her. "Uh. Mum does this curvy thing with the scissors after she charms them."
"Well, I can't very well look up a hair cutting spell!" She huffed as she sat down in a chair next to the table. She paused a moment. "I did bring some spellbooks, I suppose it's possible there could be such a spell. I haven't yet had much use for domestic spells."
"Just how many books do you have in that bag?" Ron brought the kettle over to the table to fill the waiting cups.
"I didn't count. I brought anything I thought we might find useful." Hermione accepted the cup of tea.
"Like my too tight jeans?" He took the chair next to her.
She swallowed her tea quickly. "I brought the ones you had in the laundry, it's not my fault they weren't your favorite pair! I didn't see you packing!"
"We couldn't do this without you, Hermione. You should know that by now."
"I bloody well do!"
They both smiled and laughed.
"Honestly though, Ron, I don't think cutting your hair will be very difficult. I'll look through a few books while we're eating and then afterwards, I'll do it."
Ron was a bit nervous about this idea, but how bad could it really be? Hermione was good at spells and charms, it wasn't like it was a complicated thing exactly, all she had to do was find the right charm or spell and it'd be a quick little haircut. He hoped.
Hermione placed her bag on the table next to her cup of tea and began searching through it. "I did bring a few spellbooks, I didn't know what we might be doing or where we'd be, so I thought it'd be useful to learn some new spells or charms if we needed to."
"Oi, yes, because we obviously would want to study while we're on the run." Ron rolled his eyes as he mocked, but he also was smiling to show he didn't truly mean it.
"Obviously, we are going to study. Haircutting charms have to be here somewhere." She pulled a bright red book from the bag. "See, this one is a domestic charms and spells book. Your mum gave it to me for Christmas last year. I haven't had much use for it yet but I did give it a read through when she gave it to me. I think there might have been some sort of hair charm."
He passed her a plate with toast on it while she flipped through the book. "Better eat, I know I study better with food."
"You study?" She asked, slyly, giving him a look.
"Well, you study and I pretend to pay attention to you." Ron acknowledged it was Hermione who had gotten them both through school.
"Is that how you do things?" She wasn't paying much attention to him now as she slowly turned pages. Absently, she shoved a piece of toast in her mouth. She made a face as she chewed. "I wish we had butter or something."
"Can't make something out of nothing, and we have nothing we could make butter out of." Ron shrugged as he agreed.
Hermione nodded and suddenly yelped. "Found one! This should work!" She turned the book around so he could see the picture of a witch cutting a child's hair.
He raised his eyebrows, "Hermione, that's a child."
"So? Hair is hair."
He sighed inwardly. Hermione was usually right, but when she was wrong, she was really wrong, and he was a bit afraid to contradict her. But it was his head on the block! "Are you sure that's an okay spell for someone not a child?"
She studied the page a moment. "It just says it's to cut boys hair. You're a boy. It doesn't specify age, so I don't see that it would matter much."
Grudgingly, he gave in and hoped for the best. At least they were in the woods in the middle of nowhere and nobody was going to see if it was terrible. He could just wear his hat until spring.
***************
After they finished their breakfast, Hermione began to set up her hair cutting station. "Scissors, check, comb, check, wand, check, towel, check." She laid everything out on the table in preparation.
Ron watched, warily. Nobody except his mum had cut his hair before. There'd been a few experimental spells the guys in the dorm had done, but nothing serious. He took his place on the stool she'd set up by the lamp. "Are you sure about this?"
"It'll be fine, Ron, honest!" Hermione was confident as usual.
He shut his eyes as she circled him, trying to decide the best place to start on Ron's head. She decided to start with the back. She picked up her wand and aimed it towards the scissors and comb. "I don't know, Ron, I think I'd be more comfortable to cut it myself instead of using magic."
"Mum kind of does both, if that helps." He did not open his eyes.
"It does, thank you." A quick charm to the scissors and Hermione held them carefully to Ron's head. She wanted to close her eyes as she snipped the first bit, but took a deep breath instead, "It'll be great."
Thirty minutes later, with much sweating and under her breath swearing words Ron didn't know Hermione even knew, his hair was done. She surveyed her work with a critical eye. It was probably not the best hair cutting job she'd ever seen, she did have to admit to herself. She wouldn't, however, admit it to Ron. "There, see, it's not that bad." She whipped the towel off from his shoulders, shaking the strands and chunks of red hair to the ground.
Ron shook his head. It felt okay. He was a bit nervous to look in the mirror. He reminded himself that if it was really bad, he could just wear a hat for the rest of winter. It was cold anyway, he should be wearing a hat in the first place, right?
She handed him the mirror and turned away from him. He gulped. She wouldn't watch his reaction, that was bad, wasn't it? He lifted the mirror to his face and surveyed the damage. It wasn't horribly awful. It also wasn't that good. It was a bit lopsided in spots, and that was just what he could see.
"I can fix it, I think." Hermione told him.
Ron studied the mirror a few minutes more. It really wasn't that bad, better then he probably would've done himself. "How's the back?"
"The same. I tried to make it even all the way around, like the picture."
"Okay." Ron struggled to find something else to say.
"I'm sorry, I thought it wouldn't be so difficult. You have quite nice hair, you know, and I've never cut anyone's hair before and," she trailed off, blushing. She'd almost admitted that she had enjoyed playing with Ron's hair.
"It's not that bad, Hermione." He ran his fingers through his hair, at least she hadn't shaved it off or cut it too close to his scalp. Really, she'd only given it a lousy trim. It could've been a lot worse, much to his relief it wasn't.
"Are you sure? Because I think I can fix it, if you want." She seemed rather concerned.
"Ah, no, I think this is fine."
***********
Hermione had gone outside after the haircutting, leaving Ron on his own, which was a rarity these days. He had never much cared to be alone, after coming from a big family and then having roommates at school. Even with just the three of them now, he was rarely alone. He hurriedly and half heartedly wiped down the plates they'd had their toast on, he didn't think the plates needed truly cleaned, and went to join her not long after. He wanted to reassure her the haircut wasn't that bad. He had a feeling she was rather upset at how it had turned out.
"Hey." Ron walked up beside her, she'd been aimlessly wandering along the water's edge.
"I'm sorry." She immediately said.
"Eh, my hair is fine. No worries, really. I have a hat anyway." He tried to make her laugh.
He didn't quite succeed but did get a small smile. "Could always make you another hat," she suggested, half smiling.
"Yeah, you could." Ron wouldn't admit for the world he did not want one of her lumpy knitted hats. The house elves could keep them! He stepped a bit closer to her. Even with the sun overhead, it was still chilly. Hesitating a moment, unsure, he slipped one arm around her and pulled her to him. She sighed and leaned into his side.
"I wish we could just go back the way it was." Hermione whispered against his jumper.
Ron was surprised. Hermione was usually the most optimistic of them all. "When this is all over, we can go home, you'll see."
"I can't."
He furrowed his brow. "What do you mean, you can't?"
She shook her head. "I had to, Ron. They needed to be protected and it was the best way."
He stopped walking a moment. The sudden realization of her words sunk in. "You, you oblivated your parents?"
"I can undo it. When the war is over and they're safe." She sounded determined but sad.
It took Ron a few minutes to collect his thoughts on this. "I'll help you when you do. Then we can go home together. Until then, you're stuck with me for your family."
Hermione laughed softly. "I've been stuck with you since I pointed out the dirt on your nose the first time we were on the Hogwarts Express."
"You always have been a know it all," he teased her, gently. He reached down and tilted her face up towards his. Leaning down, he went in for a kiss. Her arms wrapped around his neck as she accepted the kiss, which was also a gift of a future together.