21. RESOLUTION (R) BY IAMSHADOW
Title: Resolution
Author: iamshadow
Ship: Ron/Harry
Word Count: 1,179
Rating: R (but very mild R)
Warnings: HET! (But nothing hugely squickworthy, and necessary for PLOT.) PLOT!
Summary: As some things are beginning, others are ending, and Ron works to come to terms with that.
A/N: I'm sorry! I'm so sorry. I promised you boysmut for the second part of this chapter, but it turned into hurt/comfort and porn didn't fit with the mood. But the boysex that should have been here is still in my head, hopefully for next chapter, so bear with me until then.
A big thank you to everyone who submitted prompt words!
In particular, these people, whose words were used in this chapter:
star54kar - hands, love, lost, Pig
lnalvgd - speculation
and mrsquizzical - effervescent (effervescence), glee, resolution
If I haven't used your words, never fear. I'm going to try and use as many as I can, and I got a lot that are going to be useful when I do write my pornish chapter. (Though trubbleclef's prompt of 'frigate' will present a unique challenge.)
The Teapot 'verse Series
Chapter List HERE
Future Fics HERE
Teapot Cookie Fics HERE
Hermione Granger was rather surprised.
Not surprised in a bad way, mind you. No, this surprise was turning out to be much, much better than she could have anticipated, had she known it was coming. But then it wouldn’t have been a surprise, of course.
Hermione had been busy packing away after that evening’s DA and Terry had hung back to help and to ask her about the study session they had planned for tomorrow evening. Then, without any apparent interlude, she was being thoroughly kissed. That was the first surprise. The second was that she was kissing him back, with equal vigour.
The period of time that followed was increasingly heated and foggy, involving hands and impatient little sounds and some very dirty words that she realised at some point were coming from her own lips. Now she was vaguely aware that her back was up against the wall of the classroom, her underwear was somewhere in the vicinity of her ankles, and Terry was kissing her neck.
There was a final moment of coherent thought. A single faint annoying realisation.
Damn Ginny. She’s going to be so smug.
Then his finger slipped inside her, confidently seeking out and finding a place that made her see stars, and all thoughts were obliterated. Apparently Terry had been doing his homework.
*************************************
“Fuck it! Come here, you stupid idiot!”
Pig was orbiting Ron’s head in erratic, ecstatic circles. I watched the chaos for over a minute in amusement. Ron was getting more and more furious, his lunges for his owl wilder, Pig’s effervescence and obvious glee more pronounced. In the end I decided I was probably taking too much pleasure in Ron’s pain. I stood and snatched Pig deftly from the air on my first attempt as he zoomed past my face.
“Show off,” grumbles Ron, glaring half-heartedly at me.
“Seeker,” I counter, handing him Pig, who hooted happily up at his master, waving his foot in the air.
Ron untied the mail and set Pig on his perch, scattering some owl treats for him with an air of mild resentment. I lay down again, picking up my book.
“One for you, too,” Ron says, dropping the envelope on my chest. He perches on the edge of my bed, staring at the sender’s address on his own as if it were a ticking bomb.
“What’s wrong?” I ask.
Ron’s face, which had been red from his exertions moments ago, is pale. “Er…it’s from Hermione.”
“So?”
He shifts, obviously uneasy. “Well…she hasn’t written me. At all. Not since…you know.”
“She’s asked about you, though, when she’s written to me.”
Ron gives me a hard, disbelieving look.
“Okay, well, she hasn’t actually asked about you,” I admit, “but she almost has. And she wished you happy birthday the other month.”
Ron shakes his head pessimistically. “I saw that letter. She said she was still angry with me a bit further down.”
I sit up, and rest a hand on his shoulder. “This might not be like that,” I say quietly. “And even if it is, sitting there brooding isn’t going to make it any easier when you do decide to read it.”
He sighs. “Guess not.”
“Come on,” I say, breaking the seal on my own letter. “Let’s just get it over with and read them, and then we can go downstairs and have a couple of shots of Firewhiskey if you need to.”
I expect Ron to at least protest a little more, but he sets his lips in a firm line and opens his own envelope.
It has to be the shortest letter I’ve ever received from Hermione. It’s to the point and contains nothing about school whatsoever. If it wasn’t for the handwriting and the fact that she used the word “speculation” to refer to Ginny’s shameless gossiping over the past month, I might have doubted it was Hermione who wrote it at all.
I glance up to see Ron studying a similarly brief missive with an expression of shock and bewilderment on his face.
“This is good news,” I say to Ron, slowly. “Right?”
Ron looks miserable. “Yeah, I s’pose so.”
“You’re not jealous, are you?” I ask tentatively, not sure I want to hear the answer.
It’s been over two months since we’ve been together, and though what we’ve done has been fun and intense for me, I’m still not sure it hasn’t just been frustrating for Ron.
I had hoped Ron’s ‘birthday present’ would make me more relaxed, but if anything it made me more nervous. The next time we’d tried anything sexual together, I had completely frozen up. All I could think of was that he’d expect the same kind of thing again, since I’d done it once. Though he assured me that wasn’t the case when I told him what I was thinking, I couldn’t help but feel horribly guilty.
I knew he and Hermione had had sex - real full-on sex. The idea that he might think of her or of sex with her with longing really frightened me in some dark, insecure corner of my mind.
“No,” he says hastily. “Nothing like that. It’s just, I don’t know, really final. It’s really over.” He lets out a long, slow breath. “When she and I got together, I thought, ‘this is it’ you know? This is the way life goes. You meet a nice girl that your parents like, and you marry her. I thought that soon enough we were going to settle down and have a mess of kids and I’d stay at home minding them while she became the next Minister for Magic.”
I allow myself a small smile, which he returns, briefly.
“Now everything’s different,” he continues. “Not bad different. Just different different. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do with my life any more.”
I slip my arm around his waist and rest my head lightly against his shoulder. I feel him lean into me an almost imperceptible amount. There’s a comfort in this. It should feel wrong to be so reassured when Ron is so lost, but it doesn’t. Feeling lost is something I understand completely.
“I thought I was going to die,” I say calmly, before correcting myself. “No, I knew I was going to die. I never really thought about the future much, because I didn’t think it was something I’d ever have the opportunity to worry about. If they hadn’t offered me a place with the Aurors, I don’t know what I’d have done. Gone back to school, or helped you and George out with Wheezes, I guess.”
Ron plants a gentle kiss on my hair then rests his forehead on the crown of my head. He takes my hand in his, and we sit like this for a long while, just drinking up the sensation of the nearness, the closeness of each other.
“I love you,” he whispers, his voice rough.
I tighten my arm around his waist and give his hand a little squeeze.
“I love you, too,” I say, meaning every word.
<- 20. Inexperience c@r 22. Trepidation ->
Author: iamshadow
Ship: Ron/Harry
Word Count: 1,179
Rating: R (but very mild R)
Warnings: HET! (But nothing hugely squickworthy, and necessary for PLOT.) PLOT!
Summary: As some things are beginning, others are ending, and Ron works to come to terms with that.
A/N: I'm sorry! I'm so sorry. I promised you boysmut for the second part of this chapter, but it turned into hurt/comfort and porn didn't fit with the mood. But the boysex that should have been here is still in my head, hopefully for next chapter, so bear with me until then.
A big thank you to everyone who submitted prompt words!
In particular, these people, whose words were used in this chapter:
star54kar - hands, love, lost, Pig
lnalvgd - speculation
and mrsquizzical - effervescent (effervescence), glee, resolution
If I haven't used your words, never fear. I'm going to try and use as many as I can, and I got a lot that are going to be useful when I do write my pornish chapter. (Though trubbleclef's prompt of 'frigate' will present a unique challenge.)
The Teapot 'verse Series
Chapter List HERE
Future Fics HERE
Teapot Cookie Fics HERE
Hermione Granger was rather surprised.
Not surprised in a bad way, mind you. No, this surprise was turning out to be much, much better than she could have anticipated, had she known it was coming. But then it wouldn’t have been a surprise, of course.
Hermione had been busy packing away after that evening’s DA and Terry had hung back to help and to ask her about the study session they had planned for tomorrow evening. Then, without any apparent interlude, she was being thoroughly kissed. That was the first surprise. The second was that she was kissing him back, with equal vigour.
The period of time that followed was increasingly heated and foggy, involving hands and impatient little sounds and some very dirty words that she realised at some point were coming from her own lips. Now she was vaguely aware that her back was up against the wall of the classroom, her underwear was somewhere in the vicinity of her ankles, and Terry was kissing her neck.
There was a final moment of coherent thought. A single faint annoying realisation.
Damn Ginny. She’s going to be so smug.
Then his finger slipped inside her, confidently seeking out and finding a place that made her see stars, and all thoughts were obliterated. Apparently Terry had been doing his homework.
*************************************
“Fuck it! Come here, you stupid idiot!”
Pig was orbiting Ron’s head in erratic, ecstatic circles. I watched the chaos for over a minute in amusement. Ron was getting more and more furious, his lunges for his owl wilder, Pig’s effervescence and obvious glee more pronounced. In the end I decided I was probably taking too much pleasure in Ron’s pain. I stood and snatched Pig deftly from the air on my first attempt as he zoomed past my face.
“Show off,” grumbles Ron, glaring half-heartedly at me.
“Seeker,” I counter, handing him Pig, who hooted happily up at his master, waving his foot in the air.
Ron untied the mail and set Pig on his perch, scattering some owl treats for him with an air of mild resentment. I lay down again, picking up my book.
“One for you, too,” Ron says, dropping the envelope on my chest. He perches on the edge of my bed, staring at the sender’s address on his own as if it were a ticking bomb.
“What’s wrong?” I ask.
Ron’s face, which had been red from his exertions moments ago, is pale. “Er…it’s from Hermione.”
“So?”
He shifts, obviously uneasy. “Well…she hasn’t written me. At all. Not since…you know.”
“She’s asked about you, though, when she’s written to me.”
Ron gives me a hard, disbelieving look.
“Okay, well, she hasn’t actually asked about you,” I admit, “but she almost has. And she wished you happy birthday the other month.”
Ron shakes his head pessimistically. “I saw that letter. She said she was still angry with me a bit further down.”
I sit up, and rest a hand on his shoulder. “This might not be like that,” I say quietly. “And even if it is, sitting there brooding isn’t going to make it any easier when you do decide to read it.”
He sighs. “Guess not.”
“Come on,” I say, breaking the seal on my own letter. “Let’s just get it over with and read them, and then we can go downstairs and have a couple of shots of Firewhiskey if you need to.”
I expect Ron to at least protest a little more, but he sets his lips in a firm line and opens his own envelope.
It has to be the shortest letter I’ve ever received from Hermione. It’s to the point and contains nothing about school whatsoever. If it wasn’t for the handwriting and the fact that she used the word “speculation” to refer to Ginny’s shameless gossiping over the past month, I might have doubted it was Hermione who wrote it at all.
I glance up to see Ron studying a similarly brief missive with an expression of shock and bewilderment on his face.
“This is good news,” I say to Ron, slowly. “Right?”
Ron looks miserable. “Yeah, I s’pose so.”
“You’re not jealous, are you?” I ask tentatively, not sure I want to hear the answer.
It’s been over two months since we’ve been together, and though what we’ve done has been fun and intense for me, I’m still not sure it hasn’t just been frustrating for Ron.
I had hoped Ron’s ‘birthday present’ would make me more relaxed, but if anything it made me more nervous. The next time we’d tried anything sexual together, I had completely frozen up. All I could think of was that he’d expect the same kind of thing again, since I’d done it once. Though he assured me that wasn’t the case when I told him what I was thinking, I couldn’t help but feel horribly guilty.
I knew he and Hermione had had sex - real full-on sex. The idea that he might think of her or of sex with her with longing really frightened me in some dark, insecure corner of my mind.
“No,” he says hastily. “Nothing like that. It’s just, I don’t know, really final. It’s really over.” He lets out a long, slow breath. “When she and I got together, I thought, ‘this is it’ you know? This is the way life goes. You meet a nice girl that your parents like, and you marry her. I thought that soon enough we were going to settle down and have a mess of kids and I’d stay at home minding them while she became the next Minister for Magic.”
I allow myself a small smile, which he returns, briefly.
“Now everything’s different,” he continues. “Not bad different. Just different different. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do with my life any more.”
I slip my arm around his waist and rest my head lightly against his shoulder. I feel him lean into me an almost imperceptible amount. There’s a comfort in this. It should feel wrong to be so reassured when Ron is so lost, but it doesn’t. Feeling lost is something I understand completely.
“I thought I was going to die,” I say calmly, before correcting myself. “No, I knew I was going to die. I never really thought about the future much, because I didn’t think it was something I’d ever have the opportunity to worry about. If they hadn’t offered me a place with the Aurors, I don’t know what I’d have done. Gone back to school, or helped you and George out with Wheezes, I guess.”
Ron plants a gentle kiss on my hair then rests his forehead on the crown of my head. He takes my hand in his, and we sit like this for a long while, just drinking up the sensation of the nearness, the closeness of each other.
“I love you,” he whispers, his voice rough.
I tighten my arm around his waist and give his hand a little squeeze.
“I love you, too,” I say, meaning every word.
<- 20. Inexperience c@r 22. Trepidation ->