and to this day, when everything breaks, you are the anchor that holds me

[cleverness]

As the sun began to deep from its early afternoon high, birds chirped as they flew through the woods, lingering around the Nook and watching curiously as people gathered from around the city. Flowers bloomed from the branches, uncharacteristically bright and large for the season, aided by a touch of magic. Not far from the house, a small babbling brook snaked through the fields, giving pets and wildlife alike the chance to run around and splash in a bit of water. The wedding decor had been designed to blend into the countryside, tables held up by tree trunks, and shade overhead provided by the stretch of vines and blossoms. The scent in the air was subtle and sweet, light floral mingling with the smell of baked goods wafting from the buffet table. At the end of the table stood a large cake, with white frosting and decorated with orange blossoms and clementines. If one looked closely enough, they would notice that one of the fruits was different than the rest, painted a subtle gold, and occasionally flying around the cake with a rapid beating of delicate wings.

The wedding was a small and intimate affair, meant to be more of a celebration than a formal occasion, and guests mingled with wine and cheer before the time came for the ceremony to begin.


Ron had felt as if he was going to lose his breakfast for most of the day. The truth was, he'd barely eaten at all that morning, anxious about the late afternoon ceremony. In some ways, it reminded him of ages ago, of his first Quidditch match as Keeper back at Hogwarts, his stomach was in knots, he felt peaky, and without realizing it that morning, he'd been so distracted by his own thoughts that he'd idly managed to cast a spell that left a small raincloud lingering over his head for nearly an hour before he managed to rid himself of it.

He knew that he was mental for it, for being worried about any of this. He and Hermione had been together ages now. They loved each other, and this was the next thing. There was no doubt in his mind that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with that bloody amazing woman, but there was still the slightest bit of worry that she'd think better of it— of him— and tell him to sod off. He hadn't had thoughts like that, when it came to Hermione, in ages, but somehow it'd all come flooding back in the hours before the wedding.

Even standing there, waiting for her to walk down the aisle, he tried to push those thoughts away, tried not to look too nervous, like his stomach didn't feel like a crumpled bit of parchment. At least, if it all went sour, he only really knew a handful of people who'd turned up today. And Charlie wasn't George or Ginny, so he wouldn't give him too hard a time about it.

But the thing Ron didn't expect, standing there feeling like he might pass out, what he hadn't prepared himself for, was how she looked when he finally saw her. Because once he finally saw Hermione in her dress, walking toward him, this bloody amazing woman who'd chosen him when she could have had anyone, all the worry melted away. The parchment uncrumpled itself, and he was left grinning so hard he couldn't imagine ever being this happy again in his life.


All throughout the morning, Hermione's heart fluttered in her chest. Even as she listened to the guests mingling in the distance, there was something about the day that didn't feel quite real, even as she worked on zipping her dress and arranging her hair just so. While she had asked a guest or two for help on occasion, Hermione spent most of the morning preparing on her own, letting the enormity of everything that had led her and Ron to this point sink in. She had known, practically since their first year at Hogwarts, that Ron was a person whom Hermione would spend the rest of her years standing alongside. But the depth of what they felt for one another, the deepening of those emotions as they bloomed into something deeper and intangible, was something she never could have anticipated all of those years ago.

Now, she couldn't imagine wanting a single day away from him. As Hermione gazed in the mirror, she noticed how it softened her appearance. Her cheeks, dusted pink even without the help of blush. Quietly, she stole a moment to peek through the window, where Ron and Charlie were speaking in the distance. Everything about the day felt right. Everything was coming together, the final missing pieces of the puzzle.

By the time she made her way to the aisle, Hermione was already beaming, fingers trembling as they held onto her bouquet. Petals of light pink and orange lined the path she took, guests turned their heads to rest upon the bride, and sweet woodwind music played in the distance — but in the moment, Hermione only had eyes for Ron. As she came to a stop across from him, she reached a hand out to lace with his own, and silently murmured, I love you.


Ron had spent hours the day before trying to put the right words together, even though he knew that he was rubbish at that sort of thing. Reports, papers… mostly he just tried to get out of doing them, but this wasn't something Ron wanted to skive off. It was more important than almost anything.

In the end, he'd come up with something, and he'd written it out on a bit of parchment that he'd folded up and put in the pocket of his jacket, but he'd begun to think he wouldn't need it after all.

"Hermione, you've been my best friend, my teacher, my soul mate. You've managed to put up with me for over a decade now, and if you were going to think better of it, I s'pose you would've done it by now. Sometimes— right now, especially— I can't believe I've gotten this lucky. I love you, Hermione. You've been making me a better person since we first met, all those years ago as kids. And I promise that— that I'll keep working at it for as long as we're together, which is the rest of our lives, I hope. I promise we'll keep learning from each other, and that I'll always be there.

"A long time ago, I got lost, and it took a little ball of light to bring me back to you, to bring me home again. But I promise to never leave again. You're my home now, and you always will be."


As Hermione listened to Ron speak, she felt her chest grow tight and her eyes mist over, but she did her best to take the whole moment in, committing every detail to memory. The bright blue of Ron's eyes, as clear as the sky above. The way his hair caught the sunlight. The gentle brush of the wind as he spoke, grass waving merrily in the distance. She ducked her head for only a moment, smiling to herself, knowing that she could never forget the way that her heart felt right then, full to burst.

"As a child, I had always been somewhat of a precocious little thing. I knew how to consume books as though I was breathing air, and I kept my nose buried in them, day after day, like they were my entire world. But from the moment that you entered my life, Ron, you showed me that there was so much more to the world than what I could learn in the shelves of a library. You taught me the value of friendship, you showed me what true bravery meant. And what you taught me, above all else, is about love. What it's like to grow together, and what it's like to feel as though there's another person in the world who completes you. Who makes your world whole. Who shows you, every day, how life can be lived to its fullest.

"You say that you feel like you're lucky, but I feel like I've been the fortunate one to have found my soulmate so early in life. And I can't wait to spend the rest of that life with you."

Trembling hands relaxed as Hermione watched Ron slide the ring onto her finger, and she glanced up with a soft laugh. His warm arms wrapped around her, and Hermione pushed herself onto her toes, hand curling against his chest as she pressed her lips to his.


[ gathering for ronmione wedding! let us know if you're requesting ron, hermione, or both! tag in and be merry. ♥ ]

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[cleverness]

With a softly overwhelmed sob, Hermione quickly raised both of her hands to her face, face warm and tears already threatening to spill over. Having spent so many years over at the Weasleys' residence, seeing Molly arrive was akin to having her own mother at her wedding. Warm, welcoming, and above all, exactly what Darrow needed in order to feel like home.

"I can't believe you're here," Hermione admitted, sounding far too young as she reached her arms out to cling to Molly in a hug, trying to keep her breath even. "I feel like I'm dreaming right now. Everything about this day, I... I don't know what to say. I'm so happy that you made it."

Hermione turned to glance at Ron, trying to dry one of her cheeks with the back of a hand. "I suppose if I ever believed in signs, now would be the time," she joked with a broken laugh, holding her free hand out to pull Ron back into the embrace.

[deluminate]

Ron didn't think he'd be able to stop himself smiling before, but it felt nearly impossible now. Darrow had done a lot of bloody awful things to a lot of people, and for the most part, he and Hermione had gotten out of it unscathed so far. He still hadn't properly forgiven it for bringing Remus and then taking him away as though it was nothing, but compared to what he'd heard some others had gone through, they'd definitely come out okay.

This though... Ron couldn't help but think that Darrow wasn't all bad after this. It couldn't be. This was amazing.

"When'd you get here?" he asked, "How'd you even find us?"

[teaandsympathy]

"Just now," Molly answered, still more than a little in awe of it herself. "A lovely girl," she paused looking over the guests until she found the one she was looking for, "Agatha, asked if she could help. She was on her way here, you see, and when I introduced myself, she asked if I knew you. And that was that. I still can't believe the luck myself."

[cleverness]

"Oh, Agatha," Hermione said on an exhale, feeling the tears threatening to well over again. Hermione hadn't forgotten the way that she and Agatha had met, back in the day, when Agatha came to the Lamplight looking for a friend of hers who had seemingly disappeared from the city. There's a bittersweetness to think that the circumstances have turned around entirely, with Agatha now having the opportunity to bring family home.

"She's lovely, indeed. I've been giving her magic lessons in our spare time. Oh, we'll have to invite her over to a proper family dinner," she said, voice wavering for a moment before Hermione paused to gather herself. A few seconds later, she gave up the effort, instead stepping forward for another hug. "It's so good to have you here. This day wouldn't have been complete, otherwise."

She paused, wondering if she should ask Molly when she arrived from, but a flutter of apprehension held her back.

[deluminate]

There was a question Ron wanted to ask as well, and he glanced back over the people who had assembled at the Nook that day, hoping to see another familiar face. But if his dad was there as well, his Mum would have said something by now. He would have been standing right there with them. That considered, it was probably better for him not to mention it at all just yet. Not when it would likely put a damper on what was shaping up to be bloody amazing timing.

"It's got to be more than just luck," Ron said, and times like this, he couldn't help but be reminded of years ago, when the Deluminator had brought him back to Hermione and Harry. There were types of magic at work that none of them really understood, sometimes.

[teaandsympathy]

"A proper family dinner sounds just the thing. I don't know how I'll ever be able to thank Agatha enough for this."

Molly had an infinite supply of hugs to give, especially when she felt like if she let go or worse let either of them out of her sight, they'd slip away - and not in the manner of most newlyweds eager to get on with their wedding night.

And that was all the thinking Molly was quite ready to do on the subject of their wedding night.

"You know what Dumbledore would've said," she offered, tears still pricking at her eyes and a lump growing in her throat for for the swell of love for her family. "But then it wouldn't be just me arriving in the nick of time, would it?"

[cleverness]

In spite of the years that had passed, it was impossible not to be swept up in a wave of emotion at the sound of Dumbledore's name. Only through his sacrifices was this day even possible, and Hermione briefly bowed her head in respect. Enough years had passed for Hermione that thoughts of those years didn't cross her mind every day. They'd reached the peace that was meant to come after the war.

"In time, I'm sure more of us will arrive. I feel more certain of it than ever now," Hermione said resolutely, smiling and blinking away her tears. "But enough of that. We'll need to set up a room for you in the Nook. I couldn't bear to have you living so far away from us; we'll all live here, until we find the time to build another house. You'll love it here in the countryside — we're close to rivers and lakes, and the air here is always so fresh. When I first arrived, I knew that I wanted to create an environment like the Burrow. Whenever I think of home, that's the first place that comes to mind, after all."

[deluminate]

The first thing Ron thought of was to protest. He hadn't lived with his mum in ages, and he couldn't think of much he wanted less, as a married man, than to live with his mum again. But knowing that his dad wasn't in Darrow as well, the idea of her living on her own in one of those flats in the city was a bloody awful one. There was no way he was going to leave her to that.

"It's brilliant," Ron said, and leaned over to press a kiss to Hermione's cheek. In less than a year in Darrow, the Nook had become almost as much like home as the Burrow had been, and much of that was because of the thought Hermione had put into it.

"And she's right. We've got loads of room. No reason you should stay in some weird flat just because they've said you're supposed to."

[teaandsympathy]

Molly hadn't thought about needing a place to stay until Hermione brought it up. But from what she'd been told it wasn't as though she could simply Apparate back to the Burrow, as strange as that seemed now she did think about it.

"But it's your wedding night," she told them, not wanting to impose too much even though the thought of separating from them seemed worse than whatever weird flat Ron was thinking of. "I'm sure I could get something sorted out, if you'd rather be alone. There's Charlie, after all. Or a flat, you say? Is that something that happens?"

[cleverness]

Hermione's cheeks flushed slightly upon Molly's direct mention of their wedding night, and was glad that Ron's kiss could obscure her briefly from view. It wasn't that Molly was wrong in any way. While Hermione hadn't gone all out to plan what would happen in the privacy of their home, she knew that the excitement over the day hadn't abated in the slightest, and there was nothing she looked forward to more than an intimate evening with her new husband. That didn't make it any easier to keep a straight face about it in front of his mother, though.

She bit down on her lower lip briefly, seeking out Ron's hand and giving it a light squeeze.

"True, I imagine Charlie has space in his flat as well. But, at least spend some of the night with us. You can Apparate within the city, after all — or you should be able to, though Charlie's had some trouble with it. The city arranges to have flats prepared for everyone who enters Darrow from outside, but they're... rather stark and impersonal," Hermione says hesitantly. "I'd been meaning to ask Charlie if he was interested in building a place out here, but we've all been so busy that we haven't gotten around to it. Though now, there's all the more reason to."

[deluminate]

"You've got to," Ron replied, "And the dodgy flat can wait until tomorrow."

And even with the excitement of the day, and how knackered he imagined he and Hermione'd be at the end of it, couldn't imagine his Mum just leaving with everyone else, like she was some other guest to the wedding. It was mental, it was. Both she and Charlie could stay on a bit so they could all catch up properly.

And he was going to try and forget that his Mum had made any mention at all to what might or might not happen on his wedding night.

[teaandsympathy]

"That much is settled then," Molly said, nodding decisively. When she made up her mind, her mind was made up, after all. "I'll stay long enough to help clean up, and to catch up with you all."

An mischievous glint flickered in her eyes, one that could make a person realize where the twins and Ginny, and the rest of her children even, had gotten it from, and she almost made another comment about the wedding night just because children never liked their parents thinking about such things - although where they thought the children came from otherwise, she'd never know. But in the end she was too glad to have them around, she took pity on Ron.

"Then I can see about this 'dodgy flat' or staying with Charlie. It'll work out for everyone."

[cleverness]

Hermione smiled to herself, cheeks flushing pleasantly in reaction to Molly's expression. Over the years, Hermione liked to think that there was a certain level of communication that she had established with her mother-in-law, a type of communication that stemmed from both being strong-willed witches. That feeling had softened and deepened at once after Hermione began dating Ron in earnest.

Once Hermione knew what it was like to be in a relationship.

She reached a hand out for Ron's, giving it a small squeeze. "Alright, then. I suppose it would be altogether too selfish to keep you all to ourselves when Charlie's still living alone in his flat," Hermione conceded, before leaning over to press a kiss to Ron's cheek. "But the very next day, we'll all start searching for a place for the two of you to live in, out here in the countryside. Family should never stray far, yes?"