deluminate | 8/29

He was supposed to give a speech.

Maybe it wasn't not a speech exactly, but he knew he was supposed to say something on Saturday, when he and Hermione got up in front of friends and family— though not as much family as Ron thought there'd be when this eventually happened— and got married.

He was rubbish at this stuff.

Reports when he was an Auror and when he'd had them for homework at Hogwarts... those had been the worst parts of all. He'd managed to skirt by in school by getting answers out of Hermione when he could, and he'd had a stack of overdue reports as long as his arm on his desk before he'd ended up in Darrow, so his track record with them wasn't particularly good.

This though, Ron wanted it to be something special. It wasn't every day you got married, and he wanted to make sure what he said on Saturday was perfect.

Sat at a picnic table in the park, Ron had managed about three words before he wanted to bin the bit of paper he was writing on. It wasn't good enough. Maybe he wasn't good enough. It'd crossed his mind a few times since Hermione had accepted his proposal, but stuck there with only a few words on the piece of paper in front of him, he couldn't push away a feeling in his gut that Hermione'd think better of it and decide it wasn't worth it after all.

"Bloody hell," Ron said, and crumpled up the paper shutting his eyes as he scrubbed one hand through his hair. He needed to pull himself together.

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"Sorry," she apologized, ducking her head with a brief laugh. She lingered at a distance, not wanting to get a glimpse of anything she wasn't meant to see — the paper that Ron was hunched over looked suspiciously like notes, and it wasn't hard to guess what he might be preparing them for.

"I just didn't want to interrupt your deep train of thought," Hermione said, lowering her wand and letting the light extinguish. "But I wanted to say hi. Ask how you're feeling. If you have any thoughts about dinner."

She rests against the trunk of a tree, crossing her arms loosely over her chest.

The paper he'd had crumpled up in front of him, Ron quickly tucked into his pocket. Even though Hermione was keeping her distance at the moment, he didn't want her seeing what he had— or didn't— have written there.

"I dunno, I thought we'd do take away," Ron replied, and he'd grown to really like that particular Muggle invention. Usually he or Hermione were prone to making dinner, depending on who made it home first, but it didn't seem right, either of them cooking, considering how busy tomorrow would likely be.

He deliberately didn't answer the big about how he was feeling, not sure if it was best to get into what had been running through his head today.

As soon as Hermione noticed that the paper was being tucked away, she made her way over to Ron's side. When she sat down next to him, Hermione reached out for his hand, lacing their fingers together and letting her thumb rub against the palm of his hand in a soft, soothing circular motion. It didn't surprise her that he might be feeling nerves in the moment. A wedding was a big occasion, after all.

"Take-away sounds good," Hermione murmured, leaning in to press a quick peck on Ron's cheek. She wasn't sure what she could do to help him relax, but she certainly didn't want to go without trying. "Nervous about the big day?" She gave his hand a small squeeze.

"Not at all," Ron replied quickly, but found immediately that he wasn't even able to lie to himself about it. He sighed, then looked up at her with a slightly worried expression. Just her hand in his was enough to start to ease his mind, but that feeling in the pit of his stomach still managed to linger, if only a bit.

"Is it that obvious?" he asked.

"I think... that there's a reason why the expression 'cold feet' exists," Hermione said, continuing to run her thumb along the edge of Ron's palm, before squeezing his hand gently. "And the look on your face does remind me a little of your expression the day before year end exams in school. Being nervous is fine, you know. It's a big day that we have ahead of us."

She smiled, leaning forward to press a kiss to Ron's cheek, soft and reassuring. "But, if it makes you feel any better, I don't think I've looked forward to anything half as much as the day we finally get married. That's all I need to be the happiest person in the world tomorrow. Even if we decided to abandon our plans last-minute, hop on a broomstick, and fly to the very edge of the countryside — as long as we're promised to one another, that's all I need."

This wasn't nearly as bad as year end exams back at Hogwarts. There wasn't much good about those days, but if he could manage to pull himself together, tomorrow would hopefully be brilliant.

"Let's just do that, then," Ron replied of her suggestion to just skive off the whole thing, "Just me and you. Forget about everyone else."

Ron knew that wasn't really an option, even if they did have a working broomstick in Darrow, though. They'd invited people and he knew Charlie'd be disappointed, definitely.

"Oh, Ronald," Hermione sighed, shaking her head with a smile. After a pause, she reached a hand out, curling it gently along his jaw. If Ron was really anxious to the point of not wanting a ceremony, Hermione would understand, but she had the feeling that it was something Ron would regret in time.

"We could. But we have friends and family who are eager to see us on the big day, and it'll be nice to celebrate with them afterwards, won't it?" she asked, fingertips brushing lightly against the soft strands of hair by Ron's temple. "And Charlie just arrived recently, too. He'll want to watch his brother getting married."

"Memory charms. You're good at those," Ron replied, though at this point, he wasn't entirely serious. Not really. He remembered how great Bill's wedding had been before everything had gone wrong, and how happy Ginny had been at her own. He wanted that for Hermione. For the both of them, really.

That didn't stop him from joking, though.

"It'll be just like they've been to a wedding, in the end. Nobody will know the difference."

"Well, if I'm going to be casting a good number of Memory charms, I may as well include you in the group," Hermione pointed out, keeping just an edge of teasing in her voice. Not that she thought Ron would believe that Hermione would be so willing to give up on the idea of having a wedding. "That way, you'll have the same details in your memory as everyone else."

Hermione pursed her lips, tapping thoughtfully at her chin.

"Although it would be rather a shame for the first time that you see the wedding dress to be in a fabricated memory, don't you think?"

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