The door closed harshly behind her as she rushed outside. Warm tears pricked at her eyes, burned down her frost-bitten cheeks. She swallowed hard when she heard him behind her, flinched when he slammed it shut after him. “I don’t want to talk to you. Just leave.”

“I’m not leaving.”

“Why not? You’re bloody well good at it. You’ve done it before.”

“‘Mione-”

“No,” she snapped. “I will not let you make a bloody fool of me, Ronald Weasley. Not again. I’m not stupid.”

“I know you’re not,” he said softly, looking pained. “I never claimed you were.”

“You must think I am. You must think I’m an incredible dolt. I know what that spell is for, Ron! Did you think I didn’t know?”

Ron swallowed hard, a muscle in his jaw working. “No, I-”

“What are you trying to protect me from, Ron? Why are there secrets? I’m a member of the Order as well, dammit, tell me why I’m being kept in the dark!”

Ron took a deep breath. “Ever since Hagrid-”

“Don’t,” she hissed. “I’m not comparable. We shared one thing besides our friendship, Ron. Hagrid and I may both be half-blood, but I’m certainly not Hagrid.”

“It was meant for you,” Ron hissed. “It will always be meant for you, Hermione, because you are Harry’s friend. Because you are one of the closest things to him, don’t you see?”

“No, I don’t see! Do you know what I do see, Ronald?” Helplessly, he shook his head. “I see that you left me –your newly pregnant wife– without a word three months ago, causing me greater anxiety and fear than I’ve ever known, only to return with news that there had been -and still would be– more deaths. I see that you have learned a spell -a dangerous spell- that will allow you to hide things away from me in my own home. I see that you are keeping things from me because you feel that it will protect me and the baby, which, I might add, you are most mistaken in assuming. These are the things that I see. So let me bloody show you something, Ronald Weasley.”

And she kissed him. Just like that, a kiss full of force, lingering on his lips even after she’d pulled away. Her eyes met his, and she saw nothing. Tears streaked her face and she shook her head, realizing just how lost they were to each other at that very moment. “Odd the way things work out sometimes, isn’t it?” she muttered. There was a long pause, during which she considered him carefully. “And you still don’t see, do you?” she whispered accusingly.

Ron watched his wife, his emotions welling and forming a hard rock in his throat. “I do. I love you. I... I’m sorry.” Face buried in her hair, he murmured, “I only want to protect you.”

“‘A woman is not a potted plant,’“ Hermione murmured against his neck with a small smile. “‘Her roots bound to the confines of her house... A woman is wilderness unbounded, holding the future between each breath, walking the earth only because she is free...’“

Quote from “a woman is not a potted plant” by Alice Walker