A/n: Hello, and welcome to another great mini-story! This was destined to be a one-shot, then a two-shot, but I am glad to say that this is now a definite three-shot! I would have put this up a lot sooner, but I do have a thing about putting stories up after I'm all finished with them…. Well, that didn't work (cause I still haven't completely finished this story…), but I decided I can wait no longer.

Anyway, the whole purpose behind this story is that I'm sick and tired of everything is Ron's fault. I think I got a bit shirty at someone going on about how they thought Ron was a complete dunderhead. They even had the audacity to site the Harry Potter movies at me in order to prove their point. Anyone who reads my profile knows how I feel about those movies. Book Ron, movie Ron…alas, I won the argument eventually. However, I felt inspiration strike and I knew I had to do something to appease my muse, and thus this three-shot was born!

Disclaimer: Harry Potter is not mine. Harry Potter is J.K. Rowling's. As such, J.K. Rowling is not me.

Ship: You're on the good ship: R/Hr, as if there was any doubt. Minor H/G sprinkled about for good measure.

Summary: "Every circle starts and ends, the line twists and bends. We end where we started and we begin where we departed." Can Ron and Hermione's relationship come full circle, before disaster strikes?

Okay, how corny was that? Honest to goodness, I may have become a bit too cliché….

Setting: Meant to take place on one of the nights before the Trio leaves to search for the Horcruxes. Basically, we're at the Burrow. Main characters in this include Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Harry, and a dash of Mrs. Weasley and the Dark Lord.

Rated: PG, for the mild language that is sure to come, for good old fashioned violence, and for other mature themes.

Dedication: This story is dedicated to those who have been rejected by someone they care for. Trust me, I've been there and I'm done with that. Just know that there are people who like you just the way you are, unless your Voldemort-ish, which in case they only like you because they are scared as hell of you.

This chapter, specifically, is dedicated for hannahbanana. Happy birthday!

Final note: Okay, I reckon it's time to get the fic started now. On a finally final note, though, I must say that I don't entirely like the very beginning of this. I wrote it a long time ago, which makes me skeptical of deleting it. However, there's nothing to be doing at this point in time. Just letting you know ahead of time, in case you're…disappointed, or whatever. Sorry. It was just meant to set the mood.

Also, I went a bit crazy with the rulers. What can I say? They made everything nice and orderly.

Alas, enough of the pity part; time to get the ball rolling!

Full Circle

By dieselwriter

Beginning

Every circle has a beginning,
Every story has a start.
The place where we are set to understand,
The pen touches paper, ready make art.

And as we start to draw the circle,
As we begin to learn about the fate of two friends,
Be ready to learn that
Sometimes the beginning starts with an end.

Ever since lunch, she had been locked up in her room. She had been going through her mental checklist, making sure everything was ready the minute she was called into action.

When Harry came to call on her, she would be ready to walk beside him without a moment's hesitation.

Ever since lunch, he had been sitting outside on the back porch, working up the courage to say the one thing that needed to be said before he was called into action.

When Harry came to call on him, he wanted to be fully ready to walk beside him without a moment's hesitation.

But first he had to tell her how he felt about her, just in case.

Ron jumped slightly as the screen door banged closed. He turned to see his younger sister, Ginny, looking guiltily at the door.

"Sorry," she murmured, turning to look him in the eyes, "I didn't mean to slam it."

Ron didn't reply, but rather broke his gaze with her to stare across the grounds of the Burrow.

Ginny took no time to walk up to him and lean against the guard rail. She followed Ron's eyesight across the pond. "What are you looking at?"

Ron pointed out by their makeshift Quidditch pitch. "That mangy old boot. Do you see it?"

Ginny stifled a laugh. "Yes, I think it might be Charlie's."

"Too big," Ron muttered as he lowered his hand to continue staring at the backyard. "Might be Bill's…."

Ginny rolled her eyes. "Oh come on, Ron. What are you really thinking about?"

Ron turned his face to look at his sister. "If I asked--" He hesitated at seeing the broad smile on his sister's face. "Never mind."

Ginny frowned and tugged on his arm petulantly. "No, come on Ron, keep going! I'm listening!"

"Well you already seem to know what I'm going to say," Ron replied, ignoring her flapping his arm. "Doesn't seem to be any point for me to continue."

"Oh yes there is," Ginny said. "You need to get this off your chest."

Ron removed her hand from his arm and looked into her face. She shot her best innocent look and he sighed in surrender. "If I told…you know…her…how I feel…." Ginny nudged him slightly. "Who are we talking about?" she asked, feigning bewilderment.

"Hermione," Ron muttered, all the while glaring at his sister. "If I told her that…well, you know…."

Ginny started to giggle, much to Ron's chagrin. "I'm sorry Ron," she said, continuing her act of confusion, "I've not the slightest idea what you're talking about."

"Oh for Merlin's sake, Ginny," Ron snarled, rubbing his eyes. "How clear do I have to make it? If I told Hermione that I l-l-, well, enjoy her company possibly more than friends normally should, do you think she'd get offended?"

Ginny couldn't help but laugh. "'Enjoy her company possibly more than friends normally should?' Ron, if you tell her that, she'll probably laugh herself into the loony bin. Or else she'll throw you out the window."

Ron looked sullen as he placed his face into his hands. "I shouldn't have said anything," Ron said into his hands.

"Now, if you told her exactly how you feel," Ginny replied as she placed her hands on his shoulders, "you know, that you might possibly love her more than friends normally should, then you might get a bit further into a conversation before she launched you out the window." She squeezed her brother's tense shoulders. "Just let her know the truth, before something happens to one of you."

Ron removed his hands and looked up into his sister's face. "You sure she won't chuck me out the window?"

Ginny smiled down on him. "Yes."

Ron gave a weak grin as he stood up. "Wish me luck," he said as he messed up his sister's hair.

Ginny giggled again as her older brother went into the house. "You don't need it," she said as the door closed.

Hermione jumped slightly as the bedroom door opened. She whipped her head around to see Ron closing it sheepishly and rubbing the back of his head nervously. Her interest piqued, she turned away from folding her clothes to give him her full attention.

"Something wrong, Ron?" she asked, sitting on the bed.

"I-I need to talk to you," he said with a slight stutter.

Something cold seemed to trickle down her spine. "Is this about Harry? Is he okay?"

Ron looked taken aback. "What? Harry? No…this has nothing to do with Harry." He took two steps forward. "This is about us."

Hermione's heartbeat seemed to increase tenfold. "Us?"

"Y-yeah," Ron continued, taking another step forward. "I- um, you need to know something."

"Yes?" Hermione asked, completely flustered.

"Look, Hermione, this isn't easy for me to say," he started, but then shook his head as if he said the wrong thing entirely. "Well, it is easy to say, it's just not easy to put into words…."

Hermione decided to take pity on the poor boy. "Ron…."

"No Hermione, I need to let you know-"

"Ron, can't this wait? We'll be leaving any day now-"

"That's why you need to know, before we leave-"

"We really need to be concentrating on these Horcruxes, on Harry-"

"This is more important right now-"

"What could possibly be more important than defeating Vol-"

"Hermione, I love you!"

Well, Ron thought, there's one way to put it.

Hermione stood stock-still, trying to process what he had just said.

"Wh-what?"

Ron swallowed to try to clear his dry throat.

"Hermione, I was an idiot last year, and I made a lot of stupid mistakes, but they helped me to realize something- about h-how I feel about you."

Hermione set her jaw.

"Get out."

"I'm sorry a- what?"

"Get out of my room."

Ron stared at her. Her face was sheet white, and her lips were so thin they had all but disappeared. She seemed to be radiating some kind of inner fury.

"Are you-"

"Get out, Ron!"

And before Ron knew it, he was flying backwards out of the room and crashed into the wall in the hallway. He slowly sunk to the ground as the door slammed shut. Hermione hadn't even touched him, nor was she holding a wand.

"Harry, did you want some potatoes with your gravy?"

Harry, who had been staring off into space, turned his attention to Ginny's smiling face.

"What?"

"You're drowning your potatoes."

Harry looked down at his dinner plate and swore. He had already dumped three quarters of the contents of the gravy boat onto his mound of potatoes and it was still coming. He quickly stopped the flow but it was too late; his potatoes were undistinguishable, as was the rest of his dinner, from the dark brown gravy.

Harry grimaced as he stared down at his plate. Ginny giggled and drew out her wand. She muttered an incantation and the gravy slowly flowed from his plate back into the gravy boat.

"Thanks," Harry murmured, trying to ignore the Snitch-like object fluttering sporadically in his stomach. Thinking about Ginny these days always seemed to have this effect on him.

Ginny smiled and went back to playing with Arnold as her mother entered the room.

"Ginny, no underage magic will be allowed in this house," Mrs. Weasley scolded her. "Maybe I should wait for Arthur to get home before going out."

"No, mum, I'm sorry," Ginny replied in an attempt to defuse the situation quickly. "You don't have to wait for Dad; we'll be good." She gave Harry a wink, and Harry felt his face heat up. "We're more than able to housesit while you're out."

Mrs. Weasley seemed pleased with this answer as she reached for her cloak. "Good. Now, I'll only be gone for a couple of hours; I just need to pick up a few things at Diagon Alley. If there's any problem you can Floo the twins, or use the Emergency Portkey to get to the Diggorys. You two be good now, and mind after your brother, Ginny." Mrs. Weasley came to a halt in front of the doorway. "Speaking of Ron, where is he? And Hermione? Their dinner's going to go stone cold."

Ginny smiled all-knowingly and leaned back in her chair. "They're busy."

Harry looked at her in confusion, but she merely grinned at him and continued to pet Arnold, who was purring affectionately. Another, rather annoying, flutter filled his stomach, and he turned back to his dampened potatoes with a calculating look. Where were his best friends? And, more importantly, what were they doing?

Part of his answer came in the form of a rather tall redhead running into his mother at the doorway of the kitchen.

"Ron, there you are, your plate's ready," Mrs. Weasley held her son out at arm's length, indicating to the table.

Ron looked up and stared at his mom, as if seeing her for the first time in years. Harry saw his friend swallow heavily and looked at the food on the table. He greened slightly and shook his head, right before releasing his mother's hold on him and leaving quickly out the back door. Harry winced as his friend slammed the door shut behind him.

Mrs. Weasley, who had watched all of this with a very confused face, turned to her daughter.

"What was that all about?"

Ginny looked simply furious for reasons unbeknownst to the dark-haired wizard. "I don't know, but I'm about to find out."

And with that, she forced the chair out from under her, sending it crashing to the floor, and stomped out of the room and up the stairs.

Harry and Mrs. Weasley looked at each other, both very confused and concerned for the two siblings. Arnold gave a cry of despair from the floor, where he had been unceremoniously thrown.

"What the hell, Hermione!"

After her violent burst of wandless magic, Hermione had resorted to unleashing her fury by refolding every article of clothing she owned. So at Ginny's outburst, she dropped the blouse she was folding onto the bed, startled.

"What are you talking about, Ginny?"

"You know damn well what I'm talking about, Hermione! What did you do to my brother?"

Hermione let out a noise somewhere between a scream of fury and a cry of impatience as she picked up her blouse and continued her folding. "He did it on his own, Ginny."

Ginny glared at the brunette and held her wand tightly in her right hand. "I seriously doubt he'd get into that state on his own!"

"Oh, he definitely screwed this up all by himself," Hermione retorted with a sneer.

Ginny's anger dissipated slightly. "Oh Godric, what did he say?"

"He told me he loved me!"

Ginny raised her eyebrow as she waited for the rest of the story. When Hermione remained mute, her anger welled up again. "And?"

"It was the way he said it, Ginny! He wasn't sure what to say at first, and I tried to guess what he wanted to talk about, and then he just blurted it out!"

Something was flaring up inside of Ginny, and she was sure that if she wasn't careful, she'd unleash the most powerful Bat-Bogey Hex ever created.

"And this is a problem why?" she asked sarcastically.

Hermione looked at Ginny as if she were completely brain dead. "He went out with my roommate, Ginny! And now he wants to have last year completely erased, as if it never happened, as if he never hurt me!"

"He didn't apologize at all?"

I'm sorry a- what?

"He…started to."

"And then you chucked him out?"

Hermione looked away, shamefacedly. "Yes."

Ginny restrained herself from slapping the poor girl. "He said he loved you and then you got scared."

Hermione glared at the girl, but it withered away upon seeing Ginny's beet red face.

"You were afraid of what would happen if you said yes. If he changed his mind halfway through a relationship and broke your heart."

"He did it once already!"

"You weren't together!"

Hermione, forgetting all her parent's fuss on the matter, ground her teeth in fury. "We had a date planned-"

"Did you call it a date?"

"I asked him- isn't that enough?"

"From what you told me you said you were going to ask him, but then you argued with him and said you wouldn't bother!"

"He got the message!"

"Well apparently it got lost in translation!"

Hermione gave a frustrated yell and turned her back on the redhead.

"Yeah, that's right, just run away from the problem! Shove it away and deal with it later, when you feel like it!"

Hermione spun around. "I don't shove my problems away!"

Ginny looked incredulously at the closed door and back to her. "And what do you call throwing my brother out of the room?"

"He- I-" Hermione started, but was so frustrated she couldn't quite get the words to come out right.

"That's what I thought. You know, Hermione, you're lucky. The one thing you've incessantly told me you wanted all summer walked right in here this afternoon. Ron's considered the risks and wanted to try things out. Harry-" Ginny shook her head in frustration. "You have some guts, to be able to shove him on his arse and tell him to wait while you think things over. I hope you know what you're doing, because he laid his pride and his love on the line for you, and you stomped your foot right on it. I don't know if I'd be able to forgive that."

And with that, she turned around, opened the bedroom door, and slammed it closed with a face like thunder.

The minute the door slammed shut, a loud wailing sounded throughout the Burrow. Hermione felt her breath leave her as the door opened again, revealing a scared Ginny Weasley.

Hermione much preferred this Weasley as opposed to the infuriated one she was faced with moments ago. However, she knew this newer version would come with a price.

"Ginny!" Hermione yelled over the piercing alarm, "What's going on?"

"WHAT?" Ginny shouted, trying to block the siren but hear Hermione at the same time.

"WHAT'S HAPPENING?" Hermione shouted back as she grabbed her wand from the bed.

Ginny shrugged her shoulders as she ran over to the brunette.

"I CAN'T HEAR YOU! LISTEN- WE'VE GOT TO GET OUT OF HERE!" she shouted, grabbing Hermione by the arm and running to the door.

Hermione ran alongside her friend out the door and down the hallway. They reached the stairway and scrambled down it, trying to go as fast as they could without tripping.

"WE'VE GOT TO GET TO THE FLOO!" Ginny screeched, dragging Hermione down the stairs.

"GINNY!" Hermione bellowed, "WHAT'S GOING ON?"

As soon as Hermione had shouted, the siren stopped as suddenly as it started. The staircase seemed eerily silent and both girls jumped at the sound of breaking glass downstairs.

"What's going on?" Hermione repeated with a slight quiver in her voice.

The redhead turned scared eyes to the very confused brunette.

"Death Eaters," she answered. The words echoed down the stairs.

Something hard and heavy seemed to fall in Hermione's stomach as the girls raced down the stairs. At the bottom, they both ran to the living room, but Ginny hesitated at the doorway as Hermione ran through.

"Ginny, what are you doing?" Hermione asked desperately.

"I've got to get Harry," Ginny said sharply. "He was in the kitchen..."

Something cold ran down Hermione's spine, as she looked into Ginny's determined eyes.

"Well hurry up then."

Ginny nodded and left down the hallway towards the kitchen, while Hermione raced to the fireplace.

After convincing a worried Mrs. Weasley that everything would be fine and seeing her off to the Floo, Harry had been trying to find a way to salvage his dinner. He had gone just a bit overboard with the salt when the shout match started from the girls' room upstairs. And when the alarm went off, his startled reaction caused his pumpkin juice to spill over the already bungled mess that was his dinner. He was far past caring at that point, though.

"What the hell?" Harry asked under his breath as he pulled his wand from his jeans pocket. He ran out of the kitchen to the bottom of the stairs. "GINNY! HERMIONE! ARE YOU TWO OKAY? WHAT'S GOING ON?"

A crash from the kitchen startled him somewhat, and he ran in to see what had happened. A window was broken and glass littered the floor.

Harry carefully sidled up to the side of the window and looked out of the broken glass. Even in the distance, the dark hooded figures were easy to spot. No less than a dozen of them were heading down the hillside, straight for the back door.

Harry's breath caught in his throat.

The Death Eaters were coming for him.

He was only halfway out of the room when an icy cold penetrated his body. He was forgetting something.

Someone.

"Dammit, Ron," he muttered, turning tail and running straight to the back door. "Don't do anything stupid."

"Like you're about to do?"

Harry cringed at the icy voice. He turned to see Ginny tapping her foot impatiently with arms crossed in the doorway.

In his panic, Harry had failed to notice (probably because he still had a constant ringing in his ears) that the loud siren had finally ceased.

"Going somewhere, Harry?" Ginny asked, uncrossing her arms and taking a few steps forward.

"Listen, my best friend is out there, and I'm not about to leave him!" Harry shouted furiously, desperate to end the conversation as quickly as possible.

Ginny paled considerably at this news. "Ron's still out there?"

"Yeah, him and about a dozen Death Eaters, so if you don't mind," Harry raised his wand "Accio Invisibility Cloak!" His father's cloak entered the kitchen in a matter of seconds and landed safely in Harry's hands. "I'll be off."

"Harry, wait," Ginny said, closing the gap between the two and resting her arm on his. Shivers ran up and down Harry's spine at her touch. "You can't do this by yourself."

"GINNY WEASLEY, GET A MOVE ON!" Hermione suddenly roared from the living room.

Harry and Ginny both looked at the doorway and then at each other.

"We can't leave her alone," Ginny said sternly, in an attempt to leave no room for debate.

Harry looked her in the eyes. "Go help her. I'll get Ron and be back soon."

Ginny felt tears swimming in her eyes as she looked ready to debate, but Harry had already put the cloak on and reached for the doorknob.

"Harry!" Ginny shouted, interrupting his thoughts. Harry paused and Ginny continued in a calmer tone. "They'll see you if you open up the back door, cloak or not."

Harry clenched his teeth as he released the doorknob and left Ginny in the kitchen.

He passed the living room on his way to the front door and paused for a second. Hermione was trying to stoke the flames in the fire place and looked beside herself with worry.

Harry jerked when a sudden look of sheer terror spread across her face.

"Where's Ron?"

Ginny ran past Harry into the living room as Hermione stood up and slammed her head on the mantle.

Harry ran and wrenched the front door open with a steely look in his eye as he heard Ginny whimper. He firmly closed it shut as Hermione shouted, in a heartbreaking sob: "Harry, NO!"

A/n: Mwuahaha...I haven't done an evil cliffie before...it's kinda fun.

Well, I hope you guys enjoyed the beginning of this fic, and I hope you enjoy the middle and the end of it just as much. I'm doing my best to finish it off so I can post it as soon as possible. I can't promise an exact date, but I know the second part to this will be up within the next few days. I don't want to keep you guys waiting for too long. I want this fic ended within this or the next week, to coincide with my finals. Why? Because I'm crazy, probably. I gotta have something to keep me from going insane during this last week and a half stretch of college. After this, though, I'll be working on a Christmas fic. Hopefully I'll beat time and post it before the holiday comes up. More info on that fic soon.

Well, I need to keep watching the BCS bids (Goooo Irish! Beat Tigers! Sugar Bowl, here we come!) so I'll leave ya for now. Please please please PLEASE! review (that didn't sound as desperate as I think it did, did it?). I'll be back real soon...I hope...

Peace OUT!

-dieselwriter

P.S.- HAPPY BIRTHDAY HANNAH! HOPE YOU ENJOY THIS (rather cheap) PRESENT! THE REST IS ON ITS WAY SOON!