AN: Aah, my first ever completed fic (even if it is only a one-shot). It feels good to actually complete something!

Disclaimer: Harry Potter and all things related belong JKR n Warner Bros. n all them.

Summary: I watched them from the other side of the room as I tried to drown my sorrows in firewhisky. Not an easy thing when the object of your sorrows is standing just there, all wrapped up in his arms.

A Moment to Forget

I watched them from the other side of the room as I tried to drown my sorrows in firewhisky. Not an easy thing when the object of your sorrows is standing just there, dancing and laughing, all wrapped up in his arms and wearing a smile that goes all the way to her eyes.

I remember when she used to smile like that at me, because of me. Now those smiles are for him…just him. He's grinning too of course, like the mad idiot I know he is. I want to punch his idiot head in until he can't or won't smile like that again, not at her, maybe not at all.I won't though, hit him that is. I can't, she doesn't deserve that. She's moved on, just like I should.

'Should but can't'.
It's like a personal mantra I wish I didn't have.

I sighed and looked down at the engagement ring in my hand, a simple gold band with a nice sized diamond. Nothing too fancy, she never liked fancy things. I remember when I first saw it, glistening in the shop window. I remember thinking how perfect it was for her, how it was exactly what I'd been looking for.

I proposed to her that night, at our favourite spot by the lake at the back of my property. She was so happy…we both were.

I went on tour not long after.

I thought about the day I got home from the tour. I hadn't heard from her in days but she hadn't heard from me in weeks. On tour I'd lied to myself that I was too busy to answer her letters; I guess she believed that too, for a while.

I found the ring on the kitchen bench and with it a piece of parchment.

You should have tried harder Oliver.

That was all it said. All it needed to say. Cold and unemotional, just like I'd been to her all those months I was away.
She was right of course, I should have tried harder. I should have replied to her letters. I should have written her every day. I shouldn't have gone to all those after-parties and I shouldn't have expected a girl like Hermione to stick around as I failed to treat her right.

"Girls like me don't just grow on trees you know."

I've wondered why she left the ring, why she didn't just sell it to spite me. For my own selfish reasons I like to believe it was too hard for her to have a tangible reminder of what could have been…had I not fucked up so spectacularly. Deep down I know she doesn't have a spiteful bone in her body.

"Merlin Oliver, why do you always do this to yourself?" said a voice, drawing me out of my thoughts.

"Do what?" I ask, not looking up from the glass of whisky in my hand. I know who it is anyway. He tells me I know exactly what he's talking about but explains anyway. "You always go to places you know she going to be at. It needs to stop, you're just hurting yourself!" he says, trying once again to help me let go. He always was a good friend.

"I don't know why George…I just…I don't…I can't…." I trial off, not wanting to admit to myself what I know deep down. I still haven't looked at him but he understands, he knows I can't look when his very own carbon copy is the one whose arms I drove her to.

On my way out I walk past Hermione, she smiles when she sees me. As always I pretend to be okay but she knows I'm not.
The truth is I don't care what she knows so long as I get the smile. I follow her because I know she'll always smile and when she does I can ignore….just for that moment that it never reaches her eyes….Not when she looks at me….