Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.
A/N: I haven't written a Harry Potter story (that is complete enough to be published) in years but I was looking over a story and this came to mind.
He looked at her stricken like she had just hit him. She hated putting that look on his face, that look as if she had just shattered his heart which she supposed that she just did. She wanted to grasp his hand, to take it all back but she knew that in the long run this was the right thing for the both of them. If only it didn't hurt so much at the moment. Tears starting coming to her eyes but she blinked them back, she had to be strong. Ron's eyes fixed themselves to his tea resting on the table between them and he softly asked.
"Is there someone else?" Hermione shook her head.
"There's nobody else," she promised. She didn't cheat on him, and the moment there was nobody she even really had her eyes on, but she knew that Ron wouldn't understand her reasons unless she told him, " it's just...we're not working anymore," Hermione tried to explain but it sounded a little flimsy in her own ears. She sighed and just decided to be completely honest "Honestly, the two of us have never really worked." Ron looked at her like he was shocked and felt betrayed by what she was telling him. She didn't really blame him. He didn't want to see, neither had she for a long time, because when it was good it was really good.
" The passion is there. We have lots and lots of passion and passion is important but you can't base a relationship off passion alone." Ron shook his head stubbornly.
"We didn't, we based it on friendship too," Hermione sighed, she supposed that in a way he was right. They had been friends but their friendship had been as erratic as their relationship. She had just hoped that the issues that been part of their friendship would somehow resolve themselves once they had started dating but they hadn't. Ron still said whatever popped into his head without thinking and got jealous over the smallest things, things that had been easier to deal with when they weren't dating. She was still largely the same person as well, bossy and not afraid to argue when she was right and Ron was wrong.
They had both grown from the war and maybe in time things would get better but she didn't want to put her life on hold for a maybe. The war was over and the both of them were still stuck in the past of what they had wanted but hadn't actually got, rather than moving on and living in the present.
"But I love you," Ron said his eyes filling with tears hers filled with tears as well.
"I love you too," her voice broke as she said it. It wasn't about love. She never thought she would break up with Ron, if they ever got together. She certainly didn't think she'd break up with the two of them still loving each other. Part of her felt like she should still try to fight for it, but as good as it was when it was good as bad as it was when things were bad. They'd yell at each other for hours and say such horrible things to each other. Sometimes, they would apologize. A lot of the time they just mutually decided to move past whatever was said but neither of them forgot. The fights always left festering wounds that got a little more infected the more and more they were around each other.
She wanted to stop this before she lost Ron completely which she was sure would happen sooner rather than later. They may not be able to go right back to the friends that they had been but it went on any longer, they would never get back there. Hermione would just end up hating Ron for the rest of her life, or even worse Ron would hate her. So she had to stop this before it got to that point, before all she felt for was hate.
Ron looked so confused and heartbroken though and her heart ached too. All her life she had been told that once you found the love of your life, your prince who would come sweep her off her feet, then things were easy after that, that nothing ever went wrong and that 'they would both live happily ever after'. She had felt betrayed when she had finally gotten Ron who she had been pining after for years and things hadn't magically fallen into place. She imagined he felt similar now.
"I just don't understand," he said in a broken voice and with so much sorrow in his eyes. His eyes pierced into her heart and it hurt, it really hurt, but it was best for the both of them, even if it didn't feel like it right now...hopefully.
"We don't work," she said leaning over so that she was closer to him she caught his eyes as they tried to dart away from her's. "We don't work," she said again, this time softer," his eyes filled with moisture again only to be abruptly shut but before they closed she saw that Ron understood what she was trying to tell him. He understood that as much it hurt the both of them, they didn't work.