Ron jogged along the streets of London, whistling a carefree tune. It was a sunny Wednesday, he was for once, going to be early to work, and he had actually eaten a not-half-bad breakfast.
Today is going to be a great day! Ron hadn't been that optimistic in a long time; yet today, he just had a feeling...a feeling that today would be perfect.
He was near the telephone booth that he used to enter the Ministry. He could see the bright red structure in the distance. He sped up, his legs pounding the pavement.
Ron was so lost in his happy thoughts that he didn't see where he was going. Someone was heading toward the telephone booth too from the opposite direction, and they were moving pretty fast.
The two bumped into each other. Ron swore loudly ("Bloody hell, woman!") while the other person dropped her briefcase, the papers scattering.
Ron scrambled around to help gather all the files, not bothering to look at the person's face.
"Here you go." Ron held out a folder, and the person mumbled a thanks, taking it and securing it in her briefcase. When she leaned her face up to look Ron in the eye, the red head gasped.
He never thought he'd see her again.
"Hermione..."
The girl's eyes widened in recognition.
"Ron, is that you?"
"The one and only," Ron joked, yet it came out sounding bland. He hadn't heard of Hermione in so long-he really thought that they were done.
Hermione giggled at his attempt at comedy anyways. Her laugh sounded like chiming bells to him, and he loved it.
He wanted to hear it again.
The pair squeezed into the booth and as the elevator started descending, they continued their conversation.
"So what do you do at the Ministry, Hermione?"
"Oh, I work for the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. You?"
"Auror."
"Ah. You work with Harry?"
"Yeah. And Draco."
"Malfoy? You're on first name terms with him? I didn't see that coming."
Ron laughed hoarsely. "It's a long story."
"A story that I want to hear." Hermione always managed to surprise Ron. Just when he thought he knew her inside out, when he thought he could predict exactly what she was going to do, she made a move that confused him.
Had not being in contact for five years not affected her at all?
Hermione checked her watch. "How about...how about we meet up at the Leaky Cauldron at...five?"
Ron shrugged. "Works for me."
They parted ways then, Ron with an uneasy feeling and Hermione excited to catch up with her (former) best friend.
Neither looked back.
Harry choked on his sandwich, and Draco sputtered on his coffee.
"Hermione? Are you serious? I thought she died or something. I haven't heard anything of her," Draco said, leaning back in his chair. "She was pretty annoying anyways."
Ron shot him a glare. "Well, I'm going to meet up with her at the Leaky Cauldron at five to catch up."
Harry raised an eyebrow. "Do you still like her?"
Ron's ears turned red against his will. "Maybe...but I don't want to."
"Why?"
"Why should I love a girl that abandoned me?"
Ron hesitantly opened the door to the grimy pub, a bell jangling on the other side.
He sighed. This is it. He was going to meet up with the girl he had been crushing on for almost all of his life.
Too bad that same girl was one he also hated for completely walking out on his life after all they had gone through.
"Ron! You made it!" Hermione waved him over to her table, where she already had two butterbeers waiting.
Ron forced a smile. "Hey."
So over the next few hours and butterbeer, they caught up on the last few years of each other's lives.
Hermione worked in the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, as she had told him before, and continued to work with S.P.E.W. She was steadily working up the ranks in the department and was hoping to become head of the department by the end of the year.
She lived a good enough life. She had an apartment of her own, and was looking at houses. She had a good amount saved up in the bank. She could cook for herself. (Unlike Ron.)
And she...she was engaged.
To Dean Thomas.
"We never really talked in school, but he's such a lovely man. I can't believe I never noticed him before!" Hermione gushed about her fiancee, and Ron's fragile, glued up heart burst into pieces all over again.
She had no idea what she did to him, did she?
"He works in the Department of International Magic Corporation..."
"He's such a funny man, do you know what he said last night? He told me..."
"The wedding is going to be in July! I'll definitely invite you and Harry. And maybe Malfoy too, if he really has turned good like you said..."
She went on and on about him. Everything seemed to start and end with Dean.
Ron struggled to hold himself together. He was literally a step away from bursting into tears.
Hermione had completely left him all alone for five years. After she went back to Hogwarts to complete her N.E.W.T.S., they had drifted. After his birthday, he didn't get anything from her.
He sent a letter to see how she was doing. He never got a reply.
He thought that maybe the letter had gotten lost on the way and she had never received it. But then why didn't she send one herself then?
He thought that she just had moved on, that she didn't want to be associated with him or Harry anymore. He thought that she had gone on to live a better life, without any reminders of all who had been lost, of all the hardships she had gone through to defeat the Dark Lord.
It had hurt him so much. He almost broke down once, when he was feeling really alone and he and Harry had gotten into another argument. She was always there for him-or at least, she used to.
Yet he had never stopped loving her. He just couldn't. They had gone through so much; how could he just leave it all like that?
He hated what he was doing to himself. He knew his love wold forever be unrequited, lost to Dean Thomas. (What did she see in him anyways?)
He knew she would never return her feelings; she never had, she never would.
But he would always love her. He always had, and he always will.
"I love Dean so much!"
Stop it, Hermione. Please, stop it.
Ron felt oddly empty inside. Looking back on this morning, he felt like laughing-perfect day? Please! This was one of the worst days he had had in a long time.
Hermione had come back into his life. The life that he had painstakingly put back together after she had vanished from it. She came back, and ripped it up all over again.
How many rejections could he take from her?
Well, he would just have to wait and see.
"You'll be there at the wedding, right?"
"Definitely. Wouldn't miss it for the world."
A/N: I have no idea why it was fun for me to write about my OTP so cruelly split apart. What's wrong with me?
Done for:
Diagon Alley Fic Crawl Challenge-Flourish and Blotts
OTP Boot Camp-Prompt #35-Torn
Latin Challenge-Diu