Story: A Monstrous Image

Rating: T for now, may become M later on

Genre: Romance/Angst

Characters: Ron/Hermione, some Harry/Ginny

Time-frame: Takes place starting after ron/Lavender break-up in their 6th year during Half-Blood Prince, finishes whenever I decide to end it. Will probably continue somewhat into Deathly Hallows.

Summary: Ron and Hermione seem to finally be moving along the right track to a healthy relationship, but when Ron is accused of being a Death Eater, it threatens to destroy his budding romance with Hermione and his friendship with Harry. Possible change of rating later on. Main focus on Ron/Hermione, some Harry/Ginny. During 6th year and beyond. My first FanFic. :)

Author's Notes:

So, this is my first Fanfic, and as of right now I do not have any Beta readers to go through the chapters before I post them, so please go easy on me :)! I would appreciate feedback and suggestions! I am Canadian, so I can't guarantee the language will always be very British, but I shall try my best!

The story switches between the different character's views, and if I have done my job right you should know whose view it is in each section! The rating right now is a T for language and romance purposes, but I really haven't decided if I am going to add any smut or anything. It's possible, so for now I will say the rating MAY change.

Lastly, I'd like to mention that I am a full-time student in college right now doing 25 hours of class per week, and I'm also working 25 hours a week. If it ever gets to a point when I am too busy, you may find I might take longer to update the story. However, I have prepared in advance and am currently already writing chapter 6, so if I put out one chapter (I'll try for every Tuesday?), it shouldn't affect the posting too much since I'm ahead right now. Hopefully I won't have too many issues since I am fortunate enough to be working from home. I am actually working right now as I write this! :)

Enjoy! (I hope…)

PS: I obviously do not own any of the Harry Potter characters/concepts, they are all from the wonderful mind of J.K. Rowling!

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Chapter 1:

It was the start of another day at Hogwarts as Ron and Hermione were sitting in Charms class waiting for it to commence. Harry had yet to arrive to class, and they were feeling especially awkward sitting in the uncomfortable silence together.

It was the morning after Lavender had witnessed a seemingly alone Ron and Hermione leaving the dorms together and had decided to end things with Ron. He was not taking it hard at all and was in fact quite relieved to have been out of that "relationship" with Lavender, but Hermione was unsure if she should make any effort to comfort him about the break-up. She wasn't sure how hurt he was from the split, but considering the way he had complained about Lavender's clinginess for the past couple weeks she imagined he wasn't bothered a whole lot by the recent turn of events. She decided not to mention it, even though it meant prolonging the awkward silence until Harry arrived.

Although they had been on relatively good terms since Ron had been poisoned and they agreed to stop their fighting, it was still hard to be alone together without Harry. They hadn't really spoken about why they had been fighting to begin with. They were both painfully aware that there was some thick tension between them, something unexplainable, which had recently appeared this year and hadn't seemed to have gone away.

The fact that Lavender was sitting at a table on the other side of the classroom glaring at them with some of the saddest, reddest, puffiest eyes possible was only increasing the awkwardness tenfold.

After a couple of minutes of trying to avoid her sad eyes, Hermione, despite her obvious dislike for the girl, found herself feeling pity towards Lavender. There's no doubt that she seemed to have a dependent need to have Ron around every day, a feeling that she herself understood, and she was obviously taking the break-up much harder than Ron ever would. Hermione quickly glanced at Ron beside her as he kept his eyes down and out of the line of fire of Lavender's stare, clearly feeling very guilty about the whole situation. She immediately recognized the expression he had on his face; it was the same one she had seen on him a half-million times while being scolded by his mother for doing something wrong. She found her pity shifting from Lavender to him. Maybe he did need someone to talk to? He may not be heart-broken over it, but maybe he still needed to talk about his other feelings about breaking it off.

She decided her responsibility as his friend was more important than the silliness they had been keeping up and that she'd just dive right into it. She gently placed her right hand on top of his left shoulder, causing his head to suddenly shoot-up as he came from staring at his desk to looking at Hermione with a surprised and quizzical look on his face.

"Ron, did you want to…err…talk abou-"

"Guys, you'll never believe what happened last night with Slughorn!" a familiar voice quickly half-whispered, only inches from Ron's other side, as Hermione jumped mid-sentence and quickly took her hand off Ron's shoulder. Ron whipped his head to his right to see Harry with a determined look on his face.

"Oh, sorry, didn't mean to interrupt your Hermione," he quickly apologized.

"No, it's fine, nothing I can't finish later," she responded as she quickly looked at Ron and gave him an apologetic smile. She was surprised to see what she thought to be a little bit of disappointment in his facial expression, but continued anyways. "So go on then, what happened?"

As he explained the events of the night before, getting a hold of Slughorn's memory and then Dumbledore explaining horcruxes to him, Hermione had forgotten all about consoling Ron and was hanging off Harry's every word. She was quite impressed with Harry's sleuth-like ability in obtaining that memory after Slughorn had been so unwilling to give it up.

When he had finished telling his story, her and Harry both looked at Ron and realized that he didn't look nearly as interested in the news as they were. He was playing with his wand in his hand and was making it snow in the classroom from above them without even realizing he was doing it. Hermione touched his arm and pointed out what he was doing, and he apologized and meekly brushed the snow off of her shoulder for her as they both avoided each other's eyes. Harry noticed that Lavender was suddenly crying while simultaneously staring daggers in Ron's direction, and Ron explained that they had split-up last night and why. Hermione also made a point to add that Ginny had split from Dean as well, something she knew would help cheer up Harry and give him something else to think about besides the pressure of Dumbledore's little missions, and horcruxes, and what-not.

Throughout the rest of the class Hermione had tried to put all of her focus on their professor, but every now and then she would catch Lavender staring at her with a mixture of despair and hatred. She was never really friends with the girl, but still began to feel horrible because she knew that Lavender blamed her for "stealing Ron away from her". In reality, her and Ron's relationship was still just that of two friends.

Although Lavender's assumption of her and Ron being alone last night was understandable since Harry had been under the invisible cloak, it still had Hermione pondering why Lavender would even be jealous of her and Ron being alone together anyways. Everyone who had been at Hogwarts long enough had to have known that she and Ron had been friends for years, and nothing more, right? So why was it suddenly an issue for her to be alone with Ron?

She started questioning if maybe she had been giving off some accidental signals that tipped people off to how she really felt about him. Deep down, Hermione knew that she had been infatuated with Ron for a few years now. She'd tried to convince herself otherwise, but she always found herself thinking of him, wanting to be with him, and the feelings had only gotten stronger as the years had gone one. She had now this year come to accept that her feelings for Ron were more romantic than friendly, but the only person she had confided in about it was Harry. She'd like to believe that Harry wouldn't go spreading around her secrets; he was far too loyal of a friend and too good-hearted of a person to do such a thing. If people were questioning her and Ron's relationship, maybe she had made it too obvious or flirted too much, or done something this year to have sparked these rumors.

She and Ron had only recently begun talking to each other again, and she didn't want to mess things up by having him think that she had any sort of non-platonic feelings for him. There was a time earlier in the year where she thought maybe he might have had a bit of a thing for her as well, but since he started dating Lavender after she had invited him to Slughorn's Christmas party she was certain he was only interested in being her friend. She now had to worry about avoiding ruining their friendship that had already taken quite a big hit this year. She had to stop giving off these signals she wasn't even aware she was giving off. She was Hermione Granger, for Merlin's sake! She couldn't keep letting herself get so mental over some stupid boy. She was above these obsessive feelings, and she didn't want them interfering with her mood or he life anymore.

After class had finished, Hermione, Ron and Harry began walking back to the Gryffindor common room together. Ron was starting to feel better about having broken things off with Lavender and realized he was free from her grasp.

"Well that was bloody awkward. I know she's a bit daft but she had to have seen this coming, I don't know why she's taking it so hard. And staring at me like that, trying to make me feel bad. Bloody hell, that better not keep up…."

"Cheer up, mate! You're a free man now, no more dealing with that horrible nick-name," Harry teased with a mischievous smirk. "And on the plus side, your sister's not with that arse anymore either."

"I guess so, but I don't see why the Ginny thing would cheer me up. Just means she'll be getting more attention from the other guys now." Harry's smirk suddenly disappeared and he looked deep in thought. "But I am happy to be done with Lavender, and even happier to be leaving that class room to get away from her in that mood," he said with a snort.

Hermione herself was also happy to be able to walk down the hallway without having to worry about seeing Ron and Lavender snogging between classes. She looked over at Harry who was still deep in thought and wondered what he could be thinking about that had him so quiet. She then noticed a small smile briefly appear on his face before he noticed that she had been watching him and it quickly reverted back to a neutral line. She smiled to herself as she had no doubt that he was thinking about Ginny, but she didn't want to embarrass him by confronting him about it in front of Ron.

Once they reached the portrait hole to the common room Harry said the password. He stepped through the hole, but before Hermione could follow him she felt Ron gently pull on her wrist to hold her back as he told Harry that they would be inside in a couple minutes. He let go of her wrist and she turned to face him, a confused look drawn on her face.

"Sorry… but do you mind if we, err… talk about, you know… that thing you wanted to talk about before in class?", he asked her with an embarrassed look on his face as he shifted his weight from one foot to the other and lifted his hand up out of his pocket to rub the back of his neck.

Hermione still looked confused, but mostly because she was surprised that Ron wanted to talk to her about his feelings about having broken up with Lavender. Usually he kept these things bottled up and stayed quiet unless he was provoked by her or Harry. Still, she wanted to show her support in an effort to help repair their friendship.

"Oh. Sure… of course. I'm actually surprised that you're bringing it up to me instead of the other way around, you must be hurting more than I thought," she replied quietly, trying to sound as supportive as possible. She wanted him to be as comfortable as possible talking to her alone like this; it was something she missed.

"Oh... err yeah, I guess you could say I've been err… hurting. And I thought I'd bring it up since you were going to first in class. I just, you know… miss it, I guess, is all. And to be honest, I'm not entirely sure why it happened to begin with… I was hoping maybe you could shed some light on that for me." He stopped rubbing his neck, crossed his arms, and leaned against the wall beside the portrait. He looked very nervous and was doing everything to avoid looking at Hermione's face dead-on.

Hermione felt her heart start to sink. She didn't realize that he had still had feelings for Lavender, and now he was questioning why they even broke-up to begin with. She felt her jealousy start to eat away at her insides just like it had done when she saw them snogging in the halls, but she missed his friendship and presence too much to let it get the best of her this time. She had to keep calm and give whatever advice she felt a good friend would without letting it show that she hated the idea of them getting back together.

"Oh… I see. So that bit on the walk over here was you trying to hide your true feelings I suppose…" she trailed off. "Well, when she saw us come down together last night she clearly though that, err… something was going on between us, if you know what I mean. And that upset her, so I'm guessing that's why she broke it off. But, if you miss it, maybe you should explain to her that we were working on a project of something and apologize if it upset her." She looked down at her the ground, trying not to let him see the disappointment on her face. "That's the best advice I can give, unfortunately."

There. She had given him advice. Some genuine, helpful advice that would help him with his girlfriend troubles. As much as it had pained her to do it she knew that he couldn't accuse her of being jealous of Lavender now and he would hopefully appreciate her help enough to get them back on track to being close friends like they once were. At least she would still be able to see him and talk to him on a regular basis, even if he was with somebody else. She looked at his face and tried to force a consoling smile on her own so he'd think she was being genuine, but when she saw his expression in return she was worried he wasn't buying it. His eyes narrowed at her and he looked beyond baffled, almost a little frustrated.

"Hermione… what in Merlin's name are you talking about?" he asked in a questioning tone. He was now looking at her straight-on with the same confused expression.

Hermione, completely taken aback by his reaction, suddenly felt very hurt. So her advice wasn't good enough then?

She heaved a loud sigh. "I was just trying to give you some advice to help you out, Ron!" she snapped while pointing her finger at him and putting her other hand firmly on her hip. "There's no need to be rude! If it's really that terrible of an idea the least you could have done is thanked me and gone to ask someone else, honestly!" She winced at the tone of her voice as she suddenly remembered how she had vowed to herself not to let this boy and her feelings for him interfere with her mood or her life anymore. And so much for not letting her jealousy get the best of her…

"Oi, calm down Hermione!" Ron pushed himself off the wall and firmly but gently gripped the finger she had pointed at him with his right fist to bring it back down to her side for her. She pulled her hand back and crossed her arms. "That's not what I meant. I'm just curious as to why you're talking about Lavender. That's not what I was talking about at all!"

Hermione felt bad for snapping. She didn't want to start rowing with him again so she softened her facial expression and lowered her voice.

"Well, I was just confused because you asked if we could talk about what I was going to mention in Charms class. Lavender is what I was intending on talking about, I just wanted to make sure you were okay after what happened."

"Oh… yeah I'm over it… but no, that isn't what I was talking about," he said as his voice lowered and he began leaning against the wall again, rubbing his neck with his hand. A look of embarrassment was starting to creep back onto his face as it started to turn red.

Hermione thought back to what was said; he had mentioned missing "it" and not knowing why "it" had happened. What else could he have been talking about? What was "it"?

"Well what was it that you wanted to talk about then? I assumed we were on the same page when you mentioned missing something and not knowing why it happened… so what is it then?" she asked with a curious tone to her voice and a furrowed brow.

The redness in Ron's face suddenly increased in hue as he began rubbing the back of his neck for a third time in a matter of minutes. Hermione knew him well enough to know that he did that when he felt awkward or embarrassed, and it only increased her curiosity. He re-adjusted himself against the wall as his hands were fidgeting in and out of his pockets and his eyes were darting around the room.

"I…err… I… well what I thought when you said you wanted to talk was, you know… talk about, err… well we had a spot there for a while where we weren't… well we weren't not friends but we, you know… weren't talking and stuff. I'm pretty sure you were, you know… mad at me. I'm pretty sure. And… yeah. I err… just didn't like it is all, I guess. That's what I meant when I said I missed it. D'you know what I'm talking about?"

His face was the brightest shade of red Hermione had ever seen on him, a worthy opponent to the colour of his hair. She really was hoping that they could have avoided this conversation and just have their friendship fall back into place on its own, but she knew how hard it was for him to confess that he had missed her friendship and she felt she needed to return the favour and try to explain to him that she missed his as well, without having to admit why she had been upset with him to begin with.

"I think I do, yes." She began to look around trying not to make eye contact. She wanted him to know that she wanted to be friends again, but she also wanted this conversation to end before it got too far into her feelings of jealousy. "Listen, Ron… I know we "had a spot there", as you put it, but I just want to put it behind us and forget about it. I want to be back to where we were, I miss it too… okay?"

"Well, that's what I want too, but I'd still like to know why you were mad to begin with. I clearly did something to upset you and I'd like to, you know, avoid it from happening again if possible." He gave her a small, lopsided smile and seemed less nervous than he had a minute ago.

Hermione looked him in the eye. She needed to come up with something, and quick. "Honestly, Ron, it's a little… err… complicated. I was mad because… well because Harry had been focusing all his time on Draco and deatheaters, and then you were… well occupied, shall we say?... with Lavender, and I felt like you weren't even attempting to make time for me anymore. I mean I know I can't force you to hang out with me, but we've been friends for years and you just started ignoring me for her. I was upset. I know it's not the best excuse, and it seems silly to me now, maybe even a bit selfish, but that's pretty much why." It wasn't exactly a lie, but it was definitely not the full truth.

Ron looked dumbfounded as he stared back at her. He clearly didn't know how to respond to her strange excuse.

"Okay. So… I can't have any more girlfriends? Is that what you're saying?" He looked so confused and Hermione wished she could explain herself, but she thought it would only make things worse.

"Well no," she replied, "but just don't ignore me all together for them. That's all. It's not a big deal really; I'd just like to move past it if we could." She smiled weakly at him in hopes that her pleading would cause him to end the conversation.

Ron's confused look transformed into a slight smile, and he nodded his head. "Yeah, okay. Well, I guess I'm… err… sorry. I'm sorry for making you feel that way and I'll try not to let it happen again. I want to get past this too."

Hermione smiled back at him and nodded in agreement. If there was one thing that Ron hated doing, it was apologizing. She knew he was being sincere. "I'm sorry as well, Ron, I shouldn't have reacted so poorly and should have just talked to you about it." He smiled again and nodded back at her.

"Right then, glad we talked about it!" she said cheerily. She then went to move back to the portrait hole, but felt a gentle tugging at her wrist again. She looked back behind her to see Ron holding her back again and rubbing the back of his neck with his other hand as he smiled sheepishly.

"Shouldn't we… you know…," he said while clearing his throat as he let go of her wrist and awkwardly outstretched his arms to motion a hug.

"Oh," Hermione laughed as she starting biting her bottom lip, "yes, of course." She stepped in closer and leaned upwards to put her arms around his neck as his arms pulled her in to his chest and gently wrapped around her lower back. His arms felt much stronger than she remembered them being and she frowned to herself when she realized how long it had been since they last hugged. Ron lowered his chin and let it sit in the crook of her neck, and she noticed that he still had that familiar scent that she had grown so fond of over the years. Thinking about it made her close her eyes and lightly purse her lips together in a small smile. After a few seconds she realized she was probably dragging this out longer than she should and went to move away, but she was surprised to feel his arms tighten around her to prevent her from walking away. A few more seconds went by before he finally released her from the hug and stepped back.

His face was his signature shade of red again as he avoided her gaze and politely motioned for her to go ahead of him through the portrait hall with one hand, the other on his neck and an embarrassed smile on his face. She smiled politely back, said the password and entered the common room with Ron following close behind. Harry was waiting for them on the sofa near the fireplace, his back turned to them and his head looking down at the textbook on the table in front of him.

Hermione and Ron walked over to the sofa and sat on either side of Harry. He looked up and smiled between them as he closed his book. He looked happy to see that his two friends had seemed to have patched things up.

"Is everything alright then?" he asked.

"Yeah, everything's good," Hermione responded as she looked up at Ron and gave him a smile. He smiled back, and she knew that their friendship had gotten better now that they had said their apologies.

Harry looked at her with a big grin. "Brilliant! Well it's getting late; I think I'm going to head up to bed now if that's alright with you two?"

"Oh… sure, go ahead," she replied hesitantly. Ron nodded to agree with her. She considered that her and Ron were going to be alone again, and hoped that this time it would be different.

Harry packed his things and flung his knapsack over his shoulder. "Okay, well, goodnight guys. See you in the morning!" He jogged up the stairs and headed for his dorm.

Hermione and Ron were now alone on the sofa, both staring at the fire. Hermione was devastated to feel the awkward silence creeping back up on them. She really wanted it to be different.

After a few minutes, Ron suddenly turned himself to face her on the couch. "Hermione?"

"Yes, Ron?" she asked, still staring ahead at the fire.

"Do you think the fire is pretty?" he asked, turning his head to look back towards it.

Hermione turned her head to look at him. What a strange question! She was a little taken aback by the sheer randomness of it, but she answered anyways.

"I guess I do. The way it dances about… all the different colours… the glow emanating off of it. It's almost intoxicating, really." She smiled at her answer. She really did enjoy watching the fire. "What about you?"

"Oh… yeah, I do." He paused for a moment and then continued before Hermione had a chance to protest his short answer. "It seems like something so ordinary in your life, I mean… we sit in front of it every night, but then if you really take a look at it and think about how… I don't know… how beautiful and special it really is, it makes you think. Y'know? It's almost like I don't know what I would do without the fire in my life. Sitting on this sofa would be a lot less interesting, I imagine..." He stared lazily at the fire some more with a slight smile, almost as if he was in some sort of a trance.

Hermione was even more surprised and confused with his answer than she had been by the question. It wasn't like Ron to talk about anything that way with her, even when they had been closer of friends. It was probably the most mature thing she had ever heard him say. Since when, does Ron act mature?

"I don't think I've ever heard you use the word beautiful before," she said with a laugh. "You must really like the fire then, hm?" she asked with a smirk on her face.

"Oh… yeah, I do," he replied again, snapping out of his trance and pulling his eyes off the fire to look back at her with a visible blush. A small grin started to grow on his face. "Is that weird?"

"A little bit. But there's nothing wrong with being weird," she said as she laughed again.

The two chatted for a little bit more before Hermione suddenly realized how tired she was. She wanted to stay and continue talking with Ron like how they had used to, but she knew it was already much later than she was accustomed to.

"Well Ron, I think I'm going to head up to bed now. I'm quite tired."

"Oh, okay. Yeah it is getting late, isn't it?" he said with a bit of a chuckle as he looked over at the clock.

Hermione smiled and nodded before bringing her hand up over her mouth trying to stifle a yawn. They both slowly rose from the sofa and started heading for the stairs. Ron stopped at the bottom before walking up and put his hands in his pockets. He looked down at the floor, suddenly not knowing what to say before going up to his dorm.

"Well I'll err… meet you down here before breakfast with Harry then?" he asked with a smile, finally lifting his head to meet her gaze.

"Sure" she said, returning the smile as she gazed into his blue eyes. It was so easy to get lost in them, and it had been a while since she had last had the chance to. Remembering what she told herself about giving off signals, she quickly pulled her eyes out of his and let them settle on the ground.

"Okay, well… G'night 'Mione," he said over his shoulder with a yawn of his own as he started to head for his dorm.

"Night, Ron," she said quietly with a sweet smile. As she was walking back to her own dorm she thought about how much she had missed that as well. 'Mione. She had realized during their time apart how much she had taken for granted little things like a silly nick-name, or being able to look into his eyes during a conversation. She was ecstatic to hear it again because she knew it meant their friendship was back on track, and she smiled to herself as she walked.

Once she reached her dorm room, she took a long shower, got her pyjamas on, brushed her teeth, and climbed into her bed to think about how relieved she was that her relationship with Ron was seemingly back to normal. She began to drift to sleep, when suddenly she was awoken by a quiet knock on the door. She sat up in her bed to see if anyone was going to answer the door. Ginny sat up too, obviously wondering the same thing.

"It's okay Gin, I'll get it." Hermione struggled to get untangled from her sheets and put her slippers on before dragging her feet over to the door. She assumed it would one of her dorm mates' friends looking for a shoulder to cry on about whatever it was they were upset about tonight. What would it be this time? A boy, perhaps? Or maybe it was more stress from school work. Whatever it was, it was probably going to keep Hermione awake for a while if she let her in.

She opened the door as quietly as she could, prepared to tell the visitor that nobody else was awake so they would have to leave, but then she laid eyes on the boy standing on the other side of the door.

"Oh!" she said surprised, "I wasn't expecting it to be you!"

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A/N: Alright! So that's the first chapter. Sorry about the cliff-hanger. Believe me when I say I hate them as well, but I don't want to post it all at once and then not have enough to post even one chapter when my school workload starts getting heavier. Next chapter will be up next Tuesday. And if I forget to post it, I'm sure I will remember it eventually! I can be forgetful at times…

Comments? Suggestions? Concerns? Leave them in a review :)

Thanks!

-ArticulateFiction