I don't own anything. Plus, I'm not British so no one would believe me if I lied anyway.
Traveling always gave Hermione time to think. She tended to think an inordinately large portion of the time anyway, but when it came to travel she liked that time for thought best. There were few opportunities better than that of her trip to Australia to retrieve her parents for her to spend some quality time with herself and her ever persistant thinking.
It was in the time that she came to two unconnected, but still troubling conclusions. The first was that she was absolutely, no doubt about it, undeniably dead meat when her parents learned everything pertaining to this last year. Not only had she erased their memories without consent, but she had skipped an entire year of school, almost been killed in a war, and, much worse than that, traipsed around the country with two boys, living in the same tent with them.
It was one of those two boys that was central to the other conclusion she had made whilst making her way to Australia. The one she had foolishly kissed in the middle of a raging battle. Ron was the center of a lot of her thoughts, but this particular one was not as pleasant as the rest tended to be. Instead, it revolved around one basic fact about that particular kiss she had planted on him:
She had made a terrible mistake.
She had made a terrible mistake and there was no going back now, although she had debated just going back home and staunchly denying it ever happened if Ron brought it up. She was fairly certain that with enough effort she could convince him that in fact had not happened, but knew ultimately it would not be successful, she would just have to live with this.
How could she have kissed on of her best friends? She wasn't ever that impulsive! One little mention of house elves and she's ready to jump him? Was she going to do that with everyone who showed the same concern?
Of course not, she knew. It was Ron that had done it. The boy she had developed feelings for many years ago. The boy who infuriated and delighted her at the same time. The boy who had spent all year giving her signals that seemed to suggest he felt just the same as she did. But was that even a good thing? They fought constantly, not exactly a sound foundation for a lasting relationship. And then if they were to break up, it would be a disaster. With all that fighting it would be inevitable, then she would lose her best friend, his family, maybe even Harry.
Whether or not he liked her back was irrelevant, no matter how much she liked to think of this. It was no longer important because she had made up her mind. Her resolve was strong, they would remain friends, for the benefit of everyone they knew and for her own sake they would be no closer.
After all, he was far from her ideal man...except for the part where she had fancied him for so long. He was a constant procrastinator, never finishing his homework assignments until the night before. Though she did secretly love staying up and reading beside him as he completed the work. He was a jealous git whenever anyone spoke to her or even Ginny in that brotherly way. Though when he tried to explain how he wasn't really jealous he was sort of cute all flustered. He wasn't really very confident in himself. Though when he was confident he got annoying, the lack of confidence was endearing by comparison. He wasn't very sensitive or romantic or thoughtful...
With that she had made up her mind. He just wasn't the person for her, and she wasn't the one for him. He would understand, she doubted he was even giving this as much thought as she was. He would find someone else and she would do the same, she decided as she checked in to her hotel. They would be happy for each other and stay the best of friends, she concluded as she found her room ad turned the key. It would just be better this way, was the final thought on the matter when she crossed the threshold into her room.
Before she even turned on the lights she noticed something at the window. An owl sat patiently waiting for someone. Hermione doubted it could be her, she hadn't told anyone where she was staying, she figured it was the last patron's lost owl or some such...but her curiosity got the better of proper procedure as she moved toward the unfamiliar owl and took the note from it.
Sure enough in familiar, untidy handwriting her name was on the worn and torn piece of parchment. It was the same familiar handwriting her eyes had scanned over on many late nights of editing his essays for classes and the occasional letters over the summer. Inside the note there was very few words. No signature at the end either, but the sender was very clear, and the message even clearer:
I Miss You.
That was all. And that was all for Hermione to make up her mind.
So yeah, I'm still kind of new at this. Thoughts? Comments? Let me know how I did...