An Equilateral Triangle: Hermione
by quillquotes [quillquotes@partlycloudy.com]
Disclaimer: I am she and she is me and we are all together. They're not mine. Sorry.
Ratings: PG; Ron/Harry slash and Ron/Hermione
Summary: She always thought that a love triangle was unbalanced, but this one doesn't seem that way at all.
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People tend to think it's easy to be Hermione Granger. The studying and hard work comes naturally, and that's al there is to it.
Not.
Life was fine - if you disregard the run-ins with "Mr. V" as Harry jokingly calls him - until seventh year. That's when I ran across Ron and Harry kissing in the very back of the library, and that's when the troubles started. Sometimes I've wondered why they were so stupid - why they let me find out - but it's hard to keep secrets from your best friend, especially when that secret is something huge. There wouldn't have been a problem with the kissing - I'm not a prude about that, at least. But I knew Ron had feelings for me - he told me himself. I never had thought I'd be in that sort of a love triangle - never expected it, certainly never wanted it. But nobody asked me, and by then it was too late, if it hadn't always been.
So I ran away from the two of them, ran as fast as my feet would take me back to the dorm room. Running away from your problems doesn't help, though, and later Ron cornered me, forced me to talk to him. Finally he told me the truth: he loves me and Harry both equally, romantically. But I couldn't fix the inherent problems. There's a certain amount of love in friendship, and that's the way I loved (and love) Harry. I could never do anything to hurt him.
I knew I couldn't last long in this determination, and I didn't. We cobbled together a half-life, Ron and I, for the rest of that year, sneaking kisses and hugs when Harry wasn't around. However hard it may be to keep secrets in such a close relationship, Harry never knew. He was glad we weren't fighting, but since he trusted both me and Ron completely, there was no suspicion. He was foolish, but I admit that I was, too. And I felt like a Slytherin the whole time. Yet there were no easy answers, no simple way out, and this was the best that we could do.
When we left Hogwarts, I broke it off with Ron. We stayed friends, but as I told him, "no more benefits." I'll always remember that day. Harry had stayed behind on the train journey, for he'd already rented a place in Hogsmeade; it was just us two. What a sight we must have looked, just outside the barrier to Platform Nine and Three-Quarters, both crying, holding trunks and a cage with an owl and a cat carrier, respectively. It was over soon enough, and we went our separate ways, with the usual empty promises that we'd owl each other frequently. They weren't empty promises to Ron, though, and I was invited to his place for dinner one night in the next week.
When I walked into his apartment for the first time, I didn't expect to be engulfed by two sets of arms. Harry and Ron hugged me, one on each side, as though I were the jelly in a Harry-Hermione-Ron sandwich. "Harry?" I asked tenatively, almost frightened.
"It's OK," he replied softly. "Ron's told me - everything. It's all right. I understand," and kissed me friendly-like on the top of the head. And all was right in the world.
I always thought that a love triangle was an unbalanced thing, volatile, dangerous. But this one doesn't seem that way at all. This one is an equilateral love triangle, and this one makes me happy.
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