"RON! RON, WHERE ARE YOU GOING?" I shouted out. He either couldn't hear me or didn't care. He continued walking away into the cold darkness outside of the enchantments I had put up.
"Come on, Hermione," said Harry, and tugged my back inside the tent. He seemed annoyed.
"I'm going to bed," I said, and marched away to where I spent the cold nights. Ron was usually in the bed area next to mine. It almost hurt to not hear him humming along to his radio. I rubbed my leaking eyes and took out my copy of The Tales of Beedle the Bard. Maybe this would distract me from missing Ronald.
It didn't. I was barely able to concentrate on the book. Why had Ron left? I didn't really know. Was it because he had thought we'd find a Horcrux every other day, like Harry had said? Was he just sick of Harry? I had seen that fight between them. It was horrible, seeing my two best friends yelling at eachother like that. Was he sick of me? I was the one who tended to his splinched arm. Surely I wasn't the reason. Whatever Ron's reason was, I missed him. I wanted him to come back. Yes, I loved Harry (like a brother), but he wasn't the same as Ron. He was definitely more serious. Ron was always the joker, trying to make us laugh when we were in bad moods from wearing the locket for too long. What if I never saw him again? What if Ron never came back? I began to sob again.
"Hermione? Are you okay?" called Harry.
"Yeah," I sniffled. It was actually one of the biggest lies I had ever told. I was most definitely not okay. Ron had been one of my absolute favorite people I had ever met. Now he was gone. I might never see him again.
Harry and I Apparated to many different places. It wasn't much fun. There wasn't much to talk about anymore.
One night, I was rereading The Tales of Beedle the Bard with the music on next to me. Harry walked in from his bed area and sat down. After a couple minutes of thinking, he stood up. He walked over to me. He reached for my hand and pulled me up without speaking. I sighed and rolled my eyes as he put his hands on my waist and began swaying to the music. I swayed with him. Pretty soon, we were dancing all around the room happily. It was nice having a little bit of fun. But fun reminded me of Ron. When the song was over, I sat back down. "I wish he'd come back."
Harry knew who I was talking about right away. "I do too," he said. "But we have to deal with it. He's not."
I burst into tears. This was the first time I'd cried in front of Harry in quite a while. Even Harry knew Ron wasn't coming back.
We had many adventures over the next few weeks. The latest one had been being attacked by You-Know-Who's snake. It bit Harry, but I somehow managed to get him out of there and treat his bite. His wand had been broken in the process of getting him out, though, and he was angry at me now. Harry decided to take my wand while I got some sleep inside the tent. I fell asleep after a while. I heard footsteps outside, but I ignored them. They seemed to be walking away from us.
"Hermione," shouted Harry after about an hour.
"What?" I rushed out of the tent.
It was Ron. He just stood there with a smug-like smile on his face. He was holding what seemed like a destroyed locket, but I couldn't tell.
I shouted at him anyway. Who knows what I said, I was in a rage. He expected to go away for weeks, then just randomly turn up and say "hey"? I wanted to murder someone. Yes, I had missed him. Yes, I was secretly glad he was back. But I was also extremely angry at him for leaving me. Had he not known what I felt for him? If he did, he didn't care. I stayed angry at him for days. Really I wanted to talk to him, but I didn't want to show that I had missed him.
"Hermione," said Ron one night while Harry was asleep. "Come here."
I walked into Ron's bed area.
"Sit down," Ron said, and I sat down on his bed.
"I regretted leaving you the moment I left. I tried to find you. But you were invisible! I called for you, but you must not have heard me."
"Yeah, right," I said. I didn't believe him one bit. He just didn't like it when people were mad at him, and he was trying to make up for what he had done.
"Yeah! Right!" said Ron. "Hermione, I missed both of you all those weeks I was gone. But do you know who I missed more?"
I knew he was going to say me. But I decided to be stubborn so I said, "Harry."
"No," said Ron. "You." He took my hand in his. "Hermione, you're different than Harry. Harry's very 'let's-just-kill-You-Know-Who-and-get-it-over-with,' but you're kind of 'we-need-more-information.' You're very helpful, you know. I honestly don't know how I survived without you."
"But-" I started.
"No, let me finish," said Ron. "You're definitely more gentle than Harry is, especially to me. Were you the one who got in a fight with me? No. That was Harry. Don't get me wrong, I love Harry, but he can sometimes be a little rough. And let's face it," said Ron, "you're much prettier than Harry."
I blushed deeply and squeezed Ron's hand. "I missed you too," I said.
Now Ron blushed, which made his face look horrible with his flaming hair. Then shaking as if terrible nervous, Ron leaned forward and kissed me on my lips.
It was as if he had shouted, "SURPRISE!" because my body jolted forward in shock. Ron backed away, eyes open wide.
"No, it's okay," I told him. "Just didn't expect that."
So Ron leaned in again. He kissed me again, and I loved it. I even kissed him back.
When we broke apart, I told him, "I'm probably a better kisser than Harry too."
Ron smiled and said, "I'm sure you are." Once again he leaned in to kiss me. It was then that I realized, he truly had missed me too.