Summery: Ron and Hermione were blissfully happy until Ron's lack of commitment breaks her heart. She seeks solace in her closest friend, Harry, who she loves dearly. However, to their intense surprise, after a night if comfort-drinking, they fall in bed together. They destroy Ron's chance for happiness. But when Hermione is kidnapped and Harry disappears will Ron be able to put their amniosity aside and save the two people who loves most in the world, even though they love each other now?
A/N: IMPORTANT! As I stopped writing this for over a year, having gone back and re-read it, I found lot's to improve. So if you are coming back, then maybe scan through the first five chapters again?
If you are new...I LOVE YOU! Enjoy.
Chapter 1
"For Merlin's sake Ronald," Hermione shouted her face red and fists clenched, "What the hell is wrong with you? You are completely commitment-phobic. I cannot cope with the appetizer of joy and then the starter: heartbreak, followed by the main course of elation and then do not forget the dessert of melancholy! If I wanted a bloody meal Ron, I would have gone to a restaurant!"
She now had a handful of his white polo as to pull him closer, so he might just get the point this time. He had not done countless times before, so Hermione was not optimistic.
"Funny those, quite the comedian aren't you?" His words were humorous but his eyes betrayed him. They were slightly wet and bloodshot; the usual bright beautiful blue was dull and greying.
"Aghh, I'm not trying to be funny, for once I am trying to have a serious conversation! We have been in a relationship for five years now and you have never actually told me how you feel in detail. It's just 'I love you' or 'yeah, me too'. Never elaborated. I pour out all of my hopes, fears and desires and you just grunt!
"Even when you first said you loved me, I could see it was embarrassing you. Please, tell me how you feel..." There was a note of desperation in her high pitched, tightly strung voice.
He detached himself from her death grip and walked slowly to the balcony of their three story, four bedroom detached cottage located in the outskirts of London.
It was perfectly situated; it was not too far for Hermione to apparate to St. Mungo's where she was Head Healer. Ron could sometimes, on a beautiful summer morning, walk to work in the ministry. He had now been promoted from the Department of Magical Maintenance, which he absolutely hated; he had seen too much action to be satisfied with such a boring, mundane job.
So he moved to Magical Law Enforcement where he happily went on many dangerous and challenging raids and arrests.
Strangely, he loved the feeling of having to look over his shoulder all the time, even after having faced the darkest of dark many times; he actually could not wait for the next battle.
Not surprisingly, he was hoping for yet another promotion to the Auror office so he could really get into the good stuff.
Ron stood looking at the starry sky, going over all the times they had been in this exact spot, arguing over the same points. Maybe he had had enough; it was not supposed to be this hard. He still loved Hermione, but he was not sure if he liked her.
"Listen Hermione, this is really hard to say, but I feel it's the right thing to do. I-I think that we should...what I mean to say is that I can't really…Oh for the love of Merlin, I think we should break up."
Silence.
He turned around and was shocked at what he saw.
The usually calm and composed Hermione was now curled up on the bedroom floor in the foetal position, sobbing silently into the deep pile carpet.
He was just about to go and comfort her when she seemed to calm down; standing up with her back to him, she walked serenely out of the door and down the winding stairs to the kitchen on the floor below.
Puzzled, Ron followed, his mind whirling. When he reached her, she was standing in front of the sink with a bottle of red Merlot in her hand. Tentatively clearing his throat, he announced his presence, which, of course, she completely ignored, choosing to take a swig of her wine instead.
Ron wondered whether he should leave her to it. It took him a moment to realise that the Ron Weasley five years ago would definitely had fled to the hills, but the Ron Weasley now was more grounded and...Well, more grown up.
"I'm sorry, Hermione, I still love you and I still have immense respect for you but if we stay in this situation I could seriously grow to hate you." He had not meant it to sound so harsh but there was still anger behind the sadness and regret.
Again, there was an unbearable silence, broken only by the draining of the bottle of red wine Hermione cradled in her white, shaking hand.
After what seemed like a lifetime, she finally spoke. Her voice was gravely and dry with a distinct slur.
"I don't want to." She still had her back to him but he could see her trying to regain control, she always hated being drunk; not being 'able' was her worst nightmare.
"Sorry, what don't you want to do?" He said in his most gentle, caring voice.
"I don't want to break up." She said it very steadily, as steady as you can get when you are half way through the second bottle.
"I know honey, I'm sad too."
"Don't patronize me, who do you think I am? Ginny? I've heard the way you talk to her, like she was still your six year old baby sister." She finally turned around and stumbled over to the massive scrubbed wooden table that was very similar to the one at the Burrow.
Ron liked his home comforts. Hermione wanted something a little more modern, but he could be so stubborn she eventually gave in.
"I wasn't patronizing you!" His anger was rising, as was the colour of his ears. Her eyes glazed over as she began to think.
"You know, I really liked you since the age of twelve. In the second year, remember, I started doing your homework regularly and I put my hair up different, more neat." She smiled, reminiscing. Once again, Ron was puzzled but went with the flow.
"Yeah me too, can you believe we went six years without telling each other? So stupid." He looked at her features hopefully.
"Tell me, honestly, when was the exact time you realized?" She groped around her for her wand, refilled the empty bottle in front of her, and then took a deep drink.
"Honestly? It was probably when you were petrified. You looked so beautiful lay there. Your last act was to warn us of the basilisk. At that moment I knew I had to do everything physically possible to catch the thing that almost took you away from me."
"What did you do then?" Harry and Ron never actually had around to telling her of their adventures in the forest, mainly because Ron refused outright to discuss it.
"Erm, you know I'm absolutely terrified of spiders?" She nodded once.
"Well basically, Harry and I followed some spider's into the middle of the Forbidden Forest and we sort of ended up in the lair of the massive, head-spider. It's got a name, some thing like…it ties in with arachnophobia..." He stared at her, a rush of excitement and anticipation flooding his body. She was going to answer, correct him just as she had done so many times before.
"Acromantula." He smiled sadly.
"Uh huh, that's right! Hagrid named him Aragog…"
"I know him; he's who everyone thought was the monster of the Chamber of secrets." She sighed.
"Well we went in there to get answers, to prove Hagrid innocent but by the time we got something worthwhile out of him, he went and set his hungry sons and daughters on us. Only just got out alive, if Dads old Ford Anglia hadn't come, we would have been spider food."
Hermione was thinking, hard.
She was very impressed at the length he would go to for her but she had witnessed plenty so it was not very original but still, she was grateful. What she craved was passion, excitement, talking into the early hours. A relationship, not a war.
"And then there's the time in Malfoy Manor, when Bellatrix was torturing me," she gave an involuntary shudder at the memory.
"It was such a comfort to hear your voice when you were shouting for me. At the funeral... that's a laugh, I can't just say the funeral, we've been to about twenty! However, at Dumbledore's funeral when you held me, I felt so safe, so protected and in a perverse way, considering the circumstances, happy.
"It was the first time you held me that close and that meaningful. It was as if you had finally accepted your feelings towards me. Of course, in true Ron Weasley fashion, you had not. Went back into denial. However, I still love you and if we split up, I just won't know what to do with myself. After eleven years of you, I would die, if not physically, then emotionally and mentally.
"Just don't leave me, it's simple, just don't walk away. I thought we were going to get married, have loads of children and grow old together until we are grey and wrinkled, sitting on the porch in some wooden rocking chairs watching the world go by and remembering the better times!"
Hermione threw the nearly empty bottle at the wall opposite and watched with satisfaction as the crimson liquid stained the daffodil paint.
Ron sighed and cleaned up the mess with his wand whilst his partner strode from one side of the table to the other. He thought carefully of the pros and cons.
"Okay, you like to be systematic, logical, and even mathematical so we are going to weigh up everything. The good and bad, the disadvantages and the advantages." She did not reply, just stared resolutely at the spot where a few seconds ago wine splattered, he hastily continued, "I'll start shall I? Okay then, first off it is the constant nagging. It is like living with my mother again! Secondly, so what if I don't want to commit to getting married straight away? Why can't we just see where things go?"
"Straight away? It has been five long years! I told you that you were
Commitment-phobic!" They stared at each other in complete silence for at least twenty seconds. Then suddenly and simultaneously, burst out laughing, hysterical, Hermione stumbled over to Ron and clung to his neck to steady her before sitting on his lap.
"I cannot believe we've literally gone in a complete circle. That is how this ridiculous argument started. How did we get here Hermione? I thought for sure that we were going to be together forever, happily at least." They had stopped smiling now and were staring into each other's eyes.
"Why don't we just take a break, for a month or something? You can go and stay with Harry. Just to see what life is like apart. I mean we could even see other people because we've been together since the age of seventeen and never got the chance to catch any of the other fish in the sea." Hermione stated, never moving off Ron.
"Fish? What has that got to do with anything?"
"Oh, it's an old muggle saying. It means there are plenty more people out there, like other potential boyfriends or girlfriends!"
She laughed again and hugged him close. "I'm going to stay at Harry's tonight, I need to get away from this house and then I think I should have a talk with him, he'll understand that its a mutual agreement if I explain it. He'll take the mick if you turn up with your stuff saying we're on a break!"
"Yeah, that's probably best," He paused and traced little circle on the bare skin of her thigh. "You know I really do still love you right?" He continued to doodle on her leg not meeting her eye but Hermione knew that he truly meant it.
"Of course I do, and I love you too." They shared one more sweet and tender kiss and Hermione jumped up to apparate to Harry's place, but just as she was putting on her cloak, a large freckled hand closed around her small wrist.
"I suppose this is the end of this chapter of our lives, but it isn't the end of everything. Remember that." She nodded and spun on the spot, disappearing in a flash.