JK Rowling owns everything, including my soul.
S.P.E.W. is for Lovers
A tale of unexpected, but totally plausible, romance.
Chapter 1
"…and in 1467, a house elf called Paliere was made to stand on his head for three hours, just because he didn't feed his master's horses on time! I mean, can you believe that?!" Hermione tried to explain the severity of the century-old issue late one night in the Gryffindor common room, but Ron and Harry would obviously rather sleep over their homework than be worried about the real issues at hand.
"Hermdijusaysomfin?" Ron asked incoherently as he woke up, groggy from an interrupted sleep.
"No. Forget it, Ron…"
"Okay. Then can I go back to sleep?"
"Ugh you just don't get it, do you?!" Hermione started to lose her patience. This happened more often than she liked.
"Herm-"
"No, listen to me. It seems like every time I start talking about something that's important to me, you doze off, or tune out, or just start stuffing your face with food! I'm sick of it, Ron, sick to death of it!" Tears welled up in her eyes as she finished her confession. She only just realized she had been yelling when Harry had changed from sleeping on the floor, to standing up, wide awake and fully aware of the situation.
"What's going on?!" But Harry knew exactly what was going on. He couldn't stand it anymore. The fighting. Ron and Hermione had been dating for a few months now, and the feuds had only gotten worse. It seemed like every day Hermione was whining about being underappreciated, or Ron was avoiding any real communication with her. And, of course, as the mutual friend, Harry was stuck in the middle of it all.
"Hermione is complaining about something."
"You see? This is the exact problem, Ronald. You don't listen to anything I say, you never care about anything I care about, and you're completely insensitive! It's so stressful and tiring!"
"That's rubbish. I listen to your S.P.E.W. rubbish all god damn day."
"It's not rubbish, Ron! It's very important that our society learns of this mistreat-"
"Enough! No one cares! Am I right, Harry?"
"Uh…" Harry stammered, trying to think of a way to be on both of their sides, or a really good plan to run straight out the portrait hole.
"Leave him out of this, Ronald."
"You want to know what gets on MY nerves? When you call me Ronald. It was cute for a while, but now I'm just so sick of it!"
"You didn't seem to mind when Lavender called you 'Won-Won' though, did you?"
"Here we go again with Lavender. You're so jealous of her and I don't get it. It was a year ago, Hermione."
The couple's feud had risen quite a few decibels which woke Neville. He walked down the steps to see what was going on, and Harry ushered Neville back up to the boy's dormitory, while taking the opportunity to escape the fight by nonchalantly following him up the stairs.
Tears were streaming down Hermione's face, falling onto her robes. She was a wreck. It had never been like this before, not ever. When did it get this bad? Just six months ago they were a new, happy couple, when Ron had finally admitted his feelings for Hermione after years and years of blindness. But they were just too different. Opposites did not attract in this relationship.
"I just feel so.. so.. invisible!" By now Hermione had fallen to her knees, her head in her hands, feverishly crying into her palms.
"Don't be such a ninny, Hermione. S.P.E.W. is just boring, that's all," Ron stated in a voice that clearly did not understand the girl's feelings.
"Just leave," Hermione whispered in a small voice that could barely be heard. She was aware that if Ron did what she said, if he didn't even try to make amends, if he left, it would be all over. Gone.
This is my first fic, and I'd like as many reviews as possible to help me improve! Then I'll post more chapters.
Thanks to Jasmine for getting me into fan fiction and being my Beta, as well as Nishat.