Way To Go
A traffic jam. My best friend in this whole wide world is feeling down and I promised him that I'd come help him get through ages ago and I'm still here, stuck. I almost never use my car, and when I finally decide to use it for an emergency, I get stuck in a traffic jam. I hope Harry's okay...
I get out of my car and step on the pavement. I've barely left home. There's no chance of me getting to Harry today. And to think that he was always there for me when I had girl trouble... I'm already sad, I swear. Maybe I should call him, after all, he told me not to come, I'm he one who insisted, so maybe I could just turn around and go home? Suddenly, I felt my phone vibrating in my pocket. I stared at it, surprised. It was the one person I didn't expect.
'Hermione.'
'Ron, listen to me, you have to go to Harry's house right this second, ok? He and Draco had a huge argument, they almost dueled, and now Harry's locked himself in the house and he isn't answering my calls and he looked like he was crying when he closed the door in my face and I don't want him to do anything stupid but if I went in he'd get mad, oh, Ron, please come, I don't know what to do!'
I couldn't understand. So they had a fight. Ok. But why was she there?
She stopped being close to Harry when she picked Draco over us. We used to be quite the group, you know? Always getting into trouble together, always laughing and doing something amazing. But in our eighth year, she started hanging out with Draco. At first, I couldn't figure it out. I mean, we'd been through some stuff, but was that her way of coping with things? After a while, though, I noticed the way she looked at him, and I knew that we had been utterly and completely replaced. Harry couldn't understand her, and he made a promise to never speak to her again. Obviously, Harry being Harry, he spoke to her many, many times after that, but they never became friends again. Me and Hermione is a whole other story. In the Great Battle, we had kissed, and I knew for a fact that it had felt like heaven for both of us. How? She told me that. We admitted our ancient crushes on each other and we made a promise to stay together forever. But she seemed to forget all about it. I kept sending her letters, I even got a cellphone that summer, only so that I could talk to her. But she wouldn't respond to any of them, calls or letters. And when we met again on the 1st of September, she barely looked at me. She went right past me, trying to make her way to Draco. I didn't stop her. And, in time, I even managed to get over her, or so I thought.
Besides, why would I have needed her anymore? My friendship with Harry was stronger than ever. But I couldn't help myself. I missed our group. ''The Golden Trio'', as people used to cal it. I missed us. So I kept trying to talk to her, to figure things out. Together. And, for a while, it was very awkward. But soon, we regained each other's trust and became friends again. Harry still didn't want to be friends with her, I still didn't want to be friends with Draco. And so the trio was destroyed. But me and Hermione? We now were each other's second best friends, and we loved it.
Not a long time afterwards, though, we drifted apart again. Harry and I had Quidditch practice almost all of the time, while Hermione and Draco attended contests and lectures and study groups and other scholar activities. We still loved each other, but we wouldn't admit it. We acted like friends, even though deep down we both knew that we were more than that. We went to Hogsmeade together every time we could, which was almost never, but it's how we kept things going. And just like that, our eighth year was over, and, for a while, so was our newly-found friendship.
But when we both found homes and stable jobs, we rekindled the old friendship flame. We started going out and having fun. But then, just when we were getting closer (and I was getting ready to admit my feelings, which I was sure that she reciprocated), Draco formally introduced her to Pansy. it was stupid, really. They decided to go out together, and they got drunk, which led to a hook-up. Which I know because she drunk-called me to tell me that. Oh, I cried. But I didn't want to let it show. I kept acting like nothing happened. We still went out almost every night, but this time, I was trying to be my most homophobic self possible. I really have nothing against people that are not heterosexual, but I didn't know how else to hurt her. 'Cause that was my revenge scheme. To make her feel my pain. It sounds really bad, I know, but I was blinded by rage.
And now she called me, of all people. Me. Not Pansy. Not Blaise, who I assume she also hooked-up with. Me.
'I'm on my way, but there's this awful traffic jam that I can't seem to get out of!'
'Listen to me, Ronnie -oh, when she called me that- this is what you're gonna 're going to make your car as tiny as you can, put it in your pocket, run back home and leave it there. Ok?'
'But...won't people see me?'
'Not if you're careful enough. Look around, hon. They shouldn't be in their cars, if the traffic jam is as terrible as you say. Muggles do this thing, they just desert their cars and go walk around. Trust me. You're covered.' Trust me, Ron. Trust you? Yeah, why not, right? 'Ron? Ro-on? Ron! Are you there?'
'Yeah' I puff tiredly. Would you like me to talk to you, to tell you how much I love you, to comfort you, while I'm running as you so nicely ordered me to? No way.
'Just please, be as quick as you can, ok? I'm scared. What if something bad happens?'
'Nothing will happen. I promise.' There I go, promising her something uncertain that I have absolutely zero knowledge on. Great. Way to go, Ron. Way to go.
