Hermione looked around at the three people standing in a protective semi-circle around the sleeping Boy Who Lived. Ron and George looked even more alike the older they got- as time erased the differences of two years. Both looked out of character with solemn broody expressions on their faces. Both stood solidly with their arms crossed, a hint of a frown playing on their lips, a shadow of loss in their eyes. Both tall, but Ron just a little stockier, maybe a centimeter taller. George was lankier and looked odd standing next to his younger brother, odd without that other lanky twin lounging next to him. Odd to see an absence of that playful wicked grin that George's face had never been without when Fred was alive.
Luna stood off a little, distancing herself just a bit from the situation. She appeared to be gazing up at the trees, but her eyes were sharp and Hermione knew that she was carefully attentive to everything that was going on.
She knelt down and touched Harry's face, pulling out her wand to examine the layers of spells that formed the enchantment on Harry. Finally she stood up and shook her head.
"I can't help you, it's a trigger set spell," she explained, "The only way to start and stop the spell is through the pre-determined triggers."
Ron pursed his lips and Luna spared a curious glance at Hermione while George shifted uncomfortably. Hermione sighed, was she the only one who understand the mechanics of how certain enchantments worked?
"Listen, trigger spells are the most powerful type of protective barrier, but they can also be the weakest if you know and have the trigger. Specifically designing a spell with a way to be broken is a lot stronger than a straight-up barrier with no key but only because it's much easier to find the key than to try throwing offensive spells at an enchantment like this," Hermione told them in her best professor voice.
"We understand all that Hermione," Ron interjected, "It's just, we think that, you're the key."
Hermione paused, and then glanced down at Harry, her thoughts flying back to that night, what was it one month, two months? ago. And Ron thought that she would be able to break this enchantment? Not likely.
"Ron..." she started, taking a step towards him. Ron must have seen something for him to assume this; she'd never outwardly shown any sign of being more than friends with Harry. In fact for a long time she'd always believed that she was falling for Ron.
"Don't," he said and Hermione felt a surge of guilt. Up until that night it had seemed to her, and to everyone else, that she and Ron were slowly moving down the path to getting together, falling in love, and getting married, and then the Weasley family could officially welcome her into their fold as one of their own.
"Listen Ron, I'm not in love with Harry," she told him, sparing a glance over at George and Luna. Luna had turned her attention back to Harry and was kneeling in the grass while George watched this interchange with faint curiosity.
"It's no use Hermione, I saw you," Ron said flatly, he met her eyes for a moment, full of resentment, then turned his gaze down and to the side.
Hermione thought back to the morning after; when she'd woken up Ginny had already vanished and Hermione hadn't seen her again until she'd visited to the burrow. Her thoughts had been in state of chaos since then and she'd searched the woods desperately for the other girl, hoping for a chance to talk things over, but Ginny was long gone. Instead she'd tripped over the still sleeping forms of other partiers still dead to the world, noticed Malfoy stumbling around looking like his bladder was about to burst, clearly unaware of the woods around him, and finally returned to the spot she'd spent the night. By then Harry too had disappeared so she hadn't gotten to clear things up with him either and apologize for getting so drunk as to intrude on something that should've been his and Ginny's alone.
Ginny... Ginny Weasley. All along Hermione had thought that it was the male Weasley she was attracted to, that red hair and soft brown eyes, they'd always made her feel safe and comforted. Always put her at ease, always reminded her of something she couldn't quite put her finger on. Sure when they hugged she always felt that he was a little too tall and broad for her taste, when she ran a hand across his chest she felt that there was something missing between the two of them, but she'd never delved deeply into her own personal feelings before. Not until that night.
As the three of them sat underneath that tree out in the woods Hermione had met Ginny's eyes and felt a jolt of electricity, and a strong sense of familiarity and rightness about there being together that night. Sure, Harry was there as well, but Hermione was willing to put up with that as the price for being with Ginny.
When Ginny's fingers had started undoing Harry's robes in front of her she'd at first wanted to run and excuse herself, but Ginny's gaze held her locked in place. Harry had reached over and started tugging off her own robes and then Ginny was leaning across Harry towards Hermione and it was like being underwater, like everything was happening in slow motion.
She'd closed her eyes and leaned forward to meet Ginny's kiss and it was the sweetest thing she'd ever tasted. She could barely remember Harry's participation, her mind was filled with Ginny's ivory skin, pale and beautiful in the moonlight, her fiery red hair like a beacon in the night. Her eyes wide, nervous, excited, that deep chocolate brown of the woods. Hermione had never known such little touches could stir such feelings in her, maybe it was the alcohol, maybe she was high on the happiness and relief of being done with Lord Voldemort, or maybe she'd been falling for the wrong Weasley all along.
She knew now that it was the female Weasley that had always been the object of her attraction; she'd simply applied those feelings to Ron, not realizing that it was even possible to fall in love with another girl.
She looked into Ron's eyes, Ron's eyes who reminded her of his younger sister and felt a blush of shame. He must not have seen Ginny there with her and Harry, or else this conversation would have started rather differently than it had. What must he think of her now, for her to admit she didn't love Harry but had slept with him instead of Ron?
"It's not what it seems like," she argued, knowing that these words could only lower her image in Ron's eyes.
"Either you're in love with Harry, which I can forgive you for," Ron said carefully, "Or you slept with him without a care in the world as to who might see or who you might hurt. You didn't think that it would hurt me, to see you, Hermione, with someone else? Were you just playing with mine and Harry's feelings?"
Hermione looked down, not sure if it was her place to let Ron know that it hadn't been just her and Harry. Harry surely was still in love with Ginny and Ginny in love with him; Hermione had just been a drunken companion, a random side interest in the celebrations of the night.
"It's complicated," she admitted, "And I haven't talked to Harry, but I have no reason to believe that he and Ginny are not getting back together."
"I have reason to believe they won't be getting back together, and that reason is you," Ron accused; Hermione could see the smoldering flames in his eyes, that Weasley anger. In Ron's case it was slow to build, and even slower to go out. All of that resentment, all of their miscommunications, were building this moment to become the climax of all their fumbles and mishaps. At least Hermione wouldn't have to explain to him that she wouldn't be marrying him and living happily ever after, at least his seeing her and Harry solved that problem. But there was still more to explain.
"Listen, that night, those celebrations..." Hermione began, "We were all drunk, just letting loose and having fun, Harry and I both know that it was nothing more than just some fooling around between friends."
Or at least Hermione hoped that Harry knew it was just fooling around between friends. She had heard from neither Ginny nor Harry about their imminent coupling but considering that night she was sure that their feelings for each other had remained unchanged during the hunt for horcruxes. Of course Ginny still had one more year of school and Hermione was joining her in order to take her NEWTS. At the end of the summer Ron and Harry were going to join the Auror department to finish hunting down the last of the Death Eaters- the last remaining traces of Voldemort's influence.
"And me?" Ron asked darkly. A faint breeze tickled around in little circles picking up the odd petal left over from spring and for a moment relieving some of the heavy humidity. In the distance the occasional bird could be heard but for the most part the creatures of the wood seemed quite content to sleep away the day's heat, leaving them in relative silence.
"You've always been my best friend Ron, just the same as Harry," Hermione said, pleading with him to forgive her. She took a step towards him and placed a hand on his shoulder.
He shrugged it off sharply and turned to the side, "Except Harry is a best friend you'll sleep with when you're drunk? Should I try and get you drunk and then maybe you'll sleep with me?"
She slapped him across the face then turned and collapsed to her knees, tears leaking down her cheeks despite her attempt to stop them.
"No, that was a one time thing, I'm not going to sleep with you Ron, you OR Harry," Hermione cried out, "I don't want either of you!"
"Thanks for making that clear now," Ron said sarcastically.
"You'd better go ahead and summon Ginny," Hermione said forcing herself to her feet, ignoring Ron and looking at George.
But Ron wasn't done, and he yelled, "I'm just having a hard time forgiving you for doing something like this to the three of us. The friendship we had, do you think we can just go back to that with something like this between us?" His fists were clenched and Hermione only dared a brief glance at his eyes.
"I KNOW! I know," Herimone cried out, feeling the clench of her guilt at using Harry, "I'm sorry, alright. I'm sorry! I'm just, I'm more concerned with what I might have done to Ginny and Harry's relationship right now!"
"Oh, what? Now I'm the one who's being selfishly concerned about the wrong things? You don't think I'm mad about that too? Admitting it doesn't make it any better!" Ron accused, she could tell things were quickly out of hand. Her own angers and frustrations were building, this whole thing was such a mess.
"Leading me on! Sleeping with Harry! And you say you don't want either of us? Some best friend you are!" Ron was screaming.
There was a loud pop as Ginny apparated into the woods and right in the middle of Hermione and Ron's screaming match. The two continued throwing accusations at each other.
"I think you're being a little hypocritical Ron," Ginny said sharply after enduring a minute of Ron and Hermione's fighting. This statement caused both of them to fall silent and glare over at her, on the verge of taking her down with them for interrupting.
"It's not like you're all pure and chaste and above one night stands either," Ginny told her brother, then smirked at both Hermione and Ron's dumbstruck reactions.
A/N: Bwahaha. The charade continues. Can't have a Harry Potter story without at least one screaming match between Hermione and Ron right? Thanks for reading, share this story with your friends!
