Chapter 4
Regrets
It was finally time for dinner. Ron's favorite part of the day. Where all he needed to focus on was food. Food had never done anything to Ron. In fact, at the moment, it would probably help him through his troubles. Tonight, he planned on focusing on food. That was until Harry stopped him outside the hall where all the Shepherds pie he could dream of was waiting for him.
"Hey mate. Are you alright?" asked the raven haired boy.
"Yeah, of course. Today was just fantastic. Why wouldn't I be fine?" replied Ron, sarcasm lacing his tone.
"Well I was kind of hoping to talk to you about something-"
Harry's sentence got cut short as both of the boys head snapped to hear a noise that nearly never hear. Hermione giggling. A full on, girlish giggle that had been made by none other than Hermione Granger. They swirled around and saw her walking down the steps. She had her arm looped through Ernie's and a dazzling smile lit up her face. Ernie was smiling also but just staring with a look of adoration at her. Hermione glanced down and noticed Ron and Harry. She turned to Ernie and he nodded. They had finally made it to the doors of the Great Hall, just where Ron and Harry were standing. Hermione untangled her arm from Ernie's and instead of letting it go immediately, Ernie held onto it. He then gently kissed the back of her hand lightly and bid her farewell.
Hermione was positively beaming. She slowly dawdled over to where Harry and Ron were standing. Her cheeks were tinted pink and there was an awkward tension in the air, that Hermione thankfully broke. "Hot, isn't it?" she breathed, fanning herself with her hand. It was not seasonally warm, and as she said this, a cool breeze picked up that they all felt.
"I guess you could say it is a bit," replied Harry, "especially being all cozy with a certain good looking Hufflepuff." He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively and Hermione playfully swatted his arm. The trio made their way into the Great Hall.
"Hogsmeade tomorrow," noted Hermione.
Ron grunted in response and she gave him a quizzical look. He shot her a dirty glare and she abruptly pushed out her chair and sadly walked out of the hall.
"Ron, you need to stop that. Hermione is your friend. Why are you treating her like a stranger?" Harry asked as soon as Hermione was out of earshot. "Please, just tell me what's wrong."
"Our next Quidditch game is against Hufflepuff. She's fraternizing with the enemy. He's probably using her to find out our tactics," Ron grumbled.
"Do you realize how barmy you sound right now? Merlin, Ron! Hermione has no interest in Quidditch whatsoever and the only reason you would be able to get her onto the pitch is to watch me, you or Ginny play. Don't go on about 'fraternizing with the enemy'. She's finally found someone who likes her for her. He's nice, loyal, smart, funny. And he really, really likes Hermione. You have Lavender and now Hermione has Ernie. Why can't you be happy for her for once, Ron? Why?"
Ron pondered this. Yes, he did have Lavender. Even though that would only last a short while, considering he knew nothing about her. And Harry was right about Ernie. He was nice, loyal smart and funny. Was Ron those things? Hermione has told him numerous times that he was, but being the self depreciating person he was, never listened. When he did this, she huffed and would just stop telling him. He wasn't going to tell Harry that he was jealous- no, Ron was not jealous. That's not how it worked. Especially seeing as he was the one who had thought of the plan to make Hermione jealous.
"I don't know Harry. He just, doesn't seem like Hermione's type…" Ron mumbled.
"That's what you said about Viktor and that's probably what you will say about every boy that comes into her life. She is happy, Ron. If you haven't noticed. She is now always smiling and is finally letting go a bit. Just try, at least, to be happy for her. "
With that, Harry walked away and left Ron to his thoughts. He continued to think about Hermione, Ernie and Lavender and this big triangle that he had got himself caught up in. He was torn from this thoughts though as a clingy blonde came up and dragged him into an empty classroom. The whole time Lavender was snogging Ron, all he could imagine was pulling back and staring into Hermione's brown eyes. Lavender had brown eyes too, which made it much harder to differentiate between his desire and reality.
He was caught up thinking about how he thought he was jealous of Hermione and Ernie. Why would he have any reason to be jealous? He had Lavender. He was just feeling the need to protect her, that was it. But he had only ever felt this feeling once in his life. That was when he was watching his Hermione dance with that Bulgarian brat, Viktor Krum.
Ron pulled away from Lavender suddenly and just stared at her. Realization dawned on him. He was jealous of Hermione and Ernie. There was no way he could deny it. He was so angry that he was jealous. Why did everything with Hermione have to have him so angry or with too many feelings to comprehend?
Ron bent down and kissed Lavender with so much intensity he thought he would snog her brains out. He poured all of the emotion that was building in the pit of his stomach into the kiss he was sharing with Lavender.
He only wished though, that it was with Hermione.
AN: I'm so sorry. This is a terrible chapter. I couldn't think of anything to do with it. Please don't kill me! I also find it a bit more fun writing from Ron's point of view I think. Next chapter will be Hogsmeade! I have no idea what to do there. *sigh* I love all the reviews that I am getting and I want to thank all of you who have reviewed! I'm not going to update until I get 23 reviews though because I just don't have enough inspiration. If I don't get 23 though, don't fret. I will post but it wont be super soon because I have nothing to write about. Thanks again and constructive criticism would be fantastic.
Read on J
