So here is chapter 6 and as some of you guessed already, you're finally going to see a bit of Ron's perspective now :-)

And thanks for all you're reviews. I tend to forget to tell you that, but I'm always grateful for them!

6. Two Sides of the same Story

The following morning the tension inside the Burrow hadn't eased a bit. So, after everyone sat down around the table, the kitchen was immersed in silence once more. Only Molly bustled loudly around, clattering with pots and plates while preparing breakfast.

Molly hadn't had time yet to think about an eligible form of punishment for her wayward children and she pondered if she should rather let Hermione and Ron decide on that; after all it was them, who had to suffer.

"Harry, would you please tell Ron, breakfast is ready," Molly requested finally, loading plates with food and handing them out.

"Sure Mrs Weasley" Harry said at once and got up again.

"And why the hell should Harry do this?" Ginny said indignantly, holding him back by seizing his arm, "No one wants him down here with us anyway."

"Ginevra how dare you …," Molly said exasperated, she couldn't believe her daughter's impudence to talk to her like that.

"Well it's true mum. The way he behaves around Hermione; that jerk. We're better off without him." Ginny continued, apparently unaware of Molly's growing anger.

"Of course, I don't appreciate his behaviour but I won't let one of my sons starve." Molly said forcefully and threw the plate she was holding with a loud bang in front of Ginny, so that eggs and bacon made a jump and landed on the table all around the plate. Molly braced herself for a lecture, the hands already on the hips. But before she could even say a word ...

"Shut up Ginny, this hasn't anything to do with you." Hermione shot up sharply, glaring at Ginny.

With gaping mouth Ginny turned around to face Hermione. "How can you, of all people, defend him?" she asked exasperated, "After what he had said to you"

"I don't defend his behaviour towards me, but that is solely between Ron and me. You have no right to criticize him. You slipped him the potion just like me, and therefore, what happened after, isn't entirely his fault!" Hermione flared up. "We were fine before you guys decided to mess up our lives."

"Did you forget that he accused you to sleep all around the place, Hermione?" Ginny yelled.

"No, of course not, but …," Hermione said incensed.

"Yeah, he was just lovely towards you, wasn't he? And what a really good father he will be, we should all side with him." Ginny taunted malevolent. "But oh, I forgot, there is the little problem that he doesn't want to be one."

Hermione sprang to her feet and already had her wand halfway out of her pocket. Ginny mirrored her at once and now they stood nose to nose, only separated through the kitchen table, both red from yelling and their anger, glaring daggers at each other.

"ENOUGH" Molly shouted. "You sit down now, both of you and eat."

Reluctantly they both sat down again. Without another word or look at the each other, they started, armed with forks, to attack their plates viciously.

Molly sighed heavily and then turned to Harry. "Harry would you please tell Ron now breakfast is ready."

Harry grimaced, not sure if this was a very good idea at all, but obliged her request nevertheless.

xxx

Ron was lying on his bed, deep in thoughts. Why was everything in his life crap right now?

He heard a shouting match from downstairs but only briefly wondered what was going on. To be honest he simply didn't care. He felt kind of numb lately. Nothing seemed to be important to him anymore. Not school or his family nor his friends, not that he still had any of those, nothing.

He didn't even care what happened to himself. He had trouble sleeping and couldn't concentrate on anything. At least he did eat, he wasn't so stupid to kill himself because of lack of food, but he seldom felt hungry anymore.

Ron could clearly remember that eventful night and particularly the following morning, which have changed his life so dramatically.

Saturday Morning – Ron's point of view

Ron woke up half an hour after Hermione had left him. The sun was shining on his face when he came to his senses. It took him a moment to remember where he was and what had happened the night before. A huge grin crossed his face as he did; he slowly opened his eyes and turned over to Hermione's side of the bed. It was abandoned. The grin died and Ron sat up abruptly to look around the room. It was empty too.

'Maybe she's already gone down into the Great Hall for breakfast,' Ron thought. After all Hermione was an early riser, and she probably hadn't wanted to wake him. Nevertheless, Ron couldn't help feeling a bit disappointed by that, he would have liked to wake up next to her and hold her in his arms just a few minutes before facing the day.

Ron quickly left the bed and searched the room for his clothes. They were scattered everywhere it seemed. Then he rushed toward the Great Hall. All the way down he pictured their first meeting after THAT night. How should he react? Should he kiss her good morning? He would have done so, if she had been lying next to him, but in the Great Hall, where everyone could see them? He wasn't sure if Hermione would like that.

x

Ron came to a halt in front of the Great Hall's entrance; he took one last big breath and opened the door. Nervously he crossed the room to the Gryffindor table. Hermione wasn't there either. Nor was Harry or anyone else of his siblings, by the way. That was odd. At least one of them should be here by now.

Where was she? Common room? Girls' dormitory? Library? Ron was getting frustrated.

He went over to Neville, Dean and Seamus, who where sitting together chatting over their breakfast.

"Have you seen Hermione?" Ron asked "or Harry?" he added as an afterthought. He didn't really want to know where Harry was, but maybe he knew something about Hermione.

"Yeah, she passed me on my way down here, about half an hour ago," said Neville "She was heading for the common room. Crying!"

"Crying?" Ron asked bewildered and a bit concerned. "What was she crying about?"

"No idea. Why don't you just go and ask her yourself?"

"Right!" Ron turned about and aimed for the common room. He was confused. WHY was she crying? Did she regret it? No, that couldn't be the reason, right? After all, it had been she, who initiated it. He had been fine just snogging her, but she had wanted more. Although Ron had been surprised by her actions, he certainly wasn't going to stop her. One thing had led to another and they had slept together. He hadn't done anything wrong, had he? He had even asked her if she really wanted to do it and she had said yes!

x

Ron reached the common room to find it deserted except a few first and second years. He sighed, "Great, what now?"

He turned to the boy's staircase to find Harry at least. When he climbed the stairs, he heard voices. First he couldn't understand them, but then Hermione's voice shrieked loudly.

"Do you really think I would have slept with your brother if I had had control about my actions?"

Ron stopped immediately in his tracks and went awfully pale. It was as if someone had just stabbed his heart and twisted the blade. It hurt so much.

In his shocked state of mind he could hear his brother's voices explaining something about potions, but he didn't even try to take it in.

As soon as his legs could move again he backed away from the door, turned around and dashed off toward the common room, through the portrait hole and up the astronomy tower. Only there he stopped again. Breathing heavily, from all the running and the choked feeling in his throat, Ron let himself sank down to the ground and started to cry.

He stayed up on the tower the whole day. As it was Saturday, no one would come up here and so Ron could shamelessly give vent to his feelings. He was hurt, angry, disappointed, unhappy no heartbroken, distraught and kind of empty at the same time. Who would have thought that one person could have so many feelings at once without exploding; he wondered briefly and involuntarily gave a humourless laugh, while a new flood of tearst started to run down his cheeks.

How could he have done something like that to Hermione? He should have known this wasn't for real. Of course she would never love him back. Who would love stupid, long-nosed and freckled, always second-best and awfully poor Ron Weasley? No one would.

Ron didn't even leave the tower when the sun began to disappear and it gradually became colder and colder. He couldn't go back to Gryffindor Tower right now. He would have to go through the common room, which was packed with students at this hour, and although his tears had stopped a long time ago ( there just weren't anymore left), he knew that everyone could see immediately that something was wrong and would pester him about it.

So Ron stayed put. Soon he was freezing, but he still didn't dare to move. He only curled up tighter and tried to stay warm this way. Longingly he thought about the wonderful warm and cosy sweater his mother made him for last Christmas, which lay carelessly discarded in his school trunk.

Way after hours, Ron finally left his icy retreat and sneaked back to the common room. After he had convinced a rather grumpy Fat Lady to let him in, he climbed through the portrait hole and instantly stopped.

The last person he wanted to see today or anytime soon stood in front of him. And apparently she was so disgusted with him that she couldn't even look at him. All the hurt and anger came back at once as he saw her turning away. In that moment he almost hated her for not loving him back.

For a moment they both stood rooted to the spot until they simultaneously dashed off to their specific dormitories.

The Astronomy tower became Ron's sanctuary the next day too, but this time he brought his woolly sweater and a blanket with him. He hadn't slept at all the previous night and was already gone again before anyone else in his dormitory was awake.

Ron dreaded Monday morning when he had to face the world for real again and he couldn't avoid Hermione any longer because they had classes together. And so he decided to just ignore her and everyone else as best as he could.

He had been so stupid, how could he honestly think, that Hermione Granger loved him? For about eight hours, most of them spent sleeping, he had been the happiest person on this planet and now his life was a complete nightmare.

Above all, it even wasn't his bloody fault, but everyone seemed to blame him. He didn't force anyone to drink some bloody potion. Okay, he wasn't completely innocent about certain things, but he didn't do anything wrong, did he?

Well, he should have known her better for a start. Of course Hermione would never have slept with him if it wasn't for the stupid potion. But how on earth was he supposed to figure that out on his own?

And he shouldn't have called Hermione those things he had afterwards, but he had been so angry at that time and they wouldn't leave him alone, so he had just snapped. Of course it wasn't really an excuse for what he had said and Ron wished so badly he could take it back or at least apologise for it, but he knew it wasn't possible. He was also afraid to say even more awful things if he tried to apologise, because he was sure they would start to row again and then he simply couldn't control his mouth.

Ron sighed and angrily brushed some tears away, which had started to run down his cheeks. Luckily, he just turned over to face the wall, when the door opened, so that whoever came in couldn't see that he was crying.

"Your mum sends me to tell you, breakfast is ready," he heard Harry's rather cool voice, but Ron didn't answer and simply ignored him. Harry wasn't waiting for a response anyhow and left the room right away after he had delivered his message.

Ron once more didn't feel hungry at all, actually he was rather nauseated. Only the image of sitting with his whole family, Harry and Hermione at the same table made him cringe. He almost could feel their glares on him if he did so already. And so he continued to stare at the wall and feel miserably.

So what do you think? Is Ron still the bad person here, or did he manage to redeem himself?