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9.) Only People With Doubts...

"What do you mean?" Hermione said.

She was angry at him for leaving them alone the way he did but he couldn't be so trouble about that…

"You both remember what happened seven years ago…with the mistletoe," Viktor said.

Oh, so it was preemptive apologizing. It must have been. He couldn't do anything worse than bring that up, could he?

"Well, that mistletoe was…cursed," he said, "by yours truly."

"You cursed it?" Ron said slowly.

He couldn't seem to look at Ron.

"I…I was very in love with you, Hermione," he said. "And I knew you. I knew that you'd get scared. Magical Mistletoe operates on the ability to key in to strong emotions. If you had kissed him the curse wouldn't have been able to take affect but because you ran…the farther away you got the more you were able to suppress your feelings and the more concrete the logic you used became. That fear was cemented and preserved by your actions. Any lie you told yourself to justify it would slowly start to become the truth. But the curse couldn't make the feelings go away. If any magic can I don't know it. It's true that in the time apart you may have truly gotten over you feelings, but…there's only one way to know for sure."

Hermione was trying to process this information. She was so overwhelmed she couldn't ask questions.

Then Ron walked calmly over to Viktor…and punched him.

"Ron!" she shrieked.

But he was already lifting Viktor, who was sporting a bloody nose, to his feet. He took his wand out and pointed it at him.

Hermione felt faint. First he'd punched him and how he was going curse him!? But to her surprised he healed the bloody nose and looked Viktor in the eye.

"I deserved that," Viktor said.

"You did," Ron said. "Now, tell us this one way to…know if we still have feelings for each other."

It was the first thing that Hermione seemed to register at normal speed.

"What? No!" she said. "I'm engaged! I don't—I can't love him anymore."

They both looked at her.

"This is ridiculous," she said. "I mean, Viktor, it's obvious you've had a heavy weight on your conscience because of this and I appreciate you coming forward. But, in the end, it doesn't matter. Regardless of how it happened, that part of my life is over, and I've moved on. I can't live in the past obsessing over what-ifs."

She turned to leave.

"You are too much," came a voice.

She paused.

"And just what to you mean by that, Ron?" she said, without turning around.

"You're running again," he said.

She turned around, "I am not running. But this chapter of my life is over. What happened sever years ago happened seven years ago. That's not my life anymore—"

"If you're so confidant about that," he said, cutting her off. "If you're so sure in your love for this fiancé of yours then you should have no problem taking the test."

"I don't need to test it," she said. "Only people with doubts need confirmations."

"Oh, you'd like that, wouldn't you?" he said. "If this was as easy as me still being head over heals for you and hoping you still feel the same way. Well, you're not the only one with a new life, Hermione. Do you think I've just wallowed away in self-pity all these years? Do you think none of us got by without you? We missed you. Of course we missed you. I missed you. I'm not afraid to admit it and deal with the implications. Because I actually have confidence in what I say. I know what I feel and I'm not ashamed. Hermione, if you had no doubts you wouldn't have to be so forceful about it."

"This is ridiculous," Hermione said for the second time. "I know what I feel! I don't need any test to tell me that."

"We'll see," Ron said, then turned back to Viktor. "What is this test, Viktor?"

"I don't need to—"

"There's no harm in finding out what the test is, is there?" Ron said. "I can't make you take it, but you can at least listen to what it is."

He was looking at her like she was a toddler trying his patience.

She crossed her arm and huffed, tapping one foot, "Since Ron is so curious, go ahead Viktor. Tells us this mighty test that apparently knows what we feel better than we do."

Ron rolled his eyes.

Viktor opened his mouth to speak.


AN: In a world where the sky is blue, and the ocean is blue, and bluebirds are blue, and when you're depressed it's called being blue…there's a button, the color of which has been often debated, but I'll call it some form of blue. It will enable you to send an electronic message telling me how horrible I am to put two cliffhangers in a row. Isn't the world a wonderful place?