Chapter 10 – Just Friends
Harry watched in amusement while he ate his cereal as Ron's head slowly descended towards the table. Ron eyes were half open and he looked like he hadn't slept in days.
'I guess he's still not used to sharing a room with John,' Harry mused.
Harry kicked Ron leg under the table just before his face was about to drop into his eggs, causing Ron to sit up instantly his eyes alert.
Ron groaned when he looked at Harry.
"What was that for?"
"Nothing, just saving you from literally inhaling your breakfast," Harry replied with a smirk.
Ron gave a sarcastic laugh before taking a sip of his juice.
"But seriously though, have you decided to write to her yet?"
Harry saw Ron's eyes widen at his question. Harry also noticed the quick glance in John's direction.
Taking the hint, Harry turned to address John.
"John, do you know if your cousin, Hermione, is going to the Christmas dance?"
John choked and juice splattered all over his face.
Harry noticed the apprehensive look on Ron's face and decided to be more direct.
"Do you reckon she'd want to go with Ron?"
Before John could reply there was a clattering sound and Harry turned to see that Ron's face was now in his breakfast.
"You alright mate? You really should get some more rest," Harry said in concern.
"'m alright – just a little tired," Ron mumbled wiping his face with a napkin.
"So anyway, John – "
"Look at the time, we better hurry or we'll be late for DADA," Ron said suddenly standing from his seat and dragging John along with him.
Harry grabbed a piece of toast before he ran after them.
'If you weren't my friend I would kill you Harry,' Ron groaned inwardly as he stared at his friend talking to John.
"Hi guys," Neville greeted walking over towards them.
"Hey Neville," Ron replied, "How's everything?"
Ron knew that Neville had gone to visit his parents at St Mungo's, but that the chubby boy still did not want the other students to know.
"Fine, thanks Ron," Neville smiled though as usual after a visit to his parents the smile lacked its usual warmth.
"Good you're all here, we'll be doing some basic wandwork today," Remus explained before walking into the room, the students following behind him.
"Wanna pair up again?" Ron whispered to John while they waited for instructions from Remus.
"Okay," John smiled at him.
"Now today we will simply be revising the spells you've learnt so far but I will be paying particular attention to how you all perform the Riddikulus spell which we learnt in our previous lesson."
"Ohh, I've been looking forward to this," John said happily.
Ron smiled at the joy on John's face and the pair began to move to one side of the room but Malfoy stopped them.
"Well, if it isn't the Weasel and his mudblood lackey."
"Speaking of lackey's where are those trolls that usual follow you around?" John asked before side-stepping Malfoy.
But Malfoy had other ideas and grabbed John by the arm and pulled him around to look at him.
Ron grabbed Malfoy by the collar and pushed him away from John.
Malfoy tripped and fell into Crabbe and Goyle who had rushed over when they saw Malfoy in trouble.
"You'll regret that Weasel!" Malfoy screamed reaching for his wand.
"What is going on here?" Remus questioned looking at both Ron and Malfoy.
"Nothing sir," Malfoy replied as he stood up.
"That had better be the case, because the only dueling I ever want to see in my classroom is you all practicing your wandwork," Remus looked at Malfoy and Ron sternly before continuing, "Do I make myself clear?"
"Yes, sir," Ron said glaring at Malfoy.
Remus looked at the boys for a moment longer before walking away to watch the other students.
"You better watch yourself Weasel and you too Granger, you won't always have your knight in shining amour around to protect you."
Ron's face remained impassive as he watched Malfoy turn and walk away.
"Ron," John whispered beside him, "please let go, it hurts."
Ron blinked a few times before looking down at John.
It was only then that he realized that he was gripping onto John's wrist.
"Sorry," Ron apologized, "I hate it when he says stuff like that to you."
"Yeah, but don't worry I can handle myself," John paused before saying in a low voice, "Do you think he knows about you?"
"What do you mean?" Ron asked in confusion.
"Nothing, don't worry. We should probably get started."
"Right."
"What are you doing?" Ron asked Harry as he sat down into the seat opposite his best friend at the Gryffindor table for dinner.
Harry was hurriedly scribbling something on a piece of parchment, staring at it for a moment before continuing his writing.
"Oh, you're owl is so pretty, Harry," John said from beside Ron as he gave Hedwig a piece of his sandwich.
"What is Hedwig doing here anyway?" Ron asked reaching for a piece of apple pie.
Harry ignored Ron's question and instead continued writing.
"Here," John said placing an apple in Ron's hand before he could reach the pie.
Ron blinked at the apple for a moment before looking at John.
"And what is this strange object that you have thrust into my hand," He sniffed it before saying in a shocked voice, "Why, there's no chocolate in this strange object at all."
John rolled his eyes at Ron.
"You are so funny," he said sarcastically before explaining, "It's not healthy for you to eat too many sweets."
Ron continued to stare at John before saying sarcastically.
"Yes, mother," he then took a large bite of the apple and smiled at him.
John gave him a disgusted look and turned away.
"There, finished," Harry said triumphantly.
Ron took a large bite out of a chocolate tart that he was able to levitate above John's head and watched Harry fold the parchment and hand it to Hedwig.
"By the end of this day you will have your answer Ron," Harry smiled at him.
"What are you on about?" Ron questioned genuinely confused.
"This is a letter to Hermione Granger, in it I told her that you would like to take her to the Christmas Ball," Harry turned to look at Hedwig, "Take this to Hermione Granger."
"Wait!" Ron screamed grabbing onto Hedwig's leg before she could take off and earning him a painful bite from the owl, "I don't want you to ask her for me. I'll do it some other time."
"Why wait," with those words Harry released Hedwig and she flew out a nearby window.
Ron felt his heart hammering inside his chest and he looked over to see John was frozen in his spot, his face pale.
"John didn't you say you needed to get something from our room?" Ron questioned hastily standing up and trying to pull John up with him.
"That's odd," Neville said looking up at the ceiling, "Hedwig's back already."
Ron froze and so did John in the process of picking up his book bag.
Ron watched in horror as the snowy owl descended towards them. Just as Hedwig reached them she released the letter and it landed in John's hands but Ron instantly snatched it from him.
"Wow, a response already, thanks Hedwig."
Before Ron could make a hasty exit Harry spoke up.
"Hang on let's see what she said."
Ron feigned momentarily deafness and quickened his exit from the Great Hall.
'Merlin! Has Harry always been such an idiot?!'
Having reached the portrait of the fat lady he released a sigh of relief. He started when he realized that he was holding John by the arm and he looked out of breath. Ron didn't even realize that he had grabbed John in the first place but he seemed to be doing that a lot lately.
"Sorry," Ron apologized releasing John's hand.
John steadied his breathing before standing to look at Ron.
"Um, listen, do you," Ron paused and watched John's face intently, wishing that he could see Hermione face instead of her disguise, "Do you know if Hermione is going to be at the Christmas Ball?"
John's eyes widened and he shifted his gaze to his feet.
"I – I don't know."
A long silence engulfed them before John spoke once more.
"Would you like her too?"
Ron felt the heat rise to his face and neck.
"I would like to see her again," Ron mumbled, looking down at his own feet.
A few minutes of silence passed before either of them spoke again.
"I'd better go," Ron finally said taking a few steps back, "I've got tutoring."
Hermione watched Ron walk down the hall, leaving her standing alone in the corridor. She sighed before making her way into common room.
The common room was quite busy with students and Hermione sat down in one of the large sofa chairs, resting her head back into the cushions.
"Hi there," a voice said from behind her.
Hermione looked up and saw Dean walking over to her, she smiled back and shifted in her seat when he took a seat in the sofa chair near her.
"We haven't really had a chance to get to know each other," Dean explained, "You're muggle born right."
"Sure am," she replied relieved that he wasn't going to interrogate her but only wanted to get to know her better.
"Must be tough transferring to Hogwarts in third year," Dean said sympathetically, "How are you liking it so far?"
"It's definitely different from what I'm used to but it's great having friends for once."
"I notice your not a big fan of quidditch," Dean added moving closer to her.
"Well having seen only sports like rugby, watching people flying around on brooms and throwing who knows how many balls at each other is a bit of a shock," Hermione laughed, in fact she never watched rugby either but she'd heard enough about it from her father to feign some knowledge on the topic.
At this comment Dean's face lit up.
"I know exactly what you mean, you wouldn't believe the rough time Ron gave me when I put my football posters up on our dorm walls," Dean laughed.
"Really?" Hermione said genuinely shocked, "He doesn't seem the type to bully muggle-borns."
"No, no, he never bullied me but he's like so many pure-blood wizards, they don't really know much about muggles and usually think half the stuff we do is barmy."
Hermione laughed at this description of wizards and realized just how much she had to learn about Ronald Weasley.
Ron sighed as he watched the students walk out of the library. He wasn't sure how much more he could take, he spent so much time patrolling the school, guarding Hermione, tutoring students and doing research for Harry that there was hardly enough hours in the day for him to even stop and relax let alone finish his school work.
Ron slowly collected his belongings and exited the library. He looked down at his watch at the small 'H.G.' in the middle of the watch face, and the scrawling words 'Common Room' floating above it. He was relieved at least that Hermione was somewhere safe and around other students.
Ron rubbed his eyes wearily and yawned as he made his way up the common room. He wished he could just drop the whole tutoring thing but knew he couldn't – he had to make another delivery tonight after all.
Ron stepped into the Gryffindor common room and his eyes roamed the room for John's familiar face.
Ron froze. He felt something cold clench inside him.
John was sitting with Dean Thomas on the sofa chair and they were whispering to each other. Ron even saw John touch Dean shoulder a few times while he talked enthusiastically.
The next moment Dean was laughing and so was John as he made wild gestures with his arms. When Ron saw the smile on John's face he felt the blood drain from his face, and he gritted his teeth in anger.
John finally looked up and noticed Ron standing a few feet from them but Ron had already turned and walked up the stairs before either John or Dean could say a word.
He threw his books angrily onto his bed and paced the length of the room every now and then glaring at the curtained area of the room that belonged to Hermione.
He was exhausted, frustrated, angry and he felt like a complete idiot. All this time he had thought or at least hoped that she felt something for him in return but clearly she just saw him as a friend, the way she was acting with Dean was much more intimate than anything they'd done together.
All she did was nag him, sometimes so much so that he wanted to scream at her – it had only been his constant reminder that she was a girl that pulled him back.
Ron stopped pacing and hit his palm against his bed post.
'She would never see me as anything more than a friend.'
He gripped the bed post as a steely determination rushed over him.
'Well if she wants to be just friends, than that's what I'm going to be. I'm not going to hold back anymore just because she's a girl.'
A/N: Phew, that was intense. It took me longer than usual to edit this chapter but I know you guys understand. I hope this chapter was enjoyable even though it's missing some of humor that the previous chapters had. Thank you once again to those that leave me comments and encourage me - I can't even begin to tell you how much it means to me just to hear a few words from you guys. Please continue to support and encourage me as I write this fic.
