Chapter 11- brotherly love
Ginny arrived back at the burrow, she found Ron in the same state she had left him in. His elbows on the table, his head resting on his hands, his eyes focused on the table. Everybody was gathered around him trying to console him, she guessed that they were no closer to finding out the reason for his behaviour because they were still asking him the same questions. Nobody had even noticed that Ginny had left and came back, all focus was on Ron.
Harry had gone to make everybody a cup of tea, not that this was going to help matters but it couldn't just stand there and do nothing.
Mrs. Weasley stood up, she didn't know what she could do to help her son, she didn't even know what was wrong with him. Then she saw the flames of the fireplace turn green.
"George" she shrieked. "Ron George is here" she said, hoping that Ron would acknowledge her. He, however, stayed still. Mrs. Weasley mouthed to George to talk to him. George took apprehensible steps towards, Ron.
"Welcome back little bro." He said with a big smile on his face, inside he was secretly nervous, but he knew that he needed to act like nothing had happened.
To everybody's surprise Ron looked up. His knuckles whitened as he saw his brother's smiling face looking down at him. The stare Ron gave George was terrifying, the pupils of his eyes became so small, for a split second George thought that he saw red in Ron's eyes. He knew.
"Merlin Ron, you look like shit ." George said, he was praying that he had just imagined the look on Rons face. He knew that in order for Ron to not be suspicious he needed to act normally, so naturally cracking a joke was his only option.
How the fuck can he smile at me, the fucking bastard. Ron felt his whole body be consumed by hate and anger. He felt his blood boil within his skin. He couldn't contain it any longer, he needed to hurt George, he needed to make him feel the way he did. He jumped out of his seat.
He threw himself at George, everybody gasped in fright as they saw Ron grab George around the neck. Both men fell to the floor, Ron whole body shook with adrenaline. He just kept hitting, hitting any part of George his fist was able to make contact with. The fact that George never tried to hit him back seemed to make Ron even angrier.
Why the hell doesn't he just hit me, which would make it easier for me to kill him.
Everybody was shouting for Ron to stop. At this moment in time the world seemed to be in slow motion for Ron, all sound was muffled. All he could focus on was causing George pain.
Hermione felt the usual spinning as she travelled through the floo network, all the while thinking of Ron. She had convinced herself that there was no way Ron could have found out, she told herself that she was just being paranoid.
With a sudden thud she found herself kneeling at the foot of the mantle in the burrow. Her eye scanned the living room for the sight she was so longing to see. Ron. All she could see was an empty room, she could however hear loud shouts of Mrs. Weasley. She followed her ears into the kitchen.
"Please, stop it boys. Please" pleaded Mrs. Weasley as she continued to watch her youngest son continually hit her second youngest.
Hermione entered the room, thankful that nobody at yet registered her arrival. She felt her entire world fall around her, Ron knew. She didn't know what to do, did she just leave, runaway. Or did she build up all of her courage and face the world, face the people that she had grown to love and think of as family. Did she, could she, face Ron, the boy she had grown up with and fell so completely in love with.
She knew what she had to do, she had to risk being hated. The risk would be worth it if it stopped two brothers hating each other, it would be worth it if there was the smallest glimmer of hope that Ron would forgive her. She needed to face the consequences.
Ron kept hitting, still not satisfied that he had caused enough pain. As he pulled his clenched fist back in preparation to deal another blow to George's face when he felt the overpowering arms of Charlie wrap around his torso. Ron wouldn't give up that easily he continued to try and hit George, whilst being pulled back across the room by Charlie and now Harry.
Mr. Weasley and Bill went to George's side to make sure he wasn't too badly injured. He had two rather large black eyes already forming, his nose no longer seemed to be in the centre of his face, and his lip was cut. Mrs. Weasley was still standing in the same place, shocked by the scene she had just witnessed.
George managed to brush of the attention he was getting from his father and eldest brother, he felt like he didn't deserve it.
"Ronald Weasley, what in Merlin's name do you" Mrs. Weasleys rant was cut short as Ron stopped struggling against his older brother and Harry's arm. Mrs. Weasley looked to where her son's eyes were now focused.
Amongst the sea of red heads stood a pale faced Hermione.
"GET OUT" screamed Ron. The tone in his voice seemed to shock everyone, they had heard Ron shout at Hermione before but never before with such hate in his voice.
"Ron" said Hermione weakly.
"I said GET OUT" said Ron a tad calmer than he had earlier.
"Ron please just let me explain" her eyes were now filled with unshed tears, her voice trembled as she wrung her hands together.
"I do not want to hear anything you have to say you...you...you slag" the entire crowd gasped in horror at what Ron had just called Hermione. Ron had wanted to hurt her just like he had wanted to hurt George, he had wanted them to feel just a bit of what he was feeling.
"RONALD WEASLEY, HOW DARE YOU USE THAT SORT OF LANGUAGE INSIDE THIS HOUSE, APOLOGISE AND EXPLAIN YOURSELF" shrieked Mrs. Weasley, she seemed to be the only one who had gotten over the shock of his words.
" You want me to explain myself" Ron let out a snort " I tell you what let these two explain it" he said motioning towards Hermione and George.
"Ron, not here.." began George in a low voice
"What's a matter George, don't want everyone to know" well at least I wasn't the last to find out about this Ron thought to himself
"Please Ron" pleaded Hermione, the heartache she felt was evident in her voice
"KNOW WHAT" demanded Mrs. Weasley
"KNOW that these two" he once again motion towards Hermione and George as he began to walk his way in between the crowd "THE GIRL I loved and MY BIG BROTHER" Ron tried to form the words in his head, however part of him was telling himself not to say it because that would mean it was actually real, as if saying it aloud just confirmed what he had seen earlier with his own eyes
"These two what Ron" asked Mrs. Weasley, the volume in her voice now turned down
"These two have been...been...been sleeping together."
The entire room fell silent, some eyes drifted to Hermione, others to George. None however fell on Ron who had taken this as his chance to leave, he didn't want to be in the same room as any of them at this particular moment in time.
Ron hastily made his way up to his old attic room. His hand gripped the familiar doorknob, upon turning it he found that his room was in complete darkness. He raised his wand and the room filled with light. He soon realised that the room was no longer in the state he had left it, all of his beloved posters were either ripped completely off of the walls or they were barely hanging on.
He looked around at mess that was once his bedroom, something told him that Hermione had done as some form of punishment for him or as some sort of emotional outburst on her part.
As Ron walked around his room his eyes fell to the photograph that lay neglected and broken on the floor. Slowly he made his way towards it. He then cautiously reached out to pick up the photo that meant the world to him.
He slowly ran his fingers across the shattered glass, noting how similar it looked to how his heart felt. Broken. He looked at the faces that stared up at him, so different from the faces that surrounded him today. Faces that were not marred by war, faces that hadn't felt the effects of loss. Faces that were full of hope, joy and pure happiness.
As he traced the shapes of the people in the photograph he eye fell upon the warm pair of chocolate brown ones that always seemed to look straight through him, even from a photograph. These were the eyes that he fell in love with, eyes that sparkled with confidence, intelligence and at a time love for him.
Suddenly Ron felt a stinging pain coming from his finger, he looked down and saw a dark crimson flow of blood across his finger as well as the photo.
The silence in the burrow scared Hermione immensely, for never in all her years of visiting here had she seen the burrow so quiet. It was the type of silence that could make you go insane, the type of silence that she had come to fear when in the presence of the Weasleys.
"Mum" whispered George effectively breaking the silence.
Mrs. Weasley did not reply, instead she held her hand up to him, shaking her head in a way that told him to stop talking.
Mr. Weasley walked towards his wife and put his arm around her, ushering her towards one of the kitchen table chairs.
"Bill would you please go and check on your brother, he's being awfully silent up there which is never a good thing." Asked Mr. Weasley.
Bill nodded, on his way towards the stair he turned around at looked at both Hermione and George, at look that showed Hermione that he was a disappointed in her as everyone else was, herself included.
No one knew what to do or want to say in a situation like this, they all stood around the kitchen table waiting for directions on what to do next.
"I think it's best if you leave." Said Mr. Weasley, his eyes drifted between George and Hermione. "Just until this has settled in a bit."
Hermione felt her unstable heart break just a little more, she never thought the day would come when she would be dismissed and unwelcome at the burrow.
Knowing in was probably for the best she turned and exited the house. Hoping that somehow, someday she would be welcome again, not only at the burrow but also in Ron's heart. She made her way towards the edge of the pond in the garden.
Ron heard footsteps making their way up the stairs towards his room. He hoped that it wasn't Hermione, he was still to hurt and confused to deal with her at the moment. Ron then heard the familiar sound of the old door creek open, in the doorway stood bill.
"Mind if I sit with you."
Ron merely shrugged.
"Just wondered what you were doing up here, we got a bit scared when we never heard anything" said bill trying to add some humour to the hostile environment surrounding him.
"I always was the most worthless Weasley wasn't I" said a defeated Ron
"Don't start this again Ron"
"Well I am, I'm not good looking like you. Adventurous like Charlie, smart like Percy, funny like George, female like Ginny"
"No you're not, you're not one of those things. You're all of them, well minus the female part of course"
"Whatever, I'll always be just Ron, lanky, hot tempered and sidekick Ron. Do you know what the worst part is? I was started to believe that that was ok because even if I was just those things it didn't matter because I had Hermione, but now I don't I feel just as worthless as I used to"
Bill hated seeing his youngest brother this. He just wanted to shake him until he saw sense.
"I'll admit that you are to an extent all of those things but even if you are I am still jealous of you"
"Don't patronize me bill, I'm not in the mood right now"
"It's true. You're the bravest of all of us. You have fought in a war that saw the defeat of the darkest wizard of all time"
"You did as well, we all did. It doesn't make me special"
"True but WE didn't decide to start fighting it at the age of eleven, sure I had friends at the age of eleven but I don't think I would have been brave enough to fight for their lives at that age."
"Well your friends weren't Harry potter" chuckled Ron
"Exactly, you knew who you were becoming best friends with, you knew what that could involve but you still did it, you were still the best friend anyone could hope for. That reason alone makes you braver than any of us"
"We were all in Gryffindor bill, I just had more chances to show my bravery"
"And you showed it more than any of us would if we were in your situation. You say that you're none of the things we are well that's a load of shit because you are. You just do it in your own unique way a way that is solely yours and no one else's. I can honestly say that out of all of my brothers and Ginny that you are the one I'm most jealous of and if you ask the others and they truthfully answer they'll say the exact same thing. So you may be jealous of your five siblings but your five siblings are jealous of you. I mean come on do you know how lucky you are, to find a friend like Harry, to be seen as a hero by so many people, to find your soul mate at 11"
"Yeah well, that may have been true awhile ago but what do I have now. Nothing that's the answer. She obviously wasn't my soul mate and obviously doesn't feel the same way I did "
"Have you asked her. Sure you might not want to talk to her now and what she did was terrible but have you tried to find out why. I'm not saying that this is entirely your fault but you're not exactly completely blameless in this."
"I know, that's partly why I'm so angry. I'm angry because I still love her, I'm angry because I left, if I didn't this might not have happened. I'm also angry because I don't know if I can forgive her, I'm more angry because I want to.
"well why don't you get up all of that Gryffindor bravery we are soooo jealous of" laughed bill "and go and see if you can save what you two have. I know it seems like it's not worth it but I've seen you two and believe me it is."
"Thanks" Ron said with a blush brushing his cheeks
"I didn't do anything"
"You did, your were being my big brother and I can't thank you enough for it"
"There's no need to thank me, it's my job and I actually enjoy it. You all might be pain in the arses sometimes but I wouldn't change any of you."
"Well I don't suppose you could go beyond your call of duty as my big brother and fix my heart for me because I don't think I can handle it"
"No you have to do it all on your own, sorry Ronnie"
"Ok, well I suppose there's no time like the present is there" said Ron as he picked himself off of the floor "Bill what do I do if she says she doesn't love me anymore"
"That won't happen Ron"
Ron didn't know if bill was telling him the truth about what he had said earlier or whether bill really believed what he was saying but somehow in that small sentence Ron believed with his whole heart that bill had meant it when he said that it would never happen. It was this that gave him the extra push he needed to walk out of his room and through the burrow kitchen in search of Hermione. When he couldn't see her there he decided that she must have left so he went out looking for her, ignoring the pleads from his family to talk.
That's when he saw her sitting at the edge of the pond, the spot that ironically he often found himself or other members of the Weasley family sitting when they had something on their minds or needed to be free from the worries of everything else.
The stood there watching her for a few moments, mesmerised by the way the bushy hair would move in the light breeze. He knew that no matter how hard it would be or how long it would take he couldn't let her walk out of his life.
"Hermione"
A:N well guys only 1 more chapter left. Don't forget to review.
