I know the wait is kind of long, sorry about that. I'm actually working on another story at the same time. Please bear with me. I love you guys! Enjoy! - Kelly
Disclaimer: All Harry Potter characters, settings, and book-related plots belong to J.K. Rowling.
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Repeat
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Harry Potter hated feeling sorry for himself. He was sad, depressed, lonely and he absolutely hated it. Sometimes he felt like he was punishing himself for Ginny's mistake. All he ever wanted was to be happy with her, why did that seem like such an impossibility? In addition to his continuous bad mood and raging hormones, he didn't have anybody to talk to, or share his feelings with. But then again he was used to this, after suffering, er, living with the Dursley's for all his life.
As the cool September air rushed through him, he thought about how much his life had change over the past few weeks. He sat quietly in front of the modest and humble house he shared with the people whom he was closest with. Or so he thought.
Harry couldn't remember the last time he had a real conversation with Ron, his best mate. Now that he and Hermione were together, they would usually keep to themselves. Sometimes they'd go out together, leaving him and Ginny home together, awkwardly. But he couldn't blame them, he never could. Ever since they were in Hogwarts, Harry always saw the chemistry between his best friends. He was more than glad that they finally found their feelings for one another. He just hated the bad timing. He wished that the four of them could be happy together.
He knew he was being pathetic right now, being all anti social and depressing. But he couldn't help the feeling of this heavy ache eating through his heart. He was starting to get better, or at least he thought he did. He agreed to help Ginny with her training- he agreed to it! But he didn't realize how distracting she might be. The long strands of her crimson hair, the hourglass shape of her attractive body, the heavenly vanilla scent...
The front door of the house opened behind Harry, and he didn't bother to turn around. His mind was too preoccupied anyway. He felt the door close, and light footsteps coming closer to him. A part of him hoped that it wasn't Ginny, he was sure that his face would turn a couple shades of red. And he wasn't ready for that type of embarrassment- not now.
Fortunately, Hermione Granger took a seat next to Harry on the cool stoned steps. She smiled at him and pulled her light sweater closer to her body as a rush of wind passed by. "I used to sit out with my father on autumn evenings like this," She spoke aloud, "We used to play card games together while my mum made tea."
She looked over at Harry, who was listening, but didn't say anything back. She noticed the pained and confused look on his face. "Harry?" She placed an arm around his broad shoulders, "We should talk..." Hermione attempted to get a better look at his face, but he kept his gaze straight ahead. Taking in the far view of mountains that were probably thousands of miles away.
"If you want to talk about Ginny, I'm not interested," he remarked, and leaned closer to her, accepting her embrace. Hermione was always like the sister that he never had. She was the only person that he could be completely honest and comfortable with. He could tell her anything.
The young woman hesitated for a moment, but replied anyway, in a shaky voice, "Harry, she really loves you. She always has," Hermione watched as Harry continued staring into the distance, "At first, when she was younger, she loved you because you were a celebrity. Do you remember?" Hermione let out a little chuckle, "She was your number one fan... But then she realized that you probably wouldn't like her if she was an obsessed fan girl. So she changed, for you," She watched as Harry's face softened at past memories, "And that's when you started liking her. And when you guys were together, back in our sixth year, you both were so happy. She loved you so much, and you loved her back."
Harry stood quiet, but this time he turned to look at Hermione's face. She wore a soft smile, and his eyes were red. He loved Hermione for caring so much, but hated that she brought back memories that made him weak.
Inhaling the strong scent of pine trees, she resumed, "I'm not saying that you should forgive her for what she did, because even I didn't agree with it. What she did was stupid, foolish, and very unfaithful... But she's trying, she's really trying to make things better."
He broke away from Hermione's embrace, and furiously ran a hand through his messy dark hair. He then exhaled deeply and watched a cloud of cold smoke leave his mouth. "I want to," He spoke quietly, "But I don't know how. Every time I see her... I see him. I see them together. I dream about it at night. Sometimes I dream about killing him."
Hermione reached a hand out to him but he shrugged it off quickly and stood up from the stone steps. His voice got deeper, "Hermione... I don't know what to do anymore. I gave her everything... apparently that wasn't enough. She hurt me so bad, but I still love her so much."
Tears streamed down her eyes silently as she watched Harry struggle with his words. She remembered how bad she felt when Ron was with Lavender. She felt so hurt and betrayed. But this was different, and she could only imagine how much Harry must be hurting. She didn't know what to say anymore. Hermione didn't know what she could possibly say to make this situation any better.
"Hermione, I think I have to leave," He said, moments later.
"What?"
He gulped loudly, "It's for the best, I think. I reckon I've worn out my welcome, and it's time for me to move on." He stared off into the distance again, avoiding Hermione's confused gaze.
"B-but where will you go?" She gaped.
He shrugged his shoulders, "I'dunno."
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Ginny Weasley laid face up on her messy bed, and stared at the blank ceiling intently. She wasn't tired, and it wasn't bed time, yet she found her self warm and comfortable in her bed. She would have went outside, but she saw Harry out there through the window and decided against it. He was already training her, she didn't want to push the new budding relationship.
"Gin?"
Startled, she looked sideways at the door and noticed her older brother entering her room. She sat up straight and ruffled through her red hair, "What's up?"
Ron took a deep breath and said on the edge of the bed, "I think we should talk."
Ginny rolled her eyes and laid back down on the bed, "If it's about Harry, I'm not interested." She took a pillow and covered her face with it. She was honestly not in the mood to talk to her older brother about her relationship problems. Especially since he was having the best of luck with his.
She wasn't exactly jealous of his relationship with Hermione. How could she be? It's her brother and her best friend. Two people that had been destined to be together for years.
Ron grabbed the pillow and lowered his eyes to hers, "Can you please just tell me what happened between you too? I think you've kept me in the dark long enough. I feel like everyone knows this big secret, everyone except me. Harry won't tell me, Hermione won't tell me..."
Sitting up on the bed again, Ginny inhaled deeply, "If I tell you, you'll get really mad."
"Try me."
She looked down, and her cheeks flushed, "I did something. Really bad. Something unforgivable." This wasn't going to be an easy conversation. How could a girl tell her big brother that she had sex with her ex boyfriend? How could any girl tell that to their brother?
Ron stood quiet, and watched as a single tear flew down her eye and she didn't bother to wipe it. He racked his brain; thinking of all the possibilities that could have happened... Wondering what his baby sister did to hurt his best mate so bad.
With more tears flowing down her face, she continued, "While you guys were away... I made a mistake... with Dean," Ginny hung her head down in shame, as the news registered in the young man's head. After a few moments, she lifted her head, and watched as Ron's facial expression changed, and he stood off the bed. He rubbed his hand over his face, and rested it over his mouth, in shock.
"H-how? How could this happen?"
Ginny's voice was almost inaudible and she cried more and more, "P-please Ron, please don't think any differently of me..." she covered her face with pale hands, and he could tell that she was suffering. He had never seen his sister like this before.
Ron walked closer to the bed again, still in a state of shock. He sat near her, and placed an arm around her lovingly. She sobbed into his broad shoulder quietly, and he rubbed the back of her smooth hair.
"You're my baby sister, I could never think differently of you."
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Knock, knock, knock.
Hermione opened her bedroom door to reveal Ronald Weasley on the other side. He was wearing a soft smile on his face with a worried expression. "Can I come in?"
She moved aside, "Of course you can."
"Was I interrupting something?" he asked, noticing the preoccupied look on Hermione's face. Her room was exceptionally clean, like always, and he noticed that his former Chudley Cannon's blanket was no longer hiding under a pillow. Instead it was spread out proudly over the neatly made bed.
"Oh, no. I was just packing my stuff for our weekend in Romania," she claimed, gesturing toward an opened bag of clothes on her dresser. He made a mental note in his head that he would have to do the same.
"So," he sat on the bed comfortably, "I talked to Ginny today."
Hermione stood standing near him, "Oh?"
"Yeah, she told me about what happened... with her and Dean," Ron started, he looked down and back up at Hermione, "I had no idea that it was that bad. I knew her and Harry were going through something... but I didn't know it was this bad. I figured it was just a little fight, something that they would get over soon."
"Talking about Harry, I actually had an interesting conversation with him today," Hermione explained, "He still loves Ginny, a lot. But he also feels really hurt. And he believes that his best option is to leave. He wants to move out." Her voice was a little shaky as she remembered her earlier conversation with Harry. She watched as Ron's expression didn't change, "Your not surprised, are you?"
He shook his head, "I knew it would happen eventually."
"Would you go with him?" She asked, taking a seat with him on the bed. She wasn't really offering that he should go with him. Her voice was a little more worried, as if she was scared that he would go with him.
He held her hand in his, "He's my best mate, and I'd love to move somewhere with him. I've shared a room with him almost half my life, and I've never complained. But things are different now... I have you now. And I don't want to leave you." He leaned over and kissed Hermione fully on the lips. She held the back of his neck lightly as he kissed with more enthusiasm.
She broke away with a bittersweet look on her face, "As much as I love you, I also love Harry. He's like my brother, and I wouldn't want him to be alone. We have to try to change his mind. I want him to stay. And I think the best thing is for him to stay."
Ron inhaled deeply, "Look, Hermione. Let's not worry about this right now, okay?" He held her face in his warm hands, "Let's get through this weekend in Romania, enjoy ourselves, and worry about everything else afterward. I know Harry, he won't do anything irrational, yet."
Hermione smiled, and reached to peck him on the lips once more, "You're right." She got up and walked over to the opened bag on her neat dresser. Ron got up and started to circle the room, noticing various items, studying a few pictures plastered on a wall.
Ron came across the curly haired witch's vanity table and noticed the various different colors of lipsticks, eye shadows, and other makeups. He wondered when Hermione ever worn makeup. She always looked the same to him. "Hermione," he called, "Why do you have four of the same perfumes?" He grabbed two bottles off the table and noticed that one was completely full and one was half way.
Smiling broadly, she turned to him again, "Because, that's the only thing you buy me for my birthday every year," she watched as Ron turned pale, "Oh, but I love it," she walked closer to him, "I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world," she reached up and kissed him softly on the lips.
"It does smell good, doesn't it?"
Hermione smiled, "Oh Ronald, stop distracting me from my packing." Grinning, he placed the perfumes back and resumed to laying down lazily on the soft bed. He watched as she worked quietly, folding each piece of clothing neatly and evenly. Pairing each sock with it's other half and including other items like soap, shampoo, etc.
"I wonder if I need to bring any books," She asked a loud, turning to the small bookshelf in her room. It was a small wooden table with stacks of books piled neatly under it. Hermione had her own collection of timeless muggle novels as well as her books from Hogwarts.
Ron chuckled from the bed, "Yeah, sure. You'll definitely have some spare reading time during two days in Romania. Seriously Hermione, it's only two days!"
"You never know," She explained, coming back to the bed with a high stack of books. She set them down and read each title thoroughly, "Ancient Runes... Transfiguration Spells... Hogwarts, A History... Advanced Potion-Making..." as she picked up the last book, it slipped out her hands and fell to the floor.
As she bent down to pick the potions book up, she noticed that it fell opened on a random page. As Hermione got closer, she read the title of the page, and grabbed it immediately. "Ron, Ron! You have to see this!" She was holding the book in her hands, and staring at the page it opened to. Ron sat up on the bed and got closer to where Hermione stood.
"What is it?" He asked, his eyebrows were ruffled in the center of his forehead and his voice was panicked.
Hermione started reciting the words on the yellowing pages, "Ingredients for Polyjuice Potion: Twelve lacewing flies that had been stewed for twenty one days, an ounce of crude Antimony, four leeches that have been unsucculated, sixteen scruples of fluxweed-"
"-Wait a minute! This is what we heard... with Wilson?" Ron exclaimed, "But a Polyjuice Potion? Why would he need that?" He looked back up at Hermione with a facial expression somewhere between disgust and confusion.
"You don't think..?" Hermione questioned, looking up at him. He shrugged his shoulders, but his eyes were still wide with shock. "It couldn't be... definitely not..."
Ron gulped, "You never know. Why else would he need those ingredients? It doesn't really sound like something you'd put in a soup! It can't be mistaken for anything else. Let's be rational, Hermione."
Slamming the book shut, Hermione placed it back on the wooden shelf, "Look Ron, I'm not going to jump to any conclusions. The days of Voldemort and his loyal Death Eaters are over! Wilson is just a regular wizard like you and I. He's just a regular wizard with a regular job, nothing else. We had to have mistaken it for something else, we had to..."
"What else could we have possibly mistaken it for? He was reciting the same exact ingredients in the same exact order. How can you mistaken that?" His face was getting red, not from embarrassment, but from frustration. He was trying to get his point across, yet Hermione kept shooting him down. Why couldn't he be right for once?
"Ron, I understand what you're trying to say, but I highly doubt that Wilson is involved with dark magic. He's just some stuck up, rich, annoying snob that works in the Ministry. There's nothing special about him." She crossed her arms over her chest and tapped her foot lightly on the carpeted floor. She felt completely right in her mind. No doubt about it. It had to be a coincidence, a very strong coincidence.
Rolling his eyes, Ron through his arms in the air angrily, "Hermione, the proof is right here," he claimed, gesturing toward the book, and squinted his eyes, "Why are you protecting him? Why are you taking his side?"
Hermione lowered her eyes at him and now placed her hands on her slender hips, "If you don't remember Ronald, we took the poly juice potion a number of times in the past few years. And it has never been for evil purposes. I'm not protecting anyone, I'm just being logical."
Shaking his head, Ron walked to the door of the bedroom and placed his hand on the round doorknob, "That's great Hermione, but sometimes you have to go with your heart and use common sense. I love you and all, but sometimes your judgment on others is too nice. Just remember, Voldemort wasn't the only evil wizard." With that, he turned the doorknob and opened the door widely, leaving the room with Hermione still in it, more puzzled than ever.
