MC4A; Hogwarts
Stacked With: Hogwarts
Individual Challenges: In a Flash; Click Bait It; Yellow Ribbon; Yellow Ribbon Redux; Gryffindor MC (x3);
Prompts: Hermione/Neville (auction); Bridge (365 words); Ron Weasley (Insane Prompts)
Word count: 546
"Hey." The voice is soft, but she still jumps.
Hermione needlessly wipes her dry eyes and looks up at Ron. "Hey," she answers.
"I feel like it's my fault that you're up here not crying," he says. "Plus, Ginny kicked me out of the Tower until I come talk to you."
Hermione laughs and gestures for him to sit. He does so, crossing his legs and sinking down next to the girl he used to hate and now has a crush on. That was the problem, he knew. For a few moments, they simply sit in silence and stare out through the gaps in the bridge that led from Hogwarts to Hogsmeade.
"I'm okay," Hermione says after the silence has stretched too long.
"Are you?" he asks. "You're pulling yourself in three different directions, Hermione. And that's without counting the school work you pile on yourself."
She sniffs, the wetness that had been absent starting to pool in her eyes now that the subject has been brought to light. "It's what expected, isn't it? Me with you or Harry."
Ron shrugs. "People expect a lot of things. Mum expects me to do as well as my brothers—apart from Fred and George of course, she thinks they're throwing their lives away. But that's just another expectation of hers and they're not meeting it. Harry's expected to save the world and he's just a teenager like us. He'll try, but not because it's expected. He'll do it because he can't stand not doing it."
"This isn't about saving the world, Ron."
"Which means the expectations should carry less weight, yeah?"
Hermione thinks about his words and has to agree with the logic in them. "Still…" she trails off, unsure of what her counter argument was.
Ron shifts and puts a comforting arm around her shoulders. "I know you know I have a crush on you," he starts," but I also know that you don't return it. I don't care. Sure, it would be nice if you did, but I don't care that you don't. I don't expect you to return my feelings just because I have them.
"Hermione, you like Neville, and he likes you from what I can tell. Who cares what the rest of the world thinks you should do? If it makes you happy, I say go for it."
Hermione leans into the warmth of her friend. "Who said you have the emotional range of a teaspoon?" she asks with a laugh.
"You did." Ron grins as he holds his friend tighter. She wasn't for him, he knew that, but she would still be in his life and eventually he'd find someone else to crush on.
"I was wrong," she says.
"Nah, you were right. I've just recently graduated from a teaspoon to a tablespoon."
The fragile atmosphere is broken as they both dissolve into giggles. When Ginny comes out to check that her brother hasn't messed it all up, she finds the two laying on their backs and clutching their bellies as they laugh. She smiles and head back to the tower, now she had to convince Neville it was okay for him to make his feelings for Hermione known. She deviates to the Quidditch Pitch where Harry was practicing, she'd need him.