"Did you finally talk to her?" asked Lavender as she attached herself to Ron, looping her arm through his and pressing against his side, Ginny doing the same to Harry,

Ron glanced at his fiancée and felt the tension in his body give away a little as he felt her soothing presence next to him. Lavender Brown had a talent in relaxing him, no matter the situation, and it was one of the things that made him fall in love with her.

"Yes, love, we talked." he agreed, but didn't elaborate.

Ginny hummed and tangled her fingers with Harry's, tenderly squeezing his hand. "How did she react?" she inquired. Even though she disliked Hermione, mainly for hanging around men who belonged to other witches, like a scarlet woman, she was curious.

"She was angry," frowned Ron. "I don't quite understand it though. She seemed fine before I called her on acting far too unconcerned about the situation."

Harry stared at his best mate like he was an idiot. "You're such a git," he scowled. "Yes, she was angry, but she was also hurt," he regretfully murmured. He would never forget the quiet resignation in Hermione's eyes as they walked up to her, or the glint of hurt reflecting in her honey coloured orbs when she got her answer to her question. "We've hurt her, Ron."

Ginny's eyes snapped to Harry's, her lips curling into a snarl at the visible sorrow shimmering in his emerald eyes. "You're not changing your mind, are you?" she sharply asked. "We've talked about this. Hermione has no business hanging around you two. You no longer need someone to nag you about homework or some such nonsense when you have Lav and me to take care of you," she declared. "You can find much better uses of your time, like playing Quidditch with Seamus and Dean, helping Georgie in the shop, and of course, going out clubbing and painting the town red. It's perfect that the four of us get on so well together. We can spend even more time together now. Don't you want that?" she asked, her voice almost pleading with him to understand.

On some level, Ginny was afraid that if she failed to get Harry to see things her away, he would slowly grow to resent her, and eventually attempt to fix things with the bookworm, and that was simply unthinkable to her. She worked so hard to talk Harry down from spending time with Hermione.

Ginevra Weasley felt positively giddy when Harry had first agreed to consider ending his friendship with Hermione, and made sure to dote on her boyfriend and cater to his needs in every shape or form to keep both his mind and body properly distracted from making a well thought out decision. The redhead needed Harry to give in to his instincts over his bleeding heart.

Harry narrowed his eyes at his witch angrily, but when Ginny tenderly ran her fingertips across his shoulder blades, he instantly deflated.

Harry Potter could never seem to stay angry with Ginny Weasley for more than a few instances. She only needed to touch him to make him complacent, and he was well aware of that, but he felt powerless to do anything about it. He rather liked the advantages of a happy Ginny, so he always made sure to satisfy her on every level.

Unfortunately that meant that his friendship with Hermione Granger had to go, and even though he agonized over it for months, even though he felt completely and utterly heartbroken about it, he had already made his choice when he got involved with Ginny and the Weasley family had accepted him into their fold.

For an orphan boy who had always longed for the warmth of family, the Weasleys were a ray of blinding sunshine and nothing and no one could ever replace that. No matter how hard this decision was, he made it, and now he had to learn to live with the consequences.

Harry Potter had to learn to live without the one person who was always there for him, who never doubted him, who kept him safe and encouraged him. He had to learn to live without the person who never judged him.

Hermione may have questioned some of his decisions, and they went toe-to-toe on a number of occasions, but she always stayed true to him, and now he was abandoning her.

It was a hard pill to swallow, but swallow he did. He viciously pushed his guilty conscious away and squared his shoulders. "No, I'm not changing my mind," he said in a gruff voice. "I'm merely saying that we hurt Hermione. That's all."

Ron stared at Harry, his expression carefully blank as he studied him. He knew that what Ginny and Lav asked of them was particularly difficult for his best mate. If Ron was honest with himself, however, he wasn't entirely against cutting contact with Hermione. He felt like she was more of a nag than a friend, and even though he did feel something for her, he knew that he could live without her company.

"Right," he conceded Harry's point. "It doesn't matter though, and you should make the effort to avoid thinking about it," he sighed. "You've got us, what more do you need?" he grinned.

Ron Weasley knew that he wasn't fair, and that their witches were playing dirty, but he found it hard to care when he was so deliriously happy with his lot in life.

So they ended a childhood friendship, so what? It wasn't like Hermione Granger was irreplaceable. He reckoned that they could find any number of people to fill her place among them, even though he selfishly thought they didn't need anyone new.

He was quite content being Harry Potter's sole best mate, thank you very much.

Harry smiled at Ron and nodded. "Alright then, let's go and have a drink at The Leaky," he decided, and steered his chosen family towards the pub. Hopefully their company, and a few Butterbeers would take the ache away.

The couples have spent a pleasant afternoon at The Leaky Cauldron, having drinks, sharing jokes, and stealing kisses from their respective partners.

Lavender smiled, her heart filled with light. She had a wonderful and attractive boyfriend who worshipped her, a beautiful best friend she could scheme and gossip with, and the Saviour of the Wizarding World to raise her social standing.

All was well in the world if you asked her...

A/N: A look at the other side. Harry is regretful, yet he chose his side, Ginny is territorial, Lavender is simply in love, and Ron is just happy.

This chapter is without Hermione, but I believe I might have another chapter or two in me for this story, if you guys would like me to continue. I can also see this end right here, though.

Thank you for reading!