The Lavender Issue
AN: I don't own the characters, just the scene.
Summary: Ron and Hermione have an argument over The Lavender Issue. Both red in the face, things head in a different direction and things get a little steamy.
"Did you put the freezing charm or full body bind charm for number 9 on the test?" Ron asked Hermione as they exited the Charms classroom and headed down the corridor.
"How could you mix those up? Number 9 was clearly talking about the freezing charm." Hermione said as she hoisted her bag on to her shoulder. She picked up her speed a little, trying to distance herself from Ron. They weren't really on speaking terms at the moment due to "The Lavender Issue."
"Blast! I think I put the full body bind." Ron said widening his steps to keep up with her. "How about for number 15? What did you put for number 15? I thought it was the supersensory charm."
But before Hermione could speak, a shout of "Won-Won" reverberated down the hall.
"Oh bloody hell!" Ron exclaimed, glancing around for a quick exit. He noticed an open door to a classroom, grabbed Hermione's arm and pulled them both inside. He closed the door quickly but quietly, hoping no one would notice. He tried to look out the frosted glass to see if anyone had seen their disappearance.
"Hey!" Hermione shouted turning on him. Her bag slipped from her arm and she made an attempt to pull it back up. "What do you think you are doing?"
"Hiding," he replied turning to look at her. He threw his bag by the side of the door nonchalantly. Hermione glared at him as her temper increased.
She didn't want anything to do with him and Lavender. Thus, the reason for the issue. Just the mention of the two of them made her mad, and deep down, sad. After all the hints and implications this summer between the two of them. After all the moments where she was sure there had been sparks. After all the hints she had thought she have been dropping and all the looks of longing she had been giving him, Ron had not asked her out. She was sure he had felt something too.
She had told herself that maybe he would ask her when they got back to school. Maybe being at home with his large family, made it hard for him. She knew that he felt overshadowed and like he wasn't good enough a lot of the time when he was around his successful brothers. But they had returned to school and friends they still were. A few weeks into the term, she had been getting up the courage to do the asking herself. But then Quidditch got in the way and Harry played that trick with the Felix Felicis and before she could realize what had happened, he was dating Lavender Brown.
She had been crushed when she had seen them together, kissing, in the common room. She had rushed off and tried to hide but Harry had come to check on her. Ron and Lavender, looking for a more secluded spot, had come across her and Harry too. When she had seen them holding hands and kissing, she had lost it. Her tears had still been falling but her emotion had turned to anger. How could he? How could he do this to her? How could he not have realized? How could he be so dense?
Now here she was, in an identical classroom with him, hiding from said girlfriend, because he didn't want to be going with her anymore but was too chicken to tell her. Her glare deepened. "Avoiding your girlfriend, are you? Things not going well?" she replied bitingly. She held on to the strap of her bag with both hands, keeping it up on her shoulder.
Ron was looking directly at her now. She stood near the middle of the room. Her voice was full of malice and hatred. It raised his hackles. He took a step toward her. "Well I don't see how it's any of your business."
Hermione scoffed, her laugh thick with distaste. "Oh come on," she said with rolled eyes. "You made it all of Gryffindor Tower's business with your public displays of sliming, I mean, affection." Her brown eyes were dark. Her heart was beating fast as the adrenaline, caused by her anger, pumped through her.
Ron flinched slightly at that mention of the very public displays of his and Lavender's relationship that had occurred since they had got together. He knew it wasn't right but he had been caught up in the emotions, in the wild feelings and the heat that had coursed through him. Months later, the fire had dimmed to cool ashes. Sure, he wasn't really that into her anymore but the way Hermione was acting had put him on guard. He could tell she was angry and that was raising his temper.
"We're just having a bit of fun like Ginny and Dean. What's the big deal?" he replied taking another step toward her, bringing himself within a couple feet of her. His attitude was haughty and he was sneering at her. His face was turning redder as his emotion took over.
Hermione could feel power coming off of Ron. She knew she was riling him up. But she couldn't seem to stop. She had been holding on to the pain for so many months. She wanted him to feel pain too. "Ginny would call you a hypocrite after the way you told her off for her PDAs with Dean."
"It's none of her business!" He yelled, taking another stomping like step toward her. They were close now, so close they could see themselves reflected in each other's eyes. Hermione glanced into his blue eyes and saw that they had deepened in color.
Hermione felt herself shiver slightly at the intensity with which Ron was looking at her. She made herself roll her eyes to stop herself from staring. "But as I just said, you made it everyone's business. If you don't want me involved, then don't go dragging me into it." She said, her teeth clenching. She took a step to the side, trying to maneuver herself around the tall red head, and head for the door. Ron stopped her.
"I didn't drag you into it." He said, his jaw tight as well.
Hermione laughed darkly. "What do you call tossing me into this room with you?" she asked, taking a step back from him. Ron did not answer but his ears were red. "If you don't want to be with her anymore, then just tell her."
"I never said that!" Ron shot back as he took another step toward her.
"Well it sure is implied. You're avoiding her. You have been for like the last month." She replied. She could almost feel his breath on her. She glanced behind her as she took another step back. She was nearing the wall on the other side of the classroom. She looked back at Ron. She sensed his anger rise another notch. She wasn't sure they had ever had a fight this intense before.
Ron's nostrils flared. "You know nothing about it." He spoke through gritted teeth. Little Miss Know-it-all, thinking she knows everything. He thought to himself as he took another step closer to her. Deep down he loved that about her but right now her attitude and arrogance was getting to him.
Hermione let out a cackle like laugh. "Have you bloody forgotten that I share a dorm with her?" she yelled at him.
Ron staggered for second when Hermione swore. She never swore. This threw him off a bit. But only a bit. "Yeah well," he started, his annoyance fostering his anger again. He could see outrage in her eyes. "You don't know everything. Even if you think you do."
"I know more than you seem to." She retorted, her cheeks pink and flush. She could feel that her temperature had risen. Her blood was boiling. He could be such an arrogant ass sometimes. "You are stringing her along. You are just causing her more pain."
Ron caught a flash of pain in her eyes before she hid it with a glare at him. He wondered for a second what it was about but then joined right back in on the fight. "How do you know? You aren't her." He replied. "She likes being with me."
"But do you like being with her?" Hermione found herself saying, her voice not nearly as enraged as it had been a moment before. Her heart had gotten through the barrier of rage. Deep down she had wondered those words for months. Deep down part of her prayed he would say no. She took a deep breath and made herself stand up taller. She put her scowl back on him.
"That's not the point." Ron replied stepping a few inches closer. Hermione's back was almost to the wall. "She's happy. It doesn't matter about me." A look of hatred appeared on his face.
"What do you mean it doesn't matter? Of course it matters." Hermione replied, her bag falling from her shoulder and landing on the floor next to her. Her anger was slipping, the furry was dissipating. She tried to hold on to it. She would not let him win. She would not let him make her cry again.
"It's not about me." Ron replied again as he looked down at her. His eyes were boring into her. She looked away for a moment as she pulled at the ebbing rage.
"Answer the question Ron!" She shouted at him.
Ron snarled. "No all right. I don't want to be with her anymore but it doesn't matter." He yelled at her as he looked up. "It's not like I can be with who I want anyway. I'm not good enough for her. She doesn't want me." He could feel the essence of his heart spreading throughout his body and washing away some of the anger, replacing it with despair and anguish.
"Why not? How do you know?" Hermione found herself saying. Her voice was no longer filled with anger but a kind of hurt and curiosity.
Ron's head zipped around. He looked at her for a moment as she searched him with her chocolate eyes. "Bloody hell Hermione! Because it's you!" He bellowed passionately. Before another second could pass, before the words could completely sink in, he pushed her forcefully against the wall and kissed her hard on the lips. Hermione gasped as their lips touched but Ron swallowed it by kissing her deeper, almost like her was going to devour her.
Hermione found herself grasping on to the front of his uniform sweater with both hands, holding on as if for dear life. She didn't need more than a split second before she, too, was kissing him back with a passion she had never felt before. Her heart was racing, an urge deep in her stomach wanted to be closer. She slid a hand up around his neck and pulled him deeper into the kiss as their mouths opened to each other.
Ron made a faint growl deep in his throat as he grabbed at her waist. He roughly shoved his hands up from her waist up, pulling her shirt loose of her skirt. As his hand brushed her heated skin, she felt a fire streak through her veins and she kissed him deeper, holding him tightly with one arm and digging her fingers into his fiery orange hair. He lifted her off the ground a little and pushed her against the wall. She could feel a patch of his woolen sweater rubbing against her clammy skin, just above her belly button. She felt the need, the want, the urge to wrap her legs around him. She brought one leg up to do just that and he grabbed her thigh with his left hand and held it there. He held tight and his fingers burned into Hermione's skin. His other hand was at the nape of her neck, digging into her bushy hair. His lips were devouring, parting, taking hers.
Thoughts were lost to the both of them. This was about passion and need. They touched and they grasped and they tasted each other for what could have been hours.
A moan of desire escaped Hermione's lips as Ron slid his hand along her thigh, moving her skirt up to cup her rear. Hermione felt a throb deep inside her, a yearning for more. She pulled at his hair and he bit her lip. She moaned again.
Who knew kissing could be like this? All that practice with Lavender has made him really good at this. Hermione found her brain finally able to break through wanton need that had enveloped her. And then the spell was broken. No matter how much she loved him, how much she wanted him, or how good this felt, she couldn't keep it up. He was dating her friend. He was not hers to have.
She found herself pushing again his chest with both her hands and breaking the kiss. "Stop!" She yelled. Her voice was heavy and she found that she was panting a little. She looked at Ron and noticed his smoldering eyes questioning her. "We can't do this. You're cheating on her. You're committing adultery."
And the spell was broken for Ron. He let her go and she dropped to the ground, next to her bag. He stepped back as he felt furry rising inside of him. Frustration with his current relationship, anger over being interrupted and passionate furry at the self-righteousness and truth of the words Hermione spoke. She was right but he would have given anything for her to be wrong. He still held on to a shred of hope as he spoke. "Fucking hell Hermione I'm not married to her."
"Well that may be so but she is still your girlfriend. And she is my friend." Hermione said as she tugged down her shirt and tried to get her outfit back in order. The words getting caught in her throat. She knew she was doing the right thing logically but a deep wanton, a deep need, a deep wish inside of her wanted to forget all about "The Lavender Issue" and go back to the biting, scratching, kissing, devouring.
"I want you!" Ron's voice rumbled as he stared at her. There a desperate need in his voice and in his body. One he had never felt before. His eyes were full of blue fire as she gazed at him.
Hermione's heart was aching. She could feel the tears coming. She knew she had to get out of there. She was not going to let him see her cry again. "She's my friend," she repeated. " I don't want to hurt her." She took a step to one side, trying to slip past him. He blocked her.
"Hermione…" He didn't want her to go. He needed her to know. He needed to tell her. They needed to admit what this passionate moment had been. He looked into her eyes, trying to compel her to stop, to stay, to hear him. As he gazed at her, a tear slipped down her cheek. His heart cracked then as a wave of all the pain he had caused her washed over him.
"I can't…" She began, her voice was full of emotion, trembling almost. The tears for him, for her friend, for herself were coming. She had to get out of there. " I won't hurt her, even if you will." She said. She stepped fast to the right and ran for the door. She thrust it open and raced down the hall as more tears trickled down her cheeks.
"Bloody fucking hell," Ron howled as he punched the wall in front of him where she had just been standing. He knew she was right. She was always right.