Chapter 3: Spent Summer break away and forgot to call
Summary: Hermione finally confronts Ron for not telling her about his new girlfriend.
Hermione arrives home to an empty house. Her parents are still at their Dental practice and would be home by 7pm, which left Hermione with a few hours in which was usually spent completing homework. However, being the first day back at school Hermione finds herself with not much to do. Normally, she would use the next couple of hours to hang out with Ron. He would usually lounge on her neatly made bed while she sat at her desk, reading. Ron, trying to distract her by talking about something that happened at school that day, or begging her for a game of chess. The one game Ron loved just as much as football.
Today, however, Hermione found herself sitting on the edge of her bed, staring into nothing. A numbness had settled over her, her brain blocking out the overwhelming emotions from the day past. Hermione and Ron had had countless arguments over the years, ones spawned mostly from petty disagreements. They usually made up within hours, Ron making her laugh about something or Hermione asking Ron to hang out with her. They only ever needed to know that they were there for each other.
Hermione knew this was different. This argument was a long time coming, ever since she had left for the summer.
Her first instinct was to find Ron. She had no idea what she would say to him but she just craved his closeness. She thought about calling her Aunt Sylvia, who she had stayed with for five weeks in the South of France. She had gotten really close to her mothers sister over the summer, and her Aunt had been the unlikely confidant that Hermione needed at seventeen.
She had just opened her phone when she had gotten a text.
Ron: Can we pls talk?
She froze. Her fingers hovering over the screen as she thought about how to reply.
Ron: Pls Mione
This made her frown. Ron was the only one to call her Mione, and he knew how much she loved it.
Ron: I can see you reading my txts. Can u let me in?
She sighed and looked up at her window. Ron was standing outside, his hand just about to knock on the clear glass. He had used this way of entering her house since they were twelve. Her house being a bungalow and her room on the side of the house that was furthest away from her parents, was an easy way for Ron to get in and out when Hermione wasn't allowed friends over. He still used this way, even though her parents now loved Ron and constantly encouraged them to hang out.
She picked herself up from her bed, brushing her bushy curls from her face and walked over to the window.
He looked run down, as if he had come down with a cold. His skin paler than usual, his eyes sunken. She frowned as she slid the window open.
She stepped back so he could climb in. She realised he was getting far too big to fit through her window comfortably now, he had to contort his body to fit his broad shoulders through the width of the window frame.
She sat back on the edge of the bed and waited for him to right himself.
He started talking before he had two feet on the floor.
"I'm really sorry Mione. I know I should have told you about her. I don't know why I didn't."
She narrowed her eyes on her best friend.
"I know," He sighed in resignation. "I didn't tell you because I didn't know how to. It just happened, it's not like I fancied her for ages and didn't tell you!"
She shook her head at this explanation, fury was bubbling in her chest.
"Say something!" Ron exclaimed.
"Say something?!" she yelled back.
"Ok Ronald. Let's see. Would you have liked it if I strolled over at lunch, hand in hand, with a boy, one I hadn't told you about, for me to then climb onto his lap and start kissing him? Without a word? Without me even introducing him to you first?"
She watched as his eyes grew wide and a tick in his jaw spasmed.
"Well it's not like she climbed onto my lap and started snogging me is it?!" he spat.
Hermione could only roll her eyes at him.
"Ron, you picked me up for school. Like usual, and without a word you picked up your GIRLFRIEND, kissed her hello and then shoved me to the backseat. WITH NO EXPLANATION OR WARNING - who does that to their best friend!?" She's shouting now, eyes wet and shoulders tense.
Ron can only gap at her.
"I'm sorry," he whispers, eyes drawn to her bedroom floor.
"I can't forgive you so easily this time," she whispers back.
"Mione, c'mon. This is just a girl, lets not fight over this."
Hermione shoves herself off her bed and starts to pace, she needs this furious energy to expend somewhere else before she says something she regrets.
"If she's just a girl, then why are you dating her?!"
Ron opens his mouth but doesn't say anything.
"Do you even like her?"
Ron still doesn't say anything.
"For god's sake Ron, just leave."
"You left me for five weeks. You left me without saying why. You didn't even call me over the summer." He says this so softly that Hermione thinks she's maybe imagined it.
But she looks up to find him looking at her, tears in the corners of his eyes. She doesn't explain herself, she can't. Not right now at least. He has a girlfriend now, so she was obviously right to leave. But she can't explain the mess the way her head was, that day in the car park.
Ron realises this and shakes his head at her.
"Fine, don't explain yourself. But if my best friend can't tell me why she's changed her mind and why she couldn't even pick up the phone once in five weeks then she doesn't deserve to know who I'm seeing."
The words cut through her so smoothly she's worried she might just crumple to the floor right in front of him. Instead she takes a deep breath and makes herself watch him as she climbs back out of the window and leaves her.
She supposes he is right to leave her. That's exactly what she did to him, five weeks ago.
She was sixteen when her mum first mentioned the possibility of Ron wanting to actually date someone.
She was on her way out, meeting Ron outside so they could catch the bus to the movie theatre together. Ron and Hermione shared a love for movies, they weren't picky, they both just loved to escape into the movie screen and come out hours later talking about the plot points and the characters they wish they could be.
"Doesn't Ron want to go to the movies with an actual date?" Her mother asked her.
Hermione frowned.
"I don't know?"
"I'm just saying, sweetie. Don't get upset if he says he wants to go see a movie with another girl soon. You two are going to grow up and apart."
Her mother shortly went back to work on her computer, leaving Hermione standing numbly at the front door, confused and a little shocked.
Of course, Ron had mentioned girls to her before. He was a sixteen year old boy, she had even mentioned crushing on boys before but they never talked about them being anything but crushes, mere compliments to people's appearance. On Hermione's end, it was mostly commenting on celebrities or ogling the new twenty year old cashier at the Tesco's on the highstreet. Ron had definitely been more interested in girls their age but he always ended up shrugging his shoulders when she encouraged him to talk to them.
She was waiting for the kiosk attendant to fill up her bucket of popcorn when she posed the question to Ron.
"You know you can always take someone you actually like to the movies?"
Ron was in the middle of sipping on his Pepsi and he slurped loudly before replying,
"What do you mean? I like you."
"No, I mean taking a girl on a date. I won't be offended."
Ron frowned.
"I don't want to take anyone else to the movies."
Hermione shrugged and left it at that. They were only sixteen, Ron didn't have to date anyone yet and Hermione didn't have to worry about being left behind anytime soon.
It was the year after that spooked her.
Ron had gotten his drivers license, beaming and full of endless energy, he demanded to take Hermione out for a drive in the Twins car. After successfully getting permission from the Twins to use their car for the night, he picked Hermione up and Hermione slid into the passenger seat.
That night was the first of many in which they cruised around town, chatting, singing and laughing. Hermione couldn't remember a time in which she was so happy. They invited Harry along sometimes but his parents didn't like him hanging out too late so they always had to drop him off promptly at 9pm.
Hermione looked forward to those few hours alone with Ron in the darkness of the car. Music played softly while she listened to Ron talk about the latest movie they had just seen. It was when she caught herself admiring his profile in the bright fluorescent lights of the traffic light that it clicked.
She liked Ron Weasley.
She didn't want him to do this with other girls. She wanted this with him, just him.
She watched as the flashing green highlighted his face, his blue eyes glowing as the traffic light washed over the two of them. Her gaze drifted to his hands gripping the steering wheel, large and imposing, making her shiver with a need she had never felt before.
This revelation caused something different in her to stir. Her palms clammy, her throat dry, she had no idea where to look after that, like she was embarrassed to feel this strong, this reactive to her best friend's hands. The rest of the night passed slowly, as if this new twist in her thoughts, rippled the way she saw things. She watched Ron in an almost-slow motion reel, seeing him grin as he talked about the possible ways in which he could get Harry to convince him to share his car with him, the way his eyelashes fluttered when he blinked, his tongue darting out to lick his lips when he mentioned going through the McDonalds drive thru.
"You ok, Mione?" his voice interrupted, smooth and husky.
This shook her from her intrusive thoughts, made her shake her body into submission.
No. You can't think about your best friend like this.
"Yeah, fine." she gulped.
But she was lost to him, because he replied with such a sincere smile that her heart melted.