While everyone else was still enjoying the party for Molly and Arthur's golden anniversary, Ron was sitting alone in a dingy hotel room, drowning his sorrows and realising what an idiot he'd made of himself. To be honest he still couldn't believe that he'd accused Malfoy of having an affair with his own daughter. It really was epically stupid, and Ron couldn't believe he'd acted so rashly. As Ginny said, if only he'd spoken to her, then all of this could have been avoided. But he hadn't, he'd rushed in like a fool and now he had to live with the consequences.
Ron only hoped that those consequences didn't affect Hermione, and her ambitions of being Minister for Magic. Ironically it had been scandal he'd been trying to avoid, but it seems that he might have just caused it. And if Hermione lost her chance to become Minister because of him, Ron didn't think he would be able to forgive himself.
Lost in his regrets and despair, Ron drank until he passed out on the lumpy mattress. When he awoke in the morning, he had a stinking headache and had to resort to using a potion to rid him of his hangover. The potion along with a sizeable, cooked breakfast helped Ron feel more human again, but once he could think straight, he knew he would have to see about trying to make amends for the previous evening. Knowing that everyone had stayed at the hotel following the party, he waited until early afternoon before he headed off to speak to his parents.
Arriving at The Burrow, Ron took several moments to brace himself for what his parents would have to say to him, before entering his childhood home. He found his parents sitting in the front room with Harry and Ginny, and he noticed that both Molly and Ginny looked relieved to see him. clearly there had been some doubt as to whether he would stick around and try and fix the mistakes he'd made the previous evening.
"I am so very sorry for ruining last night," he began, feeling that another apology was in order.
"Luckily, you didn't ruin the entire party," Ginny remarked. "We carried on just fine after you'd left."
"That's good," Ron muttered. He was pleased that his actions had ruined everything, but he would be lying if he said he wasn't hurt at the fact everyone had been able to just forget about him and carry on as though he'd never even been there.
"Where did you go last night?" Harry asked as Ron settled in the empty space on the sofa beside him. "We thought you would have gone back to ours, but it was clear you never went back there last night."
"I wasn't sure how welcome I would have been, so I checked into a hotel," Ron admitted.
"You're an idiot, but you're still my brother, so you're still welcome at ours," Ginny said. "Unless you're planning on leaving straight away."
"I think I need to stay for a while and try and make amends," Ron admitted. "Or at the very least apologise to Hermione."
"I think you need to say sorry to more people than just Hermione," Arthur informed his son. "You need to apologise to Draco for accusing him of doing something he would never do. And not to mention poor Erin. She did not deserve any of what was said last night."
"I know, I was out of order," Ron admitted with a wince as he recalled some of the nastier things he'd said, most of which seemed to have been aimed towards the young witch he'd thought was Malfoy's mistress. "And I will apologise to everyone. Hermione, Malfoy and Malfoy's daughter."
"Good," Molly said with a firm nod as she got to her feet to go and make a fresh pot of tea.
"I can't believe the fool I made of myself," Ron groaned as his father got up to help Molly with the tea. "What was I thinking?"
"I wasn't aware you had been thinking," Ginny snorted.
"I do wish you'd spoken to us, Ron," Harry said with a sigh. "We could have explained everything to you."
"I can see that now, but at the time I was so sure I was right," Ron admitted. "Yes, I should have spoken to one of you, but to be fair, I never could have known who that young girl was. How was I to know Malfoy had another kid."
"It came as a shock to us all, including Draco," Ginny said.
"So what exactly happened?" Ron asked.
"You know Pansy ended things with Draco when her father wanted her to marry someone more suitable," Ginny began as Ron nodded along. "It turns out, she was pregnant when she headed over to Ireland. I've never been sure exactly when she discovered she was pregnant. She claims it was after she was married, but I know Draco suspects she knew before then and chose to keep quiet. Anyway, for years she passed Erin off as her husband's daughter, but when he died the family estate went to some cousin or other, rather than Erin. It turns out, he knew he couldn't have children, so knew Erin wasn't his. He'd even double checked by taking a DNA test."
"And he never confronted Pansy about it?" Ron questioned.
"Apparently not," Ginny answered with a shrug. "Because Erin wasn't his flesh and blood, the family estate passed to a blood relative, but he did leave Erin a sizeable inheritance and Pansy got a fair bit as well. I guess in his way, he loved them both."
"And when that happened, Erin found out the truth about her father," Ron said.
"Pansy had to say something when Erin didn't inherit as expected," Ginny said. "Given the small gap between her relationship with Draco ending and her getting married, it didn't take a genius for her family to work out who Erin's father was. And once they knew, Pansy's father insisted that Draco be informed. He may not have wanted Pansy to marry Draco, but he wasn't impressed that Pansy had kept his daughter from him for so many years."
"How did Malfoy take it?" Ron asked. "And Hermione. That must have been hard on their marriage."
"Why would it be?" Harry questioned. "Erin was conceived long before they got together. It wasn't like Draco had cheated on her. And he hadn't hid her from Hermione either. He didn't know she existed until Pansy turned up on their doorstep and broke the news."
"As for how they took it, they were shocked, but accepted Erin into the family with open arms," Ginny said. "Draco especially has spent a lot of time trying to make up for the fact he missed the first ten years of Erin's life. When she was at school, Erin used to split the holidays between Pansy and Draco. And now she's left school, she's moved over here permanently."
"Does she still see Pansy?"
"Of course, she's her mother," Ginny replied. "Their relationship can be rocky at times, and I know Pansy was upset when Erin left Hogwarts and decided to make her home over here in England, rather than in Ireland, where she still lives. But they'll be fine. Erin visits her all the time. There's room in Erin's life for both sides of her family."
"Do you think she'll forgive me for how I spoke to her?" Ron asked quietly.
"If you apologise and genuinely mean it, yes, I think she will accept it," Harry said.
"I will apologise, and I will mean it," Ron vowed. "I just don't know how to reach her. In fact, apart from finding Hermione at work, I don't know how to get in touch with any of the family to say sorry."
"I've got to go and pick up the kids from Hermione's," Harry said, explaining how she and Draco had taken all their three back to theirs, while Harry and Ginny had helped Molly and Arthur home with their presents. "I can speak to her and see if you can go and make an apology. But I can't guarantee anything, Ron. Hermione might not want you in her home."
"I'll understand if that is the case, but please let her know that I am genuinely sorry and I do truly wish to make amends," Ron said.
"I'll let her know," Harry promised as Molly and Arthur returned with the tea.
After a cup of tea, Harry headed off to pick off the kids while Ron returned home with Ginny. When Harry arrived home, he informed Ron that he'd spoken to Hermione and Draco, and they were willing to hear him out if he went and visited them at six that evening. Knowing that apologising to Malfoy wasn't going to come easy to him, Ron tucked himself away in the guest bedroom as he mentally ran over how he was going to apologise for the previous evening. The trouble was, he wasn't sure anything he could say would truly make amends for the scene he'd caused and the potential trouble he'd created.
Shortly before six, Ron emerged from the guest room, ready to face his fate. Harry had already made a floo connection, and had been speaking to Hermione, who was waiting for Ron to arrive. Both Harry and Ginny wished him luck, and feeling slightly apprehensive, Ron headed off through the floo to make his apologies to the Malfoys.
Emerging from the floo, Ron found himself stepping into a cosy, welcoming living room. Hermione was standing beside the window and she greeted Ron with a small nod of her head.
"I am so sorry, Hermione," Ron began, taking a few steps towards his old friend.
"So Harry said," Hermione replied. "I think this might be easier if you only had to do this once, don't you?"
"Yes," Ron agreed with a nod.
"Lyra and Scorpius are upstairs, so we shouldn't be disturbed," Hermione said as she moved away from the window.
When Hermione made for the door, Ron assumed she was going to summon her husband and step-daughter to them, but instead she gestured for Ron to follow her. As they left the room and headed up a corridor and across a vast hallway, Ron realised that it clearly wasn't the main living room. The room they'd come from was situated towards the back of the house, and Hermione led them into a room at the front of the house, leading directly from the hallway they'd just crossed.
Draco and Erin were both sitting in the room Hermione brought them into, but Ron was momentarily sunned by the size of the room. The living room they'd just entered was over twice the size of the room they'd just left, and much more opulently decorated. Yet even though the room spoke of how rich the owners of the house were, it was still warm and welcoming and it felt like a proper family room.
"Would you like to take a seat, Ronald?" Hermione asked, gesturing to an empty chair while she sat down on the large sofa between her husband and step-daughter.
As the chair in question was facing the sofa, Ron rather felt as though he was on trial as he settled down in the comfy armchair. For a moment, he struggled with how to begin his apology as he wasn't sure any words would be able to convey how sincerely sorry he was for what had occurred the previous evening.
"I'm not sure it's enough, but I am truly sorry for last night," Ron began. "I was completely out of order. Your father was right, Malfoy. I let myself think the worst of you because of how I feel about you. I ignored what I know of you, and how you feel about Hermione, and let my imagination run away with me. I am sincerely sorry for the totally untrue allegations I cast your way. And I'm sorry for lashing out and hitting you."
"Apology accepted," Draco replied with a slight incline of his head towards Ron.
"And I need to issue a further apology to you Miss Malfoy," Ron added, turning his attention to Erin, even though he wasn't sure if her surname was Malfoy since her mother had been married to another man. "I said some terrible things to you, and I am very sorry. I was rude and offensive, and I apologise. I must have made a terrible first impression."
"I accept your apology Mr Weasley," Erin replied with dignity. "I have no idea if our paths will cross again in the future, but if they do, I hope we can be polite to one another."
"Of course," Ron agreed as Erin got to her feet, announcing that she'd promised to spend some time with her siblings before she went back to Ireland for a few days. "She's a credit to you, Malfoy," he added once Erin had departed the room. "She's a lovely girl."
"She is," Draco agreed.
"I am truly sorry," Ron whispered, still not sure that anything he'd said had truly made amends for his actions. "For everything. And Hermione, if there is any gossip about this, I promise I will set the record straight. I will not allow anyone to try and turn last night into a scandal which could ruin your career."
"I can't see any scandal emerging from last night," Hermione admitted. "If anything, it will be you who is made to look like a fool. Nothing you said last night can cast either myself or my family in a bad light. But if that were to happen, I'd be grateful if you did step in to right the matter."
"I would," Ron vowed. "And if I emerge from this looking like a fool, I only have myself to blame. I acted immaturely, and I was wrong."
"At least you're mature enough to admit it," Hermione said with a half-smile, well aware that there was a time when Ron would never have even considered he'd been in the wrong, let alone admit it out loud.
"I do like to think I've matured, even if last night wasn't a good example of it," Ron remarked with a sheepish smile. "And before I go, there's something else I need to say. Something I should have said a long time ago. I am pleased you're happy, Hermione. I'm pleased that you've found someone who makes you happy. Even when I didn't want to admit it, even to myself, I knew you two were well suited to one another. You're a far better fit than you and I were, Hermione. But I'm pleased you have a good life, a life you enjoy."
"Thank you, Ron," Hermione replied with feeling, touched that Ron could be mature enough to accept her happiness, even if it was a long time coming. "And I hope one day, you find the same sort of happiness. I don't want you to spend the rest of your life, thinking about what could have been. We had our moment, and it is a time I will always treasure, but we were never meant to be together in the long term. I belong with Draco, and I hope you find the witch you belong with."
"So do I," Ron said with a smile as he got to his feet. "I should be going. Thank you for accepting my apology, and I promise nothing like that will ever happen again. Next time we see each other, I will be nothing but polite."
Knowing there was nothing more to be said, Ron said his goodbyes and Hermione walked him back to the floo room, where they shared a further goodbye, before Ron headed back to Harry and Ginny's to consider his future. While he planned on sticking around long enough to ensure that he could fix any damage his actions might have caused, he knew he wouldn't find his own happy ending in England. His future was out there waiting for him, and now he had finally said goodbye to Hermione and accepted that she was not the perfect witch for him, he was ready to get out there and find his soulmate. He wanted the same sort of happiness Hermione had with Malfoy, and his parents had with each other, and he was damn well going to find it.