Not for the first time, Harry caught Ron staring at Hermione in Potions.
"Ron" he hissed, bringing him out of a state of deep thought.
"What?" said Ron, startled. "What'd I miss?"
"You were gawking at Hermione again, Snape'll notice any second."
Ron's ears went red. He remembered the last time he stared at her in Potions. Snape had made a fool out of him, mortifying both him and Hermione. "Thanks Harry, I don't want to have to deal with that slimy -- "
"Mr. Weasley, if you have something to say, please be so kind as to share it with the rest of us," said Snape, poisonously.
Ron looked down at the table and began preparing his Patience Potion, muttering something about evil professors.
Hermione woke with a grim feeling in her stomach and a terrible pain in her head, the next morning. She glanced at the table next to her bed. There laid the letter bearing the worst news Hermione had ever heard.
She was moving. It was no cross town move or even a move across the country, her family was moving half way across the world, to Harare, Zimbabwe. She admired her parents for wanting to help the poor children in Africa, but why did they have to bring her? She was going to continue her education at a school in Zimbabwe, one that was nothing like Hogwarts. Her parents had sent an owl to Zara, the school, and gotten all sorts of brochures. The students slept in grass huts, and had to walk in the scorching heat to get to class, which was nothing more than an enlarged version of what the students slept in. There weren't many witches and wizards in Zimbabwe, so their ministry had no reason to redo the school, and most people were so poor they thought nothing of it's terrible conditions . They were leaving for Africa as soon as the term was up.
It was the beginning of may, giving Hermione only a few weeks to break the news to her friends.
Hermione quickly dressed, not wanting to waste a moment, for they would be among her last with the people she considered family. She bounded down the stairs to the girl's dormitories and found Ron and Harry playing wizard chess. As usual, Ron was wining. She resolved to tell them that day, before it got any more painful.
"Morning, Hermione." Said Ron, happily.
"Hello," she replied, distracted. Harry waved as a sign of acknowledgment; he was trying to think of where to move next.
"You certainly are cheerful this morning." Ron said, sarcastically.
"It's just..... never mind" Hermione didn't want the look on Ron's face to fade. He looked pleased and lighthearted, his eyes gleamed in a way they seldom did. Hermione mentally shook herself. She realized that she was, once again, noticing the little things that made Ron so wonderful. Not that she could ever tell him so, it would be far to embarrassing. And besides, even if she did love him, it was a feeling that would never be mutual.
"Ha!" Exclaimed Harry, moving his bishop. "Take that!"
Ron grinned and directed his king one space to the right. "Check Mate"
"I don't know how you do it, Ron," laughed Harry. "Your like a chess prodigy or something,"
"yeah, come one and all to see the great Ronini! Chess prodigy!" Ron joked. Hermione hadn't even smiled. "Hermione, are you sure you're all right?"
"I'm ...fine," a picture of the horrid little hut they called a school flashed into her mind. She sighed.
"I'm gonna do it tonight," said Ron, for the fifth night in a row. "I'm gonna tell Hermione how I feel."
"You do that," Harry said, polishing his Firebolt after Quidditch practice.
"you don't think I have the guts, do you?" asked Ron, not sounding the least bit offended by Harry's disbelieving tone.
"Honestly, no." Harry chortled. "You've said you were gonna tell her almost every night this year, and she's still in the dark,"
"well, I see no reason to rush, now that Krum's out of the picture." Hermione and Viktor had broken up over the summer. They had decided to only be friends. Hermione had said she was kind of uncomfortable with the age difference, her being fifteen and him being eighteen. "I still want to tell her, though."
"Well, here's your chance. It sounds like the prefects are back from that seminar thing..."
Ron turned an interesting shade of red "I'll just ... go tell her....now.... I guess..." He got up from his bed and shakily walked down the corridor and to the common room. He spotted Hermione talking with Angelina Johnson about the prefect's meeting.
She smiled at Ron. "Hello, Ron. I was wondering where you and Harry were."
"We were up in the dormitory..." he mumbled, staring at the floor.
Angelina raised an eyebrow at Hermione, knowing what was coming next. She was a dear friend of Hermione's and knew all about her crush on him. She was also Fred's girlfriend, and had to listen to him complain about Ron's attitude before Hermione came to stay in the summer holidays. Not to mention that a blind man could see how Ron felt about her. "There's Fred. I think I'll go say "hi," and leave you two alone." She winked at Hermione.
Hermione shot her a desperate "don't leave me here!" look. She hated being alone with Ron, they always argued. And when they weren't fighting, Hermione was left to notice everything Ron did, and often feared she'd break down and tell him.
"Er...Hermione??" Asked Ron.
"Yes," she replied, also staring at the ground.
"Can.....can I tell you something?" he said.
"Er....sure..."
"well," he began, feeling all the blood drain from his body. "I just wanted to say....... The moon is really bright tonight!" Ron blurted, glancing out the window.
Hermione felt her heart fall in disappointment. "yeah. I really need to study for the exams, so please excuse me." Ron watched, helplessly as she walked towards the girls dormitory. He scolded himself. *You're such a coward! You can't even tell her how you feel! you IDIOT!* He stalked to the dormitory.
"Did you do it?" asked Harry.
"No. you're right. I haven't got the guts to tell her. What if she was to laugh? what if she were to look at me like I was a sea-slug or something....like Fluer did..."
Harry laughed. "Ron, this is Hermione we're talking about. She's not a stuck-on-herself veela, but an average human being."
"No, she's not!" Ron exclaimed. "she's not average. She's wonderful. her eyes are so beautiful, they let you see exactly what she's feeling. She's so smart and diligent, I've never met anyone like her. And her hands, she's got the most beautiful hands I've ever seen..."
Harry was covering his ears in mock pain. "No more poetic stuff, please! You're killing me!"
Ron threw his pillow at Harry, laughing. "all right, all right! Then you gotta shut up about Cho!"
"Hey!" I don't talk about her that much!"
"You don't when you're awake, but you should hear yourself when you're asleep!" Ron was in a fit of laughter. "Oh Cho! Just let me kiss you!" he said, imitating Harry.
Harry turned bright red, remembering that scene from his last dream. "Shut up!"'
They laughed and talked about dreams and girls for the rest of the night, or at east until the rest of the fifth years came to bed.
Hermione wanted to kick herself. She had let the entire month of May slip away without telling them about her move. *At least I didn't let it effect my exams*, she thought. As usual, she had gotten top marks on every thing. There were only a few precious days until the end of term banquet, and very little time to tell her friends.
She had to do it that night, procrastinating would only make it worse.
"Um ... Harry, Ron?" she said to them. It was a warm, lazy day, and nobody felt like doing anything at all.
"hmm?" they replied, both of them had their eyes closed, basking in the sunlight.
"I'm moving" she blurted, tears springing to her eyes.
Ron rolled over "You'll still go to Hogwarts, right."
"As long as you're in the British Isles, it shouldn't matter." Added Harry. "You don't even have to be in the UK, you could be in Ireland."
"I doubt Zimbabwe counts as the British Isles." Hermione stuttered, tears streaming down her face. Ron and Harry bolted upright.
"Zimbabwe!" exclaimed Ron. "Why on Earth are you moving to Zimbabwe?"
"My parents! Th-they were chosen to become dentists for the countries who don't have many... "
"Are they mad?" said Harry. "It's terrible there! Isn't that where all that drought and famine is? And I hear there are diseases left and right over there!"
"I know!" Hermione exclaimed, burying her head in her hands. "I don't want to go! I've never been good with heat! I've fainted from it a number of times! And worst of all is the school! It's just a giant grass hut and the education is terrible!"
"When are you going?"asked Ron, fighting the tears in his throat with everything he had.
"Right after term ends! We're going strait to the airport from Kings Cross!"
The ride to Kings cross was not a pleasant one. Hermione frequently burst into tears and neither Ron or Harry were able to comfort her. When Draco Malfoy insulted Hermione over how much she was crying, Ron lost it. He lunged at Malfoy and took him out with a single punch. "Anyone else want to try me?" Ron shouted at all the Slytherins. They all glared, but none spoke up.
Hermione was off visiting with some of her girl friends when Ron broke down.
"Damn, Harry! This isn't how it's supposed to be!" He ran his hands through his hair, frustratedly.
"I know. She can't move! Things will never be the same without her." Harry wanted to break down, himself, but needed to be strong, for all three of them.
"I've got to tell her before it's too late. And it looks like it already is!" He glanced out the window, the train was Cross Station was coming into view. Ron collected himself and went to find Hermione. They bumped into each other as Hermione went to find them. She threw herself into Ron's arms.
"Oh Ron!" She cried, sobbing into his shirt. "I'll miss you so much! How am I going to live without you..... and Harry and Ginny and everyone! I love you all!" she was shaking violently.
Ron wanted to kiss her. He really, really wanted to kiss her. It was perfect, here she was, distressed, and coming to him for comfort. And what better way to comfort her than to kiss her? He took her chin his hands and stared in to her large, beautiful brown eyes. Ron felt his insides give a nervous twitch. Just as he leaned in towards her, the train came to a halt, sending them crashing to the floor. Ron quickly got up. It was too late, he had lost his nerve. Instead he took her chin in his hands and said the words he didn't even believe,"you'll be fine. We can always write."
"I guess so..." she said. Hermione went to collect her trunk. Harry came up the corridor.
"Are you all right?" he asked Ron, who looked devastated. "What happened?"
"Nothing, literally nothing." Hermione met up with them. She kept sobbing, unable to speak for sorrow.
They walked through the barrier in silence, and met their rides in even louder silence. Hermione kissed both of them on the cheek and hugged all of her girl friends. She got in her parents' car, and stared, helplessly as the motor started.
Ron jerked out of a state of shock. He suddenly realized that if he was ever going to tell Hermione how he felt, he had to do it now. The car was pulling out of the parking lot, Ron ran after it.
"Wait!" he cried, "Hermione," he fell back as the car turned onto the freeway "wait..." he whispered, feeling tears run down his face and onto his neck.
"Ron...," asked Harry, delicately. "are you ... okay?"
"No!" he yelled, suddenly. "She's gone! I may never see her again and she doesn't even know I love her!"
"You can always write her." Harry offered.
"It's not the same! I need to be with her. I can never kiss her now, I can never see her! And she's in danger, Zimbabwe is awful for her health!" he fell onto his knees. "Oh, Lord, keep her safe."
A/N - I redid the chapters cuz those were..lol.. waay tooo long.. so yeah.lol.. ReVIEEEEWWW!