A/N: Thank you thank you for reviews! This fanfic is progressing day by day so please bear with me... again, no one from the Harry Potter world belongs to me, only to JK Rowling.

PART EIGHT: FIRELIGHT REFLECTION

She just stared into the fire place, enchanted by the sparkling dance of red and gold before her. There was something so haunting about the way a simple flame can just attract so many admirers very haunting and very dangerous.

"He's twenty five years old" She uttered in disbelief and sadness. "He's lived a life without me and was happy"

She gripped the handle of her brush harder, biting her lower lip as she forced herself not to break down and cry. She had already done enough that night when he revealed so much about the missing years he's been gone. So much information, so much and so unbelievable that Hermione still found it hard to accept.

"He should be seventeen like the rest of us not a teacher not" She choked, then bit her lip so hard that she began to taste the bitterness of her blood.

"You love him, don't you, Mione."

A small gasp escaped Hermione's lips as she turned around to meet eyes with Ron. The moment she gazed into his eyes, she knew that not only had things changed with Harry, but also between herself and Ron.

The look in his eyes said it all.

"I" She meekly began, then turned back to the flickering firelight. "I thought I was alone" Was all she said, which was true. Hermione had just left Harry's and found her way back to the Gryffindor's common room. Actually, she left back to her dorm, changed into her nightgown, and finding that she could not sleep, grabbed her brush and came back down. It was late into the night, so she knew that there would not be anyone around.

The whole ordeal about there being two worlds was overwhelming to her. That news just tipped off everything that had built up to Harry's return to Hogwarts. He knew that this was too much for her to swallow, so he actually sent her away saying that he will talk with her about it whenever she's ready.

"You're never alone, Mione. You know that" Ron sat down next to her, then lovingly brushed aside the hair from her face.

She closed her eyes, tearing up inside even more.

Though Ron had no idea what went on between his old friend and his Hermione hours before, just looking at his girl said enough. Without even asking her, he knew that she was going to sneak into the teachers' living quarters to speak to Harry. There wasn't anything that he did not know about his Hermione, for she was just a part of him as he is to her. It is because of that he had always known that Hermione loved Harry in a way that could not match to her love for him.

He even once told her that there are very few people out there that know their soul mates and then there are the very fortunate bunch that have not one, but two soul mates. He wondered if his beauty had caught on to what he was hinting at.

Ron reached over and wrapped his arms around her, allowing her head to rest on his shoulder.

"He's twenty five years old, Ron." Hermione whispered, the pain obvious in her voice. "He's not the young man that he is supposed to be! He's supposed to be our age still learning with us dorming with his friends going to Hogsmeade with us on weekends playing Quidditch with the rest of the Gryffindor players going through the torture of sitting through Snape's class with us fighting the urge to beat up that prat Malfoy pulling childish pranks with you and the other boys playing big brother to Ginny smiling that amused smile every time he would hear us bickering"

"Holding you in his arms instead of me" Ron quietly added.

"Yes!" Hermione cried, then gasped as she realized what she had said. Her eyes searched Ron's, desperate not to bring pain to him, and her heart sank as she realized that the damage was already done. "Oh, Ron!" She flung her arms around him, tears silently cascading down her face. "Ron I'm so sorry I-I-I don't know what made me say yes' to that you know how much you mean to me Ron"

"I do but I also know that you love him much more deeply than you will ever love me" He sighed, trying to comfort her, though his own heart was breaking.

"I love you!" She cried, holding onto him.

"I know you do but Hermione," He lifted her head up, looking into her glistening eyes. "Can you honestly look me in the eyes and say that you don't love him. And I don't mean the friend type of love. I mean the actual heartbreaking type of love that runs so deep into the soul. Can you look me in the eyes and tell me that you don't love him that way?"

She held his gaze, wanting to meet with his soul. Her mind was trying to force Ron's words to escape her lips. Telling her to tell him that she did not love Harry that way. Meeting his soul

"I love you"

Ron dropped his gaze. His own fear confirmed. "Mione, for the first time ever those words knowing what they're trying to hide for the first time ever I wish you hadn't said that you love me."

"No" She whispered "No, Ron don't say that. Please"

"Mione" He began, but was silenced by Hermione's kiss.

Ron savored that kiss, that moment that reminded him that everything was still okay between them. Though, deep inside he knew that it wasn't.

Hermione didn't know what possessed her to kiss him. She just knew that she had to. Or else eventually she knew that—just like Harry—he would leave her too.

As she pulled back, she looked deeply into his trusting brown eyes, "I love you, Ron. I love you in a way that does not compare to my feelings for Harry. I need you. I would just fall to pieces if you left me." She hugged him tight for fear that he would slip away from her forever.

Ron knew in his heart that as true those words are they had two different meanings to them. And because of that, he knew that Hermione was not truly his anymore. That her heart belonged to someone else. That she was only holding on to him because she had his heart, but not the heart of the man that had hers.

He held onto her. Loving her more than he could have ever loved her before. Wishing that she felt the same way and wishing that Harry Potter had never returned.