Summary: Ron keeps trying to find ways to talk to Hermione about their so-called "fight" the other night. Hermione is NOT mad at him, but she is simply waiting for him to apologize.
Secrets Kept
Chapter 13
(Ron's POV)
by happythoughts
~*~*~
Stupid prat. NOW what are you going to say to her?
That's your fault. You weren't thinking when you started the fight. You merely wanted to start something. Just so she could admit that she liked you, and not that Kyle kid.
That's not true.
…
Okay, maybe it is. But that's not the point! The point is … is that I'm trying to figure out a way to apologize to her. NOT that I should be. I mean, I was only speaking my mind. There's nothing wrong with that, now is it?
Wait … you say you were speaking your mind? I seem to remember you implying something in Kyle's letter … something like the word "sex?" Is that what you call "speaking your mind" ?
Ah, shut up! You're really no help at all, you know.
I know. It's just fun making you feel stupid, that's all.
And that was what was going through Ron's mind in the morning while he lay in bed. Things were going perfect between him and Hermione until that Kyle kid just HAD to send a letter to her. Why was he sending her letters just NOW? When she came to the burrow in the summer, it sounded like they were married or something … honestly.
Ron heard the boys starting to get up. He sat up and stretched his arms. Throwing aside the curtains that were shutting his view of the room, he rubbed his eyes vigorously and stumbled towards his dresser to get clothes out.
"You're looking particularly bad today," Ron heard Harry say.
"Thanks. I appreciated that," remarked Ron sarcastically.
"Anytime."
Ron rolled his eyes. He didn't feel like getting in a sarcasm fight so early in the morning. Did he really look that bad? He walked over to the mirror that was hanging from his closet and gave himself a fright. He had dark bags under his eyes from not getting a good sleep, and his hair was all over the place. He really needed some sort of haircut to get the bangs out of his eyes. It was almost starting to get as out of hand as Harry's.
He attempted to mat his hair down and he threw a robe over his body. He glanced down at his watch. It was 10:00 A.M. already. Ron groaned. Hermione would probably be downstairs doing homework already.
He began walking towards the door to head down to the common room.
"Forgetting something?"
Ron turned around. He saw Harry holding up a pair of his shoes. He glanced down at his own feet. He wasn't wearing any shoes. "Oh, right. Thanks," said Ron sheepishly, taking the shoes from Harry and jamming his feet into them.
"I'll be downstairs," he muttered to him. But before he appeared in the common room, he glanced around to see any sign of Hermione. Surprised, but grateful, he didn't see her and he walked out. She was probably at breakfast or something, he thought. He walked over to the table where he had left his bag of books and sat down. He pulled out his Charms book and began reading.
"You're getting a head start on homework, aren't you?"
Ron looked up. Then he gulped. Hermione was sitting right in front of him. He was almost surprised to see that she had a smirk on her face.
"Er. What are you doing here?" he asked her.
"Oh, just things."
Ron nodded and went back to reading. How he wished he had prepared some sort of apology to her earlier. His mind raced through a million that he could have said, but they didn't sound right. He was most grateful when he saw Harry coming towards them.
"Ready for breakfast?" he asked them.
Ron stood up quickly, grateful for the chance to eat and get away from Hermione. "Yeah, I'm starving," he told Harry and he walked over to the portrait door and stepped out.
~*~*~
(Hermione's POV)
"You coming?" Harry asked her.
"No thanks, I've already been to breakfast with Ginny. I'll be back here if you guys need me," said Hermione with a grin.
"Okay. See you later," said Harry. And with that, he followed Ron out the door.
Hermione laughed to herself when the two boys were gone. Ron's face was priceless when he saw her appear right in front of him at the table. He hadn't even noticed her! Was that a good thing? Anyway, it was going to be pretty hard with waiting for him to apologize to her, and that would probably take all day. Ron wasn't the type of guy to apologize so quickly. He usually just left it and acted like it never happened.
"Mind if I join you?"
Hermione looked up and saw Ginny standing in front of her looking hopeful.
"Yeah! Sure, let me just move these books," said Hermione, while pushing some of her schoolbooks off of the table onto a chair. Ginny sat down in across from her and gave her a weird face.
"What?" Hermione asked her.
"Are you and Ron in a fight?" she asked her.
Hermione tried to hide her smirk. "If you'd like to call it that. Why? How do you know?"
"Well, you two do make a scene when you argue, you know that? It was kind of hard not to notice," said Ginny slyly.
Hermione felt herself blush. Perhaps they had been a little loud when they were fighting downstairs that night. She had completely forgotten about all of the others in the room. Ron had the tendency to do that to her.
"Did everyone see and hear it?" she asked Ginny, dreading the answer.
Ginny nodded her head cautiously. "But don't worry. No one really said anything after it except a couple. They kind of just stared at Ron."
Hermione laughed. "What ever did Ron do when I left?"
Ginny grinned. "Well, he kind of just stared after you when you left looking like he couldn't believe you were actually laughing. And then he turned at us and realized that we were all staring and he yelled at us to go back to work. I started walking towards to him to ask what happened, but then he stalked up towards his dormitory."
Hermione shook her head in pity. "I'm not even mad at him, doesn't he realize that? I mean, I left laughing at him! I'm kind of surprised that he would assume that Kyle would write a letter, implying that he wanted to have … well, you know …"
"Hermione, I'm a year younger than you. I know what you're talking about. You can say the word, you know. You're 15 years old," said Ginny exasperatedly.
"I know … but anyway. You think he was jealous or something?" Hermione asked Ginny.
"Hermione, of course he was jealous. When Ron gets angry usually it's one hundred percent because he is jealous. Last year when he and Harry got in that fight, he was mad because Harry was getting the attention again. When he got angry at you at the Yule Ball for going with Krum, he was jealous because you didn't go with him--,"
"That was his fault!" interrupted Hermione, going red in the face.
Ginny ignored her. "When he got angry at Harry and I this summer, it was because he was too protective over me and he didn't want me to share Harry's friendship with me. And then now he's angry because he's afraid that something is going to happen between you and Kyle and he doesn't want anything to get in between you and him," she finished smartly. She took a deep breath.
Hermione sat shocked. "You thought these things out well, Ginny."
"I know. I've had a lot of time to think these past years," she said shyly.
"So … do you think he'll apologize to me? I'll admit I'm a bit miffed that he hasn't yet."
"Hermione, is Ron the kind of person to apologize that quickly? I mean, he didn't apologize to Harry for about two months last year!"
"You think he's going to wait two months?!?" Hermione asked, screeching in horror.
"No no! It's just … give him time, that's all," said Ginny. She began doing her own homework.
Hermione sighed. Let's hope that his time was soon because she was beginning to miss him already.
~*~*~
(Ron's POV)
Ron was walking towards the Great Hall for some late breakfast. More like brunch, really. But anyway, he was still trying to think of a way to apologize to Hermione. What can I DO? He thought miserably. Then, it was like a light bulb turned on in his head. Why, Harry and Ginny had just gotten over their long fight … and Harry had apologized … perhaps HE would know what to do!
"Hey, wait up!"
Ron turned around. Ah, perfect timing. Harry was running towards him.
"Harry! Hi …," said Ron in a hopeful way.
"Hey. I'm starving. Let's eat," said Harry. He led them to a spot near the end of the Gryffindor table. There were still a few last-minute stragglers in there. Ron was glad that no one was sitting near them because he didn't want anyone to listen their conversation. He watched Harry stuff his face with food.
When Harry noticed that Ron wasn't eating, he looked up and said, "What's wrong? You're not eating."
"So what if I'm not eating?" Ron snapped.
Harry held his hands in defense. "Sorry … sorry …"
"No, sorry, Harry. I'm not in a good mood right now," said Ron. Now why couldn't he apologize that simply to Hermione?
"What's wrong?" Harry asked him, in between bites.
"It's just … it's Hermione," said Ron despondently.
"What about her?"
"We got in a fight yesterday …" trailed off Ron. He was starting to pick at the tablecloth.
Harry raised his eyebrows in surprise. "You did? It looked like you two were talking upstairs at the table."
"Yeah, that's just the thing. I thought we'd go through this whole week of not talking and then finally get over it, but she seemed like she had already gotten over it. But she was acting a little weird," said Ron.
"Hmm…" said Harry.
"So what do I do about it?"
"Well … depends. What happened?" asked Harry. He put down his spoon and fork to listen to Ron's story.
When Ron was finished, he was angry to see Harry trying to stifle a laugh. "What are you laughing at?"
Harry shook silently with mirth. "You seem to get very irritated with people writing letters to each other, don't you?" he hinted.
"What? No I …" then, realizing that Harry was right, Ron grinned and said embarrassedly, "Oh I guess so."
"Ron, you say that Hermione was laughing when you called her a … scarlet woman?" asked Harry, still trying to hide his laugh.
Ron nodded.
"And she walked away, still laughing? Then why do you think she would be mad?" asked Harry incredulously.
Well! Ron felt a bit of irritation just then. Why hadn't he thought of it that way? How come he couldn't put 2 and 2 together?
"You're right," said Ron.
Harry merely grinned and had a look on his face that said, "I know."
"But … still. I feel guilty. How would I apologize to her? I mean, how did you go about, apologizing to Ginny?" asked Ron desperately.
Harry's grin faltered. "I'll admit that that took me awhile also. I really should let you figure it out on your own … but since you're that desperate, I'll tell you. Listen, all I did was go up to her when she was alone … mind you, she was in a good mood then … and then I apologized to her saying, 'I've been acting really stupid for the past two weeks and I know that something like this shouldn't have started a fight like this. I just didn't want …'," Harry trailed off.
"What? What else did you say?" asked Ron. He was hanging on every word.
Ron was furious to see Harry getting red on his cheeks. "You said something mushy to her … didn't you?" Ron asked him, feeling sick by the second.
Harry began squirming in his seat. "Yeah … maybe I did … but hey, it worked and we made up like a charm!" he added hopefully.
"Well if that worked … just tell me," said Ron. He shut his eyes in agony …
"I said, 'I just didn't want anyone else to have you. You're too special to me and I got a little jealous,'" said Harry sheepishly.
If it looked like Ron was pretending to gag, he wasn't. He really was gagging in disgust. "GROSS, Harry!"
Harry kept his head down and avoided his gaze. "I knew you wouldn't want to hear that," he muttered.
After Ron stopped groaning, he asked Harry, "So what? Is that what I'm supposed to say to Hermione?"
"If you want."
"But … I wasn't jealous!" said Ron defensively.
Harry gave him a penetrating glare.
"Okay, okay. Maybe I was. Just … don't tell anyone else I said that, okay?" asked Ron.
Harry grinned. "'Course not."
Ron sighed, happy that he knew how to apologize to Hermione now. But the only thing was, it sounded easier than actually doing it.
~*~*~
Author's Note: AH! One more chapter to go! But I need at least three more reviews until I am going to post it! HAHA I'm so mean!