Disclaimer: I don't own HP or any of these characters. That belongs to JKR, Scholastic Books, Warner Brothers, etc. This is just something to pass the time while waiting for the next book.
Part VI : A Forlorn Anger
Somehow Hermione didn't think that Ron was happy to catch them in mid-snog. In fact, given the look of anger on his face, it was a good bet that they were in for a set of fireworks that none of them would soon forget.
The worst part of the situation was that she had expected Ron to be behind them one hundred percent. He had said that he didn't have any feelings for her anymore. It hurt Hermione to think that he had been lying but she could understand why Ron would hide them if he knew she didn't return them. Hadn't that been what she had been doing all these years with Harry? She would be a complete hypocrite for taking him to task for doing the same.
Yet she couldn't help feeling betrayed in some significant manner. She and Ron would never have worked out. While there were times when they were together that were fun, there were so many more times that were just filled to the brim with hurtful words and angry gestures. They were too different for their relationship to work. Their common ground was too sparse for them to make it. It had gotten to the point where it wasn't fun spending time with Ron, even though he was her supposed boyfriend. She had looked upon it as a horrendous chore that she just wasn't interested in doing.
She thought that he had understood that.
****
Five fights. Three days. Five fights in only three days and it was simply driving Hermione mad.
They said that the best part about fighting was making up. The way things were now, Hermione didn't see anything good about the firsts they had. The last time the only reason why she had made up with Ron was to preserve their friendship. Except for that, she would have let it end happily. She had lost her courage though at the last minute and had accepted his apology with one of her own. As always, they kissed and snuggled after the apologies but Hermione didn't feel any warmth in those kisses.
It had to end. There was nothing else to do. This was their fifth fight in three days. They were deadlocked in a downward spiral that just had to end. Hermione knew that ending it would hurt them both. They had tried so hard to make things work. However, neither one of them were happy being with each other. It was better to end things now rather than waste more time in a relationship that neither she nor Ron wanted.
All she had to do now was tell him. She had to find the strength to say the things that needed to be said, no matter what the cost. She didn't want their friendship to end but if that was the price she had to pay, she would do it. That sounded awful but Hermione could not continue on with this charade of a relationship any longer.
Ron stood there waiting in front of her, having uttered a heartfelt apology. I wasn't thinking, I'm sorry about what I said about you, I didn't mean it, he had said. Ron meant every word of that apology. He was sorry to have hurt her. He was asking for her forgiveness and another chance but of the two, he would only get the first.
She had to respond to him. He had been waiting for several minutes as she had been pondering what was best to do. Not having any wish to draw things out longer than they had to be, she used the simplest word she knew. "I'm tired, Ron."
Ron sighed. "I know you've had a long day, Hermione. But we've got to talk about this. We can't just let this go on festering between us. It would eat us up from the inside. You know I'm sorry. Sometimes I don't think before I speak but that doesn't mean I love you any less."
Hermione closed her eyes. Did he love her? She doubted that. If he did, she hated to think it but it wasn't the love she was looking for. She wanted a love that would understand her and accept her for who she was, not one that would seek to mold her into someone she was not.
"I meant I'm tired of working things out. I'm tired of this relationship. It's not fun even being with you anymore. All we ever do is fight."
Ron looked at her with unreadable eyes. Hermione had no clue what could possibly be running through his mind. A second later, he replied, "No, it's not fun anymore, is it?" He sat down across from her at the table. "At times I wonder why we even bother when we know that it'll just all start up again."
Thank goodness he seemed to understand. "It's not that I don't care for you, Ron. I do and I want the best for you. But I'm not it. We don't love each other the way that we should. All we do is fight. I know the people who don't know us well think that we argue just like an old married couple. But it's not the same. We drive other people away when we fight. That's not love—love should welcome people in. We don't argue like a couple whose been happily married for years. We argue like a couple whose marriage is on the brink."
"I would say that's because our relationship is on the brink." Ron cast his eyes on the ground before them. "Is this it then?"
"This is it." Hermione walked over to pull him into one last hug. "I hope you'll always be my friend, Ron. But I can't be with you any longer. We've tried again and again to patch things over and we've just got to accept that there are times when things don't work out the way you want them to."
He limply remained in her embrace, not raising his eyes to meet hers. "If that's it, then it's over. I wish I could say it was fun while it lasted but—"
"That wouldn't be true."
****
It had been awkward for some time afterwards but summer came and the distance helped to mend their friendship. The rise of Voldemort had ironically helped to heal their friendship, as they couldn't avoid each other in the efforts that everyone was taking to counteract the Death Eaters' poisonous acts. Eventually, they began to spend time together again as friends. Gradually, the awkwardness and discomfort faded away leaving their friendship tested, but not broken.
Looking back, Hermione reflected that breaking up with Ron had been frighteningly easy to do. Like her, he had been to tired of the relationship to put up much of a fight for why they should stay together. That was what she had thought but looking at Ron's current anger made her wonder.
They stood frozen in that tableau for a few minutes longer, with Ron sending death glares at both Harry and Hermione. Then Ron walked in to Harry's apartment. Turning around, he closed the door and drew a deep breath. He faced them and Hermione could see the explosion that was about to occur.
"It's nice to know that ten years of friendship means so much to you. Were you planning on eventually letting poor old Ron know about this or were you going to hide this behind my back forever?"
Hermione could feel Harry stiffen at Ron's words. "We had no plans whatsoever to hide this from you," he said.
"Obviously not considering how blatantly you acted!" Ron threw a copy of that damned Daily Prophet at Harry's feet. "Indecent behavior in Muggle bars, long walks and snogs along the river, I'm only surprised that this didn't all come out sooner!"
Taking in the picture on the front of the paper in a single quick glance, Harry's face drained of all color before turning red with rising anger. "How the hell did they manage to get a picture of that!"
"Simple probability, Harry." Ron sneered at them. "If you two go around acting like horny teenagers in lust, eventually someone is going to snap a picture of you. So mind telling me how long you've been going behind my back?"
That was going too far. Hermione was not going to let Ron get away with saying that nor was she going to let Harry take the brunt of Ron's anger. "How dare you say that?" she coldly remarked. "What we do in our own personal time is none of your business. We would have told you in our own time but we didn't get that choice."
"Would that have been before or after the wedding?" Sarcasm was Ron's perennial forte.
"I don't see how you're entitled to know who I'm dating the moment I kiss them."
"This is rich!" Ron started pacing around, punctuating his words with gestures in the air. "You're actually going to pretend that you just got together. You can't fool me—I've seen the way you two look at each other." He stopped his pacing to glower at them. "If ten years meant anything to you, you could at least not have the decency to lie. I thought you would have the decency to let your best friend know about your happiness but I guess I overestimated you both."
Stranding up straight, Harry replied, "For your information, we did just get together."
"Liar." Hermione was shocked to see tears forming in Ron's eyes. "Did you know I continued to believe in you even after I saw that awful picture. I thought to myself, Ron, don't get mad, it's probably been altered. The Daily Prophet is always looking for a way to sell a few more copies, whether they tell the truth or not. So I show up here to let Harry know because he's always the last to know what the current gossip is and I thought he should know because it's about him. Only he's not the last to know. It's me. Because my best friends didn't care enough just to say, oh by the way, we're dating. Because evidently I don't mean that much to them." Ron turned around again and with slow, heavy steps, he walked towards the door. "That's fine though. I get the picture. I know where I'm not wanted. I'm just sorry I ever believed in you two."
With those words, Ron slammed his way out.
****
Things change. Nothing ever stayed the same. There were no constants in life and you just had to accept that.
It hurt to think that Harry and Hermione didn't want to be friends anymore. It hurt more to think that they didn't bother telling him that fact. Ron could just picture them together, laughing at stupid Ron Weasley who didn't have a friend.
He didn't mind Harry and Hermione being together. He had expected that to happen a long time ago. It was obvious to him who knew both of them so well that they were besotted with each other. Perhaps they could disguise their feelings from the rest of the world and from each other, but they couldn't fool him.
Ron couldn't have ignored their feelings for each other. Even though Harry and Hermione had not been together, there were times that Ron felt left out of their friendship. His friends were not purposefully excluding him but they were so concentrated on each other that he might as well have not been there. It was frightening how both of them could shut out the world to focus on the other.
Only now Ron didn't think that they were doing it accidentally. He didn't know how long they had been together as they would not give him an honest answer. It hurt to think that they didn't want him around anymore. That it was enough for Harry and Hermione to have each other and so they had no longer had any use for Ron.
It was one thing to feel left out amongst your friends. It was another thing entirely to be kicked out of a friendship that you had for most of your life.
There was nothing Ron could do about it however. If they no longer
wanted to be friends, then that was it. He wasn't going to bother
them anymore. He didn't know how he would do it but he would make
it on his own.
Author's note—You know something has become too much of a cliché in fanfics when that's the conclusion that everyone leaps to at once. Congrats to Nappa, the only person who figured out why Ron was mad. *sigh* Seriously, I don't think anyone would be too happy about finding out that your best friends are dating from a paper rather than from your friends themselves It certainly would make me feel unwanted and left out. I'm not trying to demonize Ron here but he's always been the most human of the Trio so he's going to act what I think the average person would act like. And right now, the poor boy is hurting inside. In any case, please leave a review to let me know what you think. I would desperately like to know your reaction to this chapter.
Anyway, just a couple comments on remarks that were left:
Nappa—Like I said, congrats on figuring it out when no one else
did. What can I say—you get the know-it-all award for the week. ^_^
Korine—Thanks for the review! And I have to agree, H/H
doing mundane things together is just so adorable.
Animagus-Steph—The one thing I do NOT regret about not having
lab classes anymore are those stupid lab practicals. Gaahhhh!
I still remember how badly my organic chem. practical went. I was
just lucky that nothing caught on fire. Anyway, I hope your test
went well.
Brian—Hey, remember what I said about counting those clichés?
Perhaps I should make a drinking game for this fic and H/Hr fanfics in
general. Like one sip every time Ron gets upset when he learns about
H/Hr, one sip whenever their relationship is reported in the Daily Prophet,
CHUG if they announce it in front of everyone in the Great Hall, etc.
But that newspaper does seem the best way to spread rumors when you need
rumors to be spread and the Trio's not at Hogwarts anymore. And if
they are at Hogwarts, then just give the juicy info to Lavender and Parvati
and they'll spread the gossip for ya. ^_^
HarryNZ—Quite frankly, I don't see what was so evil about that
cliffhanger. I'll have you know that I was very tempted to go write
a D/Hr fic after I saw that comment and tell everyone to blame you for
it. :p I even have an idea for such a fic. Anyway, thanks for
the review—am glad to know you're enjoying the fic.
But thank you SO MUCH for the reviews! I really do appreciate
everyone taking the time to review. So thanks goes out to Achilles,
Heehee (were you surprised at the Ron treatment in this chapter?
Not all H/Hrs hate Ron!), leogrl, Tanya Maxwell
(goodie! someone who seems to prefer angst!), AznGolDragonGod,
Max (close, very close to guessing right but no cigar.
They're not good for you anyway), aaliyah-potter, ChrisMiss
(Good luck on finals!), Hazelmist, archforge,
Eric, Paladin Steelbreaker and Emili
Potter.