CHAPTER FIVE: A SECOND CHANCE
"You and Ron had another fight,"
It was a statement not a question.
Harry shrugged. There was no point in denying it because Hermione would be able to tell he was lying.
It was just the two of them on their way down to visit Hagrid before Harry's Quidditch game. Ron had made up some excuse about needing to do research in the library. For Ron, that was an excuse that wasn't even remotely believable.
"You guys have been fighting a lot lately," She commented. "What's going on?"
Harry kicked at a stone. "It's nothing,"
She touched his arm and he stopped walking. "Harry, you can tell me. I'm not going to say anything to Ron,"
"I know that. I'm sorry," he said to her. "It's just – does Ron seem different to you this year?"
Hermione gave him a puzzled look. "I'm not sure what you mean, Harry. Ron's the same as he's always been,"
"I don't know. It just seems like since he helped in defeating Voldermort last year, that he thinks he's better then most people,"
"Is this what you two fought about?"
"Not exactly. He thinks I'm jealous of the attention he's getting now,"
"Are you?"
He had flat-out denied it to Ron, but he wasn't so quick to say the same to Hermione. In fact, he didn't say anything at all.
"Harry, there's nothing wrong with being a bit jealous. God knows Ron's been jealous of you for years. You should cut him some slack. He's been stuck under the shadows of his brothers and his best friend for most of his life. People have finally started to notice him. I'm happy that he's finally getting some attention,"
"Even the attention he's getting from certain members of the female population?" Harry said, raising an eyebrow.
"Even that," she confirmed. "Harry, I trust Ron. You should to,"
"I do, and you're right. The only thing I know Ron can't be trusted with is to complete a school assignment on time,"
Hermione grinned at him. "Don't worry, I'm working on that,"
It was nearly noon on Monday and Hermione was making pretty good headway on the mountain of paperwork that had piled up on her desk over the weekend. It had helped that she had come into the office on Sunday and done some work then. She had reasoned that if she was going to be miserable, she might as well be miserable at work and accomplish something. She hadn't spoken to Ron since Saturday, but she had called Harry yesterday. He had sounded terrible when he had picked up the phone, but that hadn't stopped her from yelling at him that this mess was his fault and saying she never should have let him talk her into helping Ron. Then Harry had vented on her for reading a classified file on him and telling Ginny, before hanging up on her.
That had certainly been an unexpected turn of events. She had been hoping afterwards that she'd been able to talk to Harry about what had happened between her and Ron, but that didn't seem likely to happen anytime soon. He had never been angry with her like this before. She was going to have to sit down and have a talk with a certain Weasley about revealing information she had disclosed to her in confidence. Of course, she should have known that Ginny wouldn't have been able to keep her mouth shut. Hermione doubted she would have acted any differently in her position.
She heard a knock on her office door.
"It's open," she called. She lifted her head to see who the visitor was.
Ron.
"Hey," he said uncertainly, from his spot in the doorway.
"Hey," she responded back. She had expected to be back on good terms with Harry long before her and Ron finally got around to speaking to each other again.
"They said it was fine that I come up here. Is it okay?"
"Yeah, it's no problem," she told him.
He looked a little more at ease after that and walked in. Normally, he would have sat down on one of the heavily cushioned chairs in her office, but today it looked like he preferred to stand.
"I didn't expect to see you here," she said to him.
"Yeah, well, I was in the neighbourhood," he said jokingly.
It went silent and they both looked at each other.
"I'm sorry," they both blurted out simultaneously.
They laughed nervously breaking some of the attention, before Ron said. "You first. It's your office,"
Hermione wasn't laughing any longer. "I'm sorry about what I said. It wasn't fair,"
"There's nothing to be sorry about telling the truth,"
"Ron – "
He waved a hand. "Please don't apologize anymore, Hermione. You were right. It's as simple as that. I can't expect there to be a time limit on how long you can stay mad at someone. I guess I got what I deserved for bringing up the past, huh?"
"Ron, I didn't say those things to hurt you,"
"I know you didn't," he said, and he looked like he genuinely believed her. "It just took me nearly three days of feeling sorry for myself to realize that." He looked at her now and said, "I'm sorry I ruined your weekend,"
"And I'm sorry I wasn't much help for your wedding,"
"Okay, how about we make a deal? No more apologizing. We never used to and this is getting to be a bit much,"
She nodded, smiling. "Deal,"
Ron grinned. "Great. So how about you come to lunch with me?"
Her smile faded. Was he blind to the pile on her desk?
He seemed to know what she was thinking. "Come on, Hermione. Is an hour really going to make that much of a difference? You need to eat. Besides, you've already accomplished more than you should have because you came in on Sunday,"
"How do you know that?"
"My dad," he explained to her.
"Hermione, please? Gillian's downstairs in the lobby and I thought over lunch we could tell her what we accomplished on the weekend. I know it doesn't matter much now because you're not helping anymore, but she might actually believe I did something if I had a witness,"
She gave in. "Fine. Let's go," she said grabbing her jacket. "I'm going to hold you to that one hour,"
He held the door open for her. "After you,"
It was a cold, rainy day in London, and the three of them apparated just outside a small restaurant not too far from the ministry.
"I'm freezing," Gillian complained. "Let's go inside,"
She led the way inside and the three wizards were immediately shown to a table.
Hermione had only seen Gillian several times, but it wasn't hard to tell what Ron saw in her. She was chief editor for the Daily Prophet, which meant she had to have some brains; she was blonde, tall, self-assured and nothing at all like Hermione. Why she was even comparing herself to Gillian was beyond her.
"I talked to some people at the Prophet, and there's an opening if you want it," Gillian said to Ron.
Ron clenched his jaw. "I told you I wasn't working there,"
"Ron, I just think if you gave it a chance it might provide you with some direction. You are planning on getting a real job besides playing Quidditch for fun right?"
"I really wish everyone would stop thinking they know what's best for me and let me make my own decisions," said Ron, his temper starting to show through.
"Did Ron tell you what we accomplished on the weekend?" Hermione intervened.
"No," she said, turning to face Hermione. "We were kind of busy on the weekend,"
Ron's face reddened. "We did do a lot though," he said quickly. "The menus are done. Here look at this," he said, pulling out a piece of paper from his jacket pocket. "We did the food and I figured out what I was going to wear,"
She took the paper and read it. Her expression transformed into a giant frown the longer she looked at it.
"What is it?" Ron asked. "I took care of two important things,"
"Yes, you did,"
He didn't understand. "Then what's the problem?"
"You did all this in muggle stores,"
"So?"
"So, I thought we had agreed on a wizard type wedding,"
"It's still going to be a wizard wedding. The way the food's prepared is not going to change that,"
"What about what you're wearing?"
"It's the modern look for wizards – from what I've been told,"
"No offence to muggles, Ron, but why the sudden change of heart? Usually, you could care less about their customs or the way they do things,"
"I just didn't see what the big deal was to incorporate both into our wedding. Some of my friends were brought up as muggles and will appreciate the split between the two,"
"Well, it's not their wedding, is it?" She sighed. "I need to check back with the office. I'll be back in a minute," she said and got up from the table."
"I'm sorry," Ron said to Hermione when she was gone.
"I thought we made a deal not to apologize anymore,"
"I'm breaking it," he informed her. "She didn't mean that stuff about muggles. Her wizarding blood goes back generations,"
"Why didn't you tell her the 'muggle way' wasn't your idea?"
"It may not have been my idea but I'm going along with it," he said with a shrug.
"Ron, you don't have to. I should have taken into consideration that Gillian might not want things done our way,"
"Our way?" Ron repeated.
"Isn't that what you say when two people work together?"
"I thought we weren't going to do that,"
"I know. But I think now that we've cleared some things out of the way, it'll work,"
He didn't know what to say. A few hours ago, he wasn't even sure if he had a best friend left and now he had a best friend and a wedding planner.
"Hermione, are you sure? Because I'll understand if you don't want to,"
"I'm sure," she assured him. "You know me, once I start something I have to finish it. Say good-bye to Gillian for me," she said, pushing away from the table. "I really should get back. And I will eat something," she promised.
She had only gotten a few steps from the table when Ron called to her.
"Hermione?"
"Yeah?"
"Thanks,"
She left the restaurant feeling better then she had in a long time.