As promised, here's chapter seven…
CHAPTER SEVEN: GUILTY CONSCIENCE
"You shouldn't be mad at Hermione," Ginny said, breaking the silence when it became more than she could bear. "I'm the one who shouldn't have said anything,"
"You're right," Harry agreed. "I should be mad at the both of you,"
Ginny stopped walking and looked at him. Was this why he had wanted to talk to her? So he could try and make her feel like this mess was her fault?
"If you came here so you could tell me off some more, I would rather you have just stayed away,"
"I don't really know why I came here," he admitted.
"So you just apparated here because you felt like it?"
He didn't have an answer for that.
They walked on in silence, and it wasn't long before their current path brought them to a small park neither of them had ever been to before. Ginny went over to a set of nearby swings and sat down on one. She was surprised when she saw Harry do the same.
"What do you want to know?" He asked after some time.
"Harry, that's not why I looked through that file,"
"Then why did you do it?" He said, facing her.
"Because I care,"
She looked at the ground when she said it.
"I'm not angry because you read it," he said. "I know that's how it looked that day you came to the apartment, but that wasn't it. I was upset because no one should have to read that, and I would have thought Hermione, of all people, would have had the sense to realize that before she told you,"
"Harry, it's not your job to protect the world from every evil. I know you think that it is, but it isn't,"
"There are some things people are better off not knowing, Gin,"
"That may be true, but people have a right to know what's out there. They should know what people like you face every day,"
"I can't agree with you on that,"
"Would you stop thinking like 'Harry the Auror' and think like ' Harry Potter' for a minute?" His eyes widened at her words, but he didn't speak. "Harry, you've changed so much since Hogwarts. I know you've always had a lot of responsibilities – that you've always did what was expected of you. But none of those choices you've had to make has ever been your own. You've spent your whole life living up to everyone else's expectations, that you've completely ignored your own,"
"This is who I am, Ginny,"
"No, this is who you think you're supposed to be," She corrected him.
"Where is all this coming from? A week ago you wouldn't have cared if I had disappeared off the face of the earth,"
"Let's just say I've had a lot of time to think since then,"
He sat there in stunned silence. He hadn't been expecting this from her – this sudden change of heart about her attitude towards him.
"Harry, what if you woke up one morning and decided to make a choice of your own?"
"I do make my own choices. Every day,"
"Stop! You're thinking like 'Harry the Auror' again. You choose what is expected of you, not what you want. Think about it Harry, is this how you want to live the rest of your life? When does Harry Potter get to have a life of his own?"
Those were two good questions. And he didn't have the answer to either one of them. Fortunately for him, Ginny wasn't expecting him to.
"Ginny!"
They both looked up and saw Colin Creevy heading towards them.
"You're mum said you'd be out here somewhere," he said, ignoring Harry completely.
Colin's usual cold attitude towards Harry showed him Ginny had at least managed to keep to herself what she had found out.
"I should go," Harry said, and got up from the swing. "Good-bye, Ginny,"
He started walking away when Ginny called to him.
"Just think about what I said,"
He nodded and kept walking.
He walked for some distance before deciding to turn around and apparate. The last thing he saw before disappearing was Ginny and Colin embracing tenderly.
Ron was a wreck. And it was hard to keep a fact like that from Hermione.
Over the course of the past two weeks, his guilt was slowly eating away at him. He was having trouble sleeping at night; he wasn't eating right and on more than one occasion found himself unable to look Hermione in the eye when he was talking to her. He didn't know if she had picked up on any of it, but she was a bright girl and if he didn't pull himself together – and fast – she was going to figure out why he was acting the way he was.
At least Lavender wasn't making the situation worse. After that afternoon in the library, she had kept her usual distance from him. Of course it was impossible to avoid each other altogether when they had most of the same classes, but Ron had managed to sit as far away from her as possible and avoid being partnered up with her in any activities.
He thought things might turn out okay until the other day in the Great Hall, Pavarti and some of her friends had been staring at him and snickering. He needed to know if Lavender had said anything to anyone, but that was Sunday night and asking to speak to her alone in a common room full of people would have looked suspicious.
He had skipped Care of Magical Creatures, knowing Hagrid wouldn't be too hard on him, to make sure he was there when Lavender got out of Astronomy. He was alone in the corridor, waiting for the class to end. When it finally did, he waited against the wall until he saw her come out.
"We need to talk," he growled in a low voice and pulled her down a deserted corridor.
"What is it?"
"Did you tell anyone about what happened with us?"
"No, I didn't,"
"Are you lying? Because I saw Pavarti starting at me like she knew something,"
"You're paranoid," she said to him. "I didn't tell her or anyone else anything. Why would I? You have a girlfriend and it was just a one-time thing. I mean it was great but we both only wanted that one time,"
"That's it?"
She regarded him curiously. "Why? What were you expecting? Did you want it to happen again?"
"No! Of course not," he said quickly.
"Then no harm done." She said it as if it made everything okay. "I gotta say, Ron, you were a lot easier then Harry was,"
Ron had to hold onto the wall for support. "What?!"
If he found out Harry had cheated on his sister…
"He wouldn't even let me kiss him," she told him. "I gotta get to class, Ron, I'll see you later,"
She left him standing there, clutching the wall for support. He had half a mind to bang his head against it a few dozen times. How could he have been so stupid? Maybe naïve might have been the better word. He thought Harry had been jealous, but all he had been trying to do was warn him. And he had just been too thickheaded to see it.
"Ron!"
Hermione was jogging towards him.
He took a deep. Pull yourself together, Weasley.
Forcing a smile, he said, "Hey,"
"Where have you been? You weren't in Hagrid's class,"
"I know. I wasn't feeling well," he lied.
She placed the back of her hand on his forehead. "You feel kind've warm," she noted with some concern.
"I'm fine. Really," he tried to assure her, pulling her hand away.
She looked skeptical. "Are you sure? You've been acting kind've off lately,"
"It's probably just a flu bug or something. I'll walk you to Arithmacy,"
Hermione wasn't budging. "Ron, there's something wrong. Why can't you just tell me?"
"Mione, trust me. Nothing's wrong,"
Still unconvinced, she let him take her to class. It was Ron. When he was ready he would tell her what was wrong and they would deal with it together.
"Here, try this one,"
"Ron, that's too much chocolate,"
"There's no such thing,"
Somewhat under protest, Hermione popped the piece of triple fudge chocolate cake with chocolate icing into her mouth.
"Well?" Ron prompted.
"It's too sweet," she said with her mouth half full.
"You know what your problem is, don't you? You don't have a sweet tooth,"
She rolled her eyes.
"But seriously, which ones did you like the best?"
"Those ones," she said pointing to two different cakes on a chart they had.
"I was thinking why couldn't the wedding cake have a layer of each of these?" He caught the look she was sending him. "Okay, okay, your choices were good,"
"You know, this hasn't been a very productive evening," she said to him.
Ron looked aghast. "Not productive? Hermione, the wedding cake is the most important part. Even I know that about weddings,"
He was trying to goad out a reaction from her, but she didn't fall for it. "There's still a few more left," she said, looking at the nearly empty box that two hours ago had been full of cake samples.
"All right," said Ron, closing his eyes and opening his mouth. "Surprise me,"
She did one better than that. The next time he opened his eyes there was cake all over his face.
He looked at her in astonishment and wiped his hand down his face, which came up full of vanilla frosting. "I can't believe you just did that," he said to her.
Hermione was fighting to keep from laughing. "You did say 'surprise me',"
"I did say that," he conceded. "But you do realize what you've started?" He answered his own question. "A cake fight!"
He leapt off the couch and before Hermione could react in time, he smashed a sample of cake into her own face. He was doubled over with laughter when Hermione jumped off the couch and onto his back, flattening cake into his hair.
"You cheater!" He shouted. "I'm going to have to teach you a lesson!"
Whatever that lesson was, he never got a chance to show her because the sound of someone clearing their throat caught their attention.
They both looked surprised and somewhat embarrassed to see Harry standing there in front of them. He looked to be having some difficulty keeping a straight face.
"Hi Harry," Ron said as innocently as he could.
Hermione slid down off his back, having a hard time making eye contact with Harry.
"You're back early," Ron noted.
"Is that a problem?" Harry asked, looking his two cake covered friends over.
"No, not at all. We were just, ah, you know – "
"Picking out cake," Hermione jumped in.
"I can see that," Harry noted with some amusement.
"Ginny called for you," Ron told him, trying to take the spotlight off himself and Hermione. "What's that all about? I thought she wasn't talking to you – ow! What was that for?" He said, rubbing the spot on his side where Hermione had just elbowed him.
"I'm going to go," she said, ignoring Ron. "I'll see you two tomorrow,"
She was almost at the door when Harry said, "you might want to clean yourself up a bit before you go out there. It's just a thought,"
Her face was bright red with embarrassment. "Right. Good idea,"
She walked straight passed him on her way to the bathroom. She didn't miss the look in his eyes that told her things were okay with them again. She wondered what had happened between him and Ginny yesterday.
"Don't start," Ron warned when the door to the bathroom had closed.
Harry raised his hands in self-defense. "I didn't say anything,"
"No, but you were going to,"
"All I was going to say is you two seemed to be hard at work when I walked in,"
"We were," Ron insisted. "Until a little cake mishap happened," he added. "Are you going to tell me why my sister called?"
Harry shrugged. "How should I know?"
Ron wasn't buying that act. "You liar," he accused.
"So what if I am? It's really none of your business, Ron. She called for me, not you, remember? What are you going to do? Kick me out if I don't tell you?"
"The thought had crossed my mind – just briefly, though,"
"Good-night, Ron. Say good-bye to Hermione for me,"
He watched Harry disappear down the hall and into the spare bedroom.
He was going to find out what was going on with them. It was his duty as a big brother after all. Maybe he might even be able to convince Hermione to help him.