Sorry it's taken so long to post, but I've been having technical difficulties with my computer. It keeps freezing all the time, making it extremely hard to write more than a paragraph before it freezes up and I have to shut it down. I'm getting it fixed next weekend, so soon I'll be able to update regularly again. Thanks for your patience!
CHAPTER EIGHT: WHAT A MESS
"I'm actually kind of glad that my parents had to go to that dentist's convention for the Christmas break," Hermione confessed as she and Ron walked along in the snow. "Otherwise I don't think we would have seen each other until we got back to Hogwarts,"
"I don't think you would have lasted two weeks without seeing me." He ducked as she made a snowball and hurled it at him. "I never said I would have made it through the two weeks,"
"It was really nice of your parents to let me stay here,"
"You've stayed here before,"
"Things are different now," she pointed out. She grabbed his hand to prove her point.
"Right as usual," he remarked. "Where's Harry and Ginny? They were right behind us," he said, turning around to look for them.
"Maybe they wanted some alone time. It is kind of hard with a house full of people,"
"'Alone time'?" He said, shaking his head. "I could have done without hearing the words Harry, alone time, and my sister in the same sentence,"
"Does this help?" She said, leaning upwards and kissing him.
"Maybe," he replied when they parted. He moved to kiss her, but she pulled away.
"I think it's time we went back inside, don't you?" She said, smiling innocently.
"Unless you want to be the latest victim of a Weasley snowball assault," he said to her, grinning just as innocently.
Her reflexes were good, but not good enough to get out of the way of a snowball that hit her square in the shoulder. But Hermione was not one to give up without a fight, and snowball smacked Ron right in his cheek.
"You never play fair," he complained, but he was smiling nonetheless. "But that only means I get to break the rules too,"
Twenty minutes later, soaking wet and freezing, they arrived back at The Burrow. The lights were still out when they got inside, which meant the rest of the Weasley's were still out visiting Mr. Weasley's sister. The only reason Ginny and Ron had managed to get out of it was because they had 'friends' to entertain.
"This is something I'm not used to around here," Ron said as he took off his wet jacket and hung it over a chair.
"What?"
"Silence,"
She knew what he meant. Any of the times she had visited The Burrow it was very rare not to hear some explosion coming from the Twins' rooms or people conversing loudly to one another.
"You're freezing," he said, noticing how she was shivering as he helped her get her coat off.
"So are you." She pointed to the goose bumps on his bare arms.
"Nah, I'm fine. Come on, you should change into some warm clothes,"
He started leading her up the stairs when she stopped him. "I don't have any dry clothes,"
"Of course you do. Don't tell me all that luggage you brought was full of books?"
"No, but I was busy this last week of school trying to finish my assignments before the holidays, that I had planned on doing laundry when I got here. I was going to do it yesterday, but I didn't get around to it,"
He couldn't resist teasing her. "You mean, you actually forgot to do something?"
"Ron – "
"Hey, be nice," he cut her off, "or else I won't lend you some of my clothes,"
"You're clothes are too big for me,"
"I'm sure you'll find something. You can't stay in those wet things, that's for sure,"
"As long as it doesn't have the Chudley Cannons on it,"
"Hey, beggars can't be choosers," he said, and led her up to his room.
It was relatively cleaner then on passed visits, but Ron soon took care of that when he started pulling clothes out of a dresser and dropping them on the floor until he found what he was looking for.
"Here," he said, handing her an over-sized sweatshirt and a pair of jeans that were too small for him. "See, no Cannons,"
She took them from him, not sure if she should be grateful or horrified because it looked like she would drown in them.
They stood there for several seconds staring at each other, before Ron cleared his throat and said," I'll wait outside 'til you're done,"
He was about to leave when she stopped him. "You don't have to go," she said softly, licking her lips.
There was a sense of uncertainty in her voice. He had to ask, "are you sure?"
After a few moments of consideration, she nodded her head. "Yes,"
For a brief moment, a picture of Lavender landed in his mind, before he buried it. That was weeks ago and the biggest mistake of his life. He was with Hermione now. She had always been the one he had wanted to be with. Lavender was not even on his mind as he pulled Hermione's shirt up over her head…
"How's that one, Gillian?" Ron asked through the closed curtain.
"Definitely my favourite one so far," she told him.
"Thank god," he muttered under his breath, and went back join Hermione on the couch, who was sifting through a copy of Witch Weekly in the Wedding Dress shop.
"It could be worse, Ron," Hermione said to him, unable to hide her amusement. "You could be the one trying the dresses on,"
He snorted. "Well, then there sure as hell wouldn't be a wedding, I can tell you that much,"
"How's this one?" Gillian said, stepping out into the open.
She turned around in a full circle, showing off the dress. It was a snowy white colour, with a long train at the bottom.
The witch who owned the shop, had managed to design several dresses in a matter of minutes based on Gillian's description of what she was looking for. She had spent the last hour trying them on.
"You look beautiful in all the dresses," Ron told her.
"I've got it down to two choices," she said to them. "This one, and remember the first one I tried on?"
"Which one do you like better?" He asked patiently.
"I'll have to look at the first one again,"
Ron had to fight to keep from sighing.
"Hermione, would you mind putting that other dress on? That way I can look at them both at the same time and decide,"
Hermione was about to protest, when Ron whispered in her ear, "Hermione, if you care about me at all, you'll try on that dress so I don't end up spending my wedding and honeymoon in this place,"
He was practically begging her to put him out of his misery. She did feel sorry for him, and that was the only reason she agreed to do it. "You're going to owe me a lifetime's worth of favours after this," she told him.
"Don't worry. I'll make it up to you," he promised.
Still somewhat under protest, she took the dress Gillian handed and went behind the curtain to change. A wedding dress was a lot different to what she was used to wearing, so it took her a few moments to change into it. She hesitated before stepping out from behind the curtain. She really didn't want to go out there. She felt more than a little self-conscious wearing that dress. But there was no point in delaying the inevitable. She might as well go out there and get it over with. Taking a deep breath, she pulled back the curtain.
"I was starting to think you got lost in – "
Whatever else Ron was going to say died in his throat when he looked at her.
She had never seen him at a loss for words before. Ron always had some smart-ass comment or another to say, but he was speechless.
"You look good," he managed to choke out finally.
"Which one do you like better?" Gillian said, turning Hermione around so he could get a better look at her dress. "I think I like this one better," she said, without waiting for his response. "Don't you agree Ron?"
He was barely able to nod his head in agreement.
"Good. I'm glad we finally agree on something. Come with me, Hermione, we have to show Mrs. Freeland this is the dress I'm going to need.
Hermione shot Ron a helpless look, hoping he would rescue her, but he wasn't paying attention. He didn't even seem to notice when Gillian dragged her into Mrs. Freeland's private office.
"Harry, you awake?"
He was turned on his side, facing the wall, so Ron couldn't tell whether he was asleep or not. Considering the late hour, it was probably the former.
"Harry," he said, and shook his shoulder to try and wake him. He didn't care that his best friend was asleep. At least he had gotten to sleep. He had been up for hours.
"Ron, go away," Harry mumbled.
"Damnit, Harry, this is important,"
"What is so important that you had to come barging in here in the middle of the night?" Harry asked, rolling over to face him.
"It's Hermione,"
He heard Harry sigh. "Ron, it didn't work the first time when you two tried to do this wedding thing together – "
"I still love her,"
Oh boy. Harry grabbed his glasses from the nightstand and put them on. When his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he was able to see how on edge Ron was standing over him.
"What happened with you two today?" Harry asked carefully, sitting up.
"It's my fault. I was to damned impatient at that dress shop, and I thought it would speed things up so I begged Hermione to try on one of the dresses to make Gillian happy,"
"And?"
"And that's when my problem started. I told her she looked all right, but Harry, you should have seen her. She looked amazing. I've seen her in a lot of nice things over the years, but none of them come close to how beautiful she looked in that dress. I couldn't tear my eyes away from her,"
He was waiting for some sort of advice from his friend, but all he got was an 'I told you so' look from him.
"Ron, you knew this would happen,"
Ron nearly exploded. "How can you say that? How the hell was I supposed to know this would happen?"
"You never stopped to consider that spending all this time with Hermione might stir up some old feelings?"
"Well… maybe," he admitted.
"Then did you ever consider that maybe it's not love your feeling? Six years is a long time, Ron,"
"Jesus, Harry, you're not helping," Ron exclaimed. "You're supposed to tell me what I should do, not have me doubt whether or not what I feel is real,"
"Has Hermione said anything to you?"
Ron shook his head. "No, but that doesn't mean anything. Maybe she thinks I don't feel the same way.
Harry nearly laughed. "Are you listening to yourself? You're going on about whether Hermione still loves you, when you're getting married in a week,"
"Well, maybe it took me this long to realize a few things," he said to Harry.
"Are you sure about this, Ron? Because maybe you just have cold feet – "
"I don't have cold feet. And no, I'm not sure about Hermione. I'm not sure about the wedding." He raked his fingers through his ginger hair. "I'm not sure about anything anymore,"
"You have to talk to her," Harry told him.
"Is that what you did with Ginny?"
Harry shifted uncomfortably on the bed. "I'd rather not talk about that,"
"I just told you I'm still in love with my ex-girlfriend when I'm getting married in a week to someone that's not her, and you won't even tell me how you and Ginny got to be on speaking terms again?" Ron shook his head incredulously.
"She came to me,"
"And what happened?" Ron pressed him.
"She thinks I should get a life,"
"What?"
"She thinks it's time I stopped trying to do what everyone expects of me and do what I want for once in my life. I've had some time to think about it and I think she's right,"
"Ok, Harry, you've lost me. You and my sister haven't spoken for how long? And now she's giving you advice on how to live your life, and you're listening to her?"
"Think about it, Ron. Ever since I found out who I really was, I've spent each day of my life trying to live up to everyone's expectations of what I should be. When do I finally get to be just Harry Potter? Not 'The Boy Who Lived', or the 'Famous Harry Potter', just Harry,"
"Harry, people are always going to see you as those things. No matter how hard you try to be just an ordinary guy,"
"I'm quitting the ministry," he said quietly.
"WHAT?! Are you mad? Harry, you're the best auror there is. Just because you want a life outside that doesn't mean you have give that up,"
"That's exactly what I have to do, Ron. I can't figure out who I am if I'm still an auror,"
"I'm going to kill, Ginny,"
"Ron,"
"I'm serious, Harry. You wouldn't have even thought of this if it weren't for her. Trust me, you're so used to all the action and being in the thick of things that you'll go stir crazy by sitting around doing nothing. Harry, being a hero is what you do. We wouldn't be sitting here today, having this conversation, if you weren't the way you were. You have no idea how many people admire you,"
"Well, I'm sick of it. I'm not joking, Ron. I'm tired of being the one everybody depends on every time there's trouble. When do I get a break? When do I get to say 'I've saved the world for the last time and that's it'?"
"I still say you're crazy, but if 'getting a life' as my sister put it, is what you want to do, then I hope it's what you expect,"
Neither one of them said much after that. They were too absorbed in their own dilemmas, and sleep was definitely the farthest thing on both of their minds.
I hope it was worth the wait! Hopefully, by then end of next weekend I'll have a working computer that doesn't freeze every five minutes.