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TRUST IN ME
by Tyde

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Chapter Six

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"-slipping away from me. And you're so afraid I'll plead with you to stay. But I'm gonna be strong and let you go your way. Our love is gone. There's no sense in holding on, cause your pity now would be too much to bear. So I'm gonna be strong and pretend I don't care. I'm gonna be strong and stand as tall as I can. Yes I'm gonna be strong and let you run along and take it like a man"

Percy was singing away merrily in the kitchen of the Burrow when Ginny came downstairs looking a little worse for wear.

"Mornin' Gin"

She grunted. "What are you doing here Percy? It's too early on a Saturday morning for cheerfulness" Even through her grumpiness she had to admit he had quite a good voice. Must have had lessons.

"Dad is doing a raid today, might contain a few illegally imported items. Best be on board to sort it all out"

"Is that bacon?" she pointed at the pan sizzling away on the stove.

"Yes. Help yourself. You haven't seen Mum about have you? It's almost eight thirty and she's usually out feeding the chickens or collecting eggs or something" A quick glance at the clock above the stove told him none of that had been done as the hands still pointed towards 'Feed the chickens' and 'Collect eggs'. Molly's hand on the location clock just showed 'Travelling' and it had so for the past half hour. He was humming again as he tried to figure out where his Mum could be.

Ginny started tucking into the bacon and poured herself a large glass of pumpkin juice. "Only two weeks until Ron gets married. Can you believe it? Harry and I never thought either of them would come to their senses at one point. Lucky they did or we might have had to lock them in a room until they realised they loved one another. Got a date for the wedding?" she smothered the remaining bacon with elderberry sauce and continued munching.

"No. You?"

"Well I'm in the wedding party, don't really need one. But yeah, I do. Well sort of. We're just giving it a trial at the moment" In the background the arrows for both Molly and Ron had sprung to Home.

"Anyone I know?" But Percy didn't get the chance to find out who it was that Ginny was getting around town with as Ron burst into the kitchen. He was yelling at the top of his lungs and Mrs Weasley didn't seem to be able to do anything about it. She was fluttering around behind him, trying to get him to calm down and it was just serving to make him more aggravated. A tag on his wrist indicated he'd recently been admitted to hospital.

"MY OWN BROTHER! WHERE DOES HE THINK HE GETS OFF DOING THAT TO ME? SHE DIDN'T EVEN SAY ANYTHING EITHER. JUST STOOD THERE WITH HER MOUTH GAPING OPEN LIKE A FISH. IF I EVER SEE PERCY AGAIN I'LL STRANGLE HIM!"

Ron stopped dead by the table as he took in who else was in the room. Percy didn't even had the chance to blink before Ron had tackled him to the ground and was punching him repeatedly in the face.

His glasses lay broken on the floor a few feet away, flying off in the struggle. Ginny had never seen her brother looked so incensed. His face was totally red, brighter than a tomato and much more animated. Pulling her wand out of her dressing gown she roared a spell to pull them apart. Then she bound Ron to a chair and an apple from the fruit basket landed firmly in his mouth so he couldn't talk. His eyes glared at Ginny furiously but there was nothing he could do. Ron tried to spit the apple out but she'd stuck it there with a powerful Stick It There charm.

Percy lay on the floor groaning in pain and Ginny lifted him up into a chair, conjuring some ice and placing it on his jaw, nose and eye sockets. With her wand still pointed at Ron, Ginny spoke first.

"What the hell is going on?"

There was frustrated muffled sounds coming from Ron but it was Mrs Weasley that answered it.

"The wedding is off. It seems Percy here" she glared in his general direction and he was sure the ice started to melt quicker "has been dallying about with Hermione. And in public too, at a Ministry function! Shame on you Percival Weasley! I thought you had brains and would know better than to do something so reprehensible!"

"Mum..." Percy started.

"No! I don't want to hear it. Go to your room!"

"Er, I don't live here anymore"

"Then go to your flat, I don't want to see you for a while young man. I've never been so disgusted in one of my children before"

As Percy disappeared Mrs Weasley waved her wand to unbind Ron and the apple landed with a thud on the table.

"Should have let me at him again, Mum" Ron grumbled.

Ginny stood there looking thoroughly confused. The next question that came out of her mouth wasn't at all what they expected.

'Why the hell were you in hospital?" she queried, pointing at the tag on his wrist.

"Fell off a building"

"How much had you had to drink?"

Mrs Weasley spoke up at this point "He didn't so much fall off as throw himself off to impress a Veela"

"Ron," Ginny admonished.

"Well my life has ended anyway, may as well go in a good way"

"Making yourself a pavement pancake isn't an ideal choice though. Now what's all this about Percy and Hermione sleeping together? Did you catch them at it or something?"

She found it very difficult to believe that Hermione would ever pick up with Percy. According to their late night chats by owl Ron was some sort of sex god (Ick! Ginny thought) and besides he was her best friend and they loved one another. As much as Ginny admired Percy's intellect he was a terrible bore sometimes and she could imagine it wouldn't change in the bedroom, as thoroughly icky as that was to think about.

"He wouldn't be alive if I did. He took her to the Annual Ministry Winter Ball. I saw her touch his arse"

"That's it?"

'What do you mean, that's it? She was smacking him on the arse in front of the whole street"

"What does that prove? And why the hell was she hitting him?"

"He had dirt on his trousers"

"And why was that?"

"Cause I kicked him up the bum"

"RON!" her exclamation of disbelief reminded him of Hermione. "Didn't he notice?"

"Nah, had Harry's cloak on. Besides, he deserved it! He called her dear and was holding her arm and..." what had sounded like a very convincing argument was slowly being picked apart.

"You never saw them kiss or anything else that suggested they might be embroiled in some torrid affair?"

"Well if you put it that way. No. But she was nervous about going in there, about everyone looking at her or something"

"Well it is a pretty daunting thing to be asked to turn up to a Ministry function. Lots of important people there. Percy probably thought it would be nice for her to have a break from the wedding planning stress and have a fun night out"

"Sure, it's all perfectly logical until you look at the fact that neither of them told us that they were going to the ball, and together no less!" He was beginning to get the upper hand. "Hermione flat out lied and said she had a night out with the girls"

"Well yes, that is odd, but I'm sure there is a totally rational explanation for it all. Don't go throwing around all these ridiculous ideas of putting off the wedding until you've talked to Hermione about it"

"I've already talked to her."

"When?"

"At the hospital"

"And what did you say?"

"I basically told her to go to hell and that it was all over," he said rather quietly.

"RON!"

~*~

After receiving an emergency owl from St Mungos Hermione had Apparated straight there to find Ron still drunk and with a broken leg. Although the broken bone was fixed before you could say "leg, what leg?" what had transpired afterwards had been decidedly less pleasant. After he'd screamed at her to get out she'd gone straight home to bundle up under the warm blankets of her bed and never ever come out from under them.

Hermione heard the familiar popping sound as someone Apparated into her bedroom but she ignored it. If it was Ron looking to yell at her some more she'd just hex him across the room and then get back to some serious moping. But the voice that spoke to her wasn't Ron's, it was Ginny's.

"Hermione? Are you under there?"

"Yes" she admitted, wiping her dripping nose on her sleeve. "Don't feel much like visitor's at the moment, Gin. Another time perhaps?"

"Ron made a complete dick of himself"

"You're not wrong there"

"Care to maybe explain what's going in with you and Percy then, to an impartial ear?"

Exasperatedly Hermione whipped the blanket off her head. "There is NOTHING going on between me and Percy"

"I didn't think so, but Ron seems to think there is and you both have been acting a little strangely of late"

"That's because I'm organising a surprise for Ron at the reception and I needed Percy's help"

"What is it?"

"Well I wanted to get the Chudley Cannon team to do an aerial display, maybe write something in the sky with their broom tails or something. I thought it would be wonderful and romantic and..." she broke down and Ginny scooted over to the bed to hold her.

"And now Ron jumped to conclusions and you're wondering if he was even worth it in the first place?"

Hermione looked up at her oddly. "Since when did you start reading minds?"

"I'm just very preceptive. Listen if you just explain it all to him I'm sure he'll understand and then it will be full steam ahead in two weeks time. Things will be fine. I promise"

"I wouldn't promise anything if I were you. Not before I talk to Ron. You've forgotten how stubborn he is"

"He's the King of Stubborndom, but it's you 'Mione, he'll listen. If there's any part of him left that hasn't gone totally crazy then he'll listen"

Hermione looked up at her maid of honour. "Okay"

"Of course you might want to brush up on blocking unfriendly spells first. Just in case"

~*~

"NO Harry!"

"Come on Ron. What if Gin was right? What if you are the stupidest wizard on earth?" The two of them were holed up in Harry's office (he hated to work on Saturdays but sometimes it was necessary) and the weekend staff were starting to get mightily interested in the muffled arguing that was coming from their sector boss's office.

"It's 9 o'clock in the flipping morning Harry, since when did you have time to talk to Ginny?"

"Since she Apparated into my bathroom this morning while I was in the shower in such a state I had to comfort her with a shot of Ogden's! She's at Hermione's now telling her that you're a great big idiot and that she should talk to you."

"I ain't talking to her Harry. She'll twist my words and make me out to be the bad one" His crossed his arms in what he thought was a symbol of finality.

"Ron, when did your perception of Hermione suddenly turn her into some sort of harlot cross hypnotist? They say love makes you go crazy but I didn't know it turned you into a complete and utter nut job. You're absolutely insane, you know that?"

"When did your opinion change? Last night - wasn't I better off without her? Isn't that what you said?"

"I was just trying to make you feel better Ron. I didn't really mean it"

Ron looked at him sceptically. "That's not really helping your case any Harry. Maybe if you just close your mouth for a while. I have to think"

His thinking was interrupted by a woman knocking on the door with a clipboard that had a sheaf of parchment pieces attached to it. She looked nervously from Harry to Ron.

"Sorry to interrupt, sir, but we need you to sign off on a few of these orders"

"It's okay Ms Hattington" Harry said giving her a ready smile as he signed the orders. "Is that all?" She nodded in the affirmative. "Excellent, now if you could tell everyone to pretend I'm not here. I've got some rather urgent business to attend to" he pointed at Ron who was now sitting on the visitor's couch with his head in his hands and concentrating hard.

"Now, Ron. If you like Gin and I can set this up and we'll have you meet in neutral territory. You know that you two have to talk about this. It won't do to have all this pent up anger. Now you can protest all you like but you know you still love her and I'll be damned if she doesn't still love you. It won't do to never know the truth will it? How about you come over to my place and you two can talk it over there"

The redhead looked up at Harry and his face showed defeat albeit reluctantly. "All right, but I suggest you lock away all breakables first".

~*~

Author's note: Percy was singing a song called "I'm Gonna Be Strong" by Gene Pitney. Fabulous singer Gene. I was fortunate enough to see him perform a few years back. I just really wanted to put some of his lyrics in something that I wrote.

Okay to the Big Blank Space No Name Person I have one word for you: REFRESH! Your browser probably cached an old version of the page and that's why it's not showing up. Chapter 5 is most certainly there. I saw it myself :o) and well people reviewed it as well so...

Trinity13131 – as you can see in the above Ron's arse talked for a little while longer. Hehehe. He's blind, he's irrational, he's going to have to apologise in a huge way! Although we can't really be sure if Hermione is such an innocent party in all of this...yes I'm still going with the tired old "he helped her out with two things, what was the first?" refrain.

cosmoz – All future chapter material has been put into a vault in Gringotts. If you try to crack into it, the door with suck you into itself and as we all know, they only check them every ten years to see if anyone is in there. hehehe.