Although Ron had never really understood the healing concept of Taking A Walk, he felt compelled to do so that morning. Perhaps it was because, when he'd woken up, he could hear Harry breathing from the next bed over and immediately felt sickeningly, astoundingly ashamed; or perhaps it was when he went down to the common room to get out of the dorm Fred and George were already there and had immediately accosted him with Dutch rubs and painful tickling, as they usually did upon sight of him; or perhaps it was when he went down to the Great Hall to escape the common room Dumbledore had been there, and had blessed him with a benign smile, which was exactly what Ron felt he didn't deserve. No one who hit their best friend deserved that smile of Dumbledore's, and Ron felt further fiery shame in his stomach when he thought of what Dumbledore would say when he found out that he, Ron, had punched Harry in the face, for something that really wasn't his fault. It was Parvati's fault. No, not even her fault- it was his own stupid fault. He should have known. He should have seen it. He should have listened to Hermione.

So Ron needed to escape the interior of the castle and find some solace in the grounds, thinking he would even walk to Hogsmeade if he had to- if that was what it would take to banish the terrible guilt inside of him.

There wasn't even room inside of him to feel the desolateness that usually follows rejection. He knew somewhere that he had been rejected by Parvati- not only that, rejected for his best friend. But he felt somehow, that he deserved it. Little things that he'd said over the past weeks kept jumping out at him sharply, as painful as though someone was knifing him through the stomach- and with every memory the knife turned around, digging further and further into him.

"You believe that Parvati's trying to use me to get to you? Thanks a lot! I didn't think you could be so up yourself!"

"Clearly you know even less about me than Hermione does. So much for being my friend."

"This is low. This is so low, Hermione. I didn't think even you could go so far. You're so…Just…get the hell away from me. I can't even look at you anymore."

"If I wanted your opinion, I'd ask for it! Parvati and I get along just fine! I can't help it if you don't like her!"

"HOW CAN YOU COME INTO MY ROOM, LOOK ME IN THE EYE AND TELL ME A LIE LIKE THAT?!"

"Just shut up, okay? You hardly know her, you seem to have dramatically misjudged me, and the last thing I'll ever do is come crying to you when I'm in trouble!"

"You're not and never have been a good friend to me so just leave-me-alone'

Shame, shame, shame. How would he ever be able to look Hermione in the eyes again knowing he had said what he had said and insulted her again and again and again? It was all he could do not to be sick as he thought of some of the things he had said to her. "You're not and never have been a good friend to me so just leave-me-alone."

He wanted to die as he thought of that. How could he have said that to the one person who had always, always, always been there for him, forgiving and gracious and warm and kind and beautiful? In first year he had insulted her and despite that she had deigned to become his best friend. In second year she had been the driving force behind the plan for the Polyjuice Potion and all he had done was bag the idea- and yet it was she who got the worst out of it in the end. In third year Ron had been completely and utterly wrong about Scabbers and he had been so very horrible to her and despite that she had forgiven him and even been grateful that they were speaking again. In fourth year Ron had accused her of horrible things when she started knocking around with that Viktor Krum and yet it was him acting like an idiot. And now, even though he had called her a bad friend in front of the whole common room she had still tried to stop Parvati Patil hurting him and he had thrown it back in her face.

Ron suddenly felt cold all over. Through all the years he'd known her it was him, not Hermione, who had been the cause of all their arguments. She copped the brunt of his bad temper and the flak for all his stupid mistakes and yet she still came up smiling at him. For four years he had been completely horrible to her and still she remained there for him, stoic and wonderfully supportive and…"Oh God…" Ron wailed aloud, stopping dead in his tracks.

Why? Why should such a selfless and wonderful creature as Hermione Granger be bothered with him? He felt so desperately, amazingly ashamed, and it was all he could do not to collapse right there in the snow and grind his teeth with desperation, because of that sudden realisation, the realisation that he, Ronald William Weasley, was a totally blind fool.

So he sat down, because his legs felt a bit weak and unable to carry him. He stared into the black, icy waters of the river, not caring that the ground was freezing or that his robes were slowly getting saturated as they soaked up water from the snow, but just feeling utterly…useless.

It felt like he sat there for some time before he heard the crunching of boots on snow coming toward him. Not wanting to talk to anyone, Ron buried his head in his knees, hoping that whoever it was would get the message and not say a word. The crunching boots stopped.

"Hello," said the person who owned the boots. It was Hermione.

She sat down next to him, but Ron didn't look at her. How could he? In fact for a spilt second he considered pitching himself headfirst into the lake, his shame was so potent. But the feeling passed, and instead he was left with the guilt burning in his stomach once more. Ron became barely conscious of all the other issues that had come up in the past weeks- it was Hermione who mattered now. She sat next to him in silence for quite some time, pushing snow around with her fingers. A long strand of her hair tickled Ron's cheek as the wind blew it free of her scarf. He could hardly stand it. Was she waiting for an apology? Or was she trying to figure how to tell him, exactly, that she would never deign to talk to him again? Ron had to say something

"Say it."

She looked at him. Ron didn't look at her face but he knew she was looking at him because he could feel her steady gaze. "Say what?" she said finally.

"You know what."

"No, I don't. What?"

Ron took a deep breath. 'You told me this would happen. Say I told you so."

There was a pause. Then, quietly: "That's the last thing I want to say."

Ron didn't know how to answer. "Then," he said, struggling for words, 'Why are you here?"

"I wanted to make sure that you were okay."

Her reply had come so earnestly that it took Ron by surprise. I wanted to make sure that you were okay. Then he groaned aloud. "Hermione…please don't feel sorry for me. Please?"

"I don't feel sorry for you."

"Then what are you doing here?" Ron repeated desperately. If she didn't want to tell him she was right all along, and if she didn't want to pity him, then what could she possibly want? It was so hard sitting next to her…

"I told you, I just wanted to make sure you were all right."

"Come off it!" Ron cried, despite himself. "You're great, Hermione, but you're not that great. I was horrible to you. I called you a liar, and a bad friend, and, and- god knows what else! And when you tried to help me I threw it back in your face. Now it turns out you were right all along, and I was wrong all along- how is it that you want me to be all right?" he finished with a desperate tone to his voice. Hermione shifted so that her shoe was touching his.

"Apology accepted," she said succinctly. "Friends forgive each other, Ron."

Ron couldn't stand it. He looked at her- right into her eyes.

She smiled at him.

"Hermione," Ron groaned, 'Don't do this."

"Do what?' she said, confused.

"Be so wonderful. You know what a bad friend I am. I feel terrible, and…"

Hermione did something she had never done before- she put an arm around his shoulders, and then leaned her face forward and pressed her forehead against his.

"Friends forgive each other," she said again. Ron was momentarily speechless. How was it that he'd never realised how great she was before?

"I'm not a friend," he said hoarsely. 'I'm an idiot."

"How's that?" she said kindly.
"Well, for starters, I insulted you, I didn't believe you, I yelled at you in front of everyone…" he paused. 'I punched Harry. And he didn't even do anything wrong, did he?"

"You're not an idiot, Ron," came the gentle reply. 'You're just an adolescent boy who was taken in by the charms of a very pretty girl. You're not the first, and you certainly won't be the last. You're not an idiot." She paused to let it sink in. "In fact," she said after a bit, "You haven't done anything wrong at all. When you got mad at me it was only because I was insulting your girlfriend. When you called me a liar it was only because you thought I was lying. You were so loyal to her Ron- it's loyalty that matters." She smiled at him, "Do you understand what I mean? You stood up to me because you thought I was doing something wrong, which means that you fought the good fight. Wasn't it Dumbledore who said: "it is harder to stand up to our friends than our enemies"? That's what you did. You're very brave. And you're very loyal."

It didn't validate his actions, but knowing that Hermione forgave him was worth anything. Ron, feeling a bit dizzy, leant his head down on top of hers, feeling not just abjectly grateful towards her, but a frank and deep affection.

"You're a good friend Hermione. If I ever made you think otherwise I'm sorry."

"If we didn't have bad friends then we wouldn't know how good our good friends are." Hermione said simply, and they sat together for some time, leaning on each other, with Hermione's hair tickling Ron's cheek and Ron's hand, resting quite comfortably, on top of hers.

*

Harry found them eventually, and was, understandably, quite shocked to see them sitting together in the snow. He dithered around leaving or interrupting their moment, or whatever it was, but Hermione saw him.

"Harry!" she said, smiling. Ron's head jerked up and looked around to face him, blushing. Harry felt his own cheeks begin to redden. "I didn't mean to interrupt," he began to mumble, but Hermione was on her feet, having extricated herself from Ron's arms, and brushing her hair out of her eyes.

"I'd better go back up to the castle," she said cheerily. She leant down and whispered something in Ron's ear, at which he nodded and blushed a bit more. "Thanks Hermione." Harry heard him murmur. Hermione gave Harry's shoulder a squeeze as she passed, and suddenly he and Ron were alone.

"Can I sit down, then?" Harry asked abruptly. Ron didn't look at him, but nodded. Harry felt despair stirring in his stomach, realising that Ron must have really been angry with him if he couldn't even look at him. But he sat down next to Ron anyway, and a great silence ensued. Ron still didn't look at Harry, and Harry wondered whether or not taking Sirius's advice had been such a good idea.

"Sort it out," his godfather had urged, when Harry had spilled the whole story to him last night, in Dumbledore's office.

"But Sirius-"

"Harry. You didn't do anything wrong. Ron was just angry and shocked, that's all. No one wants to see their best friend kissing their girlfriend."

"But he punched me, he's never done that before, and-"

"Oh for heaven's sake," Sirius had said, waving away Harry's misgivings, "Your father and I used to beat each other up all the time."

"Really?"

"Yes," Sirius said firmly. "With pillows," he'd added after a moment's silence.

Harry groaned inwardly. He desperately wanted to say "I'm sorry," and explain himself to Ron but the words were having a hard time coming out of his mouth. He thought about what Sirius had said again. "Don't apologise," he'd said firmly. "And don't let Ron apologise either. The only person who's at fault here is the girl. What's her name?"

"Parvati Patil…"

"Yeah, her. And me."

"You?" Harry had looked up at Sirius quizzically from behind the ice filled bag he was holding to his face, the better to soothe the injury on his face that Ron had given him.

"Yes," Sirius had said humbly, "I'm sorry I snapped at you for being worried about your friends. I didn't realise things were so bad."

"Neither did I," Harry had said morosely.

Despite what Sirius had said, Harry finally found himself giving words to the great shame he felt inside his stomach. Even if it was Parvati's fault, he should have been firmer with her- he shouldn't have let himself get into the situation in the first place. Perhaps if he'd believed Hermione, this wouldn't have happened. He made a mental note to apologise to Hermione as well.

"I'm sorry," Harry finally said. He looked around. If he didn't know better he would swear he ah heard an echo. Ron was looking at him in surprise. It took a moment for them both to realise that they had said the same thing.

"You're sorry?" Ron blurted out, the same time Harry said, "What are you apologising for?"

A faint grin appeared on Ron's face, and Harry couldn't help but grin back. "Why are you sorry?" Ron said, his grin turning into a faint smile of puzzlement.

"For- for, you know, what happened." Harry said. "And everything else. But mostly for what happened yesterday. I shouldn't have let her get to me."

"Everything else?" Ron repeated quizzically.

Harry shrugged. "I haven't been very nice to you since you started going out with Parvati, and I'm sorry for it. I just wish, you know, that things could go back to the way they were- before you started going out with Parvati. They can, right? Ron?" Harry paused. "What are you apologising for?"

Ron looked away, his grin notably absent. "I hit you. In case you don't remember." He looked up and his eyes raked Harry's cheek for signs of bruising. "And I- I did everything wrong."

"Ron?" Harry said, as Ron put two hands to his face.

"No, shut up, let me finish," came the muffled reply. "I'm an idiot. I've always been an idiot. I always will be an idiot. I don't deserve friends like you and Hermione. Because, if all it takes to turn me into a bad friend is one girlfriend, then I'm obviously not a good enough friend to either of you. I'm sorry I hit you, and I wish I'd never dated Parvati in the first place, because all she did was turn me into this, this…stupid dickhead who couldn't even stand up for his friends against her. So, yeah, Harry," He finally took his hands away from his face, and let out a huge sigh. "Of course I want things to go back to the way they were, but I just want you to know that they can't. Because from here on in, I know that I don't deserve a friend like you, and that's going to sit here-" he tapped his chest with a curled fist, "-for the rest of my life."

It was by far the most heartfelt thing Ron had ever said directly to Harry. Harry was shocked, firstly by Ron's forwardness, but secondly by what Ron was saying. For a few moments all he could do was gape soundlessly at Ron, and then finally:

"You- you- ridiculous prat!" he finally snapped. Ron sighed.

'I know," he began, but Harry cut him off by thumping his fist to the ground.

"You are an idiot- but only because you think you're one! And if you ever say anything like that to me again, I might have to thump you one, you git!"

Ron was by now, thoroughly confused. "Harry?"

"Do you honestly think that you don't deserve me? Ron!" and now all Harry could do was laugh, "You are by far my best friend in the world, and no one's going to change that- not Parvati Patil, not Voldemort, not me, not even you, with your stupid thick head!"

"You mean, you mean," Ron said unable to keep the grin off his face. "We're okay? You don't mind that I hit you and- well, you don't mind everything?"

"Oh please," Harry said, rolling his eyes, "If we're going to fight, it should at least be over something more important than Parvati Patil."

Although what Harry had said was not particularly funny, neither he nor Ron could stop laughing for quite some time. Harry knew it was because he was so relived, so happy, so utterly delighted that he couldn't stop the happiness bubbling up his throat. Judging by the grin on Ron's face, he felt pretty much the same way.