The mirror of erised
By Sinful Starlet
Rating: PG probably - maybe PG-13 but that's pushing it.
Disclaimer: Not JK Rowling (though I wish I was) so clearly not mine.
Summary: Some time during their later school career, Harry and his friends come across the mirror of erised again with some surprising results!
Blurb: Part six. Almost done now, one more chapter after this one. Harry waits for Hermione to finally make her move, but it doesn't seem like she'll ever get round to it. So what will Harry do, and will Ron ever figure it out? *SS*
Chapter Twelve
Harry wasn't sure what exactly he'd been expecting from Hermione when they went into lunch that afternoon, but her acting completely normal hadn't been one of the things on his list. She was obviously feeling a lot better now that she knew that he knew and was okay with it all. The weight of keeping it all to herself had really been getting to her, it had been so hard lying to her two best friends all week. Of course she still had to talk to Ron about it, but she wasn't exactly rushing to do that.
That said, that lunch was one of the most enjoyable of the whole week, things seemed almost completely back to normal, everyone laughing when George managed to sneak a canary cream into Ron's sandwich - everyone except Ron of course. He had shot Harry a questioning look when he had walked into the hall with Hermione, but Harry just shook his head and smiled. Ron nodded discretely and managed to divert the others' attention before they noticed what was going on between him and Harry.
Harry wondered a lot about his two friends that lunch time, looking at them as if for the first time, and trying to figure out all that had changed over the years. As strange as the idea might have been to him at first, he thought Ron and Hermione actually had the chance of being a really nice couple. Of course they fought more than any other two people Harry had ever known, but it had only ever been malicious once or twice in six years, which wasn't a bad track record considering.
And Ron clearly cared about her, even if he would never publicly admit to it. Harry only had to cast his mind back to all the times Ron had rushed to Hermione's rescue over the years - trying to curse Malfoy for insulting her, the look on his face when he saw that she'd been petrified, even when he volunteered to help her with S.P.E.W. after he'd spent so much time making fun of her about it. Harry had had his suspicions for a while about Ron's feelings for Hermione, but Ron had never said anything to him about it. This was the one thing that worried Harry a little, Ron certainly wasn't going to make it easy for her to tell him. However he felt, he had never treated her any differently over the six years that they had been at school together.
And he did seem to be fairly clueless about girls in general. Harry laughed at that, realising how it sounded in his head. Ron certainly knew they existed - Fleur De La Couer alone was proof of that - but he apparently never noticed when they were interested in him. It wasn't that Harry was jealous, he wasn't exactly lacking in attention himself, but he couldn't help noticing that Ron seemed to get far more smiles from the girls of Hogwarts when he walked down the corridors than Harry himself - especially since he had started playing Quidditch.
He was so tempted whenever Ron teased him about the second years and their 'Harry Potter fan club', to tell him that there was also a 'Ron Weasley fan club', a small group of Gryffindor girls that came to every one of their Quidditch games. Being Seeker, Harry had plenty of time to sit high up on his broom, scouring the pitch and the crowds, and the same set of girls were there every time, cheering madly whenever Ron scored.
It was only when they were leaving the Great Hall after lunch that day that Harry remembered that he hadn't asked Hermione how she was planning to tell Ron - he knew her well enough to tell that she'd already decided that she would tell him eventually. She had that expression of concentration in her eyes that she usually reserved for thinking about arithmancy equations, but this time, it was clearly there because she was thinking about Ron.
Ron, as predicted remained clueless throughout the lunch, not catching any of the looks Hermione kept chancing in his direction. Ginny seemed to notice something though and she shot a questioning look at Harry who just shook his head, making sure that none of the others weren't looking and mouthed that he would explain later. She nodded, smiling warmly back at him, one of the patented Weasley winks in her eyes.
Harry decided to let the matter go for the time being. Hermione clearly wasn't going to say anything with half the school around to over-hear. He figured that she was probably just waiting for a quiet moment when they could get some time to themselves, but the days went past, and still she said nothing. Harry tried to catch her on her own again several times, but it seemed everywhere she went this week she was flanked by Ginny or one of their other friends, so Harry never got the chance to ask her what she was doing.
He realised that it would take a lot for her to just tell Ron what had happened, but he didn't think it was the sort of thing that she should just put off indefinitely. He wrestled with the idea for a few more days, but decided if Hermione wasn't going to say anything on her own, he'd have to be a little more pro-active about it. She probably wouldn't be too pleased with him for a while, but he reasoned that if everything worked out then everybody would be happy, and it might even put Ron in enough of a good mood that he wouldn't kill Harry when he revealed another home truth that he'd been sitting on for the last few months.
Chapter Thirteen
The Sunday night of that week, Harry and Ron were sitting playing chess in the Gryffindor common room while Hermione sat opposite them, curled up in an armchair with a book propped open on her lap. She was supposed to be reading it for a muggle studies lesson, but she had basically given up and was spending more time watching the chess games than she was looking down at the book which had been open at the same page for the last half hour.
She managed to sneak a look at Ron as he was contemplating a particularly difficult move and couldn't help the smile that crossed her face. He looked so...it was against everything in her character for Hermione to use the word 'cute' but she couldn't really think of another that fit for the intense look of concentration that marked his usually so happy face. Harry badgered him again and again to make his move, all the while, noticing Hermione looking at Ron with some amusement on his part.
Finally Ron let out a triumphant whoop and moved one of his bishops into a checkmate. The bishop tore through Harry's king like butter, and Harry had to acknowledge yet another defeat at Ron's hands. No matter how hard he tried, which admittedly wasn't all that hard most of the time, Ron was never as traditionally 'academic' as Hermione or even Harry. He did however, have one saving grace in that respect - neither of them had yet managed to beat him at Wizard's Chess.
Ron was just reaching for his wand to set the pieces up for another game when Harry got to his feet, yawning loudly. Given that the common room had now emptied to such an extent that only the three of them remained he decided that tonight was as good a night as any to put his plan into action. "Actually Ron I think I'm just going to go up to bed - I'm pretty tired". From his position, Ron didn't see the look of horror that flashed across Hermione's eyes as she realised what Harry was trying to do, and she looked pleadingly at him, silently urging him not to go.
Ron looked up at the clock on the mantelpiece over the fire, frowning as he read the time, "Well it is getting quite late, maybe we should all go up". He stood too, and Hermione seemed perfectly happy to go through with this idea, but then she caught the look on Harry's face and realised that he was probably right. She had been putting this off for as long as possible, but she couldn't keep on doing that forever. So, however reluctant she was feeling, she nodded to Harry and called back to Ron, "Uh, Ron, if you don't mind there was something I wanted to talk to you about".
Ron turned round in surprise, "Yeah", he replied, sounding about as confused as he looked, "of course". He turned back round for a second to call Harry back too, but Hermione stopped him, "Um, just you, Ron - not Harry". If Ron had been confused before, it was nothing to what he was feeling, but Harry just nodded to them, saying his goodnights and climbing the stairs up to his room. Ron turned back to Hermione again who was now pacing the common room, fairly anxiously.
She stopped when she realised he was watching and gestured to the sofa, smiling awkwardly at him. Ron still didn't understand what was going on but he walked over to the sofa by the fire and sat down, crossing his legs underneath him and pulling a chocolate frog box out of his pocket. He saw Hermione raise a questioning eyebrow as he started to open it, "Well it's been a long time since dinner!", he said in mock indignation.
She smiled, in spite of her nervousness, shaking her head, but she still didn't say anything. "Hmm, Dumbledore again!", Ron said, more to break the silence than anything else, holding up the card from the chocolate frog box. Hermione's smile remained, but she didn't laugh like she would have normally. "Come on 'Mione", Ron said, his voice more gentle than it had been before, well as gentle as it could be with half a mouthful of chocolate frog anyway, "whatever it is, you can tell me".
Hermione laughed internally at that, if only it really was that simple. And watching his tongue dart out to pick up the last remnant of the chocolate frog on his lips was extremely distracting. She went and sat next to him though, smoothing her skirt out a little more than necessary while she tried to think of what to say. She only came out of her momentary reverie when she felt a hand close over her own. Ron had laid his hand on top of hers, smiling at her with an expression she was sure he had intended to look helpful. Of course feeling his fingers entwining with hers was doing wonders for her concentration at that point in time, but she tried not to focus on that.
"What is it?", Ron asked, by now quite concerned about what she was going to tell him, so he decided to try a little humour to lighten the situation, "I'm sure it can't be that bad". That evidently hadn't been the best thing to say because Hermione ended up looking even more nervous than she had been before, and poor Ron had no idea what he had done to make her look like that. He was about to speak again when she interrupted, finally managing to think of somewhere to start, "It has to do with the mirror of erised".
