Chapter 8 is here! Yay! I'm very pleased that you guys are anxious to hear what Ron has to say. That was the plan, yay plot twists! Thanks very, very much to VWChica (sorry I made you miss the game…), oneiros lykos, CarlyHp, Fatima, Jo, Lady Sunlight, Aimee, Flame-the-Phoenix, nerdypurdy and RocketSolarCat for revieweing!!! Thank you thank you thank you! You're all so sweet, it makes me really happy!
Disclaimer: You all know by now I don't own Harry Potter or the others, J.K. Rowling does!!
Oh! I almost forgot. It's pretty self-explanitory, but the first little tiny bit in the italics is just a recap of the end of chapter seven; obviously, chapter 8 picks up after the second star thing. I put that little bit in so it would flow more smoothly.
Now, after the longest intro ever, I give you chapter 8. Enjoy!
*
Hermione let go of Harry and smiled. She was going to say how much she loved him, but then something over Harry's shoulder caught her eye.
Ron.
*
"Oops," she said.
Harry whirled around, then went pale. "Uh…"
"Oops?" Ron repeated, his voice dropping fiercely low. "Is that all you have to say? What, did you accidentally kiss him, or something?"
Hermione and Harry glanced at each other. Neither knew what to say, how to react.
"What's going on here? Tell me," Ron demanded.
"We were…we just…" Harry began.
"Just what? Ran into each other and decided to kiss?"
"Not exactly," Hermione said, her voice squeaky.
"Then what exactly?" Ron said, this time shouting. He was getting mad.
Harry cleared his throat. "Hermione and I…Ron, look, the thing is…"
Hermione looked at him. He looked panicked. He knew he had betrayed his very best friend and it was killing him. She had to say something.
"Harry and I are together now," she said boldly.
Ron gaped at her. He looked utterly shocked. Finally he managed, "Since when?"
"Since September."
Ron looked as though he'd been punched in the stomach. Never, in all the time the three had known each other, had Ron ever looked so hurt.
"September?" he asked.
They nodded.
"Ron, we're really sorry," Hermione began.
"We didn't want you to find out this way," Harry interrupted. "We wanted to tell you, but, well…we just couldn't. We knew you'd be upset."
"Oh! And I wonder why that could be," Ron snapped sarcastically. "Could it be that my best friend has been kissing my ex-girlfriend for months and didn't even tell me? Or is it because the both of you have been lying to me?"
"Ron, please. We didn't want to hurt you!" Hermione pleaded.
He just shook his head.
"It's not what you think it is, Ron," Harry said, trying a new angle. "We're not just fooling around. We're together. We really care about each other."
"Oh, like that makes it all better! I just don't believe it. I thought we were best friends."
"But we are!"
"No. We aren't. Not anymore." Ron looked at them one more time, then stormed out.
*
Ron stormed his way through the castle, not really seeing where he was going, not caring. His mind was reeling. Harry and Hermione! Together! Since September, and they didn't have the courage to say anything to him.
He slowed down once he recognized he was in a deserted part of the castle, close to Professor Trelawney's tower. To come across somebody else while there was a rare event. He was safe for now.
The image of Hermione kissing Harry like that…them, standing close together, arms around each other…it just played over and over in his head until he wanted to kick something really hard.
Something tickled his cheek. Ron reached up and discovered it was a tear. Oh, great. Now he was crying. Like this isn't bad enough…
For a moment, he hated them. Both of them. Harry, his very best friend in the entire world, had betrayed him. The very last person in the world Ron thought would betray him actually had.
And Hermione…Ron was unsure. He wasn't entirely sure if his feelings for her were real or just left-over from before. But it didn't make that big of a difference. She had betrayed him, too.
Ron stood still, his body rigid with anger. Then the moment passed, and he no longer hated them. He was just really, really hurt. And alone.
Harry and Hermione had each other. Harry hadn't said the exact words, but Ron knew too well that Harry and Hermione loved each other.
It was all making sense to him now. All those times that Ron could sense something was going on but wasn't sure what…How could I have been so stupid? he thought angrily. How did I not figure it out?
Ron stayed in the empty hallway for quite some time, until he knew that if he didn't get a move on, he'd be caught in the halls after hours. As he walked, he dreaded running into them. He dreaded going back. Everything was going to be so different than it had been a few hours ago.
Everything was going to be so different, period. No matter what they said to him, it wasn't ever going to be the same again.
*
Harry paced the common room, waiting for Ron. Ever since he had caught them, a sort of sick feeling had entered Harry's stomach. And, as the hours went by and there was no sign of him, it began to grow larger.
That was the worst possible thing to have happened, he decided. For him to catch us like that…
Where is he? He's been gone for hours.
"Harry, there's nothing we can do," Hermione said quietly. "He'll be back soon. And when he does come back, there won't be much we can do."
"There has to be something! I mean, we can explain something to him."
Hermione sighed. "Harry, you know what Ron's like. He's going to need time to cool down before he'll give you the time of day."
"I guess you're right. But I'm still going to try."
Together, they waited in silence, barely looking at each other. Just as students began to trickle off to bed, the portrait swung open and Ron walked in.
Harry jumped to his feet. "Ron--"
Ron regarded him coolly. "Don't talk to me right now," he said sharply. Without waiting for a reply, he began to head for the dormitory. Harry followed.
"Ron, wait. We made a big mistake, all right? We know that! We're really sorry."
"I'm sure you are," Ron snarled.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
Ron finally faced him. The expression in his eyes was unlike anything Harry had ever seen. "It means that you and Hermione stabbed me in the back and we aren't friends anymore. That's what it's supposed it mean." Ron strode off up the stairs and into the dormitory, slamming the door shut.
Harry must have been standing there, rooted to his spot, for quite some time, because Hermione finally got off the couch and stood beside him.
"Give him time. Talk to him in the morning," she suggested.
"Why bother? You heard him. 'We aren't friends anymore.' What else is there to say?"
"You don't believe that. I know you don't."
Harry turned to look her in the eye. "You're right, I don't." He sat on the stone steps leading to the dorms; Hermione joined him.
"I didn't expect he'd be this mad," he said.
"What do you think would've happened if he hadn't caught us? If we'd told him instead?" she wondered aloud, resting her head on his shoulder.
"I don't know. Guess we'll never know."
"No…I bet he still would have been furious, though."
"Probably." He gave a frustrated sigh. "I wish that I could take back this whole year. Start over, do things differently."
He felt Hermione flinch slightly. "You're not sorry that we…"
"No! No, God, no," he assured her quickly. "I just wish we had told him earlier. He'd be over it by now. Do you think he'll tell anyone about us?" he asked, switching topics.
"Eventually. Once he's calmed down, I guess."
They thought about this for a while, until Hermione gave a little yawn. "I'm going to bed now," she said, lifting her head off his shoulder.
"Yeah, me too. See you in the morning?"
"Of course." With a quick glance to make sure no one was watching, she kissed him sweetly. "Good night, Harry."
"'Night, Hermione."
*
Dawn came as it always did, but this time, Ron was actually up to see it happen. Before anyone else awoke, he crept out of the dorm and went downstairs.
He hadn't slept much during the night. Images of Hermione and Harry together wouldn't stop flashing before his eyes, and the nasty things he'd said to Harry replayed in his mind.
"We aren't friends anymore."
Had he really meant it? Sure, he had been angry at the time, but now, after he'd had time to digest it, did he still mean it?
Yes. I still mean it. How could they have done this to him? Okay, so he wasn't in love with the idea of them as a couple, but he could've gotten used it to. Eventually.
Why didn't they just tell me? he wondered for the hundredth time. He might have been mad then, but it was nothing compared to how he was feeling now.
Ron surveyed the empty common room, thinking rapidly. A small part at the back of his brain nagged, There's a way to fix this. It can all be salvaged. You can go back to being friends again and forget what they did to you.
But he knew he wouldn't be able to.
*~*
Oh, poor Ron! He's just so mad. And sad. And confused. That's it, that's the end of the story. Haha, just kidding. No, the next chapter will be up soon. I hope you don't think Harry was acting too much like a girl in this chapter, because I do. So, please R&R. Thanks!! And no, my very long intro and closing comments aren't to cover up for the fact that this chapter was supposed to be much longer than it actually is. I just have a lot to say about this part of the story, and I didn't want to overdo the "Ron is hurt. He is mad," idea.
