Make Me Happy

Chapter Eight: Believe Me

You believed in me
When no one else did
You gave me the strength to
Move on, my friend
You will always be
The one I remember
To give my thanks to
For my success

They just did not understand
What I was going through
My situation, they didn't care, no
You tried to take a stand for me
When I just could not
Take it any longer

          -Believe Me, Christina Aguilera

Chapter 8

"I can't believe you!" Harry was so angry his face was red as an apple. Ron was sitting behind his desk, staring up at his best friend with a shocked expression on his face. There he was, being lectured and bitched out by his best friend in the world about cheating on his wife. A year ago he never would have imagined himself in this position. A year ago he and Hermione were so in love it was intoxicating. They couldn't go barely an hour without talking or kissing or touching of some sort. Nothing could separate them and now, here they were… sitting in Ron's luxurious, huge, spacious office.

"I… d-d-didn't-," Ron began before he was interrupted again.

"I don't want to hear the excuses! I heard you two. I swear to god, Ron, I'll kill you. I really will," Harry spat. He was close to punching Ron in the nose. How could he do this to his wife… they were going to have a baby. Their life was going to end up as it should have all along.

"Harry, listen to me!" Ron stood up from his desk angrily as his eyes glared at Harry with even more hatred.

"What, Ron!?" Harry fought back.

"She came onto me!" Ron confessed, feeling a bit relieved. He hoped Harry would believe him, but boy was he wrong.

"Bull shit, Ronald!" Harry began. "I wasn't born yesterday and I'm definitely not stupid! I heard the two of you…" Harry didn't know whether the water pulling at his eyes were from sorrow for his two best friend's failing marriage or frustration that his very best friend in the world beside his own wife was lying to his face.

"Harry, I swear." Ron sat down again. He was feeling weak. His face was turning pale and his palms were sweating.

"Do I look like an idiot to you?" Harry's frustration was becoming easier to control as he took a seat slowly across from Ron's desk. He looked at his best friend with a hurt expression stretched across his face.

"Harry, please, believe me," Ron gave Harry a pleading look.

"I don't want to, Ron," Harry started. There was uncomfortable silence that filled the room. "My head tells me not to, but my heart says I should."

"Please go with your heart… let me tell you what happened," Ron waited for Harry's nod before beginning. "About a month ago when I hired Jenna, the girl that you think I cheated on Mione with, I noticed that something between Mione and I had changed. She was acting… almost distance. She spent days in and day out at her work and we hadn't… you know… in almost three weeks." At this Ron turned about the color of his hair and Harry just looked at him patiently with no reaction. "It just seemed… I don't know, different?"

"So let's get this straight: you hired this new attractive young woman, single, I presume?" Ron nodded before Harry continued, "And you and Hermione were having… erm… marriage problems or whatever you want to call them, so then what?"

"She started hitting on me after business meetings. I didn't know what to do, I was lost and confused. She'd come up to me and grab my arse or whisper something stupid into my ear and I would just laugh or smile or something polite because I can't be mean…,"

"Yeah, you never were mean to the girls," Harry cleared his throat, "specially the pretty ones."

"Whatever, Harry. Don't you see?"

"See what? You haven't told me anything I didn't already know."

"Well, I started getting suspicious about Hermione cheating on me when I would just reach out to touch her hand or help her up, etc., she would wince or try her best not to respond. She doesn't want me to touch her and it worries me. I know pregnant woman can be pretty moody, but she is absolutely disgusted by me and I don't know how to fix it or how it even began in the first place. Harry, I need help," Ron's face and tone were begging and full of sincerity.

"Do you have any actual evidence that she cheated on you?" Harry's question sat in the air and the tension could have been cut with a knife.

After long silence, Ron broke it. "Well, no."

"Then why are you bringing it up?" Harry asked curiously.

"I… I don't know," Ron began.

"So did you or did you not cheat on her with Jenna?" Harry began.

"All I did was kiss her. I promise to God, Harry." Ron's eyes were streaked with tears now. "Now that I think about it, I'm grateful to the fact that you walked through that door when you did because I have no clue how far I would have gone and how much I would regret it. I never want to hurt Hermione…" Ron was sobbing. His face was buried in his hands.

"Two wrongs don't make a right," Harry let a tear fall from his eye as he watched his best friend look like he'd been torn in two.

"I know, Harry, I know."

"What do you plan on doing about it?" Harry's voice was once again filled with concern.

"I'm not sure… Do you think she cheated on me?" Ron looked up at Harry, his eyes blood shot and his face red and swollen.

"I don't have any facts to say she did or she didn't and my least favorite thing in the world are assumptions… so I don't plan on making any." Harry's words were full of wisdom. He remembered back to the time he thought Ginny was going to commit suicide because she thought everyone in the world was out to get her. She'd go into rages for no reason and she was becoming potentially harmful for both Harry and their son, James. He'd had to stay with Sirius and Remus for days at a time just to make sure Ginny didn't do anything drastic. He'd had people make sure she was okay every day, but he knew he would just have to let her work it out alone or they'd both get hurt.

"What would you do, Harry?" Ron stopped crying and just looked at his best friend.

"I'd talk to her."

"And if that doesn't work?"

"Then we'll go to Plan B." Harry nodded his head a little in a confirming sort of way.

"What's that?" Ron looked interested.

"I'm not sure yet."

~*~

"Watch out, these may sting a bit," The doctor warned as she gave Hermione a vaccination that would retrieve the DNA and the gender of the baby. If the liquid turned blue it was a boy and if it turned red it's a girl. After the color is prominent, then they would split it into two tubes and put specific chemicals to determine who exactly was the biological father. If the tube turned white it was Ron's and if it turns Gray then it was Kevin's.

"I can't believe I'm actually having this done." Hermione was crying onto Ginny's shoulder as the nurse removed the large needle and put the liquid into two tubes. It would take about ten minutes for the gender color to be revealed and then the lab would take twenty four hours to send results of the DNA test.

"Mione, everything will be fine and you know eventually you'd have to know the truth. Whether it be now or in twenty years. It's better now… or the baby may have grown up living and believing a lie and you don't really want that… do you?" Ginny hugged her friend as the tubes began to turn red.

"Oh, look at that!" The nurse exclaimed. "It's definitely a girl."

Hermione let a small smile appear on her face.

"Well, at least some good news." Hermione wiped the tears from her face and stood from the examination table.

"You're free to go. Results of the DNA test will be owled to you tomorrow around-," The nurse glanced at her watch witch read 12:30 in the afternoon. "Around one o'clock tomorrow." She smiled politely, took the two tubes and left the room with a small click of the door behind her, leaving Ginny and Hermione in the small white, boring room alone.

"Oh, gosh, Ginny, what if it's not Ron's?" Hermione started feeling tears on her face again as the question echoed through the room

"I don't want to think about it," Ginny began. "Wait… Have you told Kevin that this baby might possibly be his?"

"Well, no, not exactly…"

Ginny was shocked. "Why not!? Doesn't he want to know… doesn't he care?"

"He disappeared six months ago."

[Author's Note~~ Okay, so the chapter isn't that long or really that great… but I kinda like where it's headed and I basically know what I'm doing… it's amazing how stories can write themselves sometimes! R&R AND TELL YOUR FRIENDS! 33 –Hannah Holt]