Disclaimer: Again, I DO NOT own anything in this story. Except maybe the plot or something. Whatever.
A/N: Hello once again! And by the way, thanks for the reviews! This is the last chapter and I think this is as long as the first one. Anyway, hope you enjoy this! And don't forget to review!
Chapter 3: Matchmaker, matchmaker…
"I should've known it was all too good to be true," said Ron in despair. He just told Harry all about his dream and how disappointed he was that it was all just one big fantasy.
Harry didn't know what to say to this so he jus sympathetically patted Ron on the back, comforting him.
"I mean, whoever's giving me these dreams are just bursting my bubble. They're just getting my hopes up."
Ron looks so miserable. Here they are, in a corner in the common room at six a.m. and Ron is acting like he's bankrupt. His eyes are swollen from lack of sleep. He woke up at 4 a.m. and was never able to sleep again. He woke Harry up at 6:00 to tell him all about his dream. His hair was out of place; not that this was really unusual. Only his hair was worse than usual. It was sticking out all over the place. This is because he's been running his hands through his hair a couple of times, and trying to pull them out of their roots.
After Ron woke up from his dream, it took him a rather long time to embrace reality. It took him an hour just to convince himself that what had just happened was a dream—just that, a DREAM, a very cruel and nasty dream just to get his hopes up. It was like a prank played on him by Mother Nature. And he is devastated.
Ron knew, from experience, that dreams never really come true. Well, except for that one time when he kept on dreaming, for several days, about himself becoming a Quidditch player. That happened a year before his first year at Hogwarts, and here he was, six years later, part of the Gryffindor Quidditch team. Another was when he dreamt, during the summer holiday before his second year that he was about to become a great big, hairy spider's lunch. And then in his second year, he met Aragog.
Okay, maybe I had a few dreams that came true, but so what? Ron thought sadly. If all his dreams came true, then Hermione would now be with him and he wouldn't be here suffering from Mother Nature's cruel practical jokes.
For the next hour, Harry just listened to Ron pour out his feelings. Harry felt great pity for his friend. He was, after all, heartbroken and jealous at the same time. And I know how it feels to be jealous, Harry thought, his mind on Cho and Cedric. He used to be envious of Cedric because he had Cho for his girlfriend, and Harry didn't. Now, if Cedric were still alive, he would've gladly tossed Cho back to him.
Seeing Ron so miserable and feeling sorry for him at the same time, gave Harry a great idea. It was just what Ron needed to be happy again: a little shove in the right direction.
It is very unusual for Harry to do this. But he has to, if he wants to see his friend happy again. He has to play matchmaker.
For the meantime, he has to take Ron's mind off of Hermione and force him to get ready for class.
"Erm…look, Ron. I know you're depressed now and all, but I think we need to get ready so we could see our class schedules."
Ron's just staring into space, but it looks like he heard what Harry suggested. "I don't feel like going to class today," he replied in a zombie-like voice.
"W—well, we have to. I mean, what would Hermione say when she finds out you're not going to class? What will you tell her?"
"That I'm sick."
"But then she'll bring you to the hospital wing."
"I don't care."
"Well, Madam Pomfrey has to check if you're really sick or not, and when she finds out you're not, Hermione will know because she'll be there asking Madam Pomfrey if you're going to be alright. You know how worried she'll be. Why don't you just save her the trouble and go to class?"
Ron stared at Harry. "You're right. I don't want to trouble her. She might suspect something's wrong."
"Then what are we waiting for? Let's get ready!"
And they went up the boy's dormitory. They muttered a "Mornin'" to whoever greeted them as they passed by.
Harry was waiting for Ron and Hermione to come out of the boys' and girls' dormitories respectively. He is pacing while he was trying to think of ways to somewhat show Hermione that Ron has different feelings for her. Harry really wanted to help Ron; he didn't want to see another devastated face.
I could give Hermione a gift and say it's from Ron, Harry thought. No, that would be too obvious. Hmm…this is hard. Maybe I can drop a couple of subtle hints. Nah, Ron'll kill me. And I can't tell Hermione because that's Ron's business. Hmm…what can I do to give Ron that little shove he needs so he can tell or just show Hermione that he really loves her?
Before Harry could think of anything else, a loud frustrated yell reached his ears. It seemed to have come from the boys' dormitory.
The people in the common room were too busy to hear the scream, though. Everyone was covered in used chewing gums of various colors. Well, chewed up Drooble's Best Bubble Gums on everyone's hair can only mean one thing: Peeves is in the dormitory. Harry was so deep in thought that he didn't notice that he had a big wad of pink gum on his robe's sleeve.
But before he could take it out, he, again, heard the same frustrated voice shout, "Grr! Somebody open this stupid door!" Harry recognized Ron's voice. He was locked in the dormitory.
As Peeves gave out a loud cackle, Hermione came bursting out of the girls' dormitory. A comb was left hanging from her bushy brown hair. "What's happening?" she asked, incredulous and completely clueless.
She was answered by someone throwing a red wad of gum at her. It stuck to her robes. She let out a loud, irritated sound. "PEEVES!"
Harry whipped out his wand to let Peeves have a taste of his own medicine. "Waddiwasi!" he cried as he jabbed his wand to Peeves' direction.
Suddenly, all the dry, but still sticky, wads of gum came hurtling towards Peeves. But instead of the gums entering Peeves' nostrils (since they all can't fit there), they all stuck to his face, including the gum that he used to lock Ron in the boys' dormitory. Everyone laughed and Peeves floated away, cursing.
Ron was cursing too. He came out of the dormitory, a great big frown plastered across his face. "Curse that stinking, f—ing poltergeist! I already woke up on the wrong side of the bed today, and he had to come along and make my day worse than it is already!"
"Calm down, Ron," Hermione said as she came down from the stairs leading to the girls' dormitory. "At least Harry took care of him. I'm not sure he would be coming here for a long time!"
"He'd better not," Ron grumbled.
"C'mon, we'd better have breakfast. We don't want to be late for our next class…whatever it is," Harry said.
"I thought we're having Snape for first period!" Ron protested, confused.
"Ron, we don't even have our class schedules yet," Hermione informed him.
"But—I thought—I—oh, never mind!" Ron exclaimed. Stupid dream, he thought.
The day was almost over. The sun was beginning to set between the mountains as the disgruntled Gryffindor sixth years trudged up to their common room. Some of them, like Parvati and Lavender, came from Divination, while the others, like Neville, Dean, Seamus, Harry, Ron and Hermione, just came from Transfiguration.
"I still can't understand why you won't let me sit next to you," Hermione told Harry, as the three friends sat in their usual corner of the common room. "I could've helped you with your Conjuring Spell, you know. You were having so much trouble with it."
"No, I was doing well!" Harry hurriedly lied. "It's a good thing you sat beside Ron today. He was the one having trouble with his frog."
"Just a bit," Ron answered. "At least my frog had skin, bones, and muscles. Yours was like a bunch of internal organs floating above your desk."
"Well—your frog didn't have a tongue!" Harry retorted defensively. But Ron did have a point. At least Harry did better than Neville, whom he sat beside in Transfiguration. Neville's toad (not Trevor this time) was lacking a skeletal and a muscular system, therefore making it look like a deflated ball at the end of the class. Actually, when Harry thought about it, his "frog" presentation (a.k.a. internal organs) was a LOT worse than Neville's aired-out toad. "Besides, they aren't supposed to be teaching this stuff to sixth years. I thought they were of N.E.W.T. level."
"I think Professor McGonagall wanted us to get a head start on the spell so we could have a long time to practice it," Hermione said. "It really isn't difficult when you think about it. You just have to concentrate really hard, harder than usual."
"That's easy for you to say," Ron muttered irritatingly.
"Yeah," Harry agreed, "your toad's body systems were complete, you don't have to worry about a thing."
"How come you're always doing well in any subject you take? Well, except for Divination…" Ron asked, though not expecting an answer.
Hermione blushed.
For the next two weeks of school, Harry constantly let Ron sit beside Hermione, wherever they go, any classroom (since they're all taking the same subjects), during lunch, in the common room, and even in the library. Oftentimes, Harry leaves them alone in the library, pretending that he left something in the Great Hall so he would have to "fetch it". He always had an excuse to leave. In fact, he's done this so many times in the past weeks, that he is beginning to run out of excuses.
Hermione was totally clueless and asking Ron why Harry was so forgetful these days. Ron told her he didn't know, but he does.
Ron isn't stupid. He knew what Harry is up to, even though Harry didn't tell him what he's planning. But there is no way that he was going to tell Hermione that he loves her, and ruin their friendship.
But there was one incident within the second week of school, when Ron almost told his feelings to Hermione.
(flashback…)
It was the usual Thursday morning. Everyone in the Great Hall was talking loud enough for his or her voice to echo in the Hall. Three of those people are Harry, Ron, and Hermione. The voices of the people are so loud that they need to scream to hear each other's faces.
Ron took a break from his yelling and let the other loud voices run over his head. He scooped a spoonful of soup that is served in front of him. Just as he bent over to sip the soup, something big and feathery hit his head and caused his soup bowl to tip over and cover his robes with the specialty of the day, Crab Soup.
"Argh!" Ron grunted as he looked down on his soggy, wet robes. He looked up to see their ancient family owl, Errol, clutching a white envelope by his beak. "Bloody bird! Why does Mum always send him? He's a total menace!"
Hermione took the letter from Errol's beak while Harry helped Errol up to his feet. There was also another owl that held out its foot, with a velvet pouch tied around it, to Hermione. It was the owl that brought her the Daily Prophet. Hermione gave some money to the owl and then it flew off with Errol.
Harry read the back of the white envelope. "Hermione? I think this is for you," he said, handing the envelope to Hermione.
"It's from Viktor!" she joyously exclaimed.
"I'd better go change," Ron mumbled.
"Hurry up so I can read Viktor's letter to you both!" Hermione called after Ron, as he strode off to Gryffindor tower.
Ron slowly changed robes back in the dormitory. He certainly didn't want to hear Krum's "sweet" words to Hermione, the only girl Ron ever loved.
No such luck. Hermione did wait until Ron came back to the Great Hall so she could start reading the letter.
"Dear Hermione," she read. Then she started scanning the letter without reading it aloud.
And little by little, her smile faded. Then, with a look on her face that suggests she can't believe something just happened, she put down the letter. Harry and Ron exchanged looks across the table. Something was up.
"Er, Hermione?" Harry spoke up. "Can I have the letter?"
Hermione handed it to him without a word, and still looking like someone Petrified her.
Ron transferred to the other side of the table to read the letter with Harry.
Dear Hermione,
It is hard for me to say this to you, but I do not think our re-lationship is going well. We are so far away from one another that it is hard to stay to-gether.
But I am not saying that you are not a nice girl. You are the greatest girl I have ever met. No one is like you. You are, as you say, "one in a million". I hope you would not change.
But I think it would be good for us to not be together anymore. I think it is because you are busy with your studies and I am busy with this season's World Cup. Me and my team-mates get to travel around the world and meet different people. Then we have our Quidditch practices almost everyday. So you can see how busy I am.
I am sorry. Please do not be angry at me. I hope we can still be friends.
Your friend,
Viktor
Ron and Harry looked up from the letter, "uneasy" written all over their faces.
"We're sorry, Hermione," Ron piped up, his voice overflowing with sympathy.
"Yeah, really sorry," added Harry, with that same tone of voice.
"No, I'm okay," Hermione sniffled. "I just—I can't believe he just did this to me!" she exclaimed, trying to fight back the tears that were welling up her eyes.
Ron tried to comfort her. "Hermione—"
"He knows that I love him, and I thought he loved me too! WHY doesn't he want to be together anymore? Is it me? Was I interfering in his life? Was I a pest of some sort? If so, why did he have to ask me to be his girlfriend in the first place? If I was just going to be a useless lump in his life, why did he ask me to be his girlfriend? Why, why, WHY?"
Despite her best efforts, fresh tears started falling down Hermione's face. She buried her face in her hands.
Ron transferred back to his seat beside Hermione and patted her at the back. What was there to do? He certainly didn't know the answers to Hermione's questions; he's not Krum. All he could give her at that moment was his emotional support.
I guess that's all I can offer her, Ron sadly thought. My friendship.
Sobbing, Hermione turned to Ron and cried on his shoulder. Ron felt so sorry for her that he felt like a pat on the back is not enough to show her the support she needed. Ron wrapped his arms around her and gave her a warm hug.
Hermione continued to cry, but then she also gave Ron a hug while crying over his shoulder. "Thanks…(sniff) Ron," she whispered into his ear. She gave a tighter hug to show her thanks.
As for Harry, he was just sitting there, watching his two friends hugging among the sea of people in the Great Hall. As much sorrow he felt for Hermione's situation, Harry couldn't help noticing that Hermione was hugging Ron.
Harry's eyes widened.
Ron noticed this and threwa confused look at Harry. "What?" he mouthed, Hermione's arms still around him, and his arms still enveloping Hermione.
Harry blinked several times, as if to show that he was just staring into space and he was seeing nothing. "Uh—nothing, nothing!" he muttered back.
Ron was not aware, however, that he just hugged Hermione, the love of his life. When they parted their sweet, long hug, Ron saw that Hemione looked so miserable. He wanted to think of something that would cheer her up.
She probably feels that no one could ever love her, he thought. She probably feels so alone. I wouldn't know, I always have Harry by my side… Then he had the most dangerous idea. I got it! I'll tell her my true feelings for her so that she won't feel alone.
It seemed like the perfect time to reveal his feelings, but it wasn't the perfect place. Ron had never proposed his true love in a public place, especially in a place where rumors spread like wildfire.
But Ron wanted to say it. He just can't put into words how he feels for her, unlike in his dream, where he just blurted out what he said. Only he can't remember what he said. But he knew the message was, "I love you".
He couldn't do it. Not there, in that gossip-infested territory. He tried to, but he just couldn't do it.
It was an interesting sight, the three friends. One happily "staring into space", one crying her eyes out, and one looking like he's struggling with something.
(end)
Ron couldn't believe he didn't tell Hermione at that very moment that he loved her. He couldn't understand why he can't put into words the feeling he experiences whenever he thinks about her.
Hermione's all better now. Just three days after her split with Krum and she's in much better shape. She is currently in the girls' dormitory writing a letter for Krum. Oh, not a love letter. A payback.
Ron, however, is in the boys' dormitory trying to blame himself for his stupidity of not revealing his feelings to Hermione.
Harry came in and told Ron that he now has a chance in making Hermione his girlfriend. Harry started suggesting all these things that Ron could do to make Hermione notice him.
"Since you can't tell Hermione that you care about her," Harry began, "I think you should just show her your feelings."
"I don't want to do those things," Ron said in a tired voice.
"You've been saying that for the past few days, Ron! What do you want to do, anyway?" Harry exclaimed, exasperated. He spent days trying to convince Ron that the only way Hermione would notice him is through showing her that she's special in his life.
"I don't know! Okay? I just—I just don't know!" Ron sat on his bed. He looked so helpless.
Harry sighed sympathetically and sat beside Ron in his four-poster bed. "Why don't you just tell her, 'I love you, Hermione'?"
"Because! That's not enough for me to explain how I truly feel for her."
"So it's 'more than words'?" Harry asked, trying to hide a smile as he quoted from an old Muggle song.
"Guess so," Ron gloomily answered. But he noticed that Harry didn't look so convinced.
"What?" Ron exclaimed with the tone of voice that suggests he can't understand why Harry can't comprehend to what he's saying about his feelings being "more than words". He sat up from his bed and faced Harry. "Do you expect me to just walk up to her and say, 'I love you, Hermione. I've loved you my whole life'?"
Harry gave Ron a firm nod when he heard that particular declaration of love.
But what both of them didn't know was that someone else heard it too. Just outside the slightly opened dormitory door, someone who just came up to the dormitory to ask for suggestions as to what to write in her letter, stood Hermione. She heard the whole thing.
A/N: Hehe… Did you like it? I know I did. Anyway, this does NOT have a sequel…unless you guys want to do a sequel, go ahead. But for me, it's too complicated. Please review! Thanks!