A/N: I don't own these characters, sad as it is, except for Malia and Madame.
Chapter 12: Making Up is Hard to Do
"Dance is in your pulse, your heartbeat, your breathing. It's the rhythm of your life. It's the expression in time and movement, in happiness, joy, sadness & envy."
I burst into the dorm room and quickly packed everything I could carry into my bags. Thankfully, I hadn't completely unpacked from last time, so I only had a little to throw together.
As I was staggering toward the door, Malia burst through, her hair flying out of her French braid.
"What the hell is going on?" she yelled. "Madame's freaking out-"I've never had a pupil so rude in all of my years as an instructor!"" She imitated Madame perfectly, throwing up her hands.
I looked her in the eye. "I'm going back."
She gasped. "Back? To Ron?"
"Yes-it was wrong for me to leave in the first place, and, idiotically, I just realized that."
"Hermione, what if-". Her voice faltered. "What if he doesn't take you back?"
"I'll be back tomorrow, then-for good." I hobbled out the door.
"Wait! Let me take one of those…." She snatched my heavy suitcase out of my hand. We walked to the street, where I hailed a taxi. As the driver loaded up my bags, Malia hugged me.
"You're doing the right thing, and if it counts for anything, I hope he takes you back-even if it means I lose my best friend to the Brits." Even though she was joking, her eyes filled up.
I cocked my head playfully. "You'll never lose me-I expect I'll see you sometime in France with the ballet."
Her eyes lit up and she smiled. As I climbed into the cab, she stepped away from the road, yelling jokingly, "Go on, get out of here! I don't want to see you back here again!"
I laughed as I watched her waving arm disappear in the bustling traffic.
"LaGuardia, please," I instructed the driver.
"Ladies and gentlemen, we are beginning our final descent into London Heathrow Airport, where the local temperature is seventy-five degrees. The wind is blowing to the west at five miles per hour…."
The flight attendant's chirpy weather report faded away as I bit at a hangnail, deep in thought-and very nervous. Did I really expect him to take me back after what I'd done to him?
I didn't want to answer that question just yet.
After getting out of the terminal, I went straight to an isolated corner of the parking garage and boarded an elevator, alone. The lift began to rise, and I knew I had to act quickly. I Apparated, along with all my bags.
I found myself standing outside the wooden fence around the Weasley's yard. I scanned the garden. A flash of ginger caught my eye, and my heart leapt. Was it….him?
The figure turned and wiped his brow. It was.
"Ron!" I screamed at the top of my voice, dropping my bags and running as fast as I could in flip-flops toward him. When I got within a few feet of him, I stopped and panicked. What was I going to say? How could I possibly start?
He looked shocked. His eyes traveled down my body, stopping at my feet. I self-consciously realized that I was still wearing my ballet outfit, complete with leg warmers and ballerina bun. Plus, I'd traveled hours to get here. Oy….
His eyes narrowed dangerously. "What are you doing back here?" he asked nastily, as if I was a wad of gum he'd just found on his shoe.
"Ron," I said, trembling, "I'm…I'm sorry." I stared at my toes. I couldn't meet his eyes yet.
He was silent for a moment, then said in a low voice, "How could you just leave me there like that while you went off back to your upper-crust school to become a prima ballerina? Oh, wait, I forgot, you're really good at leaving, you'd done it before…."
I stared up at the sky now, still avoiding his gaze. I was not going to cry…I was not going to cry….
He continued angrily, "I thought we were on the same page, y'know? I guess I was wrong….I actually trusted you and really cared about you, but it was just a fling for you-"
"I care about you!"
"-you probably had some fancy plan all figured out, didn't you? Those upscale American girls took the mickey out on you for being a virgin, and you just couldn't stand it, so you came back home to shag me, since you had to be the overachiever and beat them. You couldn't have some American bloke-oh no, you had to go across the ocean to prove your point to them. I reckon you had a lot of fun gossiping with them, glowering over your win…."
I met his gaze now, appalled and outraged. Appalled that he would come up with such a far-fetched, stupid scheme, and outraged that he thought I would actually do something like that.
"Goodbye, Ronald Weasley." I turned on my heel, ready to grab my luggage and go. Then it struck me: I was going to have to forgive him for what he had just said if I ever wanted him to forgive me for what I did.
I wasn't leaving England unhappy for a third time. It'll take a lot more than that to get rid of me, I thought stubbornly.
I turned back and really looked at Ron. His face was stony, and his arms were crossed across his chest. "I gave it up for you," I said quietly.
"What are you on about?"
"Julliard, dancing-whatever. I walked out in the middle of class just so I could come back here and apologize in person. I hoped we could maybe work things out, but I guess not. I-I really hope you don't hate me." My voice shook at that last sentence.
His face softened slightly. "Oh, Mione," he gently said, "I could never hate you, not in a million years." A minute passed. Crickets chirped. Then he asked, "Why? Why'd you leave?"
"Which time?"
"Both."
I heaved a sigh. "Oh, I don't know….The first time, I thought of Julliard as this whole new world I could explore-a kind of place I hadn't really known, especially because I'd been so immersed in the magical world. But once I got there, after a few months, it wore off a bit." That hadn't been so bad….
"What about the second time?"
I gulped. This wouldn't be as easy to clean up. "Well…I thought…I thought that by leaving, I could save both of us a lot of heartache by me getting out early…but obviously, it didn't work. I thought that by going back to Julliard and studying there, and then graduating and getting a job in America, I would be doing the best thing for both of us. I would be following my dream, and you could do whatever you wanted."
He looked puzzled. "Well, if it's so important to you, why aren't you there now?"
I shyly grasped his wrists in my hands, hoping it was the right thing to do. "Let's just say I've gotten my priorities sorted out."
His eyebrows shot up. For a moment, he stared at me, and then his face broke into his signature boyish grin. "You're serious?"
"Never been more serious about anything in my life-except maybe exams, of course." I smiled too.
He picked me up and swung me in a circle, laughing fit to burst. When he set me back on the ground, I caught my breath and said, "Ron, I really am sorry for what I did. It was the most idiotic thing I've ever done in my life, and-"
"Forget it, Mione,-no day but today, remember?" He kissed me on the cheek. "Let's just live for the future, and not worry about the past."
As we walked back to his house, I was already working on my mental to-do list. Number One: Clear out my dorm room, Number 2: Find a ballet school in England….
A/N: Wow, that was shorter than I expected. Oh well…the love is back! It makes me happy!
The next chapter, I have decided, will be my last for this story….It's coming to an end! (sobsobsob) But it's about that time….and my schedule gets INSANE next week…so it's good, for both you guys and me. The title is: The Wedding Bouquet!!! : )
I'm not going to reply to any specific reviews this time around. Sorry, but it takes up time that I (and probably you all) would rather use for writing.
Now....review like you've never reviewed!