(A.N: Yay! I have a beta! Woohoo. does beta dance It's Skittish, my lover in Sheboinken, Michigan! ;) Let's all give her a nice warm applause, for her awesome beta duties. She caught one whole typo this chapter. Yay Skittish! Yay Me! Yay you!
aquarpisc: Well wonder no more my friend, the time is now, read on.. :D
Miss Piratess: Men-fights are so awesome! Catfights are sooo overrated. Poor donald though, wonder if he'll get any closure... hmmmm ;)
tgimd: You were laughing..? laughter..? What is this laughter...? Surely I didn't make you laugh. Well if I did, rock on me! And if i didn't.. you're sooo evil. ;) Well hermione and ron... you know i hope they work things out, but you know you never can tell.
skittish: Well aren't we mrs. knowitall! You know what, i let you be beta and you just let it go straight to your head! I would date Ron too, but snape's friend's kind of pushing it. I would have seduced him.. had a one night stand.. maybe. Hey that inspires a thought! Is Snape a virgin? gasp
liulover: Aww my faithful liu! :D How's this for fast update.. took only 10 days, :(. I'll dedicate this one to you again sweetie!)
Chapter 4: Ron's Revelations
Ron arrived nearly unscathed into his living room. He saw that everyone was looking at him curiously. His face was pale and his hair was a mess from him covering it for protection. He just looked sheepishly down at the carpet and went to sit down.
"Um.. Ron?" Harry asked coming to sit next to him on the couch. "Are you alright?" He asked with concern and some what mirth. Ron closed his gaping mouth and looked up at Harry. Harry was trying hard to conceal his grin and was failing miserably.
Ron just shook his head and began to make his way from the living room up the stairs. Harry wasn't sure if he wanted him to follow him, but he felt his presence was needed. He followed Ron as they entered his brilliantly bright orange room.
"Harry... what's wrong with me?" He asked flopping onto his back on the bed. He had went over everything that had transpired at Hermione's. From her snubbing him when he first arrived, to.. Donald, his mind spit that thought out, to her being his girlfriend. At that thought he moaned and slapped a hand to his forehead.
"What do you mean? Ron, what happened?" Harry asked bluntly sitting on the edge of the bed. Harry had never really seen Ron so.. well so apparently helpless. It wasn't like Ron to get so emotional. Actually when it came to emotions, Ron was furthest from showing them so publicly.
"Hermione..." He didn't know where to begin. He didn't know what was wrong with him. He didn't know what had happened at Hermione's. It was like he wasn't even there. He slapped another hand to his forehead and didn't know where to begin... or rather where to end. "It's like this Harry. There was..." he paused to get the best word. He decided that saying 'stupid git' wasn't very descriptive, so he settled for a more commonly used term, "..a boy. When were leaving, there was a knock at her door. And it was... a boy." Ron said. He sat up on his elbows and looked at Harry. "Has she ever mentioned 'a boy' to you before?" He asked curiously.
Harry thought about that for a moment before shaking his head. "She doesn't really talk about her home life. I figured she wasn't very social before coming to Hogwarts. What happened with this boy?" Harry asked intriqued. Even now, Ron's face was brilliantly red, or maybe it was just the reflection of his orange room, and he could clearly see jealousy in his eyes. Harry smiled to himself. Maybe Ron was finally realizing his attraction for Hermione. He could only hope this was the case.
"Its just.. well I mean. If there were a boy that she knew she would have told us, right? I mean we're all best friends we tell everything to each other. And she didn't say anything about this boy. I mean... that means she didn't want us to know about him.. meaning she wanted to keep it a secret... as if she had something going on with him. You know what I mean?" Harry looked at Ron. He had never heard so much come out of his friend before. He just nodded dumbfounded. How was Ron able to compose that many thoughts in the last few minutes? "It's not fair. She should have told us. And all this time we've been worrying about Krum, when it was she was already with some one back home." Harry decided not to correct him that it had in fact only been Ron worrying about Viktor Krum.
"Ron, did she say that she was with this boy?" Harry asked.
"Well... no. But she didn't not say it." He rebounded using that as his defense.
"Well how did she introduce you to him?" Harry asked getting up to rearrange Ron's Chudley Cannon's figurines on his dresser. Ron ran a hand through his hair nervously and kept it at the back of his neck.
"Well.. I um.. didn't let her introduce me." Ron said sheepishly. Harry dropped the figurine he had been playing with, knocking a few of them over in the process. He slowly turned to Ron, his eyes and face in a shocked expression.
"Ron... what do you mean?" Harry stopped as he heard footsteps pounding there way up the stairs. Harry jerked his head back to Ron, fear in his eyes. "Ron what did you do?" He asked as he backed away from the door. Luckily he did so as it was soon flewn back, smashing into the wall. Hermione stood there her fists clenched at her sides, her eyes small and beady and a look of pure evil on her face. She stomped into the room, not bothering to acknowledge the fact that Harry was in the small confines of the room as well. Ginny looked scaredly on from the doorway.
"Ron.. do you have any idea what you've done?!" Hermione seethed. She had arrived moments before and literally stormed out of the fireplace not a second after she had arrived. She had decided on her thunderous stomping fit coming up the stairs, that she would tell Ron the same lie she had been forced to tell Donald. She waited for his answer while she gathered her thoughts together. Ron stood up defiantly, he was not gonna be the one blamed here.
"Listen he started it. He acted like a complete jack-ass! I was just trying to protect you!" He said before turning from her. Hermione would have slapped him, had he been just a little closer. Donald the jackass? She almost laughed at that.
"Oh and I bet it was him, that started the tug of war with my ARMS!!!" She yelled. Ron winced his shoulders dropping lower. He became rigid once more and whipped around to face her.
"Hermione, he yanked you from the flat! I was just trying to help you! I didn't do anything wrong!" He yelled back looking very determined. Hermione chose this moment to let it all go and drop the bombshell she had been trying to save for a more delicate time.
"Well thanks to you and your helping, I may never be able to officially say goodbye to my Boyfriend again. He's leaving to go to a new school and that was the last moment I could have had with him and you ruined it! I don't know if I can ever forgive you for what you've done to us." And with that she spun from the room, mentally smiling at her triumph, but frowning at the truth of her words. Ginny quickly followed her into her own room and slammed the door shut.
Ron kept looking at the spot where Hermione had been, his mouth dropped open. He was trying to gather everything she had said. Something about a boyfriend... school was mentioned... US????!!! "US!!" He yelled. He turned to Harry who seemed to be just as confused. "US! Did she just say 'US'?" He asked. He turned back to his bed and began beating his pillows senseless with his fists. "There can't be an US! US!?!?" He looked at the tattered remains of his pillow, feathers flying and looked at Harry once more and frowned his voice dropping octaves. "Us, Harry?" He plopped down on his bed.
Harry whom had just registered everything Hermione had said went to sit down next to Ron as well. "Us.. I mean Them. Who was that guy?" Harry asked just as perplexed. IT had been a known fact of agreement between himself and his brain, that he had had a crush on Hermione, but that it had expired when after he had participated in the Triwizard Tournament. He had come to realize at the Yule Ball that Ron had feelings for Hermione as well. And not wanting to chose between his relationship with Hermione and his friendship with Ron, he never acted on his instincts and was relieved when they had disapparated. And now even he was dumbfounded at the revelation that all this time Hermione had a boyfriend at home. And poor Ron. Since Harry had stopped having feelings for Hermione, he saw that Ron's had nearly doubled and were now overwhelming him. And he was completely clueless. He put a knowing hand on Ron's shoulder.
"I don't know. His name was Donald.. something or other. Well this changes things." Ron thought aloud. Harry nodded, although he wasn't sure why. Hermione wouldn't just go home and get a boyfriend. They must have been together for a while. But if that were true, why hadn't he ever seen her writing to him? Harry pondered that. She really had never given any indication that she had had some one at home at all, and like Ron had said, they told each other everything. Harry thought about that for a moment remembering the prophecy Dumbledore had revealed the year before. Well nearly everything.
"Listen Ron. Just forget about it. Hermione will get over it eventually, and since she won't be seeing the git anymore, we won't have to worry about him anymore." He slapped Ron on the back and stood up as if to say 'that's the end of that.' Ron slowly rose to his feet as well.
"You're right, we don't need to be worrying about him anymore. Stupid git. Let's go out and play some quidditch." As if that were the answer to everything, the boys grabbed their brooms and headed outside.
Meanwhile...
"Ron did that?" Ginny asked, hugging her legs as she sat there on her bed. Hermione had collapsed onto her makeshift cot on the floor and just laid there on her back. Her hair had fanned out on her pillow and she was staring pointlessly at the ceiling.
"Yes.. he did. So I was furious with him..." She looked over at Ginny, "..and that's why I lied to him. He had no right to treat Donald that way. And it was rather insulting the way he called him a jackass right now... I think he got what he deserved." Hermione said turning away with a nod. Ginny just thought for a moment before a fit of giggles had her rolling on her back. Hermione whipped her head back to look at her friend and couldn't help but think she'd gone off the deep end. "Eh.. Ginny?" Hermione probed.
"I'm sorry Hermione. It's just that... You're intentionally trying to make Ron jealous. And to think you said you didn't have feelings for him," Ginny said sputtering a bit as she swung her legs over the side of her bed. "You remember last year, oh about this same time at headquarters, we were talking about a certain brother of mine and you swore beyond the edges of the earth that you didn't have feelings for him. And now here you are, urging him into a jealous fury. You're hopeless." Ginny finished moving towards the door. Hermione sat there stunned for a moment before scrambling off the cot and running to the door. She intercepted Ginny's hand from the doorknob and barred her exit with her body.
"Sit. Now." She commanded, pushing herself forward, forcing Ginny backwards. Ginny just had a knowing smile on as she was forced back to her bed. She plopped down and sat indian style waiting for Hermione to continue. "Now, we're going to get this straight, right here and now. I never said anything of the sort." Ginny made to make a noise at that but Hermione glared at her as she continued. "I do believe the conversation was about Ron having feelings for me, which I assured you was absurd and I swore on THAT to the edges of the earth. Now I am playing on his jealous emotions, not on his feelings, when I told him Donald was my boyfriend. Only to punish him in the most effective way I know how. You will not breathe a word about this to a soul. Not one soul. Or I will..." She smiled sweetly as she turned towards the door. "..tell..." She had her hand on the doorknob and began turning it. Ginny rose slowly, her face twisted in horror. "...your secrets..." And with that Hermione bolted through it and raced down the stairs. Ginny was fast on her heels. Quidditch practice combined with natural Weasley speed, had given Ginny leg muscles far beyond Hermiones, and she was easily caught as she rounded the next flight of stairs.
Ginny ended up tripping on Hermione's heels and sent her reeling down the stairs. Hermione rolled and bounded down them and then collided with an unsuspecting person, sending them rolling along with her. When they finally stopped on the landing, Hermione found herself on top of something warm, and hard... and breathing eratically.
She whipped her head up to see that she was in fact on top of the last person she had hoped to be on top. His freckles were redder than ever as his cheeks blushed, and a smile was playing on his lips.
"Usually people have a first date, before this step, but I guess we can do things out of order."