Name: Broken

Summary: Ron and Hermione have to learn to accept the fact that both have dates for the Prom. They will have to learn, and fast, to say what's on their hearts after Hermione reacts impulsively damaging their friendship. R/Hr H/G.

Disclaimer: None of the characters belong to me, they belong to Genius JK Rowlin.

Author's Note: Hey, anyway, thanks to Jovhyz, you rock! And Belanna30, thank you very much!! And thank you to all of whom have read my story so far but never left a review!! You guys rock! Anyway, new chapter, read, and review later… Oh! And next chapter will be the last one… yes, I'm sorry, I know you guys can't live without my story, but well, you'll have to manage… lol! As if! Anyway, R&R…

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Chapter 9: The Never Ending Fights

"Are you ok? Does your leg hurt?" she asked from where she was standing, next to her trunk, apparently not daring to come near him.

"I'm fine," he said, noticing that her eyes were glassy and red.

Hermione nodded and went back to the sofa, picked up the book she had been holding in her hands before Ron interrupted her and started reading again, though he was not sure if she had been reading before he arrived or if she was really reading right now.

Suddenly he found he could not breathe right and a feeling of panic overtook him now that Hermione was there and there would not be any interruptions. He would have to talk to her, no excuses.

He stood up, took the book he had brought down with him and sat next to her. He felt he was inside the picture he had just been seeing; staring at her when she was not looking.

She looked very concentrated on whatever she was reading. She was holding her legs with her left arm, her knees pressing against her chest and her chin resting on them, and the small book with her right one. She suddenly cleared something away from her face with the left hand and Ron realized it was a tear.

"Hermione--"

"I don't want to talk," she interrupted him, knowing he was going to ask her why she was crying.

Ron did not say anything for a few seconds, but he could not hold himself, "I know what happened with Dewey."

She snapped her head towards him, "What? You were following me?!"

"No-- no, I was taking some fresh air when I... you know," he said, looking at the fire place instead of at her, "saw him... you know, well." He could not say it, he could not say he had seen Dewey touching her breast. "And then you punched him," he smiled, "which, by the way, was wicked awesome." She smiled too. He was serious again. "And I just wanted to know if you were ok."

"I'm fine," she said quickly.

"But you're crying," he said matter-of-factly.

"Just... I don't want to talk about it with you, ok?"

"Fine," he said softly, a little hurt, as he stood up. But her hand stopped his leaving.

"You don't have to go if you don't want to," she said, her eyes pleading with him to stay there with her.

He nodded. "Ok," said Ron and sat back where he had been sitting a moment before.

They sat in silence, watching the fireplace burn. Hermione sighed and Ron looked at her. She looked so beautiful, with her bushy hair tied on a pony tale and that expression she always had when she was concentrating on something. Somehow this felt weird. They had spent so many nights on that same sofa, and yet it felt weird. He was going to miss it, though. Their late night chats in front of the fire when there was nobody but the three of them. The three of them? Ron sighed, realizing why it felt so weird being alone with her in the Common Room with nothing to do... they had never been alone to talk about each other's things. The few times they had been alone in that exact same place, even when they spent hours together on Prefect duties, they would usually talk about homework, the school or Harry and how worried they were about the war that was raging all around them.

"What are you doing here?" Hermione suddenly asked, bringing Ron's mind back to reality.

He was a bit taken aback by her question, "Uhm... you told me to stay."

"No, I mean, why aren't you at the Prom? I thought-- I thought you were having a good time," she said quietly.

"Yeah, well... I was tired," he lied.

"Oh," she simply answered as she went back to stare at the fire place. She brushed another tear away form her face.

"Oh, come on, Hermione! Tell me what's the problem," Ron begged. He could not see her like this, he had never been able to watch her cry. Was Dewey and his pervert hands the reason why she was feeling so miserable? "Just tell me, are you crying for that git? 'Cause if you are, I swear to Merlin I'll go find him and beat the crap out of him!"

A few more tears were falling from Hermione's eyes but she was laughing. He always found a way to make her laugh, even when he was not even trying to.

"I'm not crying because of Dewey... well, he is one reason why I'm crying, but not the reason. And... I don't want to talk about it with you," she said with a determined tone.

After a few moments of silence, Ron could not hold himself and spoke again, "Is it because of me?"

"Ron! I said--!"

"I know what you said, but I can't just sit here, minding my own business, knowing I'm the reason you are crying... So, am I? 'Cause I don't want to be."

They were looking at each other's eyes now.

"I'm," Hermione said, as she tried to find her voice, "I'm... I'm tired. I'm off to bed," she said standing up, not thinking twice what she was doing, "Night."

"What? No!" said Ron, standing up and grabbing her arm gently before she could run up the girl's stairs, away from Ron. "Don't do that again."

"Ron, I don't--"

"Yeah I know, you don't want to talk about it with me. But you have to talk about it with someone and there's no one in here right now, and... I'm your friend, right?" he said, no matter how much it hurt to lie to her.

She stared intensely into his eyes for a moment. "That's just it, Ron. We're not... we're not friends anymore... we can't... I can't be your friend." He let go of her arm, but she did not leave. He felt hurt. Hearing Hermione say that she was not his friends, that she could not be his friend was worse than hearing You-Know-Who's name. She stood in front of him, looking straight to his eyes as she had never done before. She took a breath, "Yes, it's you why I'm crying Ron, because I wanted to go with you to the Prom but instead I had to go with that jerk and you went with Parvati… and all of this after what you said… after-- what happened. What am I supposed to believe? That you just fancy Parvati more than me?" she rambled.

"What?! Fancy?" he cried, "You think I just fancy you?! Hermione… I meant what I said."

"Then it was just a kiss," she stated, becoming very heated.

"What?"

"You told Dumbledore it had just been a kiss. It might have been for you, Ronald."

"You're kidding me! What about what you told Dumbledore, ey? 'It won't happen again, Professor'"

"I was trying to get us off detention!" she cried.

"Well, so was I!"

"Oh," they both realized at the same time.

"But, you still kissed Parvati in the middle of the common room!" said Hermione as heated as a second ago.

"Like you even noticed it," he said with a reproaching tone. "I was angry and confused. I mean, I had just seen you kissing that git!"

"I didn't notice it?!" she screeched, "Are you out of your mind?! Of course I noticed it! How could I not notice it? And me kissing who??!"

"Oh, don't pretend you don't remember. It happened ten minutes before I kissed Parvati, outside Gryffindor Tower. The Fat Lady was as your witness."

"Ron…" she said a bit more softy, "I didn't kiss him. He… kissed me. It just happened and I couldn't stop it. Honestly, like I would kiss him!"

"Well, you went to the Prom with him!"

"Yeah, because you never invited me. What was I supposed to do? Wait for you until you figured what your feelings for me were? I'm not going to live that long, you know!"

"Hey!" said Ron a bit hurt, "I was gonna ask you! But-- then Ginny told me you'd been asked by that git… what was I suppose to do?!"

"Exactly what you did when you told me you liked me, plus your invitation to the Prom! I told you once before, three years ago, if you didn't want me to go with another boy you should've invited me before!"

"I was going to ask you, I just didn't have enough time!"

"You had an entire year to ask me, how much time you wanted?!"

"For your information, it's not that easy to ask your best friend out. And I didn't even know what you were going to say. I'm not sure what scared me the most, the fact that you might most definitely have said no, or that you might just have said yes. So I panicked. I panicked every time I was finally gonna ask you." They were both silent for a few moments, not looking at each other, until Ron spoke again. "I meant what I said, Hermione. I like you… a lot… I…" he carried on a bit shyly, his cheeks tuning slight pink, "I even think that what I feel for you is more that just an infatuation."

Hermione's lips slowly turned into a small smile.

"Would you… would you like to dance with me?" she asked him.

"But, there's no music."

"We don't need music." They stared at each other's eyes for the longest time. "I mean, if you don't ask me, I'll have to start asking you."

Ron smiled. "Things would've been much easier," he said taking Hermione's hand. They moved closer together. Ron held her hand over his chest while she placed her free hand over Ron's shoulder and he placed his free hand in the lowest of her back. And they danced.

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Author's Note II: You know what to do next… Oh, I'm currently working on a H/G story, it won't be too long, and another R/Hr called 'Slipped Away' after Avril's song, but I still don't know how to finish it…