DISCLAIMER: Let's face it. I don't own jack squat lol. The plot belongs to everyone associated with My Best Friend's Wedding and the characters all belong to J.K Rowling (lucky I would buy them off of her if I could) HAPPY READING!! R/R!
Hermione leaned back and sighed. Harry sat across from her. They were sitting inside Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor.
"So, how's life for you?" Harry asked, leaning forward.
"Eh, you know." Hermione shrugged.
"Did the chap from the Daily Prophet write?"
"I dunno," she replied, as Florean Fortescue strode over with two sundaes in hand. He stood nervously as she got a spoonful of the new flavored sundae.
"Hmm, I'm writing this up as...inventive, addicting, very good, and confident."
He sighed a sigh of relief and Hermione said, "Do you agree, Harry?"
He got a spoonful and tasted it, "Needs more whipped cream."
Hermione laughed and said, "Is this chap a real interview, or just some cute guy you're setting me up w--"
Harry interrupted. "Hermione, I don't send you men anymore. You don't know what to do with them."
Hermione dumped a month's worth of mail on her lap and began digging through it. "Sometimes I do. For like two months."
Harry coughed, which sounded like, "Weeks."
An owl flew over the two of them and dropped another letter onto her lap. She groaned as she ripped it open. She smiled as her eyes scanned the letter. It read:
Dear Hermione,
Hey, how are you? I'm fine. We haven't talked in, God, must be months now, huh? I can't wait to talk to you. I'll be at my flat until tomorrow, and then I'm flying to the states. Write me, or call! I don't care when I get it, four in the morning, whatever! We gotta talk. Promise to write me back?
Love,
Ron
Harry read the look on her face and said, "Who wrote? Man of the moment?"
Hermione shook her head, "No. Our best friend, my Ron. He seems desperate to talk."
Harry's eyes widened and said, "LET ME READ!"
Hermione laughed at his enthusiasm and handed him the letter. Harry raised his eyebrows as he finished reading the letter and said, "I've never seen him write Love as a closing since you two were dating during our 6th year at Hogwarts. What happened again?"
Hermione got a warm smile as memories flooded her. "We finally came clean about our feelings and he asked me out, I said yes of course. Then we spent..."
Harry joined in, "One hot month together."
Hermione laughed and nodded, "Well you know how much I changed after our fourth year, and I became restless."
Harry nodded. He knew.
"So, I finally get the nerve to break up with him--"
"Broke his heart. Had him crying himself to sleep for ages," Harry interrupted shaking his head slowly, sadly.
"Shut up. I already feel bad enough as is, and he got this..look and said, 'I knew I couldn't hold your interest for long.' Which makes me feel like the shallow bitch I've always been..."
Harry nodded, knowingly.
"Then he says, 'The thing that makes me want to cry is, I'm losing the best friend I ever had.'"
"What about me?"
Hermione laughed, swallowing the lump in her throat and pushing back tears, "And when he said it, I knew I felt the same."
She smiled and added, "So, I cried for maybe the fourth or fifth time in my life. And I kissed him. And we've been best friends ever since."
She paused and said, "For twelve years, we've seen each other through everything. Losing jobs, losing lovers...traveled all over the world. The best times in my life, maybe. Just drinking and talking. Even if it's just over the phone.
Harry finally spoke up, "Kindred spirits."
"No. He's nothing like me, remember? He's more like you now, actually. Only straight."
Harry smiled as Hermione continued, "He's the salt of the earth. Kind and loyal and generous. The one constant thing in my life is he'll always be there.
"He's still in love with you."
"Maybe, but it never gets in the way."
"Well he has a true friend in you."
Hermione smiled and Harry continued, "Whenever Neville tells someone how steadfast I am, he always makes me sound boring."
"Solid and genuine is not boring, Harry."
Harry smiled and Hermione said, "I remember this one night in America, like six years ago we got amazingly drunk. God, I haven't thought of this in so long. I can't even believe we did this. He takes a razor he had in his pocket for some unknown reason and cuts his finger, and does the same to me." She pressed her index fingers together.
"Blood oath," Harry commented.
"He says, 'Swear. When we're both 28 if we've never married, we'll marry each other.'" She laughed and looked up at Harry, who wasn't even smiling. She cleared her throat and continued, "See, he figured that would be a sign from God, or someone of comparable authority, that we'd misunderstood our destinies."
She stuck a spoon into her rapidly melting sundae and said, "We never talked about it again. I don't know what made me think of it..."
Harry said quietly, "I do."
Hermione stopped playing with her sundae and looked at him. He continued, "You'll be 28 in three weeks, won't you? How old is he?"
Hermione gave him a look saying 'You know how old Ron is.' He nodded as to say 'I do.'
Then, it hit Hermione like a ton of bricks, "You think?"
"Desperate. To talk," Harry hinted.
"He can't do that to me."
"We're about to find out."
"When I turn him down...we'll never be the same."
Harry sat up, "I have a suggestion..."
"I'll have to kill myself before I call him tonight?"
Harry looked into Hermione's brown eyes and said, sadly, "That's it."
Later that night in her apartment, she dug around wondering if she still had Ron's phone number. He had had his share of Muggle girlfriends and thought it imperative to keep a phone with him at all times.
Hermione waited patiently as his phone rang.
"Hullo?" said Ron's groggy voice.
"Good evening, sir. You have been enrolled in the Obscene Call of the Month Club, and the..."
"Hey 'Mione! God, it's so good to hear your voice."
Hermione smiled to herself, as he said, "I've been writing to you and calling you for days!"
"Yeah, well...I've been so busy and most of my post is getting lost and my machine eats my messages."
"That or you're just averaging a full week between replying." She snickered, as he continued. "Look, I have something to ask you."
Hermione swallowed and he continued, "Something so incredibly important, that if you turn me down, I don't know what I'll d--"
Hermione cut him off and said, brightly, "I just have to tell you one thing first, okay? I mean this one will hand you the biggest laugh in your adult life..."
"Funnier than Draco: The Amazing Bouncing Ferret?"
Hermione giggled and said, "No, and I said adult life, you bum. I was thinking about you, and I remembered this unbelievably insane night that we spent in America, like a thousand years ago."
There was silence on the other end of the phone and she cleared her throat, "I mean, there is no way you could possibly remember..."
Ron finally spoke softly, "Are you kidding? I think about that night all the time."
Hermione began smiling, but it swept off of her face after what he said next.
"But that's not why I wrote."
Hermione sighed deeply, "It's not."
"No. I wrote because I met someone."
"Well that's great. You haven't really met someone since Lavender . . ."
"You don't understand. I never felt this way about anybody! And it's funny because she's all wrong for me."
"Well, that's a good start..."
"I mean, she's a Muggle, her name's Kim Wallace, she's 22. Her dad is like some billionaire who owns the Steelers, which is a Muggle American football team, and a cable empire, and you know how I've always been so miserably awkward around those stuffed suits..."
"Yeah, sure."
"But they're not like that! They're so down to earth, such wonderful people..."
"You've met her parents?"
"Well. Sure."
"Wow."
"Hermione, we're getting married. This Sunday."
Hermione walked backwards to fall on her bed only she missed and landed on the floor. She sat up quickly and said, "Ron, it's Wednesday night, you can't possibly be getting married on Su--"
He cut her off, "Actually, it all starts tomorrow. It's one of those four-day weddings with all the traditional events and ten million people coming in from all over the world."
"Aren't you working this weekend? I mean, is this really responsible?"
"Well, the Cannons are in America, anyway, and the Daily Prophet said I could just work from here. Wait--responsible? Taking a weekend off to get married?
"Well..."
Ron sighed and said, "'Mione, I'm scared."
"Well, maybe we should talk ab--"
"I need you."
She felt her heart stop and the past 12 years of emotion begin to fill her eyes.
He continued, "If you can't come, and hold my hand. I'll never get through this."
"Oh," she replied in a choked voice.
"Please come. Please," Ron said, pleading.
"Well..."
"I can't wait for you to meet her!"
Hermione sighed, it felt like the end of her life, but she couldn't say no to her best friend.
After she hung up with Ron she called Harry.
"Harry and Neville aren't in. Brevity is the order of the day. BEEP!"
Hermione said in an angry voice, "IT'S ME AGAIN! WHY AREN'T YOU GUYS UP HAVING SAFE SEX!?"
She was packing and picked a dress out of her closet and added, "OR, IN THE ALTERNATIVE, WHY AREN'T YOU INTERRUPTING IT TO ANSWER UP THE PHONE!?
She pressed the dress against her and pulled the skirt up a little higher. Perfect. "YOU, YOU, YOU! IT'S ALL ABOUT YOU, ISN'T IT!?"
She clicked off the phone and continued packing.
A/N: How ya like the first chappie? I tink it's alright! Kk time to watch Harry Potter...wait it's 20 to 8 and A Christmas Story is coming on! I'll watch 20 mins of HP then. R/R!