Last time:
"Why did she come back? No, no, we can get to that later. More importantly, why did she leave?"
"She came back for Dumbledore's funeral," Harry gave a grunt of undeterminable meaning. Ron continued. "She left because...well...you see..." How on earth was he supposed to tell him this part? Best just come out with it I suppose...fast and painless...
"Voldemort isn't dead," the two boys said simultaneously.
"What did you just say?" asked Ron in disbelief. Surely Harry had not just said what he thought Harry had just said.
"I said, Voldemort isn't dead. That's why she left." Or maybe he did just say what Ron thought he just said.
"Bloody hell! Am I the only one who didn't know this?! Were you ever going to let me in on this little secret?" Ron jumped out of the chair he had been sitting in and began madly waving his arms. Harry could not help thinking to himself that if the circumstances had not been so serious, he would not have been able to keep a straight face.
"Ron, calm down-" Harry stood and walked over to where Ron was pacing in his mad frenzy.
"Calm down?" He stopped pacing and peered wide eyed at Harry. "Calm down?"
"Ron, seriously. Hear me out." Harry placed two steadying hands on Ron's shoulders.
"I bloody well better hear you out." But apparently, he did not desire to hear Harry out at that particular moment, as he swatted Harry's arms away and began walking toward the door.
"I thought you knew," Harry said, throwing his arms up, defeated.
Ron froze before spinning around to face Harry. For a moment, he look as though was either going to say something or hit Harry, but in the end, Ron just gave the expression of a fish out of water. He was unable to formulate complete sentence. He was not even able to formulate complete words.
"I'm now guessing that you didn't know."
"Yeah, good guess, Harry," Ron replied, acidly. He combed his hand through his hair before sitting down on Harry's bed, elbows on his knees, head down.
"You're doing an excellent impression of me," Harry joked, not realizing that Ron was crying until he noticed the little involuntary shudders pulsing through Ron's body every few of seconds.
Harry was silent for a few minutes, uncertain what do do, but having the innate feeling he should make a joke to lighten the mood. Since when did I turn into Ron? he wondered to himself. "Come on Ron, if anyone should be crying over this it should be me. I mean, hero," he gestured to himself, and then to Ron, "sidekick. It'll be me doing all the fighting, right?" He was trying to bring up the old joke they shared after the final battle when the press had used those adjectives to describe them. It did not get the response Harry intended, however.
Ron looked up at him, and even with his puffy, blood-shot eyes, issued Harry a death-stare. "It wasn't funny at the time, and it most certainly isn't funny now."
Harry was trying his hardest to hold back the feeling of anger that was threatening to come out of him. Ron was angry because he was upset Harry did not tell him about Voldemort, and that Hermione had been hiding from them. He needed to be the one to comfort Ron now, just like Ron had been there for him during his brooding periods. It was not easy though. "You certainly seemed to think it was funny every other time anyone brought it up for the past 5 years."
"For the past 5 years, I thought Voldemort was dead."
"What has that got to do with the joke being funny?"
"Because at the time, as far as I knew, the situation was over! But now, you are treating me like dirt when I'm about to once again risk my life and the life of my family to help you, all because of your hero complex that stopped you from admitting Voldemort wasn't dead in the first place!" Ron was yelling directly into Harry's face at the top of his lungs now. His face was red with rage.
"My hero complex Ron? My hero complex? Please. Like you didn't just love the attention. You were always looking for a way to make a name for yourself that didn't involve 'brother-of'. You can't possibly tell me that you didn't know there needed to be a body. You may be dumb Ron, but even you aren't that dumb!" Harry was now matching Ron's volume and skin color.
Both stopped and looked at each other in a kind of face-off. Their bodies were almost mirror images of each other-- fists and jaws clenched, lips pursed, breathing heavily, trying to resist the urge to punch the other. Ron ended the stalemate first, opening the bedroom door and slamming it behind him as he walk out, leaving Harry to punch his wall and fall back onto his bed, holding his now numb hand.
"So he found out I see," Ginny remarked to Hermione once she heard the door to Harry's room shut, knowing Ron was now inside. When Hermione did not say anything, she continued, "I can't say that I'm upset about it--"
"Neither can I."
"I mean, this really needed to-- what?"
"I'm. Glad. It. Happened. It needed to. I couldn't hide forever, and in the back of my head, I knew that. In the back of my head, I didn't want to hide forever. I wanted to come back and see Ron and Harry again. I wanted to see you and your family. I wanted...I wanted to be with Ron."
"So, really...you should...thank me," Ginny said to test the waters and see exactly how glad Hermione was.
"Well, I'd rather have come back with a bit more control over the situation, but...yes, I suppose I should thank you. I might have never actualy pushed myself to come back. So...thank you, Ginny."
Ginny smiled warmly and made her way over to the sofa. She sat down next Hermione and pulled her into a one armed hug. "You're welcome, Hermione. And, I'm glad you are back, too."
The two friends sat in silence for a moment, both glad that some weight had been lifted from the situation. "So what exactly happened? How did Ron realize?" Ginny asked.
Hermione sighed and told her the story.
Ginny had never laughed harder. "You...you...Fred...George...oh, man Hermione." She was now wiping tears from her eyes.
"Gin, it isn't funny. Gin," but now Hermione was laughing too. "Oh, God, yeah, I suppose it is funny. I can't believe I just drank something out of the twins' closet."
Both of the girls were in hysterics when the heard another door slamming and saw a very red faced Ron come back into the living room. They stopped laughing immediately.
"Ron, what--" Ginny never got a chance to finish.
"Your conceited, ass of a fiancee is in his room if you want to talk to him. Good luck penetrating his thick head though," and with that last thought, he apparated away.
Hermione and Ginny looked at each other in awe and quite a bit confused.
"I should probably..." Ginny trailed off with a look toward Harry's bedroom.
"Yeah, and maybe I should..." Hermione trailed off, looking in the direction of were Ron was last standing.
"Yeah, you probably should. He probably would want you too."
"You think?"
"I know. He really missed you, Hermione. We all did, but Ron...well, he took it especially hard." Ginny smiled at her friend and gave her a hug. "I'm glad your back, Herm." With one last look, she headed off toward Harry's bed room, hearing the 'pop' as Hermione apparated to Ron's.
AN: Next chapter, the couples talk. And probably some other stuff ;)