Falling into You

By Weasley is my King

Chapter 5

"Ginny," Hermione knocked gently on the door. The old quote from her mother rang through her head, "you don't bang on the door of honeymooners." Hermione wondered why this quote chose to make itself known at this moment, especially since she hadn't thought about it since it happened, when she was five years old and her aunt was so trashed from the night of her wedding that she and her new husband almost missed their flight to the south of France. Moreover, it didn't make sense that she was thinking about it because Ginny was most definitely not a honeymooner. Hermione pushed the thought from her mind with a shake of her head and knocked again on the door. This whole situation was wearing on her nerves and the fact that Ginny had locked the door to her dormitory was upsetting Hermione even more. Hermione banged on the door and shouted Ginny's name one more time before pulling out her wand, whispering alohomora and unlocking the door separating the two.

"What is going on?" Hermione demanded, "You lot disappear for a couple minutes, Ron starts yelling and then all of a sudden you run off to your dormitory? Somebody better tell me what's going on or I'm going to start throwing out hexes without apologizing!"

Much to Hermione's surprise, Ginny didn't seem to be in tears. Hermione had fully expected she would be, partly due to the fact that Ginny did have a tendency lately to burst into tears when things got too heavy or when she wanted sympathy. However, Ginny's face was perfectly normal: there didn't appear to be any red splotches or glassy eyes. Just Ginny, with her flawless skin and sparkling bright, brown eyes. Although she appeared to be a bit shaken, nothing was out of the ordinary. In the seconds that had lapsed from her bolting up the stairs and slamming the door to Hermione breaking and entering Ginny's dorm room, Ginny had managed to pull a sweater over her head and twist her hair in a clip to get it out of her face. Hermione waited expectantly with her hands perched on her hips, showing no mercy.

"I don't want to talk about it," Ginny said from her bed.

"You don't want to talk about it?!" Hermione exclaimed, "Guess what! I need to know what's going on, so you tell me or -- or I'll...!" Ginny had never seen Hermione look so angry.

"Excuse me," said a small yet familiar voice from the door.

Both sets of brown eyes flew to the door. Standing there was Lara with a small smile and questioning blue eyes. "What's going on," she asked.

"Where have you been?" Ginny asked with a rude undertone and seriously wondering how Lara could be so calm. After all, Ginny had just made Harry a cheater.

"I went to my room when my boyfriend ditched me," she stated matter-of-factly with a bored look. She pushed a few strands of her long blonde hair from her face.

Ginny tried to resist rolling her eyes. "hmm," she said, glancing out the window. "That's too bad."

"Now, if you don't mind me asking," Lara said, taking a bold few steps further into the room, "why were you shouting?"

"Actually, I'm not really sure what happ-" Hermione tried.

"Actually, Lara," Ginny interjected, "I do mind. This is a private matter."

Just as Lara had opened her mouth to make an equally snide comment, a first year knocked lightly on the door to grab their attention.

"Yes," Lara snapped.

The young brown haired girl looked frightened. "A red haired boy downstairs has been yelling for a while now and he asked me if I could get Ginny." Her words came out quickly and shakily. "That's you, right?" she asked to the only redhead in sight.

"Yes, it is," Ginny smiled warmly at the girl. "Thank you. I'll be right down."

The first year smiled and skipped down the hallway, presumably back to Ron to inform him that his sister would be joining him in just a moment. Ginny looked at Lara expectantly to see whether or not she had anything else to say. "Excuse me while I go speak to my brother for a moment. Whatever is going on probably doesn't interest you," she said with a faux sweetness. "Besides, wouldn't you like to go find your boyfriend? I mean, if my boyfriend ditched me for his best friend's sister, I would want to have a serious chat with him."

Ginny brushed passed Lara and walked slowly down the hallway. Hermione was on her heels, waiting to figure out exactly what happened, since no one had informed her yet. Lara sighed heavily in the background and followed a few feet behind the two girls. She stomped down the stairs and over to Ron.

"What's going on," she wondered in a harsh tone. "And where is Harry?"

Ron's ears turned red and he blushed in fury. Just hearing that name, he thought, made him want to hit him again. "I don't know where he went. After I punched him in the face, I lost track of him."

"You did what?" all three girls asked.

"You hit him?" Ginny asked.

"How could you punch him, Ronald?" Hermione insisted.

"What did he do to deserve that?!" Lara glared at Ron. "You are all crazy!" she walked quickly out of the common room and out to the hallway to search for Harry… once again. She seemed to have a problem of losing him lately. If she had to keep looking for him, she'd never get anything accomplished.

Ron looked horribly flustered, angered and confused all at the same time. He stared at his baby sister in complete and utter shock. Hermione had no idea what Ron had seen, what had possessed him to hit his best friend or why he was looking at Ginny the way he was. She hated being out of the know and this whole situation was way beyond anything she had ever thought would happen. None of this was supposed to happen. Catastrophic events happen when there are ulterior motives!

"Will someone please tell me what just happened?" she demanded.

Ron collapsed into a chair around the table where Ginny's homework was still spread out. Hermione made a point to sit down too, in a chair next to him, and fold her hands together above the table, patiently waiting for someone to answer her question. Ginny sat down as well and just sat quietly until Ron had found the words he wanted to say.

"Gin, I'm sorry," Ron said slowly. This surprised her; why did he need to apologize? Shouldn't she have to apologize for the fact that he had walked in on the two of them fully sucking face in the empty stairwell leading to the boys' dormitories? "Harry's been acting weird lately and I'm sorry that he…" Ron couldn't exactly finish. Just the fact that Harry would do such a thing seemed far too unbelievable to even utter the words. "It was wrong of him to kiss you."

Hermione gasped. No way.

"I kissed him too," Ginny said softly with a shrug. Oh, this conversation was getting more and more bizarre by the moment. If there was anything she didn't want to do at that moment, it was speak to her brother about her experiences with boys, especially experiences with Harry.

"I'm sorry," Hermione said, still being ignored, "what?"

"He's been acting weird and he shouldn't have- you WHAT?" Ron exclaimed.

Ginny avoided Ron's eyes and only stared at her own entangled fingers. "It wasn't his fault, Ron," she said softly. "It was mine."

"Actually," Hermione interjected, "it was mine. I mean, I was the one who sent him over there… if it wasn't for me trying to get him off of Lara- er- the other way around, he wouldn't have approached her and none of this would have happened. But he kissed you? This was not the plan, Ginny! Honestly, what happened to Operation: Leave Harry Alone?"

Both Ron and Ginny hadn't even looked at Hermione. It was as though she wasn't even there. How was it, she wondered, that there seemed to be so much drama this year? Not only did they have to worry about Lord Voldemort, but they all seemed to have raging hormones clogging their better judgment. They did not need this right now!

Ron sighed and shook his head. "I know, I know," Ginny said in a bored voice, "you're disappointed in me."

Ron looked into her brown eyes. "Gin, I'm not disappointed," he said quietly and in a very tired voice, "I just don't understand why you do this."

"Do what?" she asked, slightly offended.

"You just can't leave him alone," he explained. "He doesn't want you, Gin."

Hermione's jaw dropped upon hearing the words come out of her boyfriends mouth. It didn't matter if the words had any merit. There is no reason why anyone should ever have to hear that, especially from their own brother, a brother who had spent the past six years defending and looking out for them. Hermione watched yet another catastrophe unfold in front of her. Ginny's cheeks flushed as she stood up defiantly. She gathered her books, shoved them in her bag, slung it over her shoulder, cast an icy glare at Ron and quickly disappeared back to her room.

"Well," Ron said, "That went well," he said sarcastically. Hermione looked at him with an expression he couldn't read. "What?" he asked exasperatedly.

"That was a little harsh, Ron," she said softly, averting her gaze from his eyes to her unpainted fingernails.

"Well, it's true."

"That doesn't matter," she said.

"Sure it does," Ron said with a sly smile. He leaned in a little closer and placed a soft kiss on her cheek. "Anyway," he said, "Let's go for a walk. All of our homework's done and we have no more obligations until dinner." The thought of dinner made his stomach cringe just at the thought of the tension among everyone at the table. "Let's go," he reached for her hand. Hermione pulled away from him. Talk about harsh, he thought.

"You really hurt her feelings," Hermione said. "Besides, how do you know that Harry doesn't 'want' her?"

"I- well, I'm not-" he couldn't exactly answer her question.

Hermione shook her head and stood up as well. "Think about what you just did and when you figure out who you've upset, what you've just said and the way you treated all of your friends in the passed half hour get back to me." Hermione didn't even look back as she too marched up the stairs to her own dormitory.

"And the cheese stands alone," Ron whispered to himself. "Now what am I going to do?"