A/N: Hey guys. I want to thank all of you who reviewed last chapter, because it was really awesome and it made me feel all warm inside. You guys rock! Keep 'em coming!
Speaking of, I wanted to write a special little note to a particular new reader of mine, who wrote anonymously under the name of 'Jen':
Though your review seriously irritated me, I do agree with you. You're right, in this particular story Ron really shouldn't be made out as a prat, because it was Hermione who broke his heart, and not the other way around. It's just that, when you read the books, he usually is the fall guy/comic relief/overall jerk/clueless one, and though through the circumstances I've created in the story Ron really isn't a jerk, the circumstances of the books somewhat blinded that aspect of me writing my story. I'm glad that someone pointed this out to me, because I always appreciate advice and honesty, especially when it is a very good point being made, but there's a difference between constructive criticism and just being an ass, which is basically what you were when you wrote that review. (You might even say you made yourself look like…a prat!!) I really would have been just as willing (or even more so) to take your advice and reshape the way I write this story if you had found a constructive, positive way to tell me. But when you start your review by telling me how sick you are of things in my story and how unoriginal I am, it's really not going to make me respond well to whatever it is you have to say, whether it's helpful advice or not. And even though you were referring to a particular aspect of the story, the way you said it only makes me assume you feel that way towards me, being the author. So next time you have a qualm about something, or some advice, say it so that whoever it is doesn't feel insulted, and maybe you'll get better feedback. Telling me you're eagerly awaiting the next chapter, but you have the feeling it won't be any different isn't really going to make me respond kindly. But in the end, I thank you. Thank you for your feedback, because I can now say that in this chapter, I've greatly lessened the extent to which Ron is a prat. I hope next time you can figure out a way to get your point across without making me feel bad and without making yourself seem like a jerk, when I'm sure you probably actually are a rather nice person.
PHEW! I feel like 20 pounds has been lifted off my chest! And now we carry on!
For one more question I encountered: Not all of the chapters are flashbacks. The first section of the second chapter is a flashback, the first three paragraphs of chapter three are one flashback, and pretty much all of chapters five and six are flashbacks. Chapter seven is not. And this one is not either. Sorry for the confusion, I hope that helps!!
And with that, we proceed to the disclaimer. (yay…)
Disclaimer: Of course I don't own Harry Potter, you prats! (lol, just thought that since Ron's not that much of a prat in this one, I'd make up for it here.)
OMG, it's chapter time! Thanks for putting up with that long A/N, to make up for it, I'll write an extra long chapter. (In which Ron is not a bad guy!)
Chapter Eight
The Trouble Concerning Raspberry Scones
Every day for the next week, Hermione insisted on convincing Ron that he and Padma really were a cute couple. And with each day, Ron seemed to be buying into it more and more. She kept telling him how smart and pretty and wonderful she was, and Ron figured that if he couldn't have her, Padma seemed (by the description) to come in a somewhat close second. And that was better than nothing, right?
He had been coming back to the common room so late because of walks he had been taking with Padma around the grounds. At first, they had been nothing more than awkward, neither knowing what exactly to say, but over time the both of them opened up a bit, and the conversations became a bit more intimate. They got to know each other much, much better. Or, to be correct, Padma learned quite a bit about Ron. Ron didn't really bother to learn anything about her, because every time she mentioned something about herself, it would somehow remind him of Hermione, so he was only remembering things concerning her instead of learning about Padma. But Padma didn't say anything: she was either too dumb or too blinded to notice.
When it came down to it, Padma and Hermione did (unexpectedly) have quite a bit in common. Padma was no Lavender; she was quite good in all of her subjects, and she spent an appropriate amount of time studying. But she was much more self-aware than Hermione; she was constantly running off to fix her hair or put on makeup or anything else that would fix her appearance, and every chance she got, she would subtly pose, pursing her lips ever-so-slightly or twirling her hair around her fingers. These qualities would have been much more endearing if they weren't so obviously and overtly intended. Though this bothered Ron to an extent, he accepted it as what Padma was: constantly hoping and searching for attention.
Hermione could feel herself separating from Ron, but at the moment, she neither worried nor cared. She was happy that this time, she wasn't the one Ron was interested in, only because now she couldn't hurt him any more. Maybe Padma would turn out to be the one, the perfect girl for him, and then she also wouldn't have to be left wondering about it; she would be able to move on properly without wondering what could have been. Besides, she was too busy getting everything done to be concerned then. She had begun studying for their N.E.W.T.s, on top of several essays she now had due (most were from her extra classes), on top of her Head Girl duties, on top of tutoring a fifth year girl in Arithmancy, which she had just recently agreed to after witnessing the girl break down in tears after a particularly difficult class. In short, her plate was so full that she was on the verge of self-destruction. And of course, it was useless attempting to point this out to her, for she wouldn't hear of it.
One morning, at the breakfast table, Harry noticed that it was the ninth consecutive morning that Hermione hadn't eaten breakfast, and grew quite worried. He turned to Ginny, who was busy helping herself to some plum pudding.
"Ginny, do you find it a bit strange that Hermione hasn't eaten breakfast for the past, er…week?" he asked, counting out the days on his fingers. Ginny didn't turn to look at him, or for that matter, didn't seemed shocked at all. Instead, she kept spooning out the thick bread onto her plate and smiled serenely.
"No, I don't Harry, not at all. She hasn't not been eating, she just hasn't been coming down to breakfast, that's all."
"Um, okay then…" Harry said, looking at her confusedly, but after a moment, returned to his plate. He looked over at Ron, who didn't look at all happy. He was about to ask him what the matter was when he heard a swooshing noise above him. He looked up, saw the mail owls flying overhead; after only a second, one came flying at him, landing roughly onto Harry's plate. The owl rolled over a bit, got back to his feet, and stuck out his leg queasily, looking as though he was about to fall over again. Harry took off the letter, and the owl took of before Harry could offer him something from his presently feather-covered plate. Pushing said plate away, he pulled open the letter, which was addressed not solely to himself, but to Ginny and Ron as well. He read aloud:
Dear Ginny, Ron, and Harry,
Hello! Fred here, just writing to tell you about a couple things. Firstly, the grand opening went splendidly, we were so crowded that there was a line around the corner for blocks! It was spectacular, you should have seen it, every kid in London and his parents were there! I was also writing to let you know that George and I are planning a little party for Hermione, it being her birthday soon and all. George gathered from Hermione a few days ago that the next Hogsmeade trip is in about two weeks, is that right? If so, you should plan to come a little early, so we'll have time before we open, which is at two on Saturdays. George has done some really great planning, if I may say so myself. Anyway, don't tell Hermione about it, we'd like it to be somewhat of a surprise, all right? Well, we will see you soon. If there're any problems, write back and let us know!
With lots of love,
Fred
Harry folded up the letter and handed it to Ron, who looked a bit confused, thinking Ron would like to have a look himself. But Ron wasn't confused about the plan, he had surely understood that part perfectly…when had Hermione told George about the next Hogsmeade visit? They hadn't known about it until only a few days ago, but that was after they had last been…Well, he didn't have much time to linger on these thoughts as it grew closer to Potions. He stood up with the others and headed back up to the common room to gather their things and head for class.
Ron noticed throughout the day, first in Potions, that Hermione looked extremely tired and worn out. For a fleeting moment, he felt scared for her, for her well-being, but didn't point this out as she would have surely taken it as an insult and then would have proceeded with ignoring him for the rest of the day, and they didn't really talk as much any more as it was. He was usually off with Padma, roaming the campus, while she was, of course, in the library/roaming the halls before bed/tutoring the poor fifth year girl, etc, etc. In fact, the more Ron thought about it, the more he realized that they hadn't had a real conversation in what felt like forever. Every time he'd go to ask her something, like how she was or why it was she refused to come downstairs for breakfast, she would always speak first and bring up Padma. He had no idea why Hermione was so set on constantly talking about her, in fact it was almost driving him mad. If he wanted to talk about Padma, he'd bloody well go talk to her in person! It seemed damn near impossible trying to get in a normal talk with her these days, but for the life of him he couldn't figure out why…
So he found himself spending more and more time with Padma. He would look worriedly at Hermione, as though he were looking to see if she had suddenly had a change of heart, but she would only mention how sweet they were together. What was he supposed to do? It was like she was implanting inside his head, brainwashing him with it, and soon enough, there he was, believing it.
One night, he was walking across the grass with Padma, enjoying the moonlight and taking in the cool air and hearing only the grass under their feet as they walked in silence, when she suddenly turned to him, looking into his eyes with a mystic look on her face. He turned to look at her.
"Ron, do you like me?" she asked, without a hint of red in her cheeks. Ron gulped so hard he nearly hurt his throat, and looked at the ground.
"Erm. Well, um…" he started, not quite able to finish. But Padma didn't seem bothered by this; on the contrary, a smile formed on her lips and she nearly laughed.
"Ron, if it makes it any easier, I like you. In fact, I like you a lot. I never really thought I'd say that, after fourth year and everything, but having spent all this time with you, I realize what a great time I have with you. I know that must sound a little strange, we've only been talking for two weeks, but…"
Ron looked up at her again, this time into her eyes. She seemed serious, as far as he could tell, and the longer he looked, the clearer it became that he wouldn't be able to refuse something like that. He cleared his throat unconfidently and twiddled his fingers as his ears went unnoticeably pink in the dark.
"Well, um, Padma, I uh, like you too," he said, attempting to overlook the slight crack in his voice.
"Well, it's settled then. Would you be my boyfriend?"
At midnight, Neville heard the portrait hole swing open and sighed, relieved, when he saw it was a tall, redheaded seventh year walk in.
"Ron, there you are! Harry and Ginny were looking everywhere for you!" Neville proclaimed, overlooking the weary expression on Ron's face.
"Why, is something wrong?"
"Well, a bit earlier, I'd say about nine or so, Hermione got a wickedly splitting headache in the library and got up to find some aspirin in her bag and some water, but before she could make it to the other table, where she'd left her bag, she had fainted onto the floor! Dean and Seamus got her to her feet and carried her up to the hospital ward, and they saw Harry and Ginny on the way there…they tried to find you, but couldn't think of where else you'd be…they're up there now, if you'd like to see them."
Ron didn't need telling twice. He took off for the hospital ward in a flash. Running up the several flights of steps didn't seem like much of a challenge when it was Hermione's health in question. The stitch in his side that popped up on around the fourth flight was nothing that would stop him. He made it on the sixth landing, stopped for a millisecond to catch his breath, and took off down the hall until he reached the white door. Finally feeling the aftermath of his running for the first time, he stopped to breathe properly before flinging the door open wildly and looking inside.
To his left he saw Hermione lying on the hospital bed in the corner. Ignoring the shocked Madame Pomfrey, who was now practically on the floor, he rushed over and sat in an empty chair a couple feet away from her bed. Already there were Harry and Ginny, both asleep in chairs against the wall. Hermione's head was resting on her shoulder, and mouth was in a small smile. He sighed, relieved, and, without even thinking about it, took her hand in his.
An hour later, Hermione wakened to find her three best friends sleeping around her bed. But what was more surprising than waking up mysteriously in a hospital bed was seeing her hand tightly held in Ron's. She shifted a little in her bed to make herself more comfortable when she saw Ron stir. Hoping he would settle back down, she stopped moving, but it was to no use. He opened his eyes blearily and sat up.
"'Mione…are you okay? I came to see you, to make sure you were alright," he said, blinking several times before fully opening his eyes.
"Yeah, I think so…although I'm not really sure why I'm here, to be honest," she said, yawning and wondering what to do with her hand…should she leave it there? Does Ron know that he's still holding it? She wasn't really sure.
"Well, apparently you fainted in the library…you had a really bad headache, and when you stood up to find something to take for it, you just, well, fainted."
"Why did I faint? I've never done that before…did something happen?" she asked, concerned. Ron's face took on a slight panic: he didn't want to tell her he hadn't been there when it had happened, because then she would wonder where he had been instead, and that was a whole other can of worms to be opened up another time…
"Er, well…no, nothing happened just then, it must have been from something that's been happening over time that lead up to that point…" he said, having absolutely no idea what he was inferring. But it was obviously something, because a moment later, Hermione's pensive expression turned to shock, and then slight panic.
"Oh…um, that's interesting, isn't it? Hmm…I wonder what that could have been…"
"Hermione, when is it that you find time to--"
Whatever he was going to ask was immediately shoved back into his head as he heard Ginny mumble something about pie, slowly sitting up and realizing where she was.
"Oh! Ron, you came, we didn't know where to find you!" she exclaimed, which woke Harry.
"Mmm, Ron, there you are. How long have we been sleeping here?" he asked, taking off his glasses and rubbing his eyes before replacing them.
"Just a couple of hours, I think, though I don't know how long you had been sleeping when I got here," Ron replied, hoping against hope that no one would ask where he had been.
"Hell, it's three in the morning…" Ginny said, glancing at Harry's watch.
"Oh, you guys should really get off to bed then, you've got classes in the morning!" Hermione exclaimed, nearly frightening Ginny and Harry out of their chairs. Aparently neither of them had realized she was awake.
"Morning…how are you feeling?"
"I feel fine, just a little tired, that's all. But you should really go sleep, please. I don't want to keep you from doing well tomorrow."
"All right, are you sure you don't want us to stay with you?" Harry asked, though not really wanting to stay.
"Yes, I'm sure. I'll be fine, I'll probably just fall asleep in a few minutes anyway. I'll see you later anyway, it'll be fine," she said with a smile. It suddenly hit Harry that no one had told her what had happened.
"Um, right. Okay then, goodnight Herm, we'll see you later."
The three stood out of their chairs, making sure not to scratch them on the floor. Ron squeezed Hermione's hand lightly and gave her a smile before they walked out of the room, leaving her in silence.
She sat there, examining the hand that had just been in pleasant company with Ron's, and smiled.
Maybe he does still care…that would be nice. In fact, very nice. Very nice indeed…
And she fell asleep, thinking very happy thoughts indeed.
In the corridors, the three (very tired) Gryffindors walked in near silence, aside from the slight scuffle of feet on the floor. Ron's hands were stuffed in his pockets, and though it was three in the morning, he was still able to find himself in deep thought. It was only hours ago that Padma had asked him out, yet it was even only hours ago Hermione had fainted and landed herself in a hospital bed…was this some sort of sign? Was someone trying to tell him something? He wasn't sure, but the thought intrigued him…
"Ron, we need to tell you something," Harry said suddenly, shaking Ron out of his thoughts.
"About Hermione…Madame Pomfrey told us why she fainted…she's really been hurting herself lately, she's eating, but not nearly enough, and she hardly sleeps…it's a lot worse than I thought it was, I always knew she was overdoing it, but I never thought to this extent…now I know how she does it! I was a little impressed before, what with her finding time to sleep and tutor and study and be Head Girl…but I was wrong. She's depriving herself of everything she needs to make time for everything else! It's crazy! I'm a bit glad she fainted, or she would have just kept going like that for who knows how long!" Ginny cried, making wild hand gestures throughout. Harry put a hand on her shoulder, attempting to calm her. Ron shook his head disbelievingly.
"So, how long does she have to stay in there?" he asked quietly.
"Oh, well, Pomfrey says that it'll be at least a few days, says she'll get her to eat properly if it's the last thing she does. Plus, she's behind on more than a week's worth of sleep, but knowing Hermione, she'll never go for that. I think she'll be in there for at least five days or so…but she doesn't know anything yet. She thinks she'll be out of there tomorrow. Or later today, I should say…anyway, shouldn't be surprising when she throws a fit when she finds out…oh well. It's better for her. She'll just have to deal with it," Harry said, sighing.
"Wow…" was all Ron could say. He couldn't help but feel guilty…here he was spending all this time with Padma while his best friend was putting herself through hell…but it was her fault! Why would she do that to herself? And she was the one who told him to go for it, wasn't she? Now he was really confused…
Ron sat in his bed that night, wondering what the bloody hell was wrong with the universe that caused it to be so, so cruel. Part of him was wishing he could take everything with Padma back, because the fact that he was going out with her now seemed so horribly wrong. He couldn't figure out why, but he realized that he would rather be face to face with Voldemort than tell Hermione that he was now with Padma. It wasn't that he was afraid of hurting her feelings; she was partly why he had said yes. But it was knowing that she was okay with it that seemed to bother him. It was like…like he didn't want her to be okay with it, that he wanted her to be a bit jealous or something. He sighed resignedly, with the feeling that nothing of the sort would be happening any time soon. And some time later, he fell asleep, thinking very sad thoughts indeed.
"She doesn't like those, put them back."
Ginny glared at Ron as she replaced a raspberry scone on the platter in front of her.
"What, pray tell, shall I put on her plate then?" she asked caustically.
"Um…put some a couple more pieces of toast on there, and put some eggs, she likes eggs…um…instead of raspberry, give her a blueberry scone," Ron replied, ignoring the tone in Ginny's voice. He watched as she did as he told, giving her more toast. Harry laughed at the interaction between the two Weasleys; it was so sweet he could have cried.
"Okay, that's enough, hand it over," he said, reaching for the plate. "I'll see you guys later, alright?" he said, and he took off for the hospital wing.
"Well, could this be a glimpse into the future? Maybe Ron treating his future wife to a little breakfast in bed?" Harry said a few minutes after Ron had left. He grinned sweetly at Ginny, who rolled her eyes sarcastically.
"If they ever realize what loons they're being, that is," she said, grinning back. Just then someone tapped Harry on the shoulder. He turned around to see a very pretty Ravenclaw standing behind him, her long dark hair in a braid resting on her shoulder.
"Do you know where Ron is? He said he'd meet me in the entrance hall…" she said, looking around the room.
"Um…(cough) no, I don't, I think he said he didn't feel very well, so…he might be resting, yeah," Ginny said, looking convincingly concerned. Padma frowned.
"Oh, well, I hope he feels better soon…tell him I miss him for me, will you?"
"Yeah, sure, of course," Ginny replied, smiling kindly.
Padma thanked her and walked over to the Ravenclaw table.
"What?" Ginny asked, seeing the raised eyebrow on Harry's face.
"Nothing, nothing…"
"Oh come on, why let her interfere more than she already has…I can't believe he said yes to her, why? She's nothing special," she said, taking a bite of Hermione's rejected raspberry scone.
Harry nearly choked on his pumpkin juice.
"WHAT? You don't mean…"
"Oh yes, I do mean," she said.
"When? And why? Ew, that's not very kosher…" he said, grimacing.
(A/N: I know that's nothing any of them would ever say, but I love that expression, sorry, but I had to use it…)
"Last night…well, technically, I'm not supposed to know, but while I was looking for him outside I overheard them…it was rather funny, the way it came about. She practically did all the talking, he stood there helpless…well, that's my brother for you. Never really knew how to follow up in that department."
Harry nearly cried he was laughing so hard. Oh, how true it was, how true it was.
Pretty please, review! I know that chapter wasn't too happy, but you'll see, it can only get better…hehehe. I've got plans for this one…REVIEW!!!
