Hey kids, it's good to be back. The title of this one's taken from a book by Ray Cruz. Good book. This one's a little strange, I'm just warning you. It's a little high on emotion and craziness, butÉwell, we'll see how you like it. Anywho, I hope you enjoy this one, and make sure to review! Review, review, review!
Heh.
Lauren
Chapter Nineteen
A Ceremonial Marking of Territory
Or
Ron and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day
There was no question that things had gotten awkward. Ron could tell, Hermione could tell, Harry could tell, all of Gryffindor could even tell. But Hermione was determined not to let this get the best of her. And now, with Daniel was in the picture, it wouldn't be much of a feat.
Because now Daniel was in the picture. Just in little bits at first: their Potions meetings started becoming more and more frequent, and Hermione realized she didn't mind so much. If nothing else, it was at least a frequent ego boost. But it wasn't just that. Daniel was actually quite good company, once you got past his constant chattering and his seemingly childish eagerness. He was quite smart in areas other than Potions; his skill in Transfiguration was, as she found, almost better than hers. He was fantastic when it came to matters of the heart--somehow he always knew the right thing to say. And, as studious as he was, he was quite easy to be around and always found good humor in things. As time wore on, the two began spending a good amount of time together, and soon found they didn't need the excuse of Potions lessons (though they still had them, every other day) to hang out. Not only was he fun to be with, but he also took studying quite seriously, and the two were often found in the library, their noses deep in work or books.
It was on one of these days that Hermione found herself in quite an odd place indeed.
Daniel was walking Hermione back to her Common Room--despite the fact that it was well out of his way, being three floors and four hallways away from his ownÑwhen suddenly, she stopped hearing his footsteps next to hers. She stopped and turned around to see him a few feet behind her, apparently deep in thought. When she approached him, he raised his hand to silence her before she spoke. Finally, he opened his mouth to speak.
"Hermione, I want to go out with you."
Hermione looked at him for a moment, pondering why on earth it had taken him all of that just to ask her out.
"Oh, um, okay," she responded, not knowing exactly how to handle such a situation. Daniel chuckled, which caused her to blush.
"Well, is that a 'yes' then?" Hermione blushed even more, to the point where she thought her cheeks would explode.
"Yes. Yes, it is."
When they reached the portrait hole, Daniel pulled her to him closely and pecked her softly on the lips. This took Hermione a little by surprise, but she found herself smiling as the portrait hole opened and she climbed inside. In fact, she soon found that she couldn't stop smiling, even when she saw Harry, Ginny and Ron around the fire, looking up at her as she entered.
"Hermione, what is it? Did you get extra homework from Snape or something? Did McGonagall ask you to grade tests for her? Is Binns having you give a lecture on the history of ghoul rebellions next week?" Ron asked teasingly, causing Dean and Seamus, who were nearby, to nearly fall out of their chairs in laughter. Ginny gave him a look of annoyance, but Harry couldn't help but chuckle to himself, which earned him a look from her as well. Ron gave Hermione an apologetic grin as she walked over, hoping she wouldn't slap him silly. Instead, however, and surprisingly to everyone in the room, she began chuckling as well, setting her books down on the floor and pulling her wand out of her robes.
"No, but really, where have you been all night? Oh wait, don't tell me--the library!" Ron exclaimed, just as she too said the two expected words. Hermione smiled instantly, hoping she wasn't blushing like mad. Ron felt something was different--he could have sworn he felt her glowing.
"Are you all right?" he asked, suddenly serious. Hermione frowned.
"Yes, why shouldn't I be?"
"Dunno, I was just checking." Something was different, he was sure of it.
A week later, Ron still didn't have an answer, and he was growing more and more impatient and frustrated. He showed up in the library and suddenly felt his stomach drop--there, in front of him, were two people (one with suspiciously bushy hair) with their hands comfortably entwined. Ron tried to swallow the lump in his throat as best he could as he walked past them nonchalantly, heading toward the medicine reference books. Fortunately for him, Hermione didn't see him walk past, as her back was to him, and so he found himself watching them from around the corner. The sight almost made him sick to his stomach: how do people find studying together enjoyable, and romantic even? Because there they were, holding hands and reading books together. Merlin, it almost made him angry thinking about how that was even possible. But there they were, perfectly enjoying themselves. And Ron wasn't too fond of this.
After an hour or so, Daniel got up, kissed Hermione on the forehead, and exited the library. Ron, carrying a large medical dictionary, made his way over to her table, plopped the book down with a large thud, and sat in Daniel's abandoned chair.
"Hi Ron, what are you studying?"
"Oh, nothing, just brushing up on my medical terms," he said coolly. Hermione chuckled, obviously not noticing his tone of voice.
"For what? You, brushing up on something? That's unlike you. What's going on?"
"Oh, well it looks like I'm not the only one acting strangely then, am I?" he replied, not lifting his eyes from the pages. "I should really be asking you what's going on." Hermione raised an eyebrow.
"Excuse me, but what on earth are you talking about?" she snapped, feeling heat rise in her cheeks. Ron looked at her coldly.
"What's going on with you and that chump, Thompson? You two seem to be awfully chummy lately. You two wouldn't happen to be dating now, would you?" he asked, a smile uncontrollably appearing on his lips. Hermione remained silent, her eyes growing strangely wide. Ron became suddenly confused at the turn the situation had taken. She was supposed to be angry, she was supposed to be yelling at him right now about how he had no business spying on her and accusing her of doing something wrong. But she wasn't, and he couldn't decide if her current reaction was worse.
"Um, well...y-yes. Yes, we are," she said finally. "Um...I have to go." She gathered her books rather quickly and walked out of the library without so much of a glance back at Ron.
"Ron, what are you so worried about? It's Daniel Thompson; just one look at him and you can tell he's a wanker. I mean, look at the way he tucks his shirt into his pants! And the way he's always so prim and proper, like his mum's dressed him. He's always got books in his arms, his glasses are never askew, and his hair's always perfect. I have the undeniable urge to just walk right up to him and slap that stupid, goofy grin off his face. I mean, what is there to like? He must be perfectly boring."
Ron looked over at his little sister, whose hands were gesticulating madly in frustration as she spoke. He wanted so much to hug her and tell her how much he appreciated her effort, but he realized that a) they were in the Great Hall, in front of, well, the entire school, which would prove to be a strange setting to show such kindness to a sibling, and b) everything she said was true--which is why he was worried in the first place. It was true, he did like studying. He always dressed neatly. Studying was important to him. He was...charming. And that was exactly what Ron was not. And that was exactly what Hermione was.
"Well, if she was so interested in me, enough to want to pursue a relationship with me, then why is she all of a sudden so damn cheeky with this bloke? I mean, it's like she just asked me out because she wanted a relationship in general, not because she wanted me. And why wouldn't she tell me? I mean, we are best friends, you'd think she'd at least think to tell me something like this, it's not like it happens every day, this is something important! Argh, I--I don't know what I think any more, I need to eat."
"Do keep in mind that it has been two months since she asked you out, and you said no! Not that you did anything wrong, you did what you knew was best for you. But you can't expect her to sit around and wait for you forever. She's just trying to move on, kind of like you did last year. It's just...you know. You can't decide not to have her and then refuse to let anyone else have her, Ron. It's not the way things work."
Ron grumbled. He certainly wasn't in the mood to talk about what he could and couldn't do, or what worked and what didn't. And now that he and Hermione weren't talking--again! How many times could this happen to one pair of people?--it was clear he wouldn't get any closure on the matter any time soon. He sighed discontentedly as he stuck a large bite of mashed potatoes and gravy into his mouth.
"Harry, don't you agree?" Ginny asked, causing Harry to jerk his head up suddenly. As Harry remained silent, confused, Ginny gave him a pressing glance, to which he answered, "Of course! Ginny's right, you know. Completely. About everything." Ginny rolled her eyes as Ron laughed weakly. At least he could always count on Harry to help him out in tough situations.
Hermione sat on her bed silently. Lavender and Parvati had tried several times to persuade her to come out of the room, but Hermione insisted she was perfectly content sitting in her bed and reading. Eventually, the two girls gave up, deciding it was useless, and let her be. She didn't want to see Ron, not after what had happened in the library. Why had she been so reluctant to tell him? Sure, she was perfectly content with Daniel, he was kind to her and sweet and everything she wanted. But for some reason she found she didn't want Ron knowing, but hard as she thought, she couldn't figure out why. Surely she wasn't ashamed of Daniel, it must have been something else...but what, she wasn't sure. All she knew was, she had probably made things much more awkward, because Ron knowing made her awkward, and surely now it made him awkward too. She decided it was best if she just lay low for the time being. And for the first time in ages, she went to bed early, but there was so much on her mind that it took her quite a while before she was able to drift off into a very uneasy sleep.
Of course he was jealous. What did he expect? But Ginny was right; he couldn't expect her to hang around just waiting for him to decide he was ready. But it all seemed so...sudden. How had she found someone else? With Padma it had taken time, and he had had an excuse for dating her: Hermione pushed him to do it. But here she was, with someone she found attractive and desirable all on her own, so what was her reason? It made him cringe to know that this was a decision she came to on her own, that this was someone she really wanted to be with, and that this was something real. Everyone knew he and Padma wouldn't last, but this...this was very different indeed. Because it was obvious to everyone that Hermione and Daniel actually made sense.
Hermione felt her feet carrying her somewhere, but she wasn't sure where she was exactly. She knew it looked familiar, but for some reason she couldn't place her finger on it. All she knew was she was surrounded by warm air and tall yellow flowers. Her feet felt cool in the tall grass, and the wind tugged gently at her long, white dress. She kept walking forward, hoping that eventually she would see something that would tell her where she was, when she saw in the distance an irregularly tall house. Perhaps it was her imagination, but it looked as if it were greatly distorted, crooked beyond all reason. She kept walking toward it, feeling a hot sun bear down on her from behind. When she finally reached the house, she saw a door--a door so slanted and deformed it seemed impossible to open. But surprised she was to find that when she turned the handle, the door opened with ease. She pushed it open with a loud creak, and as she entered she saw in front of her the stretch of a long, dark hallway. To her left, she saw a lit torch, and she took it in her hand and proceeded down the hall. As she passed, the fire revealed the peeling paint on the walls and the cobwebs in the corners of the ceiling. At the end, she saw a dark, wooden door. She pushed it open and found a small child sitting on the floor, playing with dolls. The child, upon hearing the noise of the door, turned his head around to face Hermione and smiled when he saw her face. Hermione gasped.
"Mum!" squeaked the small boy. His face was covered in small, delicate freckles, and when he opened his mouth she saw two rather large front teeth. His auburn hair was a disheveled mess, and it fell to right below his ears. And his smile was awkwardly crooked, but when she saw it she felt her heart melt. She slowly approached him, acutely aware of the sound of her feet on the wooden floor, but before she reached him her eyes fell upon a mirror on the wall across from her. But something wasn't right. Because when she looked into the mirror, she saw--
"Ron?"
She woke up in a cold sweat, her hair clinging to her face and her nightgown cold against her skin. "Ron?" she whispered to herself again.
Later...
"Why didn't you tell me?"
Hermione spun around, her head nearly flying off her neck as she tried (and failed) to remain calm. She didn't want to do this, not here, not now, not ever. She stared at the table in front of her as Ron sat down across from her, staring at her until she couldn't take it any more. She looked up at him nervously, unsure of why she felt this way. It was just a boy, a boy who liked her and was kind to her and made her feel wonderful. So why did she feel so guilty about it?
"I-I don't really know, I just...there wasn't ever really an opportune moment, you know? I mean, it's sort of awkward to just go up to someone out of the blue and say, "By the way, did I mention I've got a boyfriend?" Don't you understand?"
"No, I don't understand. Because it seems like you don't trust me or believe we're good enough of friends to tell me something like this. Because things like this are important to you, important in your life, and I would assume it was something you wanted to share with your best friend! But I suppose I assumed wrong, didn't I?"
"Excuse me, but you didn't find it so pressing to tell me about Padma, now did you? I had to hear it from someone else, and even then I had to pry it from you, even though I already knew! You refused to tell me, even though I asked repeatedly if there was anything new going on in your life, you refused! You pretended like everything was perfectly normal. So how can you get upset with me when it's exactly what you would have done--and did do!"
"No, Hermione, this is completely different, those were different circumstances--don't try and change the subject!" Ron spat angrily, his face blending into his hair.
"Ron, you just don't like hearing anyone else be right! But you know I'm right--you didn't tell me because you didn't want to!" Hermione yelled. "You have no reason to turn this around on me when you can't even admit to being guilty if the same exact thing!"
"Oh yeah? Well I wouldn't have even gone out with Padma in the first place if you hadn't forced me into it!" Hermione cocked an eyebrow as Ron smiled triumphantly, his smile oozing cockiness. Hermione cackled.
"Forced you into it?! I never did anything of the sort! It was completely your decision, how could I force you into something like that? That's ridiculous!"
"Hermione, you couldn't stop talking about the idea of the two of us together--always bringing her up, talking about how pretty she was and what a good match we made and how well we went together--it was as if you were nuts with the concept! You went to bed every night dreaming of us being together! You wanted me with her!"
Hermione paused, realizing the bitter truth of his correctness. She lowered her eyes, biting her lip, and looked up at him, a tear in her eye, and seeing this, Ron took a step back, scared.
"You have no idea how much it killed me to see you with her, Ron. You have no idea. I said those things because I was waiting, hoping that you would tell me I was wrong. And then when you didn't, I realized that I had no choice but to be supportive. Yes, I probably went too far, but--but I was only trying to be a good friend."
And with that, she was gone. Ron watched as she turned her back to him, running off up the stairs, her robes billowing behind her. Ron hesitated for a second, and then took off after her, but she was already gone.
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