I ran into Harry later on that night. He was standing by the fireplace, putting a spell on the logs to make them burn. For a second, I wished the logs were him. Then I reminded myself that he was my best friend, and I shouldn't wish he was dead. It was hard though-- these days, everytime I looked at him, I wished I was him, or that he would just magically go away. Haha, magically. I could do that, if I wanted to.
"Harry, I've been looking for you." Not exactly true, but it was a good introduction to discussing Hermione and her feelings for him. My heart missed a beat, and I felt like I was going to be sick.
"I was at quidditch practice."
"Oh. Well, Hermione wanted me to ask you something." This caught his attention. He looked away from the fire and stared at me.
"What?" he asked a little too quickly.
"Do you, er," this was a little awkward for me- Harry and I didn't discuss whether or not we liked Hermione.. it just wasn't done, "like her?"
"Hermione?" he questioned.
"Yes."
"As more than a friend?" his tone brightened, and my mood darkened.
"Er.. yes."
"Well.. then, yes."
"Erm.. okay." It was awkward, and so I turned to leave.
"Why, does she like me?" He asked, a little too anxiously. That got me a bit aggrivated. Last week, he was barely over Cho. Now, all of a sudden, he realizes that he is in love with Hermione. When I, who has been waiting practically all my life to have her, has to face the fact that she has absolutely no interest in me. Life is definently an ironic joke.
Which is why I decided not totell him the truth.
"I don't know." Then, I turned and left.
This was still bad news. I was even angry about it. Not that they knew how I felt, but it really pissed me off that the girl I have been in love with since first year had fallen in love with my best friend. They'd find out that they love each other, and they'd date, and be happy, and I'd have to tag along as a third wheel until I snap.
Therefore, this was very bad news.
My heart felt as though it had been ripped out, and stomped on. There was no one to comfort me- no one knew. I went to the only comfort I knew at the time. The kitchens.
I walked quickly, quietly. I didn't borrow Harry's Invisibility Cloak like I usually would-- touching anything that had touched him seeemed unbearable at the moment. Hoping to avoid Filch and his 'cat', I ran down the stairs. Unfortunately, I didn't think of the prefects who walked the school at night.
"Who's there?" I heard a girl's voice, panicked. "Unless you are the other prefect who was SUPPOSED to be on duty with me tonight or a teacher or Mr. Filch, you should be in your quarters!"
"It's Professor Lockheart." I gave my best impression. The girl laughed.
"Ron, is that you?"
"Yes." I answered, sheepishly.
"What are you doing up in the middle of the night?"
She lifted her lantern, and I could see her face. It was only Lavender.
"Ron, are you okay?" she asked me, her face full of concern. That was all she said, and all of a sudden, the whole story came spilling out as we walked down to the kitchens. How I was so in love with Hermione, but she would only think of me as a friend. How I would never get a chance with her, now that she and Harry would be dating, since they were in love with each other. At the end of my story, to my suprise, Lavender began to cry.
"Lav? What's wrong?"
"Oh, Ron... it's-s-s.." I put an arm around her shoulders, and she burrowed her head into my arm, wiping away the tears.
"It's Harrrrrryyyy!" That was all I could get out of her, at that point and time. All of a sudden, we heard a scartchy voice.
"Who's there!" I thought it might be Filch. Either him, or some sort of crow. I didn't know if Lavender would get in trouble for not reporting me, but I was willing to save the both of us from detention. I ran down the corridor, holding onto her wrist, dragging her into the room where Harry and I had found the Mirror of Erised during first year. It hurt to remember my vision in the mirror. It wasn't here anymore, but I could still remember seeing Hermione's arms around my neck, kissing my cheek softly, laughing. If only it really were a vision of the future.
Not realizing it, I had clenched Lavender's wrist a little too hard, and she let out a small squeal of pain.
"Ow. Thanks for hiding me from Filch." She sniffed, and managed to control some of her tears, masaging her wrist.
I comforted her until she completly stopped crying, which took a LONG time-- she was finally done all ofit at 3 in the morning. It was then that she collected herself enough to tell me her story. How she was so in love with Harry, but he would only think of her as a friend. How he would now be dating Hermione, and she'd never have a chance. This sounded somewhat familiar to me.
"You know what would be great Ron?" Lavender said, still leaning her head against my arm, but only because she was tired. Not that I minded she was leaning on me... I just would prefer it if she were Hermione.
"What?"
"If we could split Harry and Hermione up." I had never really thought about it before, but now that Lavender had brought it up, it seemed like a really good idea..
"I bet we could."
"Yeah, that would be great." I decided to take the idea to the next level.
"So why don't we?"
"For real?"
"Yeah."
"Well.. well, because.."
"Not a very good argument. You know you want to. Come on Lav! If they stopped looking at each other, I think they'd finally give us a chance." She thought about it for less than a millisecond.
"I'm in."