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Chapter 17

Parvati's POV

I sat curled up on the couch in the living room, reading a book. Mum was visiting, and was in the kitchen talking to my sister, Padma, and her daughter, Alissa, who was 6 years old. The doorbell rang, and I stood to get it.

I pulled open the door, expecting Lavender Brown, but it was Ron.

"Hey, Ron! What's up?" I asked, letting him in.

"I…can we go up to your room?" He asked, Padma came around the corner to see who it was.

"Sure! C'mon." I said, leading him up the stairs and shutting the door behind us.

"Okay, well, here I go. As you know, we've been dating for two years." Ron started, looking extremely nervous.

"Yep," I replied, completely nonplussed.

"So, I think it's time that we…took our relationship a bit further…" he trailed off.

"You do," I said, still nonplussed.

"Yes, I do." He said, suddenly kneeling down on the floor. I knew what he was doing a second before he actually did it. My face flushed, and I couldn't believe what was happening in the scene before me.

"Parvati, will you marry me?" He asked in a rush.

"Oh, Ron! Ron, I- yes!" I exclaimed, and burst into hysterically happy tears.

"Oh…wow, great!" He slipped the ring on my finger.

"Ron, it's beautiful! This is wonderful!" I gasped, admiring the ring.

"I…have to go…um, I wanted to go to Harry's and have Christmas and exchange presents and…stuff…" He trailed off nervously.

"Sure, I'll see you later, then!" I said, kissing him happily.

"Erm, right," He muttered, grinning sheepishly. He turned and walked out.

Lindsay's POV

"Hey, Hermione, Cassi!" I exclaimed, as Mum and Dad came to the door to greet them.

"Hey, I don't have a lot of time to talk, or I'm gonna be late. Well, have fun, Cassidy, I'll be around to pick you up about 10:00 tonight…" Hermione trailed off, searching in her purse for something.

"Don't worry if you're late, she'll just hang with us until you get back. Fred and George have to leave at 3:00, but she can play with Ginny's kids. They'll be fine!" Mum said, smiling as I put Cassi's coat away and she took off her shoes.

"Okay, see you, Mum!" Cassidy grinned, kissing Hermione on the cheek.

"Alright, I love you, and stay out of trouble!" Hermione exclaimed, kissing her daughter.

"And if you don't feel up to taking care of her tonight, we can keep her here and the girls can just have an extra sleepover. Trust me, Hermione, that Auror training is really tiring!" Dad said knowingly.

"I'll call you when I'm finished. Bye!" She yelled, hurrying off.

"Okay, Ron'll be here in about an hour, so if you girls can just hang until he gets here, we can shop in a bit. Kay?" Mum asked, shutting the front door.

"Sounds good!" Cassi said, grinning widely and running up following me up to my room.

Hermione's POV

At 9:30 that night, I dragged my feet along the pavement to my car. I had no energy to Disapparate, so I just got into my car, started it up, and began to drive to Katie and Harry's house to pick up Cassidy.

The entire day had been draining. I started out by being introduced to my teacher and the other people in my group. One of them, Bridget Brown, I had taken a liking to immediately. She was nice, and pretty with long, curly red hair and warm, welcoming, dark blue eyes. She was tall, and VERY talkative. She had introduced herself instantly as Lavender Brown's cousin. Yet others, like, Dory Lestrange, who, even though she disagreed with her mother, Bellatrix, started off introducing herself to everyone by saying: "Are you pureblood, or mudblood?" And if you answered "muggleborn," because nobody answered mudblood, she decided to become your worst enemy. Well, you can imagine how that turned out.

Flashback:

"Hi, I'm Dory Lestrange. Are you pureblood, or mudblood?" A girl with heavily lidded eyes and purple lips asked Bridget and I harshly. Bridget and I exchanged looks and grinned.

"Muggleborn!" We chanted at exactly the same time. (Lavender's dad's brother was a muggle, so, as a result, he married a muggle, and they had Bridget.)

"Oh…too bad, we could have actually been friends if you were pureblood. Well, bye." She said, turning away.

End Flashback

And, after that, she decided to make our lives miserable. That's partly why I'm so tired right now. But you wouldn't believe who our coach was! Remus Lupin! I know, I was as shocked as you are!

So, we started off with patronuses. Perfect way to drain us out within the first 30 minutes. Well, I did pretty well, actually. So did Bridget. After patronuses, we did curses. I learned a few new ones, but because of all of the training we had done in The Order, and in our 5th year with Dumbledore's Army, I had most of the ones Remus showed us already mastered. Then, we did disguising and under-cover sneaking around stuff. I did really well with the keeping quiet part, but not so well with disguise.

I pulled up to Katie and Harry's driveway, trying to keep my eyes open, and dragged myself up to the front door. I rang the doorbell and yawned loudly.

"Mione?" Ron opened the door and came outside to say hi.

"Are you okay? You look really wiped out." He said kindly.

"Yeah…(Yawn)…I…(Yawn, Yawn)…training was really tiring." I said, grinning wearily up at him.

"Oh, I'm sure. Yeah, I remember when Harry and I took it."

"Harry could barely move. Cassidy and I went to live with him and Katie to help around the house and stuff." My energy was coming slowly back now, and I was wondering vaguely why Ron wasn't acting strangely about the other night.

"Mione, I have something to tell you." Ron said, suddenly looking a bit more serious.

"What?" I asked, trying to wake up.

"I…Parvati and I…IaskedParvatitomarrymeandshesaidyes!" He exclaimed, yelling so fast that I didn't get a word of it.

"What?" I asked, nonplussed.

"Parvati and I…are…getting…married." He finished, turning away slowly and going crimson.

"You? And…and her? Oh, well, Ron…that's…that's…wonderful." I choked out the word "wonderful" as though it was poisoning my mouth. This wasn't wonderful! I love him! I love him still! I'm such an idiot. I told him, he got scared, and ran flat out in the other direction!

"I…I'm sorry, Mione…it's just…I – we…what would I have said to her? Hermione's back, and she loves me and I love her, so I'm just going to dump you even after all this time together?" He asked, giving me a pleading look.

"You…you said…you still…you said you loved me?" I squeaked.

"Yes. Hermione, I love you! But I was scared. I swear, I've haven't had to deal with these many emotions in so long!" He looked at me through distantly upset eyes, as though he were trying to hide the fact that he was upset and confused.

I remembered something I had said to Ron a long time ago. "Ron, you have the emotional range of a teaspoon!" I grinned slightly inside. Not outside, because the circumstances couldn't quite fit it in.

"I…I have to pick Cassidy up. Did you guys have fun?" I asked in an oddly squeaky voice.

"Yeah, we did. Listen, Mione-?" I cut him off.

"I said I've got to go." I said flatly.

"Oh, right. I-I'll see you later, then?" Ron asked, going red again.

"Right, later." I said, and he Disapparated.

I walked inside Harry and Katie's house, sniffing slightly. Suddenly, Katie came hurrying into the foyer, looking concerned.

"Oh my god, did he talk to you?" She exclaimed, sliding to a halt in front of me.

"Yes," I whispered, and after a second of silence, burst out sobbing.

"Oh, hun! I'm so, so, so sorry! I tried to get to the door first, but he practically ran to it! And then he begged me just to give him 10 minutes with you. I couldn't say no!" She said, looking distressed and worried as she led me soothingly to the family room where Harry and Ginny were sitting on the couch with Linds and Cassi sprawled on the soft carpet, quizzing each other for a test they were going to have in charms.

"Levitation spell!" Lindsay shouted.

"Alohamora!" Cassi shouted back.

"Hey, Cassi. We've got to get going." I said, wiping my red and puffy eyes.

"Hey, mum, how was-oh, sure, right behind you!" She changed what she was saying half way through the sentence at my expression.

"Bye, Cassi, see you tomorrow at King's Cross!" Lindsay exclaimed, getting the message also.

Cassidy's POV

"I'll fill you in after mum tells me what's going on." I whispered to Linds as I pulled on my coat. She nodded and I followed mum out the door.

Several tears and a ton of Fire whiskeys (for mum) Later.

"Mum, maybe you should take a break from those fire whiskeys." I suggested, tugging a bit at the smoking glass.

"No! Just…give me!" She pulled the glass back, a bit harder than needed, so that the contents sloshed all down her front.

"Mum, I really think-" She cut me off.

"Just le-let me!" Suddenly, she broke off and burst into tears.

"He…he lov-ed mmmeeeee!" She wailed, trying to get up, but staggering and falling backwards into her chair.

"Mum, take it easy!" I exclaimed, hurrying to her worriedly.

"He's getting marrrrieeed to that-that woman! Penny Patti!" She roared, hiccupping slightly.

"Parvati Patil, Mum." I corrected her quietly. Honestly, I wanted to break down and cry with her, but I had to keep cool until she was in bed, or at least until tomorrow when she could talk sensibly.

"I-I love hi-im!" She sobbed, slamming her near-empty mug on the table, and cracking it.

"Okay, Mum, you need to go to bed. Come here, I'll help you." I said quickly, because I was about to crack.

"Oh…fine, then…" she said in a whiney voice, getting to her feet but falling back again.

"Here, come on…" I went to her side and helped her up. I supported her to her bedroom and helped her into bed.

"Night, Mum. Get a good night's sleep so that you can take me to King's Cross tomorrow." I kissed her lightly, almost fainting at the smell of alcohol.

I turned out the light, and walked slowly to my room, tears running slowly down my face as I went. It broke my heart that mum was so upset, but at the same time, I felt betrayed by dad. How could he do this? He told mum that he loved her, so why the heck did he ask Parvati to marry him?

Well, one thing's for sure. I sure as heck won't be calling her mum.

That's all, folks!

Well, not all of the story, but you know what I mean.

It's a Saturday night at 11:30pm, and the rain is hammering hard.

My eyes are drooping as we speak.

See all of the effort I put in to getting you guys a chapter?

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