Author's note: Hello everyone. This chapter marks the return on a characterI don't much like OBVIOUSLY... and although I would hate to dedicate a Chapter that has no fun banter or quirky jokes, I still feel a few people need to be recognized. So this chapter is not for them but lets give them all a hand anyway (APPLAUSE!)SLIGHTLYPSYCHOPRINCESS and my newbeta LONE BUTTERFLY they get recignition now and the next fun Draco/Hermione Chapter is for them!

Chapter 24 – The Return, Repentance (and Ridiculousness) of Ronald Weasley

"Hermione?"

Hermione Malfoy froze. She knew that voice anywhere.

It was the one voice in the world that he both longed and hated to hear.

No. It was not Draco Malfoy. She just plain hated to hear him.

"Hermione?"

She bid her legs to move but they were not following her. She stayed glued to the spot until she felt herself being turned around to lock eyes with none other than Ronald Weasley.

"Hermione?"

"Yes?" She managed to squeak.

She had prepared herself for this moment. Ron was one of her very best friends. He was bound to catch up to her eventually. He was smart enough to realize why she suddenly hated him, to realize why she would no longer spoke to him.

She had expected him to confront her about ignoring him, Ron hated, hated being ignored. It came from being the youngest of six boys. Anything else he could have shrugged off; insults, anger, but he just could not take not being acknowledged. He loathed being avoided and so of course, that was what she did.

She had hoped that he would get mad at her, even yell at her, therefore justifying her hexing him into next Thursday for what she had witnessed him doing. She wanted him to shout at her so that she could scream at him three times as loud. Yell for all the school to hear that Ron Weasley was a cheater with no self-control.

Well, he had self-control, his smaller, south-of-the-border self was controlling him.

But she also wanted to keep it all inside, because what if she was the problem? What if it was her that had pushed him turn to another girl? What if she just was not good enough? (Sure the hottest boy in school slept with her, but that just wasn't enough. Draco Malfoy would sleep with anything in a skirt.)

What ever she had prepared for, it wasn't this.

Ron fell onto his knees and threw himself at her feet.

Hermione was instantly glad that the corridor was deserted. All her 'public humiliation of Ron' ere gone in an second. She wasn't sure what she would do if people from other houses and years had seen this very personal display.

"Hermione I am so sorry for everything that I have done to you! I am a stupid idiot and I hate myself for it! Hermione, its just I wanted you so badly and I couldn't have you! I realize that I can never have you! I blew it completely and I know it and I am so sorry!" He said desperately. "I am not going to ask to have you back because I know what the answer is and I understand. I wouldn't forgive me either! Just be my friend again, 'Mione, lets go back to the way things were; and then maybe, someday we could give this another try, but only if you could find it in that big heart of yours to forgive me."

He had surprised her.

He had apologised, many times over.

"I'm a stupid horrible git and I'm not much better than Malfoy!" Ron added after a moment of silence. "But could you forgive me?"

Hermione's attention snapped back to him at the mention of her husband's name. (Oh ick. She was referring to him as her husband.)

"You are worse than that ferret." she found herself saying coldly. "Because at least he is honest about being dishonest. I expect that kind of behavior from him," she paused and shook her head, "Not from you."

She took a deep breath, "In a million years I would never have thought you to be someone like that. Someone who could do that," she said sadly. "I was wrong. Why didn't you just tell me you didn't want me anymore, Ron? Why didn't you explain what you needed? Why couldn't you have given me some respect?"

Ron said nothing.

"I'm not yet ready to forgive you." she said finally.

There was a mild whimpering from Ron's prone form.

"I didn't say that I never would," she added. "Just give me some time. I may forgive you, Ronald Weasley, but I will never forget what you did. I am not sure if I can ever trust you completely about that ever again."

There was a sudden shake from the figure at her feet. She assumed he was nodding.

"As for the future," she continued, "I cannot say. I won't say that it will happen, I won't say that it won't, but I am no pushover, Ron Weasley, to regain my trust you have to do something major. Something to make up for this. You said that you loved me, prove it," she paused. "But not yet. Give me time to cool off, or you will be even worse trouble than you are now."

She did not wait for him to get up, nor did she wait for him to speak. She really had heard enough. She was fed up with him, fed up with wanting him back and trying to push him away. She decided that he was nothing to her anymore, nothing but a friend, and not even a very good one. She turned her heel and walked off down the hall, leaving Ron on the floor where she had been standing.