Chapter 5

It was 8:30 AM; the sun was blazing through the curtains on the Friday morning. In the girls' dormitory, Ron was snoring away, his hair spread out all over the cushion, his blue pajamas with the white strips all wrinkled.

'Hermione,' he moaned, then started to move his hand around the spot beside him on the bed. 'Hermione...Hermione where are you?' The dorm door opened, and Hermione came in a pink bathrobe, and her damp hair relaxed to one side.

'Morning, Ron,' she whispered, coming over to sit on the bed. Ron yawned and sat up. He smiled while trying to smooth down his hair.

'Morning,' he said, smiling, 'how're feeling?' Hermione looked down at her fingers, and sighed,

'I'm feeling better…thank you for s-staying with me last night.' Ron exhaled, deeply.

'You don't have to say thank you to me, Mione. I'll always be here for you.'

I can't keep this from him. He's my best friend…and I love him.

'I have to tell you something, Ron…I—

'No. You don't have to tell me what you're nightmare was about. I'm sorry I've been pressuring you about it.' He said grasping her hand in his.

'But, Ron—

Ron quickly shook his head, shifting closer to her.

'Hermione, I know your nightmares have been bothering you, and I can't blame you if you don't feel comfortable telling me.' Hermione now had tears welling up in her eyes, but she held them back not wanting to cry in front of Ron, again.

'Ron, don't you want me to tell you?' Ron looked at her with a concerned type of look and grasped her hand tighter.

'Well…yeah, I guess…but, I don't want you to feel forced like you have to tell me, Mione.' Hermione got up from the bed and walked towards the window. Ron just sat there looking at her. What did I say? He got up and walked over to her, he placed both arms around her shoulders. 'Hey…what's wrong?'

Hermione then gasped out in pain, as Ron took hold of her left arm. He immediately let go watching her in concern as she held her arm.

'Are you ok?' Ron lifted up the sleeve of her robe, which revealed that disgusting burn she had gotten nine years ago. His eyes widened at it in scariness and in anger, he looked as of he were slapped in the face. Ron then turned his attention back to Hermione,

'Bloody hell,' he exclaimed, angrily, 'Hermione, w-who…what…how did you get this?'

It's now or never, she thought.

'This is why I didn't want to tell you about my dream the other night,' Hermione said, trying not to cry. Ron however was still looking confused and angry.

'Your dream? Wait-is…is this what you meant by having memories?' She nodded her head, now letting a few tears drop. Ron didn't know what to say at that moment, he was still glancing at that horrible burn on her arm. He pulled her into a hug.

'Can we talk about this after I'm finished getting dressed?' she asked, seeing as her hair was still a bit wet and she was still in her bathrobe. Ron nodded letting go of her, Hermione made her way back into the loo, while Ron sat there on the bed, now anxious than ever to know how Hermione had gotten that burn.

About 5 minutes later, she came back in wearing, a black top, with a sparkly star at the bottom right hand corner, and hipster blue jeans. She went to sit back down with Ron, without looking at him.

'Hermione?' he softly said. Hermione looked at him, 'tell me who did this to you. Once I find them, I'll put them through pain, I swear it!' Hermione sighed, at the hatred in his voice. Ron could see the sorrow and disturbance in those brown eyes of hers; he took her hand in his,

'It's not someone at Hogwarts, Ron. It's…' but she trailed off. Ron stayed quite waiting for an answer, very furious. It killed Hermione to do it, but all this hiding inside, in her books, all the sorrow, all the abuse was dying to come out. 'It's my father.' The insides of Hermione tore up inside, as she burst out crying again.

'Your dad…your dad did this to you?'

'He abuses me, Ron. Ever since I was little, I got this burn when I was eight.' Hermione explained the details about that day she came home from school with her report card, and the mark. All her life, Hermione was expected to be perfect, perfect, perfect. No mistakes, and if she did she'd suffer the consequences from her father, not that she didn't want to have fun and be like everyone else, but she was always being pushed to her limit in studying and working.

Ron felt nothing but angriness inside him, he couldn't feel anything else. He grabbed the nearest thing he could find and threw it against the wall, causing Hermione to flinch in fright.

'Ron-…'

'I'LL BLOODY KILL HIM! ALL THESE YEARS HE'S BEEN PUTTING YOU THROUGH THIS! SEVENTEEN SODDING YEARS!'

'Ron, please, calm down,' Hermione cried out, pulling him back down. He sat back down and buried his face in his hands. Hermione put her hand on his back, and sobbed into it. 'I'm so sorry.' He looked up her, grabbed her face and gave her a kiss on the cheek.

'That's why…all these years you'd always strive to be the best? Burying yourself in those books?'

'I…I was afraid to tell you…I was afraid that you wouldn't want to be friends with a girl who gets abused by her own father.' Ron drew closer to her and placed his hand on her lap.

'Hermione, you know that I would never think that…I will always be there for you,' he softly said. 'Back in first year…I called you a nightmare, how could I have been so stupid! I'm such a fucking prick! I've been so mean to you! And last year with that whole Lavender thing…oh God, Mione I'm so sorry.'

'No, Ron, listen, I love having you as a friend, and I never regretted it.' Ron now had tears of fury running down his face.

'You didn't?' Hermione shook her head pulling him into another hug.

'Are you mad t-that I didn't tell you?' Ron sighed and shook his head,

'No, no, of course not, I know you desperately wanted too,' he started to stroke her hair.

'I really wanted to, even Ginny begged me to, but I couldn't come to myself to tell you till now.' Ron now gave her a slight frown in confusion. Ginny! She told my baby sister but she couldn't even tell me? Ron got up looking upset; he ran a hand through and then looked back at Hermione.

'You're telling me t-that Ginny knew about this?' He exclaimed loudly. 'What, you trust her more than me?' Hermione stood up hating that Ron just yelled at her, he hadn't done that since last year with the whole "Lavender", situation.

'Ron, it wasn't about trust. I didn't want to tell your sister either. But I just couldn't take the pressure anymore! I-…I made Ginny promise not to tell you or Harry.' Ron mentally kicked himself for shouting at her like that. He sighed and took her hand in his.

'I'm sorry…I shouldn't have yelled,' he softly whispered, 'I just…I just felt like you don't feel comfortable telling anything to me.' Ron now looked down nervously to his shoes.

Ron desperately was burning up inside with both anger and sadness. He had just found out that his best friend, who was the girl that he loves, had been abused all her life and still does today. He felt like going straight into the muggle world into Hermione's house and killing David Granger right there, none hesitation.

'You have no idea how comfortable I feel with you, Ronald,' Hermione said, smiling. Ron looked up at her and smiled himself. 'Now that you know…can we just keep this a secret?' Ron nodded agreeing.

'Ok, what about Harry?'

'I'll tell him later on,' she said awkwardly. Ron touched her left arm softly, but not where the burn was.

'Mione, you should have Madame Pomfrey look at that. I would hate you having to walk around with that burn bothering you.' Hermione smiled at his touch of protectiveness.

'I already have, she gave me a numbing cream, and it helps sometimes.' But that wasn't good enough for Ron, he shook his head.

'No, sometimes isn't enough,' he took her hand and walked towards the door. Hermione rolled her eyes.

'Ron, where're we going? We really should be going down to breakfast.' He didn't answer back but led her into his dormitory. It seemed like every time, the two went into each other's dorms, no one was ever there. (  ). Harry, Dean, Seamus and Neville had already made their way down to the Great Hall.

'Sit there,' Ron said, motioning Hermione to sit on the bed. She watched as her rummaged through his bedside drawer, he pulled out a brown roll of cloth and came back to sit down with her. 'Right, I'm going to wrap this around you're arm.' Hermione was about to protest, but saw the look in Ron's eyes, he wanted her to be taken care of. She sighed and nodded. 'Do you have that cream with you?' Hermione reached into her back pocket and took out the tube of cream. Ron looked at the small thing and muttered, "Rubbish".

Hermione stifled a giggle, before handing the cream over to Ron. He gently squeezed some out in his hand, rubbed it with both hands and soothingly started to put it all over her arm. Hermione felt fuzzies all over her arm at his touch.

Ron was blushing, and tried not to show it. Her skin's so smooth. I can' take this anymore…I have to ask her out. He removed his hand from her arm, and started to un wrap the brown cloth from the roll, he struggled to get a strip off, and Hermione shook her head and muttered,

'Corlupus.' Ron smiled and blushed once more. This made Hermione smile herself. Ron moved closer to her and started winding the cloth around her swollen arm; he clipped the two ends together and released it.

'Is that too tight?' he asked her.

'No, no, it's fine. Thanks, Ron.'

'Are you sure? Because I can unloose it—

'No,' she said again, smiling at him, 'it's really ok, comfortable.' Hermione help him put all the things back in the drawer, as they reached for the cloth, their hands touched. They felt a little jolt of tingle run through their bodies. Ron didn't know what to say at first,

'S-Sorry.'

'That's alright…so…we better go down to the Great Hall, Harry and Ginny must be wondering where we got off to.' Hermione made to get up, but Ron quickly grabbed hold of her hand and pulled her back down.

'Wait! I…um…I was just won-…well you see…I-…'

Hermione sighed observing him curiously.

'What do you want to tell me, Ron?' Ron grabbed hold of her hand, it was shaking a little and sweaty.

'Bloody hell, Mione, I can't keep this in any longer! Will you please go out with me tomorrow?' Hermione sat there in shock with excitement. The guy she loved had just asked her out, unexpectedly, but that didn't matter. Ron was trying to avoid her eyes.

'Oh, Ron, I—

'It's ok if you already have plans or that you'd want to stay here because you haven't been feeling well-..' Hermione placed a finger over his lips, and broke into a soft smile.

'I'd love to go out with you.'

'Yeah, that's what I thought, you'd want to stay…-wait- you will?' Hermione laughed nodding her head.

'Of course I will, where do you want to go, Mr. Weasley?' Ron was overjoyed, he couldn't stop smiling, and he even chuckled under his breath with excitement.

Bugger, I'm going out with Hermione Granger on a real date! Wow.

'Ron?' Hermione asked. He shook out of his thoughts.

'Oh, right, sorry. Well Ginny told me that there is this new big, fancy restaurant opening at Hogsmeade this weekend, so maybe we can go there for dinner.' Hermione smiled and clutched his hand that Ron was still holding, harder.

'That sounds great. But, Ron, you know that you don't have to take me to a "big and fancy", restaurant, we can go anywhere you want.' Ron really did want to take Hermione out on this date and at this restaurant not only because he loved her, but also because he felt like he needed to impress her.

'I don't want you to have any regrets,' he said. How could he think something like that? She thought.

'Ron… I never have any regrets when I'm with you…I knew that if I told you about my dad, you'd always be there for me…but it was still hard telling you.' Ron sighed in relief, but said,

'Your dad won't be abusing you any longer, you can be sure of that.' Hermione wasn't sure what he meant by that, but somehow knew that things were going to change from now on, not only at home, but with Ron also. She didn't want to think of the horrible things her father did to her, but just that she had Ron…Harry and Ginny.

'Well um…we better be going down to breakfast. I have some studying to do later,' Hermione said after minutes of silence, she got up and headed for the door with Ron following close behind, he shut the door behind him, then he and Hermione finally were able to get into the Great Hall for breakfast.

Unfortunately only Hermione was able to get into the Great Hall, but for Ron, he got side swiped from the twins, just before he could get in they started laughing then chanted,

"Mione, I love you! Mione, I do. When we we're apart my heart beats only for you!"

'Grow up you two!' Ron furiously, said but with a pang of blushing and embarrassment.

A/N- keeps on getting better in every chappie. R/R.