Chapter 40
"Looking for this?" a disembodied voice asked off to Ron's left. He barely had time to jerk his head in that direction when there was a swooshing sound and Harry appeared out of thin air, his invisibility cloak clenched in his hand and an angry scowl etched across his face.
"HARRY!!!" Hermione shrieked, spinning around to stare at the spot where he materialized and meeting his smoldering green eyes.
"I can explain," Ron cried as the color drained from his face, causing his freckles to stand out in stark comparison.
"You can explain why I saw Hermione come into our dorm last night and get in bed with you?" Harry asked, his voice low and trembling with suppressed rage. "You can explain why she never left? Why she shielded your bed so I couldn't open the curtains and wake you up this morning? How long has this been going on? How long have you two been sleeping together?" he demanded, directing the question and his glower at Ron.
"Harry, please...."
"It's not what you think," Ron insisted. "We didn't do anything last night."
"I had a nightmare," Hermione tried to clarify. "About the Boggart."
"I have nightmares all the time," Harry shot back as he rounded on Hermione. "You don't see me climbing in bed with Ron."
"I know it doesn't make sense," she replied, sounding more than a little defensive, "but I had to see him. I had to see that he was all right with my own eyes. It's the only way to make them stop."
"Yeah, right," Harry mumbled, clearly not buying her explanation.
"You know what Harry," Ron snapped, the color flooding back into his face as he started to become annoyed himself. "It doesn't matter if you believe it or not. It's the truth."
"Uh huh. And I suppose you're going to tell me that this is the first time it's happened next? Don't bother," he said as he jabbed his finger at his friends in turn. "You two were far too comfortable together for me to buy that."
"It wasn't the first time," Hermione admitted before Ron had a chance to reply. "We've been doing it all summer."
"Not all summer," Ron insisted, catching Hermione's eye and shooting her a look that practically screamed, Are you completely mental?
"So you two have been sneaking around behind my back and sleeping together all summer?"
"No," Ron answered, despite the fact Harry's accusation was more accurate than he realized. "It was mostly just at the beginning of summer, when she was having nightmares every night. You weren't even there yet."
"Well that explains why you were so grumpy every night. Having me bunk in the same room as you must have really cut into your action," he fired back at Ron, causing Hermione to gasp loudly.
"EXCUSE ME?" she cried out in indignation. "I don't think I like what you are implying."
"Neither do I," Ron said, narrowing his eyes and locking them on Harry. "Hermione, I think you should leave now."
"I will not."
"Classes are going to start soon," Ron reminded her, "and you still need to get dressed."
"Ron's right," Harry said, holding his invisibility cloak out for her to take. "If Seamus or Neville come back up and catch you in here dressed like that everyone in school will know about it by second period. Go get dressed," he instructed while still attempting to stare down his best friend. "We'll meet you in the common room in a few minutes."
"I'm not going anywhere," Hermione maintained, crossing her arms in front of her chest defiantly.
"Hermione," Ron growled in frustration, finally breaking eye contact with Harry and looking at her directly. "I need you to leave," he said, snatching the invisibility cloak out of Harry's outstretched hand and shoving it into hers. "Just for a few minutes," he added, "so I can get dressed myself."
"So you can get dressed?" she asked, knowing full well that it was an excuse he was using to try and get rid of her. He didn't want her to leave so he could get dressed, he wanted her to go so he could give Harry the fight he was looking for.
"I need you to leave," he repeated, grabbing her by the arm and leading her over to the door. "This is something we need to work out on our own," he whispered, "and we can't do it with you here."
"Fine," Hermione replied tersely, yanking her arm free and glancing at Harry who was watching them intently. "I'll go," she said, unfurling the invisibility cloak and throwing it over her head, "but I'll be back as soon as I'm dressed."
"Right," Ron agreed, opening the door for her and glancing down the hall so it wouldn't appear as if it had opened by itself. He waited until he felt her brush past him, then shut the door, stalked past Harry to retrieve his wand off his bedside table, and used it to lock the door and shield the room. That won't keep her out for long, he thought as he stripped off his pajama bottoms and threw on the trousers he'd discarded the night before, but that's all right. Harry isn't likely to beat around the bush now that we're alone. We'll only need a few minutes.
"All right," Harry snarled, as he watched Ron grab a fresh pair of socks and sit down on the corner of his bed. "Now that she's gone I want the truth. How long have you been shagging Hermione?"
Then again, Ron thought as he laced up his trainers, maybe he is going to try and evade the issue a bit. Not that he was fooled. He knew Harry well enough to know what was really bothering him, even if he did try and mask it with something else. It wasn't the fact they were together, so much as it was the fact they'd hidden it from him. If there was one thing Harry couldn't stand it was for people close to him to keep secrets, even if it was for his own good.
"We don't have all that much time you know?" Ron replied as he stood upright again. "So why don't you stop playing games and ask me what you really want to know."
"You randy bastard!" Harry shouted as he quickly closed the distance between them.
"Stop trying to turn this into some type of sordid affair," Ron yelled back, completely undeterred by the furious expression plastered on his friend's face or the fact he was clenching his fists at his side.
"So you admit it then? There is something going on with you two?"
"Yeah, I admit it," Ron replied calmly. "We've been together since the beginning of July. Hermione wanted to tell you straight away, but I talked her out of it."
"Oh really, and why's that?"
"It doesn't really matter, does it?" Ron asked in a rhetorical manner. "It doesn't matter that we were trying to make things easy for you. All that matters to you is that we didn't tell you."
"Easy for me?" Harry snapped. "Don't you mean easy for you? If you think I'm going to sit back and let you mess with one of my best friends..."
"She's one of my best friends too, incase you hadn't noticed," Ron interrupted.
"You sure have a warped way of showing it. Is this how you comfort your friend? You wait until she's vulnerable and use it as an opportunity to take advantage of her. Since when does comfort a friend include shagging her?"
If it had been anyone other than his best friend, Ron would have answered that question with his fist. But as it was Harry, he struggled to maintain control of his own anger and resist the urge to punch him right in his big fat mouth. Deep down he knew that Harry didn't mean what he was saying. Still, he hadn't expected him to hit below the belt like that. At least not so viciously. It was only upon reflection that Ron realized that Harry was purposely trying to goad him into throwing the first punch.
"You don't actually believe that," Ron replied, unclenching his fists. If Harry wanted a physical fight he was going to have to take the first swing and come off looking like the bad guy.
"Did you shag her?"
"Sod off, Harry."
"DID! YOU! SHAG! HER!" the incensed young man screamed at the top of his lungs as he grabbed Ron by the collar and pulled him in closer.
"That's none of your bloody business," Ron retorted, staring Harry straight in the eye as he grabbed his fists, jerked them off his shirt, and shoved him away while taking a step backwards himself.
"So it's ok then? I can just go out and shag your sister and you'll be fine with it?"
"Hermione isn't your sister."
"She might as well be."
"Are you in love with my sister?" Ron snarled furiously. "Are you going to marry my sister?"
"No."
"THEN KEEP YOUR BLOOD HANDS OFF OF HER!" he roared. "If you hurt Ginny I swear to god, I'll..."
"But it's all right for you to hurt Hermione?" Harry shot back quickly. "Don't you think she's been through enough?"
"I know what she's fucking been through," Ron shouted as the tether holding his own rage back threatened to snap. "I'm the one that was there," he yelled. "I'm the one that watched her sacrifice herself. I'm the one that had to carry her down the bloody stairs when she got away because she was so fucked up she could barely walk. I'm the one that stood beside her and held her hand while she shared her memories with Dumbledore. You only saw flashes of what they did," he cried, his face red with rage. "I had to watch every twisted second of it. I had to watch that bitch torture her. I had to see her smile and laugh and take pleasure in it and it made me fucking sick. I'm the one that had to watch Hermione relive every agonizing second of what they did. I'm the one that was there for her, Harry. Not you. You were too caught up in your own shit as usual."
"That's not fair," Harry protested, staggered by the intensity of Ron's attack. "I was stuck on Privet Drive. It's not my fault I wasn't there."
"It never is, is it?"
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
"Even with everything that she was going through, she still put you and your needs first. The first thing she did when she got away was write you so you'd know that she was all right. Even before she'd let Mum heal her. Your pain was more important than her own. She put you first because she's your friend and that's what friends do. All you did was write her a couple letters, but did you talk to her about it in person? Did you ask her about how she was doing even once after you joined us at Headquarters? Did you talk to her about the attacks on the Muggle-borns? Did you even know how afraid she was or how guilty she felt? No, you locked yourself in your room so you could brood and feel sorry for yourself because it's always about you, and what you need. Well maybe it's time you realize that you aren't the only one with scars," Ron said as he yanked the shirt he'd slept in over his head and tossed it on the bed before brandishing the welts on his arms for Harry to see. "You aren't the only one that monster has hurt. And you certainly don't have the market cornered on pain," he said, snatching a clean shirt out of his trunk and slipping it on. "You know I'd never intentionally do anything to hurt Hermione, so stop using that as an excuse and admit what is really bothering you."
"The fact that my best friends have been lying to me."
"We didn't lie," Ron replied, grabbing his robes off the chair they were draped over and throwing them on. "We just didn't tell you. It wasn't as if we didn't want to. It just never seemed like the right time. It wasn't something we wanted to tell you in a letter, especially while you were stuck with those awful Muggles. And when we were finally all together there was that mess with the attacks and the prison break and you were a wreck and it just didn't seem all that important, only the longer we waited the harder it became to find a way to tell you. Look," he said, retrieving one of his school ties out of a drawer, and tossing it over his shoulder. " I am sorry you had to find out like this, but it's done. You know that Hermione and I are together and you're just going to have to get used to it. We've been together for months and it hasn't changed anything with us," he added, pointing at Harry and then himself as he approached the door. "And just so we're perfectly clear, we're not shagging. Any other questions?" Ron asked, pointing his wand at the door and lifting the spells he'd cast on it.
"Is there anything else you're keeping from me?"
"Yeah," Ron admitted with a sigh, "but not because I want to. I don't have a choice."
"Sure you do."
"No, I don't. I'm sorry Harry, but I really can't tell you. Not until you've master that whole Occlumency thing. That connection you have going with You-Know-Who isn't just one sided, you know? He could be listening to us right now and you wouldn't even know it. Look, maybe you ought to talk to Hermione about this. I'm sure she can explain it better than I can. Maybe you don't need Occulemency. Maybe Ginny is right and those partitions will work. I don't know. You'll have to ask Hermione. You coming?" Ron asked as he opened the door and stepped out in to the hall.
"No," Harry replied as he stalked over to his bed and disappeared behind the curtains.
"Right then," Ron said, seeing no reason to press the issue. It would probably be better if he let his friend cool off and reflect on everything anyway. "I'll keep Hermione away as long as I can," he said, before spinning around and walking down to the common room.