Chapter 5: -Broken

"So," began Harry, "how are things going with you and Dean?"

"Practically glowing, she answered, "Things couldn't be better. We went out the other night you know."

"Really?" she nodded. "Where?"

"To a football game in Wembley. West Ham versus Liverpool." she said, smiling beside herself.

"Liverpool won though," she added, "but we still had fun, even though I didn't understand what was happening."

"Did the two of you even watch the game, Ginny?" asked Harry, with a mischievous smile on his face.

"Harry!" Ginny exclaimed, punching him playfully on the shoulder.

"Well did you?" he asked again while Ginny rolled her eyes.

"I don't think I have to answer that question." said Ginny stubbornly, with a troublesome glint in her eye.

Chuckling to himself, Harry walked out of the kitchen with Ginny trailing behind in silence. Earlier, Ron had excused himself to go upstairs because he had to go to feed Pig and clean his room. This is the same person, who not only last year, utterly despised the word cleaning and would do anything to get out of doing it. So to those who knew him, he was obviously up to something.

"Oh!" cried Ginny, making Harry turn to look at her in surprise.

"What is it?" asked Harry.

"I forgot to tell you," she started.

"Tell me what?" he interrupted.

"Ron likes Hermione," she squeaked. "He'd been staring at her picture and drooling when he thought no one was looking."

"Well it's about time though," said Harry, "I was getting tired of their constant bickering."

"So have I," agreed Ginny, "and you know what?"

"What?"

"I think Hermione likes him too."

"Do you really think so?" asked Harry.

"Yeah, sure I do-" she started, before she was interrupted by loud yelling which was coming from the study. This loud noise turned out to be the one of the many heated arguments between Ron and Hermione, which made people think if they really liked each other or completely hated each other to the highest extent.

"They could really wake the dead with all that racket." said Fred and George Weasley, who were among the many that opened their doors to see where the shouting was coming from.

"Seems like they're at it again." said a quite dishevled Tonks who was fixing her blouse and rather discreetly coming from the room of a certain werewolf. Fortunately for her, no one gave her a second glance.

"RONALD WEASLEY!" bellowed an extremely angry Hermione.

"How dare you open my letter!" she screeched.

"I was only trying to see what was in it," said Ron apologetically, "you know, to protect you."

"There's something called letter screening, Ronald." growled Hermione.

"And if you didn't notice, it was sent from muggle post." she added.

"Oh."

"But that doesn't give you the right to open my mail!" she screeched.

"I was only checking t..to see if, to see..." he stutterred.

"To see what!" she spat.

"Toseeifitwasfromanotherguy." he mumbled.

"What?" asked Hermione, getting more annoyed than confused.

Giving up, Ron shrugged his shoulders and looked down at his feet. Sighing, Hermione sat down and put her face in her hands, thinking of a way to say this to Ron mildly.

"It's only a letter from Viktor." she said finally.

"Krum?" she nodded.

"You're still talking to him?" Ron exploded.

"He's my friend, Ronald!" shouted Hermione.

"But he's a boy," said Ron, "and you're-"

Stopping in a mid-sentence, Ron looked at Hermione curiously and continued.

"You're a girl!" he finished.

Somewhere outside the room everyone shook their heads and thought to themselves, 'He shouldn't have said that.'

"That's rich!" yelled Hermione, "This from someone who didn't know I was a girl for what? 6 years?"

"All I'm saying is that you shouldn't be talking to him." said Ron calmly.

"And why not?"

"Well, he's big and hairy and..and.."

"And what?"

"I don't know what he sees in you." stated Ron.

Hermione looked as though she'd been slapped in the face.

"A helluva lot more that I see in you!" she hissed, as she stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind her.

Alex watched as Hermione brushed past her and stalked into her room. Her eyes were red and stinging with tears.

"Are they always like this?" she asked Tonks.

"Yep," she said simply, "If it's not Harry's outbursts, it's Ron and Hermione's bickering. Constant bickering, mind you."

"Oh." replied Alex, looking immediately stressed.

Patting her shoulder, Tonkes said cheerily, "Hey, don't worry about it, they're great kids."

Nodding, she turned to look at Tonks, noticing her shabby appearance.

"Why d'you look so untidy?" she asked curiously, making Tonks blush for some strange reason.

"Umm, cleaning." Tonks answered, a litte too quickly.

"With your lipstick smeared?" said Alex, with a smirk.

Tonks opened her mouth and shut it again, speechless.

"Don't worry, I won't tell anyone." she said, winking.

"Just clean yourself up." she added.

"Thanks." mumbled Tonks.

"Oh!" she said turning around, "beofre I forget, can you tell me where the library is?"

"No problem," said Tonks, "it's straight up the stairs, third door on the left."

"Thanks!" she said, as she sprinted up the stairs.

As she climbed the stairs, she looked at the pictures of these corrupt pure-blood families on the wall, starting with the Blacks. There was a younger and much nicer Cecilia Black, with her husband Orion and her sons Sirius and baby Regulus. It looks like the year before Sirius entered Hogwarts. Then there was another picture of her 'dear' aunt, with her nieces Bellatrix, Narcissa and Andromeda, who were staring up at her rather coldly. Following that was a picture of the Malfoys'. There was Lucius, whom she supposed was in his second year at Hogwarts, his father, Dimitrius and his mother Lucia. Continuing upwards, she sighted more pure-blood families of the ages, including the Snapes' and the Walker-Blacks. The latter made her turn her head so quickly that it began to hurt. Apparently, no one had been in this part of the house for years because the picture of her family was still here. Leaning against the wall, she slowly took in what she saw, she was completely dumbfounded but sure enough, it was there. She saw her grandparents, Christian Black and Sarafina Walker, her dear aunt's sister and there was her mother, Angelina Helen Walker-Black. For 20 minutes, she stood there, looking at her family's picture and shocked at the fact that it was still in this house but no doubt that Mrs. Black must have torched the part of the family tapestry that held the name of Walker. The reason for it was oblivious to her. Only the people that knew the reason, were dead. Shaking her head, she continued up the stairs to the library, finally figuring out why she used Walker as her last name instead of Black.

Ron sat in the study with his head in his hands, recalling the argument he had had with Hermione, not too long ago. Harry came into the room and stood above his best friend, patting him on the shoulder. Ron looked up at him, with his eyes red. Despite the fact that they were best friends for over 5 years now, he had never seen Ron cry.

"Why do I have to be such an arse?" he said.

"She doesn't even know how much I love her," he sobbed, "and now she'll never know."

"Don't say that, Ron." said Harry, sitting on the couch next to his friend.

"How d'you know that, Harry?" said Ron, looking up," did you see the way she looked when she walked out of the room?"

"She'll never speak to me again."

"Ron-"

"No Harry, let me finish," said Ron firmly, but still wiping his eyes with his sleeve, "she has no right to choose me, I mean, look at me to Krum. I'm no match for him, he's big, and athletic and did I mention big? And, he's rich."

"Ok, Ron, you stop right there," said Harry, "all of that, that you just said, it's just pure b.s, mate."

"Just because you come from a poor family doesn't mean that she won't accept you. I mean, come on, our best friend, we've all known each other for over five years, and if she didn't accept you, do you think that she'd even be talking to you?" said Harry.

"Well that's true." agreed Ron.

"Well go talk to her." urged Harry.

Nodding, Ron said, "I think I will, thanks Harry."

"Hey, what are best friends for?" said Harry with a grin.

With that, Ron marched downstairs to Hermione's room, preparing to tell her something that he kept hidden for four years.