The Locked Room
Chapter 5: Awkward Silences
Hermione had stopped midway down the hallway; Charlie's hand had dropped from her own and she clasped the now-free hand to her mouth.
"What just happened?" she asked Charlie, wondering if he had seen what she did, or if she was imagining things.
"I think a red-haired bloke just grabbed Marie and took her up into the elevator with him. Is that what you saw?"
"Yes, and I can't believe it…" she faded away into nothingness.
"Yes, it is difficult to imagine Marie having a boyfriend, but stranger things have happened. Now let's go eat lunch before we waste the entire hour." And with that Charlie grabbed her hand again and took her into the elevator, which had by now descended again.
Hermione had this feeling that it was Ron who was in that elevator, although the hair was shorter and the clothes cleaner, and Ron hadn't been out of his room in at least a week. What would Ron be doing with Marie? They had never met, as far as Hermione knew. Marie had gone to Beauxbatons, was a relative of Cho Chang's, was both tremendously smart and pretty… she couldn't possibly be interested in Ron. It had to be somebody else in that elevator. The man peering out from between the closing grilles seemed too good-looking to be Ron at any rate.
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Marie couldn't stop smiling. He had pulled her back into the elevator! She grinned at him, waiting for some sort of explanation. Ron Weasley was looking down at his feet, his jaw was set probably from embarrassment, she concluded. A few moments later, he spoke.
"So, it seems I'm not too busy right now after all. Where do you want to go for lunch?"
"Well, I usually go to this place down the street. What changed your mind?" she asked, her curiosity getting the better of her. Marie didn't notice Ron thinking fast.
"I guess I couldn't think of anything I'd rather do than go and eat lunch with you." He made a sort of a face that might have been classified as a cringe but was determined by Marie to be a face looking for her approval.
"How nice!" was the lamest thing she could think to say, which caused her to cringe in turn. Now that a date with Ron was no longer a fantasy, she felt a little strange. Requited love wasn't something she had any experience with, and she found herself smoothing down her skirt anxiously. They walked side by side in horrifying silence for half a block before she asked him if he worked at the Ministry. An unremarkable conversation commenced as they each told each other the particular details of their lives, resulting in Marie's discovering that Ron was the brother of Fleur's husband. Marie thought that if the entire family was as attractive and agreeable as Ron, then she could understand that marriage after all. They had gotten through half their sandwiches before another awkward silence encroached upon Marie's happiness. Suddenly, Ron broke the quiet.
"You remind me of someone I know. You're both brilliant, confident, sure of yourselves. It's weird, really, how similar you both are."
"Lots of people at school would call me "Marie tout sait" which basically means Know-It-All Marie. They were charming," she paused, "I've never told anyone that," she finished with incredulity.
"Now you two are so alike it's scary," Ron laughed.
"Are you referring to Hermione Granger?" Ron's laugh died and the smile was wiped off of his face.
"Yes, actually. We all share a flat, me, Hermione and Harry Potter. I wasn't sure if you two knew each other. I understand the Department of Mysteries is pretty confidential."
"Well you would know all about that, wouldn't you?" she asked almost coyly. Ron chose to ignore that comment.
"We should do this again some time," he said laying some money on the table and getting up to go.
"I'd love to," she answered and leaned over to kiss him on the cheek. Things had turned out remarkably well, she thought as she led the way out of the restaurant. Not only had she and Ron had a good time, but she was most likely taking something away from Hermione Granger, which gave Marie a great deal of pleasure. She hated being compared to anyone.
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It was Ginny who had seen them, coming out of a restaurant down the street from the Ministry. She had been visiting her father, as an excuse to be in the same building with Harry for a few minutes. Unlike Hermione, Ginny recognized her brother immediately. He was following a pretty girl (too pretty for Ron) who looked oddly similar to Cho Chang.
Ginny shook her head in disbelief. A few days ago he was declaring violent love to Hermione, and now here he was chatting up this other girl. Ginny supposed it was possible that Ron had had enough of Hermione's coquetry (any fool could see that she loved him as much as he loved her) but it didn't seem possible for him to abandon her so quickly for someone who looked even more emotionally unstable than Hermione was.
"Heh, talk about emotionally unstable," Ginny snorted to herself thinking about a certain prat with black hair and green eyes. Whenever she thought about other people's relationships she couldn't help but consider her own failed one with Harry. Ginny always considered it her supreme misfortune in life to have fallen in love with someone she couldn't possibly resist no matter how long she tried to get over him. How wonderful it was back in her fifth year when Harry kissed her that evening! And then when he broke it off at Dumbledore's funeral she didn't get too worried because she thought that as soon as Voldemort was out of the picture, they would come back together again somehow. However, things had not worked out according to her plans, and Harry remained as distant as he had during the war.
Ginny puzzled over this night after night, trying to figure out what had stopped him from caring about her. She had always purposefully thrown herself in his way, and he was always coming to the Burrow to visit Ron and the others… but it was still stoic silence for Ginny from the wonderful Boy Who Lived. They never even talked anymore. Ginny thought if she could only find a way to initiate some sort of conversation, then they couldn't help but pick up where they had left off. She sighed as she clutched her coat tighter around herself. More couples than she and Harry had been torn apart through this war.
Fear is what changes people, she concluded, stopping in front of a clothing store's windows. Look at Draco Malfoy, he was all set to become a Death Eater but couldn't fulfill his promise to the Dark Lord. Snape had killed Dumbledore and Draco had run off scared, sheltering with the Order now and then to prevent being found. He had turned out to be a pretty good bloke after all. He and Harry still weren't too fond of each other's company, but neither one could blatantly hate the other anymore. Ginny wondered what Harry could be afraid of concerning herself but ended as she always did, not having gained any further insight on the matter (which inevitably led to impulse buying or excessive amounts of chocolate).
Coming out of this particular reverie, Ginny's thoughts drifted back to Ron and the pretty girl and wondered what could have happened to make him change his mind about Hermione so very quickly. Ginny sharply turned around and headed back in the direction of the Ministry. This had to be cleared up.
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Back in the comforting gloom of the flat, Ron sank into one of the kitchen chairs and let his head hit the table. Jealousy, it seemed had gotten the better of him again, and it was only he who ended up suffering for it. He couldn't be sure that Hermione saw him, and now he was leading Marie astray, letting her think he actually fancied her. A groan escaped him and he pounded his fist on the table.
Ron allowed himself to wallow in self-pity for quite a while. There didn't seem to be even a minute chance that Hermione would fall for him. He thought it might have been possible had not his stupid jealousy gotten the better of him in sixth year with that blasted Lavender Brown! She did ask him to go to Slughorn's party with her, and she was always quite angry that he hadn't asked her to the Yule Ball at first instead of waiting until the last minute… he groaned again. These jealousy-induced relationships never ended well for Ronald, and quite frankly, that was all the experience he had to go on.
A few hours later, Ron had fallen asleep on the table and only woke up when Harry came in.
"What are you doing there, Ron?" he asked sullenly. Harry always was a bit sullen these days. Ron thought he should just talk to Ginny and get the whole thing over with.
"It's hopeless, Harry. She'll never like me now."
"She does like you now… she just doesn't realize how much."
"No, Harry, you didn't see her coming out of the Department of Mysteries holding hands with that Charlie fellow and kissing every two paces." Ron made a face of utter disgust.
"She'll get over him eventually; girls always do."
"Yeah, but then there's Marie…"
"Marie? Who's that?"
"Marie Chang, relative of Cho's… yeah, I know. She was chatting me up and I told her I wasn't interested, but then we were all there and Hermione and HIM came out kissing, and I just grabbed her and we went to lunch," he sputtered quickly. "It was all to make Hermione jealous – but don't tell her, alright? I don't want her to know I did that."
"Well, seeing as I didn't understand half of that anyway, it doesn't much matter." Harry walked out of the kitchen and retreated to his room where he usually sat reading or just staring at the ceiling, deep in thought. Ron knew he couldn't live like that. After all, he had tried for a whole week.
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Luncheon hadn't gone as well as Hermione had anticipated when she and Charlie had left work together, happy at the fact that they could show their affection for each other again. The possibility that Ron and Marie were… well she didn't really want to know what they were doing, but it had made her very uncomfortable all the same. She tried to shake it off at first, realizing that Ron had just told her that he loved her a few days ago. He couldn't possibly have changed his mind that quickly, she thought.
By the time they had ordered lunch she had almost gotten the image out of her head. However, she thought she saw Marie's long black hair on the other side of the restaurant, and worried that she and Ron had come here as well. It turned out to be someone quite different from Marie, and Hermione ended up feeling a little foolish. She tried to laugh a little more at Charlie's jokes in order to distract herself from strangely unsettling possibilities. Once they had finished eating, Hermione began to think, why would Ron ask her out? It wasn't like Marie was a particularly nice person or anything, unless he asked her out because she was pretty. Maybe he asked her out just to make her feel bad that she had refused him before.
Lost in this dizzy haze, she didn't hear Charlie as they walked back to work; she didn't even notice he was holding her hand.
"Are you listening, or have you gone to another planet entirely?" Charlie asked with a concerned sort of sympathetic smile on his face.
"I'm sorry, just a bit preoccupied."
"That happens to you a lot, doesn't it? You hardly said a word at lunch."
"Really? I'm sorry I made it so awkward for you. A lot has happened to me in a very short time and I'm trying to sort it out the best I can. You can understand that, can't you?"
"Of course I can, I'd just like to spend some actual time with you when you aren't pursuing space travel."
"And we will spend time together, just not tonight. I need to have a long talk with someone." That someone was Harry. He was the only one who could explain a few things to her. Little did Hermione know, however, that she would be sidetracked on the way home by a certain red-head who seemed intent on getting a few things straightened out.