Waiting and Hoping
Chapter 11
It was mid morning on the day after the trial, Ron was sitting in the kitchen drinking his tea, whilst reading the Daily Prophet. The article on Hermione was short and irritable. He had just finished a letter to his boss explaining that he was going to take a few weeks of, whilst casually pointing out that he had not had one sick day or holiday in over a year. He put the paper down and took a long sip of tea when the door bell rang,
Molly went to answer it and returned to the room with a look of discomfort on her face, following her was Padma. Ron gulped. He had not spent any time with her for months.
"Hi Padma" he said hesitantly
"Don't you 'hi' me Ronald Weasley, where have you been? I haven't seen you for more than an hour for over 3 months!" Ron was surprised that she cared that much, he would have expected a girlfriend to leave after a much shorter time,
Padma must be desperate
"I've been busy" he said evasively as his mother exited the kitchen taking some breakfast up to Hermione
"Busy doing what?" she replied acidly. Ron thought he better be honest
"Busy avoiding you, and helping get Hermione out of prison" she looked thoroughly taken aback
"What are you saying Ron?" she said, although Ron knew she knew exactly what he was saying, after all she was in Ravenclaw
"I'm sorry Padma, but I don't want to be with you anymore, I'm sorry I haven't contacted you sooner, it was very cowardly of me" she stood there quite still, with tears streaming down her cheeks
"But...but I love you Ron"
"Thank you Padma, but I'm sorry I don't feel the same" he replied defiantly
"It's her isn't it..? Hermione Granger, you swore when we started going out that you were over her! I trusted you! I hate you Ron Weasley!" and with that she ran from the house.
Ron sat at the table feeling very guilty at having strung her along; he finished his tea and went to see Hermione.
"Morning Hermione" he said kindly with a quick kiss on the cheek, which then caused him to blush,
"Morning Ron, how are you?" she replied
"I'm great thanks, you" he returned smiling at how normal she seemed,
"Are you sure? Your mom said you were splitting up from your girlfriend" Ron grimaced his mother knew everything!
"Yeh I did, it's no big deal though, we've been rocky for ages"
"I'm sorry," she said and she sounded as though she really meant it
"Anyway" said Ron deciding to change the subject "Why don't you come downstairs and we can look at photo albums, to try and help you feel like your old self?"
Hermione smiled slightly, causing Ron to beam at her.
He left the room leaving Hermione to get changed and freshen up. He headed down the stairs and into the kitchen,
"Did you break up with Padma then?" asked Ginny loudly, making Ron jump he forgot that she was coming round today, she was sat at the kitchen table reading Witch Weekly with an odd smirk on her face.
"Yeh" he replied, "Where's mom?"
"She's gone to see Tonks, she needs help choosing a crib, so anyway how did she take it?" Ginny said
"She...she said she loved me" he replied quietly
"Oh Ron...It's better that it ends now, before you got in too deep, she's been talking to mom about having kids for months now, besides you never really loved her did you?"
"No, i mean it was fun to be with her, but i never loved her"
"Course you don't...you love Hermione" replied Ginny matter of factly
"Ginny! Don't say that, she's upstairs!" he cried
"But its true, isn't it?" she pressed
"Yes it's true, but that's not my top priority at the mome..."
"Top priority my foot! You've been waiting for years..."
"My top priority is to get the old Hermione back" he paused thoughtfully "...to see her smile again"
"Well she may well smile tonight, Mom's throwing a welcome back dinner" said Ginny with a slight smile.
A/N Wow I'm currently surfing on a positive avalanche of ideas! Writing is really fun at the moment (probably because it fills in the time while I'm anxiously awaiting my A-Level results (6 days to go!))
Hope you enjoyed this chapter please keep reviewing I love to hear feedback!
Love you all
Laura
xxx