Even a clock that doesn't work

is right twice a day.

Polish Proverb

I was never athletic and most assuredly never will be. However, what just occurred in that room was enough to give me strength to run for an eternity and that was just what I intended to do. I ran through the castle to the nearest exit and out onto the grounds. In my haste I did not notice the snow and cold biting at my feet which were clad in the dainty heels. I did not feel the wind lash into my arms or try to freeze the tears on my face. I had not noticed as I dashed through the door, I had acquired my jumper and with it my wand. All I knew is that I had to run so I could get to the one place I knew I could find normalcy.

When I finally reached the edge of the Hogwarts grounds I grabbed my wits about me and apparated to the London flat. With a loud pop I arrived in the entry way. No lights were on, except in the sitting room. I could hear that a film was on the telly. I figured Ron must have had the evening free and was relaxing. I was not expecting the sight I was faced with as I entered the room.

There was Ron, sprawled on the couch with a woman in his arms, each watching the film Oliver! with rapt attention. Apparently the music was enough to cover the pop from my apparition, but the pause in the song was enough for the two to hear my shocked gasp.

Ron nearly dumped the girl on the ground as he launched up, wand ready. Not having anything to say at the situation, he very well could have hexed me as I stood in shocked numbness.

"Great Merlin, Mione! What are you trying to do to me?" he exclaimed. "Blimey, you look a sight. I mean you look gorgeous and all that, but you look like something dragged through the snow."

I still was too flabbergasted to utter a coherent word. I sort of glanced over to the young woman who was now standing up next to Ron. She gave him a not so subtle elbow in the side. "Oh! This is Anne. Umm, well, Mione, she's my girlfriend."

"Goodness Ron, you are hopeless!" Anne said as she came around the sofa and took my hand to shake it. My cold clammy hand managed to move up and down with hers.

"I am Anne Wright. Ron and I have been dating since just after you and Harry left for the second term I think. He talks about you two incessantly. I know it is what a girl in my position always says, but I feel like I know you already. Ron lets me go on about the shows I am in and I let him tell endless stories about the adventures you three get into. I think I have the better end of the deal." She managed to get that all out in one huge breath. "Oh, I am an actress. I've been in several shows I think Ron said you've seen."

Here I glance over to Ron. My eyebrow shoots up as the last five shows she has been in happen to be the last five shows to which he dragged Harry and me. The last one she lists, the one she was in about two years ago, was the one that I made the boys go see with me. I remember Ron now commenting on how beautiful the actress was who played the younger sister. My eyebrow is now permanently working on Ron as it reaches new heights seeking an explanation.

He sort of does the male version of a nervous giggle, the chuckle turned cough. At this I begin to come out of my stupor a bit more and notice the condition of the flat. I can see the flat. There's neither debris left lying around nor any noxious fumes emitting from the kitchen or closets.

Realizing how rude I have been thus far, I turn to Anne. "Forgive me; I've had a bit of an unusual evening. It is truly a pleasure to meet you Anne. Any woman who can get this git to clean up the flat and behave himself has my full and hearty approval."

Here Anne laughed, Ron huffed, and I finally smiled. "I'm glad you do approve, Hermione. Ron thinks the world of you and Harry and I would hate it if you did not like me."

At Harry's name, my face fell again. Ron and Anne both noticed the dramatic change in my demeanor. I did not notice a quick exchange occur between them as they wordlessly decided a few things.

Anne then said, "Ron, I think I need to head home. I have an early rehearsal tomorrow morning and it is really quite late. I will see you later." She pecked him on the cheek and saw herself out the door. Lost in myself again, I did not hear her leave or process that she walked through the door and did not apparate or floo anywhere. Those questions would come later.

Ron came to stand right in front of me. The idiot is just too tall, I thought as he turned me around by my shoulders and steered me over to the sofa. He then gently pushed me down so I sat. He found my favorite blanket and threw it over my lap. I still had yet to utter a word since Harry's name was brought into the conversation.

"Hermione, look at me," Ron gently pulled my chin around so I could look him in the eye as he sat next to me. "I know something is terribly wrong, but I need you to tell me what it is. Are you hurt? Did something happen at Hogwarts? Is Harry okay?"

At Harry's name I break into tears. These are no small tears, these are the tears I abhor, the sort of tears that come down in buckets. Ron, though completely befuddled still, pulls me into a hug. He wisely says nothing, just hugs me while I sob.

The tears begin to abate and Ron looks again at me for an answer as to what brought me to the flat so unexpectedly. I hiccup, sob, and croak out, "Harry, … he… kiss… dance… lock…" and the tears over take it all.

While fourteen years of my friendship and even more years as Ginny's brother, Ron still had immense difficulty translating that rather incoherent explanation for my bedraggled state. It was simple to tell when he understood, his head jerked back and he exclaimed, "Harry and you danced and then you kissed!"

"Yes," I said, though it came out in another sob.

I could hear Ron muttering under his breath but I only caught a bit, "Finally, git, obvious."

"What Ron?" I ask, slowly coming back to reality.

"Nothing, Mione. Now why don't you tell me what happened? Start at the beginning." he instructs.

I then tell him the entire story in all great detail. Ron interrupts occasion for clarification. Once he stopped me to go get us a couple mugs of cocoa and some biscuits.

"…And then I ran," I concluded.

"Blimey," he concluded. He sat there and thought for a few minutes.

"Mione, why did you run away?" he finally asked.

I shift in my seat and mumble, "I don't know."

"Hermione Granger, those words never come from you. You know exactly why you ran, now tell me," he ordered.

"I was afraid," I mumble again.

"What were you afraid of?" Ron asks.

"I don't..." I glance at Ron and see I will not get away with that answer. "What the kiss meant." I sigh.

"Why would you be afraid of what the kiss meant?" he patiently asks. Where did all this patience of Ron's come from anyway? Here was the idiot who screamed out an invitation to Fleur our fifth year and now he is calmly sitting here helping me with my relationship issues?

"I was afraid that I meant it and he didn't," I hurry out before I can really think about what the words mean.

"So you are afraid that you care more about Harry than he does for you?"

"Sort of…"

"Sort of what, Hermione?"

"I am afraid that I love Harry and he doesn't love me as anything more than a friend. I mean, we've been friends forever; this sort of thing doesn't happen in real life. It is like that movie and even the woman who wrote it said it never happens in real life. I mean twelve hours ago we were friends and I never thought I would ever fall in love with him. I am afraid that he was hexed or jinxed or something and that he only kissed me because he had to or he felt sorry for me or," I find my tongue and my excuses quite quickly.

"Or you are afraid that he loves you," Ron says.

That stopped my tongue and my excuses. "Hermione, I know very little beyond the fine game of Quidditch, but there are two things that I know are absolutely true. First, that you love Harry with a very special love that I have only seen in a few people. Second, that Harry loves you with the same, special love. When you two look at each other and you don't realize it, I see the same expression I see between my parents. I saw the same expression between Harry's parents in a photograph in the album Hagrid gave him. Hermione, if I know nothing else, it is that you two love each other."

To say I was shocked is to say that the Atlantic Ocean really is a pond. My mouth moves with no sound.

"Hermione, I am sure that this freak appearance of empathy will pass and my emotional capabilities will again reduce to that of a teaspoon, but for now, I can see that you need to come to terms with this and so does Harry, if he hasn't already."

I sit there, stunned, and a mite embarrassed that he remembered those rather harsh words. He really could be quite sweet sometimes. I wandered back into my own thoughts.

"Hermione, you need to go back. They will wonder where you are and you need to think about this for yourself and what you are going to do."

I nod and slowly get up from the sofa. Ron gives me one of his old cloaks to wear so I won't freeze as I walk back through the Hogwarts grounds. With a hug from Ron as he says, "You're smart Hermione, but for once, listen to what your heart is saying and not your head." Just before I leave, Ron tosses out, "By the way, in about two hours you'll be wondering why Anne didn't apparate or floo. She's a muggle. Her aunt, a witch, raised her after her parents were killed during the War. We'll talk more later."

I apparate and make my way to my rooms without anyone noticing my reappearance at the school. I shut the door and collapse into my chair. As I fold into myself, it seems the world as I know it has just collapsed and I am left with pieces of a puzzle. I was not sure what this puzzle was or how in all that was Magic I was to put it together again.