Ron held his breath as he crept up the hallway towards the bedroom; crossing all his fingers in the hope that Lavender was still fast asleep. He cursed inwardly as he pushed open the door and spotted her sat on the side of the bed; her arms crossed and a scowl on her face.

He immediately started to feel defensive. He was a grown man, for Merlin's sake, why should he have to justify visiting his best friend. But as soon as he started to prepare what he was going to say to Lavender, a sense of guilt crept in. Barely even five minutes ago he had been watching Hermione sleep in his arms happily; something he rarely ever did with Lavender. The two usually slept apart, she found him too warm to sleep next to and only ever wanted to cuddle on her terms. Ron gulped back the comparisons; it wasn't fair to compare Lavender to Hermione and any feelings he had for Hermione must just be nostalgia, nothing more. It was just going to take some readjusting to get used to Hermione being a continuous presence in his life again; that's all.

Sighing, he moved further into the room. "Hey…"

Lavender stood up quickly, his casual greeting only causing more anger to flash across her face.

"Don't you 'hey' me Ron! Where the hell have you been?!"

She looked awful and Ron felt another pang of guilt as he observed dark rings under her eyes. She never did well without her full eight-hours and she'd obviously been awake for a while. Ron started to respond, but Lavender shot him down.

"I woke up in the middle of the night and you weren't there! Do you know how scared I was? I checked every room in the flat!" Her hands moved to her hips and anger coursed through her body. "I've floo'd all of you family – nobody's seen you!"

Ron's feelings of guilt quickly changed to that of annoyance. Sunday lunch at the Burrow was going to be a barrel of laughs now she'd been in touch with everyone.

"I couldn't sleep and I didn't want to wake you so I popped out…"

"Where?"

Ron noticed that Lavender was fully dressed and he wondered if she had been about to start looking for him outside of the flat. He felt bad that he had worried her so much.

"Hermione's…" Ron spoke in a small voice.

"Oh of course!" Lavender rolled her eyes. "She's back now, so she's the priority! Did you shag her?"

"What? Of course not!" Ron started to feel angry again, although that undertone of guilt was still seeping through. There had been that fleeting desire for Hermione as she opened her bedroom door, but he'd been able to quickly supress it and anyway, he hadn't even acted on it. "Who the hell do you take me for?!"

"Well you're the one sneaking out, acting really shady and secretive. If there was nothing to hide, why didn't you leave me a note? Was tonight the first time?"

"No…" Ron started at his feet.

Lavender let out a shaky sigh. "How many times?"

"This was only the second time, but I've called her a few nights when I was struggling to sleep. But nothing happened Lavender, I'm not a cheat! I would never…" He dared himself to look up at her and make eye contact.

Lavender kept eye contact with him, still enraged. "I've been trying so hard to get on with her, to accept that she's back in your life. I wanted for things to be as easy as possible for you and this is how you repay me?" She shook her head in disbelief. "Is she the reason why you haven't asked me to move in? Or why you still can't tell me you love me. It's been seven months Ron!"

He tried his hardest to find the right answer, but no matter what words he tried to push to the front of his head; he just could not force himself to say them out loud. Everything sounded false and the last thing he wanted to do was to lie to Lavender again. It should have been easy to just appease her; to throw himself at her feet and beg her to move in with him. It would definitely make life easier; prove to everyone he had no intention of taking Hermione back, despite his families numerous attempts to persuade him it was the natural next step now she's moved home. But the words stuck in his throat and he hung his head again as he saw tears come to Lavender's eyes.

"I love you Ron…" This time, Lavender was calm and quiet. "But I'm not going to compete with Hermione bloody Granger for your attention. I want to be with you, but if you want me you'll have to stop seeing her. Completely." She sighed and picked up her small overnight bag. "I'm going home, I don't think it's a good idea for me to be at the Burrow today. Maybe you can use the time to say goodbye to Hermione once and for all?"

Lavender moved towards Ron, looking as if she were about to kiss him but instead, she pushed past him; probably a little bit more aggressively than she needed to. As she got to the bottom of the hallway, she turned once more towards him. "Please choose me Ron…" With a heavy sigh, she left the flat.

Ron stood in the bedroom doorway for a while, trying hard to gather his thoughts and work out what the hell was going on. The feelings that had stirred in him last night had taken him by surprise. He thought nine months of not being with Hermione had left him with only platonic love for her. Lavender had come along during the dark two months after Hermione had broken up with him and it was true he had seen her only as a rebound to begin with, something easy and fun. He really felt that eventually he could have loved her; but his stomach lurched at the thought of having to give up Hermione for her.

He glanced around his room with a sigh. Hermione was everywhere, even though he'd only kept one photo of her in his room: one of the trio at Harry's 17th birthday party. Hermione had been a constant in his life since the day he and Harry had rescued her from the troll. Of course they'd had their arguments and when they were younger they could spend months not talking to each other, but she was still around. They had still sat with Harry between them during lessons and mealtimes. And of course, the flat was loaded of memories of her; their first time together, the morning after when they'd taken a bath together, the nights spent on the sofa comforting her after the abortion.

He sighed heavily, eventually moving to take a shower. He refused to spend any more time in the flat; he couldn't think with the amount of memories of her bouncing around the place. The Burrow would be just as bad, but at least his family would be there to distract him.

Ron had been surprised when he turned up at the Burrow and nobody said anything to him about the early morning floo calls, although his mother had fussed slightly when he had turned up alone. There had been moments through lunch, however, when he thought someone was going to start saying something; he'd caught his dad throwing George a warning glance and Ginny had kicked Bill under the table at least once. At one point, his sister had looked fit to burst but another sideways glance from Harry had shut her up.

Eventually, George couldn't hold it in any longer. He pushed his empty dessert bowl away and rested his elbows on the table, hands clasped together.

"So, Won-Won…" He wriggled his eyebrows as his youngest brother immediately turned bright red. "What were you up to last night?!"

Suddenly the whole table, minus Hermione and Ron, erupted into fits of laughter. Ever since Ron and Lavender had dated in their sixth year; the family had not been quiet about their distaste for the girl. Ron had always thought this was one of the appeals of being with Lavender. Hermione had fitted in way too well and had immediately become part of the family and Molly reminded Ron of this at every opportunity.

Ron scowled as he glanced across the table, noticing Hermione turning bright red too. The fact that they'd unintentionally embarrassed her too just made him even more angry.

"Fuck you all…" He pushed away from the table and stormed out of the kitchen, creating another wave of giggles to erupt from the Weasley siblings.

Harry quickly stood up, shooting Hermione a look.

"I'll go…" He followed after Ron, leaving poor Hermione to deal with the aftermath at the table.

Harry watched as Ron stormed out of the garden and took aim at a wayward gnome, booting it high over the garden hedge.

"You'd be really good at rugby…" He smiled as Ron gave him a confused look. "Never mind… Where were you last night and can you warn me next time so I can close up my fireplace?!"

Ron sighed. For a moment, he contemplated not telling Harry but the specky git had probably already worked it out for himself anyway. It was annoying enough that his family were laughing about him, annoying enough that Lavender thought he was a cheat; he wasn't sure he could cope with Harry's judgement too. But he needed to talk to someone and he sure as hell was going to talk to Hermione about it.

"Hermione's…" Ron said quietly for the second time that day.

"Oh…" Harry looked surprised and Ron threw him a scowl at the look on his face.

"Nothing happened! Come on mate, after all these years – I may be shit at a lot of stuff but I'd never cheat!" He sighed, running a hand over his face. "I've been having nightmares; all that Department of Mysteries talk the other week must have messed with my brain and talking to Hermione helps. Last night we were talking so late that we fell asleep on the sofa and when I got home this morning, Lavender was awake. I'm sorry if she worried you…"

Harry shrugged. "We weren't that worried. Your mum's clock has its uses after all. Your hand wasn't at mortal peril or dead so we figured you'd just gone for a walk or something. She must have forgotten to tell Lavender…" Harry trailed off briefly. "How mad was Lav?"

"So pissed…" Ron untensed slightly now he knew Harry wasn't going to judge him. "She's given me an ultimatum!"

"A what?!"

"Yeah… If I want to stay with her, I need to cut Hermione out of my life…"

"Oh… shit!" Harry frowned. "Have you spoken to Hermione about it yet?"

"I can't…" Ron kicked at a clump of grass. "She'd be heartbroken and you know Hermione, she'd probably volunteer to stay away so I can be with Lavender…"

"Don't you want to stay with Lavender?"

Ron chewed his lip thoughtfully. "And lose Hermione?" He let out a heavy sigh. "I have to go; I need thinking space. Tell everyone I'm sorry. I'll see you at work tomorrow…"

Harry watched as Ron wandered sadly down the field towards the lake and let out a heavy sigh before heading back into the kitchen, avoiding Hermione and the rest of the family's questioning looks.

"He's gone home, he's in a right old grump…" Harry reached for more apple pie and tried to turn the conversation back to the wedding to distract everyone.