Harry had known everything couldn't return to normal overnight, but the tension was starting to drive him spare.
By some strange luck (and Dumbledore's foresight), they had all been reunited again, and yet Hermione still glared at Ron from her corner of the tent whenever they were all together. Ron had been walking on eggshells around Hermione, but he relaxed considerably whenever the two of them went searching the forest for anything edible. Even the December chill was warmer than Hermione's frosty presence.
Slowly, Harry began filling Ron in on what he had missed – mainly the story of their trip to Godric's Hallow. Ron returned the favor, telling him what had become of the Wizarding World while they had been secluded in the forest. There was a brief moment of terror when Harry nearly broke the Taboo (Ron explained what the Taboo was afterwards), but overall, it was nice to talk to his best friend once again.
Eventually they lapsed into a comfortable silence, but Harry knew there was one subject that needed to be covered if he wanted the tent to be habitable again sometime before next Christmas.
"Hermione really missed you while you were gone," Harry said, reaching a little deeper down in the bush to avoid seeing Ron's face. "I did too, of course, but she cried for a week."
"Yeah," Ron said, his voice heavy. "I really messed things up this time, didn't I?"
"You have to try to talk to her again, otherwise we'll never get any normalcy back."
"Not until she cools down! What if she – goes off again?"
"She wants to hear you apologize."
"Yeah, but she already knows how hard I tried to get back-"
"She needs to hear how much you regret hurting her," Harry continued. "She wants to hear how much you love her."
The word had slipped out unintentionally, and he froze in his half-crouched position before stealing a glance over at his best friend. Ron was rustling back through the patch he had just sorted through. Then he sighed, weary.
"We both know you don't just love her like a sister," Ron said quietly, without the rage he would have expected at the accusation.
Harry opened his mouth – then closed it again. He wanted to deny it, but over the course of their endless hunt, he had begun seeing his friend in a different light. Her company day-in, day-out was exhausting, but equally reassuring. Hermione had become more beautiful to him with every year, and now she was very much a woman.
"Ron… I couldn't… you know I'd never come between you two."
"You think I want to be the one to ruin our friendship?" Ron asked.
So that was why Ron had never said anything – neither of them had made a move because they didn't want to hurt the other.
He wanted to laugh, but bit down on the impulse, until he heard wheezing from beside him. At the sight of his best friend laughing, face tomato-red, Harry couldn't stop himself from laughing either. He felt a little pressure inside him vanish.
"We're screwed, aren't we?" Harry said when he could finally speak.
"Well, I'm worried she's going to hex me every time I see her, so maybe you have a chance after all." He shook his head, expression sobering. "I don't want a girl to destroy our friendship… even if that girl is Hermione."
"She shouldn't have to choose," he said. It took him a few breaths to realize Ron had stopped contributing to the conversation, instead, looking thoughtfully up at the branches.
"You wouldn't really–" Harry said.
"I mean, it would solve a lot of the problems–" he said, taking the proposition far more seriously than Harry had intended.
"You don't think either of us would be… jealous?" He said, trying to picture the arrangement. "Or would we have to do things with each other? To keep it even?"
"Nah, you don't like blokes – do you?" Ron asked.
"Er, I don't think so." Harry had never considered it. Then he noticed what Ron hadn't said. "Do you?"
"What? No!" Ron said, his face turning scarlet again.
"Not that that'd be a bad thing," he said quickly, feeling his own face heating up. "There's nothing wrong with people liking whoever they like."
"Yeah, I guess," Ron said, then promptly changed that subject.
"I mean. Um. If it was anyone else – of course I'd be jealous. But I mean, we've always done everything together, haven't we?" Ron said. Then he violently shook his head. "Not like it matters much now. Hermione's not going to talk to me for the rest of my life." He kicked a rock into the trees beyond.
"I wish I wasn't so awful with words so I could – explain –" Ron gestured wildly. "So I could tell her how much I hated being apart from her. From both of you. It was… I don't… she's really important to me," Ron finished. He had gone still, and stared dreamily up at the tree line.
He heard a snap behind him, and turned around just in time to see a figure – Hermione – vanish behind the trees.