Ron Without Hermione

Ron didn't want to go to the party. He'd been holed up in the flat over Weasley's Wizard Wheezes drinking and being generally miserable ever since Hermione left. These days he never went further than The Leaky Cauldron.

Harry Apparated into the flat and folded his arms over his chest. "Come on, Ron, get in the shower. You have to get out of this apartment. Gin's going to be here in a little while."

Ron ignored him. "Did you see this?" He held up a weeks-old copy of The Daily Prophet. There was a photo from Viktor's first game when he kissed Hermione at the end of his victory lap.

"Yeah," Harry said. "I saw it. Come on, get up."

Ron stared down at the paper crumpled in his hand. "She's fucking him, you know."

"You don't know that," Harry said, his eyes shifting away.

"Oh, please," Ron said, shuffling through some other papers on the coffee table until he came up with the first gossip column that showed Viktor and Hermione outside of Honeydukes. In the photo, Viktor wiped whipped cream off the end of her nose with his thumb over and over. "Do you see the way he's touching her here? So casually. He's already fucked her. I can tell."

Harry sighed. "You have to stop looking at those. Get in the shower. Seriously mate, when was the last time you bathed or even cast a cleaning charm? It's pretty ripe in here."

Ron looked up at him. "I can't bloody stand this."

"I know," Harry said. "But go take a shower. I'll make some sandwiches. You'll feel better if you eat something. Please, I promised Ginny."

"How could she do this to me?"

Harry pulled out his wand. "Ron, get in the shower, or I'll put you in there myself."

He looked at Harry's wand. "Yeah, okay." He shuffled off to the bathroom.

xXx

Harry sighed. "Dobby!"

The little elf appeared. "Yes, Harry Potter"

Harry looked around the flat. "Can you clean up while I make some sandwiches?"

Dobby nodded.

Even though the winter air was cold, Harry started opening all the windows. Ron looked worse every time he saw him. The drinking was clearly completely out of control and despite repeated questioning, Ron refused to tell anyone why Hermione had left. Harry and Ginny had talked with all of the brothers and they were seeing the same thing. Fred and George said Ron went to work, looking rough, but he was there. Other than that, he seemed to spend all his time at the pub where there was always someone willing to buy him a drink and usually there was a woman willing to go home with him. Harry shook his head at some of the company Ron had been keeping. He and Ginny had gone out to dinner with Ron and various women a few times, trying to be supportive, but it was generally awful. The Daily Prophet had managed to snap a photo of a moment that looked a lot like happiness, but Harry knew looks could be deceiving. The evening that photo was snapped had been the definition of awkward. With the windows open, he went into the kitchen and made sandwiches with food he'd brought from home. He'd known Ron likely didn't have much on hand besides beer. A quick peek in the icebox confirmed that. "The kitchen needs a thorough cleaning too, Dobby," he called to the elf.

"I'll get it all, Harry Potter," Dobby replied.

By the time Ron got out of the shower, the entire flat was immaculate. The windows were closed again and Harry was piling grilled ham and cheese sandwiches onto a plate. He took them over to the table.

"I don't want to eat at the table," Ron said.

"Why not?"

Ron shrugged but glared at the table as if it had offended him somehow. "I think I'm going to get rid of it. I don't need a table and four chairs anyway and it takes up too much space in here."

Harry looked around the room. He didn't think that was the case at all, but didn't bother saying so. "Sure." He took the plate of sandwiches and sat on the sofa.

Ron grabbed a couple of bottles of beer out of the icebox and handed one to Harry. He stopped and looked around. "Did you clean up in here?"

Harry snorted. "Dobby did."

"Thank him for me," Ron said. "I know I'd let it go a bit." He sat down on the sofa and reached for a sandwich.

"A bit," Harry said wryly.

Ron lapsed back into a sullen silence while he ate. After he finished his first sandwich, he said, "I guess they just picked up right where they left off."

"What?" Harry said.

"Viktor and Hermione. You know she never stopped writing him."

They'd had this conversation before. Harry wished for the millionth time that Hermione had chosen anyone else on the planet to date, but what he really wished was that she would just come home and fix this. As he watched Ron talk about what a prat Viktor was, while eating and drinking his beer, he couldn't really blame her for leaving. Ron was a pale shadow of his former self. Harry and Ginny had been waiting for him to pull himself together, but it just wasn't happening. "She didn't write to him during the war."

"Only because she couldn't without giving away our location. She probably wanted to be with him all along, but he wasn't there so she got with me instead."

Harry frowned at him. "You know that's not true."

"Do I?" Ron said. "Look how quickly they picked back up. Maybe she was seeing him before she left me."

That was a new ridiculous theory. Harry was uncomfortable with how quickly Hermione had taken up with Viktor too, but he was hardly going to share that with Ron. He and Ginny had talked about it extensively. At first, they were really angry with her for abandoning him, but as the weeks wore on, it was more and more apparent that there was a lot more to the story. Harry knew he should go talk to Hermione, but dealing with Ron had been constant, and when had a break from it, the last thing he wanted to do was talk about it. Besides, his feelings were hurt that she hadn't come to him. He sighed, the truth was none of them were okay and hadn't been since the end of the war. "Come on, Ron."

"What? You think little miss perfect is above cheating?"

Harry clenched his jaw and forced himself not to punch Ron in the face. "Yeah, I do, but you aren't, are you?"

"What?" Ron said, his eyes widening.

"I saw that witch blowing you in the toilets at the Cauldron," Harry hissed.

"What? That was…that was…it was just a knob job Harry. That's not cheating." He looked away and drank down the rest of his beer and got up to get another one.

"Oh, so it would be okay with you if I let anyone, who wanted to blow me, go ahead and do it, because it wouldn't be cheating on Ginny."

Ron looked back at him fiercely.

"Right," Harry said.

"It was just that once," Ron said quietly. "I was really drunk." He went to the window and stood staring out at the street below.

"When aren't you really drunk?"

Ron ignored the question. "Did you tell her?"

"Who?"

"Hermione…well, or Ginny, either one," Ron said, the tips of his ears going red. "I mean, maybe that's-"

"No," Harry said.

There was a knock on the door and Harry got up to let Ginny in. "Hey," she said, giving him a quick kiss. "You two ready to go?"

"Yeah," Harry said without much enthusiasm.

"Look," Ron said. "I don't—"

"You're going," Harry gave him a hard look.

Ron ran his fingers back through his hair and looked defeated. "Yeah, okay."

xXx

The party was in full swing when they arrived. Ron immediately headed for the bar.

Harry sighed. He turned to Ginny. "Want to dance?"

"In a bit. I told Luna I'd find her. Let's do that first." They walked through the large castle and finally found Luna on the upstairs balcony watching people dancing on the floor below. She and Ginny hugged.

"I'll go get drinks," Harry said. "You want one Luna?"

"Sure," Luna said. "Just a beer." She turned back to the railing as Harry left. "It's nice to see Hermione out. I haven't seen her at a party in ages."

Ginny leaned next to her. "Yeah," she said, but Hermione's presence made her uneasy. She could see that Ron had come upstairs and was on the other side of the balcony. He was drinking a beer as he approached the railing, but then he stopped and stared at the dance floor below them. She followed his gaze to Hermione and Viktor dancing. "Shit," she hissed. "I'll be right back." She hurried over to Ron.

"Do you see that?" Ron said pointing with his beer bottle as she approached.

"Yeah," Ginny said sympathetically.

"It's disgusting," Ron growled. "He's got his hands all over her."

Ginny didn't think so. "They're only dancing."

"And what is this Muggle song? Singing about rubbing her the right way, disgusting."

"I don't know. Dean's got a lot of Muggle music. It's catchy." She looked at Hermione and Viktor dancing. It was sexy, but not disgusting, they weren't being inappropriate. She sighed. "You've got to let this go. She's not your girl anymore."

Ron turned to her with such ferocity she stepped back. "Wrong!" He growled. "She'll always be mine."

Ginny stepped forward and pushed him. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

"What's wrong with me? What's wrong with her?" he shouted, pointing to Hermione, who continued dancing, oblivious to what was going on above her. Viktor twirled her and she wiggled back against him as she came out of the turn, he slid his hands down to her waist and kissed her neck as they moved together.

"I'm going to kill him," Ron growled and pulled his wand. He stormed downstairs.

Ginny could see Harry crossing the room below. "Harry!" she shouted. He looked up and she pointed to Ron who was tearing down the stairs. Harry dropped the three bottles of beer he was carrying and pulled out his wand. Hermione had turned around in Viktor's arms just in time to see Ron barreling toward them. Like with most large parties, the wards had been opened so the Floo wouldn't back up. People couldn't Apparate into the house, but they could Disapparate out. Hermione wrapped her arms around Viktor and Disapparated just as Harry reached Ron.

"Bloody hell!" Ron shouted.

"Put your wand away!" Harry shouted back.

People had stopped dancing around them.

"Don't tell me what to do!" Ron grabbed Harry by the shirt. "You're not in charge anymore."

"Ron!" Ginny shouted as she came up behind them.

Harry grabbed Ron's wrist. "I'm taking him home," he told Ginny and they Disapparated. Ginny pulled her own wand and popped out to Ron's flat.

Just as she arrived, Ron picked up one of the kitchen chairs and smashed it against the table. He turned on Harry and made to throw what was left of the chair at him. As Harry cast Protego, Ginny cast Stupify from behind him and Ron crumpled to the ground. "I've had enough of this," she said. "I'm getting Dad."

Harry nodded. That was probably long overdue.