Chapter 6: True Harmony

No-one was more surprised than Hermione when her counterpart leapt straight through the portal and into her Ron's arms. But no-one was happier either. She chanced a look up at Ron beside her and what she saw on his face made her heart leap. He was looking through at the other Ron and Hermione with a mixture of longing and a strange hope. Hermione wanted to grab him then and there and have a decent talk about what was between them, but with Harry and Ginny there she felt too inhibited to say anything. So she waited and they all left the Room of Requirement after the adventure of the day thinking once more on what was to come tomorrow. Like the other Hermione, she could see the determination in Harry's eyes and her heart ached for Ginny. It wasn't fair; they'd been together for such a short time and yet he felt he had to break it off to protect her. She sighed; well if Harry was fool enough to lose what he had she wasn't going to be the same sort of fool.

She drew together all her courage and opened her mouth to ask Ron if he'd like to go for a walk when his broke across her attempts to speak.

'Hermione … do you want to … maybe … go outside, for a walk.' He finished in a rush. Behind him, Hermione could see Harry and Ginny suppressing their laughter, and she glared at them while saying as casually as she could 'Sure Ron. I'd love to. We'll see you two later' she added pointedly.

Ginny smirked at her and said 'sure thing' before heading off in the opposite direction with Harry.

Ron and Hermione walked in a rather uncomfortable silence until they got to their favourite tree by the lake. They had sat here so many times with Harry but without him there was a tension in the air that Hermione was desperate to get rid of. She thought of what Ron would do if she just jumped up and kissed him, and the thought made her smile. No, she wouldn't do that but she had relaxed a little with the silliness of that thought.

'Ron, I need to tell you something …'

He looked at her in a slightly panicked way. 'You hate me and want to stop being friends, don't you.'

Hermione rolled her eyes. 'No, of course not, don't be daft!' But belying her words, her tone was soft and amused. 'I was going to tell you that I really really don't like Harry romantically at all. I'm pretty sure I never really did. But if you'd rather I tell you I hate you, I'll oblige …'

'You … never really liked Harry?'

'Oh don't get me wrong, I thought I did. But when I see him with Ginny I know we didn't really care for each other in that way. He's like my best friend: I love him to pieces but I'm not in love with him'

'Oh, OK. Well, that's nice … do you want to walk more?'

Courage Granger, have courage! She admonished herself.

'No I don't want to walk any more.' She took a deep breath, then said in a rush, blushing deeply 'Don't you want to know who I am in love with?'

'Er …' he said looking slightly hopeful.

'It's you. It's always been you really. I tried to go out with Harry because I was hurt about you and Lavender. It wasn't really fair to him, but I wasn't thinking straight.'

'You were hurt about Lavender?'

'Of course I was! I asked you to Slughorn's stupid party and you went and started snogging Lavender just after we agreed to go together. How was I meant to feel?'

'Oh, well, erm … it was Ginny's fault really.'

'Ginny's fault?'

'yeah, well … erm … she said … she said you'dkissedkrum'

'What?'

Ron took a deep breath and looked Hermione in the eye finally. 'She said you'd kissed Krum, and I got jealous.'

'Of Krum? After 2 years?'

Ron blushed scarlet and nodded his head shamefully. 'And Lavender was … well, she was really keen on me, and I was hurt and so I just did it without thinking.'

'Thinking is your friend Ron, haven't I told you that before?' Hermione chuckled at him.

'You're not mad at me?' he asked, bewildered.

'No, not really. I kind of understand; and we were both kind of silly and kind of jealous and did stupid things without really thinking. Shall we agree to pretend that Lavender and Harry just never happened and see where we go from there?'

'Sounds good to me' he said.

Shyly she slipped her hand into his and they began walking again, this time around the lake. One thing Hermione was sure of was that with Harry she had leapt into the physical side of a relationship far too quickly. They had kissed as soon as they 'get together' and so she didn't really have time to feel her way and discover if they really were 'right' for each other. This time, she vowed to take it more carefully and to really enjoy being with Ron before moving things on. She snuck a look sideways at him and saw that he too looked like he wanted to make the moment last. She smiled softly to herself; this might just be perfect after all she thought happily.

Next day, just as each Ron was taking his Hermione in his arms to comfort her through her sadness at the funeral, each Harry was turning to his Ginny and saying the words she had been expecting for days but didn't want to hear. 'Ginny, listen … I can't be involved with you any more,' and each Ginny just accepted it, as Hermione had told her she should, but that didn't make it easy, and it was with tears in her eyes that each Ginny watched her Harry turn and walk away across the Hogwarts grounds. 'Come back to me …' each one whispered, as he disappeared in the distance.

And far away, Fred and George, who were perfecting their remote extendable ears, had listened in to the whole day's adventures. Fred turned to George with a wicked gleam in his eye.

'I think we've found ourselves a project. Our baby sister needs our help, and it seems there's a whole other world for us to explore while we do it.'

'I think you might be right Fred. Who better to help than her favourite older brothers?'

They turned their grinning attention to the problem of getting a portal opened … all in the name of helping their sister of course.