Chapter 5
Chapter 5
It was early morning two weeks later, and Harry and Ginny were sitting together on one of the plush Gryffindor couches in their common room. They were cuddled together, holding hands and making plans for the future when Ron came storming down the dorm steps.
Upon seeing his best friend and sister, he began ranting once again. "It just isn't right Harry, how could she do this to me! She's with Malfoy?" he snarled the blonde's name with disgust.
"Ron…" Harry started to interrupt gently, but was cut off by Ron's apoplectic rage.
He had been storming around the common room every day since seeing Hermione and Malfoy walking around the Black Lake, hand-in-hand. "The thought of my Hermione being with that foul, evil, Death-Eating bastard is ridiculous! How could she do this Harry, what does she even see in him?"
"Ron…" Harry began again.
"I just can't believe her. What does she think she is doing? If she thinks that being with Malfoy will make me come crawling back--"
"RON!" Harry shouted.
"What is wrong with you? You are with Lavender now. YOU are the one that cheated on Hermione. YOU are the one that ended your relationship. YOU are the one that broke her heart!" he screamed, "She is just trying to pick up the pieces and Draco is trying to help her."
"Oh, it's Draco now is it? I can't believe that slimy git has turned my best mate and my girlfriend against me. Does he have the both of you imperioused? AND YOU! You're my sister, Ginny; you are supposed to be on my side!" Ron was out of control now. Tears were raining down his freckled face and he was gesturing wildly with his arms.
"Ron," Ginny tried in a gently tone. "What did you expect? Did you really think that she was going to wait for you to change your mind again? You cheated on her with Lavender; don't you remember what happened sixth year when you were with Lavender? Hermione wouldn't even speak to you. You could have been together for the rest of your lives, but YOU chose to end it between you two. Why are you blaming her now?"
Ron broke down at his sister's gentle reasoning. He dropped to his knees, his shoulders shaking with sobs. He said, "You two don't understand, I got scared. We are only eighteen, but suddenly she was planning our whole lives. We were going to finish school, start our post-Hogwarts training, and then after dating for a suitable amount of time we would get engaged. I PANICKED!" Ron screamed the last two words, as his shoulders slumped.
"I just panicked and Lavender was there, right in front of me. I was in Diagon Alley picking out a book for Hermione's birthday, and…the next thing I knew, Hermione was walking in on Lavender and I snogging on the couch at Grimmauld Place. I couldn't even remember how we had gotten there."
"Oh Ron," Ginny said softly, coming over and wrapping her sobbing brother in her arms.
"I just bet that Lavender planned the whole thing right down to Hermione walking in on the two of you. She has been trying to get you back ever since you broke it off with her. Why didn't you just try to explain this to Hermione instead of just picking up with Lavender?"
"I tried Ginny, but she wouldn't listen to me. She wouldn't even look at me…she still won't."
Harry looked down at his girlfriend hugging his best mate, and sighed. "Ron, why did you panic though? Ginny and I have been making the same plans, and neither of us started snogging other people."
Ron's eyes shot up and met the fierce green gaze of Harry Potter. "Oh I see," he said in an evil laced voice, "Perfect Harry Potter and his perfect relationship with Ginny Weasley, he didn't panic at the thought of forever with her. Well. I'm sorry Harry, not all of us are perfect. Some of us do get scared and make mistakes."
"But, Ron that is just it. I am scared about making plans for the rest of my life. Both of us are scared, and should be scared. However, that doesn't excuse you cheating on Hermione with Lavender. At the very least you should have broke up with her if you were scared or maybe you could have told her all of this." Harry raged at Ron.
"Oh wait a minute, why didn't I see this from the get go? You took the cowards way out, and just let her find the two of you. Lavender didn't engineer anything, did she Ron?" Harry asked.
At Harry's question, Ginny stopped patting her brother's back and looked at him with horror on her face.
When only silence answered his question, Harry pierced Ron with a hateful glare and thundered, "Well, DID SHE?"
Ron just dropped his head at the question with a look of self-loathing on his face.
Harry walked over to his former friend and pulled him to his feet by his jumper. "You are an unbelievable bastard. You are scum Ronald Weasley; you aren't fit to wipe Hermione's boots. You are not my friend anymore. I don't want you to try to talk to me; I don't even want to see you. You stay away from me and especially from Hermione. You disgust me!" He threw the red haired man from him as if he were no more that garbage.
After uttering those words that ended the seven-year friendship forever, Harry looked over at Ginny, and asked her, "Are you coming with me, or are you choosing Ron?"
"Oh, no Harry, I'm with you." She looked over at her brother who wore a look of utter shock. And said, "I can't believe you did that to her. She would have understood if you had only talked to her. Mum and Dad will be so disappointed in you."
The couple turned from Ron in disgust and left the Common Room to leave Ron to face the shocked looks from the rest of his house who came down the dormitory stairs at the shouting. In particular, Lavender Brown was standing at the front of the queue with tears running down her pretty face.
Ron turned his back at her pain and walked to the portrait door with a muttered, "Bloody Hell."
Meanwhile in the Heads' dormitory, Hermione and Draco were snuggled together on one of the green couches studying, or rather, Hermione was trying to study and Draco was trying convince her that couches were better suited for a rather different, more enjoyable purpose.
"So if you use the incarcerous curse immediately after the stunning curse you will effectively…Draco, stop it," Hermione said with exasperation. She sat up and pulled her neck away from his questing lips.
"Honestly witch, how am I supposed to seduce you if you keep moving out of my arms?" Draco growled before curling his big frame around her much smaller one and pulling her back into his embrace. He moved her mass of hair from the side of her neck, once more, and began lightly running his tongue and lips over it making her squirm.
Knowing that her resolve was weakening, he half-lifted her up into his arms and laid her beneath him on the couch, all the while continuing to ravage her neck. He trailed his lips up and over to her lips and settled there with a groan and a deep kiss. He was remembering the last time they had been in this position a week earlier; it was right before McGonagall interrupted them. Luckily this time, they were not supposed to be in class since this was Saturday. Therefore, that meant that there would be no interruptions. However, a persistent knocking was heard at the portrait door, again.
"ARGHH, You have got to be kidding me!" Draco raged dropping his head down onto Hermione's chest.
Hermione chuckled to muffle her own groan. "I'll get it," she said as she gently disentangled herself from the Head Boy.
Hermione walked over to answer and began to greet their interrupters, "Hello you two." Upon seeing Harry and Ginny's morose faces, her bright smile slowly leached from her own face.
Draco immediately came to her side and she unconsciously grabbed his hand for comfort for what she was certain was bad news.
"Hermione," Harry began with a look of intense pain on his face. Ginny turned her head away from them as tears began to flow silently down her face.
Seeing this, Hermione began to panic, "What's happened? Is someone hurt? Why are you crying Ginny?"
Ginny took a deep breath and wiped at her tears before telling Hermione about the events in the Gryffindor Common Room that morning.
Numbly, Hermione sat on the couch with Draco's arms comfortingly wrapped around as they listened to the news that Ginny was sharing.
"We didn't want you to hear it from someone else, since by the time it was all over, the entire house heard what he did," Harry finished miserably.
Draco looked over at Harry giving him a small nod in gratitude before, Ginny and Harry stood to leave. As he escorted them out, he said, "Thank you for coming here and telling us about this."
Crossing back to the same green couch that they were "studying" on, Draco next to her and pulled Hermione close in his arms.
In light of this news, she knew that she would need to grieve all over again. Before this morning, she believed that Lavender was to blame for the breakup; she coerced Ron into cheating on her. However, now she knew how despicable and cowardly Ron truly was. A reconciliation would never happen now. It was time to finally put those distant hopes behind her and move forward without them.
"Draco, I don't know what I would do without you. Thank you for standing by me, and just being here for me. Just knowing that you care means so…" she drifted off looking up into his beautiful gray eyes. She placed a soft kiss on his lips and let her eyes drift closed as she, for the first time, initiated and deliberately deepened their kiss. It was time for her to make a conscious decision to pursue her growing feelings for him.
While Harry and Ginny were in the Head's Dorm, Ron had stalked outside and sat down at the shoreline of the Black Lake. He was fuming with anger and betrayal of his best friend and sister. His rage was so consuming that he didn't notice the girl sit down next to him.
They sat in silence for over an hour before she finally spoke up. "You know, you're right; Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy should not be together."
Ron looked up in surprise at the dark haired girl beside him. "Do I know you?" he asked.
"I'm Astoria Greengrass," she said with a strange smile on her face.
"Aren't you--?" Ron began clearly racking his brain for why he knew her name.
"Daphne Greengrass' younger sister? Yes. But more importantly, I can be an ally for you."
"What are you talking about?" he asked slowly.
"I am simply stating the obvious. They should not be together. He is a Malfoy for Merlin's sake. She is a Mud--Muggleborn," she quickly amended in seeing fire flare in his eyes.
"You are talking to the wrong man about Pure-Bloods and Muggleborns. I am a Weasley after all, and was dating that Muggleborn before I messed it all up."
Annoyed at his lack of class and confidence, she took a moment to regain her composure. She continued quietly, "Ok, fine, but the main thing is, don't you agree that they don't belong together?
"Of course, I agree," he bit out angrily, "But what I don't understand, is why you care if they are together?"
"Oh that is easy. I love Draco Malfoy. I have loved him since I first saw him as our fathers' discussed a possible betrothal between our families."
"Wait a minute, if you two are betrothed then they can't be together--" Ron was ecstatic for all of three seconds before Astoria cut him off.
"You weren't listening, Weasley. I said they had discussed a betrothal, but it wasn't with me. It was with my sister Daphne. Before they could formalize any plans, they decided to see if the two of them were suited. However, Daphne loved another and since Draco knew this, he put a stop to our fathers' plans."
"Wait, who does she love?" Ron asked.
"Blaise Zabini, haven't you noticed that they are always together? But that isn't the point here. Weasley, please pay attention and stop interrupting me," she chastised him before continuing. "Now, as I was saying, they told our fathers that it could never work, because they were such great friends, and they could never be together romantically. So our fathers canceled the deal. Then my father made a betrothal between Daphne and Blaise. Soon after, Draco's father got involved with the war and never made a second betrothal for Draco--"
"So, he and Hermione can be together. Great. Damnit, you made me think there was an easy out."
"Honestly, Weasley, must you keep interrupting me? You know for a pureblood, you have abysmal manners," Astoria snapped at him. "Now for the last time…stop interrupting me! I have been trying to get Draco to see me ever since the war ended, but he only has eyes for that filthy Mud—er, sorry habit, Muggleborn. So here is what I propose…"