Disclaimer : HP is owned by JKR.
She saw him.
She had spotted the mane of platinum blond hair as soon as she entered the Ball Room of the hotel. She was more than surprised. Afterall she was seeing him for the first time in six years. Although she still read about him occasionally in the Prophet, about how he was rebuilding his family business. He seemed rarely to be in London and was often photographed on his business trips around the world.
Seeing him had so far been the most exciting aspect of this whole tedious shindig, she thought dully. She normally avoided attending these galas that the Ministry threw to celebrate what, she didn't bother to know, as the cause was always a flimsy excuse to waste Ministry resources. She could have been working hard on her file to push through reforms for the elves instead of chit chatting with the wives of the Minister and his close associates, she thought irately. All of them inquired about the same thing. It was always about Harry, Ron and herself, and if they were still in touch. Someone had called them the 'Golden Trio' and giggled nasally as she asked about their love lives. She had tried to smile at the air-head socialite through gritted teeth and hoped fervently that she would get out of this place soon. She wondered glumly about why she had accepted to come here in the first place. Oh yeah, the Minister himself had sent her the memo to attend the gala and she had reluctantly agreed. She had also hoped to convince the Minister to increase the budget of The Department of Magical Creatures – where she worked. But, she knew the only reason she was being made to attend was to provide the much needed 'star' presence to the event – as both Harry and Ron were out of the Country.
She sighed as the last of the nosy socialites fluttered away leaving her in peace. The Minster's wife had dragged her to sit in one of the front tables. It was a bit too bright here, although the band was enjoyable. She rotated her champagne glass in her hands, lost to the lilting music. It was slow and a bit sad , which suited her mood just fine. As the hall slowly emptied around her, she felt her earlier haste to rush home leave her. Infact she wanted to be anywhere but in her flat - with solitude and silence haunting her there. She was trying to escape that, and all the reasons behind it….
She sighed again. Suddenly out of the corner of her eye she spied the blond looking at her. This caused her to frown as events of the war rekindled in her mind. She could never forget him, never forget his face….even in her dreams…
She remembered like it was yesterday that last day of the battle when Harry defeated Voldemort atlast. It was the day that many had died, had sacrificed their lives for the greater good, it was the day she nearly lost her life…
Things were happening too fast for her to focus that day. The Death Eaters were ruthless and didn't spare adults or students. She had been duelling with an unknown masked Death Eater. She was lucky to dodge every spell he threw at her just as he had dodged hers. Just then someone had bumped into him and she aimed a stunning spell at him as his wand was knocked away. She had breathed a sigh of relief and turned around to engage another enemy in battle, then she had gasped as she saw the ensuing battle before her. Ron was fighting with the ruthless Macnair and he was just managing to survive his killer curses. He tripped and fell over hard on the ground as he dodged another green ray from Macnair's wand. Her mouth had fallen open in a silent scream as she saw Ron unconscious on the floor. Gathering her wits atlast, she shot a stunning spell at the brute Macnair just as he had raised his wand towards Ron's fallen body. The spell missed and Macnair had turned his shallow eyes to her and in a moment she was rendered wandless. Macnair advanced towards her leering as she stood rooted to the spot staring death in the face. Macnair had pointed the wand at her and just when she thought that this was the end, Macnair keeled over and fell on his face. Dumbfounded she raised her eyes from his fallen body to look at her saviour and had found him. His eyes were bright and seemed angry but as she looked at him an unknown emotion passed behind those mercurial eyes. She stood staring at him, not comprehending of what just had happened. But even before she could say anything to him, he had turned and vanished into crowd of duellers, and she had turned too, to find her next battle. She had managed to pull Ron to safety and thankfully learned that he was in no danger, he had kissed her in gratitude, as all the while she wondered about a certain blond who had come to her rescue.
She sighed again. She had never asked him about why he had saved her that day, and even after six years she still wondered about it, about how her supposed enemy had pulled her away from imminent death. And now he was sitting there, just a few meters from her, she felt the urge to talk to him about it, but thinking about the incident had revived her memories of Ron and the time they had spent together and that nearly made her choke up on tears and she didn't want to face him like this, not now.
She bit her lip trying to control her emotions as images from the past week flooded her mind – the owl delivering her the invitation.. the apology that it was so sudden that he wasn't able to inform her earlier…her numb disbelief as she stared at the invitation in her hands…the tears…the self doubt that maybe she had been wrong in her decision…that may be she should have tried harder to salvage their relationship…the feeling of envy, hatred towards the other woman… guilt at not being happy for her friend…hysterical laughter when she scratched out the woman's name and filled in her own…more tears…….lonely nights staring at the dark ceiling……the happy people at the Burrow and her feeling of loneliness doubled…the smiling couple..her vision going blurry….the dance…Ron standing up to toast her, '-to my best friend without whom I would not have been alive today-'…her valiant attempt at smiling as George loudly interrupted, '-you had better name your first born after her, ickle Ronniekins!-'…he had smiled at her and then he was gone..with her…and she couldn't breath………
She bit her lip harder, the music was making her head to swim as more images of the four years they had spent together after the war invaded her mind..she needed some air. She got up steadily and made her way to the glass doors that led to the balcony.
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