Understanding

Here is my favourite chapter! Sorry it took so long, Im quite busy with exam revision at the mo but I'll try and update as often as I can :-)

Thanks for the reviews! Its nice to know you're enjoying it. In answer to your question EarlyLearningCentre, Ron could read Hermione's mind if he wanted but out of politeness and respect for her he chooses not to :-) enjoy the chapter!

I could hardly eat, couldn't possibly sleep; the dreams that plagued me throughout the night involved nothing but Ron performing spellbinding acts that couldn't even be logically justified in my mind! And yet they were justified; everything he was I was now acquainted with; what was to happen now? I couldn't stay away from him; emotions that had taken hold of me long before I realised they had were preventing me from turning my back and running...but instead it meant that I had to talk to him...I had to...there was no going back now; I had chosen what I wanted, now it was time for him to do the same...

School was empty when I arrived there; although I had left more than half an hour earlier than my usual departure time. I was also suffering an immensely painful headache; my brain was piled up with a whole range of emotions, and I found myself repeatedly banging it upon the steering wheel.

When other people started to arrive, I stepped out of my truck and went and took refuge on a nearby bench. In an attempt to distract myself from the turmoil that was going on inside my head, I took up an immensly confusing trigonometry book and tried to understand some of the more advanced calculations. I had no luck. Everything outside my dizzying and frustrating thoughts was completely irrelevant; I hardly noticed the calls of greeting that were directed towards me as students wandered past; my brain had turned to mush! Nothing else was important, nothing else held any means of significance, he was the only thing that mattered now, he was the one who would stand at the centre of my universe whether he liked it or not, he was the one who had turned my life around, he-

Goodness! He was on the other side of the parking lot; so absorbed was I in my bemused thoughts I had completely tuned out to everything that was going on around me. Yet there he was, as attractive and captivating to me as ever; I couldn't take my eyes off him. However, he had not seen me for the moment; his eyes seemed to be wandering the extent of the parking lot in search of something, could it have been me? Quite suddenly, without being fully conscious of what I was doing, I found myself standing erect and heading straight towards him; what are you doing!? the small remaining logical part of my brain screamed; facing up to what I've spent so long trying to deny replied my emotional clustered side. My feet appeared to be walking at a speed of their own accord, for all too soon I was standing a few feet away from Ron's lanky form as my eyes met his with a powerful knowing look which I was certain he understood from the wordless response he gave me in return. I carried on walking past him, away from the school and in the direction of the nearby forest; Ron followed suit, his tall build walking a good couple of feet behind me, as we headed for the decision which would either go one way or the other...

I don't know how long I continued walking for, but all of a sudden I came to an abrupt halt in the middle of a beautiful clearing bathed in weak sunlight. It was utterly charming; the greenery was illuminated so that bright colours danced across my vision, and flowers of all breeds were rallying in the rare rays of light that had broken free of the clouds. I thought it absolutely stunning, but I had not been driven from the reason for our sudden departure from the school grounds...

"You're impossibly fast," I said loudly, when I felt his presence behind me on the edge of the clearing, "and powerful. You can make things freeze by use of what looks like a stick, but really it's something capable of so much more. Blood flows in your veins which is part of a brutally historic legend, and..." I was on the verge of hysterics now, "and sometimes you speak like...like you're living in a completely different world."

Ron did not say anything, but I felt him move so that he was now standing right behind me; a tear swept down my cheek.

"I know what you are," I told him defiantly, and more tears fell from my eyes.

"Then say it," whispered Ron softly, speaking for the first time since we'd reached the clearing.

I opened my mouth, but the word was not ready to come out yet; I drew in a sharp hasty breath as Ron whispered to me again:

"Out loud," he murmered, the closeness of his voice causing me to tremble. Yet still I could not speak it.

"Say it, say it out loud," said Ron, his voice rising.

The forcefulness of his words seemed to trigger something in me; my lips parted:

"You're a wizard," I said in a hushed voice, tears now staining my face. I wiped them away hastily with my sleeve.

Ron stood silently for a few seconds, then, his eyes fixed intently on the side of my face, he asked, "Are you afraid?"

Taking in a few shaky breaths, I managed to stem the flow of my tears, and turned slowly so that we were now face to face. Looking at him very surely and very deliberately in the eye, I opened my mouth and answered honestly, "no."

Ron looked slightly disappointed; his teeth looked like they were trying hard not to grit themselves as he said to me, "then ask me the most basic question, although I'm sure you already know the answer: what is my bloodline famous for?"

I kept my eyes glued to his as I remembered what Harry Potter had told me that day up Stoatshead Hill: "You...you won't hurt me," I said, trying to sound more confident than I felt, for Ron had a vicious look in his eye, which remained constant as he suddenly grabbed my arm and began dragging me to the edge of the clearing.

"W-where are we going?" I asked nervously.

Ron was breathing deep heavy breaths, "have you ever flown before?" he asked, grabbing a long thick wooden stick lying amongst some leaves.

"Wha- no, um, I'm not very fond of hights," I admitted shamefully; freeing my arm from his less than comfortable grip..

"Then you're probably not gonna enjoy this," said Ron cautiously, biting his lip, "but you need to see...you need to understand for certain..." he mumbled, and then without so much as a word of warning, he grabbed hold of my arm and flung me onto the back of the long heavy stick, upon which he was already balanced.

"Hold onto me," said Ron as he kicked off from the ground and we began shooting like a bullet up the incredibly steep hill with absolutely nothing supporting us other than the simple bit of branch. The shriek of suprise that I intially would've let out was nothing more than gasp; Ron ducked and swerved as we tore through the dense forest, creeping higher and higher every minute but keeping within the safe enclosure of the trees. I wanted to close my eyes, but the sheer level of astonishment I was experiencing kept them wide open; I clutched onto Ron's waist with all my might, terrified the broom was going to collapse under our weight; but amazingly it remained airborne until he began to touch down towards the ground. I braced myself for the hard landing, but we hit the floor quite gracefully. We immediately dismounted the branch and Ron threw it into a nearby bush, glancing round to check whereabouts we were before he looked back at me.

"Are you okay?" he asked timidly.

"Y-yes," I stammered, and then said in a more irritated voice, "I told you I didn't like heights!"

Ron laughed, "I could tell!" he said, rubbing his waist. But then his expression turned to that of a more serious one. "You're still not afraid are you?"

"Only of flying brooms!" I said resentfully. Ron's brow furrowed.

"You're not scared of me even in the slightest?" he asked worriedly.

"No," I replied wearily, taking a step closer to him due to the fact we were stood a good few feet away from one another, "how many times am I going to have to keep telling you that?"

"At least once more," said Ron sadly, moving closer to me as well. I wanted to hold him, I wanted to reach out and touch him, stroke his freckle feathered cheeks...but I kept my hands in fists against my sides; the electric current which had soared through me on those rare occasions when Ron and I had touched, was now consuming us in some kind of enormous bubble: I could feel it everywhere.

Ron bit his lip again as he came to a halt directly in front of me; I could see every part of his attractive face, and my eyes were completely lost as they got caught up in it...

"I'm born to be a killer Hermione," said Ron gently, gazing deeply at me whilst waiting for my reaction.

I had it all ready: "No you're not," I whispered softly, "I don't believe that,"

Ron stared at me desperately.

"Please Hermione," he murmered in earnest, "Please don't put your trust in me. I'm- I'm not right."

"It's too late for that," I replied ardently, "I'm here because I trust you. I trust you with my whole heart and I'm never going to stop trusting you!"

Without thinking about what I was doing, I instinctively leaned in towards his memorable warm scent. But with a faint pop, Ron disappeared from the spot he was standing in and emerged on the branch of a nearby tree. I stared at him, slightly aghast.

"That's how you got over to me so fast the day that van nearly hit me," I said confidently.

"It's called Apparition," confirmed Ron, "It's an easy form of travel used by most witches and wizards; you have to pass a test to get a license. I don't mind it, but it's quite uncomfortable; brooms are better."

Personally, I found the idea of being able to vanish and reappear in a different place much more appealing than riding a broomstick; but Ron's statement had struck another question in my already overcrowded mind:

"Are there a lot of witches and wizards out there then?" I asked curiously.

"Loads," replied Ron, "we live in hiding all over the world. As far as I know, our family's the only wizarding settlement round here apart from the Lovegoods, but they live on the other side of the hill..."

"That's amazing," I exclaimed, "I never knew there were more so many of you! It's quite extroadinary!"

Ron suddenly looked at me extremely seriously, as though I was suffering from a severe illness.

"Don't take that to mean all wizarding families are good!" he said abruptly, "my family are probably the worst bunch of blood traitors you could ever come across just for mixing with muggles, and we're not faring well with what's going on in our world at the moment."

"Why? What is going on out there?" I asked nervously.

"There's a war coming," said Ron, looking at me with that same sad expression, but never taking his eyes off me, "millions of people are going to get caught up in it."

"Is-is this a war between your people?" I asked gently.

"Yes," he replied, "the muggles don't know anything about it, apart from what they might suspect."

"I know about it," I said defiantly.

Ron looked at me with such emotion, it took all my willpower not to clamber up that tree and throw myself into his arms. Instead, I broke the sudden silence by asking another one of my many questions:

"Why did you hate me so much when we met?" I was dreading the answer to this one. Feeling as though my heart was going to jump out of my body, I approached the tree anxiously; Ron's eyes never left my face.

"Because you brought about feelings in me," he said honestly, "feelings that were so strong and powerful, I had no way of understanding them. I was angry at myself; I was angry at you for making me feel so different. But then I thought if I could just stay away from you, maybe those feelings would go away but..." he trailed off, unable to inform me of the thing we were both earning to say.

"You're not safe with me Hermione," he said gravely, "there's a war coming and I don't want to get you mixed up in it."

"I already am mixed up in it," I replied resolutely, "people like me are going to end up getting killed even if they don't understand the reason behind it! How can I not escape this?"

"It would be more dangerous if you were caught hanging around with a pure blood wizard!" snapped Ron, peering down at me, "at least away from me you'd be protected by blissfull ignorance!"

"But I'm not ignorant!" I cried hysterically, clambering up into the tree and causing Ron to lean back against the moss covered trunk, "you've just told me about the things going on in your world; how am I supposed to forget that! How am I supposed to forget you!"

"You have to try Hermione," said Ron persistently, "try with all your heart if you want a better chance of keeping hold of your life!"

"What if I don't want to keep such a tight hold of my life!" I argued, "what if I preferred it to be hanging on the tip of a thread just as long as it meant I could stay with you!"

Ron's mouth opened, but no sound came out. We were perched inches away from each other, our carefully measured breath sweeping across the other one's face. I stared at him firmly; then Ron suddenly jumped out of the tree, and stood on the damp ground with his back to me. I gave him a few minutes of solitude and then made my much less swift descent from the tree branch. His back was still facing me. Unsure about what to do, I bit my lip, so hard that it began to draw blood. Hurriedly, I wiped it away before the smell became too much for me; then Ron spoke:

"You don't know how long I've waited for you," he said sincerely, turning to face me with a look of resignation, tears started to well up in my eyes, "I've never felt this way about anyone before."

"Me neither," I replied quietly, Ron came to stand in front of me, his eyes shining with emotion.

"And so the wizard fell in love with the muggle," he murmured with a slight chuckle, reaching out and stroking my cheek gently.

"What a stupid muggle," I whispered, my voice breaking.

"What a stupid dickhead of a wizard," smiled Ron, and with that he leaned his head towards me and pressed his lips to mine in a soft loving kiss. I wrapped my arms around his neck as a dozen emotions soared through my whole body, and moved my lips against his. He was exceedingly gentle; and his strong arms held onto me protectively. How long we stood there locked in our embrace I did not know, but one thing was for certain: this was the happiest yet most tragic moment of my entire life.