The morning before Ron's scheduled departure was upsetting. They both ate together, got ready and went to work in completely dreadful silence. All day, the only thing Hermione could think about was Ron. She even ran into Lewis today and accidentally called him "Ron".
When she got home after work, Ron was already home. He was sitting at the dining table on the phone with someone. She decided not to disturb, so she quietly grabbed a glass of water and waved to him. When he waved back, she went upstairs to change.
She moved utterly slowly. When she was sad, she didn't like to move a lot because she it made her mad. So she took her time getting undressed and redressed. As she was finishing up washing her face, Ron came into the room.
"That was Mr. Ott I was on the phone with," he said as he walked in. "He just called to tell me the details of where to go once I landed in America." He stood against the door frame, arms crossed and head leaning on the wall. "I'm going to miss going to bed with you every night. Waking up to your face every morning. Coming home to you after work. See-"
Hermione cut him off with a sudden, passionate kiss. He secured his hands at the small of her back, and she wrapped her arms around his neck. It wasn't long before she started crying, the tears going into both of their mouths. She hadn't meant to cry, she only wanted Ron to stop talking about the things he would miss, because she knew she would miss them too.
When she pulled away, she couldn't look him in the eye. She bent her head down and leaned her fore head on his chest. His chin rested on the top of her head and now they were both crying. Ron's flight was tomorrow morning at 6 and they had less than 12 hours together.
After what seemed about an hour, they both had stopped crying and had somehow made their way to the bed, both of them just lying there and holding each other until it was time. She glanced over his shoulder at the alarm clock on Ron's side of the bed. 7:30.
She sat up and looked him in the eye. "Ron," she said quietly, "will we still be together when you're gone?"
He sat up too. "Mione, of course we won't. I'm going to be on the other side of the world, how are we supposed to sleep together?"
Normally, she would have laughed but she wasn't feeling it tonight. "No, Ron, I know that. What I mean is- ugh. I meant, will I still be your girlfriend when you're gone?"
He sat there quietly for a while. She couldn't blame him. If the roles were switched and he had asked her that, she had no idea what she would say. She didn't think either of them thought that this would be happening. Being apart from each other didn't even seem possible because they always assumed they would be together forever. Hermione wondered now if they would ever marry.
"To be honest, Hermione, I've been thinking about this since I got offered this position, and the only logical thing I can think of is us becoming just friends like we were before," said Ron. He was looking down and his orange fringe hid his eyes.
She felt as if lightning had pierced through her heart. She felt like she couldn't breathe. She felt mad. Mad that 10 years of trying to get Ron to be with her had gone to waste, and over some stupid job. She was completely frustrated and she didn't know what to do. Just friends? Not that torture again. Hermione didn't think she could handle being in contact with Ron, knowing there was something there but not being a couple. Absolute torture.
"Ron, are you sure? I don't think- I don't think I'm comfortable with that," she replied slowly.
"Mione what are you talking about? I've been thinking about this for almost a week and this is the only way we can both be equally happy. I know that for the beginning it will be difficult for the both of us. But look at what we've been through with Harry. We are both so strong, we'll get through it," he said, still not looking up. He took one of her hands into his and caressed it so delicately, as if it were to break if he dropped it. "I love you so much, and you know that. And I know that you love me."
She wanted to cry, but it wouldn't come. The shock of what he just said made her sit perfectly still. It wasn't long before his words were processed into her mind. Just friends.Hermione could feel her heart start to beat faster, like she was on an adrenaline rush. The feeling in her chest made its way to her neck, slowly creeping up to her scalp until her brain started to hurt. She closed her eyes to make the pain go away, and when she opened her eyes, Ron hadn't moved. He sat perfectly still waiting for her response.
Of course she loved him a lot. And she knew that he loved her just as much. Would that change once he moved? Would he find someone else to love like that? Or would she? If they remained friends, then the loss wouldn't be so bad, she figured. If they broke it off and decided not to talk to each other anymore then that would hurt almost a thousand times more than if they broke it off and still kept in contact. At least she would know that he's still okay.
She came to realize that this was indeed the best option. Obviously it would hurt for a while but she could get through it. Besides, it's not as if she would be totally alone in London anyway.
Her heart still hurt, so she didn't have the energy to explain what she had just thought to him, so she simply nodded and looked him in the eye again. When she smiled, his face broke into a small smile and he lay back down on the bed, motioning for her to join him. They lay there, holding each other for another hour when she heard his breathing go at a steady rate.
Hermione looked up to check if he was sleeping, but he wasn't. He was staring at the blank wall across the bed. He looked so good like that. His face was relaxed. He didn't seem to have any worries whatsoever. Everything about him looked so peaceful. It made her reach up and kiss his neck. He jerked away, claiming with a smile that it tickled.
She smirked and began to kiss his neck more. He didn't complain that it tickled anymore; instead he moved she that she was on top of him and his hands were on her waist. He lifted his head up so that Hermione could continue kissing his neck. She made her way up his neck and was now biting at his earlobe. He let out a small sigh which made Hermione smile in satisfaction.
She released his ear and rested her forehead against his, noses touching. Ron's hands moved slowly up and down her back, dragging the hem of her shirt with it. She could see in his eyes that he was refraining from lifting her shirt off. Maybe he was refraining from doing other things to.
He kissed her then, forcing her to stop thinking about what he was refraining from doing. She kissed him back, but this time she could feel his tongue enter her mouth. Hers fell into his mouth in response. Soon the kiss became lovingly deep, and he rolled over so that he was now straddling her. He broke the kiss to take his shirt off, and Hermione noted that this might be the last time she would see those abs. She smiled at the sight and reached up to grab his neck.
Before she made it, though, he had bent down to kiss her and at the same time unbutton her blouse. She never objected when he did this, and she didn't now. She loved the way his cold hands left a tingling sensation on her chest and stomach as he made his way down her body. She sighed into her mouth, which made him move faster. He made his way to the button of her pants, then to the zipper and was now moving his hands under her body to take everything off.
She pulled back from the kiss so that she could look him in the eye. They stared hard into each other's eyes. Finally, Hermione said, "I love you."
"I love you, too."
They shared one more passionate kiss before he smoothly slid off her jeans.
The next morning, they had woken from their slumber a mess. Hermione looked over to see that it was three in the morning. She was tired after getting only an hour and a half of sleep, but she didn't complain and neither did Ron. They had both spent their last night together as a unit, and she knew she would miss that once he was gone.
She drove Ron to the airport and stayed with him until his plane was called to leave. She painfully kissed him goodbye, both of them holding back tears. Even during the drive to work, her face remained dry.
She tried all day not to think about Ron and how he left, but when she got home the tears flowed out of her like there was no tomorrow. She was sobbing so hard to the point where she couldn't breathe, and it didn't take long for there to be an abundance of used tissues on her bed that she had no intentions of cleaning up.
She let the tears flow out for another hour until she had no more to shed. That's when she realized she hadn't eaten much all day, only a banana nut muffin that was in the kitchen at work. Although the muffin was all she had, Hermione wasn't very hungry. She didn't feel like eating, but it was almost nine o'clock, and she knew that if she fell asleep without eating that she would regret it in the morning.
She forced herself to go downstairs to make a snack when the house phone rang. Who would be calling her at this hour? Surely it wasn't Harry or Ginny because they would have just called her cell.
She made her way to the phone to pick it up. A voice on the other end sounded familiar, but she couldn't put a face to it.
"Who is this?" she asked.
"Lewis, from work," the voice said. "Are you busy?"
How did Lewis know her house number?
"Why?" she inquired.
"I know it's late, but I was wondering if you've had dinner yet. I haven't and I have a thing about not eating alone," he replied rather sheepishly.
Hermione smiled and replied, "No I haven't eaten yet. Where were you thinking of going?"
He paused to think about it for a moment, then said, "There's a really nice burger place near the work building. Is that okay?"
She didn't really care where she ate, she just needed food inside of her. She said yes and he told her the address. When she hung up she went upstairs to wipe off her smudged makeup and put on a shirt that wasn't stained with tears.
When she got to the address that Lewis told her about, she walked inside and looked around. She couldn't seem him at first, until a pale hand at the back of the restaurant moving back and forth caught her eye. She looked at the hand and the body attached to it. She smiled in greeting and made her way to where he sat. Then he stood up to order their food.
When he returned, they started off with small talk about the weather, then somehow managed to talk about Draco when a waitress came by with two cheeseburgers, two sets of fries and two soft drinks atop a tray.
"So you actually knew Draco from you went to school together?" asked Lewis while the waitress set their food on the table.
Hermione nodded. "We could have shared better times, but you can't change the past."
Puzzled, Lewis asked, "What do you mean? Were you not friends?"
She didn't feel like explaining her past with Draco: frequently being called a mudblood, punching him in the face, how he tormented her best friend because he was the Chosen One. Hermione was much too tired to relay all the details, when she remembered something.
She and Draco were wizards, and they met at a wizarding school. She couldn't tell a muggle, especially one she had just met, that she had supernatural powers and that the reason her and Draco were not friends was because she came from a family that wasn't "special" like Draco's.
So she simply shrugged and said, "He thought himself above me, which led to some feuds."
She could tell that Lewis saw that she had wanted to drop the subject, so they went back to talking about the weather while they ate.
They stayed at the burger place until about ten o'clock. When they finished their meal, they walked outside together into the crisp air of London. Lewis asked Hermione if she needed a ride home, but since she was covered, they parted ways and agreed to see each other the next day at work.
On the drive home, Hermione found herself grateful for Lewis. Not him, but the dinner he ate with her. At least she didn't have to eat alone that night. It was a good distraction to keep her mind off of Ron and how he just left.
It's going to take forever to get over him, she thought.
5