Hermione woke up next Saturday morning to the phone ringing. When she picked it up, Ginny's perky voice sounded through the receiver.

"Hermione! Have you had lunch yet?"

She checked the clock on Ron's side of the bed and saw that it was only ten in the morning. "Ginny, it's not even time for lunch. I didn't even have breakfast," Hermione replied.

"Excellent! Harry and I were thinking of going to lunch and we didn't want you to eat alone. You'll come with us then?" asked Ginny.

"Gin, you know I love spending time with you and Harry. And I do appreciate the effort, but I really don't feel like being the third wheel with you and Harry tonight. I know that you know that I'm lonely and sad, but I'm not yet ready to spend time with people. I just want to be alone," she said sadly.

"Hermione, if you spend time alone then you'll just get even more upset. I can only imagine how difficult things might be for you, and I really do want to help," Ginny replied, sounding a little hurt.

She knew now that there was almost no point in arguing against her; Ginny always did seem to have her way anyway. There was also the fact that Hermione woke up ten minutes ago and was much too tired to counter if there was no point.

Finding no way out of this, she tiredly agreed to lunch with her two friends and got out of bed to shower and get ready.

Although the lunch was meant to keep her mind off Ron, she kept thinking about him while she got ready. When she was taking a shower, she remembered the day when Ron had to use the toilet so bad and ran into the washroom to do his business. While she was getting dressed, she saw all the clothes that Ron had forgotten to pack. When she was in the kitchen preparing some toast and juice for herself, she saw Ron's carton of strawberry-banana juice in the fridge.

She was on the verge of crying, and almost did when the doorbell snapped Hermione out of her miserable thoughts. At first she was trying to remember who could be at the door. It took her a few seconds to remember that it was most likely Ginny and Harry. She was a complete mess.

She opened the door for her two companions and they set off to lunch together; Harry driving with Ginny in the passenger seat and Hermione in the back, perfect view of Harry through the rear-view mirror. She saw him look at her a few times, giving her a look that said, "I'm sorry," through the crinkle of his eyes and raising of his brows. Every time, she would just nod and look away, because his apologies only made her feel sadder.

As the trio sat down at their table in the restaurant, they all felt the tension that surrounded them. Their waiter had seated them at a square table meant for four, and Hermione instinctively looked at the missing seat across from her. From the corner of her eye, she could see Harry to her left look down at his feet under the table, feeling sorry for her. On her other side, she could see Ginny wanted to cheer both Harry and herself up, but not sure how.

They went out of their way to do this for me, Hermione thought. Even though I'm not, the least I could do is seem happy for their sake. So she snapped up her head and looked Ginny in the eye.

"How are your plates and such working out for you? I hope they are all right, we spent hours picking every single one," Hermione started, a bit too cheerfully.

This got their attention. Even Harry, who seemed unapproachable, looked up at her in shock. Ginny was no longer smiling, and was now staring at her friend in disbelief.

"Why are you both looking at me like that? Are they not working out for you?"

"No, they're working fine, it's just that earlier it didn't seem like you- oh, never mind," Ginny said with a smile. Now she seemed happy. When Hermione looked over at Harry, she could see that the sight of the two girls being happy made him happy as well.

They continued chatting and laughing during their lunch. When they were finished eating and were on dessert, the waiter walked by with the bill, causing Hermione and Ginny to fight over who paid. Hermione wanted to pay since it was the least she could do after her friends had been so nice to her, but Ginny wanted to pay because she wanted to keep making Hermione happy.

When they finally settled on Ginny paying, the two women turned to reach for the bill, only to find that is was gone. They looked around in confusion and looked at Harry who looked absolutely amused and started to laugh. It took them a while to realize that he had paid, and were now getting mad at him since they had gotten into an argument over it. Though they weren't mad for long and soon made their way to drop Hermione off at her house.

When she got home, there was a voicemail waiting for her. She clicked the button and was surpried to hear Lewis' voice.

"Hello again, Hermione. I was just calling to see what you thought of last night. I know that I called you out last minute but I rather enjoyed myself. Maybe we could do it again tonight. Call me if you want to go. Here's my number."

And so he told her his number while Hermione stared shockingly at the phone. She had to admit, she was extremely disappointed when she heard that it was Lewis and not Ron. It had been a few days already. That should have been enough to fly there, move into his apartment and get settled. Couldn't he have called to make sure that she was okay? And to let her knew that he was okay? He had said that he cared for her dearly, so why wasn't he showing it? Calling was the least he could do after he just left her.

It was only two in the afternoon, so she had time to think about whether or not she should go to dinner with Lewis.

She spent most of her day reading and waiting for Ron to contact her, but mainly reading. Around 5:30, she started to get hungry and was considering Lewis' dinner invite.

She went up to get the phone when it started to ring. In hopes that it was Ron, she quickly pressed "accept" before checking the number on the screen.

It was Ron.

"Hullo? Mione?"

"Ron!" she exclaimed. "I'm so happy to hear from you. How've you been?"

He started to giggle. "I'm great, Hermione. America is quite peculiar, if you didn't know. Did you know that they don't say 'motorway' over here? Apparently the proper term is a 'highway'".

She started to laugh with him. "That is peculiar. Are you alright though? You're not ill are you?"

"No Mione, I'm perfectly fine. I actually just got off my lunch break at work. I'll call you later if I get the chance alright? I love you." And he hung up.

She put the phone down and leaned back against the counter. She smiled in relief because she now knew that Ron was safe. That phone call was all the reassurance she needed.

Hermione wasn't sure how she was going to keep this up. She was hurting, and it was bad. Nights were especially hard because she was used to feeling the warmth of his arm around her while she slept, but now her torso was cold during her slumber. She missed the talks she would have with Ron when she couldn't sleep. Ron was obviously tired, but she was grateful that he stayed up and helped her to sleep. She missed it all and counted every second until he returned.

Her stomach growled. It was so loud, it almost sounded like a dog. She looked at the clock on the oven again. 5:45.

Her reminiscing had made her weak and lazy, so she thought to call Lewis and tell her that she would meet him at which ever restaurant he wanted.

She dialed his number and waited for him to answer. After five rings, his raspy voice sounded through the phone. Something about his voice made her shiver, but with excitement.

"Hello?"

"Lewis? Hi, it's Hermione. I wanted to tell you that I would love to go to dinner with you tonight."

"Oh… Sorry, Hermione, I'm on my way to have dinner with someone else at the moment. Maybe another time, alright?"

Hermione, trying not to sound hurt, replied, "Yes, that's fine. See you on Monday then."

She hung up and was now hungrier than she was before. How could Lewis have already made plans with someone else? She felt special a few hours ago when he called to ask her, but maybe he thought that she wasn't important enough and decided to spend his time with someone else. Men.

Hermione quickly looked through her fridge in hopes of something to eat, but there were only some juice cartons and vegetables that she had never used, and should probably get around to throwing out.

She sighed and closed the fridge while she wondered what she was going to do for dinner. Just as she decided that she was going to go to another burger place, the phone rang again.

She knew it wasn't Ron because he was working now, and it couldn't be Lewis either because he was at dinner with someone else. Then who was it?

Hermione nervously picked up the phone and said, "Hello?"

"Ms. Granger?" a crisp, professional sounding man said.

"Sorry, who is this?"

"I actually work with you. I'm not sure if you know me; my name is Bob."

"Oh," she said, shocked, "Hello Bob. Is there a reason for your call tonight?" She tried to sound as polite as possible because he seemed like a man with lots of authority.

Until she heard an immature giggle through the phone. "I'm sorry, Granger, that was just too much. I can't use formalities with you. Just doesn't sound right."

"What do you want, Malfoy?" she said, completely annoyed.

"I just called to know what you're doing for dinner tonight. Lewis told me he wasn't eating with you."

Why would Lewis tell Draco that she isn't eating dinner with him? She saw them at lunch the other day, and they seemed close, but she had now idea just how close they were. And why would Draco, of all people, care what her dinner plans were?

"Why do you even want to know that, Draco? So you can mock me for having dinner alone?"

With a smug giggle, he replied, "No, quite the opposite. I want you to have dinner with me tonight."

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