Hermione sat in a chair beside Ron's hospital bed. "Alright Ron, I finished fighting off those Sparkling Salivators. So now we can have our stupid talk, even though there really isn't anything useful to talk about."
Hermione had already made it clear that she wanted to have nothing do with Ron, and that his flirtatious behavior whenever she would check on him in the ICU for follow-ups had turned her off even more. But Ron was still gazing at Hermione with his sickly, but pleading, eyes.
"Please, Hermione," his voice was meek, but she could tell he was forcing himself to sound even weaker and more pitiful. "Perhaps if you listen to why I broke up with Pansy, you can reconsider."
"I will never reconsider, but go ahead and explain," she glanced at her watch and mumbled, "The quicker you spill everything out, the quicker I can move onto my next patient."
Ron sighed. "Well, Pansy and I had a great time when we were dating three years ago, right after you inconsiderately decided to call off our engagement. But looking back, I realize we only had a great time because we were good with each other in bed. We had lots of sex and touchy-feely moments, which gave each other sooo much pleasure throughout our relationship."
Hermione wrinkled her nose in disgust. But she bit back her urge to express her disgust, just to speed up the time she was taking up.
Ron went on, "Besides all the sex and physical closeness, we also got closer through communicating with each other. However, even our communication was based off of our physical attraction to each other. We would sex-talk each other and engage in lots of sexting. There was barely anything else that we could get into a deep conversation about."
Hermione snorted. "So you really didn't get closer through communicating with each other."
"Exactly," said Ron. "Pansy is that way, I guess. She admits that she was that way when she and Draco dated back in Hogwarts."
Hermione crossed her arms, her eyes raised. "Yes, well, if the only way two people can get closer is by having lots of sex and talking only about erotic shit, then those two people definitely should not be in a relationship with each other. It's wrong—morally wrong—even if both people in the relationship are okay with it. No one should be okay with using another person as an object, no one should be okay with being used as an object."
"You're absolutely right, Mione," said Ron. "See, it took me until now to realize that. Even after I broke up with Pansy several months back, just to show how dedicated I was to get back with you, I still didn't think this through. But now, I've realized why Pansy and I weren't right for each other, and why you and I would be great together. While Pansy and I could only connect by having lots of physical activity and sex-talk, you and I were able to connect by having deep conversations about each other's lives and beliefs."
Hermione laughed and stood up. "Oh Ron, you and I did have conversations that weren't erotic in any way, but we certainly didn't have any 'deep' conversations. You would either get bored or confused whenever I tried to bring up any deep, philosophical topics, or anything that had to do with science. So you and I are not good for each other, either." She turned to start walking to the door. "Now if you please excuse me, I have to follow-up on Tom Riddle."
Ron moaned. "Mione, pleeease. I can change! I can be even better at philosophical discussions than that Tom Riddle!"
"Please don't, Ron," Hermione looked over her shoulder as she stood at the door. "If you have to change who you are in order to make a relationship work with another person, then that's another reason why you shouldn't be in that relationship." She bit her lip and looked away. "And don't ever say you'll be better than Tom Riddle at intellectual discussions. You haven't even met him in person yet. I, as his Healer, have gotten to know him very well, and I know for a fact that you can never be like him." She continued to walk, and then shut the door behind her.
Angry thoughts raced through her mind as Hermione fast-walked through the hospital halls. I swear, I hate humanity. It's all about sex, money, and superficial pleasure. Then she approached the door of Tom Riddle and then she felt a sudden sense of calm. Well…I guess "hate" isn't the right word…She did care for humanity. That was the whole reason why she chose to be the Healer she was now. She cared for people, even people like Tom Riddle. And her ex-fiancé, Ron. Hermione had told herself that she would take care of any human being, not because she liked every single person on the planet, but because she knew it was the right thing to do.