6 months previously:

Ron slammed the kitchen door as he strode into the house, positively fuming. Ginny, sitting at the table, looked up and gave him a ferocious glare.

"What's your problem?" She grumbled, going back to the book she was reading on the table. She noticed that he was still in his uniform, and waving a hand in front of her nose remarked, "Go take a shower, you smell."

Ron's face slowly got redder and redder, Ginny was oblivious to his anger in the corner. Finally, unable to take it anymore, he screamed out, "SHE'S BLOODY CHEATING ON ME!"

Startled, Ginny dropped her book from the table and choked on the sip of tea she had just taken. Coughing, she managed to stammer out "W-what?"

"Exactly what I said! She's been cheating on me. I went to Hermione's after practice let out today, and there she was, sleeping on the couch with some random bloke she works with!" Ron's rage nearly flew off of him in waves. Ginny didn't cower, but she flinched badly when he started yelling.

"I'm sure it isn't what you thought it was, Ron. You're overreacting." Ginny tried to calm her brother down, but to no avail. He was still red-faced and pacing. He paused every once in awhile to pull at his hair or hit a wall.

After about five minutes of that, footsteps could be heard down the stairs, knowing it was her mother, Ginny hurried from the table to explain the situation. Ron, continued his pattern of pacing while Ginny hurriedly whispered to her mother, but after hearing it she screamed, "I KNEW THERE WAS SOMETHING WRONG! I NEVER LIKED THAT GIRL!"

Molly hurried into the kitchen where her youngest son still fumed over the problems with Hermione. Ginny heard more shouting from the kitchen as Molly screamed at Ron for wasting his time on Hermione; in Molly's opinion, no one would ever be good enough for "ickle-Ronniekins".

A faint pop sounded behind Ginny and she whirled around to find the source of the sound, she saw George standing behind her, curiously staring at the magically locked kitchen door.

"Christ, what is she on about now? I swear, they can hear her all the way in the village!" He chortled, giving Ginny a curious look. Ginny glowered at George, not at all amused by his attempt at joking. She was well aware of how loud her mother's screaming was.

"Apparently, as Ron put it, Hermione's cheating on him with a 'bloke from work'. Mum's gone off the deep end because she was 'never good enough'." Ginny rolled her eyes as George's jaw dropped open. As he was unable to speak, Ginny continued, "I think it's a load of bollocks. Hermione? Cheat on Ron? That's hilarious. There has to more to this story. But as our brother will, as always, refuse to take any responsibility for his actions, making it seem like Hermione's the bad guy."

Another pop sounded, and the realized that their father had appeared from work. He grimaced once he realized what was going on.

"Ron got to your mother first, didn't he?" He sighed, knowing the full implications of just what was about to happen. This was certainly a mess Ron had managed to create. Doubts nagged at his mind, his son had never been the most responsible person in the world.

The thoughts were jerked from the front of his mind as the kitchen door flew open and an enraged Molly shouted them inside. This wasn't going to be pretty at all. The three that had been standing at the door knew this was not going to be one of the more pleasant experiences they would have with their wife and mother.

"Did any of you have any clue of what was going on with them?" Molly was still shouting at the top of her voice.

"Of course not, Mum. If Hermione were cheating on him, why would she tell us?" Ginny was being a bit patronizing, hoping it would calm the enraged tigress that was her mother. Unfortunately, this had the opposite effect of what she was looking for. Her mother was one to shout, but if she got quiet, things were about to get uglier than they ever were.

"So if you had absolutely no idea, why are you taking her side? Answer me that!" Molly's voice was quiet and sounded quite a bit deadly. Ginny, George and Arthur all cringed; that voice didn't come around often, and when it did, it meant things were very, very bad. Molly was a ticking time bomb at this point.

Finally, at risk of angering their mother further, it was George who spoke, "Mum; listen to me. Cheating on Ron is not the kind of thing that Hermione of all people would do. She's much too noble and loyal for that. I don't know why you believe his ridiculous story, but I'm pretty sure it's far from true."

Molly stared at Ron, hoping he would jump in and defend himself, but his ears and cheeks only turned scarlet. Molly, looking for any excuse to hate Hermione for hurting him at this point, took the darkening of his face to mean that he was just too angry to speak.

"I believe his story because even Ron's not stupid enough to make something like this up. It's much too serious. This is what we're going to do, and I know not a single one of you want to anger me further, but we're going to essentially alienate her."

Molly's words infuriated everyone. Ginny was on the verge of protesting when her father grabbed her arm and shook his head. Storming from the room with Ron at her heals, the kitchen door slammed shut and the room stayed absolutely silent, taking in the massive impact of what just happened.

"Dad, it's just not fair! We can't leave her alone, especially not now! I mean—it's…" Ginny started to protest but was cut short by her father.

"Look, both of you…"Arthur's eyes met Ginny's and George's, "I know it's unfair. I know she's being absolutely unreasonable. And I'm as surprised as you are that your mother is acting this way. The truth is, not a single one of her children has ever been hurt like this. I think you're absolutely right; something fishy is definitely going on. But I would heed her words; don't try to find her or talk to her until we get Ron's entire story out of him. Just be patient…" He sighed as he ended his speech, stood up, pushed in the table chair, and left the kitchen, leaving Ginny and George astounded at the kitchen table.

Up in his room, Ron was pacing again. His siblings could see right through him; they knew his story wasn't true. They knew something was wrong. He continued his pacing in his bedroom, trying to see some way out of this situation. He knew he had seriously messed up. Somehow, he got the sense that his mother was toying with him until he came clean and told the whole story. Suddenly, there was shouting from the floor beneath him.

"How could you do this to her? You always said she was like a second daughter to you!" Ron heard his father shout from the room below. Lowering himself to the floor to hear the rest, he pressed his ear against the carpet and listened.

"Arthur, calm down. I'm waiting to see what he'll do. Ginny whispered the plan to me in the hallway. She thinks that he was cheating on Hermione first and was looking for an excuse. I agree, and you all played your parts beautifully. Especially Ginny." He heard his mother chuckle, "She always did have a gift for drama."

Ron picked himself up from the floor. His mother was already on to him. He panicked slightly as he tried to figure out what it was he was going to do.

Present day:

Hermione woke up to bright sunlight streaming through the "windows" of the hospital room. Fred must have left sometime in the middle of the night as she woke up alone. It saddened her, but she realized it was necessary. It also gave her some time to think. If that dream had been real, she realized there was quite a bit of implication for Fred coming back to life. It was going to hurt him to see him lose that first child. It may not affect him yet, but once he loses that child, he'll realize just what he'd done. At the same time, she reasoned, he had to have known what he was really getting himself into.

There was a quiet knock at the door, and Molly and Arthur entered probably to check on her.

"Oh, good. You're awake." Molly smiled as she sat down on the bed next to her, "Hermione, I want to say that I'm sorry. For several things, but mostly that I wouldn't allow anyone to check on you for six months. I know it hurt you very deeply, but I was trying very hard to teach my youngest son a lesson." Molly sighed as Hermione looked at her with curious and hurt eyes, "This may hurt…a lot. But, Ron wasn't angry at you cheating on him. He was looking for an excuse to leave you because…he met a girl while he was traveling. The girl he became engaged to about a week ago. Hermione, dear, I'm so sorry, but he was the one who was cheating." Molly let her words sink in and she watched the color of Hermione's eyes darken.

Hermione didn't know what to say, honestly. She was absolutely astounded.

"I know, dear. He's a royal arse. But I'm trying to forgive him. He is my son." Molly sighed. Hermione couldn't help but laugh at Molly calling her own son a "royal arse", especially when Molly couldn't stand such language; had anyone else been the one to say that, she would have nearly had palpitations.

"Can you forgive me? It was a terrible plan of mine, and I thought he would crack under pressure much quicker than he did. I feel so responsible…" Hermione watched her for a moment, realizing that she hadn't really had human contact in six months because of Molly. In a way, Hermione was grateful, as odd as that sounded. Hermione would have felt like she needed to keep up her appearance had people been around; it wouldn't have given her a chance to really get in touch with everything she had been feeling.

"Of course I can. It might have even been for the best. I wouldn't have been great company over the last six months." Hermione sighed.

"I'm glad. Get some rest dear, you look like you need it." Molly looked concerned for a moment and added as an afterthought, "You always were like a second daughter to me. I'm sorry I let this happen."

Molly handed her a dreamless sleep potion, which Hermione took without question. Before she could think another thought, the potion took over and Hermione was asleep.

Striding out of the hospital room, Molly was dead-set on making her youngest son pay for what he had done to this girl. She wanted to forgive but, she couldn't until Ron had made things right with Hermione. She didn't quite know what she was planning to have him do, but she would think of something.

Molly was still scheming as she disapparated from the lobby.

A very good review from Binka inspired the idea for this chapter. I know where I wanted to go with this story, but I hadn't noticed the huge wholes in parts of it. Thanks, Binka, for inspiring my chapter. :)