Ron's Regrets.
For the first time in a week, Ron woke up completely and utterly sober. The only problem with waking up sober was that his faculties were fully functioning, and he couldn't block out events of the last week. Sadly for Ron, that meant facing up to his recent behaviour and coming to the alarming conclusion that he'd been totally out of order.
It had all been going so well recently as well, with Ron putting every effort in to try and change and accept that things weren't exactly as he would have hoped at The Cannons. He'd attended Harry's training camp without a fuss, even though he'd loathed every minute of it and came away more certain than ever that a place on the first team was going to allude him for yet another season. Still, he'd been determined to put his head down and work hard, and maybe show Harry and the rest of The Cannons coaching staff that he wasn't quite the loser they had him pegged as.
Then came the grand opening of the stadium, where Ron had totally lost it and blown not only his career, but possibly his friendship with Harry and Hermione. A week later, Ron still didn't know what had come over him, and he bitterly regretted the way he'd lashed out at Lucius Malfoy. He still thought it was unwise for Harry and Hermione to get involved with the former Death Eater, but he could see that it really wasn't his place to say anything. Unfortunately, Ron hadn't kept his mouth shut and quite honestly he couldn't blame Harry for losing his temper and terminating his contract.
Ron had tried to apologise to his friends, but while Harry and Hermione had accepted his apology, they hadn't changed their minds on ending his contract with The Cannons. So Ron had found himself without a club, and with little chance of another club hiring him after the scene he'd made was splashed over all the papers. Remembering the headlines, which had all painted him as the villain, Ron grimaced painfully, not wanting to dwell on how he'd been crucified in the press.
"Shit," Ron suddenly gasped, bolting up in bed as thoughts of the papers brought a memory back into his head.
After having his contract ended by The Cannons, Ron had ended up drinking steadily, and in his drunken stupor he'd done something very stupid. He'd granted an interview to Rita Skeeter, and even though the details were blurry, he was fairly sure that he'd let his mouth run away from him and said far more than he should have.
Jumping from the bed, Ron raced into the kitchen to grab the morning's papers. He let out a sigh of relief when there was nothing on the front page about his interview, and praying that it wasn't too late to stop it, he began to check the rest of the paper. Unfortunately for Ron his hopes of burying the story were shot when in the middle of the paper he found a double spread of his interview.
'My Cannons Hell', blared the headline, accompanied by a large picture of Ron taken before the previous season. With a sense of dread, Ron began to read the interview, and found it was worse than he'd feared. His anger and disappointment came oozing through in each word that had been printed, and he'd laid into anyone and everyone. Harry and Hermione bore the brunt of his anger, but there was harsh words for Ginny, Alicia, Angelina and the other players and coaches. He'd also laid into Lucius and his involvement of the team, not to mention the harsh words he'd had to say about Draco and his relationship with Hermione.
"Bloody hell," Ron whispered, wondering how he was ever going to make it right.
With the start of the season just around the corner, the interview really couldn't have come at a worse time for The Chudley Cannons, and Ron himself. He now knew without a shadow of a doubt that his quidditch career was over. If it had been hard to find a club before, it was downright impossible now. No-one was going to hire him after he'd not only stabbed his former club in the back, but he'd taken his best friends down as well. The interview was brutal, and while Harry and Hermione would probably emerge just fine if they remained dignified, Ron knew his reputation was in tatters. The more salacious reporters might use the content of the interview as a way to bash Harry, Hermione and The Cannons, but Ron knew to most people it would just come across as a bitter rant on his behalf.
"And it is," he muttered to himself in disgust as he threw the paper onto the floor and buried his head in his hands.
Ron sat at the kitchen table for nearly half an hour, trying to work out how to fix things, and by the time he dragged himself into the bathroom for a shower, he was no nearer to knowing what he was going to do. He doubted anything could make up for what he'd said in the interview, and quite frankly he wouldn't blame Harry and Hermione if they never spoke to him again. He was their best friend, and he'd just trashed them in the papers, all because he was jealous and couldn't handle the fact they'd been involved in something that he hadn't been.
Once he was dressed, Ron plucked up the courage to head to The Burrow, hoping some of the family might be present. When he arrived, some of the family were present, but it wasn't Ginny and Harry. Aside from Molly and Arthur, it was the twins and their girlfriends who were around, and when he walked into the kitchen he was faced with six hostile faces. Even Molly, who'd always backed him no matter what, was looking at him with such disappointment in her face.
"I don't know what to say," Ron said quietly.
"I rather think you said it all to Rita Skeeter," Fred snorted. "At least we all know how you feel."
"I really don't feel like that," Ron protested.
"You don't think our girlfriends are traitors?" George asked. "Because that's what we read over breakfast this morning."
"I really don't," Ron said, turning to Alicia and Angelina. "I'm sorry for dragging you into things. You're entitled to play for whatever club you want, and The Cannons are lucky to have you."
"I don't really think it's us you need to be apologising to," Angelina said stiffly. "Yes, what you said about us hurt, but you were really brutal to Hermione and Harry, and they just don't deserve it."
"I know," Ron confessed in a quiet mutter.
"Do you?" George asked. "Or are you just worried about what a tosser you look like?"
"I am sorry," Ron insisted. "I was drunk, and I never should have spoken to that dreadful woman."
"Somehow, I don't think saying you were drunk will make things right with Harry and Hermione," Fred said. "After all the hard work they've done to drag The Cannons from the bottom of the league, and you've gone and thrown them to the wolves. You should be grateful that they saved your club, but instead you've shown what a petty, jealous little worm you truly are."
"I really am sorry," Ron whispered, feeling stung by Fred's brutal character assassination.
"Save it for someone who cares," George snorted in distaste.
Looking around the room, and realising he would have to try and make amends before he got any support, he apologised once again and hurried out of The Burrow. Instead of going home, he headed to Harry's flat, but it wasn't his best friend who answered the door. It was his sister, and Ginny looked as though she could happily strangle him.
"I can't believe you have the nerve to show up here," Ginny hissed.
"I need to apologise," Ron said sheepishly.
"You need to do more than apologise," Ginny retorted sharply. "Saying sorry is not going to make things better Ron. Just what were you thinking when you spoke to Skeeter?"
"I wasn't thinking, I was drunk," Ron replied matter of factly, knowing it was pointless trying to defend himself. "Can I please just come in and we can talk."
"Please yourself." Turning on her heel, Ginny stalked back into the flat, leaving Ron to follow her into the front room.
"Where's Harry?" Ron asked, half thinking his best friend would suddenly appear in a fit of rage.
"He's gone to talk to Hermione," Ginny answered. "The pair are holding an emergency meeting to try and decide how best to respond to your attack."
"It wasn't an attack," Ron said quietly as he sunk down in a chair.
"It certainly read like one," Ginny retorted, glaring angrily at her brother. "You totally laid into Harry and Hermione, despite the fact they're supposed to be your best friends. Not to mention the digs at me."
"Sorry about that," Ron said with a wince, remembering how he'd called Ginny out for not sticking with him in her protest of how things were going at The Cannons.
"Sorry doesn't make it better," Ginny snapped angrily. "Anyone reading that interview is going to know I had a problem with things when I first started with The Cannons. Look, I get that you're frustrated with how things have been going. Hell, that was almost me, blowing my entire future."
"What changed?" Ron asked, remembering the new leaf his sister had turned over towards the back end of the previous season.
"I got cocky and I put Harry in an impossible position," Ginny answered. "It really hit me that I couldn't carry on the way things were. Harry offered me a choice, I either shaped up, or I shipped out. I decided to turn my attitude around, and I wish you'd done the same. Harry gave you more than one chance, just like he did me. You should have taken one of them, Ron."
"I know," Ron admitted quietly. "But now it's too late and I don't know how to make things right."
"If you want my opinion, I would leave Harry and Hermione for a few days," Ginny advised her brother. "Maybe issue a statement apologising for the interview, and then keep your head down. Wait for this to blow over, and then try apologising to Harry and Hermione. Because I'm telling you now, the mood Harry was in this morning, he's not ready to forgive you. He's not ever close. Just stay out of trouble Ron, and maybe once things have quietened down you can make amends."
"Can you put in a good word for me?" Ron asked hopefully.
"I can try and make Harry listen to you, but that's as far as I can go," Ginny said. "Start proving to them that you can be trusted, and maybe then they will forgive you."
"I hope so," Ron said wearily as he got to his feet.
Thanking Ginny, he headed home to dwell in his misery. As much as he wanted to make things right with Harry and Hermione, he knew that his sister was right and he needed to give them both some time to cool down. Hermione was feisty at the best of times, and Harry also had a temper, and given what had happened the previous week, he doubted either of them would take kindly to seeing him right now. So as hard as it was, he would do as Ginny suggested and keep a low profile, and hopefully in a few weeks the time would be right to try and build bridges with his two best friends. At the end of the day he didn't want to lose Harry and Hermione, and right now, he knew he was on the verge of doing exactly that.
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The furore with Ron dominated The Cannons build up for the new season, and the endless headlines frustrated Hermione to no end. As if it wasn't bad enough that they'd had to contend with the press reports following the opening of the stadium, Ron had then gone and given a crushing interview to Rita Skeeter. Hermione had been devastated by the interview, and the fact Ron would betray her and Harry in such a way, but in public she'd put on a brave face. Only Harry and Draco knew how upset she'd been at what Ron had done.
Thankfully, Ron hadn't been stupid enough to try and approach her to apologise. She knew from Ginny that he'd tried to talk to Harry the day the interview came out, but she'd convinced him to give them some time. Hermione hoped that in time she could forgive Ron, but she knew it wasn't likely to happen any time soon. Although, looking on the bright side, things hadn't quite gotten as bad as she'd worried with the press. Sure, the stories were still running, but since she and Harry had maintained a dignified silence and the club refused to comment, they weren't being portrayed in a negative light.
Hermione was just hoping that the start of the new season would get The Cannons off the front pages and onto the back ones. Hopefully the first match of the season would get the talk back to actual quidditch, rather than behind the scenes dramas. Hermione was also hoping the team would get off to a winning start. The first match was at the new stadium and she was hoping for good things in the coming season.
On the afternoon of the first match, Hermione was thrilled to find the first match was a sell-out. Just wandering around the stadium as people began to arrive, Hermione got a sense of how excited people were. The club shop was packed and Hermione was thrilled to see their merchandise flying off the shelves. When she went into the stands to watch the match, she was pleased to find that The Cannons flags and banners outweighed those of The Bats, their first opposition of the season.
As with the previous season, Hermione found herself getting into the match when it began. For someone who wasn't the biggest fan of quidditch, Hermione had found herself being swept up in the emotion of the game since becoming co-owner of The Cannons. And the first game of the new season was no exception, as she cheered and celebrated every goal The Cannons scored. When the game ended with Draco catching the snitch, Hermione was cheering along with the rest of the fans.
It had certainly been a good start to the season after all the pre-season drama. Now all they had to do was carry on their winning ways and maybe as the season neared its end The Cannons would be right up there in contention for the title. Hermione still wasn't sure if they would win the league this season, but she was hoping they would progress each year until they finally lifted the trophy.