"That's-that's fantastic!" Hermione stammered. "Congratulations, both of you."
She stepped forward and hugged the pair in turn.
"Great news mate, congratulations Gin," Ron said unenthusiastically, shaking Harry's hand and hugging his little sister.
"So how did you finally do it?" Hermione asked.
Harry gestured to Ginny, indicating that she could explain and Ginny began to speak excitedly. "Well I didn't know but Harry left work early today, so by the time I got back in from training, he had cooked a full three course meal for us. The kitchen looked as though someone had tried to blow it up but thankfully we ate in the dining room in front of the fire. He had lit lots of candles and gave me a huge bunch of flowers as soon as I walked in the door. We ate dinner, well I ate and harry pushed his food around his plate until I finally cracked and asked him what was wrong, at which point he got on his knee and gave this big lovely speech before giving me the ring."
"So romantic!" Hermione grinned. "Have you told your parents yet Ginny?"
"We've just come from there. Mum was still crying when we left. I don't think she cares that her only daughter and youngest child is getting married, she's more excited that Harry will officially be a part of the family, kept telling him he was going to be a Weasley!"
Everyone laughed, apart from Ron whose mouth barely formed a smile. Hermione glared at him but fortunately Harry and Ginny seemed to be too deliriously happy to care.
"Do you have to rush off?" Hermione asked. "I have a bottle of sparkling wine in the fridge, we could have a glass to celebrate?"
"Sounds great," Harry replied, Ginny nodding in agreement.
"Help me with the glasses Ron?" Hermione gave him a look that told him not to argue and he followed her begrudgingly into the kitchen.
"Ronald Weasley," she turned to face him as soon as the door was closed, "that is your sister and your best friend in there, they have just got engaged and the way you're acting you'd think someone had died. Can you at least try to forget about our fight for now and pretend to be happy for them?"
"Fine," Ron said, taking the glasses down from the top cupboard and going back into the living room without another word to Hermione.
She took the wine out of the fridge and fixed the smile back on her face before joining the group who were now sat down on the sofas. She poured the wine into the glasses Ron had put on the coffee table and he handed them out as each was filled.
"To Harry and Ginny on their engagement, we couldn't be more happy for you," Hermione said, raising her glass. They clinked the crystal glasses together and Hermione took a deep drink out of her own that left it only half empty.
"So, any idea when you'll set the date for?" Ron said, finally breaking his own silence.
"As soon as possible," Ginny replied. "We're thinking early next year. That gives me enough time to plan and not enough time for mum to drive everyone insane."
"Early next year," Ron repeated. "You'll probably get married before me and Hermione at that rate."
He laughed humorlessly and Hermione chuckled nervously. Harry and Ginny exchanged a glance that suggested they had finally sensed the awkward tension in the room between their friends. They drank a lot quicker after that, their eagerness to get home was apparent even further in their hurried goodbyes.
As soon as the flames had vanished from their fireplace, Ron left the room, leaving Hermione standing alone. She sighed heavily, picked up the glasses and bottle, and took them into the kitchen, clearing and cleaning them with a wave of her wand, having no energy to wash them by hand.
She was both physically and mentally exhausted, the events of the day finally taking their toll on her. She went into her bedroom, eager to have an early night, to see Ron already in his pyjamas. To her surprise, he snatched his pillow off their bed and glared at her as he left the room. Perplexed, she stepped out of the room behind him and watched him enter their spare bedroom and then slam the door behind him with a bang.
Tears formed in her eyes, as much as they had fought lately, and it had been a lot, Ron had never once slept in the spare bedroom. Even if one was angry at the other they would still go to bed together and usually Hermione would wake in the morning to see Ron, open-mouthed and snoring with his arm weighing heavily down on her stomach.
Their fight hadn't been bad in comparison to some they had had lately, tame in fact. It hadn't helped at all that Harry and Ginny had burst in with news of their engagement, and, as happy as Hermione was for her friends, she couldn't help but be frustrated with their timing. Salt had been added to Ron's wounds further by Ginny's plans to get married sooner rather than later, and as bitter as Ron had sounded when he said it, it did seem very likely that they would be married before Ron and Hermione.
The rest of the week did not see an improvement in Ron's bad mood. Hermione tried on more than one occasion to speak to him, and to try and get him to come back to their bedroom with her every night but he would not budge. He snapped at her, made passing comments about their non-existent wedding and was generally foul. Ginny and Harry visited again a few days after their announcement to invite Ron and Hermione to dinner at the Burrow at the weekend to celebrate, furthering Ron's anger, he was quite clearly not in the mood to celebrate but was forced to accept.
On the day of the dinner, Ron left early in the morning to help out at Weasley's Wizard Wheezes and did not return until ten minutes before they were supposed to be at his parents' house. Hermione was dressed and sitting on the sofa when he arrived home, he did not greet her but instead went into their bedroom, got changed and stepped back into the fireplace to travel to the Burrow. She took a deep breath and tried to ignore the feelings of unease in the pit of her stomach before following, her voice shaking slightly as she shouted her destination.
When she stepped out of the fire at the other end, Hermione followed the sounds of animated chatting and laughter into the kitchen, which was already crowded. Molly was in her usual position in front of the stove, wand being flicked toward multiple pots and pans that were steaming and then to the chopping board and back again, in between batting Arthur's hand away as he tried to pinch a spoonful of whatever was cooking.
Bill and Fleur were there with Victoire and newborn Dominique, who were being fussed over by George and a heavily pregnant Angelina. At the opposite side of the table, Percy was whispering nervously to new girlfriend Audrey, a mousy-haired, timid looking woman who was meeting the family for the first time. Next to them sat Harry and Ginny, the former had a turquoise-haired Teddy sitting on his knee whilst Charlie showed him models of toy dragons he had brought home on his latest visit.
Ron was already sat at the table too, absentmindedly peeling the label off a bottle of butterbeer. No-one seemed to have noticed his arrival, for they all seemed surprised to see Hermione there and then asked her why Ron wasn't with her, she simply nodded in his direction and breathed a sigh of relief when he actually stood up to greet his family.
When he returned to his seat, Hermione sat down next to him nervously and tried to take hold of his the hand which rested upon his knee. He snatched it away and Hermione felt as though she had been punched in the stomach.
"Ron please…" she whispered, glancing around to check that the family were distracted once more.
"Leave it Hermione," he replied curtly.
"No, we can't go through an entire dinner without even looking at each other, never mind not speaking."
"I can try."
"Ron!" she scolded quietly. "Please, we need to talk about this. Let's go upstairs and just sort it out, we should be enjoying celebrating our best friend's engagement."
"Fine. Let's go."
They both stood up and slipped out of the room, unnoticed by the rest of the group, and went up the stairs to the third floor and Ron's childhood bedroom. The room had not changed in the slightest since Ron had moved out. The bed still bore the same Chudley Cannons bedspread in the ghastly shade of orange that was associated with the dreadful team. The players still whizzed around the old posters, fumbling the quaffle and making clumsy catches. The room also still had a very faint trace of the smell left by the ghoul after his time spent there when Ron left to search for Horcruxes with Harry and Hermione. He had long since been evicted from the room, Mrs. Weasley finally snapping and hiring a team of highly-trained wizards to make him leave the house.
Hermione closed the door behind her and crossed the room to sit on the bed, which creaked due to the months of not being used.
"Ron, I-" she began, but Ron interrupted her.
"Hermione, I can't do this."
"Do what?" she asked, confused.
"This. Us. Fighting. I just can't-no, I don't want to do it anymore."
"Are you saying you don't want us to be together anymore?"
Ron looked down at his feet, his ears turning red. "I think so."
His words hit Hermione like a ton of bricks. She had known that this fight between them had been worse than the others but never once had the thought crossed her mind that things were so bad that Ron didn't want to be with her anymore.
"Ron, please. You're talking nonsense. I'm sorry that I haven't been prioritising us and that we haven't started planning the wedding but that doesn't mean I don't want to marry you. I do, I promise, I do."
"It's not just that," Ron said with a defeated sigh as he sat down on his old bed next to Hermione. "We've been fighting since we first met, and when we got together, I didn't mind it. I didn't mind because after each fight I could see the end of it, the good part, you know. But lately, it's been different. Since we got engaged and you got the new job it's like we're fighting and then there's no good part to make up for it, there's just another fight. I know you, Hermione, I know that once you're done with this thing with the house elves there'll just be something else that you'll put all of your effort into, you can't help it and I know that, but I can't do it anymore. I can't wait for hours after you say you'll be finished work for you to actually finish, I can't keep making plans and having them cancelled and I can't keep looking at that ring on your finger and know that our wedding will never be your first priority."
The tears were streaming down Hermione's face as she thought about what Ron was saying. A small voice in her head told her that he was absolutely right, that her work would always come first, but every other cell in her body was telling her that she had to ignore that voice and tell Ron he was wrong. She opened her mouth to speak but the words would not come.
"You know I'm right, Hermione. That's why you're not arguing, for once. Ironic, eh?"
A small giggle burst through her lips and she cursed it, now was not the time for laughing.
"We can fix this, Ron. I know we can. We can't just throw away the last four years. I won't."
"It's not throwing them away, I don't regret being with you Hermione, never will. We're just not right for each other anymore, we're not the same people we were at Hogwarts."
Again, his words stung, but Hermione knew he was right. "When did you become so smart Ron Weasley?"
"Spending four years being in a relationship with you has obviously rubbed off on me." He smiled at her but the smile did not reach his blue eyes: they were sad and on the verge of tears.
"So that's it then?" Hermione asked. "We're over? Just like that?"
"We've been over for months, we both know that."
With the last of her dignity, Hermione got to her feet and turned to face the man who she had spent the last seven years loving, took off her engagement ring and placed it in his hand. She left the room without another word and descended the stairs in a daze. She managed to make it into the living room without being seen and just succeeded in saying her address aloud so she could floo home where she fell on to the sofa in hers and Ron's living room before succumbing to the wave of emotions.