Summer Writing Series Challenge (June 22)
Challenge: Someone is tired of watching Harry and Hermione tiptoe around their relationship, and slips
them Veritaserum.
Title: Romance Found, Friendship Lost 2
Word Count: 1,000
After Ron had witnessed his best friends kissing in the garden, life at Hogwarts for Harry Potter had not been the same. Gone were the nights of banter between Ron and Hermione, the nightly matches of Wizard's Chess, Quidditch had become unbearable and worst of all, nothing had been said between he and the girl of his dreams about what had happened between them.
Harry caught glimpses of Ron glancing at the two of them from time to time, with looks of disgust, confusion, and longing. The latter was for Hermione and the others for Harry and both of them respectively. Harry's heart was heavy with the loss of someone else close to him and he spent many nights sleepless just as he had before the final confrontation with Tom Riddle the year before.
The war is over! He'd chastise himself time and time again, only to catch Ron glaring at him out of the corner of his eye or to stammer helplessly when talking to Hermione. His relationship with his female best friend had turned into a form of ballet, each tiptoeing around one another, a pirouette around the subject, a grand jete over their encounter, it was as if they had never kissed and Ron was never their friend.
Classes were awkward when the three of them shared a lesson, Harry and Hermione now sitting where he and Ron would have previously, and the redhead moved to the farthest from them or the closest to the door, whichever came first. Whispers and rumors spread through the school, all of which were complete fallacies and even if they had a glimmer of truth, all three ignored them. There were times when Harry wondered if Ron had started them, but he quickly dismissed those notions from his mind as soon as they'd surfaced.
"Harry, may I ask you a question?" Ginny whispered one evening during a study session in the nearly deserted Gryffindor common room.
"Ask away." Harry said absently as he scribbled down more notes for his latest Defense Against the Dark Arts essay. Hermione was frantically flipping through a large, dusty tome in search of her own answers.
"Are the rumors true?" She asked innocently.
Harry missed his inkwell entirely when refilling his pen and he heard a small rip from Hermione's direction. He looked up at the young Weasley with a curiously raised eyebrow. "Which rumor?" He asked with a snort. "Let me save you the trouble, Ron did not catch us shagging, we didn't kill Pigwidgeon, and ... Hermione, what was that last one?"
Hermione rolled her eyes. "I'm not pregnant with Ron's love child." She huffed irritatingly. "I mean, Honestly! You'd think that these people would try to obtain a firm hold on reality."
Harry shook his head with a slight grin and went back to his work, content that Ginny's answer had been given when someone cleared his throat in front of them. Harry looked up and involuntarily flinched to see Ron standing at the table.
"Hi, Ron." Harry said tentatively, ready to pull his wand if he needed to. Hermione looked up, startled and seemed as prepared as Harry was to jinx their housemate should he do one of a number of things that flashed through her mind at the sight of him.
Ron set down a tray filled with cookies and goblets of milk, shoving his hands in his pockets and looking to the floor nervously. "L-look, I-I'm sorry for what I did over the summer." He said with a trembling voice. "I was hurt and it felt like you betrayed me, Harry." He swallowed nervously and nudged the tray. "I-I was hoping we could talk and we might be friends again."
Harry glanced quickly to Hermione for a sign of how she felt. One look in her eyes and he felt as if she had written everything for him to say. "I'm not going to lie and say that I'm happy, Ron." Harry said after returning his gaze back to the downtrodden Weasley. "We didn't do anything to spite you, it just happened." Harry looked at the peace offering then back to Ron. "You hurt me too, though I guess I expected hostility ..."
"I shouldn't have done what I did, Harry." Ron said with a sigh. "It was uncalled for and, as Hermione might say, rather barbaric."
Hermione snorted, whether it was a laugh or admonishment, he couldn't tell. Not waiting for his former best friends to start into the milk and cookies, Ron slid a goblet to his sister then grabbed one himself. "At least have some of Mum's cookies and think it over." He said with a resigned sigh. "I know it'll take time, Harry, but I hope you forgive me." Ron turned to leave, but Harry caught him.
"Ron, why don't you get your chessboard?" He said with a slight grin. The look on Ron's face lifted somewhat and he literally ran to the dormitory to retrieve his favorite game.
"That was nice, Harry." Hermione said, laying a hand on his arm. Harry shrugged and smiled back, packing away his books and essay. The two of them took a cookie and after a few dunks in their milk, began to eat Mrs. Weasley's delicious baking.
When Ron peeked around the corner, the smile on his face grew long and wicked. Seated at the table were a sleeping Ginevra and two people with glazed eyes. With a triumphant strut, he swaggered to the last open seat and plopped down.
"Harry, Hermione, time to answer a few questions." He said softly. At the nod of the other two he began his interrogation. Each answer he received caused him to curse under his breath when he found they hadn't meant to hurt him. Veritaserum forced them to tell the truth and he was becoming frustrated. "How do you two feel about each other?" He asked dejectedly.
"I love her." ("I love him.") They said in perfect unison, slow and seemingly practiced.
A/N: There we have the second part that started with the Haiku challenge of the 18th! Hope you liked it :)