Official Fine Print: Nope. Not mine. The brainchildren of the mighty pen of JK Rowling. Just playing with them. Honest.
A/N: I STILL think this works better as a short chapter on its own so I am posting it as such; and I promise to get the next one re-proofed and up tomorrow. Remember this was written quite some time ago, well before HBP! It's hard even for me to work my mind back there, but this is still a fun story with lots of plot twists coming up. Thanks so much to all of you who are re-reading this, as well as reading for the first time. I hope you enjoy it either way.
Here With Me
Chapter 9
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
"Ron?"
"Hmmm?"
They had skipped lunch before Care of Magical Creatures, neither quite ready to face the Great Hall again after the drama at breakfast that morning, and had instead made their way down to the lake to sit in the brilliant afternoon sunlight. They were alone; the wind was too brisk to make studying outside remotely productive. Hardly a problem, as neither Harry nor Ron had any intention of wasting a perfectly good free half hour studying this early in term. Ron was mentally trying to calculate the weather's effect on their scheduled Quidditch practice later that afternoon. Maybe he should swap drills, save the ball handling for closer to the match and concentrate more on broom skills today…
Harry was working up his nerve to talk to Ron about Hermione.
"Erm, Ron?"
"What?
"I, unh, actually need you to listen for a minute here."
"Right. Sure. Go ahead."
"Great. So… Ron." Was there a good way to do this? 'Cause it sure as hell hadn't occurred to him anytime over the past two days.
"Yes, Harry. I will marry you."
What the… Harry raised his eyes from the stone he'd been worrying between his fingers and met his best friend's laughing gaze. "Git."
"Prat. Well, it sounded awfully dire and important. Spit it out then."
Harry winced. "It's about Hermione."
"What's she done now?"
Gone and made me fall for her, for one. And you? "Remember fourth year, when you and Hermione had a bit of an argument after the Yule Ball? You were angry at her for fraternizing with the enemy and going with Viktor…"
"And she thought I was jealous that he'd asked her before we did and said if I didn't like it that next time there was a ball I should ask her first and NOT as a last resort. Yeah. She totally missed the point about Krum being from Durmstrang, official headquarters of Death-Eaters-in-Training. 'Bit of an argument's a bit of an understatement as I remember it."
"So you weren't actually mad that she went with someone else, just that Krum was a potential Voldemort fan?"
Ron turned to look at him. "What's this all about, then? Is Hermione… Oh, dear Lord, tell me nothing went on between Malfoy and Hermione in that cave, Harry. Even Hermione couldn't go that far in the name of school unity… could she?"
Okay, if this was hard, how bad was it going to be having the whole Malfoy-loves-your-sister conversation? That was so not going to be HIS job. Once was enough. "No! No, Ron, not Malfoy. Nothing to do with Malfoy. Ron… do you, no, are you… are you, unh, in, umm, are you possibly… Oh hell, Ron do you love Hermione?"
Ron's pale blue eyes rounded and his mouth dropped open. "Merlin, Harry, what are you on about?"
"Just answer the question," Harry pleaded, rubbing the bridge of his nose under his glasses. Splitting headache in the works already and he couldn't blame Voldemort for this one. Perfect!
"You mean love like snogging-in-love, don't you? Hermione? I mean, she's like a sister or something. I think I thought I was in love with her in third year until I started to realize that actually being afraid of her as well would seriously affect my erm…follow through. I couldn't even, umm, think about her that way, if you get me. Tried it once and it put me right off. No, I love to tease her. I love to cut through all that brainy stuff and just get her riled. I love it when she tries to get back at me, unless she pulls out her wand. I love her like I don't want her looked at wrong by scum like Malfoy or Krum. Same as Ginny, really. Wow. Unclean thoughts, mate."
Ouch. "What if she was with… well, me?"
"What, you and… Ginny? Eww, Harry, that's like…."
"Hermione! Me and Hermione, Ron! What if Hermione and I… if I…. What if I was to love Hermione? Snogging-in-love and everything else? Could you… I mean would that be okay with you?"
It was out. Harry felt an enormous weight lift off his chest. He took a deep breath and realized that no matter what Ron said now, nothing could really change. He wanted his friends' approval, or at very least his acceptance, but if he wasn't dealing some kind of devastating blow to Ron's heart the rest of it didn't really matter. There was nothing Ron could say that would rock Harry's growing certainty that he was supposed to be finding Hermione this way.
"Do you?" Ron asked incredulously.
"Yeah."
"You sure?"
"Think so."
"Like how sure? Like how far have…"
"See, this is where the whole thing gets just a little strange for me. You're my best friend. She's your… extra sister? Are you really sure you want me to answer that question?"
"Well, yeah. Do I need to kick your arse or what?"
"No. No, you don't. Well, depends on your comfort level, I guess. But don't get me wrong, Ron, this is not going to be some kind of vicarious three-way or anything."
"That was just uncalled for."
"No it wasn't. It just means I, um, deliberately didn't want go anywhere I shouldn't until we had this conversation. Well, I wanted to, but I didn't. You're my best friend, Ron. If you told me you loved her… I don't know what the hell I'd do, because I don't know how I could close my eyes to this now that I finally feel like I'm figuring it all out, but trust me, it would be different somehow. I'm just not sure what else needs to be out there now, though. It's not like talking about kissing Cho or anything. This is Hermione. She's still going to be your friend, I'm still going to be your friend, but I think the whole two of us thing needs some time before I can talk about it with you. At least not without some kind of psychological damage to one or both of us. Not to mention hell to pay with her."
"See your point."
"Okay, then?"
"Okay. I guess. Wow. So here's a question. What'd she say when you told her?"
"The first time I kind of passed out so I'm not really sure how she took it. Must have broken her in to the idea, though, because the second time she only cried a little. Way less then Cho, so I figured I was finally getting something right. Actually, she made a joke about pulling a Cho and spoiling our first real kiss. I took that as an 'okay'."
"That was in the cave? With Malfoy?"
"The first time. Total mood killer. The second time was in the infirmary. Cut right off at the knees when Pomfrey and Dumbledore arrived. Finally getting somewhere at Hagrid's and Malfoy's Dad shows up… I thought maybe it was a sign I was supposed to talk to you first."
Ron laughed, "What, you think I've got an interuptus charm on you guys or something?"
"Ron, my life is so messed up I have to do something right. I really, really don't want to screw this up. I've been trying to write off how I felt about her for a good while now because I didn't want anyone to be a target, someone Voldemort could use to get to me. I feel like I have to make everything up as I go along, like I'm playing a game where everyone but me has seen the rules and already knows how to play."
Ron said nothing, but Harry could tell he sort of understood. "I just wanted to be able to tell her that it's okay with you. That nothing would change the way the three of us are."
"Go on, then. Tell her." Ron said.
Harry lifted his eyes from the safety of the stone in his hands and smiled at his best friend. He clambered to his feet and offered his functioning left hand to Ron. Ron grinned back and took it, noting vaguely that there was some serious muscle behind the heft up considering it was Harry's off side. Had to be a way to make something out of that on the Quidditch pitch…
"She's got you whipped already, hasn't she," he said.
"I told you I wasn't sharing that kind of stuff with you. Keep your kinky fantasies to yourself."
"Just don't let it mess up your game, or I will separate you 'til after the Quidditch finals. We're winning this year."
They set off for Hagrid's companionably side by side.
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>