Chapter Nine
Revelations
Author's Note: Thank you so much for all those reviews! You guys don't know how nice it is to read them! I know a lot of this story so far has been sulking and sobbing on Hermione's part, but I promise it will get very good soon! Hope you like chapter nine!
I'm laying on the couch, still waiting for Robbie and Ron.
I feel sick and cold and I just want to curl up and hide. I pull a spare blanket that's lying on an armchair, up to my chin.
There's a small hurt that's setting a sinking feeling in my chest and I can't even try to smile. He's going to marry Natalie, she wasn't a band-aid. Everything everyone said to me is a load of rubbish.
My head is stuffy and it hurts, my eyes are swollen and itchy and I feel as if I might throw up.
The door bursts open and in struts Robbie, "What happened? Why are you crying? Where is he? When did he run? Can I punch him?!"
I look up at him miserably and shake my head.
"Aw cookie!" he trills, coming over to the couch. "Schooch," he pushes my legs over and sits next to me. "What happened?"
"Oh Robbie I was so stupid-"
"No, stop right there!" he says, sticking his index finger out spaztically. "I will not have the brilliant Hermione Granger calling herself stupid!"
I sink into the couch more and let out a squeaky sob and at the same time my phone rings, "Hello?" Robbie answers it for me and I stare at him. "Oh you're Brawn- Ron! Come on up." And he hangs up.
I stare at him.
"What?"
"Why did you just answer my phone?" I ask.
"It rang."
Of course.
I shake my head and stare at him, "Only you Rob."
Ron comes in a few seconds later and sits on the coffee table in front of me.
"What happened?" he demands.
So I proceed to tell them all about Diagon Alley, about the hat and the cameras and reporters, I tell them about how Harry saved me then abandoned me and by the end of the story their mouths are hanging open.
There's a sick happiness I'm feeling at the fact that they're shocked and angry. But I can't relish in this feeling, I was stupid for even going, stupid for even expecting Harry to stay with me when Natalie came. I've been stupid from the beginning, haven't I? From the day I ran away from Harry to this very moment I've been an idiot. An absolute bloody idiot.
"Oh no he didn't!" Robbie shakes his finger.
"Harry? Harry did that?" I nod. "What's wrong with that arse!?"
I shake my head.
Ron looks as if he's in disbelief, "Why would Harry do that?"
"Because he loves Natalie, she comes first," I sigh.
Ron shakes his head, "No, I know that's not true."
"Yeah really, why would he like that little bitch with her nasty split ended, fake 'blonde' hair! And her little glued on nails," Robbie looks at us and we stare at him. "What? I've met her."
"The problem at hand is proving to Harry that he's in love Hermione-"
"Oh just forget it Ron!" I stand up, walking over to the window. "He doesn't love me!"
Robbie shakes his head, asking Ron, "Is she being stupid because you're here?"
Ron walks over to me, standing at the window as well, "Hermione, you didn't see him that day, the day that I asked him if he still loved you," he pauses. "He still loves you, I know he does, if I know anyone I know Harry. When he lies to me I just know, he was lying to me that day Hermione, he still has feelings for you."
I reluctantly look back up at him, a tear glides silently down my face, "Ron, what don't you get? The part where he left me in the closet of a store I didn't even know in Diagon Alley with a million reports outside who hate me! Or the part where he's getting married to another woman?"
"Actually I wasn't too clear on the part with the article," Robbie says from the couch, examining his nails.
I stare at him.
He looks up due to the silence and asks, "Oh, was that a rhetorical question?"
Ron looks at Robbie, "You're gay aren't you?"
"Thanks for noticing!" Robbie replies, genuinely happy.
He walks over to the couch and asks, "What do you think she should do about this?"
"She should tell him."
Ron looks at me, "She should."
"I should?" I ask.
Robbie claps his hands, "She agrees!"
"No I don't!" I say quickly.
He sighs dramatically, "Hermione you have to!"
"Why?!" I demand. "So I can have my heart broken again?"
Ron looks as if he's thinking deeply. Maybe this whole little get together wasn't such a good idea, I think the three ring circus is giving me a headache.
We have the gay, thespian in one ring, the all-of-a-sudden-philosophical Ronald Weasley in the other ring, and the teary eyed, bushy haired, loser.
Well, this is a drama series waiting to happen.
I think I would have been better off crying on the couch.... By myself.
"Hermione," Ron says. "Why do you think Harry doesn't love you?"
I sigh, now we're going in circles?
"If he loved me he would tell me, he wouldn't be marrying Natalie, and he wouldn't have left me in the blasted closet!" I screech.
"You love him don't you?"
I stare at him, "Are you daf-"
"You love him don't you?!"
"Yes I love him! I love him 'like the day is long', I haven't loved anyone this much since.... ever! I want to grow old with the man! I want everything Natalie could have with him and then some! What do you want me to say Ron?!"
There's silence.
Then, "That was beautiful, Lifetime material," Robbie brushes away invisible tears.
"You love him," Ron begins.
"Come off it, we-"
"You love him, and you won't tell him. What makes you think that he isn't in love with you but just too scared too tell you?" he stares intensely at me and I'm overwhelmed with emotion. "Maybe he thinks you don't love him, after all you are going out with Queer Eye over here."
"Hey!"
I stare at him, taking in his words. I shake my head, "You don't leave the person you love in a closet at a time like that."
"Okay so his head was stuck up his-"
RING -Pause- RING -Pause-
The ring is shrill and my headache worsens. I don't make any move toward the phone.
RING -Pause- RING -Pause-
"Are you gonna answer it?" Robbie asks.
I shrug, wondering why he didn't just answer it like last time.
RING -Pause- RING -PAUSE-
"Might as well let the machine get it."
RING -Pause- RING -Pause-
Ron looks at the caller I.D. and looks up, saying monotonously, "It's Harry."
I lunge at the phone and hit the speaker phone button and say, slightly out of breath, "Hello?"
The fact that he's even calling does NOT make up for the abandonment issues!
But as I answer the phone this feeling of anger and resentment bubbles inside me. Even if he doesn't love me he didn't have to leave me there by myself. And maybe he doesn't love me, he still seemed mad that I was going out with Robbie, so I might as well use that against him.
"Hermione? Did I interrupt something?" he asks awkwardly.
"Oh, no Robbie's just over."
Ron and Robbie both snicker silently.
"Oh," he pauses. "Should I call back later?"
"No, no it's fine."
"Okay," there's silence. "Hermione about today-"
"What about today?" I ask bitterly.
He pauses as if he knows what he's done wrong and has to fess up, "I'm sorry that I just left like that."
"Yeah."
I'm overcome with anger and sadness and love and fatigue. I'm sick of this, all of it. Nothing I've tried has worked. I can't get him to break up with her due to jealousy, I can't manipulate them, I can't break them up, and I can't just try to get over him. Maybe for once in my life I should face my fears head on. What else is left?
"It's just Natalie-"
I cut him off, "Yeah, Natalie- Harry we need to talk."
"About today?"
"Yes."
"Uh-Okay shoot."
"No I mean in person."
"O-Okay," he replies. "But what about Robbie."
I roll my eyes, "Don't worry about him."
"Okay I'll pick you up then?"
"Good, see you," and I hang up the phone.