Chapter 10: Misunderstanding
Hermione dropped the dishes with a satisfying crash into the sink. Leaning with her back against the counter, she covered her mouth and screamed as loudly as she could into her hands. She continued the yell until she ran out of breath, gasping for air as her head hung lazily, eyes toward the ground. Ever since she had realized who had saved Harry and her, she had not wanted to say a word to anybody.
As much as she told Harry that she wanted Ron back too, when she saw his face the feelings of sadness and anger returned back to her instantly. He had trampled over her heart, and no amount of saying that she was over it was going to make the pain of the past go away. She didn't want to be furious at him, but she could not get the image of her crying alone in her bed for several nights, wishing that he would come back and make everything better, out of her head.
It wasn't as if she wanted to get back with him; His choice to abandon them was enough to doom his chances of wooing her over. However, she knew that no amount of apologies would make up for a fraction of the suffering he had caused her.
Hermione fought back the sobs which attempted to escape from her. She was not going to shed another tear over the romantic prospects of her and Ron's relationship.
Taking several long, deep breaths, she managed to open her tired eyelids. She had to face the facts: Ron was back and (presumably) here to stay, and she would have to eventually tell him that she was done trying to have a relationship with him.
"Easier said than done, I'll probably strangle him before I ever utter a word to him," she thought to herself. Pulling up the sleeve of Ron's coat, which she was still wearing, Hermione glanced at her wristwatch. "Five more minutes to cool-down, then I'll have my chat with him…"
It wasn't for another fifteen minutes before Hermione maintained the self-control to move her feet. Taking off the jacket and placing it next to the sink, she marched her way back into the main room of the tent. Despite the extra time she had given her hostility to dissipate, she was only half-surprised when each of her footsteps made a forceful, angry echo against the hard floor of their home.
When she had stepped into the dining area and opened her mouth to call for Ron, she had just enough time to see his and Harry's backs swiftly exiting through the front door. Annoyed, she stomped her way towards their location, her desire to let Ron know exactly how she felt about his departure several weeks ago driving her aching legs. Whether that would be completed verbally or physically, she had yet to decide.
"I don't think you should go out there."
Hermione gasped and covered her heart, the surprise of the voice almost causing her to ready her wand. If she hadn't of known better, she would have been confused as to how an upside-down copy of the Daily Prophet had somehow managed to float on its own and speak to her. It was yet another moment where Luna had seemed to appear out of nowhere, her usual silent disposition making her seem more a part of the room than one of its inhabitants.
"Luna, sweet Merlin…"
The younger girl put down the copy of the newspaper, looking at Hermione with a slight frown. "I'm sorry I scared you Hermione, but I was just trying to say that it wouldn't be a good idea for you to go out there right now."
"And why not?" quarried Hermione as she slammed her hands into her hips, her tone much more strident than she had intended it to be. Luna didn't seem to notice her frustration, however. "I have every right to let Ron know just how much I've missed him too, don't I? Oh, I just want to hug him so bad right now, I can't wait until later. Harry can talk to him when I'm done, I just have a few choice things to say to him I swear, so I'm just going to go and tell him really quick…"
"Harry told me everything."
Hermione had slowly started inching to the door, still spewing her sarcastic list of reasons for wanting to talk to Ron, when Luna had completely caught her off-guard. She had absolutely no clue what the girl was talking about.
"What do you mean?" she asked timidly, pulling out the chair across from her and taking a seat, Ron's torture temporarily in the back of her mind.
Luna tilted her head. "You know…the stuff you guys have been up to lately."
Hermione rubbed her chin. What was she alluding to? What was there to tell Luna that she didn't already know about? It couldn't have been about the attack by the Horcrux, since she had witnessed more of it than both Harry and she had. Maybe she was thinking too narrowly…what had happened within the past few days that no one else but Harry knew? She couldn't think of anything that happened recently which Harry would want to divulge to anyone else beside herself. Now that she thought about it, there really wasn't anything that had happened since Ron left. The only thing that had occurred out of the ordinary was…
"The almost-kiss?! Did Harry tell Luna about our almost-kiss?!"
"Everything alright, Hermione? You're looking awfully pale."
Hermione suppressed the urge to rush through the entrance flap and demand the truth from Harry, choosing instead to act oblivious to the whole situation. "I'm fine, must be a side-effect of being possessed. Anyways, what did…umm…Harry tell you, ex…exactly?"
Luna didn't answer immediately, her expression making it seem like she was pulling a long lost memory from somewhere far in the back of her mind. "Well," she said, "from the sound of it I think he told me everything, starting from the beginning."
Hermione's heart dropped; apparently he had told her much more than just the most recent of their awkward moments. A brief vision of herself waking up with Harry's arm around her and his…other parts pushing into her back swarmed Hermione's head. She was suddenly filled with a confusion-driven rage.
"And why would he tell you all that?" demanded Hermione, not bothering to mask the anger and apprehension in her voice.
Rubbing her chin, Luna thought hard about how to answer Hermione's question. "I suppose he felt that since I'm here now, I should know everything that happened…to prevent any awkwardness, I guess. I don't think he knew you would mind so much, or else he wouldn't have told me."
"I can't see how he wouldn't think I would be furious!" snapped Hermione, which made Luna jump backwards a bit, the squeak of her chair piercing the calm of the room. "I mean, it's a private matter! Who gave him the right to just spew off the happenings of the past few weeks, especially since it's such sensitive information…"
"From what I could gather, it wasn't just about the past couple of days. He told me tons more. Harry seemed to think that this has been building up since your guys' first year, but he said it really started to sink in two years ago…"
"WHAT?!" Hermione exclaimed, her jaw dropping as her anger continued to swell. "What the bloody hell does he mean by 'building since first year'?" she asked herself, utterly confused by the enormity of what Luna had said. Was she possibly saying that Harry had admitted to her that he had some sort of feelings towards…no, that wasn't a possibility. This was getting out of hand. She had been angry that Harry was telling Luna about all the intimate moments they had shared over the past several days, a part of her heart telling her that he had probably laughed off their close encounters despite the fact that she cherished every one of them, no matter the amount of odd feelings they had spawned within her. But now, knowing that he was telling Luna secrets that even she did not know about…secrets about her, even…this pushed it over the top. Harry's name was quickly climbing to the top of Hermione's hex-to-death list.
Hermione closed her eyes and took two deep, wavering breaths in hopes that her fury would no longer be wasted on Luna and instead directed toward her best friend. "Well Luna, I've enjoyed our chat, but I think that I really…I mean really have to talk to Harry right now, so I'll just be going…"
Luna panicked. She had angered Hermione somehow, and she put it on herself to correct the mistake before Hermione resorted to violent measures. "Uhh…Hermione, don't go out there!" The outburst seemed to work. The bushy haired girl turned on her heels and glared at her. "I just wanted to say," started Luna, hoping that her voice was calm enough to distract Hermione, "you shouldn't be so furious at Harry. I mean, Ronald had just as much to say on the subject as Harry…"
Apparently that had been the wrong thing to say. Hermione sprinted back to the table and slammed both her hands onto it, leaning across so that her face was mere inches away from Luna's. The younger girl smiled nervously, hoping that she hadn't given Hermione another reason to smite Ron.
"Are…you…telling…me…that Ron knows EVERYTHING?!" Hermione screamed, the words making Luna cringe in fear.
"Umm…from the way he was talking it seemed like he knew everything, yes…they both explained the whole thing to me…" said Luna, her back completely straight as if one wrong movement would trigger Hermione to go off again.
Hermione pushed off the table and slammed herself into the chair behind her, her arms crossed tightly. Of all people to tell, why would Harry tell Ron, the person she least wanted to know about her sudden closeness to Harry? She never hated him so much in her life. She never hated both of them so much in her life. They had both officially betrayed her…after all she did for them!
There was a long moment of quiet as Hermione sat in her chair brooding, Luna sitting across the table from her changing her stare between her and the entrance flap, hoping that Harry and Ron would come back soon and fix the mess she had created.
"So," Hermione said, a wicked sarcasm in her voice, "Harry told Ron…Oh, he is going to get it…"
"If it means anything," Luna interjected, "I think Ronald knew everything already. I was in the room the whole time; they really had no time to talk in private. I guess he has been making his own observations the last couple of years and connected the dots. But he seemed to really know the details, like he has been here the whole time."
To Luna's surprise, Hermione shot up into a standing position, the movement causing her chair to fall over. She paced around the room, her eyes glazed over as her mind raced. Luna had seen her like this before during DA meetings, whenever somebody had asked her a question which did not have a simple answer. She was half-expecting Hermione to suddenly sprint off to the library, returning with a thick book and a long explanation about some previously unsolved mystery.
Hermione suddenly stopped her patrol of the room, looking intensely at Luna. "You said that Ron seemed to know everything that had occurred, and Harry hadn't told him a word?" The younger girl meekly nodded back at her. "Alright, then…"
She suddenly took out her wand, which made Luna draw out her wand too instinctively. However, Hermione did not aim it at her, or even at the door. Rather, she started moving around the outer edge of the tent with her wand pointed at various objects, a flurry of Latin escaping her mouth in a constant stream. The tip was glowing dark green, leaving in its wake what looked like a floating, glowing snake.
Luna watched on, confused. "Umm…Hermione, you need help?"
Hermione didn't even bother to turn to Luna, her mind completely encased in the frying pan she was now examining intensely. "Well, you said that Ron knew everything, so then he must have been listening in on us while he was gone! That mistrusting prat, probably left some sort of hearing charm on an object so he could wait until we had done all the grunt work and he could come waltzing in coincidentally when he knew we were moving along." Hermione was now in the process of poking the chair Luna was sitting on with the tip of her wand. "I mean he has the nerve to leave us, but then to spy on us too? That prat…"
Luna watched as Hermione continued her investigation. She had abandoned her wand, choosing instead to just pick up the various items and put them firmly against her ear, almost as if the inanimate object would whisper to her that it had been eavesdropping on her and Harry.
"Umm…Hermione?" said Luna. She had just picked up the broken locket and was scrutinizing the various pieces of it when Luna had called to her, the chain of the necklace still hanging from her index finger inches in front of her nose. "Do you think it's safe to be touching that thing? I mean, it did used to have a piece of You-Know-Who's soul inside of it, so can't it still be dangerous?"
Hermione paused and softly let the destroyed artifact fall to the table. Luna's comment had caught her completely off-guard. "Y…you know what a Horcrux is?"
"Yes," Luna stated, finally able to relax a bit as Hermione's rage seemed to have been replaced, at least temporarily, with curiosity.
"But…but how? All the books in the library at Hogwarts had no information about Horcruxes…" stammered Hermione, a little scared that Luna knew so much about Voldemort's insurance plan.
"I didn't learn it from a book. Harry and Ron told me," said Luna as Hermione retook her seat across from her. She looked at Hermione with a raised eyebrow. It was her turn to be confused. "What did you think they were telling me about?"
Hermione didn't answer at first, but Luna noticed that she was shaking her head wildly and blushing. A few seconds later, the silence was filled with a boisterous laugh from Hermione. Apparently, something had been ridiculously funny about the situation, although Luna once again had no idea what it was. "These three and their inside jokes…they are so odd sometimes!" thought Luna, starting to slowly laugh along with Hermione in hopes that it would make moment a bit less awkward.
"Oi, what's so funny?"
The girls had been too encompassed in laughter to notice that two other people had entered the room. Hermione heard the sounds of boots rubbing against the ground in an attempting to rid themselves of snow. She had been ridiculous to think that Harry would reveal their awkward moments to anyone. When Luna had told her that they had only been explaining their quest, her heart started to beat again. She berated herself for ever distrusting him. For what would probably be the only time in her life, she was grateful towards Voldemort's Horcruxes.
Besides, the notion that Harry harbored more than just friendly feelings toward her since they had first met should have been more than enough to tell her that the boys had not been talking about their relationship to Luna.
"Oh, just a hilarious misunderstan…ding," her voice trailed off as her eyes locked with the man who had broken their privacy. She had been so enthralled in her euphoria that she had forgotten all about Ron. Instantly her expression turned to stone, which caused Ron to shoot a pleading glance at Harry. "And why would you care what was happening in here, Ron? You didn't seem to care much a few weeks ago…"
Ron opened his mouth to respond, but it quickly closed. He bent his head down in shame, which gave Hermione a sickening sense of pride. No matter how much she missed him when he was gone she was not going to instantly forgive him for the horrendous pain he had caused her. She was steadfast in her vindictiveness.
Harry ran a hand through his hair. This was going to be tricky. Knowing that he had to do something to break the ice, he poked Ron in the side. The red-head turned, a questioning look upon his face. Harry tilted his head, jerking it in the direction of Hermione in hopes that Ron would get the message that he had to do something about the situation. Thankfully, he did.
"Hermione, can I talk to you? In…in private?" Ron managed to mutter after a long breath. There was a long moment where the silent tension seemed to suck the air out of the room. Harry crossed his fingers, hoping that she would take the offer rather than prolong her vendetta against Ron.
Hermione's eyes shot around the room and she considered Ron's suggestion. Luna head was moving swiftly between Ron and her, her long blonde hair swaying like a tail in the air. Her eyes locked with Harry's. Noticing that he had gotten her attention, he put his hands together and beckoned her to accept the chance to clear the air.
Regretfully, Hermione pushed her chair back and stood up. "Alright, Ronald," she said bitterly, curtseying toward him mockingly, "let's go have a nice little chat, shall we?"
Ron gulped, turning around as fast as he could and escaping through the front entrance. Hermione took brisk steps toward where Ron had been standing, but she was intercepted halfway when Harry suddenly grabbed her arm. He spun her so that she was looking directly at him, both his hands holding her in her spot.
Hermione looked at him in concern, scanning his face for any sign of distress. "What is it, Harry?" she said, scared that something horrible had happened.
"Hermione, I know you don't want to hear this, but please listen to Ron. He is sincerely sorry, but you just have to hear what he has to say."
Her eyes rolled. "Why should I? This is all his fault," she whispered to him angrily, hoping that Luna was not listening in on their conversation.
"I'm not denying that," replied Harry sympathetically. "But just give him a chance. You said it yourself, we can use all the help we can get, and despite what he did he did come back and save our lives. Don't forget that."
Hermione sighed. As much as she wanted to deny it, she knew that he was right. "He hurt me really horribly, you know? I can't just forgive him…"
"I understand Hermione, I really do," said Harry, giving her what he hoped was a consoling squeeze. "And you know if he tries anything like that again I'll be the first to jinx him."
Hermione smiled at Harry's threat. A part of her knew that Harry would never hurt Ron, but the fact that he had said it anyway made her so grateful to have him in her life.
"Promise me you'll listen to him," said Harry calmly.
"Alright, I promise I'll listen to him."
He kissed her on the cheek and let her go (Luna, who had been watching the whole time, grinned before picking up the Prophet once again). He watched as she slowly made her way toward the cold outside.
He was surprised when Hermione suddenly turned around and came back to him. She stood face to face with him, and he would have given her a hug for reassurance if her expression had not been radically changed.
"What is it, Hermione?" asked Harry, confusion and concern mingling on his face.
"I forgot to give you something."
Harry was about to ask her what it was when all thoughts suddenly left his head as Hermione's fist came crashing into his stomach with full force, knocking the wind out of him.
"Bloody hell Hermione, what was that for?!" Harry bellowed, gasping for air.
"That's for making me think that you told Ron and Luna about all our awkward moments the past couple of days!" whispered Hermione matter-of-factly, kissing Harry's forehead before moving back towards the tent exit. He was still grasping his ribs with a confused look plastered on his face when she had reached the flap, the cold winter wind already causing her to shiver.
"Hey!" he called weakly to her as an afterthought, "Promise me you won't kill him either. Alright? Hermione, did you hear me? Hermione?" He was perfectly sure that she had heard his plea, but she had chosen to ignore it. As a matter of fact, as she stepped out of the tent, he could swear that he saw a clutter of yellow feathers escaping from her wand as she disappeared behind the canvas.
Harry sighed, walking out of the foyer and sitting down across from Luna in the spot Hermione had just left. She put down the newspaper once again and greeted Harry with a smile.
"Any idea what that was about?" Harry asked Luna, using his damp gloves as makeshift icepacks for the soreness in his chest.
Luna simply shrugged. "How was your talk with Ronald?" asked Luna innocently.
"It was…good, I guess," he replied, not really knowing how to answer the question.
"If it means anything to you Harry, he really is sorry about what he did."
Harry took off his scarf and jacket before looking back at Luna. "Yeah, I believe you Luna."
"When I first joined up with him after …well, he would talk a lot about you two. How he left you, how you wouldn't take him back if he tried. That night we heard Hermione's voice coming from his light thingy, he wasn't sure whether he wanted to go find you guys. I had to do quite a bit of convincing in order for him to finally leave that cave."
Harry smiled at her, reaching over and grabbing her hand. "Well, thank you for that. We wouldn't be able to do this without him, as much as a big of a help as Hermione is. But I also want to thank you again; you really are a powerful ally to have along with us."
She let out an embarrassed giggle as she let go of Harry's hand. "Daddy said that I was destined to leave my mark in history, so I guess this is what he was talking about. I guess someone else will have to find where the Nargles migrate to every other summer to breed."
Harry laughed, Luna's lightheartedness distracting him from the potential bloodshed which might be occurring right outside their home. They both sat in silence, the only sound in the tent coming in the form of muffled words from outside the tent.
"Hermione…calm down…"
"Calm down? CALM DOWN?! Are you serious?"
"I said I was sorry, now if you would just keep your voice down a bit…ooph!"
"Ron…Weasley…you…are…a…complete…arse!"
Harry and Luna sat frozen as the barely audible shrieks of birds started to crescendo, the noise making it seem like they had just found fresh prey.
"Ow ow ow! Get 'em off me! Hermi…ow!"
Harry quickly stood up, trying to get the noises out of his head. "Err…care for some tea, Luna?
"No thanks, I'm…"
"Protego!"
Luna's response was cut off as a small explosion came from outside, followed shortly after by the smell of burning hair.
"Merlin Hermione, that could've killed me! Are you mental?"
"I don't think you're in any position to be calling me mental right now, Ron Weasley!"
Luna and Harry were frozen, eyes glued to the door. "Er…tea sounds nice, I think," she replied, answering Harry's long forgotten offer.
"Yeah, um…I'm just going to make some tea then," Harry shouted over the growing ambient noise, walking towards the kitchen.
He shook his head as soon as he disappeared from the doorway. As the water sat boiling on the stove, he reached into the nearby cupboard to make sure they still had bandages and rubbing alcohol. It was going to be a long night. A very long night.
A/N: Sorry for the slow update, this chapter had been done for awhile but my beta was busy and I had to take A TON of time packing for college (oh noez, first year!). Alright, so I'll admit that pretty much no plot progression happened in this chapter, but it was another case of "I'll start and see where it goes." Yes, I originally said that this chapter was in three parts, but apparently the characters wanted it to go on a bit longer (hence why the word count is slightly lower on these chapters compared to my "stand-alone" chapters). And yes, maybe Paranoid!Hermione was a bit over-the-top, but hey, you guys got some moments in here to tide you over until I'm done with this section of the story. So there will be at least one more chapter of this arc after this, maybe more. TY for the awesome reviews as always! You guys are the best.