The Road Less Traveled

The Road Less Traveled

"Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both"

People always say you can´t have it both ways. How true that is.

A part of me always knew it was a mistake becoming best friends with two boys. In that situation, I was bound to end up with one of them. It´s a natural fact. In all stories, a girl ends up falling for her best friend. The trouble was, I had two of them. I would end up choosing between Harry and Ron.

"And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth"

I don´t think anyone understands what the consequences of a choice like that would be. As we grew older people started watching me, waiting for me to make my choice. Who would it be? Who would claim fair Hermione Granger´s heart? I hated those stares.

I don´t think I´ll ever be able to pinpoint the moment when my heart made its choice. It seemed as though it was choosing for years. In the beginning, perhaps I was leaning toward Harry. He was the hero, after all, and I certainly admired him. I loved him, too, but not in the way I ought to if we were to have a relationship. Harry was...well, Harry. There was no room in his life for Hermione Granger, the woman. As a friend he needed me desperately, and often people mistook that need for love. I knew better. I soon decided that I was not in love with Harry Potter.

"Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear"

That left Ron. Poor Ron, he was always the leftovers.

I spent many years exploring my other options. I didn´t want to limit my happiness, but then I realized that I wasn´t happy without him. I needed him.

Everyone always thought that if it hadn´t been for Harry, we would never have been friends. Perhaps Harry had been the catalyst in our friendship, but we never needed him to make it grow. And perhaps without Harry we would not have spent so much time together. He was the glue that held us together, but once the glue dries, the pieces are forever held together.

No one ever acknowledged Ron for what he was. Oh, sure, he was stubborn (no less than I), lazy at times, jealous, and had a temper the size of England, but those were only minor faults. No one ever gave him credit for his bravery, his intelligence, his strategic mind, his intuitiveness, or his friendship. Harry wasn´t my only friend, and sometimes Ron understood me better.

So what if we rowed? All friends do, or should. Ron was never one to keep his feelings bottled up inside. I loved that about him. In fact, I loved a lot of things about him.

"Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black."

Harry was brave because he didn´t have a choice. He was the Boy Who Lived and people depended on his strength. Ron was brave because Harry and I needed him to be. He chose his strength for us. And he never let us down. I often wonder if Harry could have survived without Ron.

He was so much more than a sidekick.

Everyone dismissed Ron at first glance and I hated that. He deserved to be recognized for his accomplishments, not his faults.

"Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back."

I remember the day it finally dawned on me that while I wasn´t paying attention my heart had chosen Ron. It was the day that I realized that no matter how much we fought, no matter how much he loved to bait me, how much he got on my nerves, no matter how he infuriated me with his big mouth--he always had my best interests at heart.

From the day he saved me from the troll, to the slugs he spewed to protect my honor, to when he actually offered to spend voluntary time in the library to help me, to when he stood up to Snape to defend me, Ron Weasley had been my knight in shining armor. Sure, he didn´t always act like a knight, but he always cared about me.

I never really saw it until our fifth year. Suddenly it just dawned on me. Of course, I had been rather preoccupied the past year with the words, "Neville´s right--you are a girl!" running through my head. But I realized that Ron´s jealousy of Viktor was simply a form of his complete obtuseness. He really could be so dense.

"I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:"

In our sixth year, at breakfast one morning, I caught him staring at me. Harry had gone off for an early Quidditch practice and it was just the two of us. I had come to cherish the quiet breakfasts we shared those mornings. Ron would read the paper and I´d read a book. We didn´t need words.

But that morning he wasn´t reading the Daily Prophet, he was watching me. I looked up and met his gaze. Thinking that he was perhaps hungry, I offered him some toast.

"No thanks, Hermione," he replied in a somewhat subdued tone. Since this was quite unusual for Ron, I was concerned. Not only was he not hungry, but he seemed morbidly calm, if there is such a thing.

"Are you all right, Ron?" I asked, taking a bite of my sausage.

"I´m fine," he replied, but he didn´t sound fine. "I was up late last night."

I raised an eyebrow. "Doing what? Certainly not homework!"

He laughed. "No. A special project, you might say. Where´s Harry?" he asked suddenly as if just noticing our best friend was missing.

I gaped. "Quidditch practice, Ron, don´t you remember. Are you sure you´re all right?" He did look rather exhausted.

"Right, yeah, sure, I´m fine." He didn´t even look like he had convinced himself. In fact, he looked...

"Ron, are you nervous about something?"

He jumped slightly. "No." He smiled warmly. "Eat your eggs."

I obeyed with a small smile. I had just put a forkful in my mouth and was in the process of chewing when Ron grew impatient and started tapping his fingers. I stole a small glance at him; he was chewing on his bottom lip, something he only did when he was really agitated. And he was running the fingers of the hand that weren´t tapping on the table through his red hair. Something must really be bothering him.

I swallowed. "All right, out with it. What´s the matter?"

He avoided my eyes. "It´s, uh, personal. Something I can´t discuss with you."

"Oh?" I replied, my temper rising. Ron was not the only one with a temper the size of England. "And why not? And don´t you dare say it´s because I´m a girl, Ronald Weasley! I know it took you a long time to notice it but you don´t have to keep throwing it in my face!"

In the past year Harry and Ron had been having more and more `boys only´ discussions and I was getting tired of being left out.

He looked like he was trying not to smile. "All right then, it´s about a girl."

"Oh." My heart dropped and my expression must have too. Ron gave me a look that said, `I told you you wouldn´t want to know.´

"And do you like this girl?" I asked, willing my voice to come down off the ceiling.

Ron looked like he was being strangled. "Oh, yes, most certainly," he choked out.

"Well then just tell her how you feel," I said rather huffily. Urgh, what a horrible conversation. Why had I ever started it?

"Okay," he replied, a bit uncertainly.

I took another bite of eggs, then had some toast and took a big sip of pumpkin juice.

"Hermione, I like you."

I spit it all out. Ron was staring at me nervously and I was suddenly aware of the silence that had descended on the Great Hall. Everyone seemed to be staring at me. I didn´t know what to say.

"Thank you." A moment later I added, "I like you too."

And a second after that I said, "You have a bit of dirt on your nose."

And that bit of impaired judgement aside, I have never regretted my choice. Harry and I were never suited to one another despite what others might think. Harry needed a loyal network of support. I was only one of many. But Ron needed me, no matter how much he hated to admit it. I gave his life structure, and I needed him to be my knight. He was always there for me.

"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.