I'll Always Be There for You...

I'll always be there for you...

Chapter 2

The rest of the week went by quickly for Hermione, who had plenty of tasks to keep her busy. On Friday, the day before the wedding, Ginny was having a small party for some friends in celebration of her marriage.

Hermione had to organize this as well, and wasn't in the mood to party by the time party time rolled around. She was tired and stressed about everything working out for the wedding.

"Oh come on, Hermione," said Ginny over lunch on Friday. "You have to come! I can't have my party without my best friend being there."

Hermione, who had gone to bed at two in the morning the nigh before and was resting her head on the table, looked up and said, "Why not? I'm going to sleep at the party anyways."

"I think you need some rest," said Mrs. Weasley, setting a plate of food down in front of her. "You've worked so hard."

"I would not mind your company, eezer," said Fleur, feeding Alaina. Fleur was staying home with Mrs. Weasley, but Anca was coming with them.

"Mum, Fleur!" said Ginny. "I'm trying to make her go out and have some fun, not stay at home and be a drip. Besides, Ron's not going to be here either. He'll be gone with the guys to their party. So there's no point in staying home!"

"Did someone say my name?" said Ron, coming in.

Still resting her head on the table, Hermione said, "Hello Ron."

"I'm just trying to make Hermione come to the party," said Ginny. "She refuses to."

"Of course she'll come," said Ron. "But I need to speak to her for a bit, if that's ok?"

Percy, who had arrived that morning from work, looked up, along with Fleur, Mrs. Weasley, Bill, Charlie, and Ginny.

Hermione gave him a weird look but got up, slowly but surely. She followed him outside to the garden, where a tablecloth spread on the table with an assortment of food.

"Ron!" she said, smiling when she saw all this. "What's all this?"

Ron just took her hand and led her to a chair. He pulled out the chair and Hermione sat down, baffled but pleased all the same.

"I figure we should eat first and then we'll talk," he said, taking a seat himself.

Hermione almost started to laugh when she saw all the gourmet fare. It was all neatly arranged and looked delicious. It was so unlike Ron to do this, but it was sweet as well.

She helped herself to some food and began eating. Ron talked to her while they ate. He spoke about the wedding and about going back to work next week, but Hermione couldn't make her mind focus. She hoped he was going to ask her the question, but she didn't want to get her hopes up high.

After they had eaten, Ron leaned back in his chair and said, "Now for my question."

Hermione waited with baited breath. Maybe, maybe, maybe!

"Hermione...would you like some dessert?" Ron asked.

She slumped back in her chair, with her shoulders drooping. She tried to keep her voice steady and tried not to cry. "Um...sure."

Ron cut a piece of cake and put a slice in her plate.

"This is the best cake ever, Hermione," he said. "It's Mum's secret recipe."

Hermione nodded, trying to keep her eyes on the cake so that he wouldn't be able to see the tears forming in her eyes. How could she have been so stupid to think that Ron would propose to her? They were dating, yes, but he probably didn't even think about marriage.

She put a bite in her mouth, not even feeling the creamy texture. She ate the slice quickly, wanting to leave as fast as she could. Ron kept talking to her, and Hermione just nodded or shook her head.

She finally finished the cake, but there were the flowers that were the decoration on top. Hermione hated the frosting flowers because they usually made her sick, but since Ron had had the cake made for her, she decided to eat it.

She put her fork in the cake and felt something hard. She looked down at her fork and found a ring to be embedded into the flowers.

Hermione screamed when she saw it. It was an amethyst ring with a silver band and a cluster of diamonds around the stone.

She looked up to see Ron, but he wasn't there anymore. He had come around the table to her side and had taken the ring from her hand.

He was grinning while Hermione was crying tears of joy.

He got down on his knee and took her hand. "Hermione, will you marry me?"

Smiling, through her tears, she said, "Yes!" He put the ring on her finger and then kissed her.

She kissed him back and then there was clapping and cheering. They broke apart and saw the whole Weasley family plus Anca and Fleur standing on the steps, cheering them on.

Ron and Hermione just laughed when Ginny said, "Took you long enough!"

"Everyone knew?" asked Hermione.

"Well not everyone," said Ron, with a hint of red on his cheeks. "Mum knew of course, she helped me with the cake and so did Bill, but for everyone else it was a surprise."

"Aw, that was so sweet," said Hermione, as they walked inside the house hand in hand. "You had me fooled."

He grinned. "That was the plan."

The rest of the afternoon was spent in relaxation before the 'big day' tomorrow. Everyone looked at Hermione's ring and praised it.

"You should've proposed before, Ron!" said Mrs. Weasley. "Then we could've had a double wedding."

Ron just shrugged, his eyes glued to Hermione.

Looking from her brother to Hermione, Ginny said, "You don't look sleepy to me anymore. You comin' to the party now?"

Hermione nodded absently. She was feeling the opposite of sleepy. She felt more alive than ever.

At six o'clock Ron, Bill, Charlie and Percy (much to his annoyance) left for their own party.

Later on, at seven, the three girls made their way upstairs to the bedroom Ginny shared with Hermione.

Ginny looked at her bedroom. "I'm going to miss it here. You know, even though I keep saying I can't wait to get out of here, I'm still sad about leaving. This is where I grew up and where memories of Fred, George and Dad are."

Anca patted her. "It'll be all right, Ginny. Your mum's going to miss you as well though. She keeps crying all the time."

"Oh," said Ginny sitting down on her bed. "I'm going to miss everyone so much, especially you guys. But most of all mum. Do you know what she's done for us since dad's died?"

Hermione nodded and sat beside Ginny. "Come on, Gin. Don't get all depressed now. That's for tomorrow."

Ginny laughed through her shining eyes. "Your right."

"For now- it's time to party!" said Anca.

Ginny and Hermione laughed. "Couldn't have said it better myself," said Ginny, getting up. "We better get dressed though."

So for the next half hour, the three girls got dressed for their party. The truth was that they were going out clubbing before Ginny got married.

Ever since Hermione had agreed to come to the party, Ginny and Anca had said that they would help her get ready, as her style was too conservative. Hermione felt a little bit hurt by this, and told them that she could dress herself.

It took a lot of fuss and a lot of hair gel to get Hermione ready. She didn't want Anca and Ginny to get her ready but they insisted that they help her.

Hermione stared at herself in the mirror a half an hour later. She sighed and then turned to Anca and Ginny.

"Is this necessary?" she asked.

"Yes!" they both said.

Hermione was wearing a navel bearing, silver halter-top and a pair of dark denim jeans with silver stars and hearts. The halter-top dipped low to show more than Hermione would have liked, but Ginny told her it was in...whatever that meant. She also wore a pair of glitzy silver stilettos.

Her long hair was tied in a ponytail that Ginny had straightened with her wand. Her eyelids were covered with sparkly silver eye shadow and her eyes were lined with smoky kohl. She didn't like the way she looked. She felt uncomfortable, like she was naked. It was not her style to wear clothes that were so tight and revealing.

Anca was wearing leather pants and a glitzy tube top, which she wore under a jacket. Her long black hair was curled with red highlights in it.

Ginny wore a dark blue lacy tank with a mini skirt. Her shoulder length fire engine hair was done up in little braids.

When they were done, Ginny had made plans for a diversion to distract her mother and Fleur, as they were wearing such... different clothes. She put a spell on Alaina that made her cry so much that Mrs. Weasley and Fleur ran to her, to see what was wrong.

"Bye mum, we're going!" called Ginny over her shoulder as they ran out the door.

Mrs. Weasley called back, "Be back by one!"

They snickered as they ran outside into the cool night. Hermione felt wicked tonight, but hoped to have some good, clean fun.

Ginny had said that Wizard clubs stunk, so they were going to head to a Muggle club to meet the rest of the crew. The rest of the crew was Luna, Parvati, Padma, Lavender and a bunch of Ginny's friends from her year.

They Apparated to the club and met the rest of the girls there. The party started quickly as everyone began to dance and eat.

The music was so loud that Hermione didn't really get to talk to anyone. Everyone drank and danced, but Hermione refused both. She felt that she wasn't a very good dancer and was a bit embarrassed. As for the non-drinking, the reason was simple. It was stupid and could get her into trouble. There was also that stupid Wizard saying that the Muggles had stolen and changed. Don't drink and Apparate was the same as don't drink and drive.

One o'clock finally rolled around and everyone began Apparating home after much grumbling. Hermione was glad though that the party was ending. She was really tired and knew she had a big day ahead. After all, she was the main coordinator of the whole wedding.

Since Ginny had gotten herself mildly drunk, Anca and Hermione had to Apparate her home. They got home at around quarter after one and snuck Ginny in quietly.

As they put Ginny to bed, Hermione saw that she had lost her watch. She believed that when they were sneaking Ginny in, it had fell. She didn't want to take any chances in calling Accio in case it was back at the club and came soaring across the countryside.

So she went outside quietly to look for it. She was looking through the bushes when she heard someone creep up behind her. She turned around and saw Ron there. She almost screamed, but for the second time in a few days, stopped herself.

"Ron!" she breathed. "You nearly gave me a scare. What are you doing?"

He shrugged. "We just got back and I was just sitting outside. I didn't feel like sleeping."

"Oh," said Hermione, as she found her watch. "I was just looking for my watch."

"Do you want to go for a walk?" he asked her.

"Now?" she said. "Ron, it's one thirty. We have a big day tomorrow."

"I know," he said. "But I can't sleep so I figured we could just take a walk."

Yawning, Hermione said, "All right."

So he took her hand and they started walking around the gardens.

"You look really sexy today," he said to her.

"Excuse me?" said Hermione. "Are you feeling okay? Since when do you call me sexy?"

"All the time," he said putting his arm around her waist.

"Ron, are you okay?" she asked him. She would have thought he was drunk, except that he looked pretty normal and his eyes weren't glazed over like Ginny's had been.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he said, annoyance flashing in his eyes. "Can't I compliment you?"

"Of course you can," said Hermione, feeling bad for doubting him. "You've never said that before, that's all."

"There's a lot more where that came from," he said, pulling her closer to him so that their bodies were pressed together. He put his mouth on top of hers and slid his tongue into her mouth.

Hermione panicked. She didn't like this at all. She pulled away, but his arms were still holding her close to him so that she could see his cool breath in front of her nose.

"Stop, Ron," she said, getting scared when his arm didn't move.

He asked, "What's wrong? I thought you said you wanted more passion. Now that I'm giving you passion, you don't want it? That's the way you bitches work, isn't it? You say you want one thing, but you really want another!"

He pulled her closer to him and tried to kiss her again, but Hermione slapped him.

He finally pulled away and Hermione moved away. "Stop it Ron! Leave me alone."

Ron didn't look too happy that he'd been slapped. His cheek was red where her hand had hit him. But he walked towards her and said, "I'm sorry, Hermione."

Hermione didn't want to believe him, but there was a wall of the shed behind her so she couldn't back away. She was scared and couldn't think of anything to do.

He pushed his body against hers. Since she was small, she couldn't do much as he loomed over her, except cry for help.

He grabbed both her hands and held them with his one. He then muffled her cries for help by putting his lips over his again and sliding his arm to her back where he began to undo the thin string that held her halter-top. Hermione cried and tried to scream, but nothing worked.

She then picked up her leg and kicked him hard- where it hurt. He pulled away from her, wincing and crying in excruciating pain.

Hermione took the very little bit of honour she had left, and ran into the house to get her things and her wand. She had to hold up her top with her hands because the top strings had come undone. She was weeping and couldn't see straight. She stumbled through the dark night, turning her head back every few seconds to see if Ron was following her, but he wasn't.

She ran into the house and up the steps to her bedroom. She grabbed her wand and magically packed her things.

She got ready to Apparate when she saw Ginny's sleeping face. A few weeks ago, Ginny had made Hermione promise something.

She had that 'no matter what; you have to come to my wedding. I don't care if you're in Europe or on Mars, you have to come.'

Hermione had promised, but she also remembered how excited Ginny had been when she had been planning her wedding. A glow would come over her face as she thought of her life after with Harry.

But Ginny had confided in Hermione, that she felt that this wedding somehow wouldn't take place. She just had a feeling that she had become unlucky because whenever something good would be about to happen, something bad would reverse it. She was afraid of that happening.

Even if she wanted, Hermione couldn't leave. Because Ginny would never forgive her and neither would Hermione.

So she magically locked the door and the window and undressed.

Trembling from head to two in her nightgown, she climbed into bed, sobbing the night away.