The Not So Happy Ending

She stormed into the common room, wanting to slam the door behind her, but how exactly do you slam a portrait shut? He hurried in after her, scrambling through the portrait hole.

"Hermione, keep your voice down, please-"

"I will not keep my voice down!"

"Do you want to wake up the whole tower? Someone will hear you!"

"Let them hear!" she yelled. "Let the whole world hear how Ronald Weasley cocked up again!"

"And what's that suppose to mean?"

"You know exactly what it means. It's your stupid bout of juvenile humour that got us into this mess in the first place."

He threw his arms up in exasperation. "You're kidding me? Am I really supposed to believe that this is all my fault? That's bullshit, Hermione. It wasn't my fault that you-"

"Don't you dare try and pin this on me," she interrupted. Her voice was barely above a whisper as she spoke, advancing towards him. He suddenly felt very afraid.

"It takes two to tango, sweetie," he sneered in reply, in spite of himself. Ron immediately wished he hadn't said those words, and braced himself for impact. Hermione could be rather vicious when provoked. Ron stood still with his eyes shut for several minutes, but nothing happened. He opened one eye carefully and saw something that took him quite by surprise. Hermione was crying.

This wasn't to say that he had never seen Hermione cry. After all they'd been through over the years, Hermione had cried enough to create a small swimming pool. And at least half of those tears weren't his fault. But surely, now of all times, Hermione should be angry, not upset. Well, maybe upset a little, but not enough to cry like this.

Ron had to admit; this time had been his fault. Okay, so he didn't have to of laughed in her face during Potions, and all right, perhaps it would've been best if he had been a little more discreet about the fact that she liked him, but what was he do to? He panicked. It's not everyday you find out that your best friend has been harbouring secret feelings for you. Anyway, she got her own back well enough. Turned out that Hermione did not exactly enjoy being laughed at, and had thrown the shrivelfig she had been skinning straight at him. Well, she had meant to throw it straight at him; Hermione's aim was not as great as she'd hoped, and it ended up hitting Snape in the back of the head, to tumultuous applause. They had only just got out of their two hour detention.

He walked over tentatively towards her.

"Why do I always have to get myself into these things?" she said, wiping tears from her eyes. "I'm a smart girl, I know that, everyone knows that. But why do I still seem to make the most stupid choices? Like falling for guys who don't like me. Unrequited love is such a bitch," she said, shaking her head. Ron stared at her, not sure whether to answer or not. Hermione continued anyway. "What you did today was completely out of order." She looked up at him with a steely look in her eyes, no longer crying.

"Ron, I told you I liked you and you laughed in my face. I don't know how I can forgive you for the way you made me feel today. I have tried, so hard, to get over this, get over you, but I can't! And I can't keep doing this anymore. Hiding my feelings in hope that they just might go away, I can't!"

"But, I-" Ron started, but she cut him short.

"What, Ron, what! What do you possibly think you can do or say that will make me change my mind?" she screamed.

So he kissed her.

Looking back on this moment, he would have liked to remember a happy time. He would also have liked to remember Hermione falling into his arms, and them kissing passionately for the rest of the night. He would not, however, like to remember what happened next.

Hermione returned Ron's kiss. Well, at first she did. After the initial shock of Ron having kissed her full force, she came to her senses. Hermione pushed him away from her.

"Ron, don't..." she said, still pushing on his shoulder.

Ron stared at her in disbelief. What was happening here? Hadn't he just heard for himself today that she, Hermione Granger, liked him, Ronald Weasley? There were witnesses for goodness sake. He stepped back from her, letting go. Yet now, here they were. After letting all his inhibitions go, and finally kissing her, finally doing something that he'd wanted to do for so long; she was rejecting him? This didn't make sense.

"But, you said..."

"I know! But this wasn't the way things were supposed to go!" She threw her arms up in the air and dropped them to her sides. She began to pace back and forth, trying to make sense of the situation. Ron didn't move. He was afraid to. Frantic girls were not a force to be reckoned with. Hermione sat down on the arm of a nearby chair, exasperated. "I can't do this. I-I just can't do this." She rubbed her head, and turned to stare at him.

"Why-" she began, but changed her mind, deciding it would be better to stand up and pace again. "I'm not doing this, I can't do th-"

Just then, Ron kissed her again. He didn't know what else to do. Kissing her was all he could think about right now, regardless of the fact that she was so confused and unpredictable right now.

Hermione pushed him away, harder this time. "Stop it, Ron, no! You can't just silence me with a kiss. You can't just expect me to stop being mad at you just because you kissed me. You exploited my feelings for you-"

"I didn't exploit anything!" he snapped, interrupting her. "So what, I'm not allowed to have feelings all of a sudden, is that it?"

"Wha... argh!" Hermione gave a frustrated grunt and slammed her foot down. Torn between frustration, confusion and anger, tears started to fall slowly down her face.

"Look," Ron continued. "I was a total prat today. I was stupid, and moronic ... I was a bloody idiot. But that does not change the fact that I like you too." He looked at the blank expression on her face. Do something, he urged. Yell, scream, cry, well no, don't cry, but do something. "I-I just didn't know what to do today. You scared me, I guess."

Hermione continued to look at him, showing no emotion. Several minutes past in which neither of them said anything. Ron was close to cracking under the pressure, when Hermione finally spoke.

"Do you expect me to believe that?" Despite the tears, her voice did not crack. "Do you honestly expect me to believe that utter trite that you just told me?" Hermione glared at him from across the room. "The truth Ron. After all these years, I would've at least expected that from you." She turned and walked swiftly to the stairs leading to her dormitory, but his voice stopped her.

"I'm not going to apologise for what I did," he said as he watched her leave.

"I don't care what you do anymore. Just leave me out of it."

Ron watched Hermione walk away from him that night. And there was nothing he could do to stop her.