Harry Potter and the Prophecy of the Strinx

Harry Potter and the Prophecy of the Strinx

By Moon Weasley

Chapter Three:

Facing the music

Ron watched with ill-concealed envy as Harry's retreating back headed further up the rickety staircase. Not until Harry had reached the top, disappeared into his room and shut the door firmly behind him making the "Ronald's Room" sign rattle noisily in the process, did Ron turn to face the door behind which a terrible fate undoubtedly awaited him. He knew what he had to do and dreaded it profusely.

Putting it bluntly Ron Weasley was not particularly well versed in the art of apologizing. He didn't like it at all. It always made him feel terribly self-conscious and awkward, and he had a terrible tendency to botch things up and make it worse by saying all the wrong things (something he was sure Hermione could attest to).

He silently cursed his vermin tongue that had landed him in this wretched mess in the first place and yearned desperately for Hermione's old Timeturner. But regrettably no such device was to his disposal in his desperate time of need.

He stood outside his sister's room listening intently for a while, but no sound could be heard. Maybe this wasn't where Hermione had sought refuge after all, he wondered dejectedly. For all he knew she'd run out of the house and was possibly hiding in the garden or his dad's very overfilled and very messy Muggle-appreciation shed?

Grunting at the thought of having to crusade the outdoor environment in search for Hermione like some kind of twisted game of hide and seek, Ron made a silent pact never to agitate his bushy-haired friend again. She'd better be in Ginny's room, he thought despairingly. Bloody hell, this was shaping out way too complicated for his liking.

Needless to say Ron was kicking himself mentally. Why on earth did he have to go and shoot his big mouth off again like that? Was he ever going to grow up and learn to think things through before he spoke? He pondered about that for a moment (primarily to win some time before springing into action; procrastination was something he was very good at), but quickly came to the conclusion that he probably would never change in that department. Ron usually acted on his impulses and lately his impulses had been telling him that Viktor Krum was a fucking bastard, a dimwit and a twit that under no circumstances deserved Hermione's affection. He was honestly surprised to find that he was the only one to see this fact. It was so obvious, wasn't it? Krum was a dead boring ugly git with bad posture, not to mention way too old for Hermione!

Ron grimaced at the mere thought of Hermione together with that prat. But even Harry had kept his opinion about this sordid affair to himself. Honestly, Vicky was as close to being a Slytherin as one could get without actually being one! They should all hate his guts! Although he is rather good at Quidditch Ron sheepishly had to admit.

Just thinking about the legendary Viktor Krum though made Ron's blood run fast through his veins as if it was boiling. "Calm yourself", Ron commanded. "Total control. Just tell her that you're sorry. Go on, Ron - you can do it! Easy as pie."

Well, he honestly was sorry. Not about telling the truth about bloody Vicks off course, but hurting Hermione's feelings had never been his intention. Ron sighed, took a deep breath and with great effort lifted his long arm and knocked cautiously on the door.

"Hermione, are you in there?" he called warily through the door. No one answered. He narrowed his eyes and tried to look through the small keyhole, but all he could see was darkness. Ron knocked again and slowly began to turn the doorknob, finally opening the door and carefully peering inside.

At first he couldn't see a damned thing besides pitch-blackness. The lights were all out, and he immediately assumed the room to be empty. But then, just as he was closing the door again he heard a muffled sob. It appeared to come from under the blankets and after his eyes had adjusted to the darkness he faintly made out a Hermione-shaped lump sprawled on Ginny's bed.

Immediately Ron's level of awkwardness was quadrupled. He hesitated for a moment before he timidly entered the room and closed the door behind him.

He had never entered Ginny's room before without her consent and hoped she wouldn't appear suddenly out of nowhere to give him a hard time about his obvious trespassing. You wouldn't believe it by looking at her but Ginny could get really livid, and Ron usually tried to stay on her good side.

Hopefully she wouldn't have his head for invading her privacy like this (the mental image of Ginny beating him up was very unappealing). Ron shook his head lightly. Nah, she wouldn't mind this time, he thought. After all, his intentions were completely honourable as all he wanted was to make peace with Hermione.

Ron approached the trembling figure under the blanket and quietly sat down on the bed. After turning on the bedside lamp he just sat there for a moment, not quite certain how to proceed.

Why was there no such thing as a handy and easy-to-follow step-by-step manual to apologizing? It wasn't as if he did this sort of thing on a regular basis (though some might argue that he should...) so how was he supposed to know what to do now?

Ron felt incredibly ill at ease, almost as if the person on the bed was a complete stranger and not in fact one of his closest friends. Why was he feeling like this he wondered? For some reason several of his more vital organs appeared to be performing what surely had to be a complex series of cartwheels, which really wasn't helping the situation. Ron honestly wanted to say something but found that his mind seemingly had gone completely blank and for what felt like an eternity he just sat there looking down on Hermione.

He had to do something; Ron felt a wave of panic. Just sitting there like a effing prat wasn't getting him anywhere. Ron liked to think of himself as a man of action, and was really glad no one was witnessing this pathetic display of passivity.

He hesitated for a moment before he carefully laid a hand clumsily on Hermione's back.

"Mione," Ron started.

Where had that come from? Ron swallowed hard. He had never called her that before. Well, only in his thoughts he had to admit, but never to her face. He felt his cheeks go all red again. To call her that felt strangely intimate in a way he couldn't quite explain. In retrospect Ron could never really explain where he got the nerve to continue speaking to the trembling lump under the blanket.

"I'm really really sorry about everything I just said," Ron began shakily. He then proceeded to let out a small laugh that sounded oddly high-pitched and squeaky. Ron groaned inwardly. Not only was he acting like a prat, he sounded like one too. Ignoring his latest display of un-masculinity, Ron decided to carry on his, for the time being, pathetic attempt at an apology.

"Off course I was going to ask you to stay this summer. How could you think that I wasn't?"

A loud snort could be heard from under the blanket. Hermione obviously wasn't buying this at all.

"I asked Harry to stay in the letter I wrote to him on his birthday, you see. I asked him to stay for the last week before school starts. I was of course going to ask you as well, but as I only have one owl I was forced to wait until Pig returned from Harry. I even told him in my letter that I was inviting you too. If you don't believe me, you can simply ask him. He'll confirm it for you."

Ron made frantic mental notes to get Harry to collaborate with him on this story, as it wasn't exactly completely true.

"And about that stupid tirade about Viktor and you being a traitor, you know I didn't really mean it, right?" He absentmindedly began to stroke Hermione's back over the blanket. The blanket however made a sudden move and Ron felt her foot hit him hard in his side.

"Ouch!" Ron called out in pain, jerking away to avoid further attacks.

"You stupid prat!" Hermione's voice was shaking with anger. "Do you honestly think you can just walk in here, mutter some lame excuse and suddenly everything will be just peachy fine again? You have done nothing but badger me all summer, one letter after the other telling me how stupid I am to be friends with Viktor. I was under the impression that we were best friends, you, Harry and I. You however have a funny way of showing it!"

Completely taken aback by both her physical and verbal attack Ron began stuttering out even more excuses. Hermione however was not listening.

"I honestly don't know what to make of you, Ronald Weasley!" Hermione shrieked. Her arms, protruded from the blanket, were flailing uncontrollably as she screamed and Ron found himself cowering away from her. "Half the time you make me laugh, but when you're not cracking jokes you seem to go out of your way to find ways to hurt my feelings. I'm not sure I can take this much longer." She paused for a moment and Ron heard her gasp for breath.

"This constant bickering has to stop or we have to stop..."

Her voice broke and Ron could hear that she was crying again. He felt awful. He had done this, he thought. He'd made his best friend sad - she possibly even hated him now. This had never been his intention at all. For some reason Ron didn't know what to say or do. He had ruined it now, he thought. He felt a strange new feeling, as though something was squeezing his heart tightly. It hurt. It hurt so badly. Could he have lost her friendship? Forever?

"I'm sorry," he whispered and could hear that his voice was trembling too. "I didn't mean to hurt you. Honestly."

A small face with red eyes from crying appeared from under the blanket, her bushy hair was spread out like a great big fan all over Ginny's pink and flowery pillow. Ron's heart seemed to skip a beat and he swallowed hard. She looked so small and innocent all of a sudden and he felt a very un-Ron-ish urge to lean down and hug her. A tear could be seen still running down her cheek.

"Is that really true?" she asked unsteadily. "You're really sorry?"
"Off course it's true," Ron croaked. "Have I ever lied to you?"

He turned his head away from her for a split second, trying to wipe away the strange watery substance that bizarrely seemed to be clouding his vision at the moment, hoping she wouldn't notice. He then looked down on her and could see that she was coming around.

"No, you have never lied to me," she whispered. "Decorated the truth a bit maybe yes, but you've never lied." There was a pause before Hermione spoke again.

"Are you crying, Ron?"

Ron quickly let his hand sweep away a traitorous tear that was making a solitary path down his chin and violently shook his head. Hermione looked at him searchingly but luckily she didn't pushing the topic.

"I forgive you," she said quietly.

Ron felt a huge relief off his shoulders and immediately broke into a huge grin. He quickly rose from the bed feeling a new spring in his step and all but danced towards the door. Still feeling a bit awkward he chose to avoid looking at her. She had after all seen him cry. No girl had ever seen him cry before. Besides his mum, off course but that didn't count.

For several minutes not a word was spoken. Eventually Ron lifted his head, cleared his voice and gave Hermione one of his lopsided grins.

"Why don't you take a moment to freshen up and then come up to my room so that you can finally let us in on why exactly you and scary scar face suddenly decided to floo around the fireplaces like common hoodlums, causing mayhem in the Weasley household. I imagine it wasn't for the fun of it, as I happen to know that neither of you are particularly fond of that way of travelling." He opened the door. Hermione nodded at him and he gave her a last reassuring look and headed out of the door.

Outside in the hall again, Ron stood paralysed for a moment one hand still on the doorknob the other compulsory running through his hair. He felt different in a way, without knowing why exactly. It didn't make any sense at all. But at least he and Hermione were friends again, Harry would be proud.

Finally breaking his trance Ron bolted up the staircase his mood considerably lighter than it had been just minutes before. He'd saved the situation this time though. Just hope he didn't have to do that again any time soon. He'd better watch what he was saying to her in the future.

* *

After Ron had left the room, Hermione couldn't bring herself to get out of bed straight away. She had spent the better part of the summer being mad at Ron and after this confrontation she felt oddly deflated. He had said (or written, to be more precise) some pretty nasty things to her, hurting her feelings in a way that no one had done before. He deserved to be yelled at and somehow she felt that she shouldn't have let him off the hook this easily.

But then again he had... He had cried. Hermione still couldn't believe it. He had actually cried in front of her. Boys never did that, now did they?

The door opened again and Hermione's heart skipped a beat. Was that Ron again? But both to Hermione's disappointment and relief it was Ginny's face that appeared in the opening.

"Was that Ron I saw leaving just now?" Ginny closed the door and went over to sit beside Hermione, a curious gleam detectable in her hazel eyes. "Did he come to give you another lecture about your boyfriend?"

"Viktor is not my boyfriend!" Hermione threw her arms dejectedly in the air and looked angrily at Ginny. "I've told you that many times. We are just friends. Why does everybody seem to have trouble grasping that?" Friends!!"

"Okay, okay! No need to shout." Ginny looked a bit offended. "It's just that it is so obvious to everybody that at least Viktor has feelings for you. When you went to visit him I thought perhaps you felt the same way despite what you've told me, that's all"

"Well, I don't," Hermione replied miserably giving Ginny a tired look. She didn't want to fall out with Ginny over Viktor. She let go of the hug, and leaned back resting her head against the bedpost. She sighed.

"And to answer your initial question, no Ron didn't say anything about Viktor", she finally said. "He came to apologize, actually."

"What!" Ginny looked shocked. "He apologized? Of his one free will? And nobody was standing behind him holding him at wandpoint, or something? And you forgave him? Just like that?"

"Well," Hermione got out of bed and started to pace nervously while frantically trying to flatten her hair. "He seemed really sincere. At first I did yell at him but then he...he sort of cried and I just couldn't be mad at him any longer."

Ginny now looked absolutely shell shocked. "He did what?"

"Oh Ginny, he was just so cute, how could I not forgive him?"

Ginny raised her eyebrows clearly not believing her own ears. "Okay, I'm choosing to overlook the cute-comment but oh my wand! He cried? In front of you? Galloping Gargoyles, I can't wait to tease him about this."

Hermione stopped pacing and faced Ginny with a determined look. "Oh no Ginny. Don't tease him about it, please. Promise me you'll never mention it to him. He'll just be so embarrassed."

Ginny giggled. "Exactly. That is precisely the point. To embarrass him royally."

Hermione gave Ginny a begging look, and Ginny sighed and got up from the bed. "Okay Hermione, seeing as it so important to you, I promise never to tease him about it." She let out a small laugh. "Just remember that you owe me big time for keeping something like this a secret. I can just picture it; the mental image of him sitting here crying his eyes out - it's hilarious."

Hermione smiled at Ginny. She could see that Ginny had really grown over the summer. They had been writing to each other since school ended and had become good friends in the process. It was really nice having a girl to confide in. Even though Harry and Ron were still her best friends, there were just some things that she couldn't talk to them about.

"Just remember to keep that image to yourself, okay. Besides, he wasn't crying his eyes out; it was just a few tears really. Now let's go find them so I can tell them why Harry and I just crashed your family reunion". Ginny nodded and they left the room and began to climb the stairs to Ron's room.

Halfway up the first staircase Ginny suddenly stopped dead and turned to Hermione with a wicked look on her face. "So Ron's cute now is he? Interesting."

Hermione blushed scarlet and chuckling knowingly Ginny turned around and continued the climb to Ronald's Room.