Betrayal

Chapter 7

Quidditch practice was brutal. Ron had been hit twice in the arm by a bludger and had slipped off his broom at the end due to the fact that it had started to rain. Harry had taken a shot to the back while he took a moment to wipe off his glasses. They both were glad when it ended and Ron was surprised to find him self looking forward to meeting Hermione in the very dry and peaceful common room. Harry threw an annoyed glance at Ron as he made his way to find Neville, Dean and Seamus. Ron was the lucky one, he guessed, if it meant that he was going to be spending the evening with Hermione. Harry spotted the three boys leaning against the wall and talking casually.

"Hey, are we still going tonight?" Harry asked as he realized that the rain might complicate their plans.

"We decided to get the food and take it into the room of requirement. We were just discussing what we wanted to be in the room when we got there. Dean was telling us about this muggle sport..." Neville looked uncertainly at Dean, who took over.

"Basketball. It's like quidditch, but...not. It's really fun." Harry knew exactly what basketball was, but was not overly enthusiastic about playing another sport after that night's practice. However, he needed an excuse to be away from the common room, Ron, and Hermione.

"It's up to you guys; I don't care."

Ron tried to air out his damp t-shirt as he made his way towards the porthole. He stood in front of it for a few seconds wringing out the front end before muttering the password and stepping through. There were a few first years sitting by the fire, but other than that, no one was there. They looked up at him uneasily and smiled with relief when he grinned at them and waved. He wondered where Hermione was; he had expected her to be waiting for him when he got back. He leapt up the stairs and opened the door to an empty dorm. He glanced around and began to quickly undress. He wanted to change into something dry before he found Hermione. As he threw his shirt into the laundry bin he noticed that the curtains around his bed were drawn. He frowned, because he didn't remember leaving them this way. He walked towards it cautiously and slowly reached out to open them slightly. Then he poked his head inside, stumbled backwards, and gasped.

Hermione was lying on her stomach and looking up at him expectantly with an evil little grin spread across her face. Her head was propped up in her hands and her legs were lazily swinging back and forth behind her. Ron could see that she was wearing a black see-through negligee' with nothing on underneath but a pair of black thongs. "Hermione...wha-what are you d-doing?" He stammered as she sat up, letting him take the view of her front in. She knew that her nipples could be seen through the material; that was why she had chosen that particular negligee. She smiled coyly at him. "Don't you like it? I bought it just for you." She held out her hand, which was inches from his bare chest, beckoning for him to come closer. She noticed that Harry wasn't the only one who had filled out in recent months. He wasn't as chiseled as Harry, but he looked good nonetheless.

At first Ron looked horror-struck, but desire overcame him quickly. He found that just the sight of her made his mid-section tingle and he could feel himself becoming stiff. He slowly closed the distance between them and her hand made contact with his chest. She dragged her fingers enticingly up and down his torso. He leaned into her and kissed her deeply while wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her close to his body.

As he laid her down onto the bed his chest came into contact with her hard nipples and he groaned loudly. His right hand eased from between the small of her back and the bed and traced its way up to her breast. He kneaded it tenderly for a few seconds before concentrating solely on the nipples. This sent tingles of excitement throughout Hermione's body. Ron stopped kissing her on the mouth and began to kiss the nape of her neck. She moaned softly over the top of his head. "Oh, Ron. I've wanted this for so long..." She could feel her panties beginning to get moist. Suddenly Ron's whole body went stiff and he jerked away from her.

"We can't to this! What are we doing? We shouldn't be doing this!" He got off the bed and looked pointedly away from Hermione. "Get up, get dressed, and get out!" He couldn't believe she had tried to seduce him like that. Hermione was thunderstruck at the abrupt change in his demeanor. He had been enjoying it as much as she, hadn't he? And then all of the sudden... She looked up at him pleadingly.

"Ron, calm down. We're not doing anything wrong here. Please don't be angry with me. I just wanted-"

"I said get out! Before someone sees you! Now!" He threw her school robe at her and searched furiously for the rest of her clothes, but he could find none.

"Ron! This is all I wore! You can't make me leave like this! Can't we just talk about this?" She shrieked and began to sob violently.

"No! You know how I feel about this-"

"But what about how I feel?" She wailed. "Doesn't that mean anything to you? I can't take this anymore, Ron!"

"Then don't! I said leave, didn't I? Get out of here and don't come back! We're through!" He regretted those words as soon as they left his mouth.

"Fine!" And with that she wrapped her robe around her and was gone in a flash. He sat down, breathing heavily and feeling angry, sad, and confused. He put his head into his hands and began to cry.

Did I just break up with Hermione? Did I just make the single biggest mistake of my life? What was she thinking? What was I thinking? How in the hell am I going to fix this? These thoughts swam around in Ron's head making him dizzy. The image of her crying and running from his dorm froze in his mind and he wondered how he could have yelled at her like that. She was the most upset he had ever seen her and it was all his doing. He had just been so angry with her for springing this on him; they had almost done something that he knew both of them would regret afterwards.

Maybe she was right, though, said a tiny voice inside his head. He had not once stopped to ever consider how she felt about the situation. He just assumed that this was the best way to handle their relationship and their raging hormones. Loving her was synonymous with respecting her enough to not let his intense physical desires overtake them both. But she had her own feelings on this issue, her own intense physical desires. Maybe he was being an idiot by not realizing this and by not being willing to compromise his ideas about the proper behavior in their relationship. At this moment of realization all of the anger and sadness and confusion left his body, leaving him hollow inside before being flooded by the most intensely nauseating emotion he had ever felt: guilt. He had just emotionally crushed the most important person in his life simply because he was too selfish to consider her thoughts and feelings.

Ron began to cry harder.