Hermione felt her heartbeat quicken as she
leaned into Ron. It was her only reminder that she was still there, still
conscious. Her mind felt oddly still- it was usually racing no matter what. But
now it was peaceful. That was all she knew. That was all she wanted to know.
This was the kind of thing that could be spoiled by over-thinking.
He also leaned in closer. They were going
to kiss, a distant voice told Hermione. But those words hardly seemed to
calculate.
Suddenly she heard footsteps. Ron must
have heard them too, as his eyes widened. She was suddenly brought back to
reality, and she could imagine clearly how this must look. One arm was slipped
around Ron's neck and lightly tangled in his hair. The other grasped his wrist.
Ron was pressed against her, and she was pressed against the couch.
Not exactly a platonic looking situation.
The two quickly disentangled. Fred and
George were staring at them openmouthed from the doorway. For once, both twins
seemed at a loss for words.
"So," George said finally,
darting a look to Fred. "What are you two doing?"
Hermione and Ron, who were still standing
quite close together, jumped even further apart.
"N-n-nothing," Hermione
stammered.
"N-n-nothing," Ron echoed. He
had a deer in the headlights look.
Fred and George continued to stare at
them. Hermione wasn't exactly the stammering type.
Hermione pointed lamely at Ron. "He
was trying to take my book..."
Fred arched an eyebrow to George.
"Oi, George, is book the new word for virginity now?"
George seemed to be trying very hard to
stifle a laugh.
Ron had gone bright red.
And both he and Hermione ran up the stairs,
not daring to look at each other.
~~~
Ginny pretended not to notice that she
felt Harry's eyes on her. Instead, she became very interested in a beetle
crawling on a fallen leaf. She was actually feeling like she and Harry
were...equals maybe? Instead of being a little sister type, they were talking
like...
Friends, she told herself. Harry is being nice.
Friendship doesn't mean...It's not... She found herself unable to bear her
thoughts, and went back to studying the beetle.
"Hey, Ginny-" Harry began.
Noticing his change in tone she looked up quickly.
"Yeah?" she said, trying not to
sound hopeful.
Fred and George barged through the
backyard's door.
"You two will never believe what we
just saw!" Fred said, shaking his head in disbelief.
"And we don't care what you
just saw either," Ginny snapped, angry that they had interrupted her and
Harry.
"'Course you do," George said,
giving her a winning smile which she couldn't help returning.
"Just because we interrupted you and
your famous crush-" Fred stopped, realizing he had gone too far as Ginny
gave him an 'if looks could kill' glare.
Now Harry seemed to be the one very
interested in the beetle. Ginny didn't feel like much of an equal anymore. She
was back to that annoying little sister.
"Anyway," Fred said quickly,
after a moment where all were uncomfortable, "you won't believe what we
saw."
"Ron and Hermione were...well, let's
just say it looked like they were about to follow in the footsteps of that book
Herm was reading."
Harry looked up sharply. "What?"
"Forbidden Passions," Fred said.
"Looked like they were experiencing quite a bit of that."
"Were they kissing?" Ginny asked
with interest.
"No Ginny," Harry snapped.
"They were playing Quidditch."
Ginny looked down. "Sorry,"
Harry mumbled. "Actually," George said, "they weren't
kissing."
"They were about to though!"
"Then they saw us."
"And they looked like they wanted to
kill us."
"And each other."
"Sort of like you and Angelina
did."
"Shut up George."
"Caught them in the exact same
position one time when I walked into the common room."
"Shut up George."
"Except the passion didn't seem
forbidden at all."
"Would you shut up?"
Harry and Ginny stared.
~~~~
Ron ran a hand through his hair in
frustration. In fact, he was so frustrated that his hair ended up standing
almost straight up.
Hermione giggled before she could stop
herself.
"What?!" Ron demanded anxiously.
God, what had he done now?
"Oh Ron," Hermione sighed, and
reached out a hand to pat his hair down. Then she paused and withdrew her hand.
They both looked at the floor.
She's messing with my mind. Ron thought. She had to be! He couldn't seem to
think of anything to say or even anything to yell.
"Give me my book back," Hermione
said sharply after a moment.
"What?" Ron sputtered. This was
the last thing he had expected to hear.
"You heard me," Hermione said.
"Give me my book."
"You- you... You're cheating on your
Vicky and practically cheating on Harry, and all you can ask for is your
bloody book?!"
Hermione bristled. "I'm not cheating
on anybody! All I...It's just.." She paused.
"Rita Skeeter had it right the first
time, didn't she?"
"What are you saying?!"
"Gee, Herm. You're the top of the
class, why don't you figure it out?"
"Shut up! You have know idea what
you're talking about, Ron."
"Yes, I do!"
"You don't have one clue in
that dull little head of yours. You don't know anything about my relationship
with Viktor... Or with Harry." She tilted her head at him. "In
fact...you're still mad at me for kissing Harry, aren't you?!"
Ron glared.
"You are!" Hermione said
triumphantly. "You haven't forgiven me."
"No, Hermione, I haven't," Ron
said finally. His voice was cold. "I never knew you were this...this power
hungry. You're as bad as Dudley's girlfriend."
"Ron-"
"No. You are. But why me, eh? Ron
Weasley, yeah, he has power. A poor wizard, not particularly smart, no
wonderful skills. Oh! I've got it!"
"Would you-"
"It's my amazing chess skills you're
after, isn't it?" Ron said dryly, his voice cruelly sarcastic. "Being
good at chess, well you can't get any sexier than that."
"Yes Ron. You're dead sexy."
Hermione's tone was just as sarcastic as Ron's. "Now will you let me
talk?"
"No," Ron said flatly.
"Yes, you will. It's the thing with
Harry that's really bothering you, isn't it? You feel like you're going to be
left out in the cold...That all our attention will go to eachother."
Ron stared. How much more wrong
could she be?
"And..." Off Ron's look of
disbelief Hermione faltered. "And you...you always fight for attention at
home so that...And..."
"Hermione, you're an idiot," Ron
said.
"So are you," she said.
"But yeah, that was stupid."
Ron smirked. "Hermione admitting that
she got something wrong? Should I alert the press or d'you want to do the
honors?"
"Ron, I don't like Harry!"
Hermione said desperately, the words spilling quickly out of her mouth. "I
kissed him because that's what everyone has expected me to do. I'm
supposed to be madly in love with Harry. Viktor expects me to be. Your family
expects me to be. Hell, almost all of Hogwarts expects me to be." Ron
blinked, as Hermione rarely cursed.
"But guess what Ron? I'm not.
I can't help it! You can't learn to love someone. Not even from a book like
that." (She gestured towards her book, which Ron was holding). "But
what would you do? Everyone expects you to be with someone and you just
can't, but you know you're supposed to and... when that person kisses you...
Well, I did what I was supposed to do, didn't I?" She paused. "I know
you, Ron. You were expecting it too."
"Er...Not fully," Ron managed to
say, after this monologue. "You're still with Krum."
Hermione bit her lip and said nothing.
"Aren't you?" Ron said, looking
at her in surprise. Hermione began to walk away into Ginny's room.
"Hermione, aren't you?"
he repeated, stopping her.
"Goodness, Ron!" Hermione spat.
"I don't want Viktor, I don't want Harry, I want you."
And she marched into Ginny's room, closing
the door in Ron's face.
~~~
Ginny laughed. Harry, Fred, George and her
were all lounged out on various chairs in the Weasley's backyard.
She giggled again. George continued his
tale of his finding Fred and Angelina. He was quite eager to embarrass Fred.
"Right, so it was very quiet. Night
of the Yule Ball. I had just said goodbye to Alicia-"
"You went with Alicia Spinnet?"
Harry asked.
He nodded impatiently and went on with his
story. "Anyway, it was all very quiet. Most everyone had gone upstairs by
then, but me and Alicia had stayed out late, because we were...talking."
Harry made a sound of disbelief. "She's a very interesting girl, Alicia
is... But, as I was saying, I came up late. Fred had gone upstairs long before.
Said he was tired."
"I was... Tired of the ball,
maybe."
"Clever. So I go up to the common
room and it's mostly quiet, so I think, well gee, everyone must be
asleep."
Harry had a feeling he knew where this was
heading.
"So," George continued, dragging
the story on as long as possible, "I swagger in-"
"You swaggered?" Ginny snorted.
"Yes Ginny. I was swaggering. There
is nothing wrong with swaggering. So I swagger in, and there's Angelina
and our boy Fred, right there, together in one of those big common room chairs
and-"
"No details, puh-lease," Ginny
groaned.
"Oh, fine," George grumbled, and
Fred looked relieved.
"Anyway, I saw them and Angelina
knocked Fred away and started cursing at me, and in mid-curse she took off one
of her shoes and threw it at me."
"What?" Harry said, grinning.
"It was one of those huge heel-y
shoes too. Hit the side of my head. And those things are heavy!"
Fred laughed. "George had a huge
bruise...He changed his hair to cover it up." Fred smiled distantly to himself.
"God, I miss Angelina." This statement was immediately followed by
him blushing as he realized he had said this out loud.
"A match made in heaven, yeah,"
Harry said shaking his head. "Throwing shoes at your brother..."
"Too bad it wasn't Percy," Fred
said sadly.
"Too bad what wasn't
Percy?" Percy said, coming out to the backyard. "Nevermind," he
added quickly, seeing the look on the twins' faces. "I'm sure it's not
something I'd want to bother with. Lunch is about ready. Mum needs some help
and since none of you seem to be making yourself useful, go help prepare
lunch. Then set the table."
"All four of us setting the
table?" Fred asked, sounding appalled. "Gee, d'ya think we can handle
it?"
"No, I don't," Percy said flatly
and went inside.
~~~
Ron stared at the door in front of his
face.
Hermione was insane.
That was all there was to it.
He felt a mix of surprise and anger, but
mostly he felt confusion. What was going on? Angrily he raised a fist to bang
on the door that Hermione was behind. He paused and held back. If Hermione
opened the door, what would he ever say?
Even if it was possible for him to get any
words out in front of her, he was sure they'd be idiotic. Ron winced at the
possibilities. He'd likely say something so stupid that Hermione would shut the
door in his face again. Then she'd probably go off and make out with some
world-famous hero who was also a world-famous Quidditch player and was also top
of all his classes and was wealthy and handsome and probably everything she had
ever hoped for.
Hermione seemed to like those types.
But she said she wanted you, a small voice bugged at him.
Ron kicked a wall.
He hoped Hermione could hear him.
Mrs. Weasley surely could, as she called
up to see if everything was all right. Ron didn't answer. Instead he felt
drained, as he tiredly walked down the stairs. He headed toward the backyard
but found Ginny and Harry sitting comfortably there, chatting idly. He could
hear Fred and George in the kitchen. No way he was going in there. They
had seen him and Hermione.
...And had interrupted them.
They would have kissed. Ron had known that
they were about to, even if he didn't consciously think it. Knowing that made
it all more complicated and frustrating. It also further convinced him of the
fact that Hermione was insane.
But then, he had already come to that
conclusion.
Angrily, Ron kicked the wall again.
"Erm...Ron?"
Ron turned to see Harry standing behind him.
"Oh... Didn't hear you come in."
"Yeah, you seemed a
little...distracted at the time." Harry looked pointedly at the dent Ron
had created in the wall.
Ron gazed at the dent with satisfaction.
"Are you still...uh...hating
me?" Harry asked awkwardly.
"I don't bloody hate you," Ron
said, his tone of voice taking any sentimentality right out of that statement.
Harry barked a laugh. "That little
lecture you gave though, that was really something." He looked at Ron, and
his face was calm but his eyes concealed poorly hidden anger. "It was
impressive, of course. But Ron," Harry paused. "You don't have a clue
what you're talking about."
Ron winced. That was the second time he
had been told that today. He couldn't seem to find words to say, and that too,
was the second time today. He was too tired, too sick of everything to get in
another argument with Harry. They would only go in circles, and besides, his
anger at Hermione, at everyone... He was too drained to do much.
"So...You and Hermone...I,
er..." Harry grinned. "Well, it seems like you two have made
up..."
"What?!" Ron sputtered.
"Fred and George," he realized a moment later, letting out a heavy
sigh. "Of course."
"So were you?"
Ron felt his ears turning red. "Were
we what?"
Harry didn't say anything, but a faintly
piqued eyebrow of his said all that Harry could have said.
"NO!" Ron said. "Why are
you taking Fred and George's word? This is FRED and GEORGE, we're talking
about. After knowing them for years, I would think you would have figured out-"
"I'm wondering," Harry said,
interrupting Ron (who had been flailing his arms desperately during this
speech), "whether you're turning bright red because you're embarrassed
that Fred and George would imply something like that...or because you want
something to happen between you and Hermione... Or," Harry paused, for a
dramatic effect that almost made Ron laugh, "because something already
has happened between you and Hermione."
"Find out next week, on
Passions," Ron mumbled, quickly pretending he hadn't said anything at all.
Damn Ginny for getting him into those American soap operas.
Harry rolled his eyes.
"I... I guess it's combination of all
those things," Ron finally admitted. He went noticeably redder.
"Harry, I think that... that I really do sort of like her." He
paused. "Besides the fact that she is incredibly INSANE."
"Besides that, yeah," Harry
agreed, with a little too much sincerity.
Ron grinned. One way or another, admitting
this to Harry had resulted in Ron completely forgiving him. It was a huge
burden off of him, and he had a feeling that if he tried to kick in a wall now,
he wouldn't be nearly so successful as he had been a few minutes ago.
Just the same, Ron glanced at Harry with a
slightly nervous look. "You aren't... madly in love with her then?"
"Well..." Harry paused and gave
Ron a look of wide-eyed innocence. "Iduno. She was an awfully good
kisser."
"What?!"
"Kidding... Kidding... Er, I mean,
not that she was bad. Just..." Harry could feel himself sinking deeper
into this. "The, uh, sparks. They just weren't there." Harry gave Ron
an encouraging smile. "You and Hermione have lots of sparks. Of course,
you guys usually use them to get in arguements... But sparks are sparks."
Ron blinked.
"I should just stop talking, shouldn't
I?" Harry said.
"Not a bad idea," Ron agreed.
They were silent for a moment. Then he turned to Harry. "Harry...didn't
you feel a little...well, guilty when you kissed Hermione?"
"Guilty!" Harry laughed.
"It was beyond the mere word of 'guilty'. The whole time after I could
only think about how horrible I was to do that when I good as knew you liked
her. I mean, the guilt was coming in pounds and gallons. I've never felt so
guilty. It was terri-"
Ron sighed impatiently. "Would you
shut up? Stop trying to make me feel better. I didn't mean did you feel guilty
about what I would think." Ron shook his head. "I mean, didn't you
even feel a shred of guilt when you remembered our favorite Bulgarian
buddy?"
"Krum?" Harry sounded surprised.
"Not really."
Ron blinked. "You weren't
intimidated? I mean, Famous Harry Potter or not-" Harry gave him a glare
at the word 'famous' and Ron skipped that train of thought. "Well think
about it... You Vs. Krum? I'm sorry Harry, but he would kick your ass."
"Thanks for the faith," Harry
said drily. "But Krum wasn't really in the picture, and he wasn't the main
thing on my mind when I was kissing her... It'd be kind of disturbing if he was,
don't you think?" Harry grinned.
"What do you mean?" Ron said,
ignoring the rest of what Harry said. "What do you mean Krum wasn't in the
picture?"
Harry was silent. He had forgotten that
Hermione hadn't exactly wanted Ron to know.
"Harry, my wall-kicking self is
reemerging here," Ron warned. "What do you mean?"
Harry sighed. "Hermione and Krum had
broken up."
Ron stared.
"Early this summer. Hermione told
me," Harry added quickly, as Ron looked like he was about ready to shake
the information out.
"Why didn't she tell me?" Ron
said, half to himself. Harry decided it was best not to tell him the truth:
that Hermione didn't want him to know.
"Dunno," he said instead.
"I don't understand it."
"Maybe the experience was uh, too
painful for her to share with you."
Ron gave Harry a pitying look.
"That," he said, "is the most pathetic excuse I have ever
heard."
Harry gave a tired sigh. "I'm doing
my best." He watched Ron pace for a minute or so and shook his head.
"Would you get a grip Ron?" he shouted without malice. "The only
way you're going to find out why is if you go up there and ask her
yourself!"
"Inspiring," Ron commented.
"Or I could just get Ginny to go upstairs and find out and come back and
tell me what Hermione said and then tell me if-"
"Ron!"
"Fine, fine," he muttered.
"I'm going."
~~~
Bang bang bang
Hermione glanced up, startled. She was
unsure whether the loud sound was Ron kicking in a wall again or her door. The
muffled "Open the bloody door," was hint enough however.
If I was less mature woman, Hermione thought, ignoring the fact that she was
barely 15, I would never answer. I would just let him keep knocking until he
gets sick of it. I would get a cruel satisfaction from knowing that he was out
there, wanting to see me, but he couldn't. I'd be happy to let him see how it
feels to be simply ignored. Hermione sat on her bed and listened to Ron
knock for another minute or so. Cruel satisfaction really wasn't that bad....
"Oh, don't be silly," she told
herself, rising from the bed. After darting a quick look around the room to
make sure no random object would start cracking jokes, she opened the door.
Ron looked surprised when his fist hit
air. He was panting slightly from banging on the door with such force for so
long. His cheeks were flushed.
Not a bad look.
"Her-" he took a breath
"my-" He took another "oh-"
"Yes, I get it, you're trying to say
my name," Hermione snapped.
"Okay...Wait..Give me a moment."
Ron rested against the doorway for a moment, admiring the way Hermione's eyes
were glittering impatiently.
"You do realize," she said,
"that I could slam this door in your face right now?"
"I'd probably get a broken
nose," he said. "Wouldn't be half the sexy chess-player I am
now."
"A real loss to the world."
Ron cast a glance at her. She usually
wasn't quite this cruel to him. Then he recalled the things he had said to her
earlier..
But Hermione hadn't exactly been all that
nice either.
And she had lied to him. Lied to him
about-
"Krum."
"What?" Hermione said, startled.
"Why didn't you tell me,
Hermione?" Ron said. He was trying, with great difficulty, to keep his
voice level. Self-control wasn't quite a talent of his.
"Tell you what?" she asked,
trying to sound clueless.
Ron fixed her with a piercing look.
Somehow it hurt much worse than any of his scathing remarks.
"I had no need to tell you,"
Hermione said defensively. "It was none of your business."
"You lead me on to think that you two
are still the picture-perfect couple! Why?"
"It's very simple, Ron. I didn't. I
didn't lead you on at all."
"Oh, sure." Ron glared. "
'Just because I've been having a wonderful summer doesn't mean you have to be
jealous !'" Ron said, his voice high-pitched. Hermione winced as she
recognized her own words. 'Why you know that I've spent most of the summer with
Viktor.' 'Oh, Ron, Krum's house is simply beautiful and la-dee-freakin-da I'm
having a grand ole time!'"
"I never said that."
"It was just a little bit of improv.
Nice touch, eh?"
"Beautiful. And I did have a
wonderful summer... That doesn't mean I spent it as Viktor's girlfriend."
"You lied to me, then!"
"I did not!"
"Fine, you covered up the truth with
a load of crap."
"Honestly Ron." Hermione gave an
exasperated sigh.
"Yeah, honestly. God forbid I be
pissed that you were lying to me."
"You brought this upon yourself, you
know," Hermione said coolly. A little too coolly, Ron thought. She was
getting angry now.
"Stop talking to me as if I were a
little child." Ron glowered at her.
"You're acting like a little
child," Hermione retorted.
"You're being so...so..."
"Patronizing?"
"Bitchy was more the word I was
looking for."
"I don't need to hear this."
Hermione took a step back into Ginny's room, reaching for the door. Ron grabbed
her arm, gently and firmly whirling her back into the hallway.
"Why'd you do it, Herm?" he
asked, his voice icy but low. "Did you want to make me jealous? Thought
you'd have a little fun?"
"Oh yes," she replied, glaring.
"This is all about messing with your mind Ron. That's all my whole life is
about, you know, trying to mess with your mind!"
"It sure seems like it
sometimes."
"Has it ever occurred to you that
perhaps I felt as confused as you do about what I think? Maybe
everything doesn't revolve around you, Ron, have you thought about that?!"
"This does," he answered
with conviction. "This doesn't involve Viktor or Harry or anyone else.
It's only about you and me."
"You and I."
"Keep correcting my grammar and
there's not going to be any 'you and I' left to deal with."
"That threat makes absolutely no
sense at all."
"Dammit, Hermione! This isn't about
making sense. Would you get that through your thick skull?"
"Are you going to kick a wall
again?"
"I'm going to be kicking a lot more
than walls soon."
Hermione sighed and threw up her hands.
"What would you like me to say? We were going to kiss, earlier, I won't
deny it. You must have thought it."
"That's right," Ron said.
"My very thought was 'Gee, this would be a dern good time to kiss
Hermione, dontcha think, raging hormones?' Don't be a moron! I didn't plan any
of this!"
"Well I didn't either!" she
shouted, and to Ron's alarm tears were forming in her eyes. Still, he couldn't
bring himself to back down now.
"It seems like you did. Kissing
Harry, going on and on about how great Viktor was... What were you playing at?
Why won't you tell me?!"
"You've been nothing but a complete
jerk about Viktor. You didn't deserve to know." She stepped closer,
although the action wasn't nearly as menacing as she had meant it to be.
"How can you be selfish enough to think that you deserve to be my confidant
in any way? Because let me tell you now, you have done nothing to earn
my confidence or trust."
Ron had gone quite red. "What have I
done? I've made you laugh, I've listened to you complain, I've cheered you up
when you're depressed, I've defended you... And I am not a complete
jerk," he added as an afterthought, his eyes blazing.
Hermione had also gone red with rage.
"You, Ron Weasley," she said,
with an impressive certainty, "are a complete jerk."
Her cheeks flushed, she reached out to
shove him out of her way, yet ended up with his lips on her's in a feverish
kiss.
Here ends
part 4 of Picturesque, a.k.a Let's All Kick Walls.
Congratulations to Jessica, who emailed me with the correct quote of Dido's
song "Thank You". (It was "I'm wondering why I got out of bed at
all", and Ginny said it). Her prize was to have any character she wanted
mentioned in this chapter, and her choice was Angelina...Hence the
shoe-throwing-story.
What's next for Ron and Herm? Will Harry and Ginny 'bond' some more? Does Ron
get turned on when people insult him or something? Find out...
Next time: *This* chapter *will* have Charlie! There will be sap and angst..And
possibly a mention of Draco Malfoy. ;) Chapter Five will have a possibly
unexpected tie-in with Chapter One.
There will probably be 1-3 more chapters of Picturesque...It all depends on how
much I decide to include in the next chapter.
Thanks to all who reviewed despite Fidoish difficulties, and thanks to those
who emailed me just to give me a review.