Harry Potter - Series Fan Fiction ❯ Hermione Granger and the Weasley Wedding ❯ Hermione's Confession ( Chapter 3 )

Chapter 3: Hermione's Confession

 

Hermione and Ron went back into the house after their passionate kiss on the garden ground. She felt as if she were on cloud nine or higher. They came into the kitchen for dinner, holding hands and looking flushed. Mrs. Weasley spotted them and handed Ron a napkin. She muttered in his ear, “You're going to want to wash your face before your father sees you! He's on his way home from work. Hurry dear.” Ron wet the napkin with his wand, muttering the Aguamenti spell. He scrubbed his face clean of dirt and Hermione's pink lip gloss she had been wearing. Hermione was doing the same, and soon, they were washed clean of any traces of their kissing and tumbling in the dirt. Just as they finished, Arthur Apparated with a pop, home from work at the Ministry.

“Hullo, Dad,” Ron said. He was still looking sheepishly away from his mother. She was smiling, but her expression was unreadable. “How was work today?”

“Oh, the usual, except for one incident this morning: some wizard thought it would be funny to bewitch a Muggle's car keys so that every time he tried to put them in and crank up his car, the key would refuse to turn and scream so loudly, that the police came thinking it was a car alarm. We successfully fixed it though, and modified their memories. Oh, and while I was out and about taking care of that, I saw Frank and Alice Longbottom. Their therapy is coming on quite successfully. I'd say that they'll be back out in the wizarding world before long. Neville will finally have his parents back. Never too late for that, I say.”

“Wherever is Percy?” Mrs. Weasley asked.

“Oh, he told me to tell you that he would be along shortly. He had some business to take care of, though I doubt you'll get it out of him as quickly as you did me. You know how secretive he is about his job.”

“Oh, yes, I know. Ron, dear, I found my dinner bell. It turns out that Fred and George had enchanted it to make it look like a broom. When I started to make the brooms sweep today, I noticed that one of them was half tinkling, and half making this horrible scraping noise across the floor. I figured it out shortly.”

“Did you send them a Howler?” Ron asked, still standing holding Hermione's hand in the spot that they had Apparated to.

“Of course, not that it will do them any good whatsoever. Come, dears, do sit down. Oh, and I have several announcements to make at dinner tonight.”

“Does she always announce things at mealtimes?” Hermione asked Ron warily.

“I'm afraid so. It's the only time she can get most of us together. That way she doesn't have to tell the same thing ten times or more. She used to have an announcement board that she would post them on, but everyone quit reading it. Needless to say, that didn't bode well. Things began going haywire. So now, all announcements are made at mealtime.” Ron shook his head as he pulled out Hermione's chair for her, and then sat down. He put a hand comfortingly on her thigh, and she smiled over at him. People began Apparating left and right and taking seats around the enlarged table. Percy appeared at the last minute as Mrs. Weasley began serving boiled and fried fish and some deep fried chips.

When everyone had settled into their meals, Mrs. Weasley began to make her announcements. “First of all, a couple of Fleur's friends will be visiting for a day or two. They will stay in Fred and George's room since the twins are at their shop. These friends are her dear beloved sister and that other boy who was in the tournament with Harry. What was his name? He was that Quidditch player Ron was always going on about.”

“Viktor Krum,” Hermione said automatically. She then realized the gravity of Viktor being here. He had had sort of a thing for her during the Triwizard Tournament. She couldn't risk him being here, because that could mean she would risk losing what she and Ron had just so recently found in each other—love.

Ron watched Hermione's face closely after she said Krum's name. A myriad of expressions passed over her face. First there was anger, then what looked to him like fear, then depression, and finally a look of resignation. “All right there, Hermione?”

“Why is he coming here, Ron?” she asked putting her face in her hands, because she couldn't bear for Ron to see the tears that were coursing down her cheeks.

He grabbed her hand to pull her away from the table and called to the table at large, “Excuse us a moment. We'll be right back.” They walked into the corner of the kitchen and chatter at the table resumed as if nothing were wrong. Hermione stood in the corner facing outward toward Ron and his back blocked any view of her from the table. “What is it?”

“He's going to come here…tell you things…make you jealous…you'll hate me forever!” This babble of speech escaped Hermione before she could help it and she clapped her hands over her mouth afterward, as if to stem the flow.

“Now, why would I ever hate you?” he whispered urgently. “I've just now in the garden told you I love you. It would take a lot to turn that love to hate.”

“You'll hate me when Krum tells you things,” Hermione said fervently.

“What kinds of things?” Ron asked patiently. Suddenly, he noticed the room had gone strangely quiet. He looked round to see that every eye was on them. He pulled Hermione from the room, and reluctant chatter resumed in the kitchen. He sat Hermione down on the couch and sat next to her. “What kinds of things?” he asked again persistently.

“The things that happened during the Triwizard Tournament,” Hermione sobbed. Suddenly the whole story just came pouring out of her as if the dam had broken. “After the Yule Ball that night, when you and Harry had gone to bed, I was so angry with you for not asking me to the Ball. I went with Krum back to the Durmstrang ship to his room. Some of his mates were there, but he kicked them out. We started kissing, and he had pulled my dress robes down to my waist. It would have gone farther, except Karkaroff came bursting in on us, because his mates had told on him. Oh, Ron, I was so mad at you that I would have let it go on and on until—” she broke off with a tremendous sob. She was rocking back and forth now; the memory was so painful in her mind. Ron pulled her into the circle of his arms and let her cry for a few moments of agonizing silence. She finally lifted her head, her face rather tear-streaked. Ron thought she had never looked more beautiful. “Do you hate me then?” she whimpered.

“No,” he said simply. “I mean there's nothing more to say. I can't hold your past against you. I mean, do you hold it against me because I dated Lavender Brown?”

“Of course not!”

“All right then. Leave it at that.” He was thinking to himself that he couldn't hold it against her at all, especially since she did it out of anger and jealousy. He had been so stupid not to see her feelings for him then and to ask her to the Yule Ball. But then, perhaps, they wouldn't be as close as they were now. It had taken her a lot of courage to even tell him that. He hugged her close, her tears now subsiding. “C'mon, let's go back to dinner. It's getting cold, and Mum's going to think we're up to something.” They rose and went back to the kitchen. They stopped at the kitchen door and he wiped her face with his napkin from earlier. “Don't worry about it,” he whispered in her ear.

They sat down at the table and continued to eat. The fish was rather cold now. “Is everything all right then?” Arthur asked concernedly.

“Yes, Dad,” Ron nodded as he forked a bite of cold fish into his mouth.

After dinner, Ron walked Hermione up the stairs after everyone else had headed to their rooms for the night. He kissed her goodnight outside Ginny's door. She still was looking fretful. “Don't worry about it,” he told her again, and Disapparated to his room. He lay in bed thinking again about what she had told him. He would kick Viktor's Quidditch playing arse over this if he had to, he thought. As he fell asleep, he thought he could always send one of Charlie's dragons Krum's way.

Hermione lay in bed thinking about the same thing Ron was. She was thinking about how she had sworn never to tell anyone, except Ginny, and now her precious Ron knew. Amazingly enough he didn't hate her. She knew that if they were going to have any kind of future together, she was going to have to eventually tell him, but she hadn't planned on doing so this soon in their life together. They weren't even engaged yet. When she fell asleep, she dreamed of Ron proposing to her.

 

The next morning, Hermione woke before Ron did. She went downstairs for breakfast, only to find that the kitchen was deserted. Hermione shrugged, and began making some eggs and bacon. Ron appeared in the kitchen a little while later, still rubbing sleep out of his eyes. “Where's Mum?”

“I don't know. When I came downstairs this morning, everyone seemed to be gone. I thought to make some breakfast, though. Sit down and eat while I go bathe.” Ron did sit and eat, but wondered why she wanted to leave him instead of eating with him. He shrugged, and after eating followed Hermione's suit and took a bath. When they were both clean, Hermione suggested they go look for everyone. Finally, Hermione found a note scribbled hastily lying on the kitchen floor. “Ron, I found something!” she called and he came running.

“Look, it's a note from your mother.”

“Well, what does it say?” he asked impatiently.

“It says that they're gone to London to pick up the guests. I assume she means Krum and Fleur's sister. She says they'll be back soon. Well it's obvious that Fleur and Charlie went with her. Didn't Bill have to go back to work at Gringotts today? Your father and Percy will be at work. That means that Dean, Seamus, and Neville are still upstairs asleep.”

“No, they flew home last night after dinner. They said they needed to go see their families but that they would be back in a few days, on the same day as Fred and George. I think that's the day Krum and Fleur's sister are leaving. This way, we don't have too many people in the house.”

“Hmm,” Hermione mused. “That means we have the house to ourselves. What shall we do? It is a beautiful day.”

“Hermione, I think we need to talk.”

“Oh dear, I just knew something like this was going to happen. You're breaking up with me aren't you? I knew you would after last night. How could I have possibly thought you would stay with me after what I told you? I—”

“I am NOT breaking up with you!” Ron exclaimed, looking flabbergasted at how she could have thought that. “I just think we should talk more seriously about our future is all.”

“Oh,” Hermione said, half of her relieved, the other half embarrassed. “What about our future? I thought we agreed last night that we definitely have one together.”

“This is why we should talk more seriously about it, of course.” Ron ruffled her hair. “Come on, let's talk outside. Better out than in, as Hagrid likes to say!” Hermione laughed at this, remembering when Ron's wand had been broken and his slug-eating spell had backfired on him when he tried to curse Malfoy for calling her a Mudblood. That had been disgusting, but now it was pretty funny.

They walked outside. “Ron, I am sorry about last night, but if we do have a future together, that is something that you would have found out anyway. I think it was better if you heard it from me.”

“Yeah, well, I sort of have a confession for you, too, although I don't think it's quite as serious as the one you told me.”

“All right, let's hear it,” Hermione answered, feeling slightly better about her confession now that she knew he had secrets, too.

“The only reason I did any of the `brave' things I did while we were in school was to impress you. I've liked you from the moment I saw you on the Hogwarts Express looking for Neville's toad. I remember thinking how embarrassed I was when you told me my spell for turning Scabbers yellow wasn't very good. I felt even worse when your spell to fix Harry's glasses worked, and my spell was so stupid. And while we're on with confessions, I only dated Lavender to see if you would admit you liked me. When you didn't and started dating McLaggen, I honestly thought you didn't like me. That's why everything happened the way it did. I didn't ask you to the Yule Ball soon enough because I was scared. I've never been brave, never. At least, I wasn't until you came along. It's like you spark things in me that I thought weren't there. I thought I could never love a girl, and look at me now. I'm head over heels for the mental girl I had to save from the troll in the girl's lavatory by using Wingardium Leviosa.”

“I won't ever forget that, Ron. Harry's wand was covered in troll bogeys! It was disgusting. And then I took the blame, and I couldn't even help myself. I liked you so much in that moment; I had to do something for you.”

“Oi, speaking of Harry, look!” Hermione and Ron peered to the sky together to see Harry and Ginny Potter bearing down on them, each on Firebolts. Harry must have bought Ginny one, Hermione thought and voiced this thought to Ron. He nodded. Harry and Ginny landed. Harry ran to Ron to give him a hug as Ginny did the same to Hermione. Then they each swapped and hugged the other. Ginny was glowing in a rather peculiar way, and Harry was grinning from ear to ear.

“Harry, Ginny, how has everything been? We've missed you two so much!” Hermione exclaimed cheerily. Besides Ron, Harry and Ginny were her other two best friends.

“Oh, Hermione, I have so much to tell you,” Ginny gushed, and ushered her away from the boys.

When they were out of earshot, Harry asked Ron, “Have you done it yet?”

“I most certainly have not. I was waiting for you and Ginny to be here. Dean, Neville, and Seamus are coming back for it, too. Does Ginny know? She'll for sure spill the beans to Hermione if she does.”

“No, she doesn't know, but I do plan to tell her tonight. I just knew she would want to tell Hermione as soon as she saw her. Now that they will have already talked, I think we can keep it under wraps. Where's the package? I want to see it.”

“Hermione has it. It's in her trunk.”

“She hasn't opened it?” Harry asked incredulously.

“No, not as far as I know. She would have asked me about it for sure if she had. I feel so bad, because almost everyone knows, except Hermione, and I think she suspects something.”

“Of course she does, because she's shrewd. Don't worry, you can tell her in a few more days.”

“I don't know if I will last that long. Viktor Krum is coming to visit along with Fleur's little sister.”

“Why the devil does Krum want to be here?”

“Beats me, but he's coming all the same. They've gone to London to pick him up. They should be back any minute.”

“Ah, well, I suppose we'll all catch up then.”

“I'm worried about Hermione though, what with her and Krum having a bit of a past, if you know what I mean.”

“Don't worry, Ron! Come on; let's go find the girls before Hermione finds out too much.”