The silence at the dining table was deafening. Ron summarised everybody’s reaction as pure shock. Just shock. Somehow, he was surprised that he did not feel even the slightest tinge of opposition in the room. Or was there any?
“Oh sweet Merlin!” came Mrs. Weasley’s sudden exclamation, to which everyone started and turned their focus from Ron to her. Even Ron looked at her questioningly.
Suddenly aware of all the attention on her, Mrs. Weasley’s voice toned down and she said, “Oh my! Ron, do you know about Matthew and Hermione?”
“Of course, Mum! I know that Matthew is Hermione’s son.”
“Then…”
“Look Mum, what has happened to Hermione in her past is none of my business.” Looking at everyone, Ron said, “You know, I don’t care about her past. All I know is I am going to marry Hermione and that is final!”
Before anyone could offer an explanation, Ron had walked out of the room.
Back in his room, Ron had no idea as to why his mother was upset over the decision. He could not sit for long and began pacing. He was so engrossed in his thoughts that he did not notice his mother enter the room.
“Ron, dear!”
Ron looked at his mother, with lots of questions in his eyes.
“Before you say anything, just listen to me.”
Ron was silent and Mrs.Weasley sat on his bed to continue.
“Your father told me that he had told you everything about Hermione’s past. I’m sorry dear, I didn’t know that you knew. I didn’t mean to tell you that I was against your decision. It’s just that your decision took me by surprise. I just want to make sure that you aren’t marrying Hermione out of pity or sympathy because heaven knows that of all the things Hermione deserves, pity is not one of them.”
Ron was genuinely shocked at his mother’s words because whatever he had expected his mother to tell him, this was not it. Silence told him that his reaction was expected soon.
Not able to handle it, he knelt before her and said, “Mum! Of course I am not marrying her out of pity or anything like that. I would be lying if I said that I never loved her before. I have loved her since we began dating. Seeing her now, after so many years and as a mother, did surprise me. But now, along with love, I also respect her for standing up and facing everything. As for Matthew, he is such an adorable kid. I want to marry her purely because I love her and Matthew a lot.”
Mrs.Weasley looked proudly at her son and said, “Good. Then I want you to invite her over for dinner.”
Ron couldn’t believe his luck. So he hugged his mother with the fiercest hug a son could ever give his mother.
Downstairs at the dinner table joy was running its highest. Now that Ron’s decision had sunk in, everybody was taking their opportunity to tease Ron. So much so that Fred said, “Does that mean we get to tease Hermione like we do to Ginny?”
“Excuse me?” Ron raised an eyebrow.
“Well, brother, look at him. All grown up and getting married. Already defending Hermione,” George said, with a mock sniff.
“Oh yeah, but don’t forget, Ronniekins, what happened the last time you tried to defend Hermione. Come to think of it, you sure you don’t need a new wand?”
The whole room burst into laughter with the memory, and Ron, not able to hold his irritation for long, also joined them.
~*~
Normally Hermione would feel very sad and lonely every time she’d return home after dropping Matt at school. She would clean up her house a bit (it always became messy during Matt’s visits), and complete her incomplete Ministry work till she would feel sleepy and just drop off to sleep.
But tonight she felt different; she was feeling very elated and happy for once. In fact, she had not experienced such an overwhelming desire to do a happy dance since . . . well since Matt was born. And that was a very long time back. Maybe Ron and the puddle incident had something to do with it.
Maybe? Of course, that incident did have everything to do with her feelings at the moment. Even she, one of the most brilliant students of Hogwarts and a master of vocabulary, did not have words to describe the feelings her heart felt then. It seemed to her as if her body and her mind were separated at the moment and she was in a trance, because while her body was doing the regular jobs of cleaning up, her mind was still stuck at the image when she and Ron had kissed. For once, she did not bother to analyze her feelings. She broke out of reverie, only when she had realised that, as usual, she was sitting at her desk to do her Ministry work. Deciding to give it a break, she just closed it and walked towards her bed.
As she fell asleep, thousands of thoughts swirled in her mind: both pleasant and unpleasant. Images of her and Ron dating, the Trio in the war, Ron breaking up with her on the last night at Hogwarts, her meeting Ron suddenly at the Ministry, each irritating yet humorous disaster of a date, Ginny telling her that Ron had found himself a bride . . .
A sudden knock at the front door woke up Hermione rather rudely. Still in her dreamworld about Ron, she almost mechanically got up. She caught herself, just in time, for being careless and armed herself with her wand. Just because her lifestyle was muggle, it didn’t meant she had slacked off over her hexes. She could still throw a mean hex when push came to shove.
Bracing herself for the worst, she slowly and cautiously opened the door. What, or whom, she saw outside her door left her blank for a second.
“You?”
Of course it was worse, but nothing like what she had expected. Standing on the other side of the doorway was Ian, her husband. The same man who left her at a point in her life when she most needed him, Matthew’s birth. She still remembered the day like yesterday.
Hermione was in pain. She was in labour. A moment which she had longed to share with Ian. She had always thought all the distances that Ian had maintained all these days would fade away once a baby came into their life.
She was being taken away to the labour room, while her doctor kept telling her, “Hermione! It’s time! We cannot wait any longer!” Whilst she kept telling the doctor, and herself, “No, he’ll surely come. He has been waiting for this for a long time, maybe longer than me. Just call him, will you?” She somehow groped into her purse and handed out her husband’s business card.
There was no response, but since the doctor told her that waiting for some more time would be dangerous for her and the baby, she consented to carry on with the delivery.
It was probably the happiest moment of her life when she held little Matthew in her arms. She could not fathom how something so small could look so breathtaking at the same time. Ironically enough, that was the saddest moment of her life, when the nurse told her that there was no response from Ian’s office. That was the moment when all her fears came true. All the illusions she had been living in, shattered like glass.
“Mrs. Crest? Nobody seems to be receiving calls at your husband’s office.”
“It’s okay. There’s no need for trying that number now.”
“I am sorry. And congratulations on the baby, Mrs.Crest.”
It was at that moment that Hermione really faced the reality because she said,“No, not Mrs. Crest, It’s Miss Granger.”
The nurse had walked away, but Hermione continued in a whisper, “and you, my baby, are Matthew Christopher Granger.”
She came out of her trance at the sound of a gruff voice, but could not shake out the loss of speech. Ian looked at her and spoke, “Hermione, I know you are surprised. No, surprised is an understatement. More like shocked, aren’t you?”
Still unable to speak, she nodded slowly.
Ian continued, “Hermione, look, I am sorry to have left you so many years ago. But, all I wanted to do was earn more so that I could give you a more comfortable lifestyle. You do admit that we were not living a very lavish lifestyle then, and there was a baby on its way. I just had to-”
Now that the presence of Ian had sunk in, Hermione interrupted, “Wait a minute! What are you doing here? And did you think that by just walking into my apartment first thing in the morning and explaining yourself you’ll be able to make me forget what you did six years back? Because if that’s what you think, you are entirely wrong mister.”
Ian was understandably alarmed by the stand Hermione had taken about things. Apparently he had expected such an outburst. So he shifted a little and said, “Of course not. I did not think it would be like that. Look, if you need some time, I’ll gladly give you that. Whenever you have made up your mind, call me. I am staying at a hotel nearby. Here’s the number.” Ian wrote down the name of the hotel and its number on a paper. Then he left after kissing her on the cheek.
Hermione would have stood there dumbfounded forever if the cellphone on the nightstand wouldn’t have started ringing.
“Hello?”
“Good Morning, my love.”
“Excuse me?”
“Hey hey, its Ron!”
“Oh Ron! Sorry, I was kind of preoccupied in my own thoughts. So what makes you call me early in the morning?”
“Oh, I just called to say, I love you…”
Hermione could not control it anymore and started laughing at Ron’s offtune singing.
“Really?”
“Really! Anyway, jokes and off tune singing apart, I have called you to invite you to dinner tonight.”
“Why?”
“Just like that! No, actually I have a surprise for you. So be there . . . wait, on second thought, I’ll pick you up at four. Okay?”
“Ummm...OK.”
“Ok, Bye …and ‘Mione?”
“Yes, Ron?”
“I love you.”
“I. . .I love you too.”
And Ron hung up. Hermione could not hold it in her anymore and she cried. She cried hard for the second time in a week.
~*~