“Just Friends” by Desslok
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Chapter 3: Ron and Harry
“We’re both going to do this, right?” Hermione whispered as she and Harry stepped through the hedges. Harry nodded almost imperceptibly, his eyes scanning the dance floor and tables. “Good,” Hermione said. She leaned up and kissed him briefly on the cheek adding, “Good luck.”
As Hermione leaned back and began her own search of the grounds, she noted Harry’s posture stiffen suddenly. Following his eyes, she saw a very agitated looking Ron stalking off in the opposite direction, a wide-eyed Ginny sitting nearby simply staring at her in disbelief. “Oh no, Ron…” she stammered. Before she could dash off after him, she felt a hand on her shoulder.
“I think I’d better talk to him first, Hermione,” Harry said quietly, keeping his eyes firmly on Ron and nowhere near Ginny. He could feel her stare boring into his skin and he felt suddenly cold and empty inside.
“But Harry…” she began.
“No, I’m sure about this, Hermione. Let me talk to him. I know Ron and I think I know what’s going on.”
“Don’t let him…”
“Hit me?” Harry laughed darkly. “Maybe I should let him. It’s not like I don’t deserve it.” Without waiting to hear her protests, Harry set off, darting around the tables at the edge of the dance floor, never letting himself look over toward the gazebo.
He found Ron where he knew he would, standing by the broom shed. The tall redhead stooped down and scooped up a handful of pebbles and began angrily tossing them at the trees in the distance. Harry approached warily. “All right, Ron?” he asked.
Ron turned to face him, his eyes narrowed. For a moment, Harry thought he’d be getting a handful of rocks in the face, but, after a brief hesitation, Ron let them tumble to the ground.
“I’m fine,” Ron replied bitterly, a nasty scowl on his face. “That’s how it goes when your life sucks, isn’t it? Or is it, ‘I don’t want to talk about it.’ How about ‘You can never understand what it’s like.’ I always love that one.”
Memories flashed in Harry’s mind as the words, like daggers, pierced his soul. He felt his own anger rising, but desperately tried to control it. Ron knew him too well, though.
“Oh, did I piss you off, Harry? I’m so sorry. Yeah, it must really bug you when your supposed best friend won’t tell you what’s wrong with him, when he just blows you off so he can mope about on his own. Lucky for you, I know what that’s like. Why don’t you do what I do… go off and look for Hermione. Maybe she can worry about me for once. The two of you can go back to your romantic little walk by the pond.”
“Ron, it wasn’t like that…”
“Just sod off, Potter,” Ron interrupted. He turned back to the distant forest. “Maybe you ought to go screw up Fred and George’s lives now. It’s their turn, right? Or weren’t you done with Ginny and I yet?”
Ron waited, angry retorts to anything Harry might say swirling in his mind, ready to launch. Nothing. He could sense that Harry was still there behind him, but he heard nothing. Eventually, his curiosity overrode his anger and he slowly turned back. His eyes widened at the sight before him: Harry crouched down on the ground, staring off into space. His skin was pale, even in the moonlight.
Noting that Ron had turned around, Harry lifted his gaze to meet his friend’s. “I’d never do anything knowingly to hurt any of you, Ron. The Weasleys are the closest thing to a real family I’ve ever had,” Harry said in a breaking voice.
Seeing his best friend in such obvious pain helped to diffuse some of Ron’s anger, though not all. Unlike Ron who had grown up in a boisterous household of tempestuous people, Harry did not respond well to anger. Ron sighed and sat down on the ground, leaning back against the shed, not caring at all if his borrowed dress robes got dirty or torn.
“I know you don’t mean anything, Harry, but sometimes you sure can do a job of it,” Ron said quietly, and a bit more gently.
“Nothing happened with Hermione, Ron. We were just talking,” Harry began to explain. As he did, he began to understand that this time he’d have to be completely truthful. How many times had he made things worse by trying to protect his friends, by trying to figure out for himself what they should and shouldn’t hear? “We talked about her and I, Ron. We talked about it and I kissed her.” Noting the sudden worry and hurt on his friend’s face, Harry continued quickly. “It didn’t mean anything, Ron. Well, it did, but not what you think. It was like…“ Harry struggled to find the words to explain what had happened earlier. Ron simply waited, trying to figure out what Harry was getting to.
After a deep breath, Harry tried again. “Ron, I used to think I had feelings for Hermione. You know, more-than-friend feelings. I think that she used to have those feelings for me, too. But, what we figured out is that that was a long time ago and it’s over now. She’s just a friend, Ron. A very very good friend, but just a friend. She loves you, mate.”
“Did she say that?” Ron asked, his voice trembling just a little bit. “No, don’t answer that,” he added quickly. “If she does, well…”
“Better to hear it from her than me, Ron,” Harry finished for him, finally sitting down on the ground next to his friend. Crouching like that was tough on the calves. “She wants to talk to you, when we get back.” He fell silent, letting Ron digest what he had told him. He hoped he hadn’t said too much. After a long silence, Harry looked over at his friend with a hopeful expression. “So, are we all right now?”
“No, mate, we’re not,” Ron replied in a quiet, serious tone. He noted Harry’s look of alarm, but did not waiver. He still had some words for his best friend. “I can’t just sit back and watch you do what you’re doing to my sister, Harry. She doesn’t deserve that.”
Harry did not reply immediately. At first, he felt a surge of anger. What business was it of Ron’s? Then, he remembered that she was Ron’s little sister and that the two of them had always been close. The anger faded, quickly replaced by guilt. What had he done to Ginny? She’d seemed to take things pretty well when they’d talked at the funeral. Since then, they had been civil on the few occasions when they’d seen each other. Just because the very sight of her tore him up inside, just because the thought of living without her was making him miserable on a daily basis, that didn’t mean that she felt the same way, did it? Even as the thoughts passed through his mind, he knew the answer.
“I’ve been such an idiot,” Harry whispered, unaware he was speaking aloud.
“Yeah, you have,” Ron agreed. Harry looked up, shocked to realize that Ron had heard his thoughts. “You love her, mate,” Ron went on, “and she loves you and all you’ve done is push her away because you’re too busy being noble to figure out how stupid you’re acting.”
“That’s what she said,” Harry recalled, “at Dumbledore’s funeral, when I broke up with her: ‘stupid and noble.’”
“You’ve got a real problem with that, you know. I don’t know what Hermione said to you earlier, but I hope she told you how much of a pain it is. Just get it through your thick skull that we care about you and we’re going to be there to help you. All of us, not just Hermione and me. Fred, George, Neville, Luna, Hagrid, Bill, Charley, Mum, Dad, Lupin, Tonks… Ginny. We’re all going to be there, mate, so stop trying to keep us from helping you and just deal with it.”
“I never asked…” Harry tried to explain.
“Neither did we, Harry. We’re not asking. I’m telling you. This is the way it’s going to be. We all have everything to lose and everything to gain. It might be you that has to do it in the end, but nothing ever said you had to be alone. We’ll be right behind you, holding off those bastard Death Eaters while you do what needs to be done.” Ron reached over and laid his hand on Harry’s shoulder. “You’re stuck with all of us now, Harry. Whether you like it or not, you’re a Weasley now, in spirit at least.”
They sat together for awhile after that. Ron gave Harry time to sort out what he’d told him. He could see the wheels turning in his friend’s head, but he felt more confident than he ever had that this time, it just might stick. Soon, his thoughts began to drift back to the wedding and to what awaited him there. Had she really told Harry that she loved him? He suddenly felt very anxious and urgent to get back.
Harry looked over as Ron began to fidget, noting his friend’s longing gazes back to the wedding. He had a good idea what that was all about. Harry decided it was time he started to make up a little to the Weasley family for the pain he’d put them through. He understood now what Ron, and earlier Hermione, had been trying to tell him, what they’d really been trying to make him understand for years now.
“Ron, I really don’t want to think of myself as a Weasley,” he said with a sly smile.
Ron focused back on Harry with a shocked expression. “What do you mean? What’s wrong with being a Weasley!?” Noting Harry’s wicked grin, he started to get a glimmer of where this was going and he felt his stomach clench.
“Well, I just don’t think it would be appropriate for me to have those kinds of thoughts or to do those kinds of things to a sister…”
“Oi, stop it!” Ron yelled, jumping to his feet. “It’s bad enough that I had to see the two of you snogging all over the place. That’s my sister, mate!” He tried desperately to black out all the unwanted images of his pesky little sister and his best friend. “And you’d bloody well not be doing… you know… things… “
Harry stood up as well and began walking with Ron back to the wedding. “The only thing I’m going to be doing any time soon is begging, I think,” Harry informed his friend. “I’ve really messed things up and I only hope she’ll give me another chance.”
“She will, mate,” Ron reassured him, “but, well… a little begging might not be a bad plan.”
The two friends came back around the corner of the house and into the lights and music. Looking over, they saw Hermione and Ginny sitting close together where Ginny and Ron had been. They were facing each other, knees practically touching, and holding hands.
“I’ve got a bad feeling about that,” Ron muttered. Harry just laughed and pulled his friend forward. As they approached, the two young witches noticed and stood up.