“Ron, I-”
“Hermione, I don’t even want to talk about it anymore.”
“Please! I love you, and I know you love me!”
He turned around and looked into her innocent eyes as she stared deep into his. Her words echoed into his brain as she spoke, yet he knew that they meant nothing to him. He had loved her; he had really, truly loved her, yes, but that was all gone now.
She had let her love in too deep, and now she was having a hard time in getting out of it. She couldn’t get out of it--- not now. She couldn’t stop loving him, and she couldn’t let him go. She knew that she had to; he had done something so terrible that all of her friends looked at him as if he were filth. Hermione knew that what Ron had done was awful, but she didn’t seem to care. Inside she was burning with anger that he had been with another girl, but her insides also felt burning from passion hidden deep within her heart--- of love. She loved him, and love always forgave, no matter what the consequence was.
Ron and Hermione had been going out for well over a year, and nearly always seemed to be together. No on in Hogwarts had been able to hear ‘Ron’ without ‘Hermione’ for quite a while now. They were so in love that it was sickening to some, but Ron had gotten bored in the course of their long-term relationship. He had found Lavender . . . again, as she sat alone by the fire in the Gryffindor common room at nearly three in the morning. He had been trying to finish a Potions essay. Any other time Hermione would have helped him, but this particular night she had been ill and had gone to bed early. But, since she hadn’t been close by, he had experienced a need worse than no other towards the girl across the room. And he had gotten what he wanted.
Of course, since no one could keep secrets at Hogwarts, Hermione had found out, as soon as she woke, from one of her wide-eyed friends: it just happened to be Ginny Weasley. Ron’s baby sister had had to tell her best friend what he had done to her, and immediately Hermione had had a million things echo through her mind: Is it over? Did he really love me or was it all just an act? Does he now go out with Lavender? She had cried nearly all day, crying until there were no tears left in her pale form, but still she had been extremely upset over this. How could he had done this to her after so long, and why had he just had the sudden impulse to make a move on another girl?
The next few days had been a living hell for Hermione Granger. Ron had not been there to hold her hand or walk her to classes as he had that entire school year; she had had no one to talk to at lunch, as Harry was on a special, top-secret mission for the Order and had not been at school, on which Hermione and Ron had been forbidden to go. Ginny had not been able to sit with her because she had had a different lunch period because of her certain classes. So, Hermione had sat alone, most of the time peering around corners to see if Ron was coming, most of the time being disappointed by another red-haired person.
On one occasion she had even caught him snogging her in the middle of the Great Hall; he seemed to not care about what anyone else thought about him. Apparently, neither did Lavender Brown, because she was caught quite a few times with him and had no other friends because of this whole ordeal. No one wanted to be associated with an asset of a major crime in a relationship. Hermione had usually run to the bathroom and eaten the rest of her lunch there when she had caught the two together, blindly eating what was left of her food due to the blurry restrictions in front of her eyes that ultimately fell onto her lap.
Hermione had wept more the past few days than she had in her entire life, knowing that her relationship was truly over. Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, over. The words sent chills down her spine as she thought them, making her want to start weeping for the twentieth time that day. One skinny boy had never let her forget that the two were over: Draco Malfoy.
“Hey, Granger! Where’s your boyfriend, the Weasel?” He would then look at his cronies and smirk for a moment, trying to build up some suspense. “Oh, I forgot,” he would continue, “he left you for Brown!”
But she had never known until this moment that he, Draco Malfoy, had loved her all those months that she had been with Ron.
She had finally found her own relationship to be in, and she no longer cried all hours of the day. She noticed a shocked Ron as she walked down the hallways of Hogwarts with a new hand to hold.
~ * ~
As she leaned in to kiss Draco again, she took a quick glance over at Ron as he and Lavender stood there, talking. They eventually leaned into each other to have another long, droning snogging session. Hermione felt as if he was only doing it to show off in front of her to make her upset. But, little did he know, it had absolutely no effect on her whatsoever.
She meant nothing to him anymore. He meant nothing to her anymore. She said nothing to him anymore, yet she thought a great deal. I fell for you once and forever. I’ll never be the same and I’ll love you always, she reflected. Those words felt etched into her mind as she thought them. She would reflect on him one last time, and that one time only. She would never think of him again.
No more memories. No more hurt. No more pain.
Hermione felt free.
Livid by Ron x Hermione
Chapter Notes: This was also a drabble that I wrote on the forums for a class, but I decided it fit well along with my SPEW prompt. Thanks times a thousand to Karin/songbook99 for being a dear and betaing this for me.