Lessons In Love

Chapter 15: A Fleeting Fancy

"Ronald." Hermione started, staring at him indifferently.

"Can I come in?" he asked shyly, his gaze falling from Hermione.

Harry looked at Hermione for permission before saying, "Yeah."

Ron stepped in just enough to close the door behind him and stuck his hands in his pockets, talking quietly, "After we got home from Hogsmeade, Harry went to bed but Seamus Finnegan and Dean Thomas flooed over and wanted to go get a drink."

He had both of their attention and continued, "We went to the Leaky Cauldron and Lavender was there."

Hermione rolled her eyes at the mentioning of the girl's name and folded her arms, trying not to interrupt.

"Honestly Hermione, nothing happened. We all three returned back to the Burrow and the guys had just left when you walked in…" He looked up with a small glimmer of hope in his eyes at Hermione.

She bit her lip, "Why would you even bring her here!"

"Hermione you know how mental she is! She flooed back with us once she heard where we were going. I was trying to get her to leave… and then you came…" He looked back down, sadly, "I would take some veritaserum to prove it to you if you had any…"

She started pacing again, "You should know better than that… I can't believe you were even associating with her at the Leaky Cauldron given your past experiences with her obsessing over you. If someone flooed back home with me… I would be livid Ronald! As it is, I never heard you arguing with her to leave when I had come in."

"Harry you know I would never cheat on Hermione!" Ron pleaded with his friend to help him, "Yeah I made a bad choice tonight, but I never did one bloody thing with her!"

She turned towards Ron and sighed, "How can I trust you? How would you feel if you walked in on Viktor Krum and I in the middle of the night?"

He bowed his head, low, "I probably wouldn't trust you 'Mione. All I can say is I am sorry," he realized that something must have been wrong for her to leave the school, "Hold on, why did you leave Hogwarts? I thought you were only supposed to come here during Christmas break?"

Harry rolled his eyes, "Well she was coming to confide in you to comfort her, but seeing as what happened with Lavender…"

"Oh shove off Harry!" Ron turned back to Hermione and walked closer to her, "Did you quit?"

Hermione held back tears as she wrapped her arms around herself and glared at him, "Well I was going to come to you… but I almost think I would rather go back with Snape right now!"

"Hermione no!" Ron grabbed her hands in his, "If you can forgive me, I would love it if you stayed here. We could truly be together, 'Mione… we could get married like Harry and Ginny."

Her gaze was averted to Harry who came to her rescue, "Ron I don't think that is what she wants right now, besides, Hermione needs to go back and finish what she started."

"Why are you encouraging her to go back to that greasy git!" he looked shocked.

"Because she can't run away from her problems." Harry stood up and wiped off his pants, as if there was dust on them.

Hermione took her hands from Ron and turned away from the two boys, "I don't know what I am going to do. I just think I need to be alone."

"Hermione-"

"Don't touch me Ronald. I need space from you. I think you were right when you said there was no way we could be together if I was at Hogwarts… and until I decide what my future holds, I think we need to call this off."