Broken But Beautiful~Dramione

Chapter three*

A few days had passed and Hermione still hadn't faced Ron even though he tried hard to "accidentally" bump into her. Instead of staying in her room she would either eat after everyone else, or go out.

When she wasn't eating or sleeping, one could find her locked up in her room reading one of her many books. Thankfully everybody kept their word and didn't speak of it to anyone else. There weren't hoards of reporters trying to get an interview on the lawn of the Burrow, as there had been just after the war ended.

Harry hesitantly came to the conclusion that Ron got knocked on the head by a quaffle and lost his memories on what happened over the summer. There wasn't any other explanation unless the polyjuice potion was used, but hoards of polyjuice in the Burrow would've been noticed. Everyone determined that Hermione was simply upset over the breakup, and regretted cheating on Ron who wasn't talking to her. Harry was still suspicious of the whole situation, but there was nothing for him to go off of.

"Hermione?" Molly knocked on the door.

"Come in." Hermione called. She sighed knowing that Molly came to convince her to talk to Ron. She sat straighter up in her chair and placed her book beside her. The door opened to reveal the kind looking witch with a beam on her face.

"Hi dear. How are you today?" She asked kindly.

"I'm pretty good. I've been reading a lot." Hermione smiled. She knew that Molly had good intentions behind everything she said and did, and just wanted what was best for her.  

"So I thought of a new way for you to start eating with us again, and isn't just you come down and talk and participate right away. Please don't interrupt until after I'm done. So to get over this whole thing, you'll start by eating with us. Then you'll move on to participating in the conversations we have. Once you're comfortable with that we can go on to you and Ron talking about everything that happened. And after that everything should be good and back to normal! I mean you shouldn't expect him to take you back after cheating on him, nor do I feel like you would want to get back with him, but at least you can be friends." Molly looked so proud of herself and her solution, Hermione felt somewhat bad to pop her bubble.

"I-I'm not ready." Hermione shook her head.

"I'm sorry if it feels like I'm pushing you too hard. But it's unfair to Ron for you to act like you did nothing wrong. And it's unfair to everyone here for you to be taking a whole room to yourself never sharing space with anybody." Molly said apologetically.

"Okay." Hermione said softly. She didn't even try to tell them she didn't cheat on him. It would be her word against his and she knew they wouldn't believe her. She was an outsider to the family after all.

"I truly cherish you as if you were my daughter, but it's time to interact with the family again." Molly got up and began to leave the room.

"Wait." Hermione said suddenly, as she made a last minute decision out of the pit of guilt growing in her stomach.

"Yes?"

"I'll eat lunch with you today."

"That's wonderful dear! It's almost ready. When it is, I'll call everybody."

Once Molly was gone Hermione plopped onto her creaky bed and hoped she made a decision she wouldn't regret later. The book she was currently reading, was one about the history of magical creatures. It reminded her of how much she hated how Elves were treated all over the world.

She clenched her hands into fists and then unclenched them over and over again. Her thoughts drifted to everything that had happened to her in the past year, and what did she feel? Pathetic and worthless.

Harry was the one who defeated Voldemort. Ron was the one who got the basilisk fang to destroy the cup. They didn't really need her. If she didn't get involved with those two, maybe she would still be with her parents right now. Or at least have more friends than just them. But no, her parents had died in Australia, and the trio had to push everyone close to them away to accomplish what was needed.

"Lunch is ready!" Molly called up the stairs. There was shuffling movements as six people made their way down the stairs including Hermione. As they took their seats, Hermione made sure to sit as far away as she could from Ron, and not have to look at him. Harry sat beside her on one side, and Ginny on the other.

"It's nice to have you eat with us." Harry smiled.

"Thanks." Hermione felt a little better about this. It was like a feather had been taken off of her heavily burdened heart. Everyone ate in an awkward silence waiting for someone to talk, but not willing to start the conversation themselves.

"This isn't fair." Ron finally said, and put his fork down.

"What isn't fair?" Ginny sighed.

"Hermione can't keep treating me differently because I broke up with her. She cheated on me."

"Okay." Hermione vigorously cut the meat on her plate with her knife.

"Why are you making this seem like it's my fault? I did nothing wrong." Ron slammed his hand on the table, startling Hermione.

Hermione looked down at the table and suddenly lost her appetite.

"Why? What could I possibly have done to you that gives you the right to treat me like this?"

"Nothing." Hermione murmured.

"Calm down Ron. Just drop it." Ginny intervened, seeing that Ron's protesting would get him nowhere. Ron settled back into a mood, and stopped talking.

For the remainder of the meal, George had been surprisingly quiet for who knows why. It was like a flower without petals, or a piano without the keys. While Fred tried to break the silence with a few jokes, George would just shrug or nod.

"What's wrong Georgie?" Fred finally asked. George handed him a letter from his pants pocket. Fred read through it furiously and dropped it in shock.

"Nonononono!" Fred desperately picked it back up and scanned the letter over and over. "There has to be some mistake. He can't have — have —"

"What?" Ginny grabbed the letter and read it. "Oh my gosh." She gasped. At everyone's expectant look, she explained. "Lee Jordan passed away this morning. He was killed by a death eater that must've escaped during the battle."

"I'm so sorry." Harry said sympathetically. He had a good friendship with Lee during their time at Hogwarts together.

"We'll need some time to ourselves." Fred furiously wiped away a forming tear as he helped George up and they dragged their feet to their room.

The rest of the meal was eaten in silence. Once the last person finished, the chairs scraped back and everybody somberly returned to their rooms. Hermione thanked Molly for the meal, and went back up to her own room.

Hermione beat herself up inside. Why couldn't she just tell them what happened? It's not like she did anything wrong right? There were no threats, no excuses to not say anything, so why couldn't she do it? She had made up her mind that someone impersonated Ron but there was no proof. She'd just come out looking like a fool with false claims. Her mind mulled over these things as she laid down in her bed. Maybe later... she thought. later...