Forget About It (Dramione)

25| Never

Hermione knew she'd have to explain the whole thing to Ron, at some point. She didn't realise it was going to be this hard. 

Harry had gone to bed early, and she'd asked Ron to stay behind. He looked surprised, which she understood as they hadn't spoken one-on-one since they'd broken up. They'd only had contact with Harry there to act as a diffuser. And it had been fine, but things were still strange between them. For the last couple of weeks, their group had been divided, with Hermione and Ron both relying on Harry to keep them all together. He'd spent a lot of time with Dean and Seamus, too, who were no doubt talking his ear off about how Malfoy was a prick and therefore she must be too. So this conversation was inevitable. 

They sat down on the large common room sofa, as soon as it became deserted. The fire was welcoming and the red and gold decor made Hermione think of home and being loved, but the dread in her heart opposed it all, making the fire too hot and all the red menacing. She remembered her and Ron's first kiss, how it had been in this very room, just over there. Things had changed so much, but Ron's expression was still friendly and warm, if a little wary. He was safety to her, someone she trusted and loved, both as a friend and more. She had to fix things. 

"Look, I just wanted to, sort of, explain everything. And if you get angry, fine, but there's still some things about Malfoy and I that I don't think you know. And I wanted to apologise, for treating you badly and going to see him instead of spending time with you. I know our friendship might never be the same, but I really want it to be." 

Ron nodded slowly, staring into the fire, his usually grinning face hard. He didn't say anything, so Hermione just began the story. 

She told everything she knew. How she'd gone down to the Three Broomsticks and been carried home by Malfoy and Zabini a few days after Ron and Lavender got together. That little detail made him suggest a small smile, but his eyes remained cold. 

How she'd agreed to help Malfoy with his homework as a price for Malfoy keeping quiet about the whole thing. How she'd they'd then got together. 

Then the spell, and the way he'd tried to wheedle his way back into getting free essays. How Harry confirmed Malfoy's story about the pub. The day she'd found out he'd been the one to obliviate her, then the day Harry had sent her back to him to get information about Voldemort. How she'd forced him to use the Pensieve for some answers when Malfoy pressed her about why she'd gone back to see him. How she'd watched herself kiss him in that dungeon classroom in his memory and realised he was telling the truth about all of it. 

Ron didn't like that part of her story, but he still didn't speak. Hermione was thankful. She just wanted to get her whole explanation out like she'd planned, then she could deal with his anger and betrayal afterwards. 

She kept going. How after that, she'd told herself she was going to get information about Voldemort for Harry, but how in reality she was curious about why she'd actually kissed him, and how it had confused her into thinking she liked him again, for real this time. She still didn't know what her forgotten self had been thinking, but she knew what Malfoy had. He was bored, and she was willing. That was all it was, so she told Ron with earnest that before the spell, she must've been jealous of him and Lavender, and after it, she was simply confused about why she'd done it before and fully made herself believe it was the right thing to do. She had been spending every evening with him, and because of that he wasn't being nasty to her. It was all just a silly, blind mistake, and now she was sure she didn't want him. She told him, before she forgot the detail, how Malfoy had confessed to her that he obliviated him because of an argument they had, that was all, and how it had gone wrong and she hadn't been supposed to forget the whole time they'd had together.