Ch. 6

Hermione's POV

I spent most of Saturday morning packing up everything that Ron had given me, and after I had finished I wasn't sure whether to be happy or sad about the small box sitting in front of me. I had gone from feeling numb to feeling empty inside. I wasn't even really sad anymore. Every time I thought about what had happened, I felt more anger than anything.

After changing into dark jeans and a white sweater, I slipped on my boots and grabbed the box, leaving my bedroom.

A sudden crack got my attention and I pulled out my wand, chastising myself for forgetting to place the anti-apparation charms up. My eyes narrowed as I saw who was standing in the middle of my living room.

"Ronald, get out!" I yelled.

He held up his hands and said, "Hermione, please. I want to talk about this. We can work through this."

I fired a jinx at him which he dodged. "You seriously think I want to be with you after you sleep with another woman? Did you hit your head?!"

He dodged another one of my jinxes and yelled, "I love you! I want to try and fix it!"

"There's nothing to fix!" I shouted angrily. "You ruined !"

I found myself crying again as I shouted at him. He was watching me with sad eyes, which only made me angrier. I aimed another jinx at him before disapparating to the first place I could think of.

I landed in the alleyway behind my favorite bookshop. I could hear the voices from the road and I sighed, making my way out of the alleyway.

A hand grabbed me suddenly and pulled me back. I sent a jinx back behind me and saw Ron holding onto my arm. I pulled my arm out of his grasp and yelled, "Why can't you leave me alone!"

He held up his hands and said frantically, "Please! Just give me a few minutes to talk!"

I hit him with a before I disapparated again. Harry jumped when I landed in the middle of his living room while panting. 

"Hermione?" He asked, standing up in confusion. "What are you doing here?"

I ran towards him and heard the pop behind me that signaled Ron had found me again. I sent back another towards him and he dodged it.

"Hermione, please!" He yelled in frustration.

Harry suddenly got between Ron and I, pointing his wand at Ron and casting a Leg-Lock jinx. Ron's arms flailed as he fell forward, landing face down on the floor.

"What the hell, mate!" Ron groaned as he lifted his torso. "Why did you do that!"

I wiped away the few tears that had escaped and glared at my ex fiancé. "Why were you following me? How did you even know where I was going?"

Harry gave me an odd look. "What happened?"

"He apparated into my apartment and when I disapparated to get away from him, he followed me!" I explained angrily. "I apparated to the library, and then here!"

Harry glared at Ron who was rolling over on the carpet before turning back to me. "Ginny's at the place where I bought breakfast from yesterday. Go there, I'll make sure he doesn't follow you."

I nodded and apparated away, hoping that Ron wouldn't follow me this time.

Harry's POV

After Hermione disapparated, I turned back to Ron and said, "Why can't you leave her alone?"

"You don't understand," Ron said sadly as he struggled. "I just wanted to talk to her and try to make things right!"

"Ron, you admitted to her hardly two days ago that you slept with someone else!" I exclaimed. "She doesn't want to see you, or make things right!"

I watched him pull himself up onto the couch and put his head in his hands. "I messed up. I made a horrible mistake."

"Well, I'm not going to argue with that," I said bluntly, sitting down in one of my chairs. "You need to leave her alone."

He groaned in frustration. "I just want to try and fix this as soon as possible so we can go back to normal."

"You can't, not right now." I shook my head. "If anything, this little stunt you pulled just made it worse."

"Really?" Ron gave me a pathetic look.

"You seriously thought chasing her around was going to win her back?" I asked, gesturing towards where they both had apparated into my living room.

"I..." He trailed off and looked away. "I don't know. I panicked and thought if she left, I'd never see her again."

I sighed, leaning back into my chair. "Look, I know you want to make things right. But you need to realize that you messed up bad. Really bad. Hermione wants nothing to do with you right now and you need to respect that, regardless of how badly you want to see her and try to explain things. If you don't respect her wishes, you're only going to drive her away from you."

He was silent for a few moments, and then he bowed his head and said quietly, "You're right. I just hope we can get past this."

"Don't get your hopes up," I muttered. "You can't expect her to forgive you easily after what you did. And frankly, I'm angry with you too. Hermione is supposed to be our best friend, and you betrayed her. You two were supposed to get married in a few months."

I watched his eyes start to water. "I just...I don't know, mate, I panicked. It all became too real. And all we ever talked about was the wedding. I missed our regular conversations, I missed having fun with her."

"You're the one who threw that away, not her," I said angrily. "She was planning what was supposed to be the happiest day of both of your lives, and you wanted no part in it! Do you know how upset she was about that? She wanted your opinion on things because it was your day too!"

"I'm sorry, alright?!" He exclaimed. "I didn't mean to sleep with that girl! I'm only human!"

"I'm not the one you need to be apologizing to, and you've ruined your chances of apologizing to her anytime soon," I said calmly. Then I stood up and undid the jinx I put on his legs, thinking about how I could make sure Ron would stay away from Hermione.

Hermione's POV

I apparated into the alley behind the muggle café where I knew Ginny was and quickly walked around the corner. Sure enough, Ginny was sitting in one of the booths next to the window. She looked up and saw me, smiling until she got a good look at my panicked expression.

"What's wrong?" She asked, standing up when I made it inside and to her booth.

"Ronald," I said quickly. "He apparated into my apartment not too long ago and then practically followed me around London trying to talk to me."

Her face started to turn red from anger. "Are you serious?"

I nodded. "I finally apparated to your place, and thank Merlin Harry was there, otherwise Ron still might be chasing me."