Hayloft - ron weasley

24

the ball was only two weeks away.

girls were running around all over hogsmeade searching for the perfect dress.

briar had asked ginny and luna if they wanted to go with her the next day, to which they said yes.

no, ron and briar had not talked about the events that occurred that night of the party.

they acted as if it didn't happen, acting completely normal around each other.

harry told ron how proud he was that he had finally 'gotten the balls' to make a move on briar.

ron then rolled his eyes, not wanting to talk about it.

when harry pressed on about what happened the next day, ron simply told him he didn't know what they were, what it meant, what was going to happen, how she felt about him, how she felt about it.l, he didn't know where he stood for practically every question harry thought to ask.

his friend told him to just talk to her about it.

"that's much easier said then done, harry." ron grumbled.

then harry said he would talk to briar for him, causing ron to yank him back down to his seat in the common room, whisper shouting at him not to.

he told harry that he wanted to wait to talk about it till after the ball, he didn't want to mess anything up and jeopardize their plans for the night.

"but that's two weeks away!" harry countered.

"do you think i don't know that?!" he sighed nervously, glancing over to her.

"besides, i don't even think she remembers..." ron said as he turned back to his quidditch magazine.

"what?! what do you mean she doesn't remember?!" harry yelped a little louder than he mean to.

after being shushed by ron, he whispered very concerned, "did you slip her a love potion?"

"WHAT?!" now it was him who said something a little too loudly, causing many people, including briar, to look over to him spooked.

he lowered his voice back to a hushed tone, "of course i didn't you numpty!"

harry held his hands up in defense, "sorry, i just had to make sure."

ron ran a hand through his hair, visibly very stressed at that moment.

"i can't believe you think i'd do that!" his voice cracked, making the pitch higher.

"listen," he went on, "i want to wait till after the ball, then i will talk to her. i've already forgotten about it anyways. two more weeks will be easy to wait through."

that was a blatant lie.

he couldn't stop thinking about it.

he would lie awake at night either going over the scene in his head, think things his mother would kill him for, then feel guilty and tell himself to stop immediately.

or, he would overthink.

which he was no stranger to.

little did he know, briar wasnt a stranger to overthinking either, thinking the same things he was thinking at night.

it was a cruel cycle they both were in.

after about a day or two of acting like nothing happened, it almost felt like nothing truly did happen.

but briar convinced herself she didn't make this up.

it was real.

it had to be real.

but after that day or two things felt normal between them again.

only letting out their built up stress and awkwardness when they were away from each other.

"i feel like i'm gonna explode, gin." she groaned as she flopped back onto her mattress.

"i say you talk to him, get it all out there." she replied as she filed her nails down.

"no way!" she screeched, "i can't do that!"

"might i ask why?"

"because! what if i ask him about it and he says it was a drunken mistake. or worse, he doesn't even remember it and he'll freak out when i talk to him!"

ginny sat down on the side of her bed, sympathetically looking down at her, "listen, i don't think he was that drunk. honestly it would be more concerning if he wasn't very drunk and he still didn't remember you guys snogging!"

briar shuddered at the word 'snogging' not wanting to think about it too much, or else she would spiral into her thoughts.

she thought for a moment before speaking again, "ok, i have an idea of what i'll do."

ginny nodded to her to continue talking.

"i'll talk to him about it after the ball-"

"WHAT?! YOU CANT BE SERIOUS?! THATS TWO BLOODY WEEKS AWAY!"

briar rolled her eyes, "thanks for telling me gin, i didn't realize how much time there was until you told me just now." she said in a sarcastic tone.

"of course i know it's two weeks away!" she became more aggravated as she talked about it more and more.

"listen," she calmed herself down, "i don't want to talk about it much anymore. i just needed to vent about it, and now that's done. so now we wait."

a smile crept onto ginny's face, "you chose me to confide in."

briar couldn't help but chuckle wearily, "yeah, i did."

ginny now looked very pleased with herself, knowing briar had chosen her to vent to.

changing the subject quickly briar said, "but enough about me, you have yet to tell me what's going on between you and luna."

she suddenly laughed nervously, "i don't know what you're talking about."

"oh come off it. i've seen you two. now spill." briar leaned forward, "unless you want to keep it private, then you don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

"no, no, it's fine. i've been meaning to tell you anyways." ginny instantly becoming more relaxed.

"we're dating." she smiled down at the floor embarrassed.

briar had suddenly forgotten all about her own troubles and flung her arms around ginny, "oh, i'm so happy for you!"

ginny smiled brightly as she hugged her back.

"i still can't believe you snogged my brother." she said as she pulled away from briar, "i mean you could have picked anyone and you chose him?"

this chapter felt very rom com-y if you know what i mean.

with the like parallels of harry and ron talking about it and then when briar and ginny talked about it.