If You Love Her (Ron Weasley)

Twenty-Four

Life had been good for a while, having Seamus back in my life, back teasing me about anything and everything. Seeing Seamus, Dean and Neville together again, it felt as if my heart was hole again after months of missing a huge part of it. 

That was, until my world came crashing down in a bitter reality, when I remembered I had to go for my detention with Umbridge. My "I must not cry" scar had just about faded, and now it was to be replaced with something else. Merlin only knew what that would be, but I figured my best bet was simply to ask the other boy who got detention alongside me. 

I hunted high and low for him, and finally found him sitting with Harry and Hermione on a little bench on the courtyard. 

"Ron," I couldn't have cared any less that the trio were deep in conversation, and I understood by the look in his eyes as they met mine that whatever they had been talking about was suddenly not important to him. 

"What's wrong?" He jumped up, and on another day I might have noticed the smirks on Harry and Hermione's faces, but my anxiety about my detention was far greater than my needing to acknowledge the teasing. 

"I need to talk to you," He nodded, and walked away from his friends without so much as a glance in their direction, taking my hand in his and leading me to somewhere more private.

"Are you okay? What's wrong?" He enquired, concern running through his eyes as he scanned my features, as if trying to deduce what could be so urgent. 

"What did she make you write?" I blurted out, and he furrowed his brow. "Umbridge,"

"Oh," He turned his hand over so that I could see the fresh markings, which read 'I should not defy,' "As if I would ever comply. Clearly she hasn't spent enough time with Harry yet,"

He was trying to joke, to lighten the mood, but I just swallowed thickly, unable to look at his face. 

"What's bothering you?" He pushed, his voice soft and quiet, and I shook my head.

"I was just thinking about last time, I lost so much blood I thought I was going to die, if it wasn't for you finding me then I honestly don't know what might have happened," My voice trembled and I truly felt pathetic, but he knew just how to make me feel reassured, as he wrapped his arms around me and held me close to his chest, so close I could feel his heartbeat, which was racing. 

"I'll always find you, I'll always protect you, and I'll never ever let anything happen to you," His words were reassuring, and they made my heart match the pace of his, as I contemplated the sheer weight of them.

"Why?" I understood that we had already had this conversation, but I really wished he would answer the question, truthfully and honestly, tell me what his true feelings were. But, I knew Ron Weasley, and I knew I had absolutely no chance.

"You know why," I felt my hatred for Umbridge bubble up to boiling point once again as I remembered the night after the Hufflepuff game, when Ron had been so painfully close to telling me how he felt, the night we had come so close to sharing a kiss. An almost-kiss I had hardly stopped thinking about since it happened. But now, his confidence from that night was long gone, and he cleared his throat awkwardly, taking his arms away from me and leaving me feeling cold and alone once more. "I'll come and find you tonight, I'll meet you in the entrance hall at eleven, I'm on patrol then,"

"You're wonderful," I smiled softly up at him, and felt my insides squirm as he gazed into my eyes, envious of the girls in the castle who found themselves able to walk by the redhead without feeling that their legs were about to give way beneath them. 

"It's only what you deserve," He mumbled.

"Ron! We need to go," Harry called from the bench, where he and Hermione had certainly been observing the entire interaction.