Harmione One Shots

H+H

Summary: Ginny shows Ron a prophecy left behind at the Burrow.

Ship: HarryPotterxHermioneGranger

All credit goes to Lysander12 on Ao3

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"I don't understand it."

Ginny crossed her arms, frowning. Ron was sitting just a few steps above the landing outside her room, his gaze fixed on the space between his feet. "Do you really? You were their best friend the whole time. You can't be the only one who never saw it coming."

He looked up and met her frown with his own. "Did you? You wanted him back, didn't you? You expected that he would come back to you when it was all over!"

She looked away, her heart beating a bit more laboriously at the sting of his words. "Come with me," she said softly.

"Where?"

But she didn't answer, simply descending the stairs, and heard him stand and follow her. She led him out of the house and towards the orchard, her gaze fixing on a tree on the far side, facing the stream.

Once she was on the far side of the tree, she turned and faced the trunk, immediately spotting the carving. "Look," she told her brother, pointing.

He looked, and frowned anew. "Who's HH?"

"There's a plus sign between them. It's H+H, surrounded by a heart. You know what that means."

His eyes narrowed. "When did he do this?"

"She did it, Ron, a few days after we came back from the World Cup."

His jaw fell open, and his face reddened. "But that was four years ago!"

"Yes."

"But... but... everything since then... what about me... and... and Krum?" He practically growled out the name.

"They weren't ready for each other, she knew it. She knew that when they got together, it would be destiny, and they weren't ready for it back then. So she waited. Krum was a placeholder, just like..."

He turned his glare on her. "And what about you? Were you just a placeholder for him? You knew about this, knew that she would steal him from you. How can you—"

"It wasn't like that, Ron! I... I liked him for too long, and I was stunned when he suddenly showed interest in me. I thought he saw me like a little sister. I had to scratch the itch. And she was okay with it. She even gave me permission before I kissed him on his birthday last year."

"You asked her for permission to snog your own boyfriend?"

"He wasn't my boyfriend then! We broke up, remember? And even when he was, it wasn't..." She looked down. "It wasn't like with Michael or Dean. We were just..." She shrugged. "Just taking what we could get, while we could. I don't think he ever expected it to last anymore than I did."

"I don't need to be reminded of your dating history," Ron grumbled.

She rolled her eyes, and turned back to the tree, staring at the letters in the heart. "It was always going to be them in the end. Once they were ready for each other, once all of the chaos was finally behind them... I'm happy for them. And you should be, too."

He placed his hands on his hips, glaring at the tree. "I don't know if I can be." Then he looked away. "At least not yet."

"Fair enough."

He gave a heavy sigh. "Give me a moment, Gin."

She nodded and stepped away, turning back towards the house.

She really was happy for them. Yes, her weeks of holding that role in Harry's life had been wonderful, and she had certainly entertained fantasies about him coming back to her, but she had known that he wouldn't. Destiny had been carved into a tree for four years and written in the stars for three years longer than that, from the moment they first met on the train. She could only hope to find with someone else what they found with each other.