An Outlandish Affair

Chapter 3

It was the day before Halloween, and there was plenty of excitement in the air, as Hermione saw evident in the influx of students coming into hospital with raging stomach aches due to excessive sweets. She did happen to notice that quite a few of the stomach ailments disappeared as soon as the students hit the beds. Funny, she thought, she might have to have a word with the Weasley twins about that particular malady.

It was only about 8 o'clock that night when she walked in the front door of her and Ron's flat, and found it strangely dark. That's odd, Hermione thought to herself, Ron never goes to bed this early. I thought I made it home fairly quickly tonight. She walked to the bedroom to find that, to her surprise, it was empty.

"Ron?" Hermione called. Nothing.

She furrowed her brow, wondering where he could possibly be, and without even leaving her a note. She decided to take a walk down to the only other place she could think he might be, The Three Broomsticks. Maybe he ended up going out for a butterbeer with another professor, or one of the twins, which would be a convenient time to have a chat about certain sweets. Pulling open the front door of the popular hangout spot, her ears were met with a familiar bark of a laugh, drawing her attention to a corner table.

There was Ron. Holding a half empty glass of Butterbeer, and laughing at a joke she was unable to hear. That was fine, that would have been fine, except at that moment she saw a hand reach out to rest on Ron's upper thigh. Hermione's eyes widened when she looked up and saw Lavender Brown, leaning over and whispering something into Ron's ear that had him laughing and leaning back into her. It was a small gesture, one that could even be waved off between friends, but as far as Hermione knew, Ron and Lavender weren't really friends. She hadn't even known Lavender was in Scotland. The last Hermione had heard, she had taken a job with the Ministry.

Hermione was about to move from her spot at the door and walk towards them, to make her presence known then, but before she could she saw Lavender reach her hand up from its place on Ron's thigh to his neck, and she leaned over to press a kiss on the corner of his mouth. It felt like a red hot poker was stabbing Hermione in the gut. She wanted to cry out, to say something, to protest, but all she could do was clutch her jumper and stutter out something unintelligible, before turning and practically barreling through two witches walking in behind her.

Through slightly hazy eyes, Ron recognized the head of curly hair and the ratty satchel fast retreating through the door. Horrified, he stood up, subsequently shoving Lavender away in the process.

"Bloody hell, Ron..." Lavender slurred slightly as she righted herself, not knowing they'd been seen.

He mumbled out without looking at her, "Sorry Lav, this wasn't supposed to happen. I've got to go." He threw some Galleons down on the table and turned to follow Hermione out the door.

Once out in the street, he could see Hermione walking back towards their flat, quickly, and he began to run after her, calling out, "Hermione! Wait, I can explain! 'Mione!"

She heard him, but couldn't bring herself to stop. Tears stung her eyes as she picked up her pace, ignoring him. She made it all the way back home before he caught up with her, opening the front door and barging in right behind her. "Hermione. Please, I can explain."

Hermione stood facing away from him in the center of the open sitting room, hands balled into fists at her sides, tears rolling down her cheeks as she choked out "Why, Ronald? How could you do this? How did you let this happen?"

Ron was standing next to the kitchen table, suddenly void of every excuse. "I... I don't know," he muttered, shoving his hands into the pockets of his trousers. "I didn't mean for anything to happen. Lavender came into the Broom and saw me sitting alone and struck up a conversation, we haven't seen each other since graduation. But... I guess she had a few too many butterbeers.."