Wonderstruck

Chapter 28: The Silver Lining

Hello! I'm really sorry that I didn't upload right when the vote count was reached even though I said I would. I was really sick, and didn't check Wattpad until this morning. Let me just tell you, you guys made my day. 900 Votes! Never thought I'd reach that number. Thank you!

  

There are semi-important announcements at the end of this chapter, so please read them.

  

Enjoy!

**********************************************************

 Every cloud has a silver lining   -Unknown

            “Hermione,” Ron called, making his way towards her. “Hermione, I need to talk to you.”

            With a jolt, Hermione snapped back to the present.

            “The silver lining,” Hermione whispered, still staring at the spot where Draco had left, her thought still caught up in that strange look in Draco’s eyes that she was unable to decipher before but now could.

            “Erm…no…I’m Ron,” Ron replied awkwardly. “Do you mind coming into the corridor? I have to speak to you and it’s a bit quieter over there.”

            Hermione just nodded and followed Ron, without hearing a word of what Ron had said.

            Once they were in the corridor, Ron began speaking.

            “I know you probably hate me right now, and mind you, you have every right to do so. But please hear me out,” Ron pleaded. “I was drugged. Or rather potioned. Astoria slipped something, a love potion of some sort, int---.”

            “WHAT?!” Hermione exclaimed, finally snapping out of her thoughts. “Start from the beginning.”

            “I suppose Percy and Penelope’s wedding would be the place to start,” Ron started hesitantly. “You couldn’t come, due to work, and neither could Gabrielle’s boyfriend. So we were basically stuck together for the entire day, as she was one of the bridesmaids and I was one of the groomsmen. We hit it off pretty well, joking and laughing like we had known each other for forever. Now that I look back on it, the attraction between us was undeniable. But back then, I dismissed it as the beginning of a great friendship. But as the months went on, we grew more and more attracted to each other. We both knew it would be frowned upon in society, if anything were to happen between us, so we both ignored it. I told myself that it was wrong and tried my best to ignore the attraction.

            “But when everyone began pressuring me to propose to you, I began to panic and started having second thoughts. That’s why I didn’t go to the Christmas Ball. But I convinced myself that I was just being stupid and proposed to you the next day.

            “But a few weeks ago, I ran into Gabrielle in Diagon Alley. That’s when I realized that I was on the verge of making the biggest mistake of my life. I realized that I only loved you like a sibling. I just fooled myself into thinking that I loved you in any other way, just to meet everyone else’s expectations. I realized that I loved the girl who was sitting in front me right then, and it would’ve been very selfish of me to marry you and deny you a chance of marrying someone who loves you. So I decided to break off the engagement.

            “Unfortunately, before I was going to meet you at The Quaint Corner, I decided to stop at the Leaky Cauldron for a drink. It was then that Astoria slipped something in my drink. I don’t really know what potion it was, but it seemed like a mixture of amortenia and imperius, if there is such a thing. She had complete control over me. I…I never meant to break up like that. I am very sorry it happened like that. It was downright cruel, the things that she made me say…” Ron trailed off.