When Granger meets Jackson

Hermione - III

A few days after we got back home, I went over to the Burrow to spend some time with everyone before returning to Hogwarts. Ron opened the door, his face morphing into an angry expression when he saw me.

"How dare you come back here after what you did?" He demanded, glaring.

I had no clue what he was talking about. "Ron? What do you mean by that?"

As he opened his mouth to answer, Ginny shoved him aside and opened the door wide, letting me in. She gave me a big hug. "No one believes him, 'Mione. Mum was mad at first, but we helped calm her down."

I was completely bewildered by now. "What are you talking about?"

By then, we had reached the sitting room, where Ron picked up a number of pictures from the table. "THIS!" He yelled, thrusting a stack of pictures at my face.

I took them from his hand, flipping through them. They were all pictures of mine and Percy's day in Central Park. There were a couple of us hugging, with one having us huddled together on a bench after the snowball fight. There was one of me smiling and talking to Jason and Piper with Percy's arm around my shoulder and a few more of us just walking in the park. To my surprise, the very last one was of me kissing Percy's cheek at the airport.

"Where did you get these?" I asked.

"SHE'S ADMITTING IT! FRED, I TOLD YOU SHE CHEATED-"

"I didn't cheat on anyone! What nonsense are you blabbering Ron?"

At Ron's loud yell, there were footsteps on the stairs and Harry, Charlie, George and Fred came running in, Fred looking a little worse for wear.

He looked at me uncertainly, before answering, "Ron followed Verity to New York. He said he saw you go into Central Park with a guy and you spent most of Christmas Eve there on a date with him. He showed us a pensieve memory and said that you were cheating on me."

I was horrified at that. It was quite obvious that Fred didn't want to believe it, but Ron was so loud and confident in his claims that it was quite convincing.

"I didn't cheat, okay-"

"THEN HOW DO YOU EXPLAIN THIS?!" Ron demanded, waving his wand over a pensive in the corner that I hadn't noticed earlier.

The scene from Central Park played out, me and Percy talking after the snowball fight.

Percy was saying, "-Who knew you could be so romantic when you've been in just one relationship throughout your life, huh?"

"Aww, honey, that's so cute. But you've gotta remember that I'm a full year older than you. You're practically a baby!" My poor attempt at an American accent came through, making me blush at how bad it had been. Ron seemed to take my blush as an admission of my guilt and triumphantly smirked. It then showed me standing on tiptoe and pulling down the hood of Percy's jacket to ruffle his already messy hair even more.

"Mione!" He complained, dodging me as he tried to fix his hair, "I actually brusher it today morning!"

"You did?"

"Yep." I smiled fondly at the childish tone in which he spoke. "Mom wouldn't let me go out of the house looking like a 'delinquent' as she put it." He imitated Aunt Sally's voice, "If you're gonna spend the day with Hermione, then I want you to look presentable. No girl will agree to be seen with you in public if your hair looks like a rat's nest."

"Don't worry, Percy. I'll still walk with you if your hair looks bad. I don't mind how you look, but I will draw the line at spending a full day in the presence of a sweaty, smelly, teenage boy. There are enough of those that I'm forced to get along with at school, I can't do that during the holidays too."