Break it Up (Ron Weasley)

9. The Class After

"Weasley! Y/l/n!" Snape hollered as we tried our best to sneak in when he wasn't looking. I was dreading this part of the plan.

"You think you could walk in here fifteen minutes late without me noticing?" he roared, slamming a ruler down on his desk.

We stood next to each other, both of us as scared as could be.

"Where could you have possibly been?" he demanded.

The whole class was turned in their seats to face us. Not a person dared even whisper a word in fear of getting in trouble themselves. But I knew what they were thinking.

It was then I remembered what the both of us looked like, and warmth rushed to my face with embarrassment. I didn't take into account how awkward this would be for us.

"Well?" Snape asked again when neither of us responded.

"I think it's pretty obvious," Draco snarled from the side of the room, getting a few chuckles from other students.

Snape had obviously heard him and raised an eyebrow. I braced myself for whatever the punishment was when students arrive late to class because they were "hooking up" in the janitor's closet.

"We were studying, Sir," Ron lied, his voice cracking. It does that when he's nervous.

"Studying?" Snape repeated, walking towards us now. Ron gulped loudly. "How does studying make one out of breath and mess up their hair?" He then turned to look at me. "How does studying not button up Miss Y/l/n's shirt all the way?"

Mortified, I looked down to button the last button Ron had teasingly undone. In front of the whole class. Wow, this could not get any worse.

While neither of us answered Snape's rhetorical question, Snape stood there, looking back and fourth between the two of us.

"Both of you. Detention. After class," he demanded, turning around to walk back up to the front of the room. "Now, where was I..."

Ron and I hurried over to our desks and sat down. I could still not exactly process what had just happened.

"Wow, y/n, I did not know you had that in you," Cedric remarked, not even bothering to look at me. "In between first and second period? Really?"

I opened my mouth to respond, but I didn't know what to say. What was I supposed to say?

"I dunno..." I trailed off.

"Gotta say though, I respect you," Cedric said, now making eye contact with me. I blushed and turned to face the front of the room.

I looked at the desk ahead of me to see how Hermione had reacted with Ron. "That was so utterly stupid and careless of you Ronald!" she scolded. I can't say that wasn't the reaction I was expecting out of her.

Ron looked pleased with himself.

"Hey, I have an idea!" Cedric suddenly exclaimed rather loudly. Hermione and Ron turned around to listen. "The four of us should go on a double date!"

Ron and I exchanged worried glances and Hermione eagerly nodded her head. "That's such a good idea!" she answered smiling.

"Yeah, such a good idea," Ron agreed, his voice trailing off towards the end of his sentence.

"Great! You in, y/n?" Cedric asked, turning to me. I felt the three pairs of eyes fall on me as I nodded my head. "Of course!" I replied through a fake smile.

*

After class, Ron and I slowly trudged up to Snape's desk. He remained seated when we got there and didn't bother looking up at us. He kept his focus on whatever he was scribbling on a piece of paper.

"You will write this on the chalk board 500 times," Snape hissed, sliding the paper across the desk to us.

I leaned over to read "I will not be late to class" and picked up the paper. "Yes, Sir," I answered quietly.

Snape stood from his desk. "And I expect the both of you to stay true to your word," he snarled, glaring at both of us. He then walked around his desk and out the door, leaving Ron and I alone.

I walked over to the board and picked up a piece of chalk. "Let's get writing," I sighed.

Ron picked up his own piece and began scribbling. "Do we have to write 500 times each? Or just in total?" he asked.

I stopped. "I'm not sure," I answered. "Let's do 500 in total. If it's wrong, Snape will surely let us know on our way out."

Ron laughed and continued writing. After a few moments of silence, he spoke out. "Can you believe how well that went today?"

I stopped writing again to face him. "Well?" I exclaimed, making sure I heard him right. "It was humiliating!"

"Yeah, but it worked!" Ron said. "Cedric and Hermione both definitely noticed."

"Ron, the whole class noticed. I'd be surprised if there was a student at Hogwarts who didn't know about us by now."

"But they were definitely jealous. They both reacted to it," he defended, sloppily spelling out the word "class."

"I guess," I responded. Was jealous really the way to describe their reactions?

"Oh, and about that double date," I started, thinking back to Cedric's offer from earlier. "We cannot do that."

"What? Why not?" Ron asked.

"Because! It's going to be unbearable for the both of us to see them together. And are we really going to be able to keep the act up for a whole date?" I explained.

"If it's going to be unbearable for us, then it will be for them too. And I think we can do it! We proved today we're great actors," he said, holding his hands out proudly. "Come on!"

I took a deep breath and thought about what this double date would mean. Eating dinner while pretending I liked Ron when really the person I liked was there with whom he liked. It did not seem like a good plan to me.

But Ron looked really excited, so I agreed. After all, if he could get through it, then so could I. We'd do it together.

Finally, I scribbled out my last sentence and ended it with a period. "Done!" I exclaimed as Ron and I stepped back to admire our work.

"Alright, let's get out of here," he said, returning to our desk to grab our stuff. I grabbed my own books and followed him out the door.