Tango * dramione

Chapter 16

Chapter 16: bottle it up

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"Come and move that in my direction

So thankful for that, it's such a blessin', yeah

Turn every situation into heaven, yeah

Oh, you are

My sunrise on the darkest day

Got me feelin' some kind of way

Make me wanna savor every moment slowly, slowly

You fit me, tailor-made love, how you put it on

Got the only key, know how to turn it on

The way you nibble on my ear, the only words I wanna hear

Baby, take it slow so we can last long"

-Despacito

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Down Stage Right: (continued)
Hermione and Ron continue their chat. Tea and crumpets are untouched. Such a shame.

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Ron leaned back in his chair, thoroughly perplexed. The tea in his cup had barely made it to his lips before Hermione word-vomited her apologies, her explanations, and her laments. By the time she finished, no doubt Ron's tea was chilly, as was his disposition.

"So," he said, his voice low and quiet, eyes focused on the amber liquid in his cup, "you don't see this...working out..."

Hermione cringed, staring at the plate of untouched crumpets between them. "Not really, no..."

"Bloody Hell, Hermione." Ron sat his teacup down on the table with shaky fingers before rubbing his face with his hands. The disappointment in his tone was palpable, but he remained stoic, for the most part. "You could have told me from the beginning."

"...I know." She rubbed her hands together. Dear lord, why did this have to be so difficult? Her guilt felt like an iron-on patch still hot off the steam press. "Are you upset?" She knew it was the wrong thing to ask, because the tips of Ron's ears turned a violent red.

"Well, yeah. Of course I'm upset." Ron scratched at the red stubble on his cheek. "But um...I respect it." He gave a large, drawn out sigh, gathering his words. His eyes were distant. Pensive. "I know we haven't been close after our breakup. I guess I thought it was 'cause you didn't want us to fall into a routine and get used to being 'just friends' again."

"It isn't that I don't want that," she admitted. "I just know we want different things in life, and I didn't want to give you false hope by being around each other all of the time. In retrospect, I now see how ridiculous that really was."

Ron snorted indignantly. "You can say that again."

Hermione began picking at the cuticles of her thumb. "There's one more thing."

"You're dating Krum again?" he asked blatantly.

"What?" She gave a laugh. "No. Why would you think that?"

"He was in town, wasn't he?"

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Am I not allowed to have friends who happen to be male?"

"No...I mean, well, yeah, of course you can..." Ron dipped his head. "S'just weird that one of them happens to be Malfoy."

"Are we on that again?"