Between Us - Dramione/Blinny

Ch. 40

Ginny could hardly contain her excitement of the trip for the rest of the week, and that fed into Hermione's excitement as well. It wasn't until Thursday morning when the girls both received letters that their moods slipped.

Hermione glared down at Ron's handwriting, chewing on the inside of her cheek as she slowly opened the envelope. Ginny seemed to be in a much better mood than she was, which made her wonder who had written to Ginny. After letting out a deep breath through her nose, she unfolded the parchment and read the letter.

Hermione,

Please, I would like another chance at us. We can even talk about it over the holidays, sort everything out. Why are you even with him? Did you forget he nearly killed Dumbledore? He didn't slip you a love potion, did he? I wouldn't put it past him, the git.

Mum says she misses you dearly and can't wait to see you over the holidays. You are coming to visit, right? I really hope so, I can't wait for us to all hang out together again! And you know I really want to see you already, but Harry really misses you too. He wants a better chance to catch up than our meeting in Hogsmeade.

Hope to see you soon!

Love, Ron

She let out a frustrated sigh and looked up at Ginny, who was already writing out a response. "Did you tell your mum that we aren't visiting for the holidays?"

"I thought I did, but I'm writing her right now," Ginny answered without looking up. "She said it's perfectly fine if we don't want to visit considering the boys are there; I guess they told her what happened."

"Hopefully they were truthful about it," Hermione muttered as she folded up the letter and set it aside. "Your brother seems to be holding out hope that I will come back to him."

Rolling her eyes, Ginny looked up at her friend. "You had to have known he wasn't going to give up that easily."

"No, I know," Hermione sighed. "I don't know why I thought it would all just blow over."

"Everything alright?"

The girls looked up to see Blaise and Draco sitting down next to them while Pansy and Theo were still crossing the Hall. Hermione nodded and said, "Just got another letter from Ron."

Draco's brow furrowed as his mouth formed a thin line. "Do I need to take care of this?"

Hermione laughed slightly and shook her head. "No, he's just stubborn. He'll pout about it for a while and then get over it; that's just how he works."

"That's not healthy," Blaise said from across the table.

"What's not healthy?"

Pansy and Theo sat down on Blaise's other side with curious looks on their faces. Ginny leaned forward to look at the other two past Blaise and said, "My brother's not healthy."

"Oh, we already knew that," Pansy said, crinkling her nose slightly. "Did you see the way he would eat when he was here?"

The rest of the group laughed and Hermione's mood lifted then as she looked around at all of them. There were some moments where she still couldn't believe just how much things had changed and how she was now friends with people she used to hate, and she was having one of those moments right then.

"Are you sure you're alright?" Draco asked quietly, leaning closer to her so the others wouldn't hear. "You have that look on your face."

"What look?" She asked curiously.

"The one that says you've had a thought occur to you," He said with a slight smile.

She laughed. "I'm just still surprised sometimes by everything that's happened. The fact that we're all friends now, and you and I are together. Never would have imagined that would happen."