Hermione shoved her hands in her coat pockets as she kept glancing warily over at Ron out of the corner of her eye. She wasn't quite sure what she expected to happen, but as they walked through the snow she tried to ignore the alarms in the back of her mind. After all, it was just Ron, and she knew he wouldn't do anything serious. But still the nagging thoughts remained.
"Merlin, it's been a while since we've been here," Ron said as he looked around with a small smile. "I've always loved the snow here."
They paused as they reached the clearing and looked around. For Hermione, the snow-covered forest simply reminded her of the Forest of Dean during the winter. Memories came flooding back of her time spent out in the cold with Harry as they kept each other company while making sure they were never caught by Snatchers.
She shifted uncomfortably and looked down at the snow, sighing. Ron was completely oblivious to this as he looked out at the Shrieking Shack and smiled wistfully.
"Remember that night," He started, looking back at her. "In our third year?"
"The night we confronted Sirius?" She looked up and held his gaze for a moment before shifting her eyes away to look at the old, abandoned shack. "How could I forget?"
"Yeah." Ron sighed and leaned against a fencepost. "You were very brave that night. You didn't even flinch when Sirius showed up."
She smiled slightly and shook her head. "I suppose it was the adrenaline getting to me. That and I wasn't going to abandon you and Harry."
"Which we greatly appreciate," Ron laughed. "If you had abandoned us, I'm sure Harry and I wouldn't have made it that night."
"I'm sure you would've made it out. You two are smarter than you give yourselves credit for," Hermione said.
"We are nowhere near your level though, and you know that."
She shook her head again and looked around, reminiscing on everything. The old shack in the distance would creak and groan in the wind every now and then, but other than that the clearing was silent.
"That and..." Ron started, breaking the silence. "I still feel like I need to make things up to you for that year."
"Why?" She asked curiously. "I forgave you for the whole Scabbers and Crookshanks issue."
"I know, but still." He straightened up slightly. "I was a right prat to you that year over something silly. I'm sorry that I let things get bad between us."
She shrugged and avoided his eyes as she took a few steps away to look out at the trees. "Things happen. It's not like that was the first time or the last time you had a problem with me."
"No, but that doesn't excuse what happened."
"I thought you said Harry was going to be here?"
She looked over at him curiously and he shifted his weight from one foot to the other. "He's coming."
Ron pushed himself off the fencepost and took a hand out of his pocket to rub the back of his neck as he walked past Hermione. She noticed the small piece of paper that he had received from Harry fall out onto the snow from his pocket and after bending down to pick it up, she froze.
"Ron..."
"Hermione, I know I've been an awful person to you," He started, not noticing what she was doing. "I have so many things I need to make up for, and I just want the chance to start over again."
She turned the paper over in the hopes that something would appear, but the entire piece of paper was blank on both sides.
Pansy and Ginny had to make sure that Draco stayed hidden behind the trees, though they were also very curious about what was going to happen.
"Can you hear what they're saying?" Pansy whispered to Ginny.
"Not really." Ginny sighed unhappily and then lit up, reaching into her bag for something. "Luckily though, I came prepared!"
Pansy watched her curiously as the red head pulled out a long, flesh-colored string that was larger on one end, unrolling it to reveal two sets. She tossed one over to Draco who gave it a confused look, but after watching Ginny unroll the rest of hers and cast it out towards Ron and Hermione, he mirrored her actions.
"What is this?" Pansy asked, reaching out to touch the string.
"Extendible Ears," Ginny said with a grin. "One of my brothers' inventions."
Ginny held up the end to their ears and soon they could hear Ron and Hermione as clear as if they were on the other side of the trees.
"Harry never wrote to you," Hermione said quietly, standing back up and looking down at the paper.
He didn't answer, and she looked up at him to see that he was giving her a sad look. "I...I didn't know how else to have you meet me."
"So you tricked me?" She felt her stomach drop with disappointment and took a deep breath to calm her anger.
"I didn't trick you, I just..." He rubbed the back of his neck again in frustration. "I just wanted a chance to talk to you alone, away from anyone else. I'm sorry that I did it like this but I needed to do this."
"Why?" She balled the paper up into her fist and glared at him.
"Hermione, I still want to be with you," He said in a pleading tone. "I want this, I don't want to give up on us just because we drifted apart. You're supposed to work on your problems as a couple together, not just give up."
"You were already talking to someone else, though," She said, gesturing towards him. "Or did you forget that? I didn't hear from you for months, Ron! Do you have any idea how heartbreaking it was to see Ginny receiving letters every other day from Harry while I didn't have a single letter from you? Even when I was writing you letters? The only time you decided to show any effort was after you found out that I was with Draco!"
Ron stuttered as he tried to come up with something to say, but Hermione took an angry step forward and pointed at him. "I am not just some toy that you can shove off to the side when you're bored only to pick up again once someone else has found me! I deserve better than that!"
"I know you do!" Ron exclaimed finally. "And I want to show you that I can change and be the man you deserve!"
"Honestly, it's too late." Hermione lowered her hand and took a deep breath, sighing it out with a small puff in the cold air. "I can only be friends with you, Ron. We were drifting apart, and I'm happy with Draco. Sure, we've had problems that we've had to sort out and things to get past but he's been wonderful."
"I want to believe you and I want you to be happy, but not with him," Ron said, pointing out towards the forest for emphasis. "Anybody but him."
"Why?" She demanded. "Why can't it be him?!"
"Because he treated us like dirt under his shoes since we were eleven!" Ron let out a frustrated groan and took a few steps towards her. "You gave him a chance, why can't you give us one more chance?"
"Because I don't want to!"
Her words echoed through the clearing even though her throat closed up at the end of her exclamation. She wanted nothing more than to cry from frustration at that point; she knew he was going to be stubborn, but this was taking a larger toll on her than she expected.
He simply looked at her with sad eyes and she shook her head as she turned and walked away. "I'm done. I'm going back to the castle."
"Wait, Hermione!"
She felt a hand grip her upper arm gently and pull her back, and she tried to pull out of his grip. "No, Ron; I can't keep having this conversation with you! I'm not going back to you, and I'm not leaving Draco! I love him!"
Ron stared at her in shock, his hand dropping from her arm. "You...you love him?"
She backed away and nodded her head. "Yes. I love Draco, and he loves me too."
From the trees, Draco's face split into a grin at hearing this. After they both admitted their love over the Christmas break, they rarely said it. This didn't bother him though as he knew how she felt, but it made him happy to hear her say it out loud to Weasley.
Ron, however, was still in disbelief.
"How can you love him?" He asked in an almost accusatory tone. "He tried to kill Dumbledore! He let Death Eaters into the school!"
"If you were in his position you would've done the same thing to protect your family!" Hermione exclaimed defensively.
"I would not have!" Ron glared at her. "I would've died before I did any of that!"
"And then your family would have died first before you!" She returned his glare. "You have no idea what he went through, what the stakes were for him! I'm not going to sit here and lecture you about it because you won't listen anyway but he is not the person he was before! He's changed, and I suggest you change too because you're only hurting yourself by being stuck in the same mindset as before!"
She turned away again but he ran in front of her, this time putting his hands on her upper arms and giving her a pleading look. "Please, don't go!"
Before she could react, he leaned in and kissed her hard. She froze for only a moment before pulling her head back and trying to shove him away.
"Ron, no!" She finally pulled herself out of his grip and glared at him. "What the hell was that? You can't just kiss me and think everything is going to be fine!"
At this point Draco had decided that he was no longer going to stand by and he moved out from behind the tree, dropping the Extendible Ear in the snow as he made his way up the small hill quickly.
"Draco!" Hermione felt a wave of relief wash over her as he made his way towards her.
Ron looked absolutely furious. "What the hell are you doing here?"
"Making sure that you don't do anything more to ruin whatever friendship Hermione will graciously allow you to have after this," Draco replied coolly. "I'm putting an end to this meeting."
He wrapped an arm around Hermione and she leaned into him, watching Ron nervously. Ron looked between the two of them, his brow furrowing before he pointed towards Draco.
"Malfoy, if I find out that you did anything to her...be it a love potion, the Imperius curse-"
"I would never do anything to hurt Hermione," Draco growled before giving him a triumphant smirk. "Unlike some, I don't need to trick her in an attempt to earn her affections."
Ron gave him a murderous glare before turning around and walking away, disappearing between the trees. Hermione watched him sadly before looking up at Draco.
"If I had known it was going to turn out like this, I wouldn't have agreed to see him," She said quietly.
"I know." He kissed her head and gave her a small squeeze. "But at the same time, putting it off probably would have just prolonged it from happening. I had a feeling he would do something like that."
"Is that why you came?" She asked.
"That, and it was mostly Ginny's idea to keep an eye on you," He admitted.
"Ginny?" Hermione's eyebrows shot up in surprise and she looked back towards the trees where Draco had appeared from earlier, noticing a line in the snow that was very familiar. She scowled as she recognized exactly what it was and shook her head. "I should've known."
Draco chuckled and kissed her head again, leading her back down the hill as Ginny and Pansy stepped out from behind the tree.
"You too, Pans?" Hermione asked with a small laugh.
"You know I won't ever miss out on some drama," Pansy replied with a grin. "Plus I wanted to make sure you were alright."
Hermione let out a small laugh but then looked back over to where Ron had disappeared, frowning. "I just hope he can agree to be just friends after all of this."
"Are you sure you still want to be friends with him?" Pansy asked curiously. "He essentially lured you here on false pretenses to try and win you back."
"Honestly, that's not the most hurtful thing he's done," Hermione sighed. Then she shook her head and smiled at the other three. "I don't need to figure it out right now. Let's go somewhere else."
Ginny and Pansy both returned her smile as Draco moved his arm to her waist, giving her a small squeeze as the four of them made their way back to Hogsmeade.
A/N: I couldn't leave you guys on a cliffhanger for very long haha! Hope you all enjoy, I'll get the next chapter up in the next few days! Love you all! <3