| Flobberworm
Join Date: Aug 2014 Location: Edinburgh, Scotland
Posts: 13
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I'm back after a longggggg holiday. Excited to get back into this story. Here's more!
“Is there something in your eye, Ronald?”
“Hermione?!” Harry had finally caught up.
“Harry!” They embraced, and Ron snapped out of his momentary trance. He realized how badly his head was pounding, not to mention the ever-growing hole in his stomach and the sweat he had accumulated from his unprompted workout. He looked a bloody mess, and Hermione…
Well, she looked amazing. Her hair was just as bushy as ever, her eyes big and brown, a smattering of freckles on her face. She looked like the same Hermione, save for a certain growth of grace or maturity about her, and he couldn’t help but feel relieved. She turned to him and smiled, and he felt himself relax, despite the unease he should have been feeling given the last time he had seen her and what it had done to him.
“Hermione,” he finally mustered, and opened his arms to her. She looked a bit taken aback at first, but welcomed the greeting enthusiastically. He knew the hug was a bad idea, but couldn’t help but indulge, he had missed her so much. Her smell, the feeling of her…it was a greater pleasure than his mother’s cooking.
“What are you doing here?” Ron was grateful he wouldn’t have to be the one to ask. He was almost certain that if it had come from him, Hermione would have found some offence in it and this whole reunion would find them back in their previous row. He felt his heart react to the memory of it. It was the most miserable day of his entire life.
“Oh, I know. I should have written you, but I thought it would be a fun surprise!” Ron couldn’t help but notice the nervous side-glance Hermione may or may not have given him just then. “I’ve been expressing interest in volunteering. They have this excellent organization in France to protect and rehabilitate hippogriffs, since they’re growing extinct and poachers can get a good price for their talons and wings on the Dark Market—I won’t bore you with my dissertation. Anyway, they don’t want me so far away from work what with my S.P.E.W. project picking up,” she paused to give them both a smug look at that detail, “but they offered me a position here to curb my volunteering-appetite. Besides, I haven’t seen either of you in ages and I, erm, I miss you…” she was staring right at him now. Her big, brown, intense, beautiful…stupid, inconsiderate, foolish eyes. She, too, seemed to snap out of it. “…both. I miss my best friends. So I’m a new resident healer, I suppose!”
“Hermione! That’s amazing! We’re not as noble a cause as hippogriffs, but I know I’m certainly happy to have a pair of gentle hands to set me right after these sessions. The other healers are a bit rough, in my opinion.”
“This is, erm…this is cool, ‘Mione. How long will you be here for?” It was all he could muster. Truly, he was too overwhelmed to know how he felt, let alone react in any sort of way.
She shifted uncomfortably and pulled her hair behind her ear. “Indefinitely, actually. I’m hoping to be able to keep a schedule so I’m doing some form of healer’s practice while I’m working for the Ministry.”
Of course she was. “So you’ll be here for the rest of our training?” He didn’t mean to come off curt. Or maybe he did.
She studied him for a moment before replying, “Yes.“
“Hey you lot! Meeting’s about to start. I brought you some biscuits so you don’t starve—Hermione!” bellowed Neville, and he wrapped her into a hug.
“Hi Neville!” she laughed. “Look, I’ll catch up with you all later! Don’t train too hard or I’ll see you sooner,” she joked as she backed away from the group. She looked at Ron. “It’s so good to see you all,” she said finally before turning around and heading to the clinic.
As they made their way to the meeting, Ron could feel his face getting hot.
“Neville, you’re a hero,” Harry proclaimed as he shoved a biscuit into his mouth.
“Did you know she was doing this?” Ron turned on Harry before stuffing his face, too.
“She mentioned looking into some volunteer work closer to the Ministry and us…” Harry replied, taken aback. “Look, I’m sorry, mate. I would have told you but it wasn’t set in stone when I spoke with her, and the last time I brought Hermione up to you, you seemed perturbed. She’s happy to see you. Is it so terrible that she’s here?”
Ron shook his head and fell silent. He didn’t know how to respond. His head was spinning. Of all the volunteer opportunities she could have taken on, she decides to station herself here. Here, where he trains and lives and sleeps (sometimes) and has been getting on with his life. How dare she just show up with one month left-- the hardest month-- to focus on training without distraction? How was he supposed to do anything with the lump in his throat, the numb in his hands and the knot in his stomach?
No. He wouldn’t let her affect him. He had worked too hard and gone through too much trouble to go back to square one. He had resolved not to let Hermione’s sudden presence in his life get to him, and if Ron was anything, he was stubborn. He shoved a third biscuit into his mouth as if to settle his inner argument and turned his focus to Robards, who had been talking for ten minutes already.
“…and so as we continue our simulated field work, we encourage you to utilize our rehabilitation and recovery facilities. The last thing we want is an auror-to-be taken out so close to graduation.”
“That would be my bloody luck,” Neville muttered.
“Now, let us begin,” Robards finished, and as he snapped his finger the lights went out. Ron’s eyes adjusted to the sudden light to find that he was in a Ministry office of sorts, and as he began to inspect his surroundings and find the others, Ron did his best to sink into the task at hand and set earlier events aside.
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