Yuleride

Chapter 18 ~ Discussions

Percy arrived late, but Molly had put a plate aside for him so he’d get a bit of everything. She needn't have worried about having enough food. She’d made just enough. Hermione and Ron didn’t eat with as much gusto as the rest of the family, although Ron still did a good job of tucking it away. The minute the Christmas pudding was devoured, George, Charlie and Bill sprang up out of their seats like jack-in-the-boxes.

”Great meal, mum. We’re going to walk it off for a bit,” Bill said, standing up and pulling Ron up with him. Ron resisted slightly.

”But I don’t want to walk it off. I want a bit of a nap,” Ron complained as Charlie appeared on the other side of him, taking his arm. Percy looked rather suspicious.

”Come on, Ron. You don’t want to get fat do you?” Charlie asked his brother tightly as they ushered him to the door.

Ginny looked suspicious too, and Percy began to eat faster. If they were up to something, he wanted to know about it. Arthur simply shook his head as the witches looked after them.

”They are up to something, I think,” Fleur said. “When more than two of them are together, something stinks at Hogwarts”

Harry, who was too stuffed to even think about walking anywhere other than the closest armchair, stretched and let one arm drop heavily behind Ginny.

”I think Ron had the right idea,” he said, glad he wasn’t asked to go along. He would have said no if he had been. “That was a smashing meal, mum.”

Molly beamed at Harry.

”Why, thank you, Harry,” she replied, absolutely glowing. Then she stood up and began collecting plates and utensils.

”You girls start gathering up plates and bringing them into the kitchen,” she said to Ginny and Hermione. Both witches sighed as Fleur slid away from the table and sashayed freely into the living room, unfettered and fancy free. Molly never tried to press her into service.

“Yes, mum,” they said in unison, slowly rising.

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”Hey! Go easy!” Ron complained as Bill and Charlie marched him away from the Burrow and through the yard, heading up the road.

Bill smacked him upside the head. This stopped the procession cold.

”Ow!” Ron cried, wresting his arm away from his oldest brother. Charlie still had a good grip on his other arm. “What was that for?”

”That was for being a bloody idiot,” Bill replied, his eyes narrowed. “What the fuck did you think you were doing today? George told us everything.”

”How could you do that to Hermione?” Charlie hissed at him. “She’s been with you forever. You’re supposed to marry her.”

“I am going to marry her,” Ron said, trying to pull away from Charlie. George looked on silently

”Not if she finds out you got your tallywacker polished,” Bill hissed at him.

“She’s not going to find out. Anyway, I didn’t mean for it to happen,” Ron said in his defense.

”You could have stopped it,” Charlie said to him.

Ron scowled at Charlie.

”You didn’t see her, Charlie. Believe me, you wouldn’t have stopped her either, she was beautiful. Hot. Something out of a wet dream. When she rubbed my willy through my jeans, it was like my brain stopped working. I couldn’t speak or anything. It was like I was under a spell,” Ron explained.

”I don’t care how pretty she was, Ron. You have a commitment to Hermione. You bloody asked her to be your wife last night! Now you go and do this? Why, Ron? Did you want to get her back for running out on you or something?” Charlie asked him.

Ron pulled away from Charlie and stuck both hands in his pockets, beginning to walk again, flanked by his brothers.

“No, I didn’t want to get back at her,” Ron said softly, looking down at the ground sullenly as they walked. “It was just something that happened, I swear. Maybe . . . maybe I should come clean about it—“

”NO!” All three of his brothers exclaimed, startling Ron.

”Are you nutters?” George asked him. “You don’t tell a witch you’re courting something like that. Ever. Not only is it hurtful, it’s Killing curse worthy. Many a wizard’s been cut down in his prime confessing his infidelity to a witch he was involved with. And they usually get away with it because it was a ‘crime of passion.’ I don’t advise you tell Hermione, Ron.”

His other brothers murmured agreement.

”What am I supposed to do? I just can’t forget about what happened,” Ron said to his siblings.

”You‘d better forget about it, mate, and fast. Maybe even an Obliviate is in order,” Bill suggested.

Ron didn’t want to forget the best blowjob of his life, not to mention the sexiest situation he’d ever been in. He’d been blown in a dressing stall by a beautiful stranger. That was one for the books. If nothing else ever happened to him, he’d be content with this memory.

”No, no Obliviate. I want to remember it. It was fantastic,” Ron replied.

Bill shook his head.

”Ron, the woman was a complete stranger. She doesn’t mean anything to you. You have everything to lose if what happened somehow got out,” he told his brother earnestly. “Hermione is a sweet witch, and brilliant. If you ask me, you’re bloody lucky to have her and need to stop taking her for granted. In case you didn’t notice, she ran away from you last night and didn’t come back until today.”

Ron shrugged.

”It’s not the first time she’s taken off on me, Bill. She always comes back because she loves me. I apologize for whatever it was I did and it’s all fine. Hermione isn’t going anywhere, believe me,” he said confidently.

“You can’t be sure of that, Ron. I don’t think she’s ready to get married either. I don’t know why you let mum talk you into proposing. She’s playing both ends against the middle. I heard her telling Hermione she told you not to propose in front of the family. We all know that was mum’s suggestion. You backed her into a corner, Ron, and she ran.”

Ron walked along silently for a moment, then said, “Look, just stay out of it, okay? All of you. I’ve been dealing with Hermione successfully for this long. She’s perfectly content with me and our relationship. It’s comfortable.”

Charlie looked over at Bill and shook his head. Although he was not married, he knew a “comfortable” relationship at this age didn’t bode well. There should be some excitement still. It’s not like Ron and Hermione were an old married couple like mum and dad. After all the years together and all the Weasleys bred, they had a right to be “comfortable.”

”Ron—“ Charlie started.

Ron whirled on him.

”Stay out of it, Charlie! All of you. I’m the only one with a steady witch here outside of Bill and he’s married. I must be doing something right to hang on to Hermione the way I have. You blokes aren’t in any position to tell me what to do!”

In the distance, Percy was hurrying along, anxious to catch up to them and find out what was happening. Ron saw him and scowled.

”Don’t tell Percy anything. It’ll all be out by nightfall if you do,” he hissed at his brothers. “I’m going back to the Burrow. And I meant what I said. Stay out of my affairs. I don’t need any of your advice. I’ll handle Hermione my way.”

Ron stalked back toward the Burrow, passing Percy, who stopped.

”What’s going on, Ron?” he asked his brother, who simply shrugged and kept going.

Percy then hurried up to his brothers.

”What did I miss?” he asked them.

Charlie, Bill and George stared at him for a moment. Ron was right. Percy was the kind of wizard who believed in “full disclosure.” He’d be mortified by what Ron had done and probably would take it upon himself to inform Hermione personally. He was a wizard, but he could keep up with any clucking witch easily. They never told Percy anything they wanted to keep to themselves.

”Nothing. We were just walking,” George said, turning and heading for the Burrow also. Bill and Charlie began walking too.

Percy stared after them. He knew he was purposely being left out of the loop. They never told him anything.

Sullenly, he began walking back to the Burrow as well, wishing he knew what was going on.

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When Ron returned to the Burrow, he immediately found Hermione and suggested they stay at her flat for the evening.

”It’s a better place to talk. Less ears around. You know George still likes to listen in on things that don’t involve him,” Ron said to Hermione, who nodded.

”All right. Let me just say good-bye to everyone and thank your mum again,” Hermione replied.

Hermione did so, and she and Ron Disapparated for her flat.

Once there and situated, they sat down to talk, and Ron was very interested in where Hermione went. The talk with his brothers had sobered him somewhat, especially when it was said Hermione might leave him and not come back. Ron was so used to Hermione being there, he couldn’t imagine her leaving him. She had always been with him, and only him . . .

That had been true, until last night. If Ron thought getting an impromptu blowjob from a stranger was bad business relationship-wise, Hermione’s full body contact with snarky Severus Snape would have been a crime worthy of the gallows.

”So, where exactly did you go last night, Hermione?” Ron asked her, his eyes sober as he sat across from her in the armchair. She was sitting on the sofa, twisting her hands. A sign that she was nervous.

“Well, I went to Hogwarts,” she replied softly not looking up at him.

”But I went to Hogwarts and checked your quarters. You weren’t in there. Snape let me in,” Ron said in a low voice. Earlier, he had just thrown out she could have been walking around, but the truth was it was too cold for that, and he knew it.

”I went up to the Astronomy tower first. Sitting there always clears my head,” she lied. “I stayed up there more than an hour, then went to my quarters and went to bed.”

Ron nodded. He knew Hermione did like the tower. But he was so worried last night, it slipped his mind.

”I shouldn’t have proposed to you the way I did,” he told the witch. “I backed you into a corner. I should have done it with just you and me present, not made it a public event. I’m sorry, Hermione. I truly am sorry. I’m a git and I know it. I tried to set it up so you couldn’t tell me no. I shouldn’t have done that. It was selfish and stupid.”

Hermione stared at Ron, saying nothing.

”If I had done it better, Hermione, been alone with you, would you have given me an answer?” he asked her.

Hermione's eyes filled and she slowly shook her head.

”I probably would have said I’d have to think about it, Ron,” she said honestly.

Ron’s face twisted slightly.

”What is there to think about, Hermione? After I build the house, we’ll have everything we need for a good married life. You’d have your work, a home, a husband and security, Hermione. Isn’t that what every witch wants? We’d have a good, solid life together. I thought you wanted that.”

Hermione had thought she wanted that for the longest, until a certain black-eyed devil inserted himself into her life . . . quite physically.

”I did want that, Ron,” she said softly.

”Did?” Ron repeated, paling a bit. What did she mean ‘did?’

”I mean do,” Hermione said, “I mean—I think I do. I’m just not sure now.”

Ron stared at her. Maybe Bill was right. Maybe he could lose her.

”What changed, Hermione? What’s wrong? Did I do something wrong?” he asked her, a bit of fear making his voice quaver.

Hermione started to use the old line, “It’s not you, Ron. It’s me,” but didn’t do it. This was an opportunity to communicate. She had invested years in Ronald Weasley. It wouldn’t be fair to either one of them if she didn’t at least attempt to save their relationship. Severus Snape, as seductive as he was, was still a stranger to her. She knew little about the man he really was, and what she did know of him was volatile, unpredictable. He was explosive and seemed to wear his inner rage and bitterness just beneath his pale skin. Snape seemed capable of anything, even violence towards her if she angered him. Being a phenomenal lover couldn’t make up for that aspect, if it existed. She had heard that his father was an abusive man who murdered his mother in a fit of rage, then killed himself.

Abuse usually ran in the family, particularly if a child were exposed to it. Snape could be an abusive man as well.

Ron was a lot of things, but he was no woman-beater. He got angry quickly, but not to the point of screaming and frightening her, like Snape did. Usually, Ron would fall silent when he reached his limit, and begin pouting. In extreme cases, he would leave until they both cooled off. He always came back to straighten things out, which usually meant they didn’t talk about the problem any more. That was no way to communicate.

Well, Hermione had her chance right now.

”It’s not that you’ve done anything wrong, Ron. You’re just being yourself,” Hermione said slowly.

Ron thought this sounded worse than doing something wrong. If he’d done something wrong, he could correct it. But if it were something about him as a person, that might be harder to do.

”What does that mean?” he asked the witch.

Hermione sighed.

”It’s all just become so—so mundane, Ron. I’m—I’m discontented with everything about my life,” she said softly.

”Discontented? Mundane? Hermione, you have a great life. A good job, a wizard who loves you and wants to marry you—what more do you want?” he asked her. “Tell me what you want?”

”I want excitement,” she said shortly.

Ron scowled now.

”Excitement? Hermione, you have enough ‘excitement’ under your belt to last a bloody lifetime. We all do. Voldemort’s death wasn’t that long ago, and we’ve had more than enough adventure. We almost died too many times to count!” Ron exclaimed. “We’re lucky to even be here!”

”I know. I know, Ron, but my life is dull,” she said.

Ron stood up now, his eyes narrowed.

”Hermione, your life isn’t dull. It’s ‘normal.’ Just the way it should be. Death shouldn’t be lurking around every corner,” he said to her. “We won, Hermione. We were working toward peace and now we have it. You should be thankful. Think of what the alternative would have been. More than likely we’d both be dead now, and a lot of people did die. We should live a peaceful life to honor and remember them, Hermione, and be grateful for our lot.”

Hermione blinked at Ron. He actually made sense. Of course she should be thankful. Oh, Snape really was the devil. He had caught hold of her imagination and used it to twist her about. Well, she still needed to address another problem.

”There’s something else,” she said to him.

”What?” Ron snapped, still a little angry that Hermione didn’t appreciate her situation. It cost a lot of lives to create this—mundane existence. His own brother had died fighting against Voldemort.

”Our sex life,” she said softly.

Now Ron stared at her.

”What’s wrong with our sex life?” he asked her, thinking one of the main things was she didn’t blow him enough.

”What’s wrong is you just come in here, strip down and expect sex from me. With no preliminaries, no romance—you just act like you’re entitled to have me flip my heels in the air for you anytime you want.”

”You don’t do it anytime I want. You’ve said no plenty of times,” Ron said tightly.

”But Ron, you don’t take the time to make me want you,” Hermione told him. “You just want to climb on. You don’t do much kissing, touching or anything other than a few gropes. You ignore most of my body. It feels as if all you want to do is just stick your wand in me, and do your business. It doesn’t even matter to you if I orgasm or not.”

Ron stared at her. Of course he wanted to stick his wand in her. That was the entire purpose of sex, to penetrate the female body. Hermione never seemed to care if she orgasmed or not. She used to tell him it was all right when he didn’t do it for her, that it didn’t matter. She told him that so much, that he stopped worrying about it. Now it mattered? Well, it wasn’t his fault she didn’t tell him the truth.

”You said it didn’t matter,” he said accusingly.

”You still should have wanted to satisfy me,” the witch shot back at him.

”I thought I WAS satisfying you, Hermione. I’m a wizard, not a bloody mind reader. But, since we’re on the topic, there’s some things you fall short on, too. You don’t give my body the attention it needs either. You rarely even touch my cock, not to mention blow me.”

Hermione’s brows shot up.

”Why should I do that when you don’t like to perform oral sex on me?” she asked him.

Ron made a face.

”It’s not sanitary, and I don’t like the taste, that’s why I don’t like to do it. My tool is on the outside. It can be properly washed. Witches are always leaking fluids,” he stated flatly. “Men are cleaner.”

Hermione frowned at him.

”So, why don’t you get a man to suck you off, then!” Hermione hissed, jumping up and leaving the living room. This conversation was over.

Ron sighed. That hadn’t gone well at all. But what did she expect? She was attacking his sexual prowess. He’d thought they were fine, and now she tells him they aren’t? And that statement about letting a man suck him off. What the hell was that?

His mind turned back to the joke shop and the great blowjob he got.

Now, after what Hermione said, he was glad it happened. It was clear she was never going to see reason when it came to oral sex. Never.

But what was also clear to Ron was that there were real problems in their relationship, and he was going to have to make some changes, and soon. He couldn’t let her go to sleep angry at him. At least she hadn’t thrown him out. More than likely, she was expecting him to follow her and try to make up.

Ron thought that was a wise idea.

He followed her up the hall.

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A/N: Thanks for reading.