Purple Haze

A/N - I have been liking Ron for a while now, only I didn't want to admit it. This has always been one of my favourite Fanfic couples. So, give them a section! Anyway, after watching Driving Lessons last night, I had to write a story for Ron. I realised he is sweet!

Prologue

Ron Weasley was sitting at a table miserable and alone. Hermione, his childhood sweetheart, was getting married to his childhood enemy Draco Malfoy. He couldn’t believe how smug the blond prat looked. He had his arms draped around his new wife’s shoulders and he paraded her around with effortless ease. He knew that Hermione would never marry him, they were good as friends, but that was it. Only, it wasn’t. He actually loved Hermione and wanted her to be a big part of his life forever. They split up after school when it was clear that they wanted different things from life.

He wanted to be a big Quidditch star and she wanted to be a Healer in St Mungo’s. After several long discussions they realised their ambitions would not be conducive to a lifelong partnership together. She looked beautiful and radiant. Draco held his arm around Hermione’s waist talking to his old friend Blaise Zabini. Blaise was supporting his girlfriend: Ginny Weasley. Ginny was heartbroken after the final war when Harry Potter had died. Blaise was the only man that had managed to bring some semblance back of life back into her. She was still not quite the same, and Blaise knew that she was still very much in love with Harry, but he was going to be patient.

Ron had looked at all this with a heavy heart. He wanted to go up and be nice to Hermione but he knew from experience that he would only end up probably hurting her. Draco and Hermione had decided to get married on the tenth anniversary of Voldemort’s demise. Ron sighed as he picked up a glass of coke and swigged it down.

“Hello,” a voice said behind him. Ron shrugged his shoulders and decided not to respond. He picked up a plate and dug into a slice of chocolate cake. “I said, hello, Ron.”

Ron grumbled a response. Why won’t people see that he’s miserable and leave him alone? The intruder stepped around and sat opposite him.

“What is normally polite is to respond in kind, Ronald Weasley!” the irritant said. “Especially when the first greeter was an ex girlfriend.”

Ron looked up and noticed Lavender Brown was sitting across from him. She had changed somewhat. At school she was pretty but a bit vacuous. Ten years had done a lot to make her grow up a bit; she still looked a little silly, but otherwise she seemed interesting. Lavender sighed.

“She looks lovely,” Lavender said. “I can’t believe Hermione is married to Draco though. They hated each other at school. But I can’t believe the transformation; she’s gorgeous.”

“She’s all right I s’pose,” Ron groaned.

Lavender looked into his wide blue eyes. She gasped at the amount of pain that lay hidden in their sky blue depths. She looked down on the floor and looked up again.

“Why did you two split up?” she asked.

“We realised that we couldn’t stay together with our separate ambitions,” Ron replied moodily.

“Oh,” Lavender replied. “You still love her don’t you?”

Ron nodded saying nothing but he flicked his gaze to his Hermione in another Wizards arms.

“I thought it would be us forever you know,” Ron said. “I just thought that it would be Hermione and Ron; that we’d be the sort of couple to carve our initials in a tree somewhere and promise to marry each other. I’d have loved to have made her Hermione Weasley. But she didn’t want to marry a Quidditch player. I should of known better I suppose.”

Lavender moved her chair closer to Ron and reached forward to touch his hand. “It was just one of those things, Ron. Hermione is someone that loves stability, and a Quidditch player is hardly stable. Draco Malfoy has a home, a wad of cash, and a good job at the Ministry. She’ll see him everyday and he will be there for her when she wants him. It’s perfect for her, you should understand that.”

Ron groaned and raised his hands and covered his face with them. “Yeah, I know. It still doesn’t take the pain away you know.”

Lavender had looked at him and smiled. “Listen, Ron, you’ve got to move on.”

“I know, but I can’t. I just can’t. I loved her you know.”

Lavender sighed again and looked again at her ex boyfriend. “And what if there are girls out there that still like you.”

Ron turned around and looked at Lavender and shrugged his shoulders. “Yeah, well I can’t just get over her like that.”

“It’s been a year, Ron, surely you can get over her in that length of time?”

“I thought I was until I saw her like that,” Ron said. “I’m sorry, Lavender, but I can’t stay here.”

Ron drew back his chair and got up. He looked again at the girl that had given him his first kiss and shrugged his shoulders. She watched him leave the Great Hall, she sighed. What had she done to him? Lavender asked herself.

Lavender was about to stand up and follow him out but Hermione, who stood in front of her stopped her in her pursuit, she seemed worried.

“Have you seen Ron? He was just here a moment ago!”

“He left,” Lavender said. “I wouldn’t go near him if I were you, he’s hurt.”

“That’s what I need to talk to him about,” Hermione said. “I want him to know that I still love him.”

“Not in the way he wants you to though,” Lavender said.

“I know,” Hermione said; she lowered her brown eyes sadly. “But we had two different ambitions and there was no way they could have been compatible with a marriage situation.”

Lavender nodded. Hermione slumped on the seat that Ron had just vacated. She smiled weakly.

“I was about to follow him,” Lavender said.

“It’s been a year,” Hermione said suddenly. “I mean can’t he get over me?”

“It’s been ten years and yet look at how frail Ginny is?” Lavender asked.

“At least Ginny’s trying,” Hermione replied. “I thought he would have found a girl by now.”

“You know what he’s like though, Hermione, he told me that he wanted you to be his wife.”

“Is everything okay?” Draco asked as he came up to the two women. Lavender turned around and her eyes narrowed at him. She had never liked Malfoy.

“Everything is fine,” Hermione replied smiling. She leapt to her feet. “When you see Ron please tell him that I want to talk to him.”

Lavender nodded. Draco took Hermione’s hand and looked at Lavender. He had never really taken that much notice of anyone else in Gryffindor apart from the Dream Team and their famous hanger on, Neville Longbottom. He vaguely recognised her as one of the silly girls; she hung around with that Asian girl who was just as silly.

“Thank you for coming to our wedding,” Draco said.

“You don’t know who I am, do you?” Lavender asked.

“One of my wife’s friends; she has so many you expect me to remember them all?”

“Lavender,” she replied. “Lavender Brown.”

“Ah, yes,” Draco said smoothly. “Come, my dear, my mother wants to gush over you again.”

Lavender narrowed her eyes at the blond man. What does she see in him? she fumed.

She turned on her heel and walked out of the Great Hall and saw Ron slumped over the banister of the stairs; aimlessly kicking at the inoffensive stone.

“Hermione wants to talk to you, Ron,” Lavender said. Ron nodded. He turned around and walked down the stairs. He walked back into the Great Hall where he spotted Hermione talking to Narcissa Malfoy. She was gushing over her new daughter in law and was fingering the fabric of Hermione’s dress. Ron walked up to them. Narcissa swept a disdainful glance in the red heads way and promptly walked off. Hermione turned around and looked up at Ron.

“You said you wanted to talk to me?”

“How are you?” she asked him.

“Fine, as well as can be expected I suppose.”

“Ron,” she sighed. “I know this is like a stab in the back and a poison to the blood for you, but I do love you still. I want you to know that. I want you to understand that, Ron. We’re still friends, aren’t we?”

“Yes,” Ron said. “But, why him?”

“We met when he came to inspect the hospital. I was on a coffee break, and so was he. We started talking, he asked me out for a drink that evening; and we clicked straight away. We actually laughed over the punch I gave him; he said he probably deserved it. He hadn’t quite got over the fact that he was changed into a ferret though.”

Ron offered a weak smile. “Yeah, that was quite funny.”

“Look, Ron, please it’s been ten years.”

“I know,” he said. “But it’s only been a year for us.”

“I couldn’t help it, Ron, I tried to hold off. I tried not to fall in love but it happened. He treats me right, and his mother surprisingly took to me. I love Draco, Ron. You’d be surprised at half the things he say’s and does. It turns out that some of the things we thought he was boasting about were actually true.”

Hermione took in a deep breath. “There’s another reason, isn’t there?” Ron asked.

Hermione looked down on the floor. “We would have held the wedding off but I got pregnant. Narcissa forced us to get married as she didn’t want to have her grandchild born out of wedlock.”

Ron sighed. “So, this marriage is rather strong then, huh?”

Hermione nodded and rubbed his arm. “Please do me a favour, Ron, and start dating other women. You’re not bad looking, and you’re not a bad person. You deserve it.”

Ron smiled and held out his arms. Hermione stepped into his embrace and he held her tightly. There was a tap on his shoulder.

“Do you mind, Weasley? That happens to be my wife,” Draco said. Hermione rolled her eyes.

“Draco, he’s my friend. I thought you were okay with that.”

Ron let Hermione go. This should be interesting.

“I am, but any intimate embrace from you belongs to me.”

“Ron is like a brother to me,” Hermione said. “That’s all, Draco, please don’t cause a scene. Ron and I go further back than we do. We’ve been through everything together and you won’t let me hug him?”

Draco blushed and looked at his nemesis. “I suppose a small hug. Sorry, Hermione, it’s just that I am rather jealous of the history you two have together.”

Hermione looked at her new husband and then turned to her old boyfriend.

“I understand, I feel like that between you and Pansy,” Hermione replied.

“I don’t like Pansy anymore,” he replied. “How many times do I have to tell you?”

“But you still talk to her,” Hermione said. Ron turned his head between the two of them.

“Of course I do,” Draco said. “Because she’s under the delusion I still secretly love her when in actual fact I want to wring her bloody neck. If you have any compassion for me, Weasley, please take her away from me!”

“Sorry,” Ron said. “Pansy’s not my type.”

Ron smiled at Hermione and said goodbye. Draco watched him go. He turned to Hermione.

“Come on,” he said. “The nights still young.”

Hermione blushed. She wrapped Draco in her arms and he stroked her hair.

“If it makes you feel any better,” Hermione said. “But you’ve got to stop this jealousy.”

“So have you,” Draco said wiping a stray strand from out of her face. “You know you mean more than the world to me. You even had me under Veritaserum once, remember.”

Hermione blushed. “Yes, but if Parkinson goes near you again I’ll wrench her hair out of her scalp in lumps.”

Draco laughed. “Yes, and if I catch Weasley looking at you hungrily again then I would have to tear his eyes from his head. It works both ways you know.”

“I do feel sorry for Ron though,” Hermione said. “I wish he would find someone else to forget about me.”

“I sort of understand,” Draco murmured. He watched Ron leave the room finally. “I’d be the same I suppose if you and I were ever to separate.”

Hermione giggled. “Come, husband, and make my bed with me.”

“I will, wife!” Draco said. He was quite smug as she took his hand and led him out of the room.

~*~*~

Ron walked into his flat and chucked the keys down on the table in the hallway and walked into the kitchen. He brought out a bottle of beer and cracked it open on the side. He drank straight out of the bottle and looked around his kitchen. He had never felt more alone than he did tonight. The war had devastated his family. Bill had been killed; Charlie had been tortured to insanity, Percy was unaffected and Fred had followed Bill to an early grave. Ron had decided never to speak to Percy again.

Ginny had been affected the most by the war and Ron did all he could to help her but she was now withdrawn and in a shell. He sloped off into the living room and switched the telly on. He liked Muggle television. He changed the channel but found that this particular moment there was nothing on. He swigged down some more of the beer and was about to go to bed when he heard a knock on the door.

He opened the door and Lavender Brown was standing outside the door. She stood there and Ron looked her up and down. She had been crying.

“Ron, we need to talk,” Lavender said. “Please, let me in.”

Ron looked at the young woman standing in his doorway.

“Sure,” he said stepping aside. She walked in his flat.
She walked straight into his sitting room. Ron followed and she was sobbing.

“What’s the matter, Lavender?” Ron asked.

“Do you think that you’re the only one hurting, Ron?” Lavender sobbed. “Did you understand how hard it was for me to watch you mourn and mope over her? Do you have any idea how much I actually fancied you at school? When you dumped me I was heartbroken. When you ignored me I was hurt, but I carried on. I like you, Ronald Weasley! In fact,” she said taking a deep breath giving her control of her emotions. “I love you.”

Ron fainted on the floor.

A/N - I hope you liked this. I had to write Dramione for this story, and I am trying Ginny out with a different HP character even though I absolutely LOVE her with Harry!