|[ WHO ]| : Hermione Granger |[ WHERE ]| : DATDA Classroom |[ WHEN ]| : Right after this. |[ WHAT ]| : Hermione is telling the unfortunate events leading to Lord Voldemort's defeat. |[ RATING ]| : PG-13. Highly emotional content. |[ STATUS ]| : Closed.
It was going to be hard and long night for them both. Hermione knew Ron wasn't going to like this news, and she could hardly handle having to be the one to tell him, herself. If he was stuck a sixth year, it meant that his hard journey was only now beginning. Ron didn't even know she had kissed him in the Chamber of Secrets yet, and Hermione was about to find out he had just broken up with Lavender. Another thing she wasn't looking forward to saying. Her emotions were hanging barely by a thread, and it was getting increasingly harder to breathe. She took a deep breath, huddled up in one of the over-sized armchairs of her now private room. But even then, it wasn't enough.
Her cheeks were soaked in salty tears, remembering all the people who'd died at the war. Fred was gone, Tonks was gone, Lupin was gone, so many of the people she'd grown to love and trust had been taken far too soon, and Ron was going to feel the exact same pain. She hated the fact she had to be the one to break all this news to him, and part of her wished Harry really was around to keep her at least calm until Ron arrived. Harry always had a way of being able to keep her level-headed when she was feeling down but he wasn't here, right now. Part of her was glad she had her own private room, now. The last thing she needed were people in the Common Room asking her why she was crying. It wasn't something she could easily explain to them - in ways they would just never understand.
When she heard the knock on the classroom door, she forced herself to stand and hurried over to the door. It took not even ten seconds for her arms to find their way around Ron's body, embracing him tightly. If anything was positive, she at least knew he was alive, and would live through the war. She was hoping he didn't think he had died, but then again she hadn't made any clues towards that in the journals. Realizing he was probably extremely confused and worried now, she pulled away and grabbed his hand, leading him into her living quarters. She was temporarily the professor for Defense Against the Dark Arts, which explained why he hadn't seen her in the Common Room. The words she was trying to say came out in short bursts, like they always did when she was upset. "Ron. We lost a lot of people...There's so many that are gone, I couldn't possibly tell you all of them."