InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Do you like me?"

Ronald B. Weasley (geroffme) wrote in wished,
@ 2009-10-17 22:34:00

Entry tags:

!1997: 10, !incomplete, hermione granger, ron weasley

Who: Hermione & Ron.
What: Horcrux research. Yes.
Where: Gryffindor common room.
When: Tonight.
Warnings: TBA.

Ron did, in fact, feel very much like an idiot as he hauled himself up off of his bed - where he'd been slumped over dutifully writing a mind-numbing essay, and since when had homework become a break from anything, anyway? - and stuffed his pen in one of his books to mark his place. The very last thing he should have been doing was encouraging her in thinking she could just say jump. And if there was anything he was more sick of than being bossed around and snapped at, it was the bloody locket. The intelligent thing to do would have been to ignore her and keep on writing.

He trudged down the staircase, looking sour. It wasn't too late, of course. He could walk past - pretend he'd come down to see someone else, or that he'd forgotten something. He could turn right back around, in fact; except now he was standing in full view of the common room, and there was no going back without a decent excuse. He was still trying to formulate one when he stopped in front of where she was sitting, looking blankly down at her.

... Hopeless. A moment later he flopped down on the sofa beside her, looking at the fire. "Well?" he asked peevishly. "What do you want?" As though he hadn't just jumped to it.

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	geroffme 2009-10-19 12:43 am UTC (link)
	He almost smiled in relief. Being chided was pretty familiar territory, too. "I didn't say I was proud of it. Just that I'd really, really like to." It would certainly relieve some of the stress. Which they could all use, more than a little - and he hoped Hermione's irritation didn't just extend to him. "Admit it, you know how I feel." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	cerebralwitch 2009-10-19 12:45 am UTC (link)
	She didn't want to admit it, and the fact that he was asking her to also annoyed her and made the edges of her mouth tighten rather than go back to that almost smile that had been there, but she couldn't really deny it - so she shrugged tightly, arms crossing over her chest. "I've wanted to strangle just about everyone, actually." Though mostly Ron and Harry. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

geroffme
2009-10-19 12:55 am UTC (link)

"Thought so." It brought his mind back to the reason they'd all three been such miserable company for the past couple of weeks, which only served to remind him that they still had miles to go before they had any idea how to get rid of it once and for all. He supposed she must have been thinking about it, too. That hadn't been what he'd meant to do, at all. He looked at her; not encouraging. "... Never mind."

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	cerebralwitch 2009-10-19 12:58 am UTC (link)
	It was nice, at least, to know that she wasn't the only one who wanted to kill all of her friends almost every time one of them opened their mouth. "It isn't us," she said, even if he was telling her to stop thinking about it. "It's the locket making us feel this way. Once we find the answer, we'll all go back to normal." Provided they all survived that long. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

geroffme
2009-10-19 01:06 am UTC (link)

"Yeah, I know. Once we find the answer." Which meant - what? More books and trudging off school grounds to hammer away at it uselessly? He found it hard to believe anything would go back to normal, most of the time. If he thought about it, he could see that - really, there were bits of normal in the way they had all been acting; it was just ten times worse. Who was to say anything would really change? Why shouldn't it be permanent? Plenty of other things had been ruined forever, and people had died.

- But he was letting himself spiral downwards, he could tell. He tried to haul himself out of it, but that was about as effective as it ever was. "That would be nice, anyway."

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	cerebralwitch 2009-10-19 01:18 am UTC (link)
	She watched him, trying to figure out what that expression meant, and when he talked again she still wasn't any closer to an answer. "As normal as we ever are, anyway," She offered, hoping she was on the right track, and glad that at least for now she didn't quite want to take his head off about anything. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

geroffme
2009-10-19 01:52 am UTC (link)

Ron laughed a little, without much humor. She'd managed to condense it nicely. Even if this wasn't how it was going to be forever, was it ever that much better? "I guess I'd have to go back about six years to find anything like that. But that'd be boring, wouldn't it." There were trade-offs, at least. Life might have gotten more complicated, terrifying and depressing, but - some of the complications weren't all bad. Some of them did his homework for him, among other things.

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	cerebralwitch 2009-10-19 02:07 am UTC (link)
	"If you want to, I guess. There are ways." She turned a little so that her back was against the back of the sofa, and she could curl her legs up underneath her. It also brought her closer to him, but she hadn't really been thinking of that. "You'd have to go back to before you and Harry saved me from the troll. Maybe even further." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	geroffme 2009-10-19 02:12 am UTC (link)
	He couldn't believe how long ago that felt. And even there, there was Voldemort ... he'd go back further, then. "Maybe about the time you were telling me I had dirt on my face," he suggested, glancing down briefly at the space on the couch between them that had suddenly shrunk. "I do remember that." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	cerebralwitch 2009-10-19 02:17 am UTC (link)
	"I was helping Neville find his toad," Hermione rolled her eyes. "I feel like I was just doing that last week. Likely because I was. But even then you'd have to go back further. When you chose the carriage, maybe. Before you met Harry at all." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

geroffme
2009-10-19 02:24 am UTC (link)

"Ah, Trevor. Has he really made it this far?" Better than some pets, that was for sure. "Suppose you're right." He had meant to look back at the fire, possibly to spend a pleasant moment contemplating chucking all the books into it; he ended up pausing on her face for a moment, trying to remember if he could even recall what she'd looked like, back then. She'd probably always be the same, to him. "... Not worth it, anyway. Then all I'd have would be Fred and George trying to 'lose' me every time we went out of the house."

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	cerebralwitch 2009-10-19 02:28 am UTC (link)
	"And you'd be ten," Hermione pointed out, chuckling. "And would you honestly want that, really? No matter how annoying the last few weeks have been?" (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	geroffme 2009-10-19 02:37 am UTC (link)
	Ron smiled slightly. Ten had been pretty hideous, all around. "No. You're right - better here than there, at least. There are worse things." And tonight was an odd little instance of proof that there could even be bright spots, however tenuous and small, in this mire they'd gotten themselves into. "I was a bloody idiot when I was ten," he said, turning to her. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	cerebralwitch 2009-10-19 02:40 am UTC (link)
	"And that's changed how?" She asked, but this time it wasn't with that same barely held annoyance as before - she was joking, and it seemed almost easy. She turned her head to smile in him at relief. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	geroffme 2009-10-19 02:50 am UTC (link)
	"Nice," he muttered, but without any rancor. He realized he was working to contain a smile, and couldn't for the life of him think why. It had been long enough, after all. "Now I'm a lot taller," he said, straightening a little and leaning in her direction to demonstrate "And I can push people around who call me a bloody idiot. It's made a big difference, actually." (Reply to this) (Parent)

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