You give your hand to me
And then you say hello
And I can hardly speak
My heart is beating so
And anyone can tell
You think you know me well
But you don�t know me...

�I have news.�

That�s what her letter had said. I remember it well. In fact, if I close my eyes, I can still see the way the words looked on the page, right above her ever-present, �Love, from Hermione.� It�s amazing how three little words can evoke two such vastly different emotions in a person, depending on what those three words actually were.

It was six months ago that Hermione�s golden-plumed owl, Midas, dropped her letter into my lap. That alone wasn�t cause for alarm; Hermione and I often wrote each other during the course of a week--short notes mostly, but sometimes long ones too--even as we also made it a point to see each other, and Harry, on several of those days as well, if for no other reason than to just spend five minutes in each other�s company and see how each was doing.

I didn�t even open the letter at first, since I had been at work when it arrived. I�d saved it till later, when I could be in the privacy of my own home, and devote the attention to it that it deserved.

And so when I read those words, I had been completely unprepared for their impact.

No you don�t know the one
Who dreams of you at night
Longs to kiss your lips
Longs to hold you tight
Oh I am just a friend
That�s all I�ve ever been
�Cause you don�t know me

Harry thought I was crazy, but I could tell from the way she had written the words that she was happy when she wrote them. Something in the way she looped her letters, or else the way the ends curled in a little bit more than usual, but I knew it was good news of some kind. I also knew it would be the kind of good news that would create one more tiny little fracture into my already breaking heart.

She met us in Diagon Alley the next day. It was our usual time to meet for a quick lunch, when the stars were aligned and the three of us could coordinate our schedules so could actually sit down together to talk for longer than a few minutes. I was the first to see her from the distance, and even from several feet away, I could already see she was glowing. Radiant. There was a definite bounce to her step, and a sparkle in her eyes I hadn�t seen in a long while.

I prodded Harry in the shoulder and he turned around, waving hello when he saw her walking towards us, then standing to greet her with a hug and kiss when she came to our table at that new sidewalk cafe that had opened a few months ago. When she kissed me on the cheek, I detected a new scent on her straight away, a fragrance she didn�t normally wear that I recognized to be some expensive perfume that I had begrudgingly helped Harry pick out for Ginny as a birthday gift once.

I lingered in the embrace just a little longer, but I knew eventually it was time to let go, and I released her. She rocked back on the balls of her feet, still watching me, as if searching my face for some sort of reaction. Then she sat down, with Harry and me following suit seconds later.

�So you two got my note yesterday, right?� she said. There was a breathless quality to her voice, the kind I didn�t hear often, that she reserved only for a few people in her life. Hermione had not had many serious relationships in her life (I often like to tease her that her bad luck has somehow rubbed off on me, because she and I have spent far too many lonely nights together, pondering why it was so difficult for us to find a lasting relationship--of course I never told her that I knew perfectly well why), so I can recognize the signs.

�Ron�s convinced he already knows what you�re going to tell us,� Harry said, sending a mischievous grin my way. I wanted to kick his arse at that moment, but I reckoned Hermione wouldn�t like that one bit, so I settled for biting my tongue and letting Harry know with a glare (that Hermione couldn�t see) that he was going to get an earful from me when it was just the two of us again.

�Oh?� she said. �Do you, now?�

Harry�s eyebrows rose in surprise. �So it�s true?�

Don�t say it, Harry, I thought. Don�t say it. If you say it, it will be out there. And then there won�t be any way of taking it back.

Hermione was beaming. God, she looked beautiful. She was always so beautiful when she smiled.

A pink tinge stained her cheeks, and she nodded. �Well,� she said, �if Ron guessed that I met someone, then... yes...�

And so there it was. I forced a smile, telling myself that however this piece of news was killing me inside, by God I was not going to let her know that. She was happy. And that�s all that mattered, really.

Over the next few months, forcing myself to smile eventually became second-nature. In many ways, I had grown numb, the way I would always grow numb when I watched her with someone new, or when she would talk about him and her eyes would dance with life and fire. And sometimes, during the quiet moments, I would even let myself pretend it was really I who made her smile that way, who made her happy.

When she knocked on my door last night, though, I could already sense something was wrong. Call it a sixth sense, if you will--Harry swears it�s spooky that I can guess when something is going on with her, even when it takes her forever and a day before she�ll tell us--but I just knew.

I knew.

She was a complete mess when I opened the door: tears streaking down her face, her eyes bloodshot, her glorious hair coming out of a braid. And I don�t think I had ever wanted to kill anyone more in that moment than I wanted to kill David--because I just knew somehow that that bastard was the reason she was standing here on my doorstep, looking as if her entire world had crumbled to dust.

�Hermione?�

I swept her into my arms straight away. She collapsed in my embrace, shaking as I held her, sobbing. For a brief moment, I was terrified her sobbing would never end. But eventually it did, and I continued to hold her anyway.

We came inside without a single word exchanged between us, but as soon as I had sat her down on the couch, I couldn�t hold it in any longer.

�That son of a-�

�Ron...�

�Don�t say it, Hermione,� I said, �don�t... Don�t you dare defend him!!�

She only looked at me, as more tears rolled down her cheeks, unimpeded.

�He did something, didn�t he?� I knelt down in front of her, cupping her cheek with my hand, fanning her tears away with my thumb. �Tell me, Hermione, please... I can�t just sit here watching you cry like this... I need to know if there�s something I can do...�

She shook her head. �There�s nothing you can do,� she said, her words coming out in a choked whisper. �You can�t fix this...�

�What happened?�

�He just... felt things were going too fast, too soon... he said he needed some time away to think. He needed space... He needed to figure out if this was really serious...�

�Bloody hell!!�

�Ron, please,� she said. �Please, just... I just need you to hold me right now... Can you just hold me?�

She didn�t need to ask twice. I took her in my arms, gently rocking her, stroking her hair, and I noticed she wasn�t wearing that same perfume, the one that David had given her. It was her almond and vanilla scent, the one from her shampoo, and I breathed it in, closing my eyes, pretending...

Pretending that... she wasn�t crying. That she was in my arms because she realized it was where she belonged.

I let her sleep in the bedroom last night. The couch was too lumpy, and I insisted that I be the one to sleep in it. Hermione protested soundly for a while, but I was nothing if not a gentleman, and wouldn�t hear of it; Mum had raised all her boys to treat a woman like a lady, and I was not going to let her down.

Sometime after midnight, I peeked in the room to make sure she was all right. She was sound asleep, her breathing finally an even rhythm, unlike what it had been earlier. The blankets were all tangled by her feet, and there was a breeze from the open window, so I came inside and gently pulled them up to cover her. She stirred slightly but didn�t wake, and I watched her like this for a while. For a long time.

And I couldn�t help but feel the stab of irony. Here she was, the woman I loved, in my room, sleeping in my bed, but she was crying over another man.

I never knew
The art of making love
No my heart aches with loving you
Afraid and shy
I let my chance go by
The chance that you might love me too

She hadn�t been very hungry when she woke this morning, but I told her I wouldn�t let her leave my flat until she had at least a few bites of the pancakes I made for her. She gave me a good talking to for treating her like a child, but I didn�t care. I didn�t even fight back, which, looking back on it, probably disappointed her a little. After a while, she found it was useless trying to argue with me if I wasn�t going to argue back, and ate breakfast along with me.

I should have known something would come along to shatter this moment we had.

An insistent knock came minutes later. At first I thought it was Harry, coming to check up on her, but I was in for the shock of my life when I opened it.

There he was, the prat. The prat who had shattered Hermione�s heart and now had the gall to come here to see her? It was only because I loved Hermione so much that I managed to keep my hands from wrapping around his throat, but I did not hesitate in letting him know he was most certainly not welcome here.

�Go away, David,� I hissed. �You�ve got a lot of nerve coming here-�

�Please, Ron,� he said. �Her parents told me she�d come here last night... please, I need to talk to her...�

�What you need is to leave her the hell alone!�

�She was right,� he was babbling, �she was right, I never should have left... I was being daft-�

�Damn right, you were being daft!� I said. �Walking out on her like that, making her feel unwanted-�

�Ron, who is it-�

I gripped the door, feeling panic rise up in me when I heard Hermione come into the hallway. I knew she had seen him.

�Hermione, we have to talk,� David said, barging in, though I had tried to block his way.

I grabbed hold of his arm. �You take another step towards her, and I won�t be responsible for my actions...�

�Ron, it�s... all right...�

�What?�

�It�s all right, I�ll handle it,� she said.

�Are you sure?�

She nodded, as if to reassure me. �We�ll be in the kitchen, if that�s all right with you.�

David looked at me; he seemed to be expecting me to react by striking him at any moment, but I would never do so in front of Hermione. Not that he knew that, of course.

�I�ll be out here if you need me,� I muttered.

She smiled, squeezing my arm, then disappeared with David into the next room.

You give your hand to me
And then you say goodbye
I watch you walk away
Beside the lucky guy
Oh you will never know
The one who loves you so
Well you don�t know me

They were in there for what seemed like an eternity. I could hear bits and pieces of their conversation, though I tried hard not to listen. Each word was like another twist of the knife wedged in my heart.

�I was so stupid, love,� he was saying. �Please, can we try this again?�

�David, I can�t do this if you�re not sure...�

�I�m sure... I�m sure, now... I thought about it all last night, after you�d left... I couldn�t sleep, thinking about us...�

After a while, I couldn�t stand it anymore; I had to leave. I just had to get out of there. I had to be somewhere else where there were no reminders of her and someone else. My hand had just closed around the handle, when I heard footsteps coming in my direction, and I turned around swiftly.

�Ron... I can�t thank you enough for letting me stay here last night,� she said.

I nodded lamely, and couldn�t help but notice how much happier David seemed to be now. I suppose I couldn�t really blame the fellow.

Hermione came up to me and hugged me. It took everything I had to let her go, and then she rose up on her toes and kissed me on the cheek.

I thought I would die at that moment.

�You�re the best friend I could ever ask for,� she said, her tiny hand still encased in mine. �What would I do without you?�

I�m sure my smile looked pained, but I pushed through with it anyway.

�You won�t ever have to know,� I said.

She gave me one last hug, then David put his hand on the small of her back and ushered her out. I watched her walk out, returned her wave and she turned around one last time to smile at me and mouth, You�re the best!

And as she walked away, I couldn�t help but think that she was walking away with my heart.

You give your hand to me
And then you say goodbye
I watch you walk away
Beside the lucky guy
Oh you will never know
The one who loves you so
�Cause you don�t know me
Ooh... you don�t know me...