The Letters to No One - Romione

Hermione almost didn't go to the Weasley's house the next day. She stood at the edge of the forest, walking back and forth unable to pick up the courage to go and speak to him. She didn't want to have to face the pressure of explaining it all to him, not knowing whether he would understand her or not.

With one final, deep breath she managed to pluck up enough courage to walk through the forest, forcing herself to keep walking and not think about it to much. She feared that she would turn back and chicken out once more, but not this time. She kept walking until she reached the front door and knocked loudly. Almost instantly the door flung open revealing two identical red headed boys, slightly taller than Ron.

'You must be Hermione,' the boy on the left spoke. Hermione knew it must either be Fred or George but Ron had never told her how to tell them apart and she didn't have a clue which boy was which.

'Yeah,' Hermione replied, feeling nervous in the presence of even more strangers. The thought of spending the afternoon with the Weasley family terrified her. After all she rarely knew Ron let alone all of the others and what she really wanted was to talk to Ron and get out of there as quickly as possible.

'I'm Fred,' both of the twins said in unison, completely confusing Hermione.

'Errm,' Hermione began, not knowing what to say. She was thankful when Ginny came to the door pushing the two boys out of the way despite their protests.

'Leave her alone,' Ginny said and Hermione was thankful that she had someone looking out for her.

'Come on Ginny we were just having a bit of fun,' one of them said.

'You see Hermione,' the other one said putting his arm around her shoulder and bringing her inside the Burrow, 'Ron has never even brought a friend here to meet us, so you can't blame us for thinking that you didn't exist.'  The twins both smirked and Hermione watched as Ginny rolled her eyes at the pair of them.

'What are you saying about me?' Ron asked with a sulky look on his face that instantly disappeared at the sight of Hermione stood talking to his family. 'I've brought plenty of friends here.'

'One,' one of the twins said gesturing to a black haired boy who was sat at the table and had been listening to the twins' conversation. 'Only Harry here.'

'Give it up Fred,' Ron said the miserable expression returning to his face. 'Come on Hermione, let's leave them.'

'Mum said that you had to help set up because dinner is almost ready,' Ginny said causing Ron to stop in his tracks as he headed over towards Hermione. She simply shrugged at him as if to say, we'll talk later, although she was extremely relieved that she at least had some more time to think of how she would break the news.

'Is there anything I can do?' Hermione asked Ginny, but Ginny shook her head leading her over to the table sitting down opposite Harry and pulling Hermione down to sit next to her.

'Hi, I'm Harry,' he said politely introducing himself to Hermione.

'Hermione,' she replied with a smile, although realising that she was the reason that Harry had probably barely seen Ron over the past few weeks. 'Do you go to Hogwarts too?'

'Yeah, we're in the same year.' Harry said as Ron sat down next to him. 'And we're both in Gryffindor.'

'Gryffindor?' Hermione asked, turning to Ron for clarification.

'It's one of the four houses,' Ron replied with a smile, forgetting that this was all still new to her.

'Sit down everyone,' Mrs Weasley shouted bustling her way into the kitchen, plates of food soaring over their heads and landing in the middle of the table. 'Ahh Hermione, so glad you could join us,' she added when she spotted Hermione. Hermione looked around at the Weasley family, and Harry, who had already started tucking into the food. She watched as they chatted, deciding she would rather be a by-stander than actually joining in. She smiled at the busy family life that she had never lived but had always wanted and politely answered the few questions that Mrs Weasley asked her without giving her too much information.

'I wonder what house you'll be in,' Ginny piped up half way through the meal turning towards Hermione. 'I really hope that you're in Gryffindor.'

'Are you all in that house?' Hermione asked and everyone nodded in reply. 'Then that would be nice.' Hermione didn't say anything else throughout the meal and chewed her food in silence wishing that it was done so that she could talk to Ron and leave. Ron noticed that Hermione was being quieter than usual but simply put it down to nerves, after all his family could be quite full on. He took hold of her hand at the end of the meal, ignoring all remarks from the twins, and led Hermione outside into the garden away from the busy kitchen.

'So..?' Ron asked instantly, putting Hermione on the spot.

'Ron...' She began, although she couldn't look him directly in the eye. 'I can't go with you to Hogwarts.'

'Why not?' He asked.

'It's all just too much,' she replied. 'I can't just leave my life behind, my parents, my friends. I don't fit into your world, you know that as well as I do.' Hermione said feeling her eyes welling up with tears. 'Maybe if I'd gotten that letter four years ago when I was supposed to then things would be different, but they're not.'

'But you could learn magic and...'

'I know,' Hermione cut him off. 'But I've gotten this far in life without magic so I'm sure I can manage.'

'Maybe you'll change your mind,' Ron tried although he felt completely useless. 'There's still time.'

Hermione shook her head. 'I don't think so.'

'Well can I at least still see you before I go, to say goodbye until the holidays.' Ron said with a pleading look on his face. They had never discussed their relationship, what they were or what they would do in this situation, but Ron couldn't imagine the thought if not getting to see her.

'I don't think we should,' Hermione said pulling her hand out of his and taking a small step away from him. 'I don't think we should see each other anymore. I think it will be too hard.'

'Why are you so afraid?' Ron shouted, he didn't mean to but the words were already out of his mouth. Tears were now pouring down Hermione's face and it broke Ron's heart to see her like this, knowing there was nothing that he could do to change it. He felt completely useless.

'I'm so sorry,' Hermione sobbed before taking one last look at Ron and running away.