Ron's Decision

[GodrictheGriffon]

WARNING! THIS STORY CONTAINS ISSUES ABOUT ALTERNATIVE LIFE CHOICES AND MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR YOUNG READERS!


Ron woke up on an average early December morning. He was thrilled that break was so close and couldn't wait to put down his quill and parchement to take a break from school work. Harry joined him as he made his way down to breakfast. Hermione was already down there.

"Have you heard the news?" she asked breathlessly,"There's going to be another Yule Ball. But it will only be Hogwarts this time. If only Vicktor could come."

"Yeah,"said Ron,"Ashame your boyfriend can't come." Hermione and Vicktor had always been a tender issue for him.

"Will you two shut up abouthim?" asked Harry. His friends ignored him, but he was to used of their bickering to care anymore.

All through lessons that day, the Ball was alll anyone could talk about.

"Do you think that I've got a chance with Hannah?" was all Ernie said during Herbology. And in Transfigurations, Lavender wouldn't stop going on about how,"cute Terry Boot is" and "I hope Terry asks me. I think that I would just die if he didn't." This realization caused some emnity between her and Padma Patil. "She knew that I like him! I trusted her and this is what I get?!" she complaind to a passng group of quite frightened looking 2nd years and anybody else who passed by.

Ron knew that they were in for a long couple of weeks.

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If only he knew just how difficult the following weeks would be.

Harry came up to him one night in the common room."Ron," he said, "we have to find dates. Ones that don't like to dance for your sake. And we won't go with someone if the other doesn't find one. and let's make sure we atart looking sooner so the good ones aren't taken. Agreed?"

Hermione was digusted. "I can not believe that you're talking about girls like they're bertie-bott's every-flavor beans!" she cried and stalked upstairs to knit elf hats.

"If girls are every-flavor beans, than Eloise Midgeon must be the vomit-flavored one," Ron muttered at Hermione's disappearing back," and she must be the rotten-egg. I agree."

The next morning, was a Hogsmeade Saturday. "We'll look for dates there," Harry said. And by the end of the day we'll each have one.

Thus followed a series of dreadful mishaps. Harry attempted to ask-out his old crush, Cho Chang, but could not get the words out.

"I'm sorry, Harry! But if you're trying to ask me to the Ball, I've already agreed to go with Roger Davies! But I'm really sorry!" was Cho's answer.

But Ron's day was going, if possible, even worse. He blurted out to any girl who looked at him,"Wouldjawannagototheballwime?!" He eventually wound up asking Madam Rosmerta. She said no but gave him a free butterbeer. The day wasn't a total loss. But out of the many girls Ron asked, he only got one "yes". From Eloise Midgeon. When Ron noticed what had happened, he promptly walked away.

This earned Ron a cuff on the ear from Hermione who akso refused to hlp him with his homework and made Harry swear that he wouldn't tell Ron the answers when he helped Harry. "She was crying for hours in the girls toilet this evening! And I would watch your back if I were you, Ron. Your name came up in some very rude terms in that bathroom today."

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The rest of the week continued in much the same fashion. Neither Ron nor Harry had managed to find dates. After having a butterbeer thrown in his face, Ron came out with some very shocking news.

"That's it!"said Ron,"I'm through with girls!"

What started as an empty threat, soon turned into the biggest decision of his life.

[GodrictheGriffon]

Ron stopped looking for a date. He just couldn't stand the humiliation of it. Harry finally gave up on him and just asked Katie Bell. Ron was the only one in Gryffindor who had not found a date. The ball loomed nearer and nearer and was no longer a miniscule dot on th e horizon.

The day finally arrived and Ron wound up going stag.

Hermione was puzzled. "You had a month to find a date and you didn't find one?" Why not?"

"Because," Harry answered back, "he gave up after two weeks."

"I just didn't feel like going," Ron said with a shrug. But in heart, he knew that there were quite a few people he would wnt to go with. And one of them was sitting in the chair next to him.