Chapter 4
July 15th, 2000
After saying farewell to Harry and Ginny, right after he assaulted Nathan in Australia, Ron immediately flew to Manchester to report for Auror training. He was then given instructions to floo to a training facility in Preston, where his formal training started. Every weekday for the next year, Ron would train 10-12 hours a day, while bunking in the facility's dorms in Preston, demonstrating wand work, physical strength and agility training, RAID planning, and going through weekly psychological evaluations. Ron was great in his physical strength and agility training and his wand work, and was exceptional at planning RAIDs, but his psychological evaluations were almost deemed a problem by his trainers. His temper sometimes got the best of him and he'd get into arguments and fights with other trainees.
Eventually though, Ron finished his training and he got his certificate to become an Auror in a year's time. He enjoyed his first week at work, but he missed being around Harry and his family. He didn't even write to them during his training, or when he got his certificate and graduated.
Right after he finished his first week of work at his new job, to his surprise, Hermione shows up at his doorstep.
July 8th, 2000
Hermione had returned home to England and went to work at the Ministry for her job. One day, she got an owl from Ginny. The letter asked Hermione to visit the Burrow as soon as she got off work. When she was done her shift, Hermione took some floo powder and flooed to the Burrow. Once arriving, Mrs. Weasley brought her over to the living room. where Harry and the rest of the Weasley's, plus some of the girlfriends of Ron and Ginny's brothers, were all present. Hermione then asks, "May I please know what's the emergency?" Harry then answered, "We found Ron. He's graduated from his Auror training and he got his Auror certificate, yet he didn't tell us. Here's the thing, we've been discussing something and I think he was up to something." Hermione then says, "What? What is it?" Harry then answered, "I think he chose a 1 year training plan at the specific facility he was in because he could avoid extradition since the place he was training in was heavily guarded and they don't allow trainees to stop their training for anything. And, the statute of limitations in Australia for any alleged assault and battery case is 12 months. He may have known what he was doing all along, Hermione. I wouldn't be surprised if he intentionally failed just to wait until the statute of limitations had expired."
Hermione then says, "But he has to answer for what he did to Nathan." Harry replies, "While you're not wrong about that, there's nothing really you can do. You can't just find him and then apparate him to an Australian police station. You don't have a deluminator or a portkey. And even if you did, the police can't do anything anymore according to their by-laws." Hermione tried to protest again, "We need to have him extradited there though." Harry felt he needed to repeat himself again, "Yeah, and how are you going to do that?" Hermione replied, "I'm going to confront him."
Everyone was shocked at what they heard, with Ginny asking, "How? We don't know where he is." Hermione then said, "I can find him by asking for his residence at his new place of work. And you know what, I'm going to the Auror station in Manchester." And with that, Hermione flooed back to her home she was sharing with Harry, and she packed a luggage full of her belongings. Harry and Ginny came back and followed her, and they both tried to reason with her to not find Ron alone. But Hermione didn't listen and flooed to the Auror offices in Manchester to find Ron. Harry and Ginny flooed behind her and caught up to Hermione, where Harry reasoned with her, saying "Look, how about let's find out together. Then, we can decide to speak to him at a later date. You just came back from work and you need some rest. So, we can find him another time." Hermione tried to object, "No, Harry. I need to find him alone. I appreciate you helping me but this is something I have to do on my own." Hermione tried to proceed to the front desk again, but Harry grabbed her arm and said, "Alright. Look, we can ask where he is and then you can go find him yourself after. Right now, though, you need to get some rest. And Mrs. Weasley's getting something cooked soon. So, maybe it'd be best if we head back to the Burrow and gather our thoughts after we find Ron's address." Hermione thought about that and after some consideration, she said, "Okay. Fine. We'll find his address now and then I can come back with you guys."
July 15th, 2000
Ron opens his door, and to his surprise, Hermione is at his doorstep. Ron then says, "Hermione, surprised to see you. What are you doing here?" Hermione then asks, "May I come in?" Ron looks out his door to see if anyone is with Hermione, before he lets her in. Ron shuts the front door and then guides Hermione to the couch before he asks her, "So, what are you doing here? And how did you find me?" Hermione then said, "I went to your new place of work last week and asked for your place, which speaking of work, how are you doing as an Auror so far?" Ron was confused at her question and asked, "Is that why you're here? You want to know how I'm doing?"
Hermione then said, "You knew what you were doing bringing me to Australia and attacking Nathan. You had no right trying to force whatever relationship that you expected me to have with him based off of one kiss." Ron scoffed and tried to turn around and walk away, but Hermione got up and grabbed him by the shoulder, turned around, and kept going on, "I told you, I loved you. I'm sorry about what happened with me kissing Nathan and I'll regret it for the rest of my life. But you have some culpability in all of this. You refused to come to Australia with me at the last minute, even though I needed you. Then you decide to leave me and you try to force me into a relationship with Nathan by dragging me back to Australia without taking me back, when I kept insisting to you that I loved you. And finally, you brutalized him. You not only mangled his face, you paralyzed him. And because you paralyzed him, he's now in a wheelchair."
Ron responded, "So? He brought that upon himself when he mouthed off at me." Hermione answers back, "That still doesn't give you the right to assault someone. And I didn't mention other important components in you dragging me to Australia. You not only tried to leave me there without any magical transportation to get me back to England and leave me in Australia all by myself, but you somehow knew that after a certain period of time, the police would stop caring about you assaulting Nathan anymore and won't pursue any charges against you. Plus, even in the time before the police decided to stop caring about the case against you attacking Nathan, you found a training facility where not only was the magic heavily guarding the building there, but that they wouldn't have you released and extradited to Australia."
Ron then says, "Maybe I had an idea of kicking his ass if he said something to me or attacked me. Big deal. And yeah, I did look up some statute of limitations in Australia, and I knew where the best place for me to get training was in Preston. But really, I brought you to Australia so that you could be with the love of your life." Hermione scoffed at what Ron said, "Damn it, Ron. I didn't love him. It was one kiss. Are you gonna keep guilt-tripping me about this for the rest of my life?" Ron then said, "You brought this upon yourself. You did your part in ruining whatever relationship I wanted with you. And yeah, I admit, I tried to get you and Nathan together. Because I thought that was what was best for you. So now, I ask, all this time later, what the fuck are you going to do, Hermione?"
Hermione responded, "You should be in handcuffs. You should be in jail, Ronald." Ron answers back, "Yeah, well I'm not. And I thought by now, you would be spending the rest of your life with Nathan, even if he's now paralyzed according to you. By this point, maybe you'd be engaged and planning your wedding with Nathan. Maybe you start thinking about having children with Nathan-" Hermione cut him off, "God damn it. Ron, don't you understand? I don't want to spend my life with Nathan. Stop trying to force this idea that I love him and should spend the rest of my life with him. And because of your actions, Nathan doesn't want to talk to me anymore."
Ron then said, "So, now that Nathan doesn't want to speak to you anymore, and you pushed me away when you kissed him, what are you going to do now? Who are you going to try to spend the rest of your life with? Huh? Is it Viktor Krum? Cormac McLaggen? Or are you going to be alone because, out of all people, you did not have the self-control to see that what you were doing was wrong?"
Hermione started to cry at what Ron was saying before she says, "Don't you get it? Yeah I made a mistake but I loved you." Ron then yells back, "So, then let me ask you this, do you still love me now?" Hermione cried again but this time, didn't respond. So, Ron then yells at Hermione, “Fine, you want to show that you love me, prove it. Or else, get out of my apartment. Because I don’t want to see you ever again.” Hermione didn't say anything again. So, Ron says, "Ok then, get out of my flat and don't ever come back."