The Apology

THE APOLOGY

Harry Potter sat in his office going over previous Auror missions. It had been exactly three weeks since Christmas day and he hadn't spoken to any of the Weasley's since. Partly because he didn't want to encounter Ron again, but mostly because of the shame he felt for reacting like that in front of his friends and family, especially the children.

The door of his office opened and his head shot up from the case he was looking at that dated back a few years. He smiled when he saw that it was his Deputy Head, Zacharias Smith.

"Good morning Zacharias," he said as the blonde took his seat behind his own desk, directly opposite Harry's. It was identical in shape but the work upon it was not, for example; Zacharias didn't have random post-it notes scattered all over his desk.

"Morning Harry, did you have a good weekend?"

Harry smiled as he remembered his weekend, he, Draco, and Blaise had stayed at Malfoy Manor whilst their spouses had been to every shop that sold baby clothing, trying to find Pansy the perfect clothes, booties, and other random baby things the guys didn't care about. Draco was the most shocked when Hermione returned with a bag just for herself.

"Yes I did, you?"

Zacharias' eyes glazed over slightly and Harry raised an eyebrow. His tiny smile made them rise higher.

"You didn't?"

The blonde nodded and a grin stretched onto his face "Uh huh, and she said yes!"

Harry's beamed at his deputy's happiness, for the past two weeks the former Hufflepuff had been plucking up the courage to ask his girlfriend of three years, Mandy Brocklehurst, to marry him. It would be his second marriage after his first, to Tracey Davis of Slytherin, failed due to the fact that she had been seeing Zacharias' ex-best friend, Anthony Goldstein, behind his back. They had separated five years ago, leaving Zacharias to care for their oldest daughter, Tamara, and Tracey with their younger one, Kaitlyn. Tamara was a Hufflepuff the same age as Albus and Kaitlyn was one year younger than Lily, she would be starting school this September.

"Good for you mate, Mandy's great."

"That she is Harry," Zacharias replied before looking down to evaluate the missions he had been assigned to assess.

Harry was just packing up for lunch when a short knock at his door distracted him. Zacharias had left the office just minutes before, taking Mandy out for lunch as she worked in the Office of Magical Law Enforcement, which meant that it wasn't him. Besides, it was his office too, he wouldn't knock.

"Come in?" Harry said suspiciously, raising an eyebrow as the doorknob turned and a figure walked in.

 A figure with bright red hair and freckles.

Harry's eyes narrowed as Ron closed the door behind him.

"Hey Harry,"

Harry didn't reply, instead he returned to packing up his stuff. If he was egged on enough, he was pretty sure that he would not fail to send an unforgivable Ron's way. He didn't want that though, because if caught he was bound to lose his position as Head Auror.

"Come on mate, don't be like..."

"I am not your mate," Harry spat back, his eyes still looking down, his words full of poison. He heard Ron mutter under his breath and looked up to see him shuffling in the same spot.

Harry tilted his head to one side in questioning; wondering why on earth Ron was in his office during his lunch break. The redhead had avoided him and his whole family since the incident at Christmas.

There was a pregnant pause where Harry glared at Ron whilst the latter gazed at the floor. Then the redhead opened his mouth and spoke.

"I'm sorry."

Harry scoffed, smirking slightly as he shook his head in disbelief.

"I don't believe you Weasley, why would you be sorry after all this time?"

"I've been sorry since the reunion, I wanted to say something at Christmas but that comment from Fred sent me over the edge, it just showed me how close you were to Hermione and I was just... I was just..."

"Jealous?" Harry supplied, his voice still containing some of the poison it had used before.

Ron nodded his head in shame "Yes I was jealous, I was jealous of the friendship you and Hermione had, I always have been. Even when we were dating I knew that you and she were still closer. When I hurt her I was jealous because she had gone to you after..."

"To resign," Harry replied bitterly, his voice rising "And it's your fault that she was gone for eighteen years."

Ron bowed his head in guilt before looking back up again with pleading eyes "I know, and it's about time I made that right."

Harry looked Ron up and down; trying to work out what he meant "What are you saying?"

"I'm saying," deep breath "That I want to go and apologise to Hermione, but I don't know where she works so..."

Harry was speechless; there was no way that his former friend was asking him to take him to Hermione so that he could apologise. If Draco knew that Ron was at their work place it wouldn't be pretty. He was pretty sure Hermione would act similarly too.

"No." Harry said bluntly, shaking his head as he pulled on his coat.

"Please Harry; I need to tell her that I'm sorry. What I did was wrong, I know it was; I just want her to know that I am guilty and if she never wants to see me again, well my family will never bother any of yours again."

Harry couldn't believe his ears, had Ron just said that if Hermione didn't forgive him then he would move away?

He lifted his head so he was looking into Ron's eyes; he stared for a moment before sighing and nodding his head curtly "Fine, I will take you to Hermione so you can apologise. But I would recommend that you tell Ginny before..."

"But won't she alert Malfoy?"

Harry glared at Ron "I think he deserves to be alerted, this is his wife and you did sexually assault her."