Useless

CHAPTER ONE

Hermione Granger was furious. She was pacing the floor of her shared flat wondering where in merlin's great green earth her roommate and boyfriend was. Ron was supposed to be with her at this very important dinner meeting tonight, but he was a no-show. She was counting on him to help her persuade these two high up department heads to support her proposed legislation on reconfiguring the whole ministry. As much as she hated to admit it she was counting on Ron's pureblood status to help these two old time ministry officials understand that change and new ideas were not always bad.

She had worked for two weeks to get these two to meet with her and Ron and then he didn't even show up. Not only did she not have his help and support, she had to apologize profusely again and again for Ron's absence. Ron knew how important this was to her. He had promised that he would be there. He had confirmed the time and place before he left for work that morning so she knew he knew what he needed to do.

But Ron hadn't been there. He didn't show up. No owl, no patronus, nothing. No communication where he was or why he wasn't there. She knew he wasn't on a mission; Harry had promised her that he wouldn't assign anything to Ron that day that would prevent him from being with her tonight. All she could think about was how useless he was to her at this time. How she had needed him and he let her down. No, he was worse than useless.

So she paced and seethed and tried not to scream as she waited to see if he would even come home that night. As she contemplated what she was going to do with Ron when she did see him, she was planning on how to do damage control with the two officials and what she needed to do to get her proposals passed. Tonight had been a major setback instead of the progress she had hoped for and now she needed a new plan and she was furious.

She was startled out of her thoughts by the roar of the floo. She turned and saw Ron step out looking tired and haggard. Before he could even get the soot off himself, she was on him with the full fury of all her anger and disappointment.

"WHERE WERE YOU TONIGHT?" she yelled with as much venom as she could, with her arms flailing about. She pointed her finger at him and screamed, "I NEEDED YOU AND YOU WEREN'T THERE! Do you know how important this was tonight? How hard I worked just to get it set up and you don't even show up!.." She turned and threw her arms in the air.

Hermione didn't see the sadness in his eyes as he looked up at her and started softly, "Hermione, I'm so sorry, but…"

Hermione turned back toward him with malice in her eyes and cut him off before he could finish, "YOU'RE SORRY?! You're sorry? That's all you've got to say? Where were you anyway? Where were you when I needed you? Where?"

Ron started again, "I'm sorry, Hermione, I was with George.."

Again Hermione cut him off before he could finish and she exploded again, "GEORGE? YOU MISSED MY MOST IMPORTANT MEETING AND LET ME DOWN TO BE WITH GEORGE? WHERE YOU AT SOME PUB GETTING DRUNK? I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU PICKED GEORGE OVER ME! RONALD WEASLEY YOU ARE WORTHLESS!"

After being cut off twice and then hearing this, Ron began to get angry. "YES! I was with George, but you don't understand…"

Hermione interrupted one more time, "OH I UNDERSTAND. One time I ask you to do something important and you let me down. I can't count on you Ron. Just like at Hogwarts, you really are worthless to me Ronald, worthless."

Ron's shoulders slumped down after she finished. It took all of his auror training to stay calm and not yell back, but with an air of resignation and controlled anger, Ron glared at Hermione and said simply, "yes, I was with George. I was with George on the top of Big Ben tower for the last 6 hours talking to him so he wouldn't jump off and kill himself. So, yeah, I guess I'm worthless to you, Hermione, but George needed me. I'm picking him up at Mungos and taking him home and staying with him to make sure his head is on straight. Today is the two-year anniversary of Wheezes' opening and George was really missing Fred, but fortunately I found him before my mum lost another son. I guess I'm not worthless to George like I am to you."

Ron then apparated away, leaving Hermione alone in the lounge of their flat with her mouth open and mind spinning as she thought "Oh no!"