Ronald Weasley sat under a large oak tree on Hogwarts grounds late one Saturday afternoon. He felt as if the whole world was turning upside down. His two best friends seemed like completely different people to him. Harry Potter was dating Draco Malfoy and Hermione Granger had a crush on Parvati Patil. Everyone was changing around him.

Ron sighed and watched the sun sink farther below the trees of the Forbidden Forest. He didn’t know what to do now. His two best friends were strangers to him and he had no one to talk to anymore. It was time for him to go back to being a loner.

Before he’d met Harry and Hermione, Ron didn’t have any friends. Well, not really. He had his siblings, but they didn’t count. Now he had lost his friends. What was he going to do?

Ron stood up and brushed the red hair out of his blue eyes. It was beginning to get dark and cold. He figured now was as good a time as any to go inside. It was getting close to dinner time anyways. He shook himself off and headed across the grounds to the castle and the Great Hall.

He walked through the main entryway of Hogwarts and watched the students that were in the foyer waiting for dinner to start. Ron looked around him at the cliques. There was a small group of Hufflepuff girls giggling in a corner by the stairs and a mixed group of Ravenclaws gossiping near the doors to the Great Hall.

Ron then spotted a group a people from two houses. Rival houses. Some were Gryffindors, some were Slytherins. He instantly recognized most of the people in this group. Two of them were is ex-best friends. He resisted the urge to join them and continued to watch the group.

The Gryffindors and Slytherins seemed uncomfortable together, except for two of them. Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy were the only people in the group that were completely comfortable together. Ron assumed that the rest of the group was just humoring the two boys. Some of them, he thought, might even be trying to get along with their rival classmates.

One of the Gryffindors in the group spotted Ron. He spoke and gestured to the group and at the redhead. Ron wondered what was being said as Harry and Hermione began speaking almost simultaneously. The students nodded and turned back to themselves.

‘That’s it,’ Ron thought, ‘I have no friends left.’ Ron was now thoroughly convinced that all of Gryffindor would hate him by morning, if not sooner. He would spend the rest of his time at Hogwarts alone. He better start getting used to it then, he told himself.

Ron was jostled as a group of Ravenclaws pushed past him, “Watch out.” “Move buddy,” someone said as they moved by. Ron turned and saw that the door to the Great Hall had opened and that is was beginning to fill with ravenous students.

He sighed and allowed the wave of students to carry him along. Once inside to hall he made his way towards the Gryffindor table. He sat at the far end and filled his plate quietly. He ate in silence, not even looking up as the seats around him filled.

The people that sat across from and beside him were silent as they filled their plates and remained that way for a long time. The longer they stayed silent the angrier Ron became. He wasn’t completely sure why though. He wasn’t even a hundred percent sure who these people where, but he was fairly confident he knew.

Finally during desert, Ron had had enough. He was fed up with this ‘let’s kill him with silence’ approach. He slammed down his silverware, and, without even looking up, snarled, “Will you just say something already?!?”

“What do you want us to say?” Harry asked from his seat across the table next to Hermione.

“Something! Anything! Explain to me how you can all of a sudden be a completely different person!” Ron yelled. He was finally able to look at the two of them. They were in shock. Ron had never spoken to them like this before.

“Harry! One day you’re single and straight,” Ron continued to yell as he stood up, “and the next you’re in love with Malfoy!” He spat the name and pointed at the offending person.

Harry’s mouth opened and closed but no sound came out. Hermione continued to stare at him in shock and the entire student body was now watching the second youngest Weasley in awe. Malfoy blushed across the room.

“Hermione!” Ron turned to his other ex-best friend. “You used to always talk us through everything in your life. Every teeny tiny decision. And one day you announce you’re bisexual without any warning! That sort of thing just doesn’t decide itself, does it?!?”

Hermione blushed and many people gasped. She hadn’t started telling people yet. There were murmurs of “I knew it,” “I told you” and “I would have never guessed” amongst the students as the news of Hermione’s sexuality spread.

“Why didn’t you guys talk to me?” The hall was silent again. “Am I that unimportant to you?” With every word Ron’s voice got softer and soon the students at the other tables were straining to hear what was being said. “Am I that worthless?” He sat back down and rested his head on the table, trying to hold back tears.

Harry and Hermione looked at each other for a moment, unsure of what to do next. After a minute or so of silence Ron lifted his head and looked at his two housemates. Hermione gave him a crooked half-smile and asked, “You done?”

“Yeah,” Ron sighed.

“Feel better?” Harry chuckled.

Ron smiled and thought for a second. “Yeah.”

“Good,” Harry and Hermione said in unison.

There was a moment of silence and then Seamus asked from his spot beside Ron, “So, you three best mates again?”

The three teens rolled their eyes and left the Great Hall together.

“Is that a yes then?” Seamus called after them.