Love and Fate
A/N: This was written for the T/L Valentines day challenge. The prompts I was to use were Apple, Drunk Patronusing, An unexpected reaction to something and finally cuddling.
Many thanks to my friends of the T/L my awesome beta Chelsey and my even awesomer Girlfriend Headlesshuntswoman.
Ron Weasley was alone, and that was the way he liked it. At least that's what he told himself while sitting in a small out of the way pub, nursing his pint. It was four years after the war, and Ron had distanced himself from everyone. He was working with George in the shop and living in a small flat. He had spoken with neither Harry nor Hermione in close to a year. It wasn't out of malice that he ignored Harry; he just didn't want to be around someone happy, and Harry was the happiest he had ever seen him. As for Hermione, Ron didn't want to be anywhere near her if he could help it. Their relationship had lasted for about a year. Ron had followed her to Australia to help her find her parents. When they got back and settled into their lives, they became bored with their lives, with their jobs, with each other. Ron couldn't really blame Hermione when she broke it off. She had just said what they had both been thinking. She was working at the Ministry now.
Ron smiled sadly and took a drink. He had not spoken or had any contact with her aside from the embarrassing drunk Patronus he had sent her one Christmas. He still didn't remember what he said, but apparently it had been bad. He found it ironic that the two of them had broken up because they felt there wasn't enough excitement in their lives. Now her day was filled with endless meetings about one law or another while Ron's day was filled with stocking shelves and arguing with distributers.
Ron looked at his watch, swallowed the last of his pint, and walked out the door to the small pub. It was early February and the skies were overcast and grey. The buildings in Diagon Alley cast long grey shadows that matched the mood of the skies. Suddenly, without warning, several tentacles burst forth from the shadows and grabbed him and pulled him into the shadows. Ron tried to scream, but his mouth was being covered by a tentacle. In a matter of seconds Ron had disappeared into the shadows without anyone noticing.
-OOO-
Hermione was sitting at her desk surrounded by stacks of papers. She tried to concentrate on the folder she had opened in front of her, but her attention kept wondering to the picture on the shelf. The picture was one that had been taken when Hermione and Ron went to Australia. Hermione looked at the picture and saw a happy couple looking back at her. She wondered where it all went wrong. She sighed, picked up her quill, and scratched out a few lines of a proposal. Her thoughts kept going back to the picture and the last time she and Ron had really talked and the reasons for their breakup. She smiled and shook her head at the memories. They had both decided that they wanted something more exciting out of their relationship. They had both said they were bored and wanted to something more.
"Now look at me," Hermione said aloud. Hermione was the third undersecretary to the assistant of the Minister of Magical Creature Relations, meaning that she did a bunch of busy work so others could look like they were doing something. This was not what Hermione had imagined when she had joined the Ministry. Hermione was so lost in her thoughts that she did not see the shadows in the corner of her office start to darken and swirl. Suddenly, just as had happened with Ron, tentacles burst forth from the shadows and grabbed Hermione. She tried to scream but found her mouth was smothered. She fought as hard as she could, but eventually she was dragged into the shadows and disappeared.
-OOO-
Hermione groaned and rolled over onto her side. The scents that assaulted her were familiar yet at the same time unique. She opened one eye and saw that she was stretched out on a carpet of bright emerald grass. She heard a familiar sound as someone beside her groaned. Hermione winced at the sound. She knew that groan; she had heard it many times before.
"Ron?" she asked tentatively.
"Hmph," came the response. "Just a few more minutes."
"RON, wake up!" Hermione elbowed him in the ribs.
"Bloody hell, Hermione," Ron yawned. "Wait, uhm what?" The situation started to dawn on him. He quickly stood up and looked around. The two of them were in a forest clearing.
"Derigemio," Hermione said, casting a spell. A small light floated from her wand, circled her three times, and blinked out of existence. "That's wrong."
"What's that?" Ron asked, standing up.
"That spell was supposed to guide me to the nearest refuge. For it not to work would mean …"
"That you are exactly where you are meant to be," a female voice answered Hermione, causing both her and Ron to turn their heads.
One side of the wooded walls parted, and an unearthly beautiful woman walked forward. She was wearing a white gauzy gown, and her bare feet were green with grass stains.
"Who are you and why have you brought us here?" Ron demanded, stepping between the newcomer and Hermione.
The woman smiled and cocked her head as she looked at Ron. "Interesting," she commented as if she was talking to someone else.
"Are you sure about these two?" a gravelly voice asked from the shadows behind the wall of trees.
Ron's face grew red. "Who are you?" he snapped.
Hermione reached forward and put her hand on Ron's arm, immediately calming him. "Ron, I think I know who that is." She turned to the woman. "Tell me, why is Gaia abducting people?"
"You always were the cleverest one," the woman commented. "Well, when it comes to things that don't really matter, anyway."
"I don't get it," Ron said. "Why are we here?"
"That makes two of us," commented a stocky beast as it seemed to appear from the shadows behind Ron.
Ron jumped to one side and pulled his wand and turned to face a creature the likes of which he had never before seen. The creature had thick black and brown fur and multiple tentacles. Across its back it carried a very large, wicked-looking, red axe.
"Relax, sunshine," the creature growled while nonchalantly disarming Ron. "If I wanted to hurt you you'd be hurt."
"You're the thing that took us," Ron snarled, moving Hermione further behind him.
"I brought you both here at the behest of Gaia. She said that something important needed to happen and you two were part of it."
"What?" both Hermione and Ron asked.
"Good question. You'll need to ask her." The creature smirked, sitting down with his back to a large willow tree. "Name's Larry by the way."
"You'll forgive me if I don't say it's a pleasure," Hermione said coldly. She turned to Gaia who had summoned a large spinning wheel and was seated at it. "Now, why don't you just tell me why we are here and what you want with us?"
Gaia started to spin the wheel, and gossamer threads started to form out of thin air. "You are both here because of the way you have been acting. There was a lot of hard work put into you two and you just throw it away? For what?" she asked sternly while spinning the wheel faster and faster.
"I don't understand," Hermione said.
"You're right. You don't. You two were given a chance few humans do, and you threw it away because you were bored."
"How do you know about that?" Ron asked.
"How do you think? Love, fate, destiny: they're all part of my domain."
"Love?" Hermione asked. "But you're wrong. I mean, I love Ron, but not like that. Not anymore."
"Yeah," Ron chimed in. "We decided we were better as friends."
"Friends?" Larry spat sarcastically.
"Yeah, that's right," Ron said.
"You two have been exchanging sidelong glances and making googley eyes at each other since you got here. Makes me want to heave." Larry stood up and approached Ron, shifting into his more human-looking form. "Look, Nancy, you're not friends, regardless of what she says." He waved a tentacle in Hermione's direction. "You'll never be friends. You two will be in love 'til it kills you both. You'll fight. You'll shag. You'll hate each other 'til it makes you wanna quiver but friends?" Larry laughed. "Never."
Larry started to pace in front of Hermione and Ron who were in awe of this force of nature. "I've been alive for a hundred plus years and marched through thousands of dimensions. I've seen things you two could only imagine and done things I prefer you wouldn't. Across all that time and space there is only one thing I have ever been sure of … love. Love isn't brains, children. You can't just think it away. It's blood and fate screaming in your veins to work its will." Larry smirked and looked sidelong at Ron and Hermione. "We're all love's bitch. Man up and admit it." Larry slid back to his spot beside the tree and seemed lost in a metal device on his wrist.
Gaia stood from her spinning wheel and walked to an old gnarled tree. She stretched out her hand, and the tree blossomed and dropped an apple in her palm. She approached Hermione and held out the apple.
"What is that?" Hermione asked suspiciously.
"What do you think it is?" Gaia asked, still holding out the apple.
"I think it's a trap. I think if I take that apple I will somehow become a pawn in your games, whatever they are. I have been manipulated by the best, goddess. You'll have to do better than that." Hermione's attention was broken by the sound of something crunching beside her. She turned and saw Ron eating an apple that Larry had tossed him.
"Ron!"
"Wha … I wash 'ungrey," he said around a mouthful of apple.
Hermione pinched the bridge of her nose, sighed, and looked at Gaia. "So what happens to him now? Some sort of love spell or something?"
Gaia laughed. "Dear, he needs no spell to love you. It's written in his fate as plain as your love for him is written in yours."
"You keep saying that, but it's just not true. Tell her, Ron. Tell her you don't love me like that."
Ron opened his mouth to say something but nothing came out.
"Ron?"
"I'm trying, Hermione, but the words won't come out."
"You can't lie." Larry smirked. "It's one of the side effects of the food in this place."
Hermione turned towards Ron, ignoring the others. "Is that true?" she asked.
Ron fought so hard not to talk that his face was turning red. "What does it matter?" he said, sounding defeated. "You're the one who wanted to take a break."
Hermione threw her hands up in the air. "And here we go on the merry-go-round of rotating knives. I blame you and you blame me and we both end up cut to ribbons. Just tell me," she said, her voice cracking. "Do you still love me?"
"Of course I still love you," Ron blurted out. "I just don't know if that means anything for us anymore."
"Well, I love you, too," Hermione admitted. "And I don't know if that means anything either."
"Well, it's nice to hear," Ron said, blushing.
Gaia handed the apple to Hermione and sat back down at her spinning wheel. She picked up the threads she had spun and held them up to the light. "There, now that's a bit clearer." She turned to Larry. "I think you can take them back now."
Larry stood up and approached the couple. "Are you sure? They still seem a bit thickheaded to me."
"Wait a minute," Hermione protested, "You still haven't told us why we were brought here. "
"Yeah, what's this all about?" Ron echoed her questions.
"
This was about you two admitting something, if not to each other, then at least to yourselves."
"But I don't understand?" Hermione pleaded. "Please tell me what all this means."
"I'm sorry," Gaia said, spinning the wheel. "Some things need to reveal themselves."
Larry stretched two of his tentacles into the shadows behind him, grabbed Ron and Hermione about their waists, and slingshot all three into the shadows.
-OOO-
Hermione awoke with a start. She raised her head from her desk and brushed her hair from her eyes. 'I must have fallen asleep,' she thought. Hemione felt as if there was something she was forgetting. Like she had dreamed something profound yet now she could not remember it. She looked at the clock and realized she was late for a meeting. She grabbed a folder from her desk and a piece of fruit from the bowl on her desk as she had just remembered she had not had lunch. She wasn't looking where she was going as she left her office and ran headlong into the chest of someone rounding the corner.
"Oi, watch where you're ... Hermione?"
She recognized the voice and looked up the see the silly grin and steel blue eyes. "Ron!" she said, her voice showing a little more excitement than she had wanted. "What are you doing here?"
"I came to see Harry," Ron said. "It's been too long." He stooped to help her pick up her papers.
"Yes, it has been," Hermione said, not making eye contact.
They both stood up and squirmed awkwardly for a few moments.
"Well, I have a meeting I need to get to."
"Yeah, and Harry will be waiting," he replied.
Hermione turned and started to head down the hall.
"Hey, Hermione," Ron called out, causing her to turn. He tossed the apple to her that he was still holding. "You wanna go grab dinner some time? Ya know, to catch up?" he asked.
Hermione's answer was out of her mouth before her brain engaged. "Sure, that sounds great."
"I send you a patronus later, and this time sober." He smiled.
"Good, I will talk to you then," Hermione said, turning and rushing down the hall. She looked in her hand and saw the apple. She could not for the life of her remember putting apples in that bowl.
-OOO-
Four years later
Ron sat in a large room, waiting. Harry sat beside him, stretched out with his eyes closed. Ron had sent the other Weasleys home but had asked Harry to stay with him.
"It's been hours," Ron finally exploded. "I should be in there helping."
"Ron, mate, they sent you out. She has the best healers working with her. All we can do is have faith."
"It wasn't supposed to be like this. I was supposed to be in there. We even went to that damned Muggle class she wanted," Ron vented while pacing.
"I know, I know. What was it they said? The baby was turned wrong. Breach, they called it."
Ron just nodded. "It'll be alright, won't it?" Ron asked like a lost child.
"I am sure it will be," Harry said, sounding as if to reassure himself more than anything else.
"You know the funny part? I wasn't even sure I wanted kids. Then Hermione gets pregnant and it turns out being a dad is all I want. Ain't that a kick in the head?"
"You're gonna be a great dad, Ron," Harry said, trying to reassure his friend
"Yeah, I hope so."
The main doors opened and a healer dress in white robes entered, looking rather shocked.
"What is it?" Ron asked, fearing the worst.
"Mr Weasely, your wife and child are doing fine. It was a very hard birth on both mother and child. There was a point I thought we were going to lose both of them but then ..."
"Then what?" Ron asked.
"I don't know. They just got both got stronger. In all honesty I have never seen anything like it."
"When can I go to them?" Ron asked.
"You can see them now, but only for a while. They are both still tired and very weak."
Ron nodded, hugged his friend, and followed the healer down the hall. The healer led Ron through several halls and past several other rooms. Finally they stopped in front of a door. Ron opened the door and pushed his way past several healers who were still gathered around Hermione and the child. He stooped over the bed and gently took both Hermione and the newborn into his arms, rocking them back and forth.
The healers started to file out of the room, giving the new parents some time alone. Neither Hermione nor Ron noticed the young barefoot healer as she left the room. The healer ducked into a darkened closet and was met by Larry.
"So, everything work out okay?" he asked the young healer.
"Yes," the healer replied, changing into her Gaia form. "Just as fate had proscribed."
"Yeah, well, bugger fate. It's never done me any favors," Larry replied as the shadows started to swirl around him.
"Patience, my herald, patience," Gaia said, touching Larry's cheek. "Your day is coming."