House: Gryffindor

Position: Prefect 2

Category: Short

Prompt: [Speech] "I never did get around to saying thank you, did I?"

Word Count: 1653 – excludes header, title, and A/N

Beta: Shay, Fruits, and Tigger! 3

A/N: This was written for The Houses Competition, Y2R8. My HOH also gave me a separate challenge to write a story that has half of the action in the water… here it is!

Teaching Ron

Ron clung to Harry as they crashed to the surface. He had an iron grip around Harry's neck and was scared to let go.

He could see all the other students pointing and laughing at him but he didn't care at that moment. He was scared for his life.

Ron was surrounded by dark, black water; being in the center of the lake was paralyzing him. All he could focus on was the shoreline and the closing gap of distance; soon he would be back on land.

He could feel Harry struggling under the weight of both of them, but he still didn't dare to let go of Harry.

Harry kept kicking, and little by little, they kept moving towards the shore. They bobbed with the waves and Ron choked on water. He knew this was how he was going to die.

He had always hoped he would die a heroic death, capturing a dark wizard or being chased by a dragon or even by a curse; he had never imagined he would die clinging to his best friend, in the middle of the school lake, with the whole school watching.

He sputtered and coughed, trying to get air into his lungs, when he felt Harry, who sensed that something was wrong, pound on his back. He could slowly feel air begin to expand his lungs and he almost shouted in relief until he realized how far they still were from the shore.

"Ron," Harry grunted, "you have to help me kick or something."

Ron unfroze and began to make little kicks with his feet, his eyes never leaving the shoreline. He could see Hermione standing knee deep in water and pacing.

This wasn't part of the challenge was it? Dumbledore wouldn't let them die, would he?

Once they got close enough, Hermione rushed towards them. Harry was standing in the shoulder deep water now but Ron was still clinging to him. His feet were floating behind him, his little kicks still disrupting the water.

"Ron, you can stand now. Let go of Harry!"

Hermione came over and pried Ron's hands off of Harry's neck. She held his hands and pulled him further into the shallow water, probably hoping he would get the hint to stand.

Finally, when Ron could see the sand at the bottom of the lake, he stood up. He ran to the shoreline and stared at the water.

He could hear Harry and Hermione splashing through the water behind him to get to the shore but he was done with the lake. He didn't want to think about it or look at it ever again.

He stared out over the Hogwarts grounds trying to distract himself, but the laughing of the other students filled his ears. He could hear whispers all around him and he tried to close his eyes, hoping that would eliminate the noises that surrounded him, but no such luck, he could still see hear the whispers.

"Did you see how he clung to Harry?"

"He almost killed Potter! He didn't try to help him swim at all."

"What a baby!"

"Do you think he's scared of water?"

He opened his eyes in surprise as he felt someone wrap a towel around him. He looked down to see Hermione looking up at him with scrunched eyes. She was worrying her lip before she finally opened her mouth to speak to him.

"Are you alright, Ron?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," he said gruffly.

"Ron...?"

"I said, I'm fine!"

He tried to turn away but Hermione grabbed onto his wrist.

"Ron," she said, searching his eyes, "what happened? I was so worried. You looked so terrified that I thought something had gone wrong."

"I can't swim, okay?" he shouted, shrugging off her hand.

Hermione slowly began to giggle. "That's it?"

Ron glared at her.

"I'm sorry, Ron." Hermione chuckled. "You just had this look on your face… like… like you were going to die or something!"

"I bloody well could have!" Ron shouted. "And now the whole school thinks I'm a joke."

Hermione quickly quieted her laughing. "That's okay. Harry and I can help you learn to swim!"

Ron looked at her, doubt filling his eyes.

"Oh come on, Ronald, prove them all wrong."

Hermione shushed Ron as they shuffled down the corridor. She peeked her head from around the corner and waved for Ron to follow her.

The door swung open and she quickly dragged him in. She slammed the door shut behind them when they were both safely in the room.

"Whew." Hermione sighed. "I thought we were going to get caught."

"Where are we?" Ron asked as he stepped further into the room.

It was an immaculate bathroom. The floors were all black and white marble and the tub was massive. It looked like it was as big as the boy's dormitory! There were colorful stain glass windows lining the walls and gold dials and knobs lined the tub. He turned back to Hermione.

"We are going to take a bath?" Ron asked in annoyance.

"Ron, you are going to learn how to swim. It is too cold to go outside but I found the perfect solution!" she praised herself.

"Where are we?"

"The Prefects bathroom," Hermione stated.

She strode towards the tub and began to turn some dials. Water instantly began to flow out of the nozzle, filling the tub.

"How did you get in here?"

"Honestly, Ron, don't you listen to Harry at all?" She huffed "Cedric gave Harry the password to the Prefect bathroom for the second task. Harry gave it to us so you can stop moping about the lake incident and finally learn to swim!"

She turned off the water and looked at him expectantly. He just stared blankly back at her.

"Ron, get in the tub!" she yelled at him.

She took off her own shirt and pants to expose her bathing suit before following her own orders and getting in the tub.

Ron swallowed nervously, before following suit.

He sunk in the warm water, as far away from Hermione as he could, and sat back on the stone bench lining the wall of the bathtub.

"Now," Hermione started, "The basics for swimming are easy; your body naturally tends to float. You need to kick your legs and move your arms to move in the direction you want. If you want to stay in the spot and afloat you need to kick out your feet."

She demonstrated for him, her head bobbing up and down in the water.

"You try."

He slowly made his way off of his bench towards the deeper part of the tub and instantly began to sink. He kicked his feet frantically but couldn't seem to keep his head above water level.

"Calm down, Ron!" Hermione shouted.

She grabbed his arm and dragged him back towards the side of the tub. Ron caught his breath and glared at her.

"You said people tend to naturally float!"

"Well most do, but you still need to help! The water isn't going to do all the work!"

"I was doing some of the work; I was kicking!"

"I know," Hermione mumbled, "but you were freaking out. You need to stay calm. I know what we can try. I am so stupid for not thinking of this first!"

She ordered Ron to lay down on his back and to just focus on kicking. She gradually pulled him around the tub, forcing him to stay afloat. She then taught him how to add arms to perform the backstroke.

He was on his back leisurely floating through the pool when Hermione said four words that he was sure was going to kill him.

"Now, let's flip over!"

Ron stopped floating and grabbed onto the edge of the pool and glared at her across the tub.

"Flip over?! Have you gone mad? That isn't possible!"

She just giggled at him and demonstrated the freestyle stroke for him. Her head was under water as she began to swim.

Ron rushed to her nervously and pulled her head above water.

She sputtered, "What are you doing!?"

"Why would you put your head under water like that? Are you hoping to drown?"

She rolled her eyes and pushed away from him, demonstrating the freestyle swim stroke again. He saw her lift her arm and turn her head to the side to take a deep breath. Once he saw her take a breath he began to relax. He shouldn't doubt Hermione; she always knew what she was doing.

They spent the whole afternoon in the tub learning how to swim. Ron was not normally a fast learner and this was no exception. He kept swallowing water and having coughing fits. He wanted to quit no less than three times but Hermione wouldn't let him. She told him they were not leaving the bathroom until he learned how to swim.

Ron and Hermione were lazing in a pond in a nearby village by the Burrow. Harry was still at his aunt and uncle's house and Ron and Hermione were trying to escape all the chaos the surrounded them with The Order. Nobody would tell them anything anyway so they had decided to leave the house for the day.

They were told that they would be leaving the Burrow soon and they didn't know where there next location was going to be. It was why they were now floating and splashing in the pond; Ron had at least wanted to try out his newly perfected skill once before summer was over.

They were both relaxing and enjoying the nice summer say. Ron had never been more at ease in his life.

"I never did get around to saying thank you, did I?"

Hermione turned to look at him.

"For what?"

"For teaching me how to swim."

Hermione beamed at him and he couldn't help but smile back.