What if Hermione had seen Ron's visions as he destroyed the locket?

Harry had told her he'd take her watch - at first she hadn't minded but now she was just plain annoyed. She'd known what she was agreeing to when she'd agreed to come on this mission with Harry. She'd learnt pretty quickly danger had a habit of finding Harry when they'd gone after the Philosopher's Stone in their first year at Hogwarts. Unlike Ron, she hadn't run when Harry admitted his mission wasn't exactly in terms of when and where it would be completed. She had thought this would have proved to Harry that she was prepared to face anything to stop Voldemort but he still kept on over-protecting her.

Not for the first time, she thought she heard a noise outside. At first, she thought it was just Harry, but then she realised she had heard him walk off to the lake. The sheer thought of someone else out there, probably getting ready to attack Harry made Hermione nauseous and it took her all of one millisecond to decide to go out and warn him. After all, she had the invisibility cloak with her and knew where Harry had gone. She figured she could get to Harry and hide him under the cloak before the other person got there if she ran.

However, as she got to the lake, she nearly fainted from the shock of who was there. She thought about attacking Ron- of hurting him for all the nights she had cried herself to sleep because he'd run away, breaking his promise and her trust in him.

As she got nearer, however, she realised Harry was already giving Ron a sizeable piece of his mind about what he had done. At least, that's what she thought he was doing - she was more than a little distracted by the soaking wet clothes which clearly showed the toned body underneath a certain red-head.

When she eventually came to her senses, she saw Harry give Ron the locket and what looked like the sword of Gryffindor ('where on earth did that come from?' she asked herself). Deciding that Harry knew what he was doing by giving the horcrux to Ron, she decided to hang back and watch the events unfold.

She had known ever since they'd realised Tom Riddle's diary had been a horcrux that horcruxes make visions to try to stop themselves being destroyed. As a result, it didn't surprise her when she saw versions of her and Harry rise out of the locket. However, the poison that the visions were spewing out to stop Ron destroying the locket truly sickened her, overriding the anger she felt for Ron. If it were possible, it also made her angry at herself since she figured that she must partially to blame for the thoughts in Ron's head that were now being played out by the horcrux.

She soon realised that the vision was succeeding in stalling Ron, despite Harry shouting at Ron that was all lies. She couldn't take it any more and threw off the invisibility cloak then ran towards them. She was on the brink of tears as she grabbed Ron's wrist holding the sword and slammed it down through the horcrux - finally stopping the disturbing vision.

Ron hadn't known it was Hermione who had helped him destroy the horcrux until he turned around to see her tear stained face.

"You…it was lies…Harry's like a brother… you came back," Hermione said, choking back tears, her voice cracking with emotion.

Ron couldn't think of a response so enveloped her in a hug. After a few moments Harry interrupted, saying that with the amount of catching up to do shouldn't they get back to the tent before they are found by less desirable company? They started back up to the tent in a comfortable silence. Harry volunteered to cook dinner to give them some space but by the time he came back with the meal the two were sound asleep, with Hermione's hand in Ron's. This time, Harry was relived they were back together.