Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Harry Potter, be it the materials/characters from the books or the movies, etc.
The Tragedy:
One hand lunged at the nearest object and grabbed the edge of the table before him, his fingers so tight on the wood that his knuckles turned white. The other hand wrapped around his throat. His face gradually turned red like the freckles that dotted it, then darkened to purple as he went longer without air in his lungs. No matter how hard he tried to suck in a lungful of air, it could not bypass the obstruction lodged in his windpipe, nor did pounding desperately at his chest with a fist serve to dislodge it. He tried to call for help, but a strangled noise was the only sound he was capable of as he fell to his knees. The other guests in the large ballroom seemed not to notice what was happening to the red-haired man who knelt on the floor.
His vision began to darken when his upper body fell onto the hard wood floor, causing a heavy thud and the sound of expensive plates being broken. The noise seemed to alert the other guests to his plight. Suddenly, there was the swish of many robes and the clatter of numerous heels that rushed toward him. Only moments later, frantic shouting could be heard in the corner by the entrance as the first responders recognized the person struggling to breathe on the floor.
"It's Ron Weasley!" Someone shouted, and that shout caused a ripple through the entire gathering, from the ones who were closest to the choking man to the far corners of the room.
There was suddenly a loud commotion in the ballroom, and it distracted the man across from her. The brown-haired woman tilted her head slightly to the side. "Arthur?" She said. The man, her father-in-law, turned back to her upon hearing his name. "Sorry there, Hermione. Thought I heard Ron's name being shouted."
At this, she turned in the direction that Arthur Weasley had been looking and saw that a large crowd was moving towards the corner of the ballroom near the entrance. In fact, a sizeable group of people was already there, huddled over something. Suddenly, a thin woman with large eyes and dirty-blonde hair separated herself from the other bodies and rushed towards them. When she reached Hermione and Arthur, Hermione recognized her as Luna Lovegood from the radishes that hung from her ears, her customary choice of jewelry even after all these years.
"Miss Lovegood! How lovely to see you here." Arthur greeted the girl, but she only gasped and shook her head, then bent over to place her hands on her knees for a moment.
Hermione noticed that something was wrong. This was not the usual way Luna behaved. "Luna, what is it?" She asked.
Luna turned her wide eyes on Hermione, gathered her breath and spoke, "Ron is in trouble."
Her declaration was met with a moment of stunned silence, and Hermione could feel the sudden lack of chatter behind her as well. The other Weasleys, close by, had heard.
"What's happened to Ron?" She heard Harry ask behind her, his voice louder in his panic, but she had already rushed towards the large crowd. She had to see Ron, had to see for herself. She desperately pushed and shoved her way through all those people, not bothering to apologize or excuse herself, not bothering to wait for them to make way, and no one protested the rudeness. Not when they saw who she was. When she managed to stumble through the last barrier of bodies into a small, open area, she saw a figure lying on the polished floor.