Chapter 1: Conversations in the hospital wing.
Ron felt such a great pain all over his upper body that he nearly cried out when he woke up from his sleep. Wait, he didn´t remember that he had fallen asleep. He opened his eyes and saw that he wasn´t in his in his dorm or his room at the Burrow. He was in the hospital wing at Hogwarts... but why?
Then it all came crashing down at him! The Department Of Mysteries! What happened? All he remembered that he, Ginny and Luna was running from Death Eaters, he had felt something hit his back, and then all was a blur.
He looked at his left and out of the window at the dark night sky and understood that it must be very late. Then he looked across the room and saw Umbridge lie in a bed sound asleep mumbling something about a horse. And when he looked to his right his heart stopped,
Hermione!
She laid there taking small uneven breath every second. She looked so pale in the moonlight like she was barely alive.
When his heart started to beat again he ignores the pain in his upper body and tried to get out of bed. As soon he got on his feet he saw red and heard a voice scream in his head, it didn't sound like Hermione's voice but he thought it was anyway. Then he felt a pain shoot through his whole body, pain like he never felt before, like his blood was boiling inside his veins, he screamed of the top of his lungs. Then it´s was over and the red colour before his eyes went to total black, he heard someone run towards him and thought it was whoever had cast that horrible spell at him, if it was a Death Eater he knew he was done for it. He felt himself get lifted him off the ground, that he didn't remember that he had fallen on to, and even though he didn't have any hope left to survive and every muscle in his body screamed him to stop, he fought whoever had its hold on him. He would give everything he had left to get this Death Eater away from Hermione.
"Mr Weasley! Stop this instant!" He heard a quiet elderly woman voice shout at him. He didn't listen. "Mr Weasley, you are in the hospital wing and if you don't stop right now I will stun you!"
He finally got his vision cleared and over him stood Madam Pompfrey, trying to hold him back against his bed (how she had gotten him back up there he didn't know). He stopped his struggling and lay back against his bed.
"What were you thinking getting out of bed like this!" she said angrily.
"Hermione she was screaming and I tried to get to her but someone casted a spell on me"! He said breathing heavily.
"No one was in here but you, Miss Granger and Dolores and the only one who screamed was you."
For the second time that night Ron remembered the Department of Mysteries and it was after he saw Hermione and got up on his feet that someone had started to scream, but he didn't have the energy to argue with Madam Pompfrey about it.
"What happen to her?" he asked.
"She got hit by a spell in the chest, I think it was the Killing Curse but something went wrong because she is no dead and is not going to die any time soon".
"SHE GOT HIT WITH THE KILLING CURSE!" The energy suddenly returned and he started to get up again.
"Now calm down Mr Weasley!" she pushed him down again. "Ore are you going to wake the whole castle? I will put a stunning curse on you if necessary! It´s all right Dolores go back to sleep. "She said to Umbridge who had woken up from his scream.
"I have to sit with her. " He said trying to sit up again, feeling the panic rise with in him.
"You are not going anywhere with what´s happen to you and the state you're in. "Ron looked down on himself and saw that his upper body was bare and that it was all covered in scars. "And Miss Granger will be just fine in a couple of days, but if you hurt yourself even more then I think she will get weary worried and not heal as quickly as she could. If you don't calm down right now you are just going to make it worse for both of you." He looked over to Hermione again and thought of what Madam Pompfrey had said felt himself calm down again after a while.
"What happened me? " He asked. Madam Pompfrey seemed to study him for some time to see if he was going to get more difficult but a moment later she said:
"As I understand from what Mr Longbottom told me there was some kind of brain that attacked you."
"Oh yeah, those brains in that jar" he remembered. "Wait how could they attack me? "He asked himself.
"How should I know, now if you excuse me I´m going to inform Professor Dumbledore that you are awake, he wants to talk to you. "She said, stood up and walked out the doors.
He lay there in the dark and once in a while took a glance at Hermione just to be sure she was still breathing. He didn´t try to stand again but he wanted to sit by her side.
Ron didn´t had to wait long until the doors open again and Dumbledore walked in, still in his day clothes with his long silver beard out of place.
"How are you feeling Mr Weasley?" he asked.
"I'm fine, sir. "
"Except that your scars are burning, I'm I right? " Dumbledore asked with concern.
"Yes, a little." Ron answered with a sigh and looked down at his hands. They did burn like hell!
Dumbledore had a sad look on his face. "I know what happened in Department Of Mysteries so you don't need to tell me anything, but I need to tell you what happen after you got hit with that drunken spell.''
"There is a drunken spell?" Ron asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Yes there is Mr. Weasley, you got a sobering potion so that is why you don´t feel anything from the hangover." Dumbledore said with a smile. "Pretty unnecessary to spend money on alcohol when you just need to hit yourself with a, drunken spell, but what is the charm in that?" Dumbledore smiled faded after that. "But let's talk about what happen after and I want you to repeat it to Miss Granger when she wakes up."
"Yes sir."
"Good…" there was a few seconds of silence before Dumbledore started to tell the storey." Professor Snape saw when Mr. Potter and Miss Granger entered the Forbidden Forest with Dolores Umbridge and he also saw when you, Mr. Longbottom, Miss Weasley and Miss Lovegood followed."
Ron understood that the headmaster was disappointed at them for not really contacting any teachers before the plan to contact Sirius at Grimauld place, even though he didn't say anything.
"He waited a while and when he understood that you were not going to come out, he contacted the order because he thought that you all had gone to save Sirius, where the so called "weapon", that were a prophecy, was hidden, like Mr. Potter had tried to say to him in Dolores office."
Mr. Potter and Mr. Longbottom was the only left and in the room with the veil, as I understand one of the rooms you were in before you got hit so you know witch room I'm referring to. They were still trying to protect the prophecy but they got stopped by Death Eaters. Bellatrix Lestrange used the cruciatus curse on Mr. Longbottom to get Mr. Potter to hand over the prophecy. He refused and luckily Sirius, Remus, Moody, Tonks and Kingsley arrived just then and a battle was trigged."
Ron listened carefully to be able to remember it all for Hermione because he knows she would kill him if he left something out.
"Macnair grabbed Mr. Potter and tried to steal the prophecy but Mr. Longbottom, whose nose were broken and he couldn't speak weary well and therefore not cast any spells, poked him in the eye with Miss Grangers wand"
"Sirius told Mr. Potter and Mr. Longbottom to run and went to fight Mrs Lestrange. Mr Longbottom got hit with tarantallegra; he could not walk properly so Mr. Potter had to try to carry him. They got attacked by Lucius Malfoy and fell to the ground and Mr Potter dropps the Prophecy to Mr Longbottom and hit Malfoy with Impedimenta. Mr Longbottom put the prophecy in his pocket and he and Mr Potter grabbed him once again and started to climb the stairs. When Mr. Longbottom tried to stand up on his own his robes were ripped open and the prophecy got smashed on the ground."
"Then I arrived and I managed to catch most of them...but not all I'm afraid." Dumbledore said with a sigh and looked away from Ron who looked at him a little confused. "Sirius and Bellatrix were still fighting and… I am so sorry to say that Sirius Black was killed."
Ron just sat there in shock not sure if he had heard the headmaster right. What, Sirius was dead…oh no...Harry!
"Mr. Potter cased Bellatrix up to the lobby and there, Voldemort arrived."
Ron came out of his chock and gasped, more at what had happened then the name for the first time of his life.
"I went after them and started to fight Voldemort but he escaped me and started to possess Harry, but before any real damage could be done the Ministry workers started to arrive and Voldemort disappeared, but not before Minister Fudge saw him. So I am glad that something good came out of this. Now he knows that Harry had told the truth all this time." Dumbledore said and looked back at Ron again.
Ron sat there in silence for almost a minute. So Sirius had been killed and Harry had fought Voldemort again, and were had he been, hit by a stupid drunk spell and then fighting some ridiculous brains!
"How did the brains attack me, I mean they were in that jar."
"What I've heard you summon them on your own."
"Oh that's just great!" Ron said putting his head in his hand and feeling the anger at himself growing by every second.
"Don´t blame yourself Ronald, people do stupid things when they are drunk, and it wasn´t your fault that you got in that state in the first place." The headmaster said as he got up from the chair he was sitting on.
Dumbledore´s word did little to ease Ron´s guilt but he nodded anyway to show that he would try not to.
"I expect you to inform everything tom Miss Granger when she wakes up."
"Yes professor." Ron answered and turned to Hermione´s sleeping form.
"Good, rest now Mr. Weasley, Mr. Potter can visit you tomorrow." Dumbledore said as he started to walk out of the hospital wing.
"Professor, wait!"
"Yes."
"Could I sit with Hermione for a bit, please?" Ron asked and turned his gaze away from Hermione and to the Professor again.
"I´m afraid I can´t do that." Dumbledore answered. "Madam Pompfrey would be very displeased with me. But I can do this." He took out his wand and waved it. Hermione bed started to get closer to Ron´s until they were only a few centimetres away.
"Thank you Professor." Ron said.
"You're welcome, good night Mr. Weasley."
"Good night Professor."
When Dumbledore was out of sight Ron turned to Hermione again. She looked so small an even paler up close. She had her small left hand resting beside her and before he knew what he was doing he took it in his right. Ron had realized that he loved her now. It was scary as hell, he had never thought that he could find love at 14, and he knew that a person like her, a smart, beautiful and bloody brilliant, could never like him in that way. But he couldn't stop thinking about that kiss, which had been a little too long for just a friendly kiss; she had given him on the cheek before his first Quidditch match.
But now was not the time to think about that, now he was going to make up for failing his friends in the battle and bee there to help them heel. Ron looked at Hermione for a long time, she looked so beautiful there with her hair all over her pillow, and so peaceful. But he started to feel his eyelids getting heavier and the last thought he had before he fell asleep was "I´m sorry."
"Ron...Ron..." Ron woke up with a start. He had a dream about a woman who had been tortured. He didn´t see anything, he just heard her scream, the same scream that he heard before and it wasn't Hermione's, and he felt her pain. Panting he heard his name calling in a soft voice; he looked to his right and saw...
"Hermione, you´re awake!" he said happily as he got himself up on his elbows. "How are you feeling?" he asked feeling the worry build inside him.
"My ribs hurt a bit when I move and I feel a little weak but otherwise I'm fine" she said with a tired voice and a weak smile on her face.
"Madam Pompfrey were here a minute ago to give me some potions and noticed that I was awake so she examined me to and said I would make a full recover, and all my scars would heel." she said tracing her right hand a little above her chest where the spell must have been hit.
It was then Ron notice that he still held her left hand in his own. "Oh, sorry...I...I don´t know what..." he said and moving to let go of her hand just to be stopped by her.
"NO! Please don´t move away Ron" she said bough looking at their mixed hands and then in to each other eyes "please." She looked so tired and scared so he couldn't say any inter thing than
"Ok" and took an even firmer grip. He saw some of her fear ebb away.
"How are your arms?" she asked with concern written all over her face.
"Ah, Madam Pompfrey told you about that"
"Yes, I got worried when I saw you laying there so I asked her what happened to you. Did one of those brains really attack you?"
"Yes" he said looking away embarrassed, feeling the Weasley blush growing hot on his neck and ears. "Did she tell you how they came to attack me?" hoping that Dumbledore hadn't told Madam Pompfrey and therefore spared him some embarrassment by her telling Hermione.
"No she didn't, just what they did to your arms. Why, how did they come to attack you?" she asked with a weak worried voice. He was silence for some time, considering if he really should tell her or not before he burst out:
"I'm so stupid" he said frustrated and slapped his left hand over his eyes. He told her, feeling his embarrassment growing every second.
"Oh Ron, it wasn´t your fault..."
"I summoned it myself Hermione..."
"You didn´t know what you were doing, you were hit with a drunken spell." her voice growing stronger with anger. "It is I who should blame myself; I should have hit Dolochov with a Stupefy but no...I go with a stupid silencing charm and totally forget about non-verbal charms...
"Hermione stop, don´t work you're self-up, of course it wasn't your fault, it was the first spell you thought of and it did save your life thank God!"
"Then it wasn't your fault either, maybe it save your life to, who knows what happen to you if you didn't summon that brain and continued fighting, then you could have been hit with a killing curse or something else" she said a little bit of panic filling her voice and calming to his hand a little harder.
"I suppose..."
"Then stop it Ron." Her voice leaving the panic tone and goes back to the soft, weak and tired one.
"Only if you do." he said with a smile.
"Okay." she answered after a few seconds of silence with a weak smile on her face. "Madam Pompfrey said that Dumbledore came here to talk to you." she then said her face becoming serious again.
Ron looked away from her as the talk with Dumbledore came back to him. He didn't want to think about it, he didn't want to burden Hermione with it just yet, not when she still was this week.
"Ron, what happed after we got hurt?"
Ron didn't want to tell her now, but they were goanna meet Harry in the morning and if he didn't tell her now he knew she was goanna force it out of Harry when she saw him and Ron didn't want to force Harry to talk about Sirius. So he turned back to her and told her what Dumbledore had told him.
When he was done Hermione sat there with a shocked expression. Then when it started to sink in her eyes started to tear up.
"Oh, Harry!" she said looking away from Ron and started crying silently. "Oh poor Harry...It's not fair!" she said now crying more freely.
"Hey Hermione don't cry." Ron was not weary comfortable with crying girls, he never been. But when he saw her, lying here looking so fragile, his instinct started to kick in. He squeezed her hand "Please Hermione stops crying..."
"It's so unfair Ron, why does this have to happen too Harry? Oh Sirius!"
Ron wanted to hug her and comfort her in every way he could, so decided he would. Ignoring the pain he felt and swung his legs of the bed.
"Ron, what are you doing?" turning her attention back to him as he struggled to sit up. "Ron stop it, you're hurting yourself!"
Ron managed to sit up and because the beds was so close, he could just swing himself over without supporting his weight on his legs. He looked at her when he saw that he had made it to the bed without hurting her or himself. He took her other hand in his too and said "Please stop crying Mione." looking in her red swollen eyes after struggling to get his words in control. "I know that this isn't fair for Harry, but I also know that with our help he is going to get through this in time, we have to be strong and be there for him."
Hermione, who now had started to calm down, looked down at their entwined hands. "You're right Ron."
"What...What was that...did you just admit I was right?" Ron said in a shock mocking tone.
Hermione smiled at him and gave little chuckle. "I don' say that enough now do I, but...you are, quiet often." a little blush came up on her cheeks.
"Wait, wait I think I'm gonna faint, you have to let me take it in." he said closing his eyes and smiling.
"Oh shut up you prat!" she said laughing but then her face turned serious, a little sad and concerned. "I'm serious Ron, I don't say that enough but you really are!"
Ron looked at her and when he saw that she really meant it he smiled at her and said "Thanks." "They hold each other's gaze, Ron thought he saw something there, nerves and… was it longing, a kind of longing that he recon would show in his eyes when he looked at her, longing for him?
Before anyone of them knew what they were doing the started to lean in to each other, they grew closer and they were just a few inches away and..."Ow!"
Hermione grabbed at her ribs and started to fall backwards. "Oh my God Hermione are you ok?" Ron asked, bringing his arms around her and helped her lie back down.
"Yes I...it's just my ribs..."
Ron, thinking of what his mum had told them to do after Quidditch matches when their muscles had hurt laid his hands on her ribs and started to massage them with small circular movements. Then he realised that they were working just under her breasts and immediately moved them away. "Sorry!" he said. "I was just thinking what mom thought us to get do to the pain away from our muscles when we played Quidditch at home."
"No, It felt good, please continue. You know, if you want to."
"Oh." Ron said and looked up and saw her embarrassment on her cheeks. "Good." He said and started to rub her ribs again, trying not to look and think about how close his hands where to her breasts.
It was then Ron notice how close they still were. In fact so close that he couldn't help glancing at her lips again, she was biting her lower lip in a nervous, totally Hermione, way. He couldn't resist, he closed his eyes and after two years of waiting he, FINALLY, kissed her.
Ron heard Hermione gasp in shock and after a moment, she kisses him back.
Then he came back to himself and pulled away. He just stared at her, she stared back, her face locked in a stunned state. Oh my GOD, what had he done, he ruined their friendship, and he had to say something to fix it, QUICK!
"Oh… eh… H…he...Hermione I… I'm so sorry! Please let this not destroy our friendship because it's what's most important, it's ok if you don't like me back, and I'll try to get over it. I..."
"You like me?" She asked softly.
"Yeah, but it's ok if you don't..." he rambled on
"But I do."
"...I'll try to get over it so it won't destroy...our...friendship...what?
"I like you to Ron."
Ron sat there in total shock for what felt like many minutes, but must just have been for a few seconds, before her words sunk in to his skull. "Oh" She liked him back! This couldn't be real! SHE LIKED HIM BACK… WHAT?!
"Really?" he asked with a big grin his voice braking a little. He was sure he looked like a goofy maniac right now but he didn't care.
"Yes you poof!" she chuckled and her whole face lit up whit her own happiness.
"This must be a dream." he said with a softer voice and pinched his arm. "Ow, ok it's not a dream!" he said feeling his happiness rises with every second.
"Good. I would hate it if it turned out that I would be tough it would have been a wonderful dream" she said and then Ron notices a deeper blush creeping up to her cheeks. "Now, do you think that you could kiss me again?" She smiled a very big nervous smile.
He felt his own blush heat his neck and not to speak of his ears. "Yeah, defiantly" He lowered her down to the bed again and let himself follow so that he was leaning over her. And then he kissed her for a second time. It was a soft kiss with their lips moving slowly against each other. Unfortunate they needed air so several seconds later they slowly started to pull away.
Ron, who was panting, was in heaven. He could not believe what had just happened. "Wow" he hissed.
"Yeah, wow." Hermione said back. Ron opened his eyes to see his own grin reflect on hers.
"We should probably go back to sleep now, before Madam Pompfrey comes and catch us up wandering at this time.
"Yeah because I'm running around like a cat on these legs that can't even bear a mouse weight." he said chuckling.
"Oh shut up, you know what I mean you prat." she said smiling her weak smile at him.
Ron moved back to his own bed and crawled under the covers. When he lay in a comfortable position he reached to hold Hermione's hand again who he reluctantly had to let go to get back to his bed. He thought Hermione's grip had become a little more firm.
Then Sirius and Harry came back to his mind, he turned to Hermione.
"I think we need to let Harry come to us when he is ready to talk about Sirius, Mione." Hermione's smile faltered and a frown grew on her forehead.
"But Ron it is not good to bucker up sorrow like this, a person needs to talk about it and we know that Harry will not let it out some time soon, if ever."
"But we can't force, and you can't speak for every person Hermione, everybody has their own way to do stuff. Even if they are not always the best way to go about it's nothing someone else can do about it."
There was silence as Hermione thought about what he had said.
"Okay, I won't force him to talk about it." she said defeated. "But what will I say when we meet him, it's the only thing I will be thinking off." She looked so worried. Ron squeezed her hand.
"Don't worry about that Mione, let me handle that."
Hermione looked at him and after a while nodded, and then she smiled and said...
"I like Mione as a nickname?
Ron closed his eyes and could feel his ears grow hot. "I'm sorry; I didn't realize that I said it out loud." Ron opened his eyes and saw Hermione's own blush at her cheeks.
"It's ok; you can call me that if you want."
"Really?" Ron smiled in surprise; it was a name he only had thought of in his mind.
"Yes, it's rather cute actually." she said and looked at their hands. And Ron said the first thing that plopped up in his mind as usual.
"That's why it suits you." When she looked at him whit her whole face flushed he understood what he had said and felt he face burn like never before. But he did not look away from her he just gave her a shy smile.
"Thank you." she said and smiled her own shy smile back at him and squeezes his hand.
They lay there facing each other and before anyone of them fell asleep their last thought was...
"Finally."
AN: This is my first fic so don't be so hard on me please! I'm not from any English speaking country so forgive me if there's some misspelling. I've written about ten chapters and barely started so it's gonna be a long one. I'm gonna check the other chapters through before I load them up but that shouldn't take so long so please be patient =) R&R please!