AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is sort of a continuation of my other Ron fic, you might want to read it even though it's not necessary to the plot. I wrote this befoer Goblet of Fire, but I updated the curses. Warning: It starts off a bit slow, there are some embarrassingly mushy parts, and Malfoy may never be the same again.
Ron stretched and yawned, getting out of bed.
"What're we late for?" he asked, getting his shampoo and soap to go shower.
"Don't you remember? We're going on the field trip today!"
"Oh, yeah," Ron said sheepishly. "I can't believe I forgot."
"Neither can I. I mean, it's all Hermione's been talking about for ages," Harry called as Ron left to go to the showers. "Save a spot for you at the table, okay?"
After showering quickly, Ron dressed and combed his hair. He pointed his wand at his sopping rust tresses and muttered a heat spell to dry them. He stuck his wand in his pocket and went down to the Great Hall, whistling cheerily. Harry and Hermione were there already, eating with gusto and a chair between them. He grinned at Harry for being so considerate, and got a fairly obvious wink back at him. Ron quickly glanced to see if Hermione had noticed, but she hadn't. He plunked himself in the chair and helped himself to scrambled eggs and sausage. His dream still playing in his mind, he smiled widely at Hermione.
"You're sure chipper this morning," she commented looking rather surprised. Ron wasn't usually a morning person. Ron just shrugged and began to eat hurriedly.
"Where is the field trip to again?" he asked through a mouthful of eggs.
She gave an exasperated huff.
"Really, Ron," she said in her I-can't-believe-how-thick-you-can-be-sometimes voice. "Professor McGonagall has been telling us about it for weeks, and Dumbledore announced it last night at supper. We're going to the Black Crystal Caves."
"Isn't that where all the dragons go to hibernate?" He tried to hide his nervousness. He hadn't liked dragons ever since Hagrid's Norwegian Ridgeback had bitten him.
"Only in the southern part," she explained as if it was obvious. "We're going to the north caves. Besides, it's so late in the year that most dragons will have woken up an left by now."
"What are we going to do there? I mean, it doesn't seem very useful," Harry spoke up.
"Not useful! We're going to see how places with such natural wild magic can influence the geological formations and ecology of the surrounding ecosystems," she told them.
"Plus we get out of classes for a day, so shut up," Ron put in cheerfully. Harry grinned at him.
"How're we getting there?" he asked.
Both Ron and Hermione shrugged.
"You'd think that they'd mention it when they ramble on and on how important a learning experience this'll be," Ron said. "But nooo, they don't tell us anything!"
"They do too! They - "
But before Hermione could continue, a hush fell over the students as Dumbledore stood.
"Today you leave the school for the first field trips in its history. Please remember that you are representing your whole school, an adjust your behavior accordingly. All the teachers will be accompanying you as chaperones. Now, transportation waits outside. You'll be traveling with your year and not with your house, and please board in and orderly fashion. You are excused," he finished his short speech with a grin and made shooing motions at them.
Bursting with curiosity as to what the 'transportation' was, Ron, Hermione, and Harry rushed outside with the others. As soon as they were in the courtyard they found out. Both Harry and Hermione looked shocked. Ron examined the seven large objects with interest. They looked like mutant cars, tall and long with many windows. There were only two doors, one normal next to the drivers' side, the other a tall narrow affair with windows all down it. To top it off, the things were a garish yellow.
"School buses?" Harry said incredulously.
"Is that what they're called? I've never seen anything like them before," Ron said, to which Hermione made a small noise of disbelief. "What?"
"Sorry," she said to his slightly reproachful look. "It's just - not knowing about school buses?"
"Yeah," drawled a new voice that made Ron want very badly to kick something. "Even Iknow about those filthy Muggle things."
To no one's surprise Draco Malfoy stood behind them, flanked on either side by Goyle and Crabbe, his two massive body guards. He had his usual smug sneer on his pale face, tainted with more than a little disgust at the sight of the buses.
"Scram, Malfoy. You're blocking the door," Harry said dryly.
Malfoy, seeing that Harry was right, turned pale pink and gave them venomous looks as they pushed past them. Ron grinned malevolently at the blonde boy, who returned it with a baleful glare.
"We should probably get moving, too, or else the best seats will be taken," Hermione said, and they left to find their bus. Each vehicle had a black number on the side next to the words Hogwarts Academy. They found the one with the number four on it and boarded. Sitting down near the middle, they were surrounded by Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs, while the Ravenclaws were clinging to the front seats and the Slytherins hiding out in back. The magically expanded seat easily fit three with room to spare. Unfortunately the whole place smelled like sweatsocks and old peanut-butter. Hermione slid their window down to let in some fresh air.
"Wizarding school bus or public school bus, they all smell the same," she grumbled, obviously trying not to breathe through her nose too much. Ron and Harry both grinned at her expression, but totally understood it all the same. Ron hoped that the ride wouldn't be too long.
Soon their bus was full, and all they needed was a driver. The other buses were already circling the courtyard and turning out down the road to Hogsmeade, disappearing around a bend in the road. Ron was a bit dismayed by the fact that they might have to drive all the way to the caves, which were halfway across the country. Just then a familiar and totally surprising shape drifted into the bus.
"Oh no," Hermione and Harry both groaned.
The woman was tall and stringy-looking, with lots of bangles and necklaces and earings, and glasses that made her eyes look huge. It was odd to see her outside the Divination room, and she looked a great deal out of her element. She held three large canteens, which she opened one at a time.
"Hello children," Professor Trelawney said in a misty voice. Parvati and Lavender, two Gryffindor girls who were very silly indeed, immediately stopped giggling over a magazine filled with attractive shirtless young wizards who flexed at them to gaze at their most favorite teacher. "I am passing out canteens full of St. George's Revenge, a fireproofing potion. Please take a small sip, and pass it on. It is merely a safety precaution, for we expect no dragons. Although I've a premonition involving a cave in."
She looked meaningfully at Harry, who simply rolled his eyes.
"Yeah, the mental cave in of our Divination teacher," Hermione murmured. Both harry and Ron had to bit their tongues to keep from laughing.
When the canteen came their way, they all dutifully took swigs and made faces. It was bitter and made your insides feel like icicles. Soon everyone had taken sips and passed the now-empty vessels back to the professor, who stowed them and sat down in the driver's seat. After a great many screeches and grinding noises, they were following the last bus out the road.
Ron was surprised when they turned the corner and saw the bus ahead of them disappear into a big blue glowing hole in the air across the road. They drove straight into it. Ron felt tingly and his stomach did flip-flops. Outside the window was blue nothingness with occasional flares of red or green or violet streaking past. Just as suddenly as it happened, they were driving on normal land again, and he felt slightly queasy.
"Urg," he said.
"You can say that again," Harry replied. "What was that?"
"I think it was a Portal. It's like a massive, steady Apparation spell to a specific place," Hermione told them, looking a bit green. She gestured out the window. "We must be nearly there."
The scenery outside had changed from forest to craggy rock cliffs with boulders every now and then on the roadside. The road itself was made of yellow bricks, and the trees that grew on the tops of the cliffs were twisted and stunted, their knobbly branches looking like arms. Then suddenly the bus was being pelted with fist-sized objects.
"What in the world?" Hermione asked, staring transfixed as the trees hurled projectiles at them. One flew in threw the still-open window, and hit Neville Longbottom, who was sitting in the seat across the aisle from them. It bounced off his head, and landed in Harry's lap.
"Ow!" said Neville, holding his cheek as Parvati spun around to try too help him.
"What is it Harry?" Ron asked after it turned out Neville was alright.
Harry held it up. It was a bruised red apple.
"Figures," Ron said.
"That'll be the wild magic influencing the surroundings. And I'd bet that this road wasn't originally yellow brick either," Hermione declared, rather satisfied with herself for paying attention in class to know that. Ron rolled his eyes.
"Hey look, we're here!" Seamus Finnigan shouted to everyone general. And they were. They had pulled into an opening in the cliffs that was nearly perfectly circular. The bus parked behind the others in front of a building made of gray brick with small windows. A coat of arms hung above the wide doors, of a green serpentine dragon coiling around black crystal shards.
Professor Trelawney turned off the bus and exited to go chat outside with the other teachers after warning them not to leave the bus. Shortly Professor McGonagall came on.
"Alright listen up! There are only a few tour guides, and lots of us. Split into groups of five and register inside for a certain time. While you wait you can tour the museum. And if I find anyonemaking trouble with anyone else," and here she looked meaningfully from Harry, Ron, and Hermione to Draco and his goons, "I will personally make the rest of their year miserable. Am I understood? Good. You may go."
They all filed off the bus and went inside. Ron saw Harry go dreamy eyed just as they were crossing the threshold. He suppressed a wicked smile. Cho Chang walked with flouncing black hair a few yards in front of them. He nudged his friend with an elbow.
"Harry, you're drooling," he hissed. He hadn't meant for Hermione to overhear, but she did and giggled. Harry turned scarlet and glared at them, for now they were both laughing.
"Shut up," he grumbled. "We need to find a group. C'mon."
They sought out the sign-up sheet, but everyone had already crowded around it.
"Hey Neville," Harry said. "Want to be in our tour group?"
"Sorry, I'm already in with Seamus, Dean, Parvati, and Lavender."
"Oh," Harry said surprisedly. "What about you, Justin?"
Justin Finch-Fletchly smiled apologetically and explained that he was in with his other Hufflepuffs. It was the same with everyone else they asked. When finally the mass of students subsided enough for them to sign up, there was only one spot left before the tours stopped and it had two names they were appalled to see.
"Just our luck. Malfoy in our group and Snape as our chaperone," Harry groaned as he put their names down.
"Why aren't Crabbe and Goyle with him?" Hermione asked, studying the sheet.
"Who cares? Malfoy is enough even without his moron bodyguards," Ron said just as miserable as Harry. "And with Snape along he's sure to get away with murder."
"Er - excuse me?" a small voice said from behind them. They turned as one to see a short tan girl with dark strawberry-blonde hair standing a few feet away. She wore a blue Hawaiian shirt with green and yellow islands on it over a white ribbed tank top and cut-off jeans with frayed edges.
"Yes?" said Hermione kindly.
"Is that the - er - sign-up sheet for the tours?" the girl asked shyly in an American accent.
"Uh-huh, but it's all filled," Harry said, looking apologetic.
"Oh. Well, um. Thanks anyway," the girl said, and turned to go.
"Wait!" Hermione said. "There's one spot left in our group if you'd like to come with us."
The girl studied them for a second as if she couldn't quite tell if they were kidding or not.
"Sure, I'd like that," she said at last with a small smile. She crossed to the sheet and signed her name behind theirs.
"Jancie?" Ron asked, reading her name. "That's a cool name."
She glanced sharply at him, again as if she couldn't tell if he was being sarcastic. Then she smiled more widely.
"Thanks. What're your names?"
"I'm Ron, " he said, extending his hand. As she shook it in a mock-formal way, Hermione stepped forward and introduced herself. Jancie turned to Harry.
"Then you must be -" she searched the sign-up sheet for a name. "Draco?"
Harry made a face. "Try again."
"Sorry. Harry, is it?" she asked hopefully.
"Nice to meet you," he said.
"I know," she said in a falsely smug voice. "So you guys go to Hogwarts?"
"Yeah."
"Is it really in a castle? With ghosts and dungeons and all that?"
Ron grinned at her exuberance.
"Yeah, and we've got a poltergeist too. Not to mention an infestation of Cornish Pixies in the west wing ever since we were second years," he said, for once rather proud of the various things he felt were bloody nuisances most of the time. This feeling increased as Jancie's face lit up.
"Wow," she said. "At MPHS Fifteen there's only a few will'o'th'wisps and a cursed chair that always wobbles."
"MP what?" Harry asked blankly.
"Oh, it means Magical Public High School, and Fifteen is the district number," she explained.
"Where are you from?" Hermione inquired. "And when did your term end?"
"My school is in Wisconsin, but I'm originally from North Dakota," Jancie said, then looked at the skeptical faces around her. "I see its reputation precedes me. It's not as bad as you think. Anyway, our school got out a week ago, and I've been here for two days on vacation."
"Are your parents or whatever with you?" Ron found himself asking, hoping he wasn't being too nosey.
"Naw, my mom is here on business so she can't come with. I took the Knight Bus here from our hotel in London."
Ron noticed that she didn't mention her father, and wondered why, but didn't ask because it probably would be consided prying.
They spent the rest of the day talking with Jancie and wandering around the museum part of the Visitors' Center. The American girl was wary at first, but as they bonded over badly made models of the caves and surrounding countryside she loosened up. Soon they were all laughing and talking and basically having a great time. They were merrily wreaking small amounts of havoc in the gift shop - they were having a tickling fight with Tingler Crystals, one of the kinds of crystals that grew in the caves - when a magically amplified voice filled the whole museum.
"WILL HARRY POTTER, HERMIONE GRANGER, RON WEASLEY, and JANCIE MORGAN PLEASE REPORT TO THE TOUR START POINT IMMEDIATELY!"
Jancie looked mildly surprised.
"Harry Potter? Why didn't you tell me?" she asked Harry. He just shrugged.
"C'mon," gasped Hermione, still out of breath from being tickled. "Let's go before Snape decides to dock Gryffindor a billion points."
Snape and Draco were looking exceptionally nasty when they arrived in front of the large lift that went down into the caves. Beside them stood a middle-aged man with a rugged build and green robes on. The two Slytherins gave Jancie measuring and disgusted looks, probably due to her Muggle clothes.
"Who're Giggles and Bubbly there?" Jancie hissed out the side of her mouth as she took in the unpleasant demeanor of Snape and Malfoy.
Hermione snorted with mirth. Ron and Harry looked at her.
"Just think of calling him Professor Giggles," she whispered. They all laughed, which made Snape glare at them suspiciously.
"Hello everyone," the guide said. "I'm Crispin Wallowswood, and I'm your tour guide for this afternoon. Shall we go?"
He motioned them inside the lift and closed the doors. He stopped at several levels, explaining the different kinds of crystals and the magical fields that shaped them. Even Draco found it hard to look bored when it came to the Musical Crystals that would echo your voice in different keys. If you stood in between about five of them, there was an ongoing symphony of harmonious echoes. Then were Glow Crystals, each it's own unique color, Tingler Crystals in raw form that made everyone, even the sour professor, laugh as invisible fingers tickled their sides. Finally, hey were at the bottom of the caves, where the legendary Black Crystals were.
They'd just gotten off the lift when a spark ran down the enchanted chords that moved it. There was a popping, fizzing noise and the lift shuddered. Crispin forced them back against the wall of the cave.
"Drat," he said. "I've got a bad feeling about this. Professor Snape?"
"Yes?" Snape said, looking slightly worried.
"Stay here, please, and don't let the group wonder off. I need to check some stuff out with HQ and whatnot. Won't take but a moment."
"Who's he fooling?" Ron snorted quietly so Snape wouldn't hear. "I bet we're stuck down here."
Out of the corner of his eye, he thought he saw Malfoy shudder, but when he turned to look, Draco just glared back at him.
"What is it Weasley? Don't like being stuck in the dark? Underground? With tons and tons of earth above your head, just waiting to collapse?" he said nastily.
"Shut up," Hermione said in a slightly high pitched voice.
"Ooooh!" Malfoy said, looking gleeful. "So it's Granger who's a claustrophobe! Don't you just love that feeling of opression that being under all the rocks gives you?"
Hermione glared at him. Jancie snarled.
"You're one to talk," she shot back. "You've been all twitchy and nervous since we got down here. I think you're the one who's claustrophobic."
"Shut up, you filthy Yank Mudblood," Draco said, wasting no courtesies with Jancie.
Her face went blank, but her eyes narowed slightly. She advanced on him, and he backed away.
"Yeah, right," she said in a deceptively gently polite tone. "I'm American and Muggle-born. You're most likely pure-blood who was born to some rich old English family."
Though her tone remained polite, and her words held no threats directly, there was a heavy sense of danger in the air, like a calm before the storm.
"That is quite enough, young lady," Snape snapped, finally catching on to what was happening behind his back. "Even if you aren't directly under my jurisdiction, I won't permit you terrorizing my students."
"You'd let them do it to each other, then? You had to've heard that one going on a minute ago," she snapped back.
Ron thought Snape might slap her for such backtalk. He was cheering inside, but he kept a poker face, lest Snape decide to take his rage out on the Gryffindors. A small noise to his right alerted him that Hermione had gone very pale. He walked over to her.
"Are you ok?" he asked.
Hermione nodded, but still looked slightly panicked. He couldn't help it, it hurt to see her distressed. He put a comforting arm around her shoulders. She looked at him surprisedly, but smiled weakly to show her thanks. Involuntarily, Ron glanced at Harry, who was staring at Draco. The pale boy was even paler, looking around nervously. He is scared, Ron thought, and grinned wickedly.
Suddenly there was an explosion from the direction of the lift. Everyone screamed as rocks began to fall everywhere. Ron looked up and saw the cracking ceiling. He yanked Hermione back further into the cave. He saw Harry shoving Draco along, yelling for him to move his lazy A$$ if he wanted to live. In the cloud of dust, Ron couldn't see what happened to Snape or Jancie. Then the middle of the ceiling caved in. Harry gave Malfoy a last shove, but he himself was hit on the head by a falling rock half the size of Neville's apple. He fell clumsily to the ground, glasses breaking.
"NOOOO!!" both Ron and Hermione shouted as Harry was buried to the thighs with rocks.
When the dust settled enough to breath properly again, Ron drew his wand and said "Lumos."
Hermione was clinging painfully to his arm, looking stricken, staring at Harry's unmoving form. Draco was sitting in a corner, his eyes wide and unseeing, his arms wrapped around his knees which were drawn up to his chest, and rocking slightly.
"He's in shock," Ron said aloud for no particular reason other the silence was getting to him.
As one they both moved toward Harry. Hermione, who'd taken pre-mediwitch training, checked for a pulse and for breathing, then for blood on Harry's head. Ron bit his lip until it drew blood. Harry, who'd always been the strong one, the one who knew what to do in a crisis, looked so young and helpless, unconscious and without his glasses.
"H-he's ok, I th-think," Hermione stuttered. "His legs are pr-probably broken..."
"Hermione?" Ron asked, scared she'd break down completely.
"Anyone alive back there?" came a muffled female shout from beyond the wall of rocks.
"Yeah!" Ron shouted. "Are you guys ok over there?"
"Crispin got knocked around by the explosion," Jancie's somewhat garbled reply came. "What about you?"
"Harry's out cold," Ron yelled and swallowed. "He's half-buried by the rocks."
"And Malfoy's having a psychotic episode," Hermione added for good measure, getting herself under control, but still looking very scared and shakey.
"Your Professor dude went for help! It'll only be a little bit now,' Jancie said, obviously trying to sound comforting.
"Potter," said Draco suddenly, but in a tone so utterly un-Draco-like that Ron hardly recognized the voice. "He saved me."
"That's right," Ron snapped. "Not that you deserved it you twit."
"Ron," Hermione scolded. "Don't take your anger out on him. He didn't cause the cave in."
Ron glared at Malfoy for a moment, but felt his anger trickling out the tips of his burning ears. Draco was disheveled, dirty, scared-looking, and confused. His normally smooth hair was falling across his face and he had a few cuts on his cheek, probably from the flying debris. He looked anxiously at the shadows cast by Ron's wandlight.
"Malfoy?" Ron asked.
There was no responce.
"Draco Malfoy?" he repeated, louder, walking over to the other boy, who just started at Harry. Ron paused uncertain.
"Leave him be," Hermione said, taking his arm and pulling him gently away from the cowering Draco. "He's not quite all right at the moment."
"Are you?" Ron asked, suddenly very concerned. He looked down into her eyes, and tried to keep his breath from catching in his throat. She stared right back at him, looking excited and scared. They froze that way for a moment. Ron's heart was beating so loudly in his ears he swore that Hermione must hear it.
There was an ominous rumble, and the moment was broken. The ground was trembling. Draco gave a very undignified whimper. Ron heard distinct cracking noises beneath his feet. He knew that the ground was going to give way, he knew he was going to fall through to some horrible death. And Hermione still clung to his arm.
"Gerroff!" he yelled stupidly, flinging Hermione over to the wall that Draco clung to. A split second later, the rock beneath him cracked and fell through. He scrabbled desperately on the edge of a stone, but that too fell. He sighed and let go, seeing as how it was pointless to hang on to a falling rock.
"RON!" Hermione screamed.
He was falling through inky blackness, but still had managed to hold onto his wand. The feeble light it gave didn't do much but illuminate the bits of rock that tumbled down with him. Suddenly he was snatched from the air by a large green scaley thing that wrapped itself around his waist. It was like being caught by a bungee cord. When the strange appendage had stopped completely, Ron hung limply in its grasp completely disoriented. He tried to catch his breath, but suddenly the green scaley thing was squeezing him, and lifting him.
An ugly green face with long segmented horns and cruel-looking jaws loomed over him from out of the darkness. Its large eyes were glossy black with no pupils at all. Wickedly sharp teeth the size of Godric Gryffindor's sword gleamed at him poisonously. And he'd thought Norbert's bite had hurt.
The tail - for Ron had decided that it was a serpentine dragon like that on the Black Crystal Caves coat of arms - squeezed tighter. Ron beat at it hopelessly with his fists, trying to loosen it's grip just a bit. He shouted a curse at the dragon to no effect. He tried to charm it into obedience, which only made it seem more eager to squish the life from him. Panicking, he sent up red flares and sirens, at least hoping to distract the beast . The dragon wasn't fooled.
He was finding it very hard to breathe now, the world was spinning. His memories flashed in his mind, mostly of Hermione and Harry, but others of his family and of his fellow students. What he regretted the most was never telling Hermione how he felt about her, never having kissed her.
That thought gave him strength. Was he a coward then, who would die without fulfilling even one of his dreams? He gasped for breath, and aimed his wand squarely in the bottomless eye of the dragon.
"Stupify," he wheezed, putting all the power he had into the curse. There was a flash of light, and Ron assumed that it'd worked because the tail loosened considerably. Accept now he was falling again. Well, a quick remedy for that. He pointed the wand at himself.
"Wingardium leviosa!" he shouted, now that he had more breath. Suddenly he was rising instead of falling, and the hole he'd fallen through was now visible again. He landed on the ledge of the far side of the cave. The first sound he heard was sobbing.
"Ron, Ron, RON!" Hermione was saying between gut-twisting wails. She was holding Harry, who'd woken up apparently. He, too was weeping, if a bit more silently.
"He can't DO this to me!" Harry said in a broken voice. "After all we've been through he gets killed on a freakin' field trip?"
There was a small noise from behind Ron. He turned. Malfoy was staring at him as if he were a ghost. He blinked confusedly. Then he looked over Ron's shoulder to the two sobbing friends. He blinked again, and a small sneer stretched across his face, a mere shadow of his old one.
"Hey, Potty!" came a familiar smug drawl. It was almost a relief to hear him being a jackass. "Your stupid little Weasel hasn't died after all!"
Harry and Hermione looked over, tear-streaked faces gleaming in the wandlight. At first they looked angry at Malfoy for interrupting their grieving. Then they saw Ron standing there, looking very tired and very shaken. Their faces lit up.
"Ron! RON!!" screamed Hermione, who ran around the gaping hole that had been made in the floor. She careened into him, gripping his as tightly as the dragon's tail had only a few moments ago. He returned the hug just as tightly, even though he knew from the shooting pains in his ribs that he had broken bones. Hermione sobbed unrestrainedly into his shoulder. Ron made unintelligible soothing noises. Then Hermione backed up, looked him square in the eye, and smacked him one across his face. He reeled a bit, but she grabbed him by the shoulders to steady him.
"DON'T EVER SCARE ME LIKE THAT AGAIN!!" she said, then suddenly kissed him full on the mouth.
It was amazing. He was suddenly floating in some blissful place where he couldn't feel his bruises body, or smell the musty dusty caves. His entire world consisted of Hermione and her lips on his. He held her close and the kiss went on. Finally they had to break apart for air. When they separated, he felt a pang so strong it was painful.
They stared at each other for a long time. Then Hermione began to laugh. Just a chuckle at first, but then rising into great gales of laughter, which Ron joined in whole heartedly. He didn't know how long they stood there, giggling like idiots, but a rude cough from behind them reminded them that Malfoy and Harry were indeed there.
"Shut up, Malfoy," Ron said, but his heart wasn't in it.
Carefully, They walked back to Harry, who was also laughing, though he looked like he was in incredible pain at the same time. Ron knelt beside his friend, and found himself being hugged again.
"Glad to have you back," Harry said, released him, then shuddered.
"Harry, are you ok?"
"Of course he's not ok!"
Everyone turned around in shock to see Draco standing a few feet away, looking rageful.
"What a stupid thing to say, Weasel. He's buried under tons of rocks and you think he might not be quite all right? You're sharp! What is everyone staring at?"
"Why, Draco," Harry gasped, "You sound almost concerned."
Draco turned red and glared poisonously at them all.
"Concerned? Hah! I just hate seeing idiocy anywhere," he said.
"IS EVERYONE ALRIGHT BACK THERE?" a voice from behind the rocks bellowed.
"IT'S ABOUT BLOODY TIME!" Ron yelled. "AND NO, WE'RE NOT ALL RIGHT. ONE OF US IS HALF-BURIED AND THERE IS A DRAGON A FEW HUNDRED FEET BELOW US WHO WILL BE WAKING UP SHORTLY WITH A VERY BAD GRUDGE AGAINST ONE OF US!!"
"STAND CLEAR THEN!"
Just as a way through the rocks was being blown, Ron felt a warm trickle down his legs. He looked down to see that his left leg had been slashed open and was bleeding somewhat badly. It didn't hurt until he saw it, but it probably had been bleeding for some time judging by the sopping state of his robe. His last conscious thought was hoping he hadn't gotten blood on Hermione.
He woke up on a hospital bed back at Hogwarts. He knew where he was by the smell of acrid disinfectant potions and pungent aromas of salves and ointments. He was loathe to open his eyes. He might just have been having another dream. He tried to move, but the pain in his leg and in his rib told him he hadn't been dreaming.
Ron opened his eyes at last. It was late evening, but somehow he doubted it was the same day. Hermione was slouched in a doze in a chair between his bed and Harry's. Harry was awake and reading a book with new glasses.
"Hey," Ron said , but it came out as a croak. Harry looked his way, and Ron saw the whole left side of his face was a massive bruise. Harry grinned at him though.
"Welcome back to the world of the living. You know, you slept even more like a rock than you did before. How are you feeling?"
"Like I got ran over by a dragon," he groaned without thinking. "Which actually wouldn't be too far off the mark. How're you?"
"Just got my legs pulverized. Fortunately the rocks kept me from bleeding too badly, so I'll probably live. But Skelegro is soooo gross."
"What happened after I passed out?"
"Well, a bunch of mediwizards came in and took Malfoy and Hermione out, then they got you on a stretcher while they started to pull rocks off of me. That took a long time because if they pulled the wrong ones, it could've all caved in again. Just when they'd gotten me onto a stretcher, that monster dragon peeked out threw that whole, and everyone went mad.
"You see, when you said there was a dragon, they thought it was just one of the baby ones that'd gotten lost or something. But apparently that one was called Big Bertha. She's been around since anyone could remember. They said she was really powerful, and were all really amazed that you could stun that one at all. I mean, none of them ever could, especially alone, not to mention for as long as you did," Harry said, staring at Ron with something like - could it be? - awe.
Ron went pink.
"That's probably an exaggeration," he said. "I mean, me? Come on."
"No really. It took like six of them to stun her again."
Ron didn't know what to say.
"What about Jancie and that Crispin guy?" he asked instead.
"Jancie had a story to tell. Snape saved her life, threw her clear of the rocks, then apparated to get help. Then the mediwizards came and took Crispin and her away. They were both ok, after he regained consciousness. She's going to write to us, you know. From America."
"What caused the whole explosions bit?"
"Oh that," said Hermione, yawning widely and stretching as she woke up. "It was a malfunction in the magic-technology link on the lift. It broke and the spell exploded."
"What about Malfoy?" Ron had to ask.
"He's nasty as ever, or at least he tries to be," Harry said. "But it's like his heart's not in it anymore."
"He was actually not mean to Neville in Potions today," Hermione put in. For the first time, she met Ron's eyes. There was a brief pause.
"I'll - er- just go over here," said Harry, gesturing with his wand. His bed wheeled itself across the room behind a privacy screen.
"D'you know you're famous now?" she asked suddenly.
"Huh? Why?"
"You saved me, defeated a dragon that no one else ever could, and you lived to tell about it."
"Oh," he said in a small voice.
"Look at what your admirers sent you," she said slyly, gesturing to table on his other side that he hadn't yet noticed. It was laden with flowers and cards and candy. Even from here he could see the largest gift basket and present was marked "From Mum and Dad." He smiled, but the gifts could wait. He turned back to Hermione.
"Hermione," Ron said. This was hard. "I - er - um -" He blushed.
She was blushing too.
"Yeah, Ron. Um, yeah."
"Screw it!' Ron said, losing his temper with himself. "Hermione, I think I love you."
"I think I love you too," she said, tears in her eyes.
"Oh, what are you crying for now?" Ron demanded.
"Ooooooh!" she said angrily. She got up and put one hand behind his head one on his cheek and pulled him in for a fiery kiss.
*You know, I could get to like this,* Ron thought.
Another Author's Note: There it's done! What do you think? By the way, I'm going to continue it from Jancie's POV later. In a different seires of course.
Disclaimer: I don't own any characters in this story accept Jancie, Crispin, and Big Bertha. The only place I own is the Black Crystal Caves. The only crystals I own are Tinglers, Musical, Glow and Black.
P.S. - Did anyone realize that Trelawney's premonition came true? How many is that? Three?
Ron stretched and yawned, getting out of bed.
"What're we late for?" he asked, getting his shampoo and soap to go shower.
"Don't you remember? We're going on the field trip today!"
"Oh, yeah," Ron said sheepishly. "I can't believe I forgot."
"Neither can I. I mean, it's all Hermione's been talking about for ages," Harry called as Ron left to go to the showers. "Save a spot for you at the table, okay?"
After showering quickly, Ron dressed and combed his hair. He pointed his wand at his sopping rust tresses and muttered a heat spell to dry them. He stuck his wand in his pocket and went down to the Great Hall, whistling cheerily. Harry and Hermione were there already, eating with gusto and a chair between them. He grinned at Harry for being so considerate, and got a fairly obvious wink back at him. Ron quickly glanced to see if Hermione had noticed, but she hadn't. He plunked himself in the chair and helped himself to scrambled eggs and sausage. His dream still playing in his mind, he smiled widely at Hermione.
"You're sure chipper this morning," she commented looking rather surprised. Ron wasn't usually a morning person. Ron just shrugged and began to eat hurriedly.
"Where is the field trip to again?" he asked through a mouthful of eggs.
She gave an exasperated huff.
"Really, Ron," she said in her I-can't-believe-how-thick-you-can-be-sometimes voice. "Professor McGonagall has been telling us about it for weeks, and Dumbledore announced it last night at supper. We're going to the Black Crystal Caves."
"Isn't that where all the dragons go to hibernate?" He tried to hide his nervousness. He hadn't liked dragons ever since Hagrid's Norwegian Ridgeback had bitten him.
"Only in the southern part," she explained as if it was obvious. "We're going to the north caves. Besides, it's so late in the year that most dragons will have woken up an left by now."
"What are we going to do there? I mean, it doesn't seem very useful," Harry spoke up.
"Not useful! We're going to see how places with such natural wild magic can influence the geological formations and ecology of the surrounding ecosystems," she told them.
"Plus we get out of classes for a day, so shut up," Ron put in cheerfully. Harry grinned at him.
"How're we getting there?" he asked.
Both Ron and Hermione shrugged.
"You'd think that they'd mention it when they ramble on and on how important a learning experience this'll be," Ron said. "But nooo, they don't tell us anything!"
"They do too! They - "
But before Hermione could continue, a hush fell over the students as Dumbledore stood.
"Today you leave the school for the first field trips in its history. Please remember that you are representing your whole school, an adjust your behavior accordingly. All the teachers will be accompanying you as chaperones. Now, transportation waits outside. You'll be traveling with your year and not with your house, and please board in and orderly fashion. You are excused," he finished his short speech with a grin and made shooing motions at them.
Bursting with curiosity as to what the 'transportation' was, Ron, Hermione, and Harry rushed outside with the others. As soon as they were in the courtyard they found out. Both Harry and Hermione looked shocked. Ron examined the seven large objects with interest. They looked like mutant cars, tall and long with many windows. There were only two doors, one normal next to the drivers' side, the other a tall narrow affair with windows all down it. To top it off, the things were a garish yellow.
"School buses?" Harry said incredulously.
"Is that what they're called? I've never seen anything like them before," Ron said, to which Hermione made a small noise of disbelief. "What?"
"Sorry," she said to his slightly reproachful look. "It's just - not knowing about school buses?"
"Yeah," drawled a new voice that made Ron want very badly to kick something. "Even Iknow about those filthy Muggle things."
To no one's surprise Draco Malfoy stood behind them, flanked on either side by Goyle and Crabbe, his two massive body guards. He had his usual smug sneer on his pale face, tainted with more than a little disgust at the sight of the buses.
"Scram, Malfoy. You're blocking the door," Harry said dryly.
Malfoy, seeing that Harry was right, turned pale pink and gave them venomous looks as they pushed past them. Ron grinned malevolently at the blonde boy, who returned it with a baleful glare.
"We should probably get moving, too, or else the best seats will be taken," Hermione said, and they left to find their bus. Each vehicle had a black number on the side next to the words Hogwarts Academy. They found the one with the number four on it and boarded. Sitting down near the middle, they were surrounded by Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs, while the Ravenclaws were clinging to the front seats and the Slytherins hiding out in back. The magically expanded seat easily fit three with room to spare. Unfortunately the whole place smelled like sweatsocks and old peanut-butter. Hermione slid their window down to let in some fresh air.
"Wizarding school bus or public school bus, they all smell the same," she grumbled, obviously trying not to breathe through her nose too much. Ron and Harry both grinned at her expression, but totally understood it all the same. Ron hoped that the ride wouldn't be too long.
Soon their bus was full, and all they needed was a driver. The other buses were already circling the courtyard and turning out down the road to Hogsmeade, disappearing around a bend in the road. Ron was a bit dismayed by the fact that they might have to drive all the way to the caves, which were halfway across the country. Just then a familiar and totally surprising shape drifted into the bus.
"Oh no," Hermione and Harry both groaned.
The woman was tall and stringy-looking, with lots of bangles and necklaces and earings, and glasses that made her eyes look huge. It was odd to see her outside the Divination room, and she looked a great deal out of her element. She held three large canteens, which she opened one at a time.
"Hello children," Professor Trelawney said in a misty voice. Parvati and Lavender, two Gryffindor girls who were very silly indeed, immediately stopped giggling over a magazine filled with attractive shirtless young wizards who flexed at them to gaze at their most favorite teacher. "I am passing out canteens full of St. George's Revenge, a fireproofing potion. Please take a small sip, and pass it on. It is merely a safety precaution, for we expect no dragons. Although I've a premonition involving a cave in."
She looked meaningfully at Harry, who simply rolled his eyes.
"Yeah, the mental cave in of our Divination teacher," Hermione murmured. Both harry and Ron had to bit their tongues to keep from laughing.
When the canteen came their way, they all dutifully took swigs and made faces. It was bitter and made your insides feel like icicles. Soon everyone had taken sips and passed the now-empty vessels back to the professor, who stowed them and sat down in the driver's seat. After a great many screeches and grinding noises, they were following the last bus out the road.
Ron was surprised when they turned the corner and saw the bus ahead of them disappear into a big blue glowing hole in the air across the road. They drove straight into it. Ron felt tingly and his stomach did flip-flops. Outside the window was blue nothingness with occasional flares of red or green or violet streaking past. Just as suddenly as it happened, they were driving on normal land again, and he felt slightly queasy.
"Urg," he said.
"You can say that again," Harry replied. "What was that?"
"I think it was a Portal. It's like a massive, steady Apparation spell to a specific place," Hermione told them, looking a bit green. She gestured out the window. "We must be nearly there."
The scenery outside had changed from forest to craggy rock cliffs with boulders every now and then on the roadside. The road itself was made of yellow bricks, and the trees that grew on the tops of the cliffs were twisted and stunted, their knobbly branches looking like arms. Then suddenly the bus was being pelted with fist-sized objects.
"What in the world?" Hermione asked, staring transfixed as the trees hurled projectiles at them. One flew in threw the still-open window, and hit Neville Longbottom, who was sitting in the seat across the aisle from them. It bounced off his head, and landed in Harry's lap.
"Ow!" said Neville, holding his cheek as Parvati spun around to try too help him.
"What is it Harry?" Ron asked after it turned out Neville was alright.
Harry held it up. It was a bruised red apple.
"Figures," Ron said.
"That'll be the wild magic influencing the surroundings. And I'd bet that this road wasn't originally yellow brick either," Hermione declared, rather satisfied with herself for paying attention in class to know that. Ron rolled his eyes.
"Hey look, we're here!" Seamus Finnigan shouted to everyone general. And they were. They had pulled into an opening in the cliffs that was nearly perfectly circular. The bus parked behind the others in front of a building made of gray brick with small windows. A coat of arms hung above the wide doors, of a green serpentine dragon coiling around black crystal shards.
Professor Trelawney turned off the bus and exited to go chat outside with the other teachers after warning them not to leave the bus. Shortly Professor McGonagall came on.
"Alright listen up! There are only a few tour guides, and lots of us. Split into groups of five and register inside for a certain time. While you wait you can tour the museum. And if I find anyonemaking trouble with anyone else," and here she looked meaningfully from Harry, Ron, and Hermione to Draco and his goons, "I will personally make the rest of their year miserable. Am I understood? Good. You may go."
They all filed off the bus and went inside. Ron saw Harry go dreamy eyed just as they were crossing the threshold. He suppressed a wicked smile. Cho Chang walked with flouncing black hair a few yards in front of them. He nudged his friend with an elbow.
"Harry, you're drooling," he hissed. He hadn't meant for Hermione to overhear, but she did and giggled. Harry turned scarlet and glared at them, for now they were both laughing.
"Shut up," he grumbled. "We need to find a group. C'mon."
They sought out the sign-up sheet, but everyone had already crowded around it.
"Hey Neville," Harry said. "Want to be in our tour group?"
"Sorry, I'm already in with Seamus, Dean, Parvati, and Lavender."
"Oh," Harry said surprisedly. "What about you, Justin?"
Justin Finch-Fletchly smiled apologetically and explained that he was in with his other Hufflepuffs. It was the same with everyone else they asked. When finally the mass of students subsided enough for them to sign up, there was only one spot left before the tours stopped and it had two names they were appalled to see.
"Just our luck. Malfoy in our group and Snape as our chaperone," Harry groaned as he put their names down.
"Why aren't Crabbe and Goyle with him?" Hermione asked, studying the sheet.
"Who cares? Malfoy is enough even without his moron bodyguards," Ron said just as miserable as Harry. "And with Snape along he's sure to get away with murder."
"Er - excuse me?" a small voice said from behind them. They turned as one to see a short tan girl with dark strawberry-blonde hair standing a few feet away. She wore a blue Hawaiian shirt with green and yellow islands on it over a white ribbed tank top and cut-off jeans with frayed edges.
"Yes?" said Hermione kindly.
"Is that the - er - sign-up sheet for the tours?" the girl asked shyly in an American accent.
"Uh-huh, but it's all filled," Harry said, looking apologetic.
"Oh. Well, um. Thanks anyway," the girl said, and turned to go.
"Wait!" Hermione said. "There's one spot left in our group if you'd like to come with us."
The girl studied them for a second as if she couldn't quite tell if they were kidding or not.
"Sure, I'd like that," she said at last with a small smile. She crossed to the sheet and signed her name behind theirs.
"Jancie?" Ron asked, reading her name. "That's a cool name."
She glanced sharply at him, again as if she couldn't tell if he was being sarcastic. Then she smiled more widely.
"Thanks. What're your names?"
"I'm Ron, " he said, extending his hand. As she shook it in a mock-formal way, Hermione stepped forward and introduced herself. Jancie turned to Harry.
"Then you must be -" she searched the sign-up sheet for a name. "Draco?"
Harry made a face. "Try again."
"Sorry. Harry, is it?" she asked hopefully.
"Nice to meet you," he said.
"I know," she said in a falsely smug voice. "So you guys go to Hogwarts?"
"Yeah."
"Is it really in a castle? With ghosts and dungeons and all that?"
Ron grinned at her exuberance.
"Yeah, and we've got a poltergeist too. Not to mention an infestation of Cornish Pixies in the west wing ever since we were second years," he said, for once rather proud of the various things he felt were bloody nuisances most of the time. This feeling increased as Jancie's face lit up.
"Wow," she said. "At MPHS Fifteen there's only a few will'o'th'wisps and a cursed chair that always wobbles."
"MP what?" Harry asked blankly.
"Oh, it means Magical Public High School, and Fifteen is the district number," she explained.
"Where are you from?" Hermione inquired. "And when did your term end?"
"My school is in Wisconsin, but I'm originally from North Dakota," Jancie said, then looked at the skeptical faces around her. "I see its reputation precedes me. It's not as bad as you think. Anyway, our school got out a week ago, and I've been here for two days on vacation."
"Are your parents or whatever with you?" Ron found himself asking, hoping he wasn't being too nosey.
"Naw, my mom is here on business so she can't come with. I took the Knight Bus here from our hotel in London."
Ron noticed that she didn't mention her father, and wondered why, but didn't ask because it probably would be consided prying.
They spent the rest of the day talking with Jancie and wandering around the museum part of the Visitors' Center. The American girl was wary at first, but as they bonded over badly made models of the caves and surrounding countryside she loosened up. Soon they were all laughing and talking and basically having a great time. They were merrily wreaking small amounts of havoc in the gift shop - they were having a tickling fight with Tingler Crystals, one of the kinds of crystals that grew in the caves - when a magically amplified voice filled the whole museum.
"WILL HARRY POTTER, HERMIONE GRANGER, RON WEASLEY, and JANCIE MORGAN PLEASE REPORT TO THE TOUR START POINT IMMEDIATELY!"
Jancie looked mildly surprised.
"Harry Potter? Why didn't you tell me?" she asked Harry. He just shrugged.
"C'mon," gasped Hermione, still out of breath from being tickled. "Let's go before Snape decides to dock Gryffindor a billion points."
Snape and Draco were looking exceptionally nasty when they arrived in front of the large lift that went down into the caves. Beside them stood a middle-aged man with a rugged build and green robes on. The two Slytherins gave Jancie measuring and disgusted looks, probably due to her Muggle clothes.
"Who're Giggles and Bubbly there?" Jancie hissed out the side of her mouth as she took in the unpleasant demeanor of Snape and Malfoy.
Hermione snorted with mirth. Ron and Harry looked at her.
"Just think of calling him Professor Giggles," she whispered. They all laughed, which made Snape glare at them suspiciously.
"Hello everyone," the guide said. "I'm Crispin Wallowswood, and I'm your tour guide for this afternoon. Shall we go?"
He motioned them inside the lift and closed the doors. He stopped at several levels, explaining the different kinds of crystals and the magical fields that shaped them. Even Draco found it hard to look bored when it came to the Musical Crystals that would echo your voice in different keys. If you stood in between about five of them, there was an ongoing symphony of harmonious echoes. Then were Glow Crystals, each it's own unique color, Tingler Crystals in raw form that made everyone, even the sour professor, laugh as invisible fingers tickled their sides. Finally, hey were at the bottom of the caves, where the legendary Black Crystals were.
They'd just gotten off the lift when a spark ran down the enchanted chords that moved it. There was a popping, fizzing noise and the lift shuddered. Crispin forced them back against the wall of the cave.
"Drat," he said. "I've got a bad feeling about this. Professor Snape?"
"Yes?" Snape said, looking slightly worried.
"Stay here, please, and don't let the group wonder off. I need to check some stuff out with HQ and whatnot. Won't take but a moment."
"Who's he fooling?" Ron snorted quietly so Snape wouldn't hear. "I bet we're stuck down here."
Out of the corner of his eye, he thought he saw Malfoy shudder, but when he turned to look, Draco just glared back at him.
"What is it Weasley? Don't like being stuck in the dark? Underground? With tons and tons of earth above your head, just waiting to collapse?" he said nastily.
"Shut up," Hermione said in a slightly high pitched voice.
"Ooooh!" Malfoy said, looking gleeful. "So it's Granger who's a claustrophobe! Don't you just love that feeling of opression that being under all the rocks gives you?"
Hermione glared at him. Jancie snarled.
"You're one to talk," she shot back. "You've been all twitchy and nervous since we got down here. I think you're the one who's claustrophobic."
"Shut up, you filthy Yank Mudblood," Draco said, wasting no courtesies with Jancie.
Her face went blank, but her eyes narowed slightly. She advanced on him, and he backed away.
"Yeah, right," she said in a deceptively gently polite tone. "I'm American and Muggle-born. You're most likely pure-blood who was born to some rich old English family."
Though her tone remained polite, and her words held no threats directly, there was a heavy sense of danger in the air, like a calm before the storm.
"That is quite enough, young lady," Snape snapped, finally catching on to what was happening behind his back. "Even if you aren't directly under my jurisdiction, I won't permit you terrorizing my students."
"You'd let them do it to each other, then? You had to've heard that one going on a minute ago," she snapped back.
Ron thought Snape might slap her for such backtalk. He was cheering inside, but he kept a poker face, lest Snape decide to take his rage out on the Gryffindors. A small noise to his right alerted him that Hermione had gone very pale. He walked over to her.
"Are you ok?" he asked.
Hermione nodded, but still looked slightly panicked. He couldn't help it, it hurt to see her distressed. He put a comforting arm around her shoulders. She looked at him surprisedly, but smiled weakly to show her thanks. Involuntarily, Ron glanced at Harry, who was staring at Draco. The pale boy was even paler, looking around nervously. He is scared, Ron thought, and grinned wickedly.
Suddenly there was an explosion from the direction of the lift. Everyone screamed as rocks began to fall everywhere. Ron looked up and saw the cracking ceiling. He yanked Hermione back further into the cave. He saw Harry shoving Draco along, yelling for him to move his lazy A$$ if he wanted to live. In the cloud of dust, Ron couldn't see what happened to Snape or Jancie. Then the middle of the ceiling caved in. Harry gave Malfoy a last shove, but he himself was hit on the head by a falling rock half the size of Neville's apple. He fell clumsily to the ground, glasses breaking.
"NOOOO!!" both Ron and Hermione shouted as Harry was buried to the thighs with rocks.
When the dust settled enough to breath properly again, Ron drew his wand and said "Lumos."
Hermione was clinging painfully to his arm, looking stricken, staring at Harry's unmoving form. Draco was sitting in a corner, his eyes wide and unseeing, his arms wrapped around his knees which were drawn up to his chest, and rocking slightly.
"He's in shock," Ron said aloud for no particular reason other the silence was getting to him.
As one they both moved toward Harry. Hermione, who'd taken pre-mediwitch training, checked for a pulse and for breathing, then for blood on Harry's head. Ron bit his lip until it drew blood. Harry, who'd always been the strong one, the one who knew what to do in a crisis, looked so young and helpless, unconscious and without his glasses.
"H-he's ok, I th-think," Hermione stuttered. "His legs are pr-probably broken..."
"Hermione?" Ron asked, scared she'd break down completely.
"Anyone alive back there?" came a muffled female shout from beyond the wall of rocks.
"Yeah!" Ron shouted. "Are you guys ok over there?"
"Crispin got knocked around by the explosion," Jancie's somewhat garbled reply came. "What about you?"
"Harry's out cold," Ron yelled and swallowed. "He's half-buried by the rocks."
"And Malfoy's having a psychotic episode," Hermione added for good measure, getting herself under control, but still looking very scared and shakey.
"Your Professor dude went for help! It'll only be a little bit now,' Jancie said, obviously trying to sound comforting.
"Potter," said Draco suddenly, but in a tone so utterly un-Draco-like that Ron hardly recognized the voice. "He saved me."
"That's right," Ron snapped. "Not that you deserved it you twit."
"Ron," Hermione scolded. "Don't take your anger out on him. He didn't cause the cave in."
Ron glared at Malfoy for a moment, but felt his anger trickling out the tips of his burning ears. Draco was disheveled, dirty, scared-looking, and confused. His normally smooth hair was falling across his face and he had a few cuts on his cheek, probably from the flying debris. He looked anxiously at the shadows cast by Ron's wandlight.
"Malfoy?" Ron asked.
There was no responce.
"Draco Malfoy?" he repeated, louder, walking over to the other boy, who just started at Harry. Ron paused uncertain.
"Leave him be," Hermione said, taking his arm and pulling him gently away from the cowering Draco. "He's not quite all right at the moment."
"Are you?" Ron asked, suddenly very concerned. He looked down into her eyes, and tried to keep his breath from catching in his throat. She stared right back at him, looking excited and scared. They froze that way for a moment. Ron's heart was beating so loudly in his ears he swore that Hermione must hear it.
There was an ominous rumble, and the moment was broken. The ground was trembling. Draco gave a very undignified whimper. Ron heard distinct cracking noises beneath his feet. He knew that the ground was going to give way, he knew he was going to fall through to some horrible death. And Hermione still clung to his arm.
"Gerroff!" he yelled stupidly, flinging Hermione over to the wall that Draco clung to. A split second later, the rock beneath him cracked and fell through. He scrabbled desperately on the edge of a stone, but that too fell. He sighed and let go, seeing as how it was pointless to hang on to a falling rock.
"RON!" Hermione screamed.
He was falling through inky blackness, but still had managed to hold onto his wand. The feeble light it gave didn't do much but illuminate the bits of rock that tumbled down with him. Suddenly he was snatched from the air by a large green scaley thing that wrapped itself around his waist. It was like being caught by a bungee cord. When the strange appendage had stopped completely, Ron hung limply in its grasp completely disoriented. He tried to catch his breath, but suddenly the green scaley thing was squeezing him, and lifting him.
An ugly green face with long segmented horns and cruel-looking jaws loomed over him from out of the darkness. Its large eyes were glossy black with no pupils at all. Wickedly sharp teeth the size of Godric Gryffindor's sword gleamed at him poisonously. And he'd thought Norbert's bite had hurt.
The tail - for Ron had decided that it was a serpentine dragon like that on the Black Crystal Caves coat of arms - squeezed tighter. Ron beat at it hopelessly with his fists, trying to loosen it's grip just a bit. He shouted a curse at the dragon to no effect. He tried to charm it into obedience, which only made it seem more eager to squish the life from him. Panicking, he sent up red flares and sirens, at least hoping to distract the beast . The dragon wasn't fooled.
He was finding it very hard to breathe now, the world was spinning. His memories flashed in his mind, mostly of Hermione and Harry, but others of his family and of his fellow students. What he regretted the most was never telling Hermione how he felt about her, never having kissed her.
That thought gave him strength. Was he a coward then, who would die without fulfilling even one of his dreams? He gasped for breath, and aimed his wand squarely in the bottomless eye of the dragon.
"Stupify," he wheezed, putting all the power he had into the curse. There was a flash of light, and Ron assumed that it'd worked because the tail loosened considerably. Accept now he was falling again. Well, a quick remedy for that. He pointed the wand at himself.
"Wingardium leviosa!" he shouted, now that he had more breath. Suddenly he was rising instead of falling, and the hole he'd fallen through was now visible again. He landed on the ledge of the far side of the cave. The first sound he heard was sobbing.
"Ron, Ron, RON!" Hermione was saying between gut-twisting wails. She was holding Harry, who'd woken up apparently. He, too was weeping, if a bit more silently.
"He can't DO this to me!" Harry said in a broken voice. "After all we've been through he gets killed on a freakin' field trip?"
There was a small noise from behind Ron. He turned. Malfoy was staring at him as if he were a ghost. He blinked confusedly. Then he looked over Ron's shoulder to the two sobbing friends. He blinked again, and a small sneer stretched across his face, a mere shadow of his old one.
"Hey, Potty!" came a familiar smug drawl. It was almost a relief to hear him being a jackass. "Your stupid little Weasel hasn't died after all!"
Harry and Hermione looked over, tear-streaked faces gleaming in the wandlight. At first they looked angry at Malfoy for interrupting their grieving. Then they saw Ron standing there, looking very tired and very shaken. Their faces lit up.
"Ron! RON!!" screamed Hermione, who ran around the gaping hole that had been made in the floor. She careened into him, gripping his as tightly as the dragon's tail had only a few moments ago. He returned the hug just as tightly, even though he knew from the shooting pains in his ribs that he had broken bones. Hermione sobbed unrestrainedly into his shoulder. Ron made unintelligible soothing noises. Then Hermione backed up, looked him square in the eye, and smacked him one across his face. He reeled a bit, but she grabbed him by the shoulders to steady him.
"DON'T EVER SCARE ME LIKE THAT AGAIN!!" she said, then suddenly kissed him full on the mouth.
It was amazing. He was suddenly floating in some blissful place where he couldn't feel his bruises body, or smell the musty dusty caves. His entire world consisted of Hermione and her lips on his. He held her close and the kiss went on. Finally they had to break apart for air. When they separated, he felt a pang so strong it was painful.
They stared at each other for a long time. Then Hermione began to laugh. Just a chuckle at first, but then rising into great gales of laughter, which Ron joined in whole heartedly. He didn't know how long they stood there, giggling like idiots, but a rude cough from behind them reminded them that Malfoy and Harry were indeed there.
"Shut up, Malfoy," Ron said, but his heart wasn't in it.
Carefully, They walked back to Harry, who was also laughing, though he looked like he was in incredible pain at the same time. Ron knelt beside his friend, and found himself being hugged again.
"Glad to have you back," Harry said, released him, then shuddered.
"Harry, are you ok?"
"Of course he's not ok!"
Everyone turned around in shock to see Draco standing a few feet away, looking rageful.
"What a stupid thing to say, Weasel. He's buried under tons of rocks and you think he might not be quite all right? You're sharp! What is everyone staring at?"
"Why, Draco," Harry gasped, "You sound almost concerned."
Draco turned red and glared poisonously at them all.
"Concerned? Hah! I just hate seeing idiocy anywhere," he said.
"IS EVERYONE ALRIGHT BACK THERE?" a voice from behind the rocks bellowed.
"IT'S ABOUT BLOODY TIME!" Ron yelled. "AND NO, WE'RE NOT ALL RIGHT. ONE OF US IS HALF-BURIED AND THERE IS A DRAGON A FEW HUNDRED FEET BELOW US WHO WILL BE WAKING UP SHORTLY WITH A VERY BAD GRUDGE AGAINST ONE OF US!!"
"STAND CLEAR THEN!"
Just as a way through the rocks was being blown, Ron felt a warm trickle down his legs. He looked down to see that his left leg had been slashed open and was bleeding somewhat badly. It didn't hurt until he saw it, but it probably had been bleeding for some time judging by the sopping state of his robe. His last conscious thought was hoping he hadn't gotten blood on Hermione.
He woke up on a hospital bed back at Hogwarts. He knew where he was by the smell of acrid disinfectant potions and pungent aromas of salves and ointments. He was loathe to open his eyes. He might just have been having another dream. He tried to move, but the pain in his leg and in his rib told him he hadn't been dreaming.
Ron opened his eyes at last. It was late evening, but somehow he doubted it was the same day. Hermione was slouched in a doze in a chair between his bed and Harry's. Harry was awake and reading a book with new glasses.
"Hey," Ron said , but it came out as a croak. Harry looked his way, and Ron saw the whole left side of his face was a massive bruise. Harry grinned at him though.
"Welcome back to the world of the living. You know, you slept even more like a rock than you did before. How are you feeling?"
"Like I got ran over by a dragon," he groaned without thinking. "Which actually wouldn't be too far off the mark. How're you?"
"Just got my legs pulverized. Fortunately the rocks kept me from bleeding too badly, so I'll probably live. But Skelegro is soooo gross."
"What happened after I passed out?"
"Well, a bunch of mediwizards came in and took Malfoy and Hermione out, then they got you on a stretcher while they started to pull rocks off of me. That took a long time because if they pulled the wrong ones, it could've all caved in again. Just when they'd gotten me onto a stretcher, that monster dragon peeked out threw that whole, and everyone went mad.
"You see, when you said there was a dragon, they thought it was just one of the baby ones that'd gotten lost or something. But apparently that one was called Big Bertha. She's been around since anyone could remember. They said she was really powerful, and were all really amazed that you could stun that one at all. I mean, none of them ever could, especially alone, not to mention for as long as you did," Harry said, staring at Ron with something like - could it be? - awe.
Ron went pink.
"That's probably an exaggeration," he said. "I mean, me? Come on."
"No really. It took like six of them to stun her again."
Ron didn't know what to say.
"What about Jancie and that Crispin guy?" he asked instead.
"Jancie had a story to tell. Snape saved her life, threw her clear of the rocks, then apparated to get help. Then the mediwizards came and took Crispin and her away. They were both ok, after he regained consciousness. She's going to write to us, you know. From America."
"What caused the whole explosions bit?"
"Oh that," said Hermione, yawning widely and stretching as she woke up. "It was a malfunction in the magic-technology link on the lift. It broke and the spell exploded."
"What about Malfoy?" Ron had to ask.
"He's nasty as ever, or at least he tries to be," Harry said. "But it's like his heart's not in it anymore."
"He was actually not mean to Neville in Potions today," Hermione put in. For the first time, she met Ron's eyes. There was a brief pause.
"I'll - er- just go over here," said Harry, gesturing with his wand. His bed wheeled itself across the room behind a privacy screen.
"D'you know you're famous now?" she asked suddenly.
"Huh? Why?"
"You saved me, defeated a dragon that no one else ever could, and you lived to tell about it."
"Oh," he said in a small voice.
"Look at what your admirers sent you," she said slyly, gesturing to table on his other side that he hadn't yet noticed. It was laden with flowers and cards and candy. Even from here he could see the largest gift basket and present was marked "From Mum and Dad." He smiled, but the gifts could wait. He turned back to Hermione.
"Hermione," Ron said. This was hard. "I - er - um -" He blushed.
She was blushing too.
"Yeah, Ron. Um, yeah."
"Screw it!' Ron said, losing his temper with himself. "Hermione, I think I love you."
"I think I love you too," she said, tears in her eyes.
"Oh, what are you crying for now?" Ron demanded.
"Ooooooh!" she said angrily. She got up and put one hand behind his head one on his cheek and pulled him in for a fiery kiss.
*You know, I could get to like this,* Ron thought.
Another Author's Note: There it's done! What do you think? By the way, I'm going to continue it from Jancie's POV later. In a different seires of course.
Disclaimer: I don't own any characters in this story accept Jancie, Crispin, and Big Bertha. The only place I own is the Black Crystal Caves. The only crystals I own are Tinglers, Musical, Glow and Black.
P.S. - Did anyone realize that Trelawney's premonition came true? How many is that? Three?