Ron's heart was pounding as he tried to take in what he was seeing. They had Hermione. He didn't have time to try understand how this was possible.
It was only his third mission since joining the Auror Department. It was Harry's first time leading a team and things were going form bad to worse.
"Harry! Harry, please!" Hermione cried, struggling against her captor. Ron started forward, wand raised but Harry threw an arm out to stop him.
They had just entered the house where it was believed a small group of dark wizards were holding up. The team had moved quickly through the lower floor of the house, taking the few men on guard by surprise. It was once they started to move upstairs that all hell had broken loose. There were five of them in total upstairs and they used the moment the Aurors were gathered in the stairway to mount their attack. One of the men, Wilkins, went down but there was no time to check if he was stunned or worse as Harry ordered the rest of his team into a fierce counter attack. They made it to the landing of the staircase, having forced their attackers to retreat down the hallway and into a room to the right.
It was then they heard the scream. Ron's blood had run cold. He knew that scream. He heard it often enough in his nightmares. Harry didn't have time to stop him or give orders to the rest of the team before Ron had run down the hall and blasted into the room the scream had come from. Harry had had no choice but to follow, wand raised. He entered to room to three men and a woman, wands pointed at Ron who had stopped short, staring at the man in front of him, the one holding Hermione by her hair, wand to her throat.
Ron was struck by the similarity of the scene to Malfoy Mannor and the same feeling of helplessness washed over him. Tears rolled down Hermione's cheeks as she struggled to get free. The man holding her gripped her hair tighter causing her to wince in pain.
"Don't you dare move or, I swear, I'll kill her," threatened the man who held her.
"Please," begged Hermione, "please-" she was cut off as the man's wand was pressed more firmly against her throat.
"Let her go," said Ron quietly but firmly, Harry's arm still across his chest holding him back.
"We will," said a woman to his left, addressing Harry, "if you lower your wands and call off your men." Ron hesitantly lowered his wand but Harry held his up firmly and the men behind him followed suit.
"We're not here to negotiate," said Harry darkly, his eyes not leaving the man holding Hermione. "Let her go and this doesn't have to end the way it's heading."
"Please help me Harry" croaked Hermione. Harry felt Ron tense beside him.
"We'll do it. I swear, We'll kill her."
"Harry, please," started Ron.
"It's not her Ron," interrupted Harry quietly. The man holding Hermione shifted uncomfortably, tightening his hold.
"Of course it's her!" he yelled, "Look at her!"
"Harry," she pleaded, "it's me," she cried. But the damage was done, the doubt had been sown and the man and woman to the right disapparated with a crack and the other three instantly panicked. Once again all hell broke loose. Curses began to fly and in the chaos the man, dragging a screaming Hermione, ran through a door to his left. Ron instantly took after him.
"Ron, no!" shouted Harry, too involved in a duel to go after him. By the time the fight had died down and Harry made it to the other room it was too late. Ron was leaning heavily against the wall, wand held limply at his side. Both Hermione and her captor lay on the floor unmoving.
"Ron?" asked Harry quietly. "Ron?" he repeated when he didn't answer.
"I-I-" he couldn't speak. He couldn't think. She was dead. Hermione. Hermione was dead. He started shaking.
"Ron, listen to me. It's not her, it's not Hermione," said Harry.
"I…I can't- "
"It's not her, Ron! How many times have we used polyjuice? It only looks like her but-"
"No, no it's -it's her, Harry. You heard her screaming, I know-"
"Listen to me, yes, I heard her but did you listen to her Ron? Did you listen to what she was saying?"
"What're you-"
"She was screaming for me to save her." At this Ron's face fell and he began to cry in earnest. "No, Ron, listen. She was screaming for me. You know Hermione, think about it! She wouldn't be screaming for me!"
"I don't understand." but he still hadn't moved, his eyes were fixed on the body lying on the ground.
"I'm not her hero Ron, if that was Hermione she would have been calling your name. Not mine." He let his words sink in. "Look, we need to go. The back up team are coming to clean up. We need to go back, to debrief." If Ron had heard him he didn't acknowledge it and with a crack he was gone.
"Hermione? Hermione!" He stormed through her flat, throwing open the living room door then the bathroom door, desperate to find her. "Hermione!" he cried, he was having trouble breathing, he was having trouble thinking and the tears were still wet on his face. She had to be there, she had to be there or else Harry would be wrong and she was really dead. He threw open her bedroom door in desperation, gripping the handle to hold himself up.
And there she was, just out of bed, hair dishevelled, wand raised and a panicked look in her eyes. The door was the only thing keeping him from collapsing at the sight of her.
"Ron?" She was terrified, he could hear it in her voice as she squinted at him over the light from her wand. He tried in vain to hold back a sob. "Ron, what it is? What's going on?" He didn't answer her. He couldn't. He could only stare. He tentatively let go of the door handle and took a step towards her but she was still unsure of him. She squared her shoulders and Ron could see the hand that held her wand shaking.
"You're scaring me Ron." Although she held her wand up, fixed on him, she let him approach, which he did slowly.
"Please tell me it's you." Was all he could manage in a broken voice.
"It's me," she said quietly, "Of course it's me. Who else would it be?"
"The - the Chamber," he said quietly, his eyes searching hers. "What did we destroy in the - in the Chamber?" This was their security question. The three of the them had never told the story of the Horcruxes to anyone outside the Order and even then they had decided to keep the specifics to themselves. Hermione knew something bad must have happened for Ron to resort to this, he'd never had to ask this before.
"What's happened? Ron, please-"
"Answer the question Hermione!" She flinched but stood her ground.
"The cup. It was a cup," she said quietly. "Hufflepuff's cup." He pulled her into a bone crushing hug, one arm wrapped around her body, the other holding her head to his shoulder. He breathed her in as she wrapped her arms around his back.
"Ron, please. You're scaring me."
"It was a mission," he said quietly. "And you were there," she drew back to look at him, confusion on her face. "But it wasn't you, Harry knew but -but I was so scared that I couldn't see…They killed you, no I mean her, they killed her but I thought - I had to come and - and find out. I had to make sure."
"It's me, Ron. I'm alright, I'm here. It's ok," she said using her sleeve to wipe the tears that remained on his face. He nodded and took a step back, running a shaky hand through his hair and looking around him as if realising for the first time where he was.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry if I scared you."
"It's alright," she said softly, crossing her arms across her chest and rubbing her arms for warmth.
"It's not, I'm sorry I'll let you get back to bed."
"As if I could sleep now!" she laughed softly, "Come on, how about a cup of tea? " He nodded his head and followed her out of the room towards the kitchen. She sat him down at the table and waved her wand to get the tea ready.
"Are you ok?" she asked, leaning over the table and grasping his hand.
"Yeah, yeah," he said shakily. He gave her hand a squeeze, "I am now."
"Maybe we should come up with a word, like a - a code word," she said with an attempt to be airy. "So that if you, or I, ever find ourselves in this situation again then - then we'll know." He sighed loudly.
"Harry knew. He knew! I always thought I knew you better than anyone, that I would never be fooled, you know?" he said sadly. "But it was him, not me, who saw right through it."
"But how? How did he know it wasn't me when you didn't?"
Ron hesitated. "You…or the person pretending to be you…" he slipped his hand from hers and played with the mug of tea which had dropped in front of him. "…she was begging for help. She was begging Harry for help," he said darkly.
"Oh?" Hermione slid her hand from the table as well and cupped her mug to avoid his gaze.
"Harry said that he knew it wasn't you because…well, because he thought that you would be asking…me…for help. Not him." He looked up at her. She was avoiding his gaze but he could see the blush begin to creep up her neck. "And so I came here straight away. I had to know…" She looked up at this and smiled.
"I'm glad you came. You know that if you ever need anything…"
"I know," he smiled, "And the same goes for you. I'd do anything for you Hermione." His smile faded as he held her gaze. "I haven't been that scared since the battle," he said quietly. "I honestly thought I'd lost you…I don't know what I would do if.."
This was dangerous territory for them. Ever since the battle their kiss had been hanging in the air between them, unspoken. It seemed to have just been pushed to one side after all was said and done, friends buried and grieving begun. And now here it was, as close as they had ever come.
"You don't have to worry about that, you and Harry made sure this place has more protection on it than-"
"But I do worry, Hermione," he interrupted seriously, "I worry all the time." She stared at him earnestly.
"I wish you wouldn't." He looked confused, hurt. "No, not like that…I just - I wish that you would look after yourself instead of worrying about me, especially when you're on a mission. I hope you didn't do anything stupid when you thought that it was me they had?" The guilty look on his face told her everything. "Oh Ron…"
"I can't help it Hermione, I've never been able to help it where you're concerned! You -and Harry, you and Harry, mean everything to me…"
"I know the feeling." She continued to stare into her mug. The both sat in silence for a moment.
"What are we doing Hermione?" Ron said at last. She looked up, caught off guard by the tone of his voice. "I -" he drew a deep breath, "I think about you all the time and I - you're the smartest girl I know, you have to know…"
"…know?" she asked hesitantly, though her heart was beating a mile a minute.
"Know how I feel? Come on," he laughed, "you've known how I feel longer than I have." She was looking at him and he was looking at her. And now it was Hermione who couldn't breathe.
"Please, just say it. For once and for all…please? I - "
"It's you, Hermione. I want…"
"You - you want?"
"I want you," he said slowly, "forever."
"For - forever?" she asked breathlessly.
"Our kiss…I have thought about it every day since…I was beginning to think that we wouldn't…that I would never get to kiss you again."
"You want to kiss me?" He looked at her as if she was crazy.
"Of course I do," he smiled and ran his hand through his hair again. She beamed at him.
"So this is it? We're going to - we're going to do this? Us?" she asked carefully.
"I think it's about time, don't you?" And then he was up from his seat and she was up from hers and they were standing toe to toe and looking at each other and then they were leaning in and -
Harry patronus beamed into the room and they both took as step back from each other, flustered and awkward, as Harry's voice demanded Ron return to the Ministry to debrief.
"I - I should…" he began awkwardly.
"Yeah, of course." she waved her hand, "you should-"
"You'll be here? When I come back?" She sighed in relief at his request.
"I've waiting this long," she said coyly. "I guess another couple of hours can't hurt." And then more seriously she added in a quiet voice, "Here," pointing to the floor, "I'll be right here." He stepped closer to her, slowly running a hand across her cheek, and leant into her, kissing her softly on the forehead before disapparating with a quiet pop.