A/N: This is my first oneshot, hope you like it...It just came to me one night. REVIEW PLEASE!
"Hermione. I just thought of something." Ron said as he urgently tugged on her arm. She whipped around.
"What, Ron?" She asked with an exasperated sigh.
"Well, Even if we do get the Diadem, how are we going to destroy it?" He said, "We can go into the Chamber, find some Basilisk Fangs, and bring it back up here!" He exclaimed.
"Ron, you're a genius! Let's go!" She said, flinging her arms around his neck. When she pulled away, he stepped back, shocked by her reaction.
"Neville, mate, we need to go do something. Keep these guys, safe, okay?" Ron said as they left the Room of Requirement. Neville just nodded as a way to say, 'of course'. He was glad he didn't ask to come along or ask them where they were going. Ron and Hermione made their way down to Moaning Myrtle's bathroom on the second floor, ignoring any whispers of students passing. They ran into the bathroom and the first thing they saw was Moaning Myrtle herself.
"Oh. Hello there. I haven't had any guests in weeks. Especially not any handsome ones." Myrtle told Ron, raising her eyebrows and gliding closer to him.
"Uh, Myrtle, we'd love to stay and chat, but we have work to do." Ron said, running behind Hermione as a shield, but it didn't work out well, since she was a foot shorter than him.
"Ron, how are we going to get in there? Neither of us speak Parseltongue!" Hermione exclaimed, throwing her arms up in defeat.
"It's alright, I've heard Harry do it tons of times. Maybe I'll give it a shot." He said. Then he proceeded to make random hissing noises. Hermione just stood behind him and tapped her foot impatiently. On the fifth try, the sinks started shake. They spread out to make a hole, like last time it was opened."Hermione, I give you the Chamber of Secrets!" He said, gesturing the hole in the bathroom.
"Ron, that was brilliant!" She said. "So, now, do we just jump?" She asked tentatively. Ron nodded and stepped closer to the hole. He took a look in, and then jumped. Hermione rolled her eyes and peered down the hole. "Ron, are you okay?" She asked.
"Just. Peachy." He replied. "This jump was a lot farther last time!" He said.
"That's because you were two feet shorter!" She yelled back. "I'm coming down now!" She gulped, closed her eyes, and jumped. She let out a scream as she fell. She opened her eyes to find that she was in Ron's arms! She felt her face grow warm.
"Uh, I-I didn't want to let you fall. First time around, it uh-hurts, and you-you've got enough bruises." He said, his ears and face turning red. She gave him a weak smile and he let her down.
"Weird, where's the huge Basilisk hide that was here six years ago?" He asked, looking around.
"Never mind that, where are those fangs?" She asked.
"Follow me." He said, beckoning her to go into a tunnel. She followed him closely, and saw bones everywhere. She shuddered at the realization that after everything they'd been through this year, nothing really seemed to scare her anymore. She followed him into another tunnel, and finally emerged out. "I believe we're here." Hermione raised an eyebrow.
"You believe?" She asked.
"Well I didn't come with Harry, I was babysitting Lockhart." He explained. "Lumos. Yeah. This is it." Hermione turned around to face Ron.
"How do you know?" She asked. He pointed his finger in the direction his wand was pointing. Hermione followed the line and gasped loudly. There was a pathway that Ron had lit up, with water and statues of snakes around it. At the end of the pathway was a large stone gargoyle with a face.
"Rekon that face's Slytherin's?" Ron asked her.
"I believe so. Who else's would it be?" She answered as she stepped froward.
"Blimey. Harry went into this thing at the age of twelve! It's pretty scary even without a Tom Riddle, my collapsed sister, blood, and a live basilisk in here." He said.
"Uh-huh." Hermione replied, not really paying attention. "Ron, forget about it. We need those fangs. And then we need to destroy the cup. Oh, and bring back a few of those fangs." She said, remembering the original reason they were there.
"Should we, just, uh, rip it off?" Ron asked, repulsed.
"Are you a wizard or not?" Hermione asked, mimicking the voice Ron used back in their first year. She stepped in front of him and pointed at the Basilisk. "Relashio." She repeated this a few times and they had several fangs at their disposal.
"Alright. You're going to stab it, okay?"
"Wait, me?" Hermione asked, now afraid.
"Yes, you. I think it's time you've done it."
"So...what do I do? Just stab it?" She asked.
"Well, I think I'm going to have to speak some more Parseltongue...and then figures'll appear...and then you stab it, alright?" He told her. She nodded in response and gulped. "Ready?"
"Ready." She said and braced herself. She knew how bad the figures that come out of Horcruxes could be. The one in the diary nearly killed Ginny and Harry. Ron made several hissing noises that sounded similar to the ones he made to open the Chamber. Finally, it worked because several figures emerged from the cup. Among them were Harry, Ron, Lavender and the Sorting Hat.
"You know, you really don't belong in Gryffindor." the Sorting Hat spat.
"Yeah. It was all me and Harry who are the real heroes." Ron sneered, clutching Lavender and then started to snog.
"You just memorize books, that's all. You don't know anything else. That's why you ended up breaking my wand. Cause you can't think on your feet, like I can." Harry told her. Tears were streaming down her face.
"Hermione, I told you this would happen. Just stab the cup. Don't pay attention to them." Ron urged her.
"You don't belong in Ravenclaw either. You're not smart enough." The Sorting Hat laughed and Harry, Ron and Lavender laughed with it.
"Hermione, come on, STAB IT!" Ron screamed at her.
"And this one, you'll never have him. Because he's all MINE!" Lavender screeched at her, continuing to kiss Ron. At this, Hermione lifted the fang above her head. She looked at Lavender and Ron, and stabbed the cup. Once, twice, and again. She kept stabbing, so the image of Ron and Lavender would disappear from her memory. She kept stabbing, so the Sorting Hat and Harry would stop laughing at her. The images started bleeding, from head to toe. Light shone from them, and they disappeared. Hermione dropped the fang and burst into tears on the floor. Ron was taken aback, but surprised himself by putting an arm around Hermione and pulling her closer.
"Don't listen to it. They say the worst things, taken out of your worst fears." Ron told her. "But our worst fears, we shouldn't be fearing them. You do belong in Gryffindor, you're the bravest witch I've ever met. And you've saved mine and Harry's lives tons of times. You wanna know why? Because you do think quick on your feet. Putting that invisibility cloak over me in Lovegood's house? Getting Harry out of Bagshot's house? There were a lot of close calls and you saved our arses more times than we can count." Ron was surprised at himself. He didn't know where this all came from, but it just seemed like the right thing to say. Hermione looked up at him, equally surprised. She recovered and wiped the tears from her face.
"And remember, I broke up with Lavender. I never really did like her. You're all I really needed." He told her sweetly, once again surprised at his own words.
"Thanks, Ron. You really do know what to say." She told him, tactfully ignoring the last part. They couldn't afford to be distracted. After they won the war, they'd have all the time in the world, assuming they weren't going to get killed, of course... Getting up, Hermione asked, "So how are we going to get out of here?"
"Well, last time, Fawkes kinda carried us outta here." He said, slightly put out because of Hermione's lack of reaction to his words. He practically told her he'd loved her! Ah well, he'd have plenty of time after the war...if they made it.
"Well, we don't exactly have a really strong bird...so maybe I can just conjure stairs?" She just said, picking up some fangs to take back. Ron picked up some fangs and followed her out to the hole where they dropped in from. Hermione whipped out her wand and pointed to the whole. She muttered a few words and a staircase started to form.
"Alright. Up we go." Ron said. Hermione started climbing up the stairs when she noticed Ron wasn't following her.
"What's wrong?"
"So you make a staircase, but you don't bother to make it moving?" He asked incredulously.
"Ronald, just come on. We need to go find Harry, remember?" She said, pulling him up the stairs.
"Alright." He groaned, trudging up the staircase, still carrying the climbed closer to the light and found themselves, once again, in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom.
"Now what?" Hermione asked.
"We need to find Harry." He replied confidently.
A/N: And that was the end of my first one-shot!
What'd you think?
REVIEW!
Love,
SAM :)