Disclaimer: I of course, do not own anything Harry Potter, sadly.
A/N: so I had some request to write my take on the missing moment that is Ron and Hermione in the chamber of secrets from Deathly Hallows. I decided to give it a go, I hope you like it, please review! Feedback is always greatly appreciated.
The Room of Requirement buzzed loudly as reunited friends made conversation with each other, most were planning how the best way to go about running Snape and the death eaters out of Hogwarts. Ron and Hermione were not thinking about that, they were worrying about the Horcrux. They had barely anything to go on apart from the fact that it was hidden within Hogwarts – but Hogwarts was huge, to search every corner of Hogwarts would take a long time, probably more time than they had, considering that Voldemort knew that they had been hunting horcruxes and knew that at least one had been destroyed so far. They had huddled themselves into one of the far corners of the room, out of earshot of the other students, so they could talk freely.
"I bloody well hope it's that diadem." Ron mumbled.
"Even so, it hasn't been seen for a long time, even if it is, we don't stand much chance of finding it." Said Hermione sadly.
"Maybe it's something else? Anything can become a horcrux right? Maybe he just took off his left shoe and..." Ron began.
"Ron, I think horcruxes are supposed to be made with special items, unique." Hermione explained, smiling a little.
"Yeah, I suppose." Said Ron.
"Besides, even if we do find it," Said Hermione. "How are we going to destroy it? Griphook has the sword, and we still have the cup, which we still haven't destroyed either."
"It makes me so angry to think about that double crossing little slime." Ron muttered angrily. Hermione didn't appear to have heard him.
"The only other ways, fiendfyre...no that's far too dangerous, we wouldn't even be able to control it." She mumbled to herself, listing the ways in which you could destroy a horcrux. "Basilisk venom, but then again, where on earth are we going to get a Basilisk to get the venom? That one's a long shot."
Ron jumped up immediately from his seat as though pulled up by a cord.
"What?" Hermione asked, curiously.
"That's it!" He exclaimed, beaming.
"That's what?" Hermione asked, bewildered.
"Basilisk Venom!" Ron nearly shouted.
"Shhh!" Hermione said, angrily. He grabbed her arm and tugged.
"Come on." He said, dragging her from the corner of the room to the door, picking up a stray broomstick that lay at the bottom of a hammock to his right.
"What? Ron! Where are we going? What if Harry comes back?" She spluttered.
"When Harry gets back, he's going to be very happy." Ron said, still beaming. "We're just nipping out... err... to the bathroom." He shouted over in the direction of Neville, Ginny, Dean, Seamus and many others.
"Why? There's a bathroom just here!" Said Ginny, looking confused, but Ron didn't reply, within seconds himself and Hermione had fled from the room leaving the others looking utterly bewildered.
"You reckon those two are together yet?" Seamus asked Ginny.
"It'd be about time." Ginny said, shaking her head feebly.
Before they had left the Room of Requirement, Ron stopped just by the door.
"We don't know what it's going to be like out there." Ron said. "But we need to get down to the girls bathroom as quickly and quietly as possible."
"But WHY!" Hermione exclaimed. "Will you please take two seconds just to explain?" She moaned.
"The Chamber of Secrets." Ron said matter of factly.
"What-" Hermione began.
"It makes sense that you don't remember, you were petrified at the time, but Harry killed a Basilisk down in that chamber, and I'm ninety percent sure that Dumbledore didn't send a cleanup squad down there, Harry said the thing was huge."
Hermione covered her mouth and gasped.
"Ron that's brilliant!" She exclaimed. "Do you think it'll still be intact? It's five years later now." She said.
"Well it's worth a try, it's the only chance we've got." Ron said.
"I agree," Hermione said. "Let's go." She said, and grabbed his hand in hers. Ron's ears turned pink and he cleared his throat.
"Right." He said, and he pushed the door open with his free hand.
The pair stepped out into the dark hallway hand in hand, not noticing the door sealing itself shut behind them. Hermione looked around trying to figure out where they were
"I think we're on the seventh floor." She whispered to Ron. He nodded.
"Ok, five floors down, let's go," They sped down the hallway as fast as possible, but trying to keep their presence quiet and unknown, if they ran into Snape or the Carrows, it would not end well.
They reached the main staircase and quickly ran down each step one after one. The castle was eerily quiet, with no sign of any patrolling teachers, or Filch for that matter. Surely Voldemort had let his death eaters know that Harry, Ron and Hermione would try and get into Hogwarts now that he knew his horcruxes were in danger?
Neither of them had the chance to contemplate it as they rushed down staircase after staircase. Eventually they reached the second floor and burst through the door to the girl's toilet.
The bathroom was just as Ron and Hermione remembered it, though for once the floor was not flooded. The stopped as they closed the door behind them, Ron panting a little after the long run.
"Who's there!" Came a childish voice from one of the toilet stalls. Moaning Myrtle floated out through the wooden door of the stall on the far left.
"Oh, it's you two." She said. "I thought you two were with Harry."
"We are." Said Ron.
"Well then, where is he?" Myrtle asked.
"He's busy, looking for something." Hermione answered.
"Oooh." She said dreamily.
"Not to be rude, Myrtle, but we really need to get into the chamber of secrets." Hermione began.
Myrtle shot the pair of them a look that could kill and her bottom lip quivered. She didn't even make a retort, but turned on the spot and dived head first into the toilet basin. Ron shook his head and lead Hermione over to the sink unit that led to the chamber of secrets.
"So how do we get in?" asked Hermione.
"Well we need to ask it to open." Ron said.
"Erm, Ron there's one little problem there, you see, neither you nor I can speak Parseltongue." She said lightly.
"No, but I was there when Harry asked the locket to open in Parseltongue." Ron said.
"Do you think you'll be able to... erm, replicate it? Do you remember how to say it?" Hermione asked.
"Vaguely," Ron said. "I'll give it a go, it's worth a try."
Hermione smiled at him, and moved out of the way so that he could move close to the sink. Ron opened his mouth wide and made a series of strange sounds and a bit of hissing.
The sink unit didn't move. Hermione shook her head.
"Maybe a bit more hissing?" She suggested.
Ron tried again, and again, but the sink unit didn't respond. He sighed.
"This is useless." He grumbled, looking defeated.
"Just give it one more try." She urged.
"Okay." Ron said, eventually, and closed his eyes. He thought back to that night in the Forest, remembering how cold it was, how was shivering from being drenched in ice –cold water. He remembered Harry laying down the locket on the flat stone, looking at him, and then commanding it to open. He tried as hard as he could to recall the next part as accurately as possible, taking note of every syllable and sound.
His eyes shot open, and he made a long drawn out hissing noise.
There was a loud rumbling sound, and the floor began to vibrate as the sink unit began to split as each sink unite forward edged forward, and then one he was standing in front of began to sink into the stone floor.
He turned around and looked at Hermione, his jaw dropped open in shock.
Hermione was beaming at him excitedly.
"Oh my God Ron, you did it!" Hermione exclaimed. "I can't believe it!"
The two of them stepped forward and looked down into the black hole that lay in the stone floor.
"How far down is it?" She asked.
"It's not too bad, kind of like a slide really." He explained. "But we'll need this to get back out." Ron said, showing her the broomstick. He took hold of her hand, and together they jumped into the darkness.
Hermione screamed as they fell and gripped Ron's hand tighter than ever. Eventually the tunnel evened out and they slid to a stop. Ron helped Hermione to stand up and they brushed the dust and cobwebs off themselves, then Ron lit his wand and illuminated the room.
"This is where Lockhart obliviated himself." Ron said. "Made the whole place sort of cave in, and by the look of things, Dumbledore definitely didn't send a cleanup squad. Come on." He said, leading the way
He helped her to climb over the many large rocks and boulders that blocked their path on the way to the chamber. When they reached it, both stood in the large doorway in awe.
"Woah." Ron said, looking the chamber up and down. "Whoever thought that something this big could be hidden and kept a secret for centuries?" He said.
"I thought you'd already seen it!" Said Hermione.
"No," Ron shook his head. "I was stuck on the other side of the rocks with Lockhart remember?" He said.
"Oh. Yes." Hermione said.
"Took us ages to clear a hole big enough for Harry and Ginny to climb back through, let's go." Ron said, taking her hand.
They walked slowly into the large chamber, admiring the creativity that had gone into the architecture of the room. Along each side of the walkway, there were many statues of serpents and snakes, though it looked amazing, the room gave them both chills. At the foot of the long walkway was a huge statue which Ron and Hermione knew to be that of Salazar Slytherin, but it was badly damaged, with lots of pieces laying on the floor around it, and at the foot of the statue lay the gigantic Basilisk, they both approached it warily, even though they knew it was dead.
Were it not for the gaping hole between the bottom and the roof of its mouth, one would have thought the Basilisk was simply sleeping, in all of the five years since the Basilisk's demise, it was still perfectly intact. Ron looked disgusted.
"Perhaps it has been magically preserved?" Hermione said, as they drew ever closer to the dead Basilisk.
"Do you reckon there's any venom left in those fangs?" Ron asked as she broke away from him and was the first to reach its resting place.
"Well I suppose there's only one way to find out, though to be sure I think we should take more than one." Hermione said. "I'll take this side, you take that one." She said, moving to the left side of the basilisks wide open mouth, Ron obeyed and shuffled over to the right side of the mouth, Hermione drew her wand from inside her jacket and positioned it next to one of the huge fangs.
"Be careful," Ron warned. "Don't cut yourself by accident, from what Harry's told me, if that happens you've got minutes, maybe less."
Hermione and Ron began casting the diffindo spell which successfully tore several fangs from the mouth of the basilisk, and soon there was a huge pile of ripped out fangs on the floor in between them.
"I think that'll be enough." Said Hermione, putting her wand away, and proceeded to pick up a load of them.
"Wait." Said Ron. Hermione looked up at him.
"What?" Hermione asked.
"We should destroy the cup." said Ron.
"What, here?" asked Hermione, looking shocked. Ron nodded.
"It's bad for us to carry that thing around while the piece of the soul is living in it, it's bad for us, and I know it. Let's just kill the damn thing and be done with it." He reasoned.
"Well, alright." Said Hermione, who retrieved the beaded bag from the pocket of her jacket and began to rummage around inside it, moments later she pulled out the gleaming gold cup, embossed with the badger of Hufflepuff and held it out to Ron in her hands, but Ron did not take it.
"I think..." he began. "I think it's supposed to be you."
"Me? Why me? Surely Harry..." Hermione began to protest.
"I think it's supposed to be you." Ron repeated. "Just like it was supposed to be me who destroyed the locket."
"Fine." Hermione said, and placed the locket down on the floor in front of her, and reached to retrieve a basilisk fang.
"Wait." Ron said quickly, Hermione looked up at him.
"What, Ron?" she asked.
"This thing is going to know you're about to attack it, and it's going to try and defend itself." He explained. "But you've got to make sure not to listen to it Hermione, whatever it tries to tell you, don't listen, just kill it."
"What are you talking about?" Hermione asked, as she raised the fang high into the air. She gasped loudly as the cup began to almost tremble in its place on the floor of the chamber as though it was frightened of her. Suddenly the two handles on either side of the cup twisted grotesquely so that they were facing upwards, and the cup began to glow as though it was red hot. Vapour and steam appeared to be protruding from the cup itself, and within the steam, the image of Riddle's face was portrayed within it. Hermione screamed, the image of riddle laughed.
"Ignore it, Hermione!" Ron shouted from behind her, but Hermione was captivated by the cups unusual actions. It began to speak.
"I have seen your dreams, Hermione Jean Granger, and I have seen your fears." The high voice of riddle echoed along the chamber as it spoke, Ron recognised it only too well.
"Don't listen to it Hermione!" He shouted.
"You are afraid of failure." The voice croaked, and the image of Riddle now distorted, changing in midair, to an image of Ron, bloodied and beaten, lying face down upon the floor apparently dead. Hermione screamed and her voice was full of despair, she fell to her knees in front of the image of the dead Ron, tears falling freely from her eyes.
"You will fail, Hermione Granger." The Riddle voice taunted, and the image of the dead Ron suddenly began to rise, as though enchanted by dark magic, as though he were an Inferi.
"No!" Hermione screamed. "No, it can't be true!" She cried, sobbing.
"You will fail Hermione Granger." It repeated itself. "Everybody you love, everybody you call a friend, a lover, will all die."
The image of dead Ron now changed, it split in two and formed into the shapes of two figures lay upon the ground of two middle aged people, one male, one female. Hermione was sobbing worse than ever. How could she believe that this was real? Ron thought, but then again he had been so quick to believe the locket horcrux had been showing him the truth.
"I found them in Australia." The Riddle voice taunted. "A most valiant effort, to hide them." He said.
Hermione's face was buried beneath her hands, she was shaking terrible.
"No, no, no, no, no!" she was sobbing to herself.
"They begged for their lives." He said. "Begged me to let them live, like cowards."
Ron knew that shouting to Hermione was no use, he stepped forwards and grabbed a hold of her shoulders and shook her lightly. Hermione jumped with fear and found the blue eyes that were staring at her so lovingly.
"You can't listen to it." Said Ron. "I'm here, I'm alive and perfectly well, it's just playing with your mind, you have to kill it." Ron assured her. He helped her stand up, and placed the basilisk fang back into her hand, which she had dropped when she had fallen to the ground. She turned to face the image of Riddle and her dead parents, she looked him full on in the eyes.
"You're wrong." She said through sobs, and in seconds she raised the fang high in the air and plunged it down in a blur and pierced the Hufflepuff cup straight through the middle. Suddenly the ghostly images disappeared back into the cup, and the loudest scream Ron had ever heard, echoed savagely throughout the chamber. Hermione fell to the ground once more, in front of the defeated cup, still sobbing.
Ron sat down beside her and patted her back.
"I suppose your boggart isn't McGonagall telling you that you've failed everything anymore hey?" he said, attempting humour as a way to make her smile. She looked up from the floor and wiped her eyes with her sleeve.
"What did the locket show you Ron?" She asked, in all seriousness.
"A lot of things really." He said stiffly, he didn't like to talk about it. "My mum saying that she'd prefer Harry as her son rather than me." He said. Hermione nodded, indicating that she understood.
"And err...it showed you, saying that you wanted to be with Harry..And it showed me Harry as well." Ron spluttered.
"You know that's not true." Said Hermione immediately.
"Yeah..." Ron said quietly.
"So I suppose that your boggart isn't a giant spider anymore then?" Hermione asked.
"Well, I dunno, maybe a giant spider mauling you to death, perhaps." said Ron.
"Charming." Said Hermione. Ron smiled at her, he held out a hand and helped her up, and together they gathered the severed basilisk fangs and Ron picked up the broomstick. They walked together from the chamber and back out into the caved in room. He sat upon the broomstick and pulled Hermione onto it behind him; he kicked up off the ground and flew into the darkness, en route the battle zone.
FIN