A/N: Still not mine. And I would love some reviews. –hint, hint-
Chapter 3
"D'you want to join us, Ron?"
"Yeah, we're going to lock Big Head in a sarcophagus."
Fred and George grinned expectantly at Ron from inside the sweltering heat of an Egyptian pyramid. Wiping some sweat from his brow, he said, "No, thanks. I think I'm just going to go wait outside with Mum and Dad and Ginny. I'm burning up inside here."
"Suit yourself," said the twins together, before disappearing into the depths of the pyramid.
Ron turned on his heel and began walking toward the entrance of the pyramid. He was enjoying the trip to Egypt immensely; however, his family was starting to get on his nerves. Percy would not shut up about being made Head Boy, Ginny kept talking about Harry and how he had brilliantly rescued her from the Chamber (the way she told it, Sandy had just sat there, but Ron knew from both Harry and Sandy that that was not the case), and his parents kept fussing over the smallest of details, like his hair.
He was just at the mouth of the pyramid when he heard voices. His mum and dad were speaking in hushed tones just outside, apparently believing that they were alone, but keeping quite nevertheless. Out of curiosity, Ron paused just out of sight to listen to them.
"-so worried about Harry and Sandy," said his mother. He pictured her wringing her hands nervously. "With Sirius Black on the loose. Do you think they'll be all right?"
"Molly, they'll be at Hogwarts, with Dumbledore," said his father soothingly. "I'm sure they'll be fine. Nothing is going to happen to them there."
"But Black has been waiting all these years in Azkaban just to-"
"Ron, what are you doing?"
Percy appeared suddenly, making Ron jump with fright. "N-nothing," he stammered. "I thought you were looking at the pyramid still."
Though Percy was still eyeing him suspiciously, he replied, "Well, I was, but then a sarcophagus I was examining must have been cursed, because it tried to lock me inside. I decided I wasn't quite comfortable after that. Fred and George have got Ginny and they should be coming out any moment now. Come on, let's go tell Mum and Dad."
Ron wanted to throttle Percy. He had been so close to hearing his mother divulge some very important information, but now, thanks to Percy, he would never know what it was. Why was his mother so worried about the twins? What did Sirius Black have to do with them?
IIIIII
"Come on, Ron, we can go get your books from Flourish and Blotts!"
Grinning like a fool, Ron allowed Sandy to seize him by the hand and drag him down Diagon Alley toward Flourish and Blotts. After meeting up at Fortescue's, the four friends had decided that, since Hermione and Ron still needed their school supplies, Sandy and Harry would each take one of them around Diagon Alley to get the necessary materials, since the twins knew it so well after staying at the Leaky Cauldron. Naturally, Ron had immediately called dibs on Sandy.
As she pranced ahead of him on the cobblestone street, he couldn't help but admire how nicely she had grown over the summer. Both she and Harry seemed to have enjoyed a growth spurt over the holidays, and she looked about three inches taller. Ron had grown some as well, but Sandy was now up to his forehead, rather than his nose. She had also slimmed down quite a bit; not that she was overweight at all before, but the amorphous shape of a preteen had left her physique entirely. Ron could just make out some womanly curves hidden beneath the jeans and the t-shirt that she almost constantly wore outside of school. She appeared to have trimmed her hair, for it only reached her shoulders, rather than halfway down her back. In short, she seemed to have grown even more attractive during the time that they had been apart.
She stopped short in front of Flourish and Blotts, and Ron, who had been paying attention to her and not to where they were going, ran directly into her. "Ouch, Ron!" she cried, rubbing her head where they had collided. "Watch where you're going, won't you? What were you looking at anyway?"
He turned bright red. "S-sorry, n-nothing, nothing at all. Let's get my books, eh?"
IIIIIII
"Hey, Potter! Potter! Look out for the dementors, maybe they'll be willing to give you a little smooch. It's not like you've gotten one from any other bloke."
Pansy Parkinson sneered as she passed Sandy in the entrance hall on the first night back at Hogwarts.
Sandy's green eyes flashed. Her patience was short that night, and Pansy had just trod on her last remaining nerve. Her hand plunged inside her robes, and she drew her wand, pointing it at Pansy.
Pansy's dark eyes went wide with fright. She was more than happy to ridicule Sandy and the other Gryffindors all day and all night, but she knew she could never take Sandy in a duel; she had seen Sandy defeat Malfoy last year during the Dueling Club meeting. "You little bitch," snarled Sandy, advancing dangerously on the cowering Slytherin with every word, "I'll teach you to keep your nose out of other people's business." She opened her mouth to cast a hex, but someone suddenly gripped her arm.
"Sandy!" said Ron, looking surprised. His hand was wrapped around the wrist of her wand arm, and he was trying to tug her away from Pansy. "Come on, she's not worth it. You'll get in loads of trouble."
Still snarling, Sandy stowed her wand and stormed off. Ron turned back to Pansy, hissing, "You leave her the bloody hell alone, or next time, I won't stop her." He broke into a run, looking for her black head of hair amongst the throngs of Hogwarts students.
He finally spotted her and caught up to her. "Hey," he said, out of breath, as he grabbed the crook of her elbow. "What's got your knickers all in a twist?"
"What d'you mean?" she asked sharply, purposefully evading his question.
"I've never seen you snap at any Slytherin like that," Ron said. "What did she say to you?"
"She made some crack about dementors," she answered, leaving out the part about kissing. She had a feeling Ron would explode if she brought that up.
"Oh," he said simply, realization dawning on his face. "I see. Look, you can't let them get to you, Sandy, they're just a bunch of-"
She cut him off. "Do you know what Harry and I heard tonight when that- that thing came into the compartment and we passed out?"
He shook his head mutely. By this time, they had already reached Gryffindor Tower. Not wanting to go inside to the chaos of the common room, they strayed to a spot several feet to the right of the portrait hole. Continuing, she said, "We heard our mother, dying. We heard her dying scream."
He opened his mouth to say something, anything, to comfort her, but no words came out. There was nothing he could say.
IIIIII
"Spiders? Spiders?" said Sandy, chortling, as she walked with Harry, Ron, and Hermione from Defense Against the Dark Arts to lunch. "Is that really your biggest fear, Ronald?"
"Yes, and don't make fun," he said, blushing furiously.
"Do you believe him, Hermione?" Sandy asked, turning toward her best mate. However, Hermione was nowhere to be found. "Where the bloody hell did she get off to?"
Ron, however, was not paying attention. He had not been entirely truthful with her. He hated lying, but he could not bear the embarrassment of telling the truth to her, especially in front of Harry and Hermione (wherever she had gotten off to). His biggest fear was not being loved- by Harry, by Hermione… but especially by Sandy Potter, the girl he held above all others.
"Ron, are you all right?" said Harry, sounding concerned. "You look a bit pale."
"Huh?" said Ron, snapping out of his reverie. "Yeah, yeah, I'm fine, Harry, thanks…"
IIIIIII
"Ron, you've got to eat something."
He did not so much as blink as Hermione waved a large bar of Honeyduke's finest chocolate in front of his face. He merely stared unblinkingly at Sandy's still unmoving form in the hospital bed. He tried to alternate between watching over her and watching over Harry, but he almost invariably ended up spending much more time watching over Sandy.
Sighing loudly, Hermione sat down next to him again. "You know," she said, adopting the voice she usually saved for answering particularly difficult questions in class, "Sandy wouldn't want you to starve yourself."
He somehow managed to wrench himself away from Sandy to gape at Hermione. "W-what d'you mean by that?"
"I mean exactly what you think I mean," she said smartly, breaking off a piece of chocolate and practically stuffing it into his mouth. "I know, Ronald. It's no use trying to hide it from me."
When he finally swallowed the chocolate she had force fed him, he choked out, "How long have you known?" He had known for a while that Hermione knew how he felt about Sandy, but just how long had she known?
"I've known since almost the start of first year," she replied simply. "I figured it out on my own first, but then she told me one day during our second year."
"I just… she…" he said, finding himself at a loss for words.
"There's no need to explain yourself," she said, shaking her head. "She feels the same way. Just don't hurt her, Ronald. She's a strong girl, but she only has a few people that she trusts without question: Harry, you, and me, namely. Don't lose that."
IIIIII
"That'll be… Two Galleons and four Sickles."
The cashier at Honeydukes looked at him expectantly. Groaning a little, Ron began to rifle around in his pockets for money. He finally managed to give the cashier the required amount of money, but it was all he had. "Thanks," he muttered, taking the two large bags of candy from the counter. Despite the fact that he was now completely and totally broke, it would be worth it when he saw the looks on the twins' faces. He saw how upset both Sandy and Harry were when McGonagall refused to sign their permission slips for Hogsmeade, so he had decided to buy them both bulging bags of candy from Honeydukes.
"Bloody hell, Ron!" cried Hermione, spotting him outside Honeydukes where they had agreed to meet. "Did you try to buy them out?"
"No," he snorted. "These are for Harry and Sandy. I want to cheer them up when we come back from here and they've been up at the castle by themselves all day."
"Oh, that was very thoughtful of you, Ron," said Hermione brightly. Observing the bags, she smirked and said, "Let me guess- the noticeably larger bag is for Sandy?"
Turning red, he shoved her lightly. "Shut up, Hermione."
IIIIII
It was like a dark cloud had come over the twins. Ever since they had learned that Sirius Black had betrayed their parents, they were quieter and more withdrawn. Ron had been able to talk Sandy out of looking for Black that first night, but he knew that the idea of revenge had not completely left her mind. About a week after that night, he and Sandy were alone in the common room late at night, working on homework. He asked, "How are you?"
"I'm fine," she lied in a chirpy voice, not looking up from her History of Magic essay.
He sighed and shut his textbook. "Don't lie to me, Sandy. I know you too well."
She reluctantly met his eyes. "It's just that… he was their friend. You know what I think about friendship."
"Yeah, I know," he said. "You think it's like family."
"Yes, real friendship is. Family… it requires more than blood, I think. Actually, I don't think it requires blood at all. I think… I think all you need to be family is love. Unconditional love. Blood usually comes with that kind of love, but not always. Look at Harry and I and the Dursleys." She laughed mirthlessly here. "I would do anything for you or Hermione or Harry. I would die for you lot. Black-"
"He goes against everything you believe," said Ron, finishing for her.
"Yes," she said, nodding.
Taking her by surprise, he hugged her tightly. "There are always going to be bad people in the world. That doesn't mean what you believe in is wrong. Don't let one bad egg shake your beliefs, Sandy. You, Harry, Hermione, and I… we are a family. And we're not going to fall apart."
IIIIIII
Jealous.
Ron was jealous. The sick emotion clawed at the base of his spine as he watched Sandy dance around the common room with the boys of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, celebrating their Quidditch Cup win. Wood should not be allowed to touch her waist, he was much older than her. Fred and George should not hug her so tightly, they knew how he felt about her.
When would she be his? These feelings of jealousy that he got whenever he saw a boy other than him or Harry so much as hug her would go away if only she were his, he knew it. What he hated was the uncertainty of their relationship. They were friends, yet they were not only friends. What if she changed her mind about him? What if she started to fancy someone else? What could he say then? Yes, his jealousy would subside when and only when she was his.
But when would that be?
He had confessed his feelings for her at the end of their first year, and she had wanted to put off on a relationship. It had been almost two years. But just how long did she want to wait? Until they were thirteen? Fourteen? Fifteen? He had never bothered to ask, but now the unvoiced question was eating away at him.
When?
When?
When?
IIIIIII
"Get away!"
Harry, Hermione, Ron, and Sandy were cowering away from the transformed Professor Lupin several yards from the Whomping Willow. Ron, with his broken leg, had one arm slung around Sandy's shoulders on the side of his bad leg. She was supporting him, and it was she who had spoken to Lupin. She drew her wand and pointed it at Lupin.
"Don't hurt him!" squealed Hermione.
Just then, Sirius appeared in dog form, tackling Lupin and forcing him away from them.
"Come on!" cried Harry, and they began to journey awkwardly in the direction of the castle.
Ron and Sandy struggled, him weighing more than her yet leaning against her for support. "Why don't you let Harry do this?" he muttered, as she stumbled and regained her balance yet again.
"Don't worry about it, Ron," she said. "I've got you."
He should be protecting her, putting himself in danger for her. Instead, she was putting her ass on the line for her.
He felt like he didn't deserve her.
IIIIII
"Oh, I win- again!"
Sandy raised her arms in victory and did a small sort of jig. "That's cruel," Ron complained, trying to feign grumpiness, but giving himself away with a huge smile. "I'm hurt and you're still beating me into the ground."
"Hey," she protested, poking him playfully in the chest. "This is only the second time ever I've beaten you in wizard's chess, so don't complain."
"I know, I know," he said, laughing. He looked at her thoughtfully. "Look, I'm sorry about Scabbers- I mean, Pettigrew- getting away."
"It's not your fault, Ron," she said, sighing heavily. "I guess it just wasn't meant to be."
"And… what about us?" he said, bringing up the subject for the first time since their second year. "Are we?"
She flashed him a small smile. "We'll see."
He felt hope burgeoning inside his chest. It was these small, stolen moments alone with her that he enjoyed the most. The times when they weren't anyone special or important, they were just Ron and Sandy. They had no past, the present was all that mattered, and the future was guaranteed.
He would ask her about a relationship. And he'd do it before they left Hogwarts.