Saved
Ok so here is chappie 3! for anyone who may not have already figured, Hermione is a muggle and you will find out what Ron is in this chapter. Enjoy!
The rest of the week continued to drag on with a gloomy attitude; but school was starting to become a rather more pleasurable experience- save for the behaviour of one particular person whom I sat next to in Biology...
"Ron! What are you doing? You'll end up taking someone's eye out if you keep brandishing that hot poker around!"
"Well why don't you do it then if you're so clever! Snape said you had to wave it to increase the number of sparks! That's exactly what I've been doing!"
"No it isn't," I said taking the poker forcefully off him, "You've got to do it in a way that will create a constant speed! You looked like you were having a fight with an invisible gladiator!"
"Whatever!" he snapped, folding his arms, "come on, if you think you're gonna be so good at waving that thing, get on and do it!"
I pulled a face at him and then began to slowly move the poker from side to side with steady and sure movements. However, I was finding it quite difficult to concentrate; Ron was stood directly in front of me with his eyes fixed on my face. I had to admit, I was really struggling against the annoying temptation to lose myself in his deep brown eyes, and at the same time charge at him aimed with the steaming hot poker! This astounded me; how on earth was I feeling such contrasting emotions?
"Hey was that a spark?" said Seamus, who was also watching me from the other end of the room.
I dragged my concentration back to moving the poker. Left Right Left Right Left Right...
"Sparks!" shouted Lavender Brown excitedly; the whole class immediately abandoned what they were doing and began to hustle around me and the poker, from which sparks were indeed begnning to flourish.
"Gracious!" announced Mr Snape jubilantly, "Well done Miss Granger, that is absolutely spot on!"
I deliberately flashed a mockingly sweet smile in Ron's direction, who retorted by pulling a face and moving away from the crowd and into the corner of the room. I had to admit, triumph did taste good!
"So do you reckon he's gonna ask you?"
"I don't know...he just seems completely smitten with Hermione at the moment,"
"Yeah but you can tell that Hermione doesn't like him in that way,"
"Are you sure about that?"
"Course I am. Look here she comes, you can ask her now."
"Ask me what?" I asked curiously, as I approached Parvati and Padma, who were huddled under the canteen shelter, out of the rain.
"Whether or not you like Seamus," said Padma quickly; Parvati threw her an evil glance.
"Well..." I said slowly "Of course I like him, but I-"
"Oh so then you do!" said Parvati hysterically.
"Well yeah course I do," I replied, a little confused, "I mean he's very friendly and an extremely generous person."
"Oh," mumbled Parvati sadly, "I hope you'll be very happy together then."
"What!" I yelped, completley confused as to where the conversation had headed now.
"You and Seamus!" said Parvati astoundingly, "you just said you liked him!"
"Well yes I do," I replied slowly, and then I caught up, "Surely you don't think I fancy him!"
"What, you mean you don't?" said Parvati hopefully.
"Absolutely not; he's my friend, nothing more," I assured her.
"Oh, I'm so sorry then," she replied, "I must have confused you a bit."
"No it's fine," I shrugged, "So were you talking about Seamus before I came over?"
"Yeah," said Padma, "Parvati's hoping he might ask her to the Summer Ball."
"You're arranging things fot that already?" I asked, astounded.
"Yes," said Parvati, "and I'm kinda hoping Seamus might ask me... um, do you reckon you could talk to him about it Hermione? Maybe, see whether or not he likes me?"
"Yeah sure I can try," I said to her.
"You will? Oh thankyou Hermione!" she gave me a hug.
"I can't promise that he 'll speak to me though," I warned her. I glanced at my watch, "Oh I'd better be off, Sirius'll be home soon."
"Ok then see you tomorrow!" waved Parvati and Padma cheerfully.
I made my way to my truck; the rain appeared to have laid off for the time being. The parking lot was virtually empty, apart from the presence of somebody I noticed walking behind me.
It was Ron Weasley. He didn't say anything to me, just continued walking with that permanent frown etched across his face. I turned my nose up and increased my pace across the lot; climbing into my truck, I started the engine and turned out of the school without even permitting myself to glance at him.
"Morning kiddo! What's the matter with you? Fancied a lie in this morning? School's just about to start."
"What!" I leapt out of bed and nearly collided with Sirius, who was bent over chuckling.
"Not funny dad!" I said indignantly as I looked at my clock, and saw that I had in fact an hour before school started.
"I know, sorry sweet, it was worth it to see your face though!" he giggled.
"You are such a child dad," I commented.
"Thanks," he said chirpily. Sometimes it suprised me how Sirius and Jane could possibly have split up; they were so similar in almost every way! But then, perhaps maybe a little too similar.
"Anyway kid, I've put some snow chains onto the tyres of y'er truck, there's an awful lot of ice on the roads today, and I don't want you taking a spin."
"Thanks dad," I gave him a hug, "would you mind departing my room so that I can get ready?"
"Course," he grunted and left me to get dressed.
Fourty minutes later, I was treading with extreme caution across the heavily thick ice to my truck. I noticed the sparkling new snow chains attached to the wheels; they looked really out of place on something as ancient as my truck. Despite having them, I drove exceedingly carefully to school, and immediately turned off the radio when a report came on about a van that had capsized due to the ice, that was not the kind of thing I wanted to hear whilst I was driving on this dangerous element as well.
School was fairly busy when I arrived. I saw Neville standing at the entrance to the main building and waved to him; he saw me and cheerfully returned the gesture.
I flung my schoolbag over my shoulder, and as I began to make my way towards the building, several things seemed to happen simultaneously:
I caught sight of Ron Weasley, who was leaning against his car and staring straight at me.
There was a sudden screeching of tyres which sounded frightengly close to where I was walking.
As I turned to look at the source of noise, I threw myself back against my truck as a big blue van came hurtling directly towards me.
Next thing I felt was a sharp impact as my head collided with the hard, ice smothered ground while somebody had hold of my body and lifted me away from the heavy truck which was destined to crush me. I spotted the bright red crop of hair- it was Ron Weasley.
The van had not yet come to a full stop and came flying back round to where Ron and I were lying across the ground, Ron's arm was held tight around my waist, and, without letting go of me, he flung me around with only himself as the barrier between me and the van, whilst pulling out of his pocket, a small wooden stick with a slight bend in the middle. He held it up, pointed it towards the van, and said calmly: "Petrificus Totalus!"
The van immediately froze.
For a few seconds, I just lay on my front while Ron quickly stuffed the stick back into his pocket. His arm was still wrapped around me, pinning me against him. I started to shuffle, and he swiftly removed his arm. I didn't make any effort to stand up though, I just stared at him in awe.
"H-how did you do that?" I asked shakily.
"Do what?" he asked sternly.
Realising that the ground was getting too cold, I tried to sit up; but Ron pushed me gently back down.
"Don't get up, you sounded like you hit your head pretty hard, just lie still."
"I'm fine," I said dismissively. I asked him again, "how did you do that?"
"Do what?" he repeated.
"Stop the van," I said, "you did it by waving that wooden stick and saying a couple of words in latin! And by the way, how on earth did you get over to me so fast?"
Ron didn't say anything at first, he just looked at me with a really serious expression on his face.
"Hermione, you hit your head pretty hard; you didn't see anything clearly."
"Yes I did see clearly!" I hissed, "I saw everything clearly. You were pulling me out of the way after three seconds of me seeing you across the other side of the lot! And then you waved that wooden stick and said what sounded like some kind of magic spell!"
At these words Ron's face became exceptionally grave. But by now the rest of the school were attempting to squeeze through the gap between my truck and the van to see who had been hurt, and neither of us could say much more.
"I'm so sorry Hermione!" shouted a panic stricken Dean Thomas who was leaning out the window of his blue van, blood dripping down his face.
"Oh my goodness Dean you're hurt!" I squealed, attempting to get up and help him, but Ron forced me back on the ground.
"But it's cold!" I complained, and a smile flickered across his face.
Dean continued to apologise all through the time it took for the teachers to come down and make a gap big enough for me and Ron to clamber out between the vehicles. Unfortunately, it was Dean's van that had obtained the most damage;my truck remained as impenetrable as ever.
"Are you okay Miss Granger?" asked Miss McGonagall worriedly.
"Yes I'm fine," I said, attempting to move out of the way so that Dean could be brought out.
"She hit her head," said Ron coolly, I shot him a death glance, "I think she might need it checking over."
So an ambulance was called, and Dean, Ron and I were all carted off to Accidents and Emergencies, where strangely enough only Dean and I were ordered to be pushed on strechers, while Ron strolled whistling alongside.
"Arrogant git," I mumbled under my breath. He gave me a sarcastic smile.
Naturally the police were called about the incident, and my dad decided to make the most of his authority by walking into the treatment room, and immediately stripping Dean Thomas of his driving license.
"I'm so sorry Hermione," he said miserably after my assertive father had given him a set down.
"Dad you don't need to take his driving license away, that's completley unecessary!" I complained.
"Hey, I make the rules kiddo, and you could've easily have been killed, you know that!"
"Yes," I said calmly, "but I wasn't, so I don't understand why you're choosing to act so irrationally; it was an accident."
My argument didn't have much effect. But at least the doctors saw no reasons to keep further hold of me ( my head turned out to be perfectly fine!), Sirius and I began to make our way out of the hospital.
"Oh, you should probably call your mother," he said guiltily, as we headed down a set of stairs.
"You told mum!" I said indignantly.
Sirius shrugged.
"Oh great," I muttered, "no doubt she's just freaking out right now!"
"Sorry kid," he mumbled, "but I didn't know what was wrong with you until I got here!"
I shot him an annoyed expression, and Sirius continued to trail sheepishly behind me for the remainder of the way. But then I spotted Ron, his sister, and a red headed man who could only be his father, stood at the end of a corridor, whispering anxiously. I came to a sudden halt. Ron had cleverly vanished whilst Dean and I had been taken into the treatment room; but I desperately needed to talk to him.
"What is it kiddo?" asked Sirius, curiously eyeing the three Weasleys.
"Um, I just need to speak to someone for a minute, it's about schoolwork," I muttered quietly.
"Oh," said Sirius, "but you don't need to worry about stuff like that right now Hermione, you've just been through a traumatic experience!"
"Yes, as you can see I'm in a severe state of shock," I said sarcastically.
Sirius grunted.
"Please dad, I'll only be a few minutes. You carry on, and I'll meet you outside."
Sirius sighed, and then, making it very clear of his unwillingness, made his way down the next flight of stairs.
The Weasley's had not noticed my presence yet. So I headed a bit further down the corridor towards them, and cleared my throat.
Their heads all whipped round to face me.
"Um, is it okay if I have a quick word with Ron please," I asked nervously.
"Of course," replied his father in a warm, chirpy voice, "we'll just be in my office Ron, come along Ginny,"
Ginny smiled shyly at me as she was wheeled off by her father; Ron walked a few paces towards me with a grim expression.
"You know hospitals are supposed to be places of peace and tranquility, so maybe this is not the best place for us to start having a conversation," he said casually.
"Don't worry," I said sternly, "you know exactly what I'm about to ask you, and I doubt it's something you'll want to inform the whole hospital of."
"Are you still not getting the message that it's not even something I want to inform you of?"
"I saw what happened!" I said indignantly, "and I want to know why!"
"Why?!" muttered Ron furiously, "why is it so important for you to know?"
"Because I want to be aware of the reason why I'm going to have to lie when everybody asks me about it tomorrow!"
Ron's face went from a look of annoyance to an expression of suprise.
"What?" he said quietly, "you're tellng me you're not gonna blab to everyone your amazing theory as to how I stopped that van!"
"No," I replied earnestly, "I am not that shallow! If you don't want me to tell anyone, then I won't."
"Doesn't mean I'm still gonna tell you though!" he snapped, "I reckon you need to go back and get your head re scanned."
"My head is perfectly fine!" I shouted, "I know what I saw! You came over to me like a flash of light, and then you froze the van by pulling out a wooden stick and brandishing it!"
"I can't believe I'm hearing this!" laughed Ron; he was mocking me. I snapped.
"DON'T YOU DARE MOCK ME RONALD WEASLEY! I KNOW EXACTLY WHAT I SAW, AND IF YOU WON'T TELL ME, I'LL FIND OUT FOR MYSELF!"
"OH WILL YOU?!" he challenged, "YOU DO THAT THEN! CAUSE YOU'RE CERTAINLY NOT GETTING ANY HELP FROM ME! I DON'T CONVERSE WITH PEOPLE WHO HAVE MAD IDEAS IN THEIR HEADS!"
I pulled my hand back and slapped him hard across the face. He buckled just as a nurse came hurrying round the corner in search of the noise.
"You two!" she hissed furiously at us, "get out of this hospital this instant! How dare you pollute the atmosphere of those who have come here for healing!" Out NOW!"
We rushed past her and began hurrying down the nearby stairs, Ron winced as he touched the red spot on his cheek.
"Told you this wasn't the right place for us to start a conversation!" he spat at me, as we made our way downstairs, "dad'll kill me for losing my temper in the place where he works!"
"Well if you'd bothered to cooperate for once in a while, and given me an answer to my question, none of that would've happened!"
"It's none of your business!" he said through gritted teeth.
"It is if it means I'm going to have to lie to people about it!" I said in a frustrated voice.
"You know, I don't think I've had a single word of thanks seeing as I bloody well saved your life!" he said, quickly changing the subject.
"Thankyou," I said, overwhelmed with a sudden ounce of guilt. I had hardly taken into account that a person I hated so much had put their own life at risk in order to save mine.
Ron paused just inside the main hospital entrance and looked at me, scrutinising.
"You're welcome," he mumbled; but he saw the expression on my face, "you're not gonna let this go are you?"
"No," I replied, unable to look anywhere but into his eyes.
"Then I hope you enjoy disappointment," he turned away from me to open the door.
"You know what gets me wondering?" I said quickly to him.
"What?" he looked back at me.
"Why did you even bother?" I said.
Ron stared at me for a few minutes, then moved his gaze to the floor.
"I don't know," he mumbled, although it sounded like he was talking more to himself than to me.
He then made his way out through the door, and that was the first night I dreamt of Ron Weasley.