I feel horrible for taking so much time to update this story, but I've been really busy lately with my studies and what's more I've had a terrible author's block..
I just hope you'll excuse me and enjoy the chapter! ;)

usual disclaimer applies!

. . .

It was 7 pm when Hermione finally returned home. God, if that had been a hell of a day!

Apparently half of the magical population in London had decided to get sick all together at the same time, crowding the hospital and making her run from one ward to the others like some kind of trapped bird; furthermore she had had a few arguments with some stuck-up, posh, pureblood wizards that didn't want her filthy hands to touch their precious, pure injuries (and then Hermione had had to use all her willpower to keep calm, for she had never been more tempted in her life to shove her wand up their tight... noses) and just to perfectly complete the day, she had been vomited all over by a kid that had apparently eaten a whole box of puking pastilles.. (seriously, why did George keep selling those?!)

She stumbled out of her fireplace, carelessly throwing the working bag somewhere near the sofa and dragged herself on wobbly legs to her room.

Ron had long gone, as she had suspected by the empty, dark house, but the mess he had left behind was still there to welcome her back: the bed was still a mess of crumpled sheets from their 'morning activities', there were clothes discarded on the floor where they had been thrown the night before, a drawer was open, its content merrily coming out of it, her wardrobe was pretty much in the same condition.

All in all, the first impression she had, was that a bomb had exploded in there..

Sighing , Hermione started picking up the clothes to bring back some resemblance of order in that room.

She had just straightened after crawling under the bed to retrieve a lonely black sock (that was definitely Ron's.. but then, what on Merlin's beard did he put on when he had left?) when she noticed the scribbled parchment pinned on the mirror.

Picking it, she smiled recognizing Ron's crammed handwriting.

' my dearest, beloved quaffle,

So this is the mysterious thing you bought, hm? It's not really in my style and I'll always prefer the lace lingerie to it, but I must confess that I love it anyway..

Firstly because it's not another book!

Secondly, because it looks really cool in here and thirdly because this way now you can finally see full-length how beautiful you are –' Hermione rolled her eyes at the cliché but smiled nevertheless ' – (and don't throw your eyes to the ceiling like I know you're doing, Miss!) –' she snorted. Did he really know her that well? ' – anyway, my adored niffler, I'll have the night shift tonight and I'll be very late, so I'll go sleeping at home.. I don't want to wake you up and hopefully this way mom will be quite and happy for a while and I'll be able to eat an unburned breakfast for once! –' her eyebrows shot up to her hairline. Oh oh, was it so? ' – obviously I'm just joking 'Mione, I LOVE your burned toasts! But I love you even more!

See you tomorrow night (dinner with Harry and Gin, remember?)

I love you immensely, Ron'

Hermione reread the letter twice, smiling by herself. Ron always found the way to surprise her and to make her smile, even with those little things.. he always made her feel like she was the most important person in the whole planet!

Safely putting the letter away in the drawer where she kept all the things he's been sending her since their first year at Hogwarts (and that was saying something!), she then resumed her crusade against disorder.

When she finally finished the housework (and that included also scrubbing dishes from breakfast, since Ron had thought to only move them from her bed to the kitchen..), Hermione was so tired that she wasn't even hungry anymore, even though she had practically skipped lunch that day due to the massive amount of work and.. well, she hadn't eaten much at breakfast either.

She knew that she should've put something in her stomach, but still she couldn't bring herself to cook anything or, worse, she couldn't even stand the idea of cleaning yet another dish for the rest of the day.. she had had enough!

So, ignoring the reproachful glare that Crooks gave her and his annoyed meows, she happily padded to the bathroom to have a much deserved, relaxing and extremely long hot shower.

: : :

The sound of falling water awoke him. Maybe it was raining, maybe it was something else, he wasn't sure, he couldn't see a thing in the utter darkness that surrounded him. He could only hear.

Water, water, pouring water. Where was he? He had lost track of time either, he didn't know how much time had passed since the last time he had been awake.

He needed to know, he needed information or else he was pretty sure that he would go totally insane in that dark empty space.

Rain, rain, drop by drop it kept falling. When would it stop? But, after all, that was the only distraction he had had in quite a long time.. it kept him focused on something, he kept him awake.

Definitely, if here was something he had come to hate, it was sleeping: every time twisted dreams populated his head and whenever he woke up he was never too certain that he had awoken for real.. what if it was all some kind of nightmare? What if he was only sleeping in his bed now and he was just incapable of waking up?

Oh, how he wished he could..

He stopped his thought mid-track. Something.. something had changed.

The eerie silence around him engulfed him in its oppressing presence. The rain had stopped.

He was alone. Again.

Anger pervaded him and he cried out in frustration, shouting at the top of his lungs profanities that simply echoed in the surrounding darkness. Damned that situation! Damned his bloody wife for putting him there in first place! Damned that old greedy bastard! Damned Merlin and his bloody pants for –

A light.

Anger evaporated as fast as it had come.

A light had appeared in the further corner of his prison of darkness. A light!

He hurried towards that glow as fast as his unstable legs let him, his heart beating madly.

There was undoubtedly a orange-yellowish light filtering in his pitch black world. It came.. he couldn't be too sure, he hadn't been used to light for quite a long time and now even if it wasn't that bright it hurt his eyes like one million suns.

In the blurred vision that the light gave him, he started to outline shapes and shadows: there was something big and dark that looked like some kind of wardrobe or something, and the light.. his vision was rapidly getting clearer, it seemed that the light came from some sort of lamp..

He couldn't recognize his surroundings, he was pretty sure that he had never seen the room he was in before. That could only mean.. had he changed place?

His eager eyes seemed unable to stop roaming around the room before him, taking in all the details that they could, like a starving man who is offered a whole feast to eat.

There was a bed, right in front of him, and a wardrobe, now he was sure of that. Then, there was what looked like a table, or a desk maybe, and a door: not too narrow, but neither as large as those in his house had been..

From the open door he could barely see the outlines of a dark room or a hallway and –

A sudden noise coming from his left made him jump. There was someone else in the room! He.. he couldn't see it thought, but the rustling sound of someone searching something was loud and clear as if it came right beside him and –

The mysterious person appeared.

It was only a moment, a sudden flash of recognition, and then his world blurred and once again became black.

He had fainted.

. . .

and... that's it. I know, it's shorter than the others, but I hope you liked it anyway!