~ Chapter 4 ~
Dismissed
Ron sat silently on one of the hospital beds with his legs crossed and his head down as he waited for Madame Pomfrey. There was currently no one in the hospital wing apart from himself, for which he was very grateful. He leaned back against the cool, metal bed frame and glanced longingly at the door.
He'd spoken with Professor McGonagall briefly once they'd entered the hospital wing. She had informed him that one of his fellow students had expressed some concern as to his recent behaviour and appearance, but she refused to give any names away. She didn't have to. He knew it had been Hermione who had outed him.
Professor McGonagall had also heard about his recent episode in Professor Snape's class. He could feel his ears begin to burn from the embarrassment. Ron was unbelievably grateful that Professor McGonagall had left the room before he had to speak with Madame Pomfrey. Having one of his teachers in the room while Madame Pomfrey looked him over would have been terribly embarrassing. It was worse than having his mother accompany him to see a Healer.
He looked over at Madame Pomfrey's office just as she shut the door and walked toward him. She handed him a bowl of porridge and a spoon and encouraged him to eat.
"Are you finding your classes are too much to handle this year?" she asked as she walked over to one of her cabinets and rummaged around for a potion.
"No more than usual," replied Ron. He stirred the contents within the bowl before scooping out a spoonful and putting it in his mouth. As porridge went, it wasn't that bad and he really was quite hungry. He couldn't remember the last time he'd managed to eat a full meal in the Great Hall.
He continued to eat as Madame Pomfrey moved from one cabinet to another in search of a potion for Ron. She grunted with satisfaction as she extracted a small, glass bottle from the cabinet. She walked back toward Ron and set the bottle on the table beside the bed.
"I'm going to keep you overnight, just to keep an eye on you," Madame Pomfrey explained. "There doesn't seem to be anything wrong with you except the fact that you appear to not have slept or eaten in awhile. Have you been having trouble sleeping lately?"
"A bit," replied Ron honestly. He didn't bother telling her that, for the last few days, he couldn't fall asleep no matter what he'd tried. He'd lie in bed and close his eyes, but sleep wouldn't come.
"You'll take this for the next few days then," Madame Pomfrey instructed, pointing to the potion. "One spoonful should put you out for six to eight hours. Hopefully that gets you back into a routine." Ron nodded and set the empty bowl in his lap. Madame Pomfrey took the bowl and walked back into her office, closing the door behind her.
Ron slid under the covers of the bed and sighed as he put his head on the pillow. He closed his eyes and attempted to sleep. It was a relief to close his eyes at least. His eyes burned during the day from lack of sleep. He cleared his mind and tried his best to let sleep take him. After thirty minutes, he finally gave up and sat back up. He grabbed the potion Madame Pomfrey had given him and tipped it over his lips. The taste wasn't pleasant, but within minutes he closed his eyes and fell asleep.
---
The clock tower bells chimed loudly through the empty corridors of Hogwarts. Most of the students had gone to their common rooms for the night. Ron walked quietly through the corridors towards the Gryffindor common room, having been released from the infirmary after two days of being on strict bed rest without visitors. He was once again rested, well-fed, and feeling like himself and hadn't had any episodes during his stay in Madame Pomfrey's care.
He approached the Fat Lady's portrait and mumbled the password, which she accepted after making him listen to part of the aria she'd been practicing. The passage into the Gryffindor common room swung open and Ron stepped over the threshold. He made his way through, hoping to get up to the boys' dorms without meeting up with any of the other Gryffindor students.
There were a few first year girls sitting on the sofa in front of the fireplace giggling quietly, but they took no notice of Ron as he crept through the large sitting area and made his way toward the staircase leading to the boys' dorm room. He jumped suddenly as someone called his name. He turned around to see Harry and Hermione walking towards him. They had apparently been standing in a corner, looking at a few posters on the wall.
Hermione reached him first as she had burst into a run as soon as she'd seen him. She wrapped her arms around his neck and squeezed him tightly. She stepped back and looked him in the eye.
"How are you feeling? You look so much better now. Did Madame Pomfrey figure out what was wrong?" Hermione babbled. Ron kept opening his mouth to reply, but Hermione continued with her questions. Finding her behaviour comical, he looked over at Harry with a crooked grin, then, back at Hermione.
"I'm fine," he replied finally. "There was nothing wrong with me."
Hermione frowned, looking taken aback. "That can't be right," she muttered. "Isn't it true that you vomited in Snape's classroom?"
Ron could feel his cheeks burning as the blood rushed into them. It was embarrassing enough having Snape as a witness, it didn't occur to him that the news would get out.
"Who told you that?" Ron whispered, pulling Harry and Hermione aside.
"Dean Thomas," Harry replied. "But I think he heard it from Seamus, who heard it from Cormac, who heard it from…"
Ron rolled his eyes and looked absolutely devastated.
"It is true!" Hermione gasped. "What did Snape do?" Both she and Harry looked at Ron, anxiously awaiting his reply.
Ron shrugged. "Surprisingly he wasn't mad or anything," he replied, thinking back on his last class with Professor Snape. "He told me to either go see Madame Pomfrey or come back here." Harry and Hermione looked at Ron in disbelief. They had both expected Snape to completely humiliate Ron and deter him from returning to his class.
"Well, I'm very glad that you're ok," Hermione enthused. "I really must get to bed, as should the two of you. We've got to be ready for class tomorrow and you have a lot of catching up to do." She looked at Ron before turning and heading toward the girls' dormitory.
---
The Great Hall quickly began to fill up as students wandered in from their classes. Dinner was piled high on each of the four long house tables. Harry and Ron walked the length of the Gryffindor table and sat across from Hermione, Neville, and Luna.
Ginny shuffled down the bench to make room for her brother. She quickly glanced at the message on her enchanted coin and shoved it into the pocket of her robe.
"Kind of short notice this time, Harry," she stated as she helped herself to a roasted chicken wing and mashed potatoes. "What's with the sudden DA meeting today?"
"I've spent a lot of time thinking about our last encounter with Voldemort," Harry replied. "And I think I've found a few more spells, and come up with some new techniques that could help us out the next time we face him and the Death Eaters."
Ron had just grabbed a biscuit from one of the serving trays and placed it on his plate as his muscles began to give out. He placed his forearms on the table just as he lost complete control of his body. He sighed and stared longingly at the food that was right within his reach, but couldn't be obtained.
Ginny had been observing her brother's behaviour the last few weeks and was beginning to understand why he'd been losing so much weight. She had noticed that Ron would usually stay frozen until the food on the table would disappear. While Harry and Hermione bickered over who had actually found the spells they would be using during their DA meeting, Ginny casually took Ron's plate and began filling it with food for him, without attracting anyone's attention. She quietly set his plate in front of him and proceeded to fill her own plate with food.
Ron watched Ginny as she picked up his fork and placed it in his hand, squeezing his fingers toward his palm to keep the fork within his grasp. As soon as she let go of his fingers, they uncurled once again.
"It's there when you're ready," she whispered to him. Ron looked at her, trying to make the expression on his face look grateful, but his face remained relaxed.
He focused on the fork balancing in the palm of his hand and tried to will his fingers to close around it.
"Ron, was it me or Hermione that found the Reflection charm in the book in the library?" Harry asked suddenly. Ron's attention snapped back to the argument between Harry and Hermione. He began to panic, desperately trying to find some way to respond.
"That's not fair," Hermione snapped. "We all know Ron's going to side with you. I was the one that suggested trying to find a spell that could reflect curses!"
Ron breathed a sigh of relief as the attention was once again taken off of him. He listened as Harry and Hermione slowly came to an agreement as to who could take credit for what and gradually regained control of his muscles just as the food was cleared from the table and replaced with dessert.
"Thanks," he whispered softly to Ginny as he began to tuck into the dinner she'd gotten for him. Ginny smiled and cut into her dessert with the edge of her fork.
---
The members of the DA silently exited the Room of Requirement and moved through the corridors toward their various common rooms. Harry, Ron, and Hermione, along with Neville, Dean, and Seamus, rushed through the corridors toward the Gryffindor common room, talking excitedly about how well the DA meeting had gone.
Ron gradually slipped to the back of their little group so that he was following them. He could feel his legs getting weaker as they walked and soon found he had to stop and grab hold of the wall. He tried to call out to Harry or Hermione for help, but found he couldn't. His legs gave out and he collapsed on the cold, stone floor on his hands and knees. He leaned his back against the wall as his body gave out beneath him. He watched as his friends disappeared around a corner, completely unaware that he had fallen behind.
He sat motionless in the darkened corridor, alone and terrified that someone might find him; someone like Malfoy, or Filch, or Peeves.
The silence within the corridor was suddenly broken by the repetitive clicks from the heels of someone's shoes. The sound started quite small and far off in the distance and gradually grew as they made their way closer to where Ron was sitting. The individual footsteps grew into several pairs of shoes walking together. Ron swallowed back at the lump in his throat and closed his eyes, desperately hoping that he wouldn't be seen.
Professors McGonagall, Dumbledore and Snape appeared suddenly around the same corner his friends had previously disappeared. Ron's heart beat rapidly within his chest as he watched the headmaster and his teachers approach.
"Mr. Weasley, is that you?" Professor McGonagall asked. "What are you doing down there?" She and Dumbledore knelt down in front of him and examined the state he was in. Ron looked up at them, then, at Snape, before looking down at his shoes.
"Are you all right?" Professor McGonagall prompted, not receiving any response from Ron. "Can you get up?" Ron looked back up at her and tried to work out a response.
"Let's get him to Madame Pomfrey," Dumbledore suggested. He waved his wand and levitated Ron's body toward the infirmary.
---
Harry, Neville, Seamus, and Dean raced up the stairs to their dorm and started getting ready for bed. Harry stopped suddenly and looked around the dorm having finally noticed Ron's absence.
"Oi, did anyone see where Ron went?" he asked aloud. The other Gryffindor boys shook their heads and looked around.
"He was right behind us," replied Seamus. "Maybe he's downstairs saying goodnight to Granger." A few of the boys let out a few catcalls and raucous laughter. Harry frowned and walked back down to the common area, only to find that everyone had gone to bed, leaving the common room completely empty and quiet.
He raced over to the staircase leading to the girls' dorms and called out for Hermione to come down. Hermione rushed down the stairs in her pajamas with her toothbrush in her hand.
"What is it, Harry?" she asked, looking completely disheveled and worried. "You're going to wake everyone!"
"I don't know where Ron's gone," replied Harry. "Do you remember him coming into the common room?" Hermione shook her head.
"He's going to get into trouble if he's caught out now," Hermione scolded. "Where would he have gone?"
"I dunno," replied Harry. "That's why I came to get you."
"We should go find him then," said Hermione. "I'm sure if we're caught out because we're looking for him we won't get into too much trouble."
"You're suggesting leaving the tower?" Harry asked in disbelief.
"We can't just leave him out there, Harry," said Hermione matter-of-factly. "What if something's happened?
The two of them moved quickly through the common room toward the portrait hole. Hermione set her toothbrush on a table, swung the portrait forward and crawled out of the portrait hole with Harry close behind. The two of them immediately began walking back toward the Room of Requirement in search of Ron. Before they could get too far through the castle, they ran into Professor McGonagall.
"Professor McGonagall," Hermione started. "I'm sorry we're out after hours, but Ron never came to the common room and…"
She was immediately interrupted by Professor McGonagall before she could finish her explanation.
"I was on my way to come and get you two," replied Professor McGonagall. "I'm afraid we've had to send Mr. Weasley home."
"He's been expelled?" Hermione gasped with disbelief. "For what?"
"You can't do that!" Harry snapped. "It's not fair!"
"He has not been expelled, Mr. Potter," replied Professor McGonagall. "I'm afraid your presumptions were right, Miss. Granger, but I'm afraid Ronald's health is much worse than you thought. Madame Pomfrey has requested that his parents pick him up at take him to St. Mungo's as soon as possible."
Hermione and Harry listened as Professor McGonagall explained Ron's condition and requested that they tell Ginny before going to bed. She walked them back to Gryffindor tower and closed the portrait door behind them.
