BEARINGS
Pounding
The world seemed to stop, or at least go into slow motion, as Ron held the wrist of his best friend tightly.
It was not false, it could not possibly be.
The blood was pounding through Harry's veins just as surely as the blood was pumping throughout Ron's body, filling every crevice, keeping him alive.
Harry was alive.
There was no two ways about it.
All of the questions that Ron had wondered, that all of them had wondered in the depths of their grieving and despair, would finally, finally be answered.
Why was Voldemort suddenly dead?
What was in Snape's memories?
Why did Harry sacrifice himself?
How was Voldemort dead?
Ron felt like crying and erupting into celebratory joy at the same time.
'Ron … Ron …'
There was a gentle pulling at the back of Ron's robes, and even without the sideways glance that he took, Ron knew that it was Hermione.
'Ron, you've got to come away … let the Aurors deal with it …' Hermione was saying, as, true to her words, the Auror's, faces stony and wands drawn, began advancing towards them slowly but surely, led by a worried and positively furious looking Kingsley.
Looking behind him, still clutching Harry's wrist that was pulsating steadily and strongly with a renewed fervour, Ron had never experienced a feeling so joyful as that slow and steady pounding, Ron saw that behind the tearful Hermione, was the rest of his family and friends; Seamus, Neville, Dean, Luna … all of them crying, or looking for all the world as if they had been petrified.
Hardly even noticing his own tears streaking down his cheeks and streaming from his eyes, - happy tears, the most joyful ever, though they would most certainly not be portrayed as such by the rest of the congregation, - Ron looked Hermione straight in the eyes. His fiancé, he remembered with a jolt, and then he remembered that Harry would be here, Harry would be able to be there with them, and everything would be right, and good and whole again -
'Hermione …' Ron said quietly, looking into her brown eyes that were glossy and sparkling from tears, 'there's a pulse.' He continued, with the utmost conviction.
She looked at him, with those deep, soulful brown eyes, confused, before gasping and speaking.
'Ron, no - you must have made a mistake -' She paused, and gulped, before continuing. 'Harry - Harry's dead Ron.'
Hermione looked at him fiercely, stubbornly, her expression that of many arguments and fights that they had had before, though this time Ron did not find it endearing. Anger clouded her face, as Ron grabbed hold of her wrist, not tightly, but enough to hold her attention.
'Why are you doing this?' She hissed, trying to yank her hand out of Ron's grip, to no avail.
'Ron - let go -'
'Hermione, please, just come and look.' Ron pleaded, and Hermione looked at him, horrified, shaking her head avidly so that her hair swung around her face wildly.
'No - no Ron, I can't -' She squeaked as Ron pulled her closer into an embrace, and then she began crying harder than ever.
'I've already seen once, I don't - I can't -' Hermione murmured, and Ron understood. Hermione still thought that Harry was dead, and that Harry was a mere corpse, not Harry any longer. She had seen his body once, and refused to see it yet again, and as Ro stroked her hair tenderly, he spoke softly to her.
'You don't even have to look.' Ron said, rubbing the back of her hand quickly and watching the Auror's come ever closer. He kissed Hermione chastely on the cheek, and then spoke again. 'Just feel his wrist, you'll see.'
Hermione looked into his eyes undecidedly, before a shadow of trust passed through them. She closed her eyes, and Ron guided her the two steps needed to reach the edge of the destroyed tomb.
When her hand made contact with the cold, but not deathly so, hand of her previously thought dead best friend, she jumped out of her skin, and Ron, with his arms placed comfortably around her shoulders, could feel her body indecisively squirming, as if she wished to run far, far away, but to stay at the same time.
Her face, eyes still remaining tight shut, creased into a concentrated look, as she pressed her finger's to Harry's wrist tightly. Ron could only assume that she was searching for a pulse. He hoped she would be able to find it, Ron doubted she would try to decipher it again after this try.
It was almost possible to see the cogs in her head turning rapidly, exhausting themselves as they worked rapidly, worked overtime, and with Hermione, that was certainly saying something -
Hermione's eyes opened with a jolt, and her mouth formed a small round "O" shape, and she looked at Ron with elated eyes.
Ron knew, in that instance, that she believed him.
'Oh my God …' Hermione muttered, looking at Ron in a happy amazement as Ron grinned joyously.
She looked down at the, now she knew, sleeping Harry, with eyes now bright from happy tears, not horrified or desolate ones, and Hermione smiled a tender smile. The moment was peaceful, and for that slight moment, not even the thought that Harry could be an impostor passed through Ron's mind, for how could he be, when he was so obviously Harry?
It was peaceful, until Kingsley's booming voice echoed across the grounds, angry and dangerous, disturbing the quiet serenity.
'What is going on?' He shouted to the crowd of close friends and family of Ron, and Ron suddenly realised with a jolt that the rest of the people had seemingly vanished.
Silence overtook them all as they all avoided with a passion the figure of the positively furious Kingsley.
Perhaps this was a bad time to announce the Harry situation, then.
Everybody else, Ron noticed, was avoiding looking anywhere near the utterly destroyed tomb, or the body of which it was supposed to defend and keep safe so well.
'I want to know who did this.' Kingsley thundered, threat pronouncing every word, every syllable. 'And when I find out who did this, they will not be getting off lightly.'
Kingsley cast a furious eye very those gathered, looking for all the world more vicious and revengeful than a lion. That was when it hit home to Ron, two things.
One, what a good Auror and fighter Kingsley was.
Two, just how much Harry meant to everybody in the Wizarding World.
'Do I make myself clear?' Kingsley hissed. His next word made even the hardened Auror's that had thankfully stopped closing in on Ron, Hermione and Harry, jump dramatically. 'DO I MAKE MYSELF -'
There was a cough, and a gasp of breath, and Ron, who had been concentrating wholly on Kingsley, looked down, both elated and shocked, to see that it was his best friend who had been making the noises. Everybody else looked towards the offending sound maker, but as they could not see fully into the tomb, deep as it was, they could not see that Harry was the culprit.
Ron supposed that it might be considered rather rude and disrespectful to gawk at a dead body inside of it's desecrated tomb, but given the fact that, in this certain case, the timb did not even contain a dead body, and instead a very live one, he thought that he might be considered excused from his terrible manners.
He and Hermione, Ron suddenly realised had edged away ever so slightly from the tomb, so that they were no longer leaning over it, but could still easily see into it's depths. They had moved, probably to calm Kingsley, or in an effort to, anyway. Perhaps to inform him about Harry's current breathing status.
Something told Ron that this was not the best time to tell Kingsley about that certain minor detail.
Ron took the minute step back towards looming over the tomb faster than he ever thought possible, and feeling Hermione next to him, he did just that. Both of them were ignoring the shouts of warning echoing from the Auror's and Kingsley.
Ron only cared about Harry and Hermione. They were in their own little isolated bubble.
Harry's eyes were flickering open and closed, his mouth open as he drew in great, shuddering breaths, as if he had not breathed in clean air in years. Then again, Ron briefly thought to himself degradingly, there was most certainly no "what if" included in that statement.
Harry's hands gripped the wand that was tightly held in his clutches as he coughed once more. It was then that he fully opened his eyes to the world.
Eyes clouded over in what Ron was sure was the utmost confusion, Harry looked questioningly at Ron and Hermione, who were both, Ron was sure, hovering over Harry's head like some kind of breed of a surreal fly.
Both of them were outright sobbing, in both relief and joy as they saw him, saw him actually breathing and living, real and solid proof that he was alive.
Harry evidently opened his mouth to say something, and Ron leaned forwards in an eager suspense, before Harry fell back with an audible thump onto the cool marble, clutching his chest and crying out in pain.
'Harry! Harry, what is it?' Hermione shrieked, looking terrified.
'My … my chest …' Harry muttered croakily, voice having not been used for years.
Ron could only look on in mild horror, as Harry's hands scrabbled at his chest, rubbing it, as if that would get rid of the pain, or at the very least, lessen it somewhat.
He cried out, and he was almost writhing in pain, and Ron and Hermione were both in a wild panic, and there was shouting from around them, asking what the hell was going on, and Harry's hands were still scraping across the cloudy, light blue material that made up his burial robes.
Then, as suddenly as it had come, the pain simply stopped.
An echoing moment of still passed over the place, with only the panting of an exhausted Harry puncturing the silence, before -
'Oh, Harry!' Hermione squealed.
She launched herself at Harry, enveloping him into a log and strenuous hug, that, to Ron, was looking so tight and air resistant that made him distinctly reminded of his own mother's embraces.
'All right, Hermione,' Ron said, when he was sure that Harry was turning purple, even without being able to see his face through Hermione's bushy locks, 'lets not kill him when we've only just got him back.'
Hermione turned to glare at him half heartedly, whilst at the same time gently relinquishing her grip on the now breathless Harry, who had evidently not heard Ron's comment.
There was a brief moment, when everything was right with the world.
And then it went.
'Voldemort!' Harry exclaimed, and Ron was immediately lost.
'What -' Ron began to say, before Harry continued, in a panicked tone, his eyes alight with both fear and bravery, the determination in his gaze in abundance. It was a look that Ron had forgotten, that he had missed whilst Harry was … absent.
Ron glanced at Hermione questioningly, and saw the dawning look of comprehension on her face. It was an expression, he would grumble later, that he had gotten used to seeing far too often.
'Voldemort! Where is he? He wouldn't of just left, he wouldn't have - why aren't I back in the forest? That's where I was, before - you look different, why do you look different? How is this happening -'
The confused and disconnected thoughts and questions that came tumbling out of Harry Potter's mouth attracted the attention of more people than just Ron and Hermione.
- An update? Here? NO! I have returned! Honestly though, in between going to Rome, an Olympics Final and Hyde Park BT London Live, I really haven't have much time at all. Understatement. (All were amazing, by the way).
I'm sorry for the mess-up with replying to reviews. I'd like your opinion, however. Would you prefer me to PM you all, or put it at the end of the chapter as per usual? I just started replying to review's via the little icon by the actual reviews, and that's when I realsied I'd already done that..*sigh*. Sorry if you've received two replies, accidental!
Sorry if I haven't replied to any of your reviews, I honestly haven't meant any spite behind it:)
I hope you like and enjoy!
- Spellmugwump97
