Chapter 7
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After about an hour Harrius and Ginny were finished their walk around most of town. Ginny decided to go with him into the pub to see him off. When Harrius walked in his laugh and smile faded when he saw Ron on top of one of the tables holding his sword in one hand and a goblet in the other. He was laughing at incoherently at no one, but showing off his sword to everyone around him. In short he was completely drunk. Ginny looked ahead at what he was staring at and couldn't help but laugh at Ron fooling around on the table.
"Do you know him, Harrius?" she asked. Harrius nervously looked at Ginny and chuckled,
"K-know who?" he falsely asked.
"That bloke on the table pretending to sword play," Ginny pointed out.
"Why did I have to suggest he go into this pub?" Harrius thought to himself.
"Uh…. oh! Him! That's my mate Ronald," he quickly said, "I came to Romania with him, he's Prince of Hogwarts." Ginny giggled and said,
"Well, he seems to be enjoying himself…anyways I better be getting home, it's getting dark." Harrius turned to Ginny and smiled, "Thank you again for the flower, Harrius Potter." He nodded in return,
"Your welcome, good night, Ginerva Wright," at that Ginny made her way out of the pub twirling the flower in her hand. Harrius watched her go with fascination, but remembered that Ron was still drunk on the table causing a huge commotion. He broke through the crowd to get to him, "RONALD!" Ron grinned widely when he saw him; he nearly dropped his goblet,
"Harrius! You decided to come into a pub with your hair like that!" Ron exclaimed while he and the rest laughed. "It sticks up in every direction like your father's!"
Ron had never been in this condition before, Harrius was very shocked and confused about why after only an hour or so, he would go and get himself drunk. He's Prince, it was common, but never for a Prince like Ron. He seemed just fine when Harrius left him.
Harrius rolled his eyes and shook off all thoughts,
"Honestly, Ronald, get down from there and lets get back to the castle," he said. Ron took another swig out of his goblet, drips pouring down the side of his mouth.
"Where's the fun in you, lad?" Ron slurred. He then spread out his arms and jumped down from the table, if it hadn't been for one of the bartenders and Harrius, he would have fell hard onto the floor. Harrius had caught him by the arms from behind, causing Ron to spill his beer all over him, from his face to his robes. Harrius shook his head making a groaning and wiping his face. Ron found it amusing; he stood up with Harrius's support and leaned against him. He began to run his hands all over around his face.
"I'm sorry, Harrius," he said, now taking his hand away and pulled him into a hug, "but it does flatten your hair." Harrius rolled his eyes, pulling out of Ron's tight grasp, still holding him up.
"Ronald, let's g--
"Everyone! This here is-Jams Potter," Ron clumsily shouted out to the whole pub with one arm around Harrius, "he is the Lord of Durmstrang!" Everyone started clapping and cheering; Harrius nervously looked at everyone, thinking of a way to get out of this unexpected mess. "We will sword play for your entertainment!" Ron moved back from Harrius, he could hardly keep his balance and he had trouble taking his sword out from its pocket. Harrius threw his hands up in the air confused on what to do. When Ron was finally able to take out his sword, he had to hold it straight with both hands, Hogwarts had made their sword and weapons very delicate, strong and heavy, it was never a problem for Ron until now, and his balance and grasp on the sword was very clumsily. He held it up as if he had a triumph over a battle, he dashed it towards Harrius.
"Ronald!" Harrius shouted, and with his fast reflexes he was able to dodge the move, causing Ron to fall to the floor. Harrius picked up his sword and then took hold of Ron from behind again, "Ok, that's enough sword play for you today, time to leave this pub...ergh-uh," he tried getting Ron to his feet, "Good night everyone, Prince Ronald and I must take out leave now. Come on, Ronald, use your legs." Everyone in the pub started to laugh and point at how out of it Ron was.
"Come on, Jams, we were just getting s-started," he moped.
Harrius almost literally had to drag Ron all the way back to the Romanian castle and up to his room on the top tower. One of the guards opened the door for him and he walked through with Ron; who thought the whole thing was amusing,
"Get a hold of yourself, Ronald! Don't forget we're here on duties," Harrius said, helping him onto his bed. Ron slammed his face and buried it in his pillow,
"Don' wanna marry that s-slut!" he exclaimed into his pillow, "she probly' can' speak proper English!" Harrius who was sitting on the chair, looking exhausted just shook his head at Ron's drunken opinion.
"Neither can you," he thought.
"Calm yourself, Ronald. Get changed and get some rest, I don't want to have to be here with you all night," he said taking off his robes and slinging it over his shoulder. And before he knew it, Ron had been snoring with one hand hanging off the bed and his mouth wide open. Harrius laughed even though Ron gave him quite the night…at least half the night. He sighed quietly walking out of the room to let Ron sleep for the night and sober up, while he headed off to his own room for the night.
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Ron rolled around on his bed; he groaned putting his hand on his head, which was aching horribly. The door opened and Harrius stepped, he closed the door accidentally causing it to slam. Ron jumped and held his head.
"Harrius! Don't do that." Harrius laughed,
"Sorry, Ronald," he apologized, "so how is my drunken Prince this morning?" Ron groaned again, trying to sit up,
"My head feels like it's been trampled by a dozen horses all night…was I really that drunk?" Harrius eyes widened and he nodded his head,
"Ronald, you were pretending to sword play on a table and you were calling me Jams…yes you were that drunk," he replied to him, "What got you in that condition anyways? You seemed just fine when I left you, which I clearly shouldn't have done." Ron sighed still clutching his head, he was wondering the same thing, and there were a lot of reason why he drowned all his sorrows last night in the goblets of beer.
"I...I guess I just had a lot of things on my mind, and they were just to frustrating to handle…and I thought if I had a few swigs I'd feel better, I didn't think I'd get drunk," he lazily said. Harrius sighed he walked over to Ron with a wooden bowl in his hands, it was filled with cold water and had a red cloth in it, he drained the water from it,
"Here put this on your forehead for a while, you git," Harrius said, trying hard not to laugh. Ron opened the cloth and placed it over his face so it was covering it completely.
"So…how was your night, mate?" he asked through the cloth.
"Well apart from having beer spilt all over my faces and robes and also having to drag you all the way up to your room…it was pretty nice actually."
"And who was that girl I saw you talking to? The red head, she's all I could remember from last night?"
Harrius blushed the tips of his ears went scarlet as Ron's often did.
"Oh, um…" But he was off by the door opening, the guard walked in he bowed his head, before making way for someone to walk in, it was Cedric Ron's messenger. The guard closed the door behind him. Harrius immediately walked over to him,
"Cedric, what're you doing so far from Hogwarts?" Ron then pulled the wet cloth from his face and looked over at his messenger standing by the door, he was still feeling dizzy from his headache, and he could see double-vision,
"Cedric, what're you doing here? And…who is that beside you?" Cedric looked confused; he took a glance behind him to see who he was talking about,
"I beg your pardon, my Prince?" Harrius sniggered under his breath, looking at poor Ron laying there defenseless on his bed, with a headache.
"Um…never mind him, Cedric. Anyways, what's wrong?" Cedric had a panicked look on his face; he didn't know how to put it,
"Well I had to come to you in person, it was so risky to tell you this by post…L-Last night, I witnessed an attack--
"Attacks happen everyday at Hogwarts, Cedric," Ron said from the bed. "It's no fuss--
"But this is not like anything I've ever seen before, Prince Ronald…almost like a diversion," Harrius now was looking concerned and so was Ron, "a peasant was raped and attacked—
"WHAT!" Ron exclaimed, causing him to fall off the bed.
"Oh!" Cedric scurried over to him and helped him up along with Harrius. Ron clutched his head but was furious; Harrius knew where this was headed,
"A PEASANT! WHAT PEASANT! CEDRIC DID YOU SEE WHO IT WAS?" Ron was now yelling not caring that it made his head feel even worse. Cedric put up his hands,
"All I know is that she was a girl that works in the fields," he said. Ron thought he was about to be sick, he sat down on the bed burying his face in his hands, he wasn't crying but his breathing now labored,
"Oh, God!" he muttered. Harrius sat next to him, and put an arm around him.
"Ronald, Ronald, relax we don't know for sure that it was Hermione," he said, wishing he could be positively correct, Ron raised his head to look at Cedric,
"Cedric you have to know more! Describe her, clothes, face, hair, anything! Please," he was now backing away from Ron, trying to find someway to remember, his eyes widened; he stuck his hand in his yellow robes and pulled out something silver.
"I found this next to her, she was unconscious," Ron took the silver object from him with a shaky hand; Harrius looked at it over his shoulder. It was the pendant that had the initials, H.G. on it. Harrius hadn't recognized it but knew immediately it was Hermione's from the initials, he looked at Ron who face was turning hot red, and began to shake in fury as he traced the dry blood that was on it.
"H-Hermione…oh, Jesus…BLOODY HELL THIS IS HERMIONE'S PENDANT! WHY DID IT HAVE TO BE HERMIONE?" Ron clutched the pendant to his face looking like he was about to explode. "H-Has she regained conscious?" Cedric looked down, clearly giving a gesture answer to Ron and Harrius. Ron's breathing was now heavy, he had this look in his eyes, which was never before seen, his face was getting beat red, even Harrius was frightened by this look, Ron screamed in torment he grabbed the chair nearest to him and threw it out the glass window with all his mite. Causing the glass to shatter all over, he then grabbed the glass vase on the table and threw it against the wall. "SON OF A BITCH! I'LL KILL HIM, AND WHOEVER ELSE THAT WAS INVOLVED IN THIS! THEY'RE GOING TO PAY! WE'RE GOING BACK TO HOGWARTS NOW!" Ron threw on his cape and tied it up; Harrius had never seen him like this before but couldn't even attempt to reject, "Come on Cedric!" Ron yelled grabbing him by the collar and running out the door, with Harrius running behind them. Ron pushed his way through everyone to get to the castle's exit, he did not blink once, and his eyes were red from fury all he could think about was Hermione laying unconscious on the bed in the hospital wing without him by her side. While he was getting drunk and making a fool out of himself at the pub, she was tortured by God knows who. The Lords saw the three heading out of the castle and quickly ran to catch up with them,
"Prince Ronald, where are you going?" Ron yanked his arm away from them nearly pushing them over. He didn't bother to tell them or the King or Queen where he was going, he headed towards the stables, hopped on his horse Cedric stumbled to get on, but tightly clung onto Ron, not wanting to fall off.
"YA!" Ron yelled taking off his Harrius following close behind him on his horse. While riding through the town, something caught Harrius's eye, he saw Ginny walking around with props in her basket along with the flower he had bought her yesterday. Ginny looked up at him and waved as he rode off; Harrius smiled and wove back at her, he hardly knew her but he was desperately wishing that he didn't have to leave so soon. He kneed his horse for it to go faster to catch up with Ron, who was riding as if he was about to clash into battle. It took nearly four hours to get back ton Hogwarts, but luckily it won't be late at night.
"I should have known something like this was going to happen, why did I leave?" Ron asked himself, while riding, "they wanted me gone on purpose!"
Hermione was the only thing that was on Ron's mind all through out the long ride home.
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Ron and Harrius left their horses in the stable near the castle; they ran into the castle up to the hospital wing as fast as their legs could take them. There were a lot of nurse and guards standing around the door way of the room not wanting to let them in.
"LET US IN NOW!" Ron demanded, "HOW THE HELL COULD YOU LET THIS HAPPEN!" He and Harrius pushed through the little in crowd. It was as if Ron's heart stopped in an instant beat, he stood there paralyzed as he saw Hermione laying there unconscious with one of the nurses wiping the blood from her forehead. Harrius stood there his reaction and emotions were the exact same, only Ron's were stronger and more emotional. Ron let a silver tear drop from his eye as he watched Hermione lie there motionless. Ron walked over to her bed side he sat on the bed and took her hand in his,
"Her-Hermione? It's Ron, c-can y-you hear me?" he asked, he raised her hand to his face. "Harrius… do you think she can hear us?" Harrius sighed and shrugged his shoulders, almost close to tears himself. Ron looked at the scar on her head he turned to the nurse and asked, "Nurse, what happened to her head?" The nurse shook her head not knowing; Ron leaned forward and examined the gash on her head, he sighed frustrated and banged his hand on the bed side table, he turned to Harrius, "It was a flail, Harrius, she got hit with a bloody skull flail!" Ron and Harrius were shocked, furious and speechless all at once. Ron now hadn't only let only one tear slip from his eye, but now they were all let go. Harrius sat next to him and put a hand on his shoulder. If the chances of Hermione being unconscious for weeks were true that would give him a depression that he never had before. "I'm going to find out who did this to you, I-I swear." The nurse was looking at the two boys confused, on why they cared so much about someone who doesn't have one inch of royalty in their blood, but just let it by. She stepped forward and said,
"I'm afraid; we're going to have to take her into another room…so I can treat her better." Ron shook his head without taking his eyes of Hermione,
"She's not going anywhere," he scolded. But the nurse had already taken hold of her hand,
"Do you mind helping get her back to the fields?" Ron stood up in front of the nurse so she had no contact with Hermione,
"I SAID SHE'S NOT GOING ANYWHERE! DO-NOT-TOUCH-HER!" Ron uncontrollably took his dagger out and pointed it at her, Harrius quickly stood up and went to restrain his arm, getting him to put the dagger down,
"Ronald, don't! Hermione will be fine!" Ron's face was boiling red from anger, but looked at Harrius and then Hermione, he sighed and lowered his dagger, "Nurse please I do agree with Prince Ronald, we would like to keep her in this hospital wing in the castle." The nurse nodded seeing how they cared for Hermione deeply,
"And I'm sorry I almost got violent, nurse…it's just I-I really care about Hermione," Ron apologized, the nurse nodded. Harrius was afraid that if Ron stayed in here any longer he would explode and just snap. He patted him on the shoulder,
"Ronald, why don't we go outside for a while?" Ron was about to object, "-listen, Ron we can come back later, but Hermione needs her rest she needs to get her rest. And us grieving here won't make things easier…trust me, Ronald." Ron looked at Hermione again, it broke his heart he would lose it if he she didn't get well, he nodded his head at Harrius. Before walking to the door, he bent down and kissed her cheek, and whispered, "I'll be back later, Hermione I promise. Stay strong." Harrius kissed her cheek as well and walked out with Ron behind him; Ron looked back t her one more time before walking out the door. They headed out to the streets to do some brainstorming,
"Harrius we have to find the person, or people who did this to Hermione," Ron replied, "Cedric said it was some type of diversion." Harrius nodded, wondering where to start, but Ron had already been off. He was headed towards the cotton room, Harrius hadn't even seen him take off, but just followed behind him. He was curious on what or who Ron had in mind, but knew if he didn't stay with him, he would just loose it and possibly get violent. Ron roughly pushed open the door, which made the butcher jump in fright, he clutched his collar and pinned him against the wall. "WHAT HAPPENED LAST NIGHT! DID YOU ATTACK ONE OF THE GIRLS THAT WORKS IN HERE IN THE EVENINGS!" The butcher rapidly shook his head denying it,
"No, no! Prince Ronald, I did no such thing! I heard of the incident, but I had nothing to do with it," he stuttered through Ron's tight grasp on his pullover. Ron didn't let go, he wasn't buying any bit of it for a minute.
"I've seen the way you always shoot those suspicious look at her…" he trailed off when he felt a hand on his shoulder, Harrius had stepped in,
"Ronald it just occurred to me…butchers can't purchase any kind of flails," Ron thought about it for a second when he figured that fact was correct. Butchers or any other servant to the castle weren't allowed to purchase weapons like that without a royal's permission. He hastily let go of the butcher's pullover and walked out…still on the hunt. Harrius caught him by the arm before he went anywhere further. "Listen, Ronald, I know you're furious about this. So am I feel like I can just break something, but you have to control your temper or we might get into trouble," said Harrius. Ron sighed and nodded, he knew he couldn't go rounding on random people of Hogwarts unless he thinks they were involved it what happened to Hermione while he and Harrius were in Romania.
"Yeah, I guess you're right, mate." Harrius smiled and patted him hard on the shoulder and gestured him to follow him. "I'm trying to think who would to something like this to Hermione. I mean some of my guards can be tough and greedy but- nothing like this." Harrius nodded, but cleared his throat not wanting to waste any valuable time in one spot, he gestured Ron again to keep moving. Not bothering to take their horses, the two walked through the cobblestone streets suspiciously looking around them for anyone who might show the first sign of either being a witness or a suspect. But everyone selling in markets, purchasing items or plainly just wandering around just seemed to leisure and innocent.
It was just about to get dark, Ron and Harrius had been searching everywhere from castle property to peasant property in the fields, and they hadn't found anyone who was involved in the set up. It made Ron even more feel more hurt and full of anger; he thought that after 2 to 3 hours of searching he and Harrius would've found the person, but instead they just got a walk back to the castle.
"We'll find them, Ronald, don't worry," Harrius said, "we just got back; there's still some places we haven't traced." Ron was heading back to Hermione his common to stay by her side for the night.
"I'm not worried; I know we'll find the gits," he replied, "I'm just worried about Hermione…s-she doesn't have a lot of time."
"Ronald, come on don't say that, she just needs the treatment and her rest," Harrius said, wishing what he said was the truth. Ron didn't say anything but just opened the door to his common room where Hermione was being treated. The nurse was still treating her unconscious body; the blood was cleaned off but still hadn't made the gash on her head look any better. Ron rose up his hand for the nurse to come to him,
"Tell us, nurse, how is she? Honestly?" he asked with an anxious look on his face. The nurse sighed; she looked at Hermione and looked back at him,
"S-She's stable, but…" she paused, "the gash on her head is very deep and severe." Ron looked at Harrius very saddened. "I can keep her on my treatment but…I don't know if it will work permanently." The nurse walked off back into her little room without saying another word, not wanting to upset them more. Ron nervously ran a hand through his ginger hair,
"Harrius, she could d-die, and we might not be able to do anything about it…I'm g-getting scared," Ron was starting to go red again in anger, "Bloody hell, there's got to be something we're missing, something that's really obvious!" Harrius nodded putting his hands on both Ron's shoulder to get him to relax. Ron calmed down after a while, he just had to have a little faith Harrius had told him. Harrius then raised his eyebrows and reached into his robes, and pulled out Hermione's silver pendant which was cleaned very well,
"Here, I took this to a cleaner in the market all the blood is gone, so I was thinking you might want to keep it until-…until when she wakes up." Ron smiled at Harrius and took the pendant from him, he sighed,
"Thanks, mate, that was really nice of you," Ron scrunched up Harrius's already messy hair just for the fun of it. "I think I'll put in on her now, because she feels a great deal of sensitivity about her pendant." Harrius smiled, remembering how he had told him about her mother giving it to her long ago. Ron walked over to the bed he sat down, and put the pendant around her neck very carefully not wanting to tilt her head, he quickly clipped it on, bringing the H.G. to lie on her chest. Ron smiled softly, even though she was injured and unconscious it still didn't take away her beauty. He bent his head and kissed her at the side of her mouth. Harrius had also decided to stay the night in the common with Ron just in case anything comes up. They took off their robes so that they were only in their undershirts and they laid their heads on the bead, Ron one side and Harrius on the other, soon they fell fast asleep.
It was after hours since they fell asleep, everything was silent until, there was a creak at the door, it slowly opened. Someone sneaked in and gently closed the door; the person couldn't be seen, they were wearing a black robes with the hood up covering the face. He looked over to see Ron and Harrius asleep on both sides of Hermione.
"Great," he muttered sarcastically. He took his chances anyways and carefully walked over to Hermione, he hovered above her looking for something in particular; he saw the pendant shining through the darkness, a smirk wiped across his face. He glanced at the two asleep once again before slowly reaching out his hand for Hermione's pendant. He was able to get his hand on it but before he yank it off,
BANG! Something had clashed outside making him jump, his leg and touched Ron's face, abruptly waking him up. Ron eye's widened in fury, as he saw the person hovering over Hermione; he roughly tackled him to the ground, now waking Harrius up. He ran around the bed to see Ron on top this other person. Ron strength was to strong for this person in any way; he pulled down the hood and was surprised to see who it was.
"JULIAN! YOU SON OF A BITCH! I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN IT WAS YOU!" Ron reached for the dagger on the bedside table; he had fire in his eyes, Harrius wasn't to sure about this,
"Ronald!" he yelled. Ron turned to look at Harrius, who had an unsure look on his face,
"Don't worry, Harrius, we just have to stick by the side," he said. Harrius frowned confusingly,
"What?"
"I said, we have to stick by the side," he winked at Harrius; Harrius had soon gotten the trend and evilly smirked. Ron looked back down at a struggling Julian underneath him; he raised the dagger and stuck in his far side. Julian choked out in pain; his eyes scrunching up and soon he feel unconscious. The door burst open; Cedric came in with his hat nearly toppling over.
"Is everything alright?" he asked. Harrius smiled and patted his shoulder,
"Fantastic, we need you help, Ced." Before the three picked up Julian's now unconscious body to carry off to another place, Ron leaned down and whispered,
"Welcome to my castle, bitch."
A/N- Hoped you enjoyed this chapter, as much as I enjoyed writing, this one especially! R/R- Danielle aka dandin.
