HBP2

"Come on, where is it?" Ron opened his groggy eyes and found himself tied to a chair, surrounded in darkness with the only source of light being a flicking bulb above him. "Where is it?" Then a sound of a hand hit something causing a high pitch cry, alerting him even further.

"Hey leave her alone!" Ron shouted unable to control his bodily movements or his speech; he then heard thundering footsteps coming towards him and felt a stinging slap on his cheek. "Leave her alone!" He repeated towards the shadowed figure in the wings.

"We will kill your pretty little girlfriend, boy!" Suddenly on the other side of the room a light revealed Hermione tied to a chair and her cheek red from the slap. "Fine if you don't tell us where it is... go ahead and kill her-now." Ron's eyes opened wide when he heard a sword being drawn and was about to stab Hermione when he finally forced himself to wake up.

"NOOO!" Ron shouted as he came to a sitting position and wiped the cold sweat coming down his face. As his heart rate was slowing down, he absorbed his environment and noticed he was in his dorm at Hogwarts with all of his roommates fast asleep. Ron sighed in relief when he remembered to cast a silencing charm around his bed, not wanting to disturb his dorm mates. Ron checked the time on his watch and saw it was five thirty in the morning. Knowing that he would be unable to fall back asleep, he put on a shirt before silently walking down to the common room and to sit down on one of the comfortable sofas by the fire. Staring into the fire, Ron ran his hands through his fiery red hair and closed his eyes for a minute, not realizing that he had fallen asleep. As he was in his sleeping state, he heard his name. "Ron?" Somebody called out causing him to open his eyes and saw Hermione wearing her uniform and wearing a worried look on her face. "Are you alright? What are you doing here?" She asked Ron who rubbed his tired eyes.

"Just had a bad dream" Hermione sighed as she sat next to Ron and cupped his stubbly cheek.

"Ron, go and ask for Dreamless Potion from Madame Pomfrey." She told Ron who shook his head then hugged her tightly and sighed.

"You know I don't like to worry you love, so please don't worry about me." Ron kissed Hermione's hair as he hugged her even tighter. "I love you" he whispered in her ear making her smile as she felt Ron move from her. "I need to get dressed." Hermione nodded as Ron stood up. "Be back in a few minutes." Hermione watched him walk up the stairs to his room to quickly get changed. True to his word, Ron was back within a few minutes but having a little trouble with his tie due to his right hand still hurting. Hermione seeing his trouble walked over to Ron and tied it for him. "Thanks" Ron whispered as Hermione stood on her tiptoes to give him a kiss on the lips before smiling.

"No problem...breakfast?" She asked Ron who smiled.

"Do you really need to ask" Hermione giggled as she rolled her eyes playfully before they started walking out to breakfast; when they reached the portrait hole, Ron bowed humorously at Hermione. "After you milady" he said causing his girlfriend to laugh and curtsey back before heading to the Great Hall for breakfast.

As they were eating, more and more students entered the Great hall when Adam's bird suddenly flew in and dropped a letter in front of Ron. The two looked fearfully at each other as Ron took a deep breath and carefully opened the letter. Ron tentatively picked it up and began reading it to himself; when he was done with it, he sighed and showed Hermione the letter who read it quietly.

Ron,
I know you are still recovering but you are needed again.
We heard that the KINGS are planning to meet with the TARGET.
Go to Professor Dumbledore who will explain the rest.
Adam

Hermione blew out a sigh when she knew that Ron was going away but she was more scared that Ron would hurt himself again and maybe even worse-not return to her. Hermione's boyfriend knew that she was worried for him so Ron took her hand and kissed it lightly and whispered in her ear,

"I promise that I will be back to you safely, love…. I will not get blown up again." Ron kissed her hand again. "I'll be back as soon as I can" Ron could see that her eyes were welling up with tears causing him to take her hand and walk outside with him. When they were outside, Ron hugged Hermione tightly who started sobbing into his chest, making him sigh and hug her tighter. "Please stop crying" he hushed.

"Ron...please… promise me that you won't get hurt again." Ron sighed and whispered in her ear,

"I can't really promise that I won't get hurt but I will be safe." Hermione just cried harder into Ron's chest as he just held her. "I swear to send a Patronus to you every night Hermione." Ron then kissed her on the cheek before letting her go. "I love you." Ron left Hermione who hid her tears as she watched her boyfriend leave her.

It had been a week since Ron left and true to his word he did send Hermione a Patronus every night so she didn't have to worry. Hermione waited in the common room nightly wanting to know about Ron's condition as she bit her nails waiting when suddenly Ron's Jack Russell terrier came in and his deep voice spoke.

"Hermione- hey I'm alright but tired, I have only dislocated my right hand again by our lovely assassin that works for KINGS but hopefully I'll be back soon; don't get into trouble...haha… I love you." Hermione smiled as she let out a sigh of relief knowing that Ron was okay. Hermione let out a big yawn and decided that since her boyfriend was safe for the night that she too would head upstairs to her dorm to sleep.

Ron was breathing heavily as he lay on the hospital bed while he put his wand on the bed side table. He groaned as he placed his right hand on his injury over his right lower abdominal; he was stabbed by one of the assassins when his back was turned away. He hated lying to Hermione but he didn't want to worry her even more. As Ron was lying in the bed, he saw a folder dropped onto his lap and saw that it was Adam (who wore a cast on his left hand), wearing a sad face. Ron looked at Adam and opened it to reveal a file about Draco Malfoy. Ron looked strangely at Adam as Adam answered his silent question. "He's one of them now." Ron nodded, somewhat in disbelief as he continued to read the file.

The next day, Ron and Adam were discharged from the hospital so they went to the Burrow to see Ron's parents. "Ronnie" Molly hugged her son tightly who groaned in pain causing her to let go in worry. "Sorry dear- forgot about your injury." Ron just grimaced. "When are you going back to school?"

"Tonight" Molly nodded as Arthur came in and smiled brightly as he gave his son a hug.

"Welcome home son." They all sat on around the Weasley table talking about Ron and Adam's mission, only revealing certain pieces of information as the other parts were confidential.

Following dinner that night, Dumbledore picked up Ron and both disapparated to Hogwarts to his office to speak about what he missed and what he needed to catch up on. When they had finished their meeting, Ron made his way to the Gryffindor tower; he entered the common room where he found Hermione looking out of the window chewing her fingernails causing Ron to sigh as he knew she was waiting for him to send a Patronus. Walking over quietly, Ron sneaked behind her and wrapped his strong arms around her waist and kissed her on the cheek causing her to look shocked for a minute followed by tears falling down her face as she cried into Ron's chest.

"You're safe" she whispered as Ron hugged her tightly and kissed her hair. They didn't know how long they were in this position but they didn't care. Hermione embraced Ron tightly causing him to groan in pain which made her pull back in shock at Ron's pained face. "Sorry, wait- what happened?" Ron sighed as they took a seat on the sofa, knowing that his girlfriend would be upset by his news.

"I was stabbed by KINGS assassin." Hermione's eyes widened and started to panic as she looked down at Ron's body. Ron, seeing his girlfriend in distress pulled her closer to him and tried to calm her down. "Hey, shhhh, I'm sorry love- I didn't want you to worry about me." Hermione tearfully nodded and laid her head on Ron's chest, trying to forget about her boyfriend's injury. They lay like that for a few minutes when finally Hermione spoke.

"Just glad you're okay love." Ron smiled as they embraced each other tighter. Ron and Hermione were still holding onto each other as Ron looked down at his watch and realized it was time for bed. He gently shook Hermione awake who had fallen asleep on her boyfriend. Ron smiled down at his girlfriend and gently shook her. "Hermione" Ron whispered in her ear "as much as I would love to stay like this with you, you need to wake up before someone sees us like this." Hermione sighed as she opened her big brown eyes and yawned before stretching as Ron got up and walked her over to the Girls dormitory staircase. "See you at breakfast tomorrow morning." Hermione nodded and groggily kissed Ron on the lips before before walking up the stairs as Ron slowly made his way to his own dorm.

"Ron?" someone called out as Ron tied his tie. "Is that you?" Ron turned to see Harry who was rubbing his tired eyes and frowned at his best mate. "Where have you been?" He asked his best friend angrily who looked at his emerald eyes and in his mind was explaining to himself:

"I was sent by Dumbledore to try and track down Voldemort and KINGS and try and help you for next year." Harry just stared at Ron unblinking; Ron knew that if Harry knew that Dumbledore had sent him on a mission to find the Dark Lord that he would be angry so he just took a deep breath and said, "I was with Adam on more missions." Ron lied as he bit his lip hoping that Harry would buy the story. After a few seconds, Harry nodded which confirmed that he had indeed bought the story, making Ron feel guilty for lying to his best friend.

"You know Ron-people are saying that you are going to a special maths school." Harry playfully joked to Ron who rolled his eyes. Harry then got changed into his uniform and headed down with Ron for breakfast. Ron was eating his breakfast (scrambled eggs and toast) while sneakily looking at Draco in his peripheral vision. Ron could see that Malfoy wasn't sleeping very well and was paler than usual; he was also looking at his arm and rubbed it every now and then making Ron curious.

It was Advance Mathematics and Ron was bored as McGonagall was teaching about Advance Algebra (which was supposed to be hard but of course he no trouble with it). Ron looked at Hermione who was having no trouble either with it and smiled at her before finishing his work. After he was done, he got up and handed it to McGonagall who checked it then tutted, "Mr Weasley… I would like to see you working out your strategies, not just the answer." Ron groaned as his teacher handed him back his parchment and sat back at his seat while all the students (minus Hermione) were glaring daggers at him for finishing the work quickly. Ron, still feeling a bit annoyed looked at his parchment and had noticed something written on it: "Dumbledore's office" He looked up at Professor McGonagall who secretly smiled at Ron who nodded and quickly corrected his work to hand back to McGonagall. She took his work and grinned at Ron as he headed back to his seat to pack up. Hermione looked at Ron who mouthed, "Don't worry love" as she just smiled a bit at him. He then grabbed his bag and quickly made a beeline for Dumbledore's office, wondering what his Headmaster had to say.

"Professor, why did you call me?" Ron asked as he took a seat in front of Dumbledore's desk.

"Mr Weasley, I fear that I won't live very long so I must tell you this now." Ron looked stunned but nodded slowly. "The Dark Lord is growing stronger every day; there are seven things you must destroy to defeat him once and for all. I know that this is a lot for three children to take on, but I know it's you three that must kill him so he can't harm the next generation." Ron looked confused by Dumbledore's comment and then asked slowly,

"Wait...the three of us?" Dumbledore nodded. "Wait- Hermione, Harry and I?" The old Headmaster nodded as Ron shook his head in disagreement. "Sir I don't think-"

"Don't think Mr Weasley; it's you three that I know will end The Dark Lord. But you need to promise me that you won't tell Harry or Hermione yet- please Ron… can I have your word?" Ron sighed and nodded begrudgingly in agreement.

"You have my word, sir." Dumbledore smiled. "What are the seven things we need to destroy and how do we destroy them?" Ron asked the Headmaster who sighed and explained.

"Alas I don't know; the Dark Lord used it to trap a part of his soul to make himself immortal." Ron nodded as he leaned back in his chair and pinched the bridge of his nose. "One of the Horcruxes was Tom Riddle's diary- the one that Harry destroyed in second year." Ron nodded again. "Now I only told you and Adam about this information Ron- no one else knows." Ron sighed as he ran his hand through is fiery hair. "That is all Ron- you may go and join your classmates, especially Ms Granger." Dumbledore smirked as the youngest Weasley son blushed and got up to leave and head for lunch.

Ron took a seat next to Harry, looking shocked and confused. "Alright there mate?" Harry patted Ron's back which made him snap out of his trance. Ron weakly smiled and replied,

"Yeah- sorry; just have a lot on my mind lately." Harry nodded as he continued eating. As Ron was eating, he felt Hermione's hand hold his under the table while the other hand continued eating. Ron grinned at his girlfriend thinking what a lucky bloke he was to have a girl like Hermione to love him.

After lunch, Hermione had Potions class while Ron had a free period; so Ron, being the good boyfriend like he was, walked Hermione to her classroom. He and Hermione kissed each other goodbye and went their separate ways. Ron had to quickly change into his Red Archer's costume to go and join Adam on their next assignment. After he had finished changing, Ron took the Floo from Dumbledore's office to Adam's house. Ron knocked on the door as Adam opened it wearing a serious look on his face; he then nudged his head downstairs to his interrogation room, making Ron wonder what or who was downstairs. Adam then led Ron downstairs and saw that it was one of the assassins (whose eyes were covered with a black handkerchief and was tied to a chair) that worked for KINGS. Ron took a deep breath as he stared at the person who had sent him to hospital. Mason Jasper had greasy black hair that moved around everywhere and wore a star earring in his left ear. Ron clenched his fists and nodded as Adam removed the blindfold to reveal his dark green menacing eyes. He smirked at Ron and said,

"Well, 'ello Weasley…thought I had done you in- I thought I would be able to now take a stab at your bird-what's her name? Granger?"

Ron just clenched his fists tighter at the mention of Hermione's name coming from his disgusting mouth.

"Quite good looking girl you 'ave" Ron punched him in the face hard, making him laugh evilly as he continued, "Too bad she's a filthy Mudblood-sure looks good enough to fu-" Ron lunged at Mason and threw his hands around his neck causing Adam to intervene and pry Ron's hands off the guy's throat.

"STOP" Adam ordered Ron who sighed and calmed down. Mason gasped for air but continued to grin menacingly. "I swear I won't hold him back next time you son of a bitch." Adam warned Mason who just looked smug and leaned back on his chair legs and put his head to the side, looking at Ron.

"You won't get me to talk" Ron and Adam smiled at each other as Adam asked Ron something loud enough for Mason to hear.

"What do you think- icy water, burning fire, or the sky?" Ron smirked as he looked at Mason's face turn white at Ron's answer.

"All of them…" Mason, not looking so smug anymore, gulped in fear. "I think we should start with the water." Adam smiled then teleported them to a freezing climate- the Arctic and Mason started to shiver in his chair as Ron and Adam just stood there unaffected. Ron made a large hole in the icy lake then whispered angrily at Mason as he freed him from the chair.

"This is a little payback for calling Hermione that, you tosspot." Adam then tied a thick piece of rope around Mason's body as Ron pushed him into the icy cold water. Mason was kicking frantically upwards to stay afloat but the water was so cold that he felt like he was being pierced with a thousand needles; his breathing started to become more shallow as Ron kneeled next him and growled in his ear,

"Ready to talk?" Mason shook his head vehemently as Adam knew they couldn't break him this way. Adam then pulled Jasper out of the water and looked at Ron who said, "Sky next" Adam laughed at Ron and then teleported the three of them to another location where there were Pegasus's ready to fly. Mason looked at the creatures and a look of panic crossed his features as he saw Ron tie one of his feet to a rope and got on one of the winged horses. Ron then kicked off as Mason started to scream in fear as Ron flew higher and was ready to cut the rope when he heard Mason shout bloody murder.

"FINE FINE I'll talk! Please! STOP!" Mason begged Ron who cut the rope that was keeping him airborne. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Ron then let the rope go and let Mason fall as he then jumped off the horse. Mason closed his eyes waiting to hit the ground but after a few minutes of not feeling anything, he opened his eyes and saw that he was back in the interrogation room and was unharmed. "What the hell happened? What did you do to me?!" Mason screamed at the two who said nothing and ignored him. Mason was still shouting obscenities at the two heroes when he suddenly saw Ron pick up his bow and transform it into a sword. Ron then slowly walked towards Mason who fearing for his life, finally blurted out everything he knew. Feeling satisfied with the assignment, Adam looked at Ron who still was approaching Mason with the sword. Ron looked at Adam and sighed and dropped the sword. Adam patted Ron on the back and said goodbye to him before going back to Hogwarts.

When Ron walked into the common room, he saw that it was only Hermione there (who of course was reading a book) while the other students had gone off to Hogsmeade for the day. "Hermione" What are you doing here?" Ron asked Hermione who looked up from her book and gave Ron a hug.

"You kind of disappeared so I was worried." Ron sighed and hugged her tighter. As he was hugging her, a leather book fell out of Ron's bag; Hermione bent down to pick it up, curious as to what it was. "What is this?" She asked Ron who smiled and said,

"Open it" Hermione flicked through the pages and saw that it was filled with beautiful hand drawn drawings of mostly her reading, smiling, talking etc. She also saw that there were some of Cora, Nicky and Ally playing and smiling as well. "I drew them when I couldn't sleep on my missions" Ron smiled. "I know they aren't very good-" Ron started but Hermione interrupted him.

"Don't be silly Ron; these are amazing!" Hermione playfully lightly hit Ron's drawing book on his head making him smile. "People would pay a lot of money for these, love." Ron feeling good about Hermione's praise dove in for a kiss to which Hermione responded enthusiastically back. But as Ron was kissing Hermione, he could only think about the filthy things Mason had said about Hermione, causing him distress and worry that maybe sparing Mason's life had been a mistake after all.