Birthday Present: Chapter Thirteen

Darkness surrounded them. Not a single Lumos would work. She, Ron, and Neville were just ambling through it, trying to find where it ended. They could hear the death eaters, cackling as they walked by, but didn't dare fire off any spells. She was gripping neville's upper arm, and Ron had a hold on her jumper, not wanting to lose one another.

When they finally emerged into a corridor with light, there were no death eaters in sight.

"Peruvian darkness powder" Ron muttered, staring at the hall they'd just come out of. The blackness sat there like a dark curtain, seeping out towards them.

"Fred and George's?" It was Neville who had asked. Hermione knew of course, but she couldn't find it in her to speak.

"Yeah, that lot could see through it, or at least Malfoy could and he was leading them. That dumb hand he carries around…."

"The hand of glory," she finished for him. "It gives light only to the holder."

Ron nodded grimly and gestured to the map. She opened it once more and immediately found the line of footprints Malfoy was leading.

"Alecto, and Amycus Carrow." She read aloud and then the names she recognized, "Rowle, Gibbon,Yaxley, Selwyn, and Greyback" she breathed.

Neville looked as though he might puke, but Ron suddenly got excited.

"But look the order's here!" his finger trailed the words Remus Lupin, and William Weasley, on the map, only a few halls from where they were now. They didn't wait to take off in that direction.

She was locked in a fight with the male Carrow when she saw Harry trying to push through the fight. The sight distracted her for just a second too long. She hit the castle floor, but managed to keep hold of her wand. Still the death eater toward over her.

"Cru…" she braced herself for the pain that was to come, knowing she would scream and hating herself for it.

"Impedimenta!" Harry's spell stopped the brother short and as he fumbled, her friend helped her to her feet and took off running through the fighting once more.

"Harry!" she called, running with him. "Where are you going?"

"Snape!" he shouted "I have to catch up…" whatever he said next was lost in the sound of a booming. The tall blonde death eater had been shouting curses in random directions, so she wasn't surprised when the ground shook and she stumbled.

Hermione tried to gain her footing and go after Harry once more, but her eyes caught on Neville lying on the ground. She raced to get to him.

The witch was knocked off her feet only yards away from her friend. A spell had hit her in the side and she rolled a few times. It seemed her luck was running out. For the second time that night a death eater had her under him. This time it was the blonde, and it was probably the only spell he'd actually aimed at anyone that night.

"Avada Kedavra" he screeched just as she got out.

"Stupify!"

She could see the green flash, flying directly towards her eyes, and then she was yanked suddenly away by two hands, hauling her by the shoulders.

The girl didn't even wait to see who had saved her. Snape had screamed something and the death eaters were running away now. She began running after them, shooting hexes faster than she could think of them. Her heart was racing and it was all she knew to do.

As she neared the end of the hall, where Harry had disappeared a minute ago, she stopped short.

A body was lying face down in the hallway. Tattered robes concealed their form, but vibrant red hair spread around their head, like a halo.

Lupin rushed passed her then, to cradle the person, but all she could do was turn on her heel to look for him. Their group looked much smaller now than it had during the battle, but she searched every face. Surely if he had been here, she would have seen him. Then again, she hadn't seen Tonks until just now as she looked through the crowd.

Ron's face startled her for a moment. Between his height and the blood smeared across his face (from what looked like a broken nose, apparently his luck ran out as well) he looked shockingly like George. She whipped to look at the person on the ground once more, her breath caught in her throat.

Remus voice was what brought her out of her daze. "Bill!" he shouted shaking the person on the floor. Once it was clear that he would not be getting up on his own the ex-professor levitated him. "We need to get him to the infirmary, immediately."

She stood there, the rest of the army and the order passing her by to follow Lupin to the infirmary. Ron ran straight past her, in an attempt to reach his older brother. It was Neville that took her arm at the end of the line of people and led her along.

Harry spoke for ages. He told the entire story, from arriving with Dumbledore, to witnessing his death, and finding his body below the astronomy tower. She only listened through half of it. The news of the headmaster's death was shocking, but only for a minute.

Dumbledore had always struck her as the type to be surprised by nothing. She doubted even this had shocked him. From the way he'd been acting lately, she actually wasn't in shock.

That wasn't the right way to put it. She was in shock. The witch kept glancing back and forth between the brothers currently present. Ron's face was a bloodied mess, but Bill's was only blood. If someone hadn't told her she never would have guessed it was him.

There was a brief argument between Mrs. Weasley and Fluer, when they arrived, but her brain didn't possess any of the words. She only stared at him in wonder. From the way Madam Promfry spoke, it was clear he would survive, but not in the same state as he'd been before. The medi witch was still running around doing everything in her power to heal the cursebreaker, so it was obviously bad. Lupin was arguing with Tonks, and she only stared at him.

When Ron touched her shoulder, and asked if she needed anything, she realized that he hadn't yet been seen to. His nose was as crooked as it could be, and he hadn't even mopped up the blood. It was drying above his lips, in the most unattractive fashion possible.

She didn't respond, only pulled him to another bed, far from the others and closed the curtain.

"Mione?" he asked, watching her warily.

"Relax, I just wanted to feel a little…. Separated from that. So I could concentrate."

She pulled out her wand and his eyes went wide.

"Don't worry, I've helped Promfry in here before, I've done a dozen broken noses. And she doesn't have the time to see you right now"

He sighed, and then immediately scrunched up his features in pain.

"Merlin, does that hurt."

"You did a good job pretending it didn't in front of everyone else," she murmered silently practicing the wand movement. It had been a while since she'd come in here. Last year she'd decided to help after quidditch practices were held, but this year she hadn't had time.

"Oh yeah?" he asked, giving what should have been a smirk and turned into a grimace. "Do you think the death eaters were scared" he joked.

"Positively terrified" she said back "you are the scariest looking panda I've ever seen"

It was true, his eyes had become rimmed in deep purple since the break had been left.

He gave a small chuckle and them let out a muffled 'ow'.

"Alright, alright" she giggled and leaned over him on the bed. "Hold very still or I might end up misplacing your jaw"

"Wha-" he said as she grabbed hold of the end of his nose and quickly cast the spell.

Hermione could feel and hear the bones sliding back into place under her fingers. It was one of the most terrifying and most interesting feelings in the world. To know that you were moving something within a person's body, without even touching it. She'd once tried to explain the sensation to her parents and it hadn't worked well.

"You must know sort of what I mean" she'd said after trying a couple of times to explain it. "You're dentists, don't you ever get a strange feeling when you're fixing someone's teeth"

"Well I suppose it was fascinating when I first started working" her mother had responded, pushing her chicken around on her plate. Hermione remembered she hadn't been feeling well that night.

"Yeah, by now its sort of just work" her father shrugged, "Doing something for so long numbs the interesting aspect of the job. No matter what you do"

"Do you not even remember though?" she'd asked desperately.

"I'm afraid to say I don't" he laughed, and her mother had agreed.

Hermione pushed back the memory of her parents, and let go of Ron's nose. She blushed realizing she'd been looking straight into his eyes, but not really seeing them at all.

"It looks good" she said before even glancing at his nose. The witch hurried to grab a washcloth and return to wipe off his face.

"Actually it looks really good" she said again, a bit in shock as she removed the blood marring her view. "I think it looks better than before"

"What?" Ron asked and stood from the bed. He rummaged through the drawers and finally found a mirror in the bottom one. "Bloody hell Hermione" he muttered looking at his face. "You fixed my nose, even the nurses at Mungos couldn't manage that"

She'd heard the story of how Fred and George had turned his teddy into a spider a million times, and how he had run into a tree in fright. His second oldest brother had done his best to fix Ron's nose before their mother could see (having given the twins the idea, Charlie had also been a culprit, even if he'd only meant it as a theoretical joke). Unfortunately Charlie had only ever preformed the spell on his own nose, and claimed it was 'completely different' to do on another person.

It had ended up with the youngest brother having a much worse time than he would have originally. They'd needed to take him to Mungo's and the witches there had been able to fix him, but only barely. He'd had bandages over his face for a month, and the bump had never gone away, along with the slight tilt it had going to the right.

Ron ran his hand over his new nose in shock. If you hadn't known him well enough, it wouldn't be much of a noticeable difference. However, Hermione couldn't deny that his face looked much more…symmetrical. And scarily enough, much more like his older brother's did than ever before.

"Does it look weird to you?" he asked putting down the mirror.

She blinked in surprise "I suppose it's a bit strange because its different, but you look…"

He stared her down expectantly.

"You look older. The crooked looked a bit... childish"

Her red haired friend blushed and looked at the floor.

"Sorry" she whispered and reached up to wipe at the corner of her eye with her bloodied jumper. "Just tonight and all, has me thinking a lot about how we aren't kids anymore."

"Mione, I'm not going to tell you, you're wrong. You're never wrong" he laughed, "We are growing up, much faster than we should have been allowed. But it would have had to come some time, and its not as though its completely over. We all still have one last summer with our parents, one last trip to come pick you up, and then go and get Harry. Even if we aren't here next year, we need to focus on what we have left."

Blood gushed into her mouth from where she'd bit her lip when he'd mentioned summer with their parents.

"Ron, I need to ask you to do something for me"

"Anything"

"When we leave on the Hogwarts express, I-I would very much appreciate if I could just come to the burrow immediately." She stared at the floor as she spoke. The words felt robotic, and she wrapped her arms around her torso to help keep herself from shaking.

"Don't you want to see your parents, before?"

"I can't" she said voice cracking "They don't remember me" The witch rushed "They, I mean I had to send them away. The death eaters would have targeted them during the war, I couldn't risk them being found."

He stepped forward then and took one of her hands into both of his. The castle had felt cold all night, but his hands were as warm as the common room's fireplace.

"You obliviated them" he stated, more than asked.

She gave a weak nod, and then found herself wrapping her arms around him. He hugged her back tightly, and she wept into his chest. It felt so good, just to say the words aloud to someone.

As she pressed her eyes into his jumper, Hermione remembered something. This was precisely the Ronald Weasley she'd never wanted to lose in the first place. The one she'd wanted to love so desperately, just so she wouldn't lose this friend. This friend that distracted her in the situations he knew she would panic over. This friend who comforted her, even when his brother was sat on the other end of the room, with a torn up face. This friend that laughed at himself for her enjoyment, and thanked her for everything she'd ever done for him.

She came to the startling realization then that Ronald Weasley was one of the most beautiful men (he was a man now) she'd ever met. As she pulled away from his hug just a moment, Hermione adjusted to the lighting once more, she saw that did not look as much like Fred as he had just a second ago. And she did not want to kiss him at all, like she had a second ago.

"Thank you" she whispered, and leaned into the hug again.

After tonight, after witnessing how well they fought even with luck on their side, she realized that even if one of her mistakes didn't tear Ron and her apart, something else might. This war might tear them apart, tear her away from Harry or Ginny. It had already taken her parents.

There were too many things out of her control that could do that to them, she decided. The last thing she needed was to create a new one by seeing Fred. These hugs from Ron might not be around in a year, so she squeezed hard, and asked Merlin for help.

Dumbledore's funeral was more of a blur than she thought it would be. Her body had gone of course. She'd been present physically, but her mind had been in a million other places. The whole situation was sort of surreal. Of course she hadn't felt surprised the night it happened, but now she thought it was more out adrenaline and distraction. That she'd been far too put out of the situation by everything else that had happened within the castle.

Now the truth about the headmaster's death was hitting her in the face each time she looked up at that gleaming white casket. Looking at it made her want to vomit, so she stared at the ground.

That and the fact that the Weasleys were present, all except Percy. She couldn't look around without having her eyes wander to him. It had felt like a brick to the head the night she'd thought Bill was Fred. Since then, there'd been dreams, all that ended much worse than what had actually happened. They certainly hadn't helped her insomnia, or her resolution to stay away from him in order to keep her friends.

Each time she couldn't manage to stop looking at him she hoped he would look back. She just wanted a second, to make sure he was okay. Instead she looked up and locked gazes with George, who just gave the slightest of shakes, as though to tell her she needed to stop, and then turned back to look at the speaker.

After the processions, she found Ron standing next to his mother.

"Hello Mrs. Weasley," she said as she walked up to the duo, "Have you been okay lately"

As she said it, guilt bit into her just a bit. Usually Ron would allow her to have the end of his letters to his mum so she could say just a few civil things to the woman, and also check his spelling before he sent it off. Then in her letters back, she usually wrote a section for Hermione as well. That hadn't happened since Christmas, and she hoped the mother wouldn't hold anything against her.

She didn't get an answer, but the older witch wrapped her arms around her and squeezed hard enough she wondered if this was actually meant to be a strangle rather than a sign of affection.

"You never have to ask to stay with us dear," she heard the woman assure her "You are always welcome at the burrow."

Hermione gave Ron a sharp look over his mum's shoulder.

'I didn't tell her' he mouthed.

She let out a sigh and hugged her back. "Thank you so much, I really do appreciate it."

Finally Molly pulled back "It's nothing dear, I love having you around. And please, I've asked more times than I can count, call me mum"

The train ride back from Hogwarts, came all too soon, and all too slow at the same time. Her days dragged on. They filled themselves with nothing but eating, wandering the castle mindless, and horcrux research. At night she sat with Ron, and Ginny in the common room, talking mostly about Harry. The boy who lived had hardly done anything since the night in the astronomy tower. Some days he missed every meal, and it was driving Ginny bonkers, which in turn was making Ron uncomfortable.

He finally said it aloud on the one night that was fairly memorable out of her last weeks at Hogwarts.

His sister had just gone up the steps to her dorm for the night (tears in her eyes from the conversation they had just had) when he murmured slowly "I think Gin still has that crush on Harry"

She couldn't help it. Laughter had not left her body in weeks, and she couldn't hold it in. The giggles spilled out of her faster than she knew what she was doing. The concept of his shock seemed so ridiculous after hearing years of the poor girl groaning or her bed about how Harry wouldn't notice her.

"What?" he asked pushing himself up on the sofa. "What do you know"

His serious glare and questions weren't helping the situation. She heaved trying to regain her breath, only to look up at his expectant face and fall into another fit of laughter.

It came to a point where she wasn't sure how her body was still sustaining enough oxygen to function, and Ron stood clearly angry. Despite his deadly face, and multiple threats to tell him what the two had going on, she couldn't manage to collect herself long enough to form a proper sentence.

Finally he stormed up the stairs to the boys dorms, and Hermione was able to bite her lip and calm down. There was a brief moment she panicked. She had just –inadvertently- told Ron about their relationship. They had covered for her for months and one look had her spilling everything. But then her muddled, sleep deprived brain (it was nearly 3am) told her that things would surely work out between the boys, and she too trudged up the stairs to go to bed.

The next morning, she saw Ginny sitting next to Harry at breakfast. At the end of the meal, the younger witch leaned over and pecked her boyfriend's cheek, saying "Meet me at the library before dinner love?"

He nodded in agreement, and Hermione could feel Ron stiffen next to her. He didn't speak until Gin ways out of earshot. "That is going to take a little getting used to"

"Thanks mate"

And that was the end of that.

If only her love life could be so simple.

AN: I'm not sure how long I'm going to torture you all.

Review please!

Mel