Reunion
Harry broke his plank of wood, at long last, on the top of a huge man's bald head. The infected man dropped to his knees and then slammed down on his face, dead, and Harry threw down the four inches of plank he still had hold of and looked around, panting heavily.
He listened and, above the varied bangs and smashes from all over the clinic, he heard a muffled voice from inside a nearby room. It was a raised voice, several raised voices, followed by a commotion and Harry let the sound lead him down the corridor towards it.
"...what good does all of us just sitting in here do?" a raised voice shouted, a familiar raised voice, "I'm not suggesting we all go outside, just me. I can get help and I can lead help to you rather than you all barricade yourselves in here until you starve!"
"Neville?" Harry called as he ran down the corridor towards the door he thought he had heard his friend's voice coming from.
"Harry!" Neville said with great urgency, "Harry is it all clear?"
"No, stay in there, I'll come and find you when things ar-ooff!" Harry was winded as a tall figure burst from the kitchens and sprinted down the corridor towards him and then past, banging into Harry's shoulder as if he hadn't even seen him there.
Harry saw nothing but the mess of red hair and gasped, wide eyed, and spun around to gape at the narrow bare back. It was covered in freckles and blood and mud and it was unmistakeably Ron. Just as Harry was about to call after him he saw the red head glance over his shoulder and do one of the most comical double-takes he'd ever seen in his life and run straight into a wall.
Harry didn't laugh and Ron didn't flinch. They just stared at each other and blinked.
"Harry? What happened? Are you okay?" Neville called out worriedly.
Harry didn't say anything. He simply pointed behind him at the door Neville was behind and Ron nodded before pointing in the direction he had been running apologetically. Harry swallowed and nodded before calling down the corridor to his best friend, the great survivor, and pointed at him seriously.
"Stay alive," he ordered darkly, "I'm the only one who's gonna be killing you today."
Ron smiled and winked before spinning around and running on down the corridor once again.
Hermione leapt over three dead bodies slumped in a heap across the doorway and skidded to a halt in the main entrance. Panting heavily she paused and listened as carefully as she could.
There was something and nothing all at once. It was as if she could feel that somebody was moving nearby but she couldn't quite hear them. Frowning she gripped the medium sized cleaver she'd pulled out of the back of a nurse's skull and bit her lip as she turned in a circle and looked around the still clinic.
If all the infected were dead then where was Ron? Where were Harry and Neville? Something was about to happen and she didn't know what it was or where it would come from but she knew it was coming. She drew in a deep breath and let it out, cursing the pounding of her heart for interfering with her trying to listen for the next threat she'd have to deal with.
What if the next threat was Ron?
What if she had to deal with her Ron, only changed and with milky white eyes? She shuddered and told herself that Ron was a modern-day Houdini and that he could escape from anything. Something made her jerk her head upwards to the cordoned-off upper floor. She held her breath and gripped the handle of the cleaver tightly.
Thud!
She almost snapped at her heart to shut up as she listened carefully.
Thud!
She tiptoed towards the staircase the Aurors had blocked off after one of their men had been infected and then eliminated on the upper floor. She leaned around the wall and peered up the stairs.
Thud!
Just as she blinked she thought she saw a shadow passing against the wall and gasped. Her eyes were wide but now they could see nothing at all.
Thud!
She hated the silence; she wanted something, anything to drown out her heartbeat.
Thud!
She got it.
At the top of the stairs she heard a gurgling sound followed by a loud bang and then the floor shook with the thump of something heavy against the floorboards. Everything was still and silent once again and Hermione's eyes scanned the empty clinic again before turning back up the staircase. The place appeared to be clear apart from whoever was upstairs.
Telling herself Ron could be up there and in need of help she did the stupidest thing in the world and started up the stairs to the upper floor. She cringed as every single step creaked and groaned and eventually her nerves couldn't take it any more and she just thundered up the stairs noisily to get it over with.
Hermione bounded onto the upper floor, meat cleaver swinging wildly and teeth gritted but she appeared to be alone with some putrid corpses. She winced at the sight and the smell of the dead from the day before and waved a bluebottle away from her face with her hand before stepping forward.
Something had just fallen down hard and she was going to make sure that every body she could see really was dead. She swung the cleaver into the chest of the first body lying at her feet and the blade sunk in with a squelch and the body didn't flinch. Hermione shuddered and pulled the cleaver back out. It made a revolting 'shclooping' sound but she tried to shake it off and move on to the next dead body.
Just as she was about to swing the cleaver down into the back of a fallen Auror's neck she heard a creaking sound and spun around to see a salivating, white-eyed infected man with torn clothes staring at her. They both stood where they were in shock for a moment before the man roared and ran at her. Hermione set her jaw with determination and ran to meet the man, cleaver raised and ready to swing, and just as they were about to clash the blade slashed deeply across the man's throat and Hermione pirouetted around him and brought the cleaver down into his skull. The infected man fell and lay motionless.
Hermione wiped the gore covered blade off on the man's ragged shirt and then drew in a deep shaky breath and moved toward the door the infected man had come from. It was a shower block. The white tiles were streaked with red and some were broken as if a powerful impact had struck them. The fluorescent strip light flickered and buzzed as it swung from the ceiling casting moving shadows against the walls and ceiling.
A shower curtain ripped open and a naked woman, very skinny and with a flap of skin hanging off her shoulder, came screaming out and running right at Hermione with wild pearly white eyes. Hermione swung the cleaver underhand and up into the woman's neck. Blood poured from the woman's throat as she slumped and gurgled and Hermione worked the blade back and forth to ease it back out, she could see the silver glinting at the back of the woman's gaping mouth, and as she freed her weapon she took another swing and chopped the woman's head clean off.
The head bumped and rolled a little way and the sound turned Hermione's stomach but just as she was about to kick the head away from her she heard two sets of pounding footsteps coming at her from behind. She spun around and raised the cleaver.
A fierce looking man with cuts all over his face and chest was baring his teeth at her when two hands grabbed his head and turned it sharply, breaking the man's neck. The infected man fell to the floor and his white eyes rolled unsettlingly. While the filthy bare cheated figure set about caving in the fallen man's head a third infected person roared and ran at them. Hermione gulped and staggered backwards into the wall, the shower turning on above her as she knocked against the tap, and watched as the third person threw himself down towards the two on the floor.
The bare chested man who had just killed the person beneath him rolled away. The third figure landed on the dead body and began tearing at the flesh with his teeth. The bare chested man flung himself at the newcomer and they rolled into the corner grunting and snarling. Hermione stepped out of the flow of the water and lifted her cleaver.
Suddenly the two men rose up and the taller of the two began smashing the other's head into the ceramic tile. Hermione let out a squeal of shock and stumbled back beneath the water. She was shaking now. The infected were fighting over her. She'd be left with the strongest one to fend off. She inhaled deeply and gripped the handle of the cleaver.
White tiles turned pink and then red and shattered into fragments on the shower floor. The taller man was still beating the dead man's head against the wall. The muscles in his back were bulging and thick dried blood discoloured his skin. His hair was muddy coloured and his stance was like a wild animal primed for the kill. Hermione licked her dripping lips and gripped the cleaver with both hands.
She'd only get one swing at this one.
Panting so heavily the narrow but muscular shoulders rose and fell as if he was lifting weights the infected man released his hold on the dead man's broken head and watched him slump to the floor in a sagging heap. He turned his head and saw Hermione and his breath caught, body tensed, and the fluorescent light flickered between him and Hermione. Dark shadows and eerie light played across the face and she couldn't see through his hair to his dead eyes.
He suddenly ran forward towards her and she screamed and swung the cleaver at his throat.
His throat.
He had a scar across his throat.
Hermione froze just as the cleaver reached the muddied and bloodied skin of his neck. He lifted his head and looked through his filthy fringe at her with intense blue eyes. He was standing perfectly still and his arms dangled at his sides. He wasn't attacking and he wasn't infected and he was...he was...
"Ron!"
In an instant Hermione dropped the cleaver, not caring how noisily it clattered to the ground, and threw her arms around Ron. She was laughing and crying and crushing him with her hug and soon she felt him holding her back and his thumping heart against her chest and short breaths in her hair.
"I thought...I nearly...Oh let me look at you!" Hermione babbled before pulling away and cupping Ron's dirty face in her hands and trying to rub the grime away with her thumbs, "You've got dirt on your nose, did you know?"
Ron's body shook with a silent laugh before her stepped in towards her and rested his head on her shoulder, sighing deeply. The water ran down Ron's back, washing away mud to reveal bruises that broke Hermione's heart, and she rubbed her palms to ease away the dried blood from the small of his back. Ron leaned back and she could see the red of his hair beginning to shine through again. She ran her hands through it to wash all the caked mud away. She felt blood matted in his hair too and soon felt a nasty bump beneath her fingers.
"You've taken quite a beating haven't you?" She smiled at him sadly as she watched the freckles coming back to his face and ran her hands over his chest to wince at scratches and marks the mud had been hiding.
Ron lifted his hand and pulled off a homemade bandage from one of his fingers before smiling.
"That's all is it?" Hermione laughed shakily, "Just a little mark on your finger eh?"
Ron struck his left thumbnail with the pad of his right thumb twice and nodded.
"All better now," Hermione agreed and fell into his arms, holding him close to her, "you scared me so much you stubborn git!"
Ron was holding her close and they were both soaked through but didn't care in the slightest.
"When we get home," Hermione began as she looked up at him and stroked his dripping face tenderly, "I am locking you in your bedroom, tying you to the bed, and sitting on you so you can never leave my sight again."
Ron's lips curled and his eyebrows waggled mischievously. Hermione laughed and punched him in the chest before standing on tip toes and pulling his face down to meet her half way as they parted their lips to kiss.
Hermione sighed into Ron's mouth and his hands were lost in her hair. They stroked each other's tongues hungrily and then began to fight for dominance, both wanting to draw the other into their mouth as deeply as possible. Hermione ran both hands down Ron's naked back and eased her fingers deep into his flesh as she reached the curve of his arse in the tight wet denim. Ron's jaw fell opened and he gasped, she always knew just how to get him to do what she wanted, and Hermione devoured his tongue as if it was meant to be inside her mouth more than it was his.
Ron pressed his body against Hermione's and let one hand fall from her hair, sliding down her arm and settling on her waist while thumbing his way under her sopping wet and now see through blouse to touch her skin, and Hermione moaned into his mouth. Ron had some techniques of his own too.
There was a bang and a door slammed against the wall and smashed clean off its hinges. The sound made Ron and Hermione jump apart. While Hermione stooped for the cleaver Ron tired to push her behind him so he could shield her. The light flickered and a huge man with cloudy eyes saw them and ran into the shower block.
While shoving each other out of the way and preparing to defend themselves from the attack the infected man batted the fluorescent tube away to get to them. It swung out and then back but it stopped jarringly. The light swung back and then smashed into the back of the man's head with an explosion of glass, gas and dust.
The man looked stunned and swayed on the spot for a moment before slamming down on his face before the two of them. Standing behind him was Harry, holding the end of the broken light, with a fiercely determined expression on his face.
"You alright?" He asked without blinking.
Ron nodded and Hermione answered.
"Yes, fine, we both fine. Are you...?"
Harry let the end of the light go and it swung away from him. He fanned the dust in the air away from his face and made his way over to them.
"Harry don't breathe that stuff in, it's really dangerous." Hermione said as she reached for him to pull him under the shower with them to wash off the particles from the broken light.
Ron snorted silently and Harry smirked.
"Because that's the thing likely to kill me in this place eh?"
Hermione rolled her eyes and pulled both her boys into her close for a hug. She felt them holding her and each other and somehow she just knew they were still the untouchable trio. Nothing could stop them as long as they stayed together and kept their faith in one another.
"Still gonna kill you Weasley," Harry muttered, sounding slightly muffled.
"Not until I'm done with him you're not," Hermione sputtered on a mouthful of water.
Ron patted her on the back urgently and he must have done the same thing to Harry too because he was standing rigid and staring past them at a twitching body from the massacre outside. It was one of the bodies Hermione hadn't got around to checking yet. She lifted her cleaver and Ron reached to take it from her hand while Harry was trying to pull forward and out of their grasp.
"I'll take this one, Hermione give me the big chopper." Harry said without tearing his eyes from the infected man as he staggered to his feet and coughed up blood down the front of himself.
"Stop it with the one man saviour thing Harry," Hermione hissed, wrenching the cleaver away from Ron's prying fingers, "You too 'Mr Independence'. You've proved your point; you can cope on your own, now back off and let me deal with the bastard!"
The man was blundering over the bodies underfoot and Hermione was about to charge forward dragging Ron and Harry's bodies behind her as they tried to pull her back when there was a rhythmic but light thudding on the floorboards and then a flash of red fur flying across the doorway and into the man's chest. He staggered backwards and tripped over a corpse behind him before crashing out of the window and falling to the ground outside.
The three of them gaped as Marmalade barked happily and bounded over to Ron, leaping into his un-expectant arms and licking his face all over. Ron laughed and Hermione ruffled his fur, calling him a good and clever dog, and she felt glad for the first time in her life that Ron's dog hated to leave him to shower in peace.
Harry turned off the water and Marmalade shook his wet fur out all over the three of them before the whole building shook and shots rang out all over the place. They all froze and held each other until a beaming face peered in through the window at them.
"Sergeant Kerry Kerry at your service Marcel." The woman saluted Ron who laughed at her in amazement. "I got us a tank!" She said with pure delight, "Come on, get in and we'll send the boys in for the others. We're getting you all across the border en-masse."
The clambered over the bodies of the dead and Ron carried his dog all the way to keep him from getting blood on him after being cleaned off beneath the shower. Harry helped Hermione climb through the window and then took Marmalade from Ron and passed him through to her. There was a bit of a to-do over who went next but Ron slapped Harry around the back of the head and he went first, pulling Ron after him.
As they grabbed on tightly to the huge Muggle army tank Harry grinned at Ron before frowning.
"So who's this Marcel when he's at home?"
A/N So just the epilogue and this one's done!
Thanks to all the adorable reviewers and the dedicatee Shocolate, who is co owner of Mute!Ron and the only one other than me, Harry, Hermione and Marmalade who is allowed to play with him!