~~ Chapter 26 ~~
Hope and Horrors
"There was food here a few days ago-lots of it-all along the bottom of the hillside here," Sirius said. "But the bad news is-there were lots of people, too."
"But the watchwizard said the Hogwarts kids were some of the last to go," Moody replied. "Shouldn't that make their scent stronger or something-leave it closer to the surface?"
Sirius looked uncertain. "Yeah, but..." He shook his head a little. "All right-one more round before we take a break." Sirius transformed into Snuffles and, starting at one end of the foot of the hill, started sniffing the ground carefully, walking back and forth across a thirty-foot-wide strip of grass and dirt. Moody moved along with him on the side, acting as a sort of meter of how far the dog should be in relation to the length of the area.
Snuffles was beginning to tire and seemed ready to give up when he'd covered about two thirds of the strip.
All at once, he came to a dead stop. Snapping to attention and pointing from his nose to his tail for a good thirty seconds, he then began to bounce around one point on the ground excitedly. Snuffles started barking loudly and insistently at Moody, some twenty feet away.
Moody, who had been rather lackadaisically strolling along, stopped cold as well. He watched his partner's enthusiastic expression, even as Snuffles, and approached him quickly. "Is that it, Black? Have you found Harry's scent?"
Snuffles continued to bark and wag his tail, staring the Auror directly in the face.
"Well, I didn't think dogs could smile," Moody said, sounding pleased. "But if they do, that's what it looks like. We'll see if you can follow it well enough to actually call it a lead before we notify Hogwarts. Damn, I'd love to be able to send Albus some good news for a change. Lead on then, Black."
Snuffles made one last emphatic bark at Moody. Then the huge, black dog put his nose to the ground again, not intending to lift it until it ran into the shoe of his godson.
# # #
Ron could feel his arm around her waist moving gently with the rhythm of her breathing. He pulled Hermione closer to him, reveling in her warmth and how right she felt and how very comfortable he was, sleeping next to her like this. Blimey, how I love this dream... he thought...every time I have it.
She turned until her forehead settled against his cheek, moving in her sleep to be closer to him, too. And the best part is that she wants me here with her. At least I can have her when I'm dreaming... Without waking, she sighed, and he answered by pressing his face closer.
Almost succumbing to a deep sleep again, Ron felt something tickle his cheek. He thought it must have been the large, soft pillow on his bed at Hogwarts-that pillowslip must be all bunched up again. Ah, well-back to sleep-
He felt the fluttering sensation once more. Ergh, there must be a moth in here. Then he almost gasped aloud. What if it's a-spider?Ron's eyes snapped open and he quickly wrenched his head up to search the blue and white ticking pillowcase beneath his head.
But what he saw brought him instantly awake. There was no blue and white ticking pillowcase, just a ratty old folded blanket over straw. There was no spider, and no dream, for that matter.
There was just - Hermione. Hermione, who had really slept next to him the rest of night; Hermione, who had really sighed contentedly as she tried to snuggle closer to him; Hermione, whose eyelashes had reallytickled his cheek from her eyes moving in her sleep. Hermione, who looked so...so...peacefully beautiful there next to him.
A huge, silly grin spread across his face as he laid his head back down next to hers on the folded blanket, still staring at her in wonder. He knew his grin looked completely stupid because he'd never felt more like the richest man on Earth, and he was awake enough to know that thatcertainly wasn't true. But damn, if he didn't feel like it right at this moment.
Ron wasn't sure how long he watched her, trying to absorb and keep every single thing about being this close to her locked up to remember forever. He recalled all that they had talked about last night, and what had brought them back together, and why he was here. He knew it was real, but it seemed too close to the stuff of his dreams; he kept having to pinch his earlobe to make sure he was still awake.
The warm, fuzzy feeling of the connection that tied the two of them together was still with him-the connection was still intact. Hmm, he thought, another first-didn't know we could do that either. He started to wonder if perhaps they would share the same dreams if they were connected while sleeping, but thinking back to some of the dreams he'd had about Hermione began to worry him a little.
"Arghhh!" Ron cried out as something small and hard thumped him in the back of the head-painfully. Well, I know I'm awake now,he thought as he grabbed at the site of impact.
Hermione must have heard his exclamation enough to disturb her a bit, and she rolled onto her other side, taking his arm with her.
"Ron!" said a loud whisper. "Wake up! Weasley! Now,Ron!"
Ron struggled to leave his arm with Hermione going one direction while still rolling to the other enough to see who was talking to him. The fog outside didn't permit much light to enter the little loft, but what there was spilled across it through the small window he'd made for Hermione. He could finally make out Harry once his eyes had focused-Harry, who was poised to pitch another little rock at the backside of his head, he noticed.
Harry was standing on the loft ladder, barely high enough to look over the edge of the platform, just as Ron had been doing the night before. "Long 'talk', eh, Ron? George was wondering where you were. He thinks you're off in the forest-you know-using the loo. I don't know that he's actually looking for you right now, but he will be soon if you don't show up. And I don't think you want to show up from here."
Ron's eyes widened and the adrenaline began to pump as his predicament started to sink in. If Mum ever found out...
At the same time, Hermione started to stir, coming to the realization that she wasn't alone in the blankets.
*Ron? What are you-?* she started thinking in confusion, putting her head up a little and lifting his arm from around her. *Oh- that'sright.* Hermione rolled over to face him. "Good morning," she said aloud. She smiled contentedly into Ron's face and buried her head into the hollow between his cheek and his shoulder, pulling his other arm around her and closing her eyes again.
Ron pulled his head up, shrugging with his free shoulder and grinning sheepishly at Harry. Then he turned back and spoke to her quietly. "Hermione, I haveto get up. If George comes back and I'm not down there, I'm dead."
"No! Wait! Don't get up!" Harry said suddenly.
Hermione gasped and sat up, automatically holding the blanket in front of her. "Who's that? Harry?"
Ron started to panic, unsure whether to get out from under the blankets or burrow farther beneath them. "What now? Is George back?"
"No, I don't think so," Harry replied, appearing nervous about something. "But just -I don't want to see you get out of bed. Let me go down first."
Ron was confused. "What-why? You've seen me get out of bed loads of times."
"But not after-" Harry stopped himself, looking quickly from Ron to Hermione and back, turning pink as he did so. He glanced down at the ladder, apparently to see if he had stable footing in his haste to depart.
Hermione, who had been sitting in shock and trying to wake up, gasped much more loudly this time. "Harry, you getthat thought out of your mind right now or I'll hex you so fast-" she said in a very stern tone. "Where's my wand?" She started pushing her hands around in the blankets, feeling for it.
"Well, what did you expect?" Harry asked in self-defense, stopping his descent to answer her concern after stepping down a rung . "How was I supposed to know if you two were-erm...dressed-or not?"
This time Ron was indignant. "Look!" he said, pulling loose from Hermione, flinging back the blankets and scrambling to his knees.
Harry glanced reluctantly, then let out a small sigh of relief to see that Ron was fully dressed except for his shoes. He seemed to think it even better that Hermione was dressed, too.
"I told you there'd be none of that-" Ron started. But just then they all heard the sound of footsteps on the gravel near the well.
The panicked look returned to Ron's face. He quickly turned back to Hermione, leaned over, and softly touched her shoulder. "Not that I want to go-"
"Go!" she hissed, now fully awake herself. "Go!"
Ron all but flew over the loft platform to the edge, seeing that Harry was about halfway down the ladder. He quickly assessed where George was by the sound of the footsteps, then made a decision-he'd never get down the ladder in time. Clearing the hay from a space at the edge of the platform, Ron swung himself over the edge, hanging by his hands for a moment before dropping to the floor. He and Harry both arrived at ground level a split second before George walked through the door.
"Good morning!" Harry and Ron said in unison, a little too cheerfully.
" 'Morning," George said slowly, looking suspicious when both Harry and Ron were standing together and staring at him as he walked through the door. "You beat me back here, eh, Ron? That's funny. Didn't see you anywhere out there." He then looked at Ron's arms, which were still in mid-air from the drop.
Ron glanced up, then promptly faked a yawn and pretended to stretch. "Oh, yeah," he said through the yawn. "I saw you, but I reckoned you didn't want to be disturbed. So I just came on back."
George looked doubtful of his younger brother's explanation, but walked across the room to collect the buckets anyway. "Get your shoes on-we need to bring in some water for Fred and the girls, in case they're thirsty when they wake up." George started to pick up a bucket, but stopped. Turning back to Ron, he looked down. "Your shoes are off-already-and you just got back?"
Ron tried not to look surprised at George's observation. "Yeah-yeah," he said, mentally scrambling for an excuse. "Erm-got sand in them. Yeah-down by the riverbank. Lots of sand-had to shake them outside-Mum trained me well, she did." Ron was perfectly aware that it sounded like a load of dragon dung, and that he was no more likely to shake sand from his shoes outside than kiss Malfoy, but it was all he had on such short notice.
"Sand," George said flatly. "Yeah. Right. Just-find them."
This morning was too weird already. First of all, George didn't sound like he believed the sand excuse one bit, and -how am I going to get my shoes? "Yeah, okay." Ron began pretending to search near the sofa. "They've got to be here somewhere. I'll just keep looking. Hmmm, where could they have gone?" Shut up,Weasley-you sound like a blithering fool!
The moment George turned away from him to pick up the buckets next to the stone table, Ron heard a 'Pop!" as something landed behind him. Turning around, Ron found one of his shoes sitting in the middle of the floor; he collected it and put it on as if he'd known it would be there all along.
He looked up to find George watching him oddly. Apparently, George had heard the noise, too, but luckily, he didn't seem to know where it came from. Of course, the fact that everyone seemed to have missed Ron's shoe sitting in the middle of the floor might have had him stumped, too.
"One down, one to go," Ron said, cringing as he turned away from George and rolling his eyes at his own words.
*That was an intelligent thing to say,* a familiar voice in Ron's head spoke up.
*That's it!* Ron thought playfully to Hermione through the connection. *No more smart remarks from the gallery, please, especially from my partner in crime. I'm cutting you off.*
*Just as well,* Hermione thought back haughtily. *A girl's got to have someprivacy, you know.*
George continued with his task, shoving two buckets at Ron before he walked through the door. Once he was gone, another shoe dropped from above. It hit Ron on his unhurt arm hard enough to elicit an "Ow!", which was immediately followed by a giggle from the loft.
Ron then turned to encounter an unexpected, but amused face before him at his level.
Valeria was smiling at him. She looked up towards the loft, then back at him, her smile even bigger now. "I told her she was lucky."
Ron could feel his face burning. He began to wish desperately that he was back at the granite rock pile, so that he could find a large, heavy boulder, and crawl silently beneath it.
An hour later, everyone was prepared to leave. They had rushed to find everything they needed since the fog was still rolling about in puffs outside, which gave credence to their plan of using the Portkey. But no matter how their departure would eventually come about, their rucksacks were packed and they would be leaving the little stone cottage that day.
Fred sat at the edge of his bunk, a bit more aware of the world than he had been the day before. But he still complained of a headache and sharp pains, and was unable to stand for very long without getting dizzy.
"Are you sure you're not wearing mine?" George was asking him, still looking for his long-lost sock.
"I may have had a sharp knock on the head, but I know these are my socks that my feet have been in since we've been here," Fred replied. "Unless, of course, my feet were tampered with yesterday, when I was unable to defend myself." Fred began to look around the room. "You know, I vaguely remember Hermione being here then-maybe she just couldn't keep her hands off me. Unless...I remember Harry being here, too, but I don't think he'd-"
"As nutters as you are after that little mishap with the firewood-maybe you're wearing three and don't know it," George pressed on, ignoring Fred's response. "Let's have a look..."
Ron shook his head and walked away from his brothers, unable to believe that the twins could be shrewd enough to run their own business, but so mental about a sock. He walked over to the stone table, where Hermione was rearranging and re-packing some of the items inside her rucksack.
"Have you talked to George yet? About your going with the second group?" Ron asked.
Hermione looked up at him and bit her lip, just looking into his eyes for a long moment. Then she shook her head 'no'.
"Hermione-I thought we agreed."
"You agreed-and I can't, Ron. I told you-I cast most of the spells that we're not sure about. Fred might be able to help me a bit if we get into trouble. And I've already talked to Harry-he knows it might be a little-rough. Then I can help George from the other side-we've been through this-" She looked into his eyes. "There are things you have to do, and things I have to do-and this is one of mine."
Ron searched her eyes - he couldn't very well argue with that after all they'd been through with Valeria.
"So- we're ready?" George asked, holding his rucksack over one shoulder and helping to support Fred with the other arm. "We'll be outside. I have one piece of the Portkey-Hermione?"
"Right here." Hermione held up the other half of the orange polka-dotted fishing hat.
Valeria picked up the seaman's bag she had been given on board the Brigance and followed the twins out of the door.
Harry walked over to his two best friends. "Ready, Hermione?"
She nodded quietly. Ron could feel the tension she held within her even without the connection between them.
"It'll be fine," Harry said encouragingly. "If I didn't trust you, I wouldn't do it. Especially knowing about the Humpty Dumpty thing-I don't want to depend on anyone else to put me back together right."
Harry's attempt at a joke made Hermione smile a little.
Ron looked from one to the other with some irritation. "Who the bloody hell is this Humpty Dumpty?"
Harry raised one eyebrow at Ron's growing irritation. He apparently noted the sparkle in Hermione's eye as well. "Just this jolly good egg of a fellow-tied up all the king's horses and all the king's men for a long time-probably really peeved the king." Harry adjusted his rucksack on his shoulder and walked away from Ron's look of utter confusion.
Ron looked after him helplessly. "What?"
Hermione was smiling ruefully. "It's not important. Come on."
Looking more as if she was heading toward her expulsion hearing from Hogwarts, Hermione began to trudge across the room slowly and heavily, her rucksack at her side.
She looks like she feels completely awful about this. Bugger, I hope it all goes right. I'm certain she's done everything the way it should be. After all, when did one of her spells ever backfire? Maybe we should just walk out of here. But maybe she's right about Fred...
Just as they approached the threshold, Ron grabbed Hermione by the hand and pulled her aside, where they couldn't be seen or heard by the others.
"Are you sure you want to do this?" Ron asked, giving her one last chance to back out.
"It's not what I want-it's what I think Fred needs. And Harry- we can't let Voldemort have the chance to find him if we cross the valley," Hermione said.
There's a lot of uncertainty to this, Ron thought, but nothing we can do will improve our chances-we've covered all of our options. Since we're not sure, we might as well choose one and have faith in our choice. Okay, Weasley, no matter how else you feel now-you makeHermione believe in herself.
Ron looked directly into her eyes, dropping his rucksack to the floor. "All right, then. Listen to me-it'll work-you understand? You've used all of what you and George know to do this-and between the two of you, that's a lot. I know you're used to having books to back you up-but you've got to trust what youknow now. I do-and we'll be right behind you as soon as the Portkey will activate again."
Hermione just looked up at him, her worried eyes searching his.
"You can do this," Ron said. "Ready?"
She nodded a little.
"Not that you'll need this for luck, but just in case..." He leaned over and kissed her quickly on the lips, intending to let her turn and go. But the spin of the earth must have jolted him her way somehow because the next thing he knew he was holding her close and looking into her face.
He couldn't resist pulling her tighter into an embrace and giving her a second kiss that definitely should have improved her luck, if intensity had anything to do with it. The kiss showed her so emphatically he believed in her that the two of them didn't even notice George crunching across the gravel to stand by the door.
George cleared his throat loudly and spoke. "Nicely done, little brother-you were right on target that time. But Ron- I have to tell you, mate-much longer and you'll need a Contraception Charm for that one."
Ron and Hermione had jumped apart at the sudden voice, then both of them blushed furiously.
"Now- wait a minute-" George mused. "Last night she'd barely let you touch her, and this morning you get -that?Did I miss something?"
"You know what I'm not going to miss when we get back, George? You--being everywhere-all of the bloody time!" Ron said in irritation, collecting his rucksack and following Hermione out of the door.
Hermione walked to the makeshift Portkey site, where Harry and Fred were already standing, and took a deep breath. "What time is it, Fred?"
Fred looked at the watch on his wrist, squinting and moving it around as he stared at the numbers. "I'm not sure- it's a little fuzzy."
Ron, standing directly behind Hermione, glanced worriedly at his brother.
Hermione glanced back at Ron, then at Harry. "Swelling in the optic nerve-we've got to get him back," she said quietly. "This has got to work."
Harry nodded, but Ron thought his friend seemed a bit preoccupied with something else. Harry's brow was furrowed and he had a strange expression on his face.
"You all right, Harry?" Ron asked, to which Harry nodded quickly.
Hermione leaned over to have a look at Fred's watch. "Eight fifty-five. The default timer would have us leave at nine o'clock tonight, we set it back twelve hours; it should transport with the most power five minutes from now. Ready, you two?"
"Yeah, let's go-everything's already spinning for me-I won't even notice the Portkey adding on," Fred said, shaking his head a little as if to clear it. He then unbuckled the watch from his wrist so that they could count down nearly to transport time, then hand the watch off to George before they left. It would have to be used to time the second Portkey departure as well.
Valeria stood leaning against the wall, her seaman's bag at her feet alongside Ron's and George's rucksacks. She fidgeted nervously as she watched the group preparing to leave. No one had the courage to verbalize the doubts in their minds.
George stood next to Valeria, doing some sort of short-term Neutralizing Spell on the second half of the Portkey so that the resistance would be minimal during the transport time. Without any support from books or knowledgeable adults, they had all tried to think of how to minimize anything that could go wrong and how to enhance everything that could go right. For once, all of the boys had begun to believe that perhaps Hermione's attachment to the library was not such a bad thing after all.
Ron took note of Harry flinching again and wondered if it was his nervousness about the Portkey that was making him act so strangely. Harry had a pained look about his eyes somehow...
"Here, give me the watch, Fred," Harry said. "I'll hand it to George-I'm closer."
Fred looked in Harry's direction, apparently having a bit of trouble focusing on larger things as well. He held up the watch, waving it around a bit before Harry could corral his hand and take it from him. As soon as he let go, Fred began to stare over Ron's right shoulder at the hillside. Squinting and moving his head about to try and focus, everyone present began to worry seriously about Fred's eyesight.
"Okay, only one minute to go," Harry said, his voice a bit strained.
"Everyone touch," Hermione said after looking over at George for confirmation.
Fred touched the Portkey Hermione was holding, but Harry was balking.
George handed his Portkey half to Valeria to hold so that it wouldn't react with the one in use, then began to walk toward the transporting group to get the watch from Harry.
Hermione noticed Ron was still behind her. She glanced back at him quickly and spoke quietly. "You'd better stand back, Ron. We may need a little extra room."
Ron gave her a warm, encouraging, and loving smile before he took several steps back. "See you in a few minutes at Hogwarts. Take them home, Hermione."
As Ron moved aside, Fred continued to struggle in focusing his gaze on the hillside. Suddenly, Fred's mouth gaped open and he started shaking his head furiously . "Holy mother of-no, it can't be. It can't-not so soon-not now-"
Ron and George, thinking that something horrible was happening to Fred, focused on their brother.
"Wait, Hermione!" Ron said.
Hermione had started chanting something just seconds before to boost the power of the Portkey and shook her head urgently. "No, we can't- my hands are getting warm already. Hold on, Fred. We'll get him some help-don't worry! Harry! Touch! You have to touch! Now!"
"Not me, you gits!" Fred yelled. "Look-up there-through the fog! On the hillside!"
Everyone's attention except Harry's swung instantly back to where the fog was blowing about like storm clouds gathering for a gale. But between the dark puffs of gray, like a horrible recurring nightmare, a deathly black swarm of dementors could be seen moving slowly but certainly down the face of the far slope.
Hermione gasped through her chanting and began to breath unevenly.
Valeria's hands went to her face as she took in the sight- she pressed them against her cheeks in terror and slumped to the ground next to the wall. "Noooo!"she wailed.
Ron just stared with a look of pale resignation and muttered, "Here we go again."
Harry, his face still tensed, had held the watch out to George at the moment Fred yelled. But the instant George took hold of it in a dazed stupor as he stared at the hillside, Harry first pulled the watchband hard, yanking George off-balance behind it, then pushed him forcefully into his twin.
There were, indeed, now three people touching the Portkey- and they were beginning to fade.
"Harry! What are you doing!"Hermione shrieked between the lines of her chant. "You can't stay here!"
"Stop it, Hermione!" Fred said urgently. "Stop the Portkey! We can't leave them here!"
Hermione stared up at the hillside with tears starting to run down her cheeks. "I can't stop it!" she said between chants. "I don't know how without hurting us all."
Ron, staring in horrified awe at the black figures of doom floating down the hillside, had just heard the commotion behind him. He whipped around, trying to figure out what was happening. "What the-"
He saw a fading Hermione and Fred, and then Har-no, that was George! The very next thing Ron saw was a blur of Harry's shoulder coming at him and hitting him squarely in the chest, knocking him to the ground with Harry on top of him.
Trying to recapture the breath that had been knocked from him, Ron spluttered out, "Harry, what the hell are you doing? You've got to go! They're coming back! Get up! Get up!"
"Shut it, Ron. I'm not going anywhere," Harry said quietly.
A high-pitched shriek distracted them.
"What's that noise, Hermione?" a halfway-faded George asked quickly from the Portkey group.
Hermione was swinging her head around and looking above her. She had stopped her chanting. "I don't know. What could it be, George? Oh my word-what isthat?"
Ron panicked at the tone of her voice. "Hermione! Stop it! Stop it any way you can! Just let go! Anything!"
But she didn't act as if she could hear him. "I'm switching to Fluccio Paradum! That's got to-argh!" Fading Hermione clenched her free fist and held it over her ear, scrunching her head into her shoulders and squeezing her eyes shut tightly against the sound she could apparently hear so loudly from within the spell.
And then they were gone.
"HERMIONE!" Ron bellowed at empty air. "Fred! George," he called, more quietly at the end as he realized the futility of his words.
Harry stared stunned at the empty space as well. "Do you think-?"
Ron's face was an indefinable mix of fear, confusion, worry, and anger. He spoke quietly as if lost in thought. "I-I don't know..."
"Ahhhh!" Harry hissed, rubbing furiously at his scar. He rolled off of Ron's legs. "Sorry about the tackle-I knew you'd try and stop me otherwise."
"Now look what you've done, you prat!" Ron spat angrily at Harry in his panic, pushing himself off the ground. "The dementors are on their way, and you're still here! I can't keep eleven dementors off of you alone! What were you thinking, Harry? Neither of us knows how to regulate the Portkey so it'll work, because you've sent both of our 'tour guides' together. And look what you've done to yourself-you could be on your way to Hogwarts, safe-"
Ron heard his voice say the word. But the thought stuck in his throat. Safe?What if Hermione and his brothers weren't safe at all?
He consciously blocked the thought from his mind.
Deep breaths. Think about what you're doing now. Right now. You're here with Harry and Valeria, at least for the few minutes until the Portkey will activate. That's all. Hermione's okay-the twins are fine. Don't think beyond that or you'll never survive this to find out if they really are safe...
"So, are you done yelling at me yet?" Harry asked calmly.
"I don't know!" Ron blurted in one last outburst before the anger burned itself out and he said grudgingly, "Yeah."
"Good-because I think we may have one or two things to take care of before we can get the Portkey to activate again," Harry said, nodding toward the dementor group that had cut their distance from the cottage by half.
The two boys suddenly felt a sharp, cold gust of wind against their faces. The fog began to move around them strangely, whipping about as if being pulled from somewhere. The odd thing was, it all seemed to be moving in the same direction, instead of just moving randomly in patches as it was before. It was a very unnatural way for a natural occurrence to behave.
"The Orb, you think?" Harry asked.
Ron grimaced dejectedly. "Portkey's probably useless now. Bloody hell, Harry!" Ron said miserably. "Why did you do it?"
Harry took a deep breath and let it out fully. "Because I wasn't leaving you here alone with George and Valeria. You wouldn't have left me alone if you knew what I know, either." Harry looked his best friend dead in the eye. "He's coming, Ron. I know it. He'll be here any time now."
Ron paled and his freckles stood out more on his skin. "Not-He-?"
"Yeah-I'm afraid so."
Ron tried to comprehend their situation, then glanced back at the advancing black mass of beings. "But I don't see anything except the dementors-do you?"
"No," Harry answered, rubbing his forehead. "I don't know if he's with them. But he's really close-I can feel it in my scar."
"So, what do we do?" Ron asked. "It'll be a while before we can try the Portkey, assuming we can get it to do anything-and then it mightget through that Orb Spell, if it's still not formed enough."
"Do we haveto use the actual site, you think?" Harry asked.
"I don't know," Ron answered. "But it's the only part of the transport that'll be normal, so I'd think so. We're already going on half a Portkey, we don't have a clue how to fix it if the spell starts to waver, and who knows if everyone else..." Ron trailed off. He could tell the sadness and despair of the dementors was starting to almost flavor the foggy air around him. He was beginning to worry again...
"So that means we stay nearby and wait until it's time-not that we could outrun them forever anyway," Harry said thoughtfully. The sight of the approaching dementors kept drawing Harry's attention away from Ron.
"Don't watch them, Harry," Ron advised. "It'll make it worse. Come on-let's go inside and wait. We can check on them every couple of minutes. With me?"
"They're blind; they can't see us anyway, Ron," Harry said.
"That's not the problem. We can see them," Ron replied.
"Yeah-I reckon you're right," Harry admitted, adjusting his rucksack on his shoulders. Ron went to retrieve his own belongings and slung his rucksack over his shoulder as well.
Both boys moved to stand just inside the doorway, but watching Valeria whimpering and shaking as she sat huddled against the wall just outside really wasn't much of a relief. It took all of their willpower not to look up the hill, but they knew that the image of the dementors would only serve to weaken their already shaky confidence.
"So do we start on a Patronus, or watch the time for the transport?" Ron asked. "Can we do both?"
"I'm not sure how," Harry said. "Why don't- I'll try a Patronus, you keep track of the time."
"Right," Ron said, reaching for the watch Harry still held and strapping it to his wrist. "We must have burned five or six minutes by now. How long's it been since they left?"
"Three minutes," Harry replied.
"That's all?" Ron said. "We'll never get away before they get here!"
"Not if we have to wait fifteen minutes, we won't."
"So what are you saying then?" Ron asked. "Do you think we should try the Portkey anyway? Hermione and George didn't seem to think it would work until then."
"But they didn't seem too sure about any of it," Harry said. "Let's try, before the fog clears any more than it already has. What do you have to do for Valeria?"
"Just find her mind," Ron answered, "then link it between yours and mine, just in case. I don't know if we haveto do it that way to take her with us, but since she's a Muggle, we might-I don't know."
"Do it then," Harry said determinedly.
"Oh-no problem -should be easy to relax right now," Ron said sarcastically, closing his eyes. "Real flippin' easy..."
Though his thoughts seemed more scattered and frantic than usual, and it took a bit longer to make the connection, Ron finally had all three of them connected.
"Damn, it's going to be hard to concentrate on anything with her like that," Ron said, nodding toward Valeria. Her thoughts and feelings were rattling around inside of his head, darting in and out of sensibility. "It's like trying to hold a conversation with one person while three others are talking in your ear about three different subjects-is that what it's like to be mental?"
"Can't blame her for feeling that way," Harry responded, "but you're right. We'll have to really concentrate on each other, especially if we have to-"
"Let's hope we don'thave to," Ron broke in, not wanting to believe the worst would happen. He turned toward the door and stepped outside.
Ron approached Valeria quickly, but tried not to be overwhelming-she cringed and curled into a tighter ball as he came near. He looked down at her. She was trembling violently, her eyes dazed and frightened like an animal aware it was in the sights of a hunter. She forced her gaze up to him as she took short, uneven little gasps of air.
*The snake, Ron. Tom has the snake,* she thought to him shakily.
Ron had to force himself not to think about what she had told him. *We won't see Tom, Valeria. We'll be gone by then. But I need the Portkey.* Ron reached for the fishing hat she clenched tightly in both hands.
Surprisingly, she snatched it away from his reach, clutching it in her fists at one side. "George left. He-told-told me to hold it."
"If everything works out, we'll be seeing George right away," Ron said, wondering how her loyalty to George became so deep all of a sudden. He wasn't in the mood to play games with her, but he also realized he could make matters worse if he wasn't careful.
Valeria still glared up at Ron almost as if she didn't recognize him.
*George wants you to take it to him, Valeria,* Ron thought to her, hoping that hearing the words inside her mind would somehow help her believe they were true. *Did you see him leave? He's at Hogwarts-* Ron felt his eyes start to sting and his throat begin to close up. He took several deep breaths before he could even croak out the words that followed. *He's waiting for us.*
Ron reached down to her once more and though she stared into his eyes as if searching for something, she let down her guard. He pulled her up by her wrists, putting an arm around her shoulders in an attempt to make her move more quickly as they walked to the makeshift Portkey site.
"Okay, Valeria," Ron started, pulling her into place on the site. "You don't have to let go of the Portkey-hold onto it tight for George. Just that Harry and I are going to help you hold on so we don't lose it, all right?"
Valeria paused as if the thoughts were taking some time to process, but she eventually nodded her head and held the Portkey away from her body a bit.
"All right, it's been six minutes plus some. You think we should try it?" Ron asked.
"Why not? What have we got to lose? One thing I do know for sure is that if we wait, we won't be able to use it at all."
Ron and Harry reached out and touched the Portkey. Nothing happened.
"Damn!" Ron said. "But Hermione had to say some spell to try and boost the activation. Do you have any idea what it was?"
Harry thought a moment, then shook his head. "Not a clue. I was planning how to send George instead of listening."
They stood in silence, thinking.
"Ron-the Neutralizing Spell-the one George used on this. Did he ever counter it?" Harry asked, sounding afraid to know the answer.
Ron released a huge sigh. "Bloody hell!"
Valeria had been humming the sound she tended to make when she had enough to deal with inside her mind and could no longer cope with the outside world. Little, unintelligible mutterings also escaped her lips from time to time, but nothing that Ron or Harry could understand. It was just enough to distract them terribly.
"This is hopeless," Ron muttered. He could tell from his feelings that the dementors were getting closer.
"Dormantus transportii," Valeria said quietly.
Harry and Ron looked at one another.
"What, Valeria?" Harry asked eagerly.
"Dormantus transportii," she repeated without any emotion.
"Yes! Thank you, Valeria!" Ron said excitedly. "Can we counter that with the General Reversal Spell?"
"Try it-you've got the original now," Harry said, sounding encouraged.
Ron grabbed his wand with one hand from his back pocket and waved it briefly over the orange fishing hat they all held onto.
""Dormantus transportii! ~ Invertare Incantato!"
Suddenly the Portkey started to warm their fingers. With huge sighs of relief, Harry and Ron settled in and waited to be transported, each with one arm around Valeria's back to insure she wouldn't move involuntarily during the transport.
With one last glance toward the dementors that were only steps from the far side of the little bridge, Ron couldn't resist calling out to them gleefully.
"Sorry to leave you bloody vile little soulsuckers! Help yourself to the potato skins and fishheads!"
Harry looked wary of Ron's exuberance. "Ron, we're not out-"
The Portkey began to pop and sizzle. Sparks began to fly and the surface became so immediately and intensely hot that Ron and Harry had to let go. Only Valeria held onto the fishing hat, staring at it strangely, as if the hand holding it belonged to an entirely different person.
Ron grabbed her wrist and started snapping her hand downward repeatedly. Surely if she held onto the Portkey it would burn and melt itself to her palm and be useless to them forever (besides burning Valeria's palm severely). Thankfully without the presence of mind to resist Ron's actions, Valeria soon let go and the Portkey flew to the ground, still sparking and crackling.
"That's what it did before," Ron said.
"Yeah. George and Hermione wereright-the polarity hasn't switched yet."
Ron looked down at the watch. "It's only been nine minutes. And we have eleven of something else to worry about now," Ron said as the last dementor finished crossing the bridge. He cursed himself for yelling and alerting the dementors to their presence.
Harry looked directly into his friend's face. "Let's go in the back. I don't know if it will help, other than to keep us from thinking of them, but we might get an extra minute or two. Then we can double back on the far side of the cottage and head for the Portkey site when it's time."
"Plus we'll be away from the woodpile," Ron said. "Remember the last time? Come on." Ron gingerly picked up the now quiet Portkey between his thumb and forefinger.
Ron and Harry started immediately for the back of the cottage, pulling Valeria along in between them. Once there, they lowered her gently to the ground against the wall at the far corner, trying not to take to heart her mutterings of "the snake...Tom has the snake..."
"You'll be fine right there," Ron tried to say gently, but Valeria seemed completely oblivious to everything around her anyway. He carefully ended the connection with her mind so that he and Harry could think without being distracted.
The two boys threw themselves flat against the cold back wall of the cottage, wishing there was something else, anything else they could do besides wait.
Harry looked resigned to what was about to happen, as if his shoulders were bearing the weight of the world. In Harry's case, it could have been close to the truth. He spoke in a low, grave voice. "I don't know where he is, Ron. But he's so close. The Portkey isn't going to take us out in time. We're going to have to take a stand against him."
Ron still wasn't sure what two teenagers could do against the most powerful Dark Wizard of their time, or even their parents' time, even if one of the teenagers wasthe legendary Harry Potter.
"But there's only two of us," Ron said, beginning to feel panic from within.
Harry paused a moment and then the corner of his mouth even tilted up a bit. "That makes the odds twice as good as the last time I faced him."
Ron didn't have to see them to see the dementors were getting closer-darker and sadder thoughts were pushing into his mind...
But if we can hold out long enough to use the Portkey, will it take us back to Hogwarts or...? No, we're not going to think about that. But if anything had happened to his brothers, and especially to Hermione, he knew he'd rather suffer their same fate than go on.
That's selfish, Weasley. You're worrying about something that can't be helped. But look around you. You have work to do- no wallowing in self-pity, you don't have the luxury of time to do that. Do something for the ones that you can help. You promised to save Valeria. You and Hermione vowed long ago to protect Harry. It's the least you can do, especially since Hermione isn't here to help. You'll have to fight alongside Harry twice as hard then-for the both of you.
Ron muttered to himself as he looked at Harry. "For the both of us,then..."