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Hermione sat across from Pansy in the great hall. Draco was supposed to be back from the Burrow soon. He should have been back hours ago, but he had popped in quickly, told Hermione that he would be a while longer, kissed her, and disappeared again. So, there they sat. Quite bored.
"Hermione!" Maya yelled as she ran in the room. Hermione and Pansy snapped their gaze from the book they were looking at, to Maya.
"Yes?" Hermione asked, her eyebrows furrowed and she slowly became worried at the fear behind Maya's eyes. Not much could scare Maya.
"I tried to stop him! I really did! I told him what was in the woods! He said that's why he was going! I tried everything I could! There was no way I could save him!" Maya rushed. Both of the seated girls stood and tried to calm Maya down enough for her to actually say what happened.
"Maya? Who?" Hermione asked.
"Ron! He went behind the waterfall!" Maya said, still rushing. Now, Hermione was running towards the door. What was the git doing!? Did he really think he could take on Voldemort and all his followers on his own? Was he being controlled? Blackmailed? What could they possibly have offered him or what could have possibly gotten into his head? Wasn't he supposed to be at the Burrow with Draco, Harry, and the twins? Hermione tried to stop asking herself questions and get moving.
"Maya, inform Harry and Draco. Pansy, I need you to fly overhead and make sure nothing comes my way, for all we know, Ron may not be in his right mind. Who knows the power of these people, they could be stronger than last time, faster, smarter." Hermione ordered. Maya nodded and turned on a different corridor, the way to the Slytherin common room so she could floo. Her apparition wasn't working either. Pansy turned into a bird and flew along the halls, everyone knew about them, so it didn't matter anymore, only Solomon mattered. A Wampus could not be seen roaming the halls, it would risk his life. Hermione turned into a fox and ran faster. Harry could Apparate Draco to the waterfall, unless Harry's apparating had gone out too. Hopefully not.
The forest was darker than usual, but she could smell Ron, where he had stepped. Being a animal was odd, she could smell what he ate. She could smell other animals, a wolf had ran out, only a hour ago, it was Maya, Hermione could tell. But there was another wolf. Hermione stopped running to smell the air.
"Hermione?" Pansy asked as she turned into a human next to her. Hermione looked around for a moment before turning into a human.
"There's the smell of another wolf, and Solomon is here." Hermione said. A large six legged panther walked up behind them.
"I know that smell. Hermione, you remember that wolf that attacked you? That was Bella, its the same wolf." Solomon said in human form.
"Bella was with Ron!" Hermione yelled.
"Shh! We have to be careful." Pansy said. Hermione turned back into a fox and smelled the air again, no blood. Wait. What did blood smell like? She started running to the waterfall again, she could hear the roaring of the water now, and she could see Harry, Maya, and Draco by the edge of the forest.
"You ok? What's wrong? Maya got us." Draco said, Hermione turned into a human by him.
"Ron, I don't know what's going on exactly, turn into a Lynx and smell the air." Hermione said. He furrowed his brows and did as told.
"We found something, a little bit upstream, its a sleeve from one of Percy's old shirts, I'm guessing Ron was wearing it." Fred said as he emerged from the woods, with George behind him.
"Oh my Godric." Hermione and Harry said at the same time.
"I know what he's doing." Harry said.
"H-he wouldn't, he isn't that stupid. They couldn't convince him to." Hermione said, her and Harry were tearing up. Hermione put her hand on her mouth to keep from hiccupping.
"We have to stop him before this gets too far. Hermione, me, Fred, George and Draco will go in, you three stay out here and make sure nobody goes in or out but us. Pansy, fly overhead, but the very second you see anything, get down without being seen." Harry instructed. They nodded.
"Be careful." Maya told all of them before kissing George's cheek and making her way to a good hiding spot in wolf form. Solomon followed her lose behind in Wampus form. Pansy took flight and stayed directly above the tree's, on look out for anything. The five dashed from the edge of the forest to behind the waterfall. The cave was still there. As if Voldemort wanted it there, he wanted them to come to him. Hermione's insides shivered, Draco grabbed her hand. She had a slight bit more courage with him standing there, but it was also scary. What if he got hurt? She felt his ring, he had finally gotten one for himself.
"Miss Granger." Dobby's voice called, Hermione blinked away tears, the house elf's voice gave her more strength. "Save him Miss. He cannot die, he is needed."
Hermione pressed forward, now leading the way. Dobby knew what was going to happen.
"Dobby, can you hear me?" Hermione reached out with her thoughts.
"Miss. Hurry." Dobby responded.
"What's wrong? Is Ron ok?" Hermione asked.
"I cant say, you must hurry. Miss. He doesn't have long. Make a right at the end of the hall, the same room Mr. Malfoy was in last time. Trust Dobby. Be safe." Dobby's voice faded.
"Thank you." Hermione thought before she ran.
The other four seemed to just followed her and she basically glided along the halls. She walked in a room and collapsed to her knees.
"Harry. We're too late. We're too late." Hermione sobbed. She repeated the last three words a countless amount of times. Draco got to his knees next to her and pulled her head to his shoulder so she couldn't see the scene. Fred and George were the first ones by his side. He laid motionless, not even the steady rising of the chest.
"Ron? No. No. Mum. Breathe for mum." George begged.
"Breathe for us." Fred asked. Harry leaned against the wall, his face blank, he slid down. Hermione's hearing went out, all she could hear was Ron's voice in her head.
"Your scary 'Mione. Brilliant. But Scary. She needs to get her priorities straight."
Not Ron. Anyone but Ron.
"Ron. Please. Please get up."
"We need you."
The twins continuously begged for their brother to get up, to breathe, but he made no movement.
"We have to get out of here." Draco told them. Nobody moved. Ron's mouth opened, a silver and blue wisp flew from it, it looked like a Patronus, it was a dog, as always. It walked to Harry first, rubbed its head against his knee, and walked to Hermione. The Patronus closed its eyes and looked at the floor, but licked Hermione's hand. The dog pick up her hand gently with its mouth and guided it over to Draco's. Then it looked up at Draco, nodded, and ran over to Fred and George, where Ron's body laid. It grabbed a note from Ron's pocket and gave it to George, before leaping at Fred, it disappeared the very second it hit Fred, who collapsed to the floor and was knocked out. Color flooded into his face, his hand was bleeding slightly, but he was bleeding. Ghosts couldn't bleed. Harry and Hermione's guess was correct. They knew it. Ron had traded his own life for Fred's. The reason why, Hermione didn't know. Fred was still around, and he could still perform magic just fine, why would Ron leave?
"He wrote a letter." George sobbed.
Don't try anything stupid, everyone always told me that. I was the one that was stupid most of the time. And I know that. This. Wasn't the wrong decision. Bella had offered me a potion that could make we switch lives with anyone. The first ghost to come near me was going to get its life back. Don't try and get me back, because the cost of the potion is I wont come back as a ghost. It wouldn't be long before Fred disappeared forever. He was a temporary ghost, it was only going to last a year, his year was almost over, and he was happy, I couldn't do that to Mum and Dad again.
They don't need me anymore, they have others, Hermione, Harry, Draco, and everyone else. Now there's Justin.
Harry. Take care of Ginny for me, make sure Fred and George keep their heads on straight, literally. Make sure My new niece is a healthy little girl, Victiore and Molly both. Keep my Mum safe, and make sure Dad doesn't kill himself with some Muggle thing.
Draco. Take care of Hermione. One toe out of line and I swear I will find my way back to life and give you the bloodiest, bloody nose ever.
Hermione. Be careful. Don't take on Voldemort this time. Just go, be safe, find somewhere to go that's safe. Where he wont find you. Bring everyone with you. Keep them safe. If anyone can do it, its you. But make sure you don't do everything by yourself, you have a Fiancée that can do most of the work for you. And he better do something. Don't give up on working at the Ministry, it was your dream job once upon a time.
Don't miss me too much.
-Weasel -Ron -Ronald -WonWon -Weasley -One of the Three
George lowered the letter slowly. Hermione wiped away the tears that had reformed. Laughter erupted in the room. Hermione turned to see Bella at the door. A vial in her hands.
"You killed my brother you-" George yelled as he charged at her, his hands around her neck. She smiled creepily. Much like her mother.
"Don't kill me in front of my siblings." Bella growled. Three children walked in, Carlos Minnel, his twin sister Meg Minnel, and Destiny Minnel. But the were all Malfoy's. Destiny's hair used to be brown, but it was now Blonde, like Draco's, Carlos had black hair, and Meg had Black and white hair. Bella was pure black and Draco was pure white. You could see the Lucius in all the children.
"We have to get out of here." Harry said, snapping back into reality.
"I think not." Carlos growled, his voice sounded exactly like Lucius'. Hermione grabbed, Draco, Harry, George, and Fred. Harry Grabbed Ron.
"We cant leave him here." Harry said, before apparating back to the entrance. They landed in front of the waterfall and panted.
