THE HORRIBLE PLIGHT OF HARRY POTTER
Hermione was wrong.
It turned out that Dumbledore was, in fact, back that same day. Apparently the news of what happened to Tonks, Ginny, and Rosmerta reached his ears, and he deemed it more important to be at Hogwarts. This news lightened Harry considerably, and he had another meeting with the Headmaster mere hours after the Hogsmeade trip, which buoyed his spirits considerably.
He told Dumbledore everything that happened, and knew that the wizard also had sat down with each of the girls present, as well as Ron and Charlie, to get their own version of events. Harry provided his memory to Dumbledore, and he was told that his friends did too, although Dumbledore left it entirely up to them on whether they wanted him to see their innermost mind. He met with them separately so their own recollections of what happened would not, in any way, influence each other's.
With all of these precautions in place, Dumbledore strictly forbade them to go out of the castle and its wards.
No more Hogsmeade trips.
No going to Grimmauld Place or the Burrow over the winter or spring breaks.
No midnight excursions to the Forbidden Forest. (It's not like we ever go there for the fun of it, anyway...thought Harry moodily, thinking back on all the dangerous things going on that made those eerie trips even worthwhile).
And no stepping out of bounds, whatsoever.
The news about the Imperius spread like a virus throughout the school. Of course, none of the versions were completely accurate, but they all told around the same story. There were dozens of people who saw what happened to Tonks. Though most did not know her, everyone thought she for sure had died as a result from the curse. There was also the fact that everyone knew Ginny and Hermione were at the heart of it all.
Understandably, both girls were traumatized by the event. As soon as they got back to the castle, Madam Pomfrey took Ginny under her wing, wanting to keep her overnight in observation since sometimes the Imperius Curse could have lingering effects. It was there that Dumbledore talked with her about what she remembered, though Harry wasn't privy to that conversation.
During his own talk with Dumbledore, Harry told the Headmaster about what happened at Blood Traitor's Alley. The lightning, what happened to Luna, everything. Dumbledore was most intrigued by this, and sat forward in his seat, most interested. Harry pulled the memory of it from his mind, and he and Dumbledore both dove into the Pensieve together. When they had come out of it, Harry watched Dumbledore pace around the room, mumbling to himself.
"Sir…" said Harry haltingly. "Do you think...does this mean...is Luna Lovegood the Heir of Ravenclaw?"
"Perhaps, Harry. I'm not entirely sure. It is astute of you to make the assumption. It does coincide with what we do know about the gifts and the heirs. If she is descended from Rowena Ravenclaw, which I believe she might be, and has also touched the gift, that would have been what caused her powers to ignite in this way. I will be speaking with her shortly...yes, yes...this is wise…" Dumbledore muttered this last, trailing off.
Harry sat back in his seat, enthralled.
I mean...Dumbledore being the Heir of Gryffindor is one thing...it's kind of expected of him, isn't it...and Voldemort being heir to Slytherin is obvious...but for Luna...Luna Lovegood...to be an heir as well, is just...just…
Surreal.
He left his meeting with Dumbledore feeling very uplifted. The Headmaster had quite a soothing calmness to him and Harry just knew that everything was going to be better.
Hermione looked down at Ginny in the hospital bed, feel nerve-wracked and guilty. It was all her fault Ginny was even in this predicament. How could she have just assumed Ginny was all right in the bathroom and not gone in to check on her? Why couldn't she have stayed there with Ginny the whole time and not left her alone?
Hermione, Harry, Neville, and Luna were sitting beside her bed, waiting for Ron who was the last of them now being interviewed by the Headmaster. While they waited, they were talking gravely about who might have Imperiused Ginny and Rosmerta. Malfoy was still their top suspect, despite the fact that Hermione hadn't seen him near the bar.
"Of course you wouldn't have, he'd've gone to the bathrooms by then, waiting for Rosmerta to go back to the stockrooms to catch her alone," Harry argued.
"There are enchantments surrounding that place, Harry," said Hermione. "Death Eaters can't just waltz right in and do as they please. Rosmerta would have had anti-apparition wards, anti-offensive wards; she could have had various types of criminal wards and curse wards. It is far more likely that someone caught her outside, and then she herself took the wards down to cast the one on Ginny—"
"Please, could we just stop talking about it?" Ginny asked miserably. "I need a break, honestly. Between it actually happening and talking to Kingsley and then talking to Dumbledore and now you three, I haven't had a moment's break."
"You're right, we're sorry," Neville apologized. "Should we leave and let you get some rest then?"
"No," Ginny said, "but you can stop hoarding the cockroach clusters and let me have some."
They chuckled and opened some more of their Honeydukes purchases.
Just then, Ron came in the hospital wing, and Hermione stared at him, feeling horrible. Ron had been so good with Ginny after it happened. Holding her, calming her down, talking with her in quiet tones…
And yet, Hermione had been such a horrible person to him all month long. Ever since the first Hogsmeade trip at the start of October. Ever since she first started going out with Viktor. Ever since he first started going out with Lavender. Four weeks of hell.
He was so good, and kind...she didn't deserve him. All these attacks on her life proved about as much.
If only she could travel back in time to that first Hogsmeade trip. She wouldn't have taken Ginny's ill advice and gone out with Viktor to "make Ron jealous". She wouldn't have gone with him into that clearing and wouldn't have encountered Greyback as an offset. She would have just told Viktor no and gone back to find Ron. She would have been there when he was attacked by the Death Eater. She could have helped him. It would have been Hermione that Ron turned to for comfort instead of Lavender. It would have been Hermione that he kissed in the entrance hall in front of the school...not Lavender.
And it was all her fault.
"That wasn't too bad," said Ron as he strolled over, hands in his pockets, his blue sweater covered in scorch marks and looking very worse for wear.
"What're you lot laughing about?" he asked, sitting on the bed beside Hermione, and taking a cockroach cluster.
Luna said something that made the rest of them laugh, but Hermione was no longer listening. Still caught up in her own deprecating thoughts, Hermione was horrified to feel her eyes tearing up, and she hurriedly wiped at them with her sleeve when she thought nobody was looking.
Ron saw, though.
He nudged her when Harry, Ginny, Neville, and Luna were preoccupied talking amongst themselves.
"Hey," he whispered. "You all right?"
I don't deserve him. I'm such a horrible person. Why do I always muck up everything between us?
Embarrassed to be caught crying, Hermione sniffled and nodded, wiping at her face again. "Yeah, sorry, don't mind me. Sometimes girls just tear up without any good reason."
She tried to chuckle and laugh it off, but he saw right through her lie.
"You don't. You always have a good reason. And today you have more reasons than most. I don't think anybody would blame you for crying," he said, concerned.
Hermione bit her lip. Thankfully her body was just as humiliated as she was to be crying in public, and she felt the tears ebb off. She let out a deep breath. "Thank you, Ron."
Smiling, although it didn't quite reach his eyes (she couldn't find fault with that...there was hardly anything to laugh or joke about…), Ron just budged her shoulder with his own again. "You're welcome."
They tuned back in to the others conversation, which had gravitated towards Quidditch (as conversations tended to do). Apparently, Luna had thrown her name into the mix for being the commentator of the match. And Hermione simply sat and smiled politely when eyes turned to her, nodding at the appropriate moments, and murmuring in agreement when there was a lull.
Harry reached for a forgotten brown bottle of amber liquid in the clear glass at the bottom of one of their bags.
"Anyone fancy a bottle of butterbeer? Unless you don't want to open it now…" said Harry, inspecting it.
"As long as it wasn't made with squireditchery roots in it, I'm up for anything," said Luna, looking interested.
"Dunno, it isn't mine," said Ginny, shrugging. "I'm dying of thirst though. I could go for some."
"There's a card with it. It looks like The Three Broomsticks has given us some complimentary butterbeer," said Harry, reading it to himself. "On account of Rosmerta cursing you and all. She must have slipped it in your bag."
Ron snorted. "They almost kill the customers and all they give us is one bottle? I'd've asked for a hundred cases of the stuff."
"It's not really the establishment's fault for what Rosmerta did...she was cursed as well," said Neville, always looking for the good in everyone.
Harry shrugged and conjured five cups, pouring some for them, and passing them out. Luna sniffed hers and passed it back to him.
"No, thank you," she said politely. "It smells funny."
The others grinned in their cups. Harry set it aside and then raised the bottle, grave again. "Here's to capturing the slimy git that's been doing this."
The others raised their glasses. "Here, here!"
They put the glasses to their lips, and the liquid went inside.
Ron spewed his drink out.
Hermione spewed her drink out.
Ginny spewed her drink out.
Neville spewed his drink out.
Harry, however, gulped his drink down.
The others' cries of shock and disgust were cut off abruptly as Harry fell to the floor.
"Harry!" Ginny gasped. "What…"
They watched in shock as Harry writhed on the floor, white foam dribbling out of his mouth, his neck stiff, veins throbbing.
Hermione shrieked, "He's having a seizure! We need to turn him on his side!"
Ron and Neville rushed forward and turned him over.
"It's poison," Ron realized. "We need a—"
Bezoar. Vaguely he remembered their Potions homework the other night, and Hermione lecturing him on the benefits of bezoars. But where the hell was he going to find a—
Inspiration struck, and Ron whipped out his wand, pointing it straight towards Madam Pomfrey's vast array of medicine cupboards and closets.
"Accio bezoar!" He roared.
Glass shattered as the bezoar shot out of a drawer and zoomed through a glass pane.
Ron caught it deftly in his hand and shoved it into Harry's foaming mouth.
"Nice catch, Ron," said Luna. Her attention turned back to the writhing boy on the floor. "I did think the butterbeer smelled funny..."
The five of them watched in jaw-dropping silence as Harry's body slowly stopped twitching...then stilled...then relaxed.
"What in heaven's name…" gasped Madam Pomfrey as she came into the room. She saw Harry's still body on the floor and the horror painted on their features, and ran forward.
"What happened to him?" Madam Pomfrey asked them gravely, as she ran a diagnostics spell and realized the danger had already passed.
Wordlessly, they pointed to the bottle of not-butterbeer, which sat unassuming on the nightstand beside Ginny's bed.
Or rather...the bottle of poison.
It was a day of horror, between what happened to Ginny, what happened to Rosmerta, what almost happened to Hermione, what did happen to Tonks, and now with what happened to Harry.
Ron was lauded as a hero by the professors as they all gathered around Harry's bedside. Harry was currently out of it, but Madam Pomfrey expected he was all right now thanks to how quickly Ron acted, and would be out of the hospital wing in no time.
Ginny was given a much-needed calming draught as soon as an unconscious Harry was levitated to the bed next to hers. The day's events proved to be too much for her, and the ordinarily unperturbed girl started crying and hyperventilating.
"There, there, drink up now," said Madam Pomfrey as Ginny gulped the small bottle down. "You've had a very trying day. Time to rest now."
Ron, Hermione, Neville, and Luna were sad to leave the pair of them, but when Madam Pomfrey gave Harry a bunch of potions and Ginny's eyes started drooping, they excused themselves to go down to dinner.
It was an odd experience, falling asleep next to Harry, but Ginny found she couldn't stop looking at his face, worried about him and wondering what life was like for him...how lonely he must be...how peaceful he looked as he slept...how...how…
Ginevra, stop it. You're falling in love with him again, aren't you...you silly, lovesick schoolgirl…
But she found she couldn't help it. He was just so...special…
Of course he is, you idiot, he's "the Chosen One".
But that wasn't all, was it, he was so kind to everyone, and not arrogant or boastful in the slightest…
Well, duh, that's how come you fell in love with him in the first place.
And Dangerous Dai, was he good looking—
You tart! You can't make your decision on that alone!
—with that dark, spiky hair, and those eyes...those eyes, how she could drown in them—
—Ginny, snap out of it, he's your friend, he's your friend, he's your friend—
—and his...his...his heart...wasn't he the sweetest...and…
And it was then that the calming draught overtook her, and Ginny fell asleep.
Harry woke up, and immediately felt sore all over. Merlin abroad, what the hell…
He sat up and blinked groggily.
"Hold your hippogriffs, there," said a girl, and a small hand pushed him back down. "I still need to check you over again.
Harry stared at the bleary dark-haired Meghan Freeman for a moment, then realized he didn't have his glasses on.
"You all right, Potter?" said Meghan quietly after a moment, still concentrating on the blue mist hovering over him, seeing something he could not understand.
Harry looked over to see a fuzzy Ginny, the moonlight's red glow from the high latticed windows creating a halo around her hair as she slept. The curtains were drawn around her bed, but had not completely closed.
"Sore," he croaked. "What time s'it?"
"Around ten at night, I believe," said Meghan. "You were out for quite a while. Six hours or so."
Laying still while Meghan Freeman ran her wand over his body, Harry tried to piece together what had happened.
"What...happened?" he gasped out, his throat still remarkably in pain, even with the effects of the potions he knew he was under. "I remember drinking...something that was definitely not butterbeer."
"You were poisoned," said Meghan simply. "I heard the professors talking about it. Granger, Weasley, She-Weasley, and Neville had enough sense to spit theirs out. You, however...there's just something about you thick-headed Gryffindors that really lays on the idiocy."
Poisoned. Of course I was. Everything else has happened to me, might as well just throw that in there too.
Harry didn't feel irritation at her insult, oddly enough. He really liked Freeman and her sarcastically biting comments. Perhaps it was her braided hair and the beads on the ends of each that made her less threatening and more spunky than the other Slytherins.
"How is Ginny? Have you checked her already?" he asked, worried for the other girl.
"She is fine, although she'll be a bit disoriented when she wakes up. What Madam Pomfrey gave her sometimes makes people...rather loopy when they wake up," she said with a grin.
Satisfied, Harry went back to staring at the red hair spilling over the pillow through the curtain gap. He couldn't help but feel anxiety over Ginny and what happened to her earlier today.
"Your liver is inflamed," Meghan continued, and Harry brought his attention back to his own bed. "I'm recommending Madam Pomfrey give you another round of the Detox Draughts to cleanse your system. You're lucky you have me, you know. I reckon you'd have had days in the hospital wing, if not weeks, if I hadn't healed your liver for you. But you look right as rain! Probably a night in the wing after Madam Pomfrey gives you the draughts, and we'll check your vitals again in the morning before you can get out of here."
Harry furrowed his brow, wondering how she healed his liver, but she wouldn't meet his eyes, and he didn't want to pry or sound ungrateful.
"Thank you. That was very kind of you. Do you help Madam Pomfrey then?" he asked, eyeing her wand as it hovered over his abdomen, the thick blue mist rising above his body and showing his respiratory veins mapped out.
Meghan smiled proudly. "I am her apprentice. I've always been really good at healing things. Madam Pomfrey was quite impressed with me when she first met me. But I had to wait till I was a fifth-year to begin my training. I'm not here all the time of course. Just whenever I can get a moment's break after classes and on weekends. Nice to get out of the Slytherin common room and away from their pompous arses whenever I can."
Harry nodded, impressed.
Ginny chose that moment to wake up, rustling around her bed before opening her eyes and peeking over at them, grinning widely.
"Hi, Harry," she said sleepily. "What are you in for?"
Harry grinned at her obvious tipsy euphoria. Meghan sniggered
Not for the first time, Ronald Bilius Weasley woke up yelling.
He calmed down as soon as he realized it was just a dream, but his gasps filled the bubble of a silencing charm that surrounded his bed. This bubble was proving quite useful to block out his yells from the rest of the boys because Harry hadn't been there to give Ron the usual Dreamless Sleep potion, and Ron—in his worry over both Harry and Ginny both in the hospital wing—had completely forgotten to take it before he fell asleep in his bed, fully dressed.
This wouldn't be the only time Ron would wake up with a nightmare.
Shudders racked his body as he sat up, feet swinging over the side of the bed. He rubbed his eyes, grabbed his wand, and cast a Tempus.
3:16.
He went off to use the loo, then came back to bed, just sitting on the edge and wondering what he should do. Stay awake? He wasn't particularly tired right now. Maybe read a comic in bed, or steal down to the kitchens for a bite, or go down to the common room to stare moodily at the fire…
Or visit Harry and Ginny in the hospital wing.
His eyes flitted over to Harry's empty bed, remembering with a pang what happened mere hours before. The Imperius and the curse and the poison, and how many people he knew that were now in the hospital was just staggering.
Tonks still hadn't woken up, Charlie had popped in to tell him. Tonks' prognosis did not look good at all. Seeing his older brother so worried, so frazzled...
It scared Ron.
Worry for Harry, for Ginny, for Tonks, for Hermione, welled up inside him, and he found he just couldn't go back to sleep right now. Not when nothing was right in the world.
Mind made up, Ron grabbed Harry's Invisibility Cloak, the Map, and his slippers, and shuffled off.
When he entered the common room, he was startled to find Hermione sleeping on the couch in front of the fire. He crept towards her, and watched her sleep for a moment, heart softened. She looked so peaceful, and so...so…
Innocent. Beautiful. Serene.
He resisted the urge to draw the lock of hair off her face that had fallen. Her head was supported by three cushions, and still her arm felt the need to hold it up as well. Her legs were tucked under her body in the frigid air, and even though she had a nightrobe on, Ron could tell her warming charm had long since died out.
Conjuring a blanket, he started draping it over her, but this act alone woke her up, and she sat up, disheveled.
"Ron? Oh… Sorry, I guess I couldn't sleep in my bed after we got back from dinner. Not with...everything that happened. What time is it?" she muttered, yawning.
Ron grinned at her disarrayed hair. "Just after three. You should go back to sleep though, I didn't mean to wake you. You looked...cold."
Hermione smiled, her cheeks red even in the chill. "Thanks, Ron. Where are you off to?"
"Oh, I...well, I had a nightmare and couldn't fall back asleep, so I thought I'd go and get a bite from the kitchens. Maybe sneak into the Hospital Wing and see if Harry and Ginny are awake. Do you want to come with? We could...talk."
"Talking sounds great, but…" The smile slid off her face. "Ron, it...it isn't safe…gallivanting without the Auror guards..."
Ron saw her insecurity, and knew he couldn't just make light of it, especially after the long day they'd had.
Plopping down on the couch beside her, Ron unlocked the Map. They both peered over the pages and Ron traced the route to the kitchens, showing it clear from anyone and anything.
"Not if we keep the Cloak on, and keep the Map out, see? There are no Death Eaters in the castle, I can't even see any Slytherins anywhere here besides their dorms, all the prefects have gone to bed, and the Auror guards are all the way over on the outskirts. We'll be fine…" said Ron.
Taking a deep breath, Hermione stood up. "All right. I'm in. I really could use some of Dobby's brandy snaps and hot butterbeer…"
"Really? I thought with the near-death experiences we keep having with the Three Broomsticks and butterbeers, you'd know better by now," Ron stated wryly.
Hermione laughed.
It was a bit awkward, but they did manage it. They stayed hidden under the Cloak, covered by a silencing spell to mask the mutterings and putterings. When they stepped through the pear painting, snickering, there weren't quite as many house elves as they were used to seeing. But Dobby provided enough company, and they sat down beside him as he made the brandy snaps and butterbeer, much to Hermione's chagrin.
"Anything for Harry's Wheezy!" Dobby said earnestly, happy to oblige. "Biddy and Dingy love to make the butterbeers, sir, yes they do!"
There weren't many other house elves, as most of them were sleeping, but the few others in the kitchen hurried forward, and Hermione fell into conversation with the girl elf, Biddy, as she added the ingredients to a small cauldron over the fire.
"Oh, is Winky still here?" said Hermione, looking around.
"Oh, yes, miss, yes, Winky is loving here very much!" Dobby exclaimed as they watched him begin work on the brandy snaps. "She is off on holidays with her mother, miss!"
Hermione beamed. "That's wonderful!"
And all too soon, the food was made, and Ron and Hermione were both talking and laughing as if they'd never been at odds with each other; as if they'd never started seeing other people; as if they weren't currently being hunted down by their world's darkest sorcerer.
But this wasn't the only reason Ron wanted Hermione to come with him.
"Hermione," he said after a while, setting his glass down. "We need to talk."
She grew silent and nodded to her slippers. "You're right. We do."
Not exactly knowing where to start, but gathering up the courage for it anyway, Ron cleared his throat.
"You know I love you as a friend. But...we have not been very friendly towards each other as of late."
Hermione shook her head miserably. "We haven't."
"You know we can't help Harry if we are constantly bickering with each other."
Just as depressed—"We can't."
"You know we don't act as we should, and we let our emotions get in the way of us, and don't treat each other kindly and with respect."
Still morose—"We don't."
"And so, I propose we draw up a set of rules. Starting here and now," said Ron, conjuring a scroll and quill, his handwriting loopy but tidy as he wrote the title on the top.
"Ron, that's a spectacular idea! You're so brilliant!" said Hermione, grinning again.
"All right, I've got it. 'Rules of our Relationship'. Now...rule number one: We never, ever resort to name-calling, insulting, or ridiculing. No matter how bad things get," said Ron, scribbling that down.
Hermione nodded vigorously. Getting into the spirit of things, she sat on the edge of her seat. "Rule number two: We always confide in each other what we are feeling as we are feeling it and not bottle things up anymore to be exploded later."
"I have an addendum to that one," inserted Ron. "Let's word it…'We always confide in each other what we are feeling as we are feeling it, provided it is said agreeably. If we need to back off before a fight breaks out and cool down first, we ask for…"
"Arresto," Hermione breathed. "From the spell, you know...to bring to a stop. We stop the argument before it gets bad, go cool down, and come together again to talk it out when we can think of how to say it without wounding each other. And if we are in public, that could be our...codeword, if you will."
Ron nodded, jotting that all down. "Perfect. Rule number three: Absolutely no fighting in public."
"Addendum: Absolutely no fighting, period. Discussions, fine. Disagreements...fine. I suppose we wouldn't be us if we didn't bicker occasionally. But no actual fights."
"All right, how about...rule number four: Any discussions, disagreements, or dislikes be addressed only when we are alone. Not in front of Harry, not in front of Ginny...nobody."
"Honestly, that one should have been enacted all along. We really would have saved a lot of people a lot of heartache if we'd only had the sense to keep our arguments strictly between us."
"Rule number five: Don't criticize each other's partners, friends, or family."
Hermione winced at this. "I really am sorry for calling Lavender a tart. She isn't really. You should hear her talking as we get ready for bed every night. It's always 'Ron this' and 'Ron that'. She is actually very into you."
Although his quill kept writing down the rules, Ron's ears were very attune to her words. Lavender likes me!
He grinned, in spite of himself. "Yeah, she's pretty cool."
"Rule number six: We find a safe space to talk things out, and when we do, we come to a resolution right then and there," said Hermione. "For example, if you think I'm too bossy and controlling—which I can honestly admit that I am—then I need you to say 'Hermione, I feel like you need to let go of the situation, and let me handle it', and then I will oblige."
Ron studied her for a minute. "I could step up more."
"And I could step down more. Honestly, I don't like doing all the work. It makes me...extremely frustrated with you and Harry."
"All the work?"
"Researching. I've been up to my conical hat in books with everything I've been doing."
"What all have you been doing?" Ron asked in alarm.
"Well, researching the Wolflord Potion, for one. I've been working with Professor Snape, Jones, and Lupin to find out how exactly it works with the body, so we can figure out how to counteract it," said Hermione, and ticked the items off with her fingers. "I've been translating Artificium Merlini from its original Latin, I've been researching Merlin and his life so we can understand that riddle better, I've been researching the Founders' heirs to see who they could be, I've been researching the Founders' gifts, I've been trying to stay ahead in all our classes…"
Ron was wide-eyed.
"Well, no wonder you're exhausted all the time! Have you even been taking care of yourself?" he asked her, concerned.
"Apparently not, since I keep flying off the handle at you for the tiniest things," said Hermione, looking quite the guilty party.
You're not the only one, Ron thought, his words to her during their arguments coming back to him.
Did I seriously accuse her of...of...shagging Harry? Merlin, Mum would kill me if she ever found out. Dad would wring my neck. I can't believe I used that kind of language in front of her. I was just so angry, it slipped out. Too afraid it would come true.
I'm an arse.
Hermione was in the same predicament with her own thoughts, but she was far more vocal.
"Merlin, I've been so foolish, Ron. Arguing with you...insulting you...making half-witted, reckless decisions. I truly am sorry. I think Lavender is so lucky to have you. You're so kind and sweet, and there are so many things that you are so good at. I know you don't think so, but Ron...you really are the best Weasley."
Ron's ears reddened at her words. They kept repeating in his head, and he stared down at his glass mug and the frothy bubbles lingering at the bottom of it. He was too embarrassed and unsure of his words to really say anything back to her, so all he could do was grunt a "Thanks."
It wasn't enough though. He knew it wasn't.
So he opened his mouth again. "Krum really is a great guy. I know I've been taking the mickey out of you for it, but...you know, the other day he came over to me and asked me if I could help keep an eye on you. You know, with...with all this stuff going on. He said he's just so busy all the time, and knowing that Harry and I would both be watching out for you during all the times he can't, it really...well, it...I know he...he...cares for you...a lot. So...yeah."
Hermione's face lit up.
They fell into another silence, although it was decidedly less awkward.
"You know, I really don't mean to be a hypocrite," she said in a rather small, un-Hermione-like voice. "I know I have a million flaws. I'm not delusional, I've never thought I was perfect, even when I sure acted like I was. But seeing you with Lavender really...it got to me. I'm not proud of this, Ron, but I was really mean to you. And to Lav. I called her things I shouldn't've, and insinuated things that were untrue. Please, do you forgive me? I understand if you don't, and I'm all right with earning your forgiveness, honestly. Whatever it takes to mend our broken friendship."
Friendship.
Ron's heart, which had been rising from her words, sunk once more at that.
Friendship.
Nothing less...but nothing more.
"Apology accepted," he said gruffly. "But you know the same applies to me. I said a hell of a lot and it was...I was a prick, plain and simple. The things I said…"
"Apology accepted," said Hermione with a smile.
Another silence.
"Are you...still planning on breaking up with Lavender? Or have your feelings for her changed?" said Hermione tentatively.
"I don't want to hurt her feelings," said Ron, resolutely. "I don't know how I'm going to do it. But I do know she would be happier with someone else. I'm not...what she wants. Or what she needs."
"And you?"
"I...I don't know what I want, really. Or what I need."
You. I need you. But Ron shoved those thoughts away just as soon as he'd thought them. He did not 'need' Hermione. She was his friend, nothing more. Besides. She was taken. She'd made her choice. She was with Viktor Krum, and she appeared to really like him.
He wondered if he should ask her about Krum, and if she would ever break up with him, then decided he really didn't want to know.
She saw his thought process, however, and reached the same conclusion.
"I know you don't like Viktor. It really means a lot to me to hear what you said of him though. Honestly, Ron, he is so sweet, but I suppose…" Hermione halted.
He waited for her to continue.
Hermioned reddened and fiddled with her fingers, talking downwards in embarrassment.
"I thought I did...but I guess I don't really see myself with Viktor in the long run," she whispered. "I've never told him this, probably because I didn't come to the realization till today. When I saw Tonks rise into the air, and knew that curse had been meant for me. But...there's just so much he doesn't know or understand. There are so many things that we've been through—you, Harry, and I—that excludes him. So many things that he and I cannot connect with each other on. But...like you said with Lavender...I really don't want to hurt him. He is such a great guy. He deserves to have someone far better than me…someone who looks like she's going out with a Quidditch star, like Lavender. Or is in the same things he's into, like Ginny. Or who thinks the world of him, like his fans. I'm hardly Viktor Krum material…"
Her words and thought process trailed off between them just as the flames in the hearth could only reach so high.
But Ron's heart was soaring.
He fought to keep the grin from reaching his face, so stood up abruptly.
"Well. Tough luck being Viktor Krum and all. But we really should be getting back. Ready to go?" he asked.
She took the hand he offered, and let him pull her off the couch, wondering, "Do you think it's too late to go visit Harry and Ginny?"
The grin slid off Ron's face as he remembered what life was like outside of their little friendship bubble.
Tonks still might be dying. Harry still was poisoned. An Unforgivable Curse was still used on Ginny. Hell, they even got struck by lightning today.
And only Harry could stop all of that from happening.
"Rule number seven…" Ron paused, then looked down at her. "No matter what the cost...always put Harry first."
Their dire situation came slamming into them like a swinging door.
They did not matter.
Their happiness did not matter.
Only Harry did. And destroying Voldemort.
"Always put Harry first," Hermione whispered in agreement. She moved closer to him as if the mere act of them standing united would protect Harry from where they stood.
Ron liked it.
The rule was written down, the scroll sealed up, and the quill done away with. Ron then pulled out the Marauders' Map. "Right then. I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."
Hermione cleaned their plates and cups with a quick charm before looking over the Map for the journey back to Gryffindor tower.
Ron talked as he scoured. "As far as Death Eaters go, I don't see anyone around...besides Dumbledore in the Astronomy Tower. Although it looks like Madam Pomfrey is making the rounds in the Hospital Wing. Looks like we won't be able to visit Ginny and Harry without her seeing...but they're prolly sleeping anyway, and—what're you looking at—"
Wordlessly, Hermione pointed to the bottom corner, where they were at in the kitchens. But their dots were...doing something funky. A speech bubble had appeared next to them, and the wall behind them wasn't a wall at all in the Map, but a door.
Ron stared, agape. "Is that another secret passageway?"
"It must be!" Hermione breathed.
They both whirled behind them and stared at the unassuming wall. Cautiously, they crept forward.
"I mean, I see a little picture in the stone...can't be bigger than a Sickle. What is that?" said Ron.
"I think it's a...badger. Which means this secret passageway is Founder-related. That means it's good and trustworthy...right?"
Ron nodded, pulling out his wand. "One way to find out for sure. Shall we?"
Hermione's questioning brown eyes just stared back at him, and she stood closer to him in trepidation.
"Descendio Sanctum," Ron intoned.
The wall opened up.
Cautiously, and with great trepidation, Ron stepped inside. Hermione followed him as he walked down the dark, dank stairs, wand lit for illumination. It was incredibly dusty and...webby.
He shuddered, seeing a large black widow stretched out upside down in the corner near his head, and Hermione gripped his arm in reassurance.
"Arania Exumai," said Ron, casting his wand, and sighed in relief when the spiders and their webs were driven away.
He breathed in a deep sigh to cast the heebie-jeebies away, and continued on until they came to a wrought iron door. Opening it with bated breath, they stepped in to find—
A sarcophagus.
A small light shone above it in the center of the tiny room, and on the rounded stone top of it was a single yellow rose, forever fresh and unwilting, in memoriam of the one who lay within.
"It's a—"
"Tomb," Hermione breathed for him.
Filled with awe and quietude, they crept forward to it, and saw words etched in stone on the wall above the sarcophagus.
"Herein lies Helga Hufflepuff
The best of us all"
Ron read it aloud in hushed tones, and the reality of the room and what was happening sunk into them both. They felt rather like they were in a cathedral, in the presence of someone great.
Then Hermione whispered, "Ron, look!"
And he looked and saw with a dropped jaw the reason Hermione's fingers were digging into his skin.
Above the sarcophagus, yet below the chiseled stone sign, was a small shelf with something sitting quite small an unassuming upon it.
It was the chalice of Hufflepuff.
Author's Note:
April Fools! I said the next chapter would be "The Triquetra Effect", but you got this one instead! Joke's on you! (Except not really, because this was completely by accident...haha...)
Truthfully, I had the other chapter all set up to be the next in line, but after AzureAlquimista's reviews (thanks so much by the way! I loved them all, they were very honest, you only got few things wrong but the rest was on the dot, and you touched on some very truthful points), I realized that I needed to complement Ron and Hermione better and get them ready for the next stage in their relationship, which is going from okay-friends, to better-than-friends. Let me know how I did!
And that's why it took me several days of non-updation so I could write the entirety of this chapter, have it fit in with the current teen relationships, the current plot, the current subplots, as well as adding in some canon fun-stuffs like having it be Harry instead of Ron being poisoned (did you like that?), and not have any of this mess up the current timeline. I think you all can tell by now that Halloween will be the date and setting of the climax.
Oh, and I threw in some Hints of Hinny in there just for you, WinkingSkeever and Guest. Hoping Books got enough Ron angst (I know, I know, you want some more...it's coming...), and Gja03, was this enough Romione for you? ;-)
Till next time. And yes, it really will be "The Triquetra Effect".
As always, drop a review and tell me what you want to see in the next few chapters! Someone asked for a chapter all in one character's POV, and that's what this next one is!
