6th Year Part Three: Chapter 31
"There are all kind of Love in the world, but never the same Love twice."
~ F. Scott Fitzgerald
~.O.~
The ritual would take place on the night of a full moon, the night where they could connect most with Mother Nature and ask for her help maintaining the pain Tom and Hermione both knew was coming. He had explained to his sister that the pain of restoring his horcruxes was becoming something unlike anything he had ever felt, a thing that paled in comparison to what his soul felt as it was ripping itself apart for the first time over fifty years ago. The repairing of his soul, a thing more painful or just as how childbirth could make you feel as if you would never stop crying in a millions years.
Tom stood within a large ringed star of white candles when the moon was at it's highest peak within the sky, a pentacle made of wax and fire that would center all energy within himself so that none would dare try and escape. So that the piece of his soul contained within the locket he had dangling from his fingers would not attempt to flee from the imminent pain being brought upon it in the bonding to it's other half. The dark trees whistled high above them all the while, with the Mother singing their hearts calm as could be on this tense night as the owls hooted to each other in the darkness.
He looked to her bare chested and straight backed, standing at the heart of the pentacle, bright in the flickering flames with an expression in his eyes he would never show written upon his face. A fear he could never show for want of allowing someone to think him weak, but Hermione was now his blood, and she could see all the pieces of himself that he would never show to any other person. She was his sister in everything now, magic as well as blood and he could never hide anything from her ever again.
"You are ready, Tom." Hermione smiled reassuringly at him in her long black dress that was being pulled behind her to show her sharp hipped silhouette by the roughening wind, "I'll be right here the whole time, to take away some of the pain if I can."
He nods to her confidently, saying not one word that spoke of his nervousness as he picked up a silver knife dug into the earth and slices his palm with no change in expression.
A little nick of a knife will be nothing compared to the agony to come after all…
Dripping it over the face of the necklace baring Slytherin's crest, he whispered an incantation unknown to Hermione who could hear nothing but the whining of the wind and her heartbeat thundering in her ears. The clasp opened, and it was as if the world stopped, waiting to see what big bad thing would come slithering out of the golden cage it had lain in for decades. Decades in angry loneliness, only a shadow of it's former self that had been bright as the sun and pure as starlight.
It had the taste of blood and iron staining the air, a potency of pure magic that you could never taste again with the same purity more than once as the black fog like thing fell around Tom's fingers as if a harmless fog. Much like the way of Nagini it wound it's way around Tom, bleeding it's way into his ears and mouth like the rewind button on a tape as it shifted from where it had tasted the bare skin of it's Master's chest.
All that was left after the frozen look now etched itself upon his face was the ominous hooting of the nocturnal birds, watching Hermione as she tried her best to keep from calling out to her brother.
How could someone stand so still… as if encased in eternally cold ice…
Then the screams began, startling Hermione so badly she took a step back as Tom fell to his hands and knees, head bowed as a dark wave of his magic flew in an outward spiral and into Hermione. The soul magic apparently recognizing like blood so close to it and broke the meagre barriers and wards placed upon the pentacle attempting to suppress it, winding wisps of it's magic around the sister as well as brother. Buckling to her own knees and clutching her head at the potency of it all, her fingers buried in her curls for long minutes until Tom's voice cut through her ears, bringing her out of the mindlessness and slight whispering within her head.
"H-Hermione," she rose her head to find him with his hand reaching out to her, laying on his stomach while his fingers just about touched the salt the pentacle was made of with the fingertips digging into the dirt. Crawling to him and moving her fingers just on the other side of the white lines to not disrupt what little control they had, she was framed by the sweltering heat of the candle flames reaching high towards the tree branches, closing her eyes and focusing her fluctuating magic to dance around his. Whispers sounding of a familiar cold and angry voice still circling her brain, making it hard to concentrate as her vision blurred on her brother's face.
"I'm right here, Tom." She whispered to him, although she knew he could no longer hear her in the few minutes of pain his horcrux wrapped him up in while it stitched itself back together deep in his body. She soothed him as best she could, although it would only be a drop in the ocean compared to the agony he would feel the rest of the night until the full moon no longer shone high and bright above them. He would sob and sob like a babe for it's mother, spasming with the nerve endings that felt as if they were frying inside every inch of his body, Hermione matching each one with her own screams so they sang in harmony into the night even if she did not feel even an inch of pain he did. For the love she bore him, she would scream the world down around them.
Just as she would for Severus… or Harry… or Draco… what was pain to the love she held for each of the men in her life?
She fell into her magic, and his, and lay with her fingers just across the line separating them with Mother Nature watching as two of her children bound themselves together in a way they could not comprehend after this night. As brother and sister slept once the piece of the wizard's soul bound itself to his body once more, released from it's gilded cage, the fates made their mark on both of their souls. Something that even they could never rewrite as they branded their futures into their very magic and souls, bonding them together like none ever before as Hermione's heart burned with the brand it now held.
…
They awoke to an early morning grey sky, their hands bound together across the broken salt line in their sleep. Tom woke first, finding Hermione laying on her stomach with one hand under her cheek to keep from inhaling dirt into her nose from beneath her. Rolling onto his back to look up at the sky, careful not to jostle Hermione's hand or arm, he groaned at the gods awful headache pounding with a herd of hippogriffs right on the most sensitive meat of his brain. Feeling his sister's slim fingers tightening slightly on his own, he came back up to his hands and knees to crawl his body beside her, looking at her face as she began to wake herself. Tracing her features with his eyes, and then the tips of his fingers despite the migraine threatening to put a hole through his skull, he thinks that she could be one of the most beautiful woman he had seen in all his years.
His very long years that would only become uncountable as they succeed their goals…
This moment was as if he had fallen into some sort of fever dream, his skin hot while he remained cold on the inside as his mind muddled itself helplessly as his soul settled into his magical core once more. Unknown to him that it had been whispering to his sister's all through their dreaming sleep. But despite everything, Hermione's eyes within her beautiful face that had marks of himself now written upon it's surface opened glowingly perfect, and they were clearer than anything else surrounding the two of their bodies and the fuzzy edges of his peripheral.
His hand came up to brush away her curls from the cheek facing the lightening sky sticking needles into his eyes, sticky from dirt and tears as he asked,"You will be my girl forever, won't you Hermione? You will never leave me? We will live together forever?"
Hermione looked into his clear blue eyes that rippled as much as the waves of the sea, "Of course I will, Tom." She herself was muddled slightly from sleep and the ritual of the previous night that had been completed only a little while ago once the moon faded from above them completely, off again awaiting its time to shine once again. Their magics twined and danced together where his fingertips gently pressed on her cheekbone, still and unmoving as even that tiniest of movements were not the best of things at this moment in time with his headache. As she looked into her brother's eyes, Severus came to her mind.
I promised Severus forever… my mind, my body, my everything for as long as we lived even as we made no vows to bind us together… but blood is forever in the scheme of things, as is the love I have for him… for them…
The man in front of her resembled a lonely child who had been abandoned long ago by all family members and had no one else to love except those he made into his own blood, who had no idea as to what true family does for one another. His simple concept of the word only gaining the knowledge that they stuck together no matter what, and what his mother and father had done to him was unforgivable.
She took a leap of faith to alleviate the worries she had, knowing beyond anything that she was bound to this man in front of her before anything now that she had allowed him to mark her with the same blood as he. As well as whatever had affected the two of their magics this last night beneath the full moon and the sight of the gods. She was perhaps bound to him more than she ever could be with Severus or Harry for all the love and hate and all other unnamable emotions she felt towards him at times.
She mimicked his actions on his own face while saying, "Of course I will always be your girl, Tom, and I will never leave you for as long as I can help it." She hesitated before maintaining her courage, "But what of Severus, Tom? Will our forever include him as well?"
He looked at her in that same small child way when an adult asked them a question that should have been completely obvious, he told her, "Of course his forever will be just as ours. He is yours, and you are mine, sweet sister. We will be together forever, laughing in death's face as a mockingbird laughs at the crow."
Hermione simply smiled brilliantly, kissing him full on the lips while surrounded by the watchful and intelligent eyes of nature. Of the Fates.
From that day to the day Hermione left to the burrow for the remainder of the summer, so as to reassure Hermione silently that his words spoke truth that night, he began his comfortable touches with Severus as he had always done with her. The first time it having been a brush of a shoulder against shoulder, Severus starting as if he had maintained a small shock to his system to which Tom ignored even as his eyes found Hermione's loving gaze settled upon the two of them across the dinner table surrounded by the Malfoy Family.
~.O.~
Severus dropped Hermione off at the ramshackle yet cozily comfortable home of the Weasleys, the familiar scents of meats and vegetables cooking on the stove top mixing with the spicy flavor of the redheaded family's magic staining her tongue as it permeated even the field. Not even the sweet grassy smell of the acres of plant around them masking the witches and wizards that lived right in the midst of it all. He had kissed her deeply as they stood in the midst of the field of the seven foot high wheat field before walking her to the door, clutching her to him and him to her before placing his forehead upon her's. They would not have much time together this year, even if it seemed as if it would become the quietest of all since they first were introduced to Hogwarts, but they each had responsibilities that would take much of their free time from one another as well in this time. Hermione having not forgotten her promise to Narcissa in helping Draco mend the Vanishing Cabinet, she also knew that it was to be a very hard and time consuming task.
Severus sighed before releasing her, adjusting the collar of her jacket to cover the bite scar he had branded her with months ago and had taken to renewing ever so often, just as she had done to him. Glamouring it hidden just didn't seem to feel like the right way to go about hiding the mark of mine in any case, if someone so happened to see it, so be it. "I love you, Hermione." He said while kissing the corner of her mouth once more, giving Crookshanks who she held in her arms one last scratch on the head and chin before turning away.
She smiled at him, watching as he disappeared back into the golden wheat, "I love you, Severus."
Making her way through the field towards the brown Burrow just visible through the thin stalks surrounding her, Crookshanks lept from her to chase a gnome that had been peeking it's small little head out of a hole in the ground in Mrs. Weasley's herb garden. "Be careful, Crooks!" She called out to him, knowing he was perfectly fine knowing his way around the house and it's land enough to find his way back before dark.
As she finally made her way through the mud her shoes were sinking into, Hermione was greeted at the door by a smiling Molly Weasley and a warm hug, although Hermione could see that the ends of the normally bubbly woman's lips turned slightly downwards. Following behind Ron's mother into the kitchen, Hermione suddenly thought of Percy, whom she had heard from a passing comment from Severus had now given his loyalties to the Minister for Magic over his own blood. She frowned, knowing that even those who in the wizarding community who valued power over anything would be remiss at the older boy's actions as many and most Pure- Bloods were notorious in sticking with their blood no matter the consequence. That fact that he had practically disowned them over a minor disagreement between her brother truly being alive was of no matter even as it was his thinking they wanted any and all Ministry employees to have towards the truth of their cause, or at least those who were not on the side of the Dark Lord. Any reputation Percy would accumulate as the right hand of Pius Thicknesse would be sneered at by those who still upheld their acquaintances by the old manner of doing things, by gaining power so blatantly and disowning his family in such a public manner was indeed a disgrace.
Molly had been babbling away while Hermione was stuck within her thoughts, stirring a pot by hand even as she normally allowed magic to do take care of the household chores and cooking while she tended to something else. "You certainly have grown into your looks, Hermione. Ron and Harry have both just simply shot up into the air since summer began."
Hermione was stalled in her asking the mother if they had any contact with Percy at all since he was elevated to his new position, thinking that perhaps it was best to simply let it go as it would only make the other woman begin to cry at the least. "Harry is here already, so early?"
Molly looked over her shoulder, her previous shadow of melancholy seemingly having vanished as she began talking of her youngest son and the boy would should be called her son by any rights as she had practically raised him as well as her own red headed children. "Oh yes dear, the Headmaster dropped him off just last night. Apparently he needed him to run an errand with him for the Order, and Albus decided it was best to just bring him here after they were through. You know him, he never puts all his eggs in one basket when you ask where he goes all hours of the day, as he says, safer that way."
Hermione didn't comment, knowing exactly what Dumbledore thought of giving his eggs to the people he said he trusted most. She just began helping to set out the plates and utensils on the table in the living room, as she is such a hopeless cook when anything is sitting on the stove, as Fleur flies into the room causing Hermione to jump slightly. She lifted a hand to her beating heart, not having heard the Veela's light footsteps outside the door, only Ginny's as the redhead appeared behind the blonde while she tried her best in smothering Hermione's cheeks in kisses and rapidly speaking to her in french. Hermione giggled and gasped once Fleur practically shoved the promise bonding ring the oldest Weasley son had gifted her into the curly haired girl's face. Ginny watching all the while as the two girls spoke, a disgruntled yet jealous look written upon her face at their obviously close relationship stemming from their shared language.
...
"Do you, as of yet, have any ideas as to what the connection between Harry and Voldemort is, Severus?" Dumbldore asks Severus who sat before him within the dark office confines of Grimmauld Place, voices wafting in beneath the door as the other Order members congregated within the kitchen, Black's voice loudest of them all in his laughs. "I admit, I have searched all throughout the summer for clues as to why the bond exists, and I have gotten nowhere. You are now the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, surely you have found something of use? Perhaps even a comment from Tom himself?"
Severus continued to watch the Headmaster with the perfect mask that had never seemed to crack since the boy had become a spy for the light, Albus remembering the last time he had seen any emotion at all written across his face. The day he himself found the boy holding Lily Potter's cold body in his black clad arms, an infant boy screaming at the top of his lungs sitting beside the teenage boy with his long fingers grasped tightly in the baby's own chubby hand. Although, his eyes had since told a different story while his mind and mask remained impenetrable when looking at the girl who Harry Potter so loved himself. Even if the younger boy did not see himself how he loved her, he had more than once told the older wizard they were simply friends, like brother and sister. Nothing more existing between them.
The Headmaster continued to observe the darker man's face for any sign of deception, gently probing his mind for his thoughts but finding nothing more than possible texts full of information running through the surface thoughts of his mind. Severus all the while, so attuned to his Occlumency shields as he was after years and years of being constantly vigilant raising his brow to the Headmaster and his attempts at subtlety.
"I have no idea as to what the connection could be, Albus. You need not probe my mind for possible information I would not willingly give to you should you but ask."
The Headmaster allowed his face to obtain a bashful facade, although his eyes maintained a sharpness that had no business being there in regards to the question. After all, Severus was his most loyal spy, what reason would he have to withhold information that may help to fulfill the prophecy that set everything in motion in favor of the Light? To avenge the death of the woman he once loved, a situation which had allowed him long ago to remove his rose colored glasses when it came to the misguided and tainted glory and recognition the dark gave to the most powerful within it's ranks. "I apologize, Severus, it has become a habit. I would also like to tell you that I will be beginning private lessons with Harry, that will benefit the Order of course."
The dark man once again rose an all to active brow, hearing the undertones to the words for the Order that usually meant code for reasons known to only me and the boy, and should it become relevant to you and your role in this war between the dark and light, you will be informed.
All the while, as Severus simply rested his gaze on the much older wizard while nodding to say he understood, Dumbledore's brain turned at his spy's words.
Would you really, Severus? Willingly bow to the curiosities of an old man… would you give out information on the girl that seems to be permanently glued to your side as well?
~.O.~
Hermione greeted Ron and Harry properly once lunch had been consumed and bellies were full, having followed both boys into their room to no doubt hear the gossip of how Harry came about being dropped off by Dumbledore himself just the night before. Although, Harry did seem to have been looking at her weirdly all throughout the quick lunch where she had talked to Fleur in rapid French for the most part, receiving a grateful look from Bill who most likely was glad that his future wife had someone to talk to in her native tongue. Even Hermione, who only ever talked to her grandmother and father occasionally in the language, had loved to speak to them in the beautiful dialect one must speak in for the nostalgia of it all. Fleur also voiced her own gratefulness herself as well, having moved from all her French speaking family and home country. The messy haired boy all the while watched his best friend's animated face laughing in her faint accent, the thought that there was something within her face all together different from the normal familiar shape of it.
She had simply smiled confusedly at him once he had caught her eye throughout eating their meal, not knowing anything that could have possibly caused his newfound curiosity in her face. Having not seen him since the end of term while held up in the Hospital Wing after their initial short conversation on how she was feeling as well as his apology to Severus, he had been sent on his way along with the rest of the Hogwarts students back to their parents and guardians. Dumbledore insisting that, no, he could not stay the few weeks Hermione would be required to remain at the school for want of supervision, the only professors remaining being himself, and Professor McGonagall as well as Madame Pomfrey tending to Hermione with the occasional check- in by Severus. Apparently the boy could not wander about the castle aimlessly under no supervision whatsoever when not by his best friend's side who he had been so worried about during the hours of not knowing when she would wake up. After all, only so many expectations could be made for the Boy- Who- Lived.
Listening to Harry as he explained his being picked up from is Aunt and Uncle's home in Little Whinging just the night before by the Headmaster, only to be taken to the temporary home of one Horace Slughorn, Hermione became just baffled as to why Dumbledore always felt the need to keep inconsequential secrets. Even from those who are seemingly helping him along with his goals, and are actively involved. Secrets that gave nothing away regardless as to the aims he was concealing, or was simply something he could very well give up and have nothing but his all- knowing ego be damaged. He couldn't even inform Harry as to the position their new professor had agreed to hold, and as she informed both boys herself that he was indeed going to be their new potion professor, they looked as confused as she felt. He would never hold a candle to Severus who was infinitely more knowledgeable than the older man who had been his own Professor in his Hogwarts years, who did not hold the title of Potion Master. Yet again, Dumbledore had also informed Harry of a future task the boy must be aware of without divulging all the facts. An assignment of obtaining something from the man to which Harry currently had no idea as to what he would be spending his valuable time on.
It was absolutely no wonder as to why Tom's old professor had been lured back to Hogwarts… Dumbledore once again showing he could have done well in Slytherin as he dangled The- Boy- Who- Lived right in his face all to get the outcome he desired… the Potions Professor being an avid collector of talented peoples simply being common knowledge to those who knew him…
"Dumbledore is also going to be giving me special lessons, but he won't tell me why. As usual." Harry told them frowning, getting over the fact that their professors would be all out of wack this year. Hermione had to admit, even she would have to say it was weird seeing the professor that had been teaching them potions since the beginning of their schooling transferred to the Defense Against the Dark Arts position, but then again he would still always be just Severus to her in every other way.
Then Harry suddenly turned back to her with a shrewd look masking his face while asking her, "Did you happen to come by this information another way than simply knowing Slughorn's profession, Hermione?"
Hermione's curls reared back, utterly flabbergasted than anything she had ever been regarding her best friend. "What in the name of the gods are you talking about, Harry? Of course I know him from his work, besides, he was the last potions professor before Professor Snape took over when he became spy for Dumbledore. Where did you think I found out?"
She exchanged looks with Ron as Harry ignored her questions, starting to haltingly speak of his days in muggle London with Sirius who had once again taken to breaking Order rules, or Dumbledore's rules at least in walking out of Grimmauld Place. To apparently gallivant off in plain sight into crowds of muggles, where Hermione had to admit they were very well hidden from wizarding society. Short of using a locator spell that would require some piece of the person, if Hermione had not known Tom and herself had given orders to stay all Death Eater's hands when it came to anything involving Harry Potter she would have been more concerned. They simply had orders to watch his every move and report them back when Hermione herself was not present with the teenage boy.
Hermione looked to the side of Harry's cheek that had begun boasting light stubble sometime between her last look of him and now, and she lamented sadly upon their time as small children. Even if her life had never been particularly slow since introducing herself to Tom, nor the magical world in general as there had always been something new to learn of, she would change nothing as she had been able to keep Harry from taking as much a load as apparently Dumbledore wished for him. But again, her and Severus' non- conversation regarding horcruxes and fallen parents always seemed to be in the back of her mind these days.
Hopefully the meddling man would not get any ideas in his head…
…
Harry woke Hermione up it seemed in the middle of the night, shaking her lightly and whispering into her ear as she fought the sleepiness clouding her head. "Hermione, come on, wake up. I don't want to wake up Ginny."
Opening her eyes, she could feel the tell-tale headache she tended to get when waking too early after falling into a deep sleep. Watching as a dark familiar shape moved above her, and hissed it's words down at her prone body, she finally shook the last vestiges of sleep from her head, moving a hand out from beneath the sheets to hold it out to Harry.
He took it in his own once it made contact with his chest, "What are you doing in here, Harry? It's the middle of the night." She moved her feet further beneath Crookshanks' warmth at the foot of her bed, burrowing further into her covers away from the cold.
Harry pulled on her arm slightly, "C'mon, 'Mione. We have to talk, come outside with me."
She sighed deeply before heaving herself out of the bed and following Harry down to the fields to lay in the grass where Severus had dropped her off just earlier in the day. As they lay staring up at the stars, Hermione felt a sudden peace descend on her much like that day with Tom when they had woken after the restoration of his horcrux.
Settled and fully awake, Hermione spoke while tracing constellations written in the stars, "Alright, Harry. What did you have the need to pull me out of bed for? Not that I don't love spending time with you at any time of night or day anyway."
His hand grabbed her's, squeezing it once before speaking so low she had to pause for a second to register his words. Words that she never would have thought would come from his mouth until she had found the right time to tell him of her secret. One of them anyway. "I know about Professor Snape, Hermione."
Crickets were all around them as they lay in the grass, several occasionally jumping on their sleep pants or shirts and intending to make it their new home before they realized the ground their feet were rested upon was moving and breathing. The stars twinkled high above them far into space. Hermione could only seem to focus on these aspects of their surroundings, not even noticing how her hand had seemed to tighten into an almost painful thing as it gripped her best friend's.
"Hermione, are you freaking out?" he asks her, his voice as clear as day within her ears even as her heart seemed to want to beat right out of her chest and crawl right out her ear canal as if it were a parasite overtaking her bodily faculties one by one.
She looked to him, turning her cheek right into the dirt below them that no doubt rubbed dead leaves and even more soil into her previously clean curls. She paused before she spoke, observing Harry's face that simply looked at her with calmness and peace, "When? How did you figure it out?"
Harry suddenly smiled slightly, the corners of his lips turning just upwards enough to cause Hermione to become wary, "Honestly, Hermione, its been in front of all of our faces for so long, but we were too blind to see it. The others probably would have written it off, but knowing you in the way that I do with everything you have told me about you and him, I found out for sure after the Department of Mysteries." At the girl's frowning forehead, he elaborated as he averted him eyes back up to the sky, "When I looked into his pensive, I found a memory of you, and I could feel everything he felt for you in that moment. A kind of peace I never would have thought he could have for anyone, and I knew that he at least loved you."
Hermione continued frowning, not having asked Severus which memories he had placed within the enchanted bowl, nor did he volunteer the information. Despite remembering she explicitly told Harry she did not want to know of which memories he had seen, she also knew he would not bring them up in a time like this if it were not important to his viewpoint of her and Severus' relationship.
He felt a peace with her… much like she did she suspected…
Harry continued, still looking up to the twinkling sky, "But after you were injured and we came back to Hogwarts, all you would do is tell him not to leave you. When you were bleeding all over the place, whimpering all the way from once you woke back up from the curse when we were still in the Ministry up until he grabbed you from Remus, you pushed through your pain just to tell him not to leave you. That's when I knew for certain you returned his feelings."
They were both quiet for a while, Harry done with his speech, and Hermione not exactly knowing how to proceed with all the thoughts swirling in her brain. Through all the years, through all the secrets she held, she had been undone slightly from the most painful thing she had ever known. Undone in her most fragile state by her beloved best friend and brother who she could not love anymore than she could at this moment for taking a weight from her shoulders she had not been aware was occupying it's place. Her most trusted confidant outside of Severus himself finally knew of the thing she most wished for him to except. Would Tom have ever been this way as a brother should if he had reversed roles into Harry's place?
She had no illusions as to his acceptance to her role in the other secret she held… she could not entertain the fragile and loose hope that he would accept her words on why she was now also sister to the man who tore apart his life… happy as he was and she was… he might understand her reasons, but would he accept them as he had this?
"I won't tell you that I understand completely why you love him, because I don't," he said lowly, breaking the brief silence in which they listened to the crickets surrounding them and the occasional late night bird hoot. "But you do, and I have always trusted you to know what is best for all of us, and until you decide to tell everyone else on your own time I will keep my mouth shut. Merlin knows you have kept plenty of my secrets after all these years."
Hermione, finally having pulled herself together from her previous brain emptiness, smiled a bit sadly at the messy haired boy once he turned his eyes back towards her, "Thank you for your support, Harry. I know that not everyone will understand quite as easily as you do," she pauses hesitatingly before continuing, "Sirius certainly took a bit of convincing once he found out."
Harry's eyes widened, propping himself up on one elbow to look down at her form upon the ground, "He never said anything to me!" His brows narrowed, "Is that why he would walk out every time Professor Snape would come into the room whenever you were there? Last Christmas?"
Hermione giggled all the while as Ron awakened in his room that he had shared with Harry from the Ghoul in the attic began banging about, glancing out of the tall window to see his two friends tickling each other in the grass surrounding his home. A sadness suddenly beginning within the pit of his stomach as he watched Hermione's heart shaped face laugh up to the boy she obviously loved, climbing back into bed and pretended to be asleep once the other boy came back up hours later.