...AND THE WHITE QUEEN
Tap...tap, tap...tap.
In the quiescent darkness, the hospital wing was lit only by moonlight. The windows with their crisscrossing patterns rising in arches up the cathedral ceilings, the marbled pillars with their burgeoning grooves creating shadows stretching across the floors and walls, the white beds with their canopies and sheer gossamer curtains swaying in the slight breeze…
She saw it all, but registered none.
With a thumb in her mouth, she got out of the bed she'd been sharing with her big brother. He slept heavily, one arm around her, but she shimmied out of his grasp. Small, bare toes touched the floor. Then the balls of her feet lowered down until the arches, not yet formed in her adolescence, followed. Lastly, her heels settled on the cold stone.
Clutching the blanket tight in one chubby fist, she walked down the length of the room. Four feet of the faded Hufflepuff-patterned goldenrod fabric of her blankie followed her, disturbing the newly-settled dust.
She reached the window. With two small golden-colored pigtails on either side of her hair, she cocked her head and watched.
A large, winged owl flapped wildly outside it against the gale, tapping incessantly to be let in.
Blue eyes wide, she stared at it. The bird's wings scraped the window, feathers falling down, in its haste.
The blankie dropped to the floor. With short fingers, she reached up to open the window and undo its latch. But she was too small, and the window latch rattled as she tried to reach it.
Rattled, again, as she barely touched the bottom hook.
Rattled, again, as her tippy toes went up, up, up marginally higher.
Finger touched metal. The hook came out.
The window creaked open an inch—until it banged open as the bird shot through with a shriek. She stumbled backwards as the large wings stretched out, taking room, talons outright and clawing.
It alighted on the floor, and stood still.
Curious, she grabbed her blankie, and crept forward.
"Birdy," she cooed. "Here, Birdy…"
The large owl folded its wings about its body and shifted. Shifted until it was almost as tall as she was. Until it actually was.
"Nice Birdy," she squealed, edging forward, fingers outstretched to pet it.
But bigger it grew still...until it was taller than her, and bigger, the black wings covering its front turning into a black cloak...and bigger still.
Until it turned into a he, looming over her and grinning with rotten teeth and wicked eyes…
She stared up at him.
Then she screamed, her small throat letting out the high-pitched sound as it rang throughout the silent ward.
There was a bustle of activity as patients woke up, as visitors ran in, as a grieving mother woke up startled. The plump, redheaded woman saw the bad man and sprang forward into action. She ran to pick up Hazel, shielding her from the very, very bad man.
But nobody was as fast as the doggy.
It came charging in through the doors with a snarl as it leapt onto the bad man, tearing into him before pulling back, growling ferociously as he stood in front of Hazel, fur raised. Protecting her.
She clung to the woman holding her, staring in fear as the bad man tried to hurt the doggy. Again, and again, the dog whimpered in pain and leapt onto him to injure, but the bad man threw it off.
With a roar, the bad man cast a bad curse and made the doggy whine in pain, falling to the floor.
But the doors banged open again and she saw the stern-faced grandma was back.
The grandma shouted at the bad man with her wand and made him fall down. When he was no longer in front of her, Hazel ran to the doggy. The woman holding her ran with her too, and they helped the doggy stand up again.
"Poor doggy," Hazel said sadly, petting his face before promptly sticking her thumb back into her mouth.
The grandma looked at her over her spectacles.
Hazel looked right back at the grandma over her chubby curled hand and talked around her thumb. "That was a very naughty birdy," she said gravely. "He needs to go in time out."
"Yes," said the stern grandma, nodding. She walked over to the bad man who was lying on the floor. "Yes, Dolohov…you need a timeout indeed..."
Harry ran faster than he ever had in his life.
His orders from Dumbledore were very precise, and it didn't take long to break away from the portal and through the crowd of Death Eaters without anyone noticing him. The Invisibility Cloak was tucked tightly around him, shielding him from danger. His side was pounding in pain though, hurt still from the stray curse. But at least the bleeding stopped. Just long enough for him to save the others.
Because he was going to save them.
He reached the castle ruins. He found the sepulchre. He blasted it open. He took what was needed. Then he raced back to the others.
He ran, because he wasn't going to leave his best friends alone with that murderer any longer than he had to. He ran, because this mission was crucial, and they couldn't defeat Voldemort without it. He ran, because he knew he didn't have long.
Their lives depended on it.
Of a sudden, grief sliced into his heart from the opening he'd left for Hermione.
Shocked, Harry doubled over in pain, tears leaking out. The emotional agony was excruciating. The Invisibility Cloak slipped off him, but the pain was far too intense to put it back on. What the hell…?
At once he tried to get into her mind, but it was far too clouded—she wasn't thinking at all, her agony was too great—
Horror-struck, he stumbled upwards, Cloak still clenched in his fingers, and ran faster, praying he wasn't too late. He was almost to the portal and the mass of Death Eaters surrounding it when there was movement in the woods around him.
Crack.
Crack. Crack. Crack.
Harry jerked to a stop, startled. Cracks. Dozens of cracking sounds.
Heart resolved for yet another battle after such a horrendous, sleepless night; wand drawn against the figures walking in the shadows of the trees; a curse rising in his throat, he came face to face with—
"G-G-Ginny?"
Relief engulfed him so strongly that Harry sagged and fell against the pine he'd just walked past.
"Harry!" Ginny ran to him and held him tightly, supporting his weight.
The Order had arrived.
Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, Bill, Percy, Fred, Moony, Sirius, Professor Snape, Mad-Eye Moody, Kingsley Shacklebolt, Dumbledore, dozens more Order members and Aurors...they all amassed around Harry and Ginny. And clutching each person tightly around their knees were…
House-elves.
Harry hardly had time to remark on the brilliance of using house-elves, who could surpass a wizard's Anti-Disapparation wards with ease. It wasn't like Voldemort would have thought to ward against the creatures, seeing as how inferior he believed them to be.
"H-how's George? How's—" Harry asked.
"They're in good hands," said Ginny resolutely. "Saving Ron is more important right now. Well…" she corrected with a wink, "Saving Ron, and raising hell."
"Harry Potter! Harry Potter sir!" said a squeaky voice amidst the roaring of the waves far below them. Dobby collided into Harry's shins, knocking his glasses askew.
"Harry Potter, sir! We have been coming to take you away!"
"But Dumbledore...the others…"
"They are only here to distract them," Ginny said. "Meghan, Luna, and I are here to take you back. We need to get the others—we need to find Ron and Hermione—"
But they weren't out of danger yet. An eerie alarm was sounding around the isle. Wards were alerting Voldemort to the intruder alert.
Death Eaters were coming.
The Order immediately withdrew their wands, creating an elf and human barrier against the demons that were coming to face them. Before they knew it, Death Eaters broke through the treeline. Hundreds of spells rained down on the Order, who threw their combined shields up and fired back spells of their own with rapid potency.
The battle was on.
Ginny could not even begin to describe how relieved she was, not just to find Harry, but that her mum even let her come on this rescue mission.
It was easy enough for Dumbledore to convince Mum, amazingly. His ministrations about how he believed Ginny was the Secondary Heir of Gryffindor and how they might need her to start up the portal again to get Ron, Harry, and Hermione back put even a bloody siren to shame.
Clinging to Harry's hand like it was a lifeline, she didn't dare let him out of her sight. The panic she felt when she found him by himself and not with her brother or best friend increased as they ran.
Spells flew around their heads. She and Harry slid under a boulder's crevice as war erupted around them.
Harry whipped the Invisibility Cloak around his shoulders, struggling to get Ginny underneath it as well. Pulling him away from the fight and towards the portal, Ginny had a hard time of it. Harry followed, but couldn't tear his eyes away from the fight. Neither of them could see Dobby anymore, who stopped a Death Eater from attacking them before he was lost from view.
Ginny saw Nott Sr. blast Andromeda Tonks into a thick forested mass of rocks, knocking her out cold. Lupin was taking on half a dozen Death Eaters at once in an effort to get to the snake, Nagini, like a man possessed. Kingsley narrowly missed three curses simultaneously, but the elderly Elphias Doge wasn't so lucky. He landed just feet from them, his arm completely torn off from his body, eyes wide and unblinking.
And in the middle of it all were Voldemort and Dumbledore, locked in an epic duel.
Mouth fallen open at the sight, Ginny was mesmerized by the lightning quick spells they threw at each other, the forceful shields on both sides blocking these spells from ever landing. The distraction was working, however. Dumbledore was leading the Dark Lord away from the portal, and she could see an opening that she and Harry could fit through the mass of trees around them—
They took it—until the explosion rocked them where they stood.
Harry gripped Ginny's arm as she stumbled and they stared in horror as a ginormous castle turret came careening down, crashing into the forest, sliing, crumbling, mere yards from their terrified faces.
The forest awoke.
Trees groaned and grumbled from all around them as the monsters that were being held at bay far across the Isle were unleashed from their warded prison. Black forms as tall as the pines surrounding them and as large around as several houses lassoed together crashed through the woods, felling branches and dead trunks as they ran.
Screams extravasated around her as the monsters came into view.
Quintapeds.
The sight of them made Ginny recoil in fear and disgust. They were considerably more colossal then any other beast she had ever before seen. Their mouths were so wide, their teeth so acuminous in shape, that one of these beasts seemed capable of taking down a dragon alone, nevermind the mutilation they could unleash as a pack.
And in the chaos, the Cloak slipped off Harry and Ginny again, and flapped its way down the cliff ledge.
Dismayed, Harry reached forth his wand-arm, Summoning it back into Ginny's waiting arms. But the damage was done. The Quintaped's eyes locked onto their own. And as they stared up in horror at it, the monstrosity glared down at her and let out a roar so high-pitched in its shriek that her eardrum burst.
"Impedimenta!" Ginny shouted. The spell, as powerful as it was, just rebounded. She ducked as it flew by them.
The monster advanced, shrieking as it came, and Ginny fired off every spell she could think of, Harry beside her, doing the same.
The gnashing mouth came closer, pinning them to the rocky base of the hill cliff, and Harry cast his shield in a last-ditch effort to save them. Ginny curled up into him with a shriek as the beast's mouth opened—
And then another scream—one so entirely defensive and outrageous in its tone that Ginny looked up in disbelief and awe.
A ginormous dragon hovered right above their heads, wings flapping with great gusto as Norberta the Dragon came to save them. And on her back—
"Grawp?" Harry breathed in astonishment.
"HAIRY!" Grawp shouted, seeing them. He climbed off Norberta's back, seeing the danger they were in, and ran forth to grab the leg nearest them.
With a roar, he pulled the Quintaped away. "BAD! BAD BEASTY!"
The Quintaped was not one to be one-upped by a giant, however. It shrieked in rage, mouth gnashing, and tore into Grawp's leg.
He cried in pain, voice echoing against the walls of the castle ruin.
Ginny immediately started going to him, but Harry pulled her back. Hearing Grawp, Norberta came to his aid. She took in a deep breath, chest glowing red like coals in a fire, and let out a bright orange stream of flames with a shriek.
The Quintaped was on fire.
It drew the attention of the other beasts and suddenly there were too many of them to count, all in danger of trampling Ginny and Harry in their quest to take down the dragon, hunger gleaming in their eyes.
Harry shielded Ginny from the stomping legs as best as he could, and they stumbled away from the monsters.
They weren't alone. Other large winged creatures came in the night.
Thestrals, with their skeletal bodies glowing in the setting moon, attacked one Quintaped that was terrorizing Ginny's family. Dad, Bill, and Percy couldn't do much against the monster alone besides run for cover.
"Harry!" Ginny shriek, terrified for them.
But his eyes were too busy taking in what was before them.
A high-pitched hissing sounded in her ear, and her head snapped to where he was pointing his wand to see Nagini slithering up the path to them, eyes gleaming.
Just as the horrid serpent was almost to them, however, golden feathers flashed in her vision.
It was Goldeneye.
The majestic griffin flew over the serpent, talons aimed at its eyes, gouging out one with his large beak.
A horrible hissing filled the vicinity as the snake writhed and slashed the air with its elongated coils. But with a quick grip of its talons and a sharp bite to its neck, Goldie put an end to Nagini.
The dead snake hung lifelessly in his mouth as he dug into the meat and settled down with his tasty morsel.
Hope rekindled in her heart, Ginny pulled Harry's arm and they skirted around the still, scaly corpse to get to the stone pathway that led up the cliff to her brother.
We're coming, Ron.
The battle behind them, and still invisible to the world, Harry climbed with Ginny up the steep hill that led to the portal. The stone steps engraved into the rocky outcrops hid their footfalls in the windy Scottish air until they reached the top, which had been vacated from all Death Eaters and Dark Lords.
Before Harry saw it, he felt it.
The emotional agony emitting from Hermione was multiplied now by a thousand-fold. A grief stronger than he'd ever before felt tore into his mind from the opening he'd left. The shock and enormity of it made him stumble to the ground, Ginny sinking with him, just meters from the portal, now abandoned by Voldemort.
Her cries echoed in the night, above the roar of the crashing waves of the North Sea far below them.
Hermione was grieving.
Alarmed, Harry struggled to get up and stumbled the rest of the way. Up the empty stone staircase, whipping the Invisibility Cloak off where it fell uselessly to the ground, and looking around in horror.
His four friends were still lashed to the posts, and the boys were all deathly still. Harry's eyes immediately gravitated towards an extremely bloody Malfoy. The stark contrast of pale white against the red blood on Slytherin robes alarmed Harry.
Draco lost so much blood that Harry put his hand to the Slytherin's neck and could only feel a very faint pulse. He was still alive...but not for long…
Hurriedly, Harry severed Draco's binds and tended to the Slytherin once he was flat on the ground. He uttered the healing charm that Dumbledore had been teaching him to use, knowing it would come handy in battle.
"Vulnera Sanentur…" He muttered, watching the miraculous effects of the spell take hold immediately. "Vulnera Sanentur...Vulnera Sanentur…"
Draco's breathing evened out, though he was still unconscious, as his body set about to replenish itself.
That done, Harry tore his eyes to where Ginny was tending to Neville and unbinding him, and saw with horror that Neville wasn't...he wasn't all there. His eyes were half-open and his head was lolling, like…
Like Charlie after his soul had been sucked.
Horrified, Harry backed away from the sight. He racked his brain, but already was resigned to the fact that he didn't know of any spells to help. He helped Ginny tear Neville's bindings off and lowered him gently to the ground.
Blood from Draco….Neville's soul...and Hermione's magic...
He whipped his head over to Ron and Hermione and fell their bindings with a swish of his wand.
Their bodies fell hard against the stone. That could have gone better...but better they have bruises than what befell Draco and Neville…
He rushed over to help Hermione, but she pushed him away and crawled over to Ron. The grief Harry could still feel in his head intensified like a scream that wouldn't end.
Ron was facedown and not moving.
"No, no, no…" Hermione whispered the word over and over, voice wet with tears, clutching the back of Ron's shirt. Rushing over, Harry tried to revive Ron.
It didn't work.
He tried more spells, going over his healing spellbook from Charms class, but nothing was working.
Harry reached over and, with extremely shaky hands, turned Ron over onto his back.
Ron's empty, glassy eyes stared unseeingly back at him.
The world dropped out from under Harry, and it slammed into him why the screaming in his head wouldn't stop.
Ron is dead.
Harry sunk to the ground.
Ron is dead.
Not breaking contact away from his friend's soulless eyes.
Ron is dead.
Not able to see or think about anything else.
Ron is dead.
Yet still not comprehending.
Ron is dead.
The unbearable grief in his heart was multiplied by Hermione's wracking sobs.
Ron is dead.
"Ron…" Harry's voice cracked, his heart breaking.
Ron is dead.
Was it raining? His face was wet but he didn't know why…
Ron is dead.
Movement to his side stirred him out of his thoughts. Ginny had given up on trying to revive Neville. Her back was to them, and when she turned around, Harry realized she did not know...
Ginny's face drained, eyes locked on her brother's when she saw Ron's eyes staring back at her.
"R...Ron?" she whispered, halting abruptly.
Ginny's high-pitched scream tore through the air.
Tears poured down his cheeks. He fisted Ron's shirt in his hands, willing him to be alive. Willing for this all to be just a cruel, sick joke.
But Ron wouldn't wake up.
Ron is dead.
Vaguely, he was aware of people running to the portal.
Behind Ginny, the rest of the Weasleys were dashing up the portal's steps, bloody from their fight with the Quintapeds and Death Eaters, their eyes locked onto Ron's still form in the middle of the dais.
His eyes were still open and staring up at them.
And for the second time that night, an overwhelming cry of anguish came out of Mrs. Weasley as she saw her son slain.
"No!" she shrieked, sobbing. "No, no no, NO!"
Mr. Weasley could not comfort her, however, as he and his sons stood and stared down at their youngest brother in shock.
They weren't alone.
Meghan and Luna sprinted up the steps and ran to Neville and Draco respectively. Meghan at once closed her hands over Neville's chest, closed her eyes, and fell into what looked like a trance. Luna repeated the spells that Harry himself had uttered to cease the flow of Draco's blood that had since started up again.
Harry couldn't even find it in himself to be relieved that they were being taken care of.
Ron is dead.
Vaguely he was aware of the sky.
Ron is dead.
The darkness was fading.
Ron is dead.
Sunrise would come soon.
Ron is dead.
And Ron would never see it.
When did he sit down? Days, weeks, months...it felt like years. He was in so much shock he couldn't tell time anymore. Forever ago he had collapsed next to his best friend in horror.
He thought vaguely that they should go before that sick bastard came back or sent one of his henchmen to come collect what they probably thought were useless bodies. He was terrified that Krum would finish the job and try to dispose of them. If that happened, Harry thought, he would give Hermione and Ginny the Cloak. Better they be saved than a soulless Neville, a dying Draco, or a…
Dead Ron.
And as for Harry...he just didn't care anymore.
Let Voldemort have him. Let Voldemort win.
Ron is dead.
Harry didn't stand a chance without Ron anyway. Nothing mattered without Ron. Life wasn't worth living without his best friend by his side.
Out of the foggy depths of his anguish, Harry realized vaguely that Hermione was muttering feverishly, her hands pumping up and down on Ron's chest frantically. It took Harry a moment to realize she was doing the old Muggle healing trick. CRP? No...CPR...
She hovered over Ron, and started giving him mouth-to-mouth, ministering chest compressions with incredibly shaky arms.
"Magic. Soul. Blood. Body…" she whispered feverishly. "H-H-He stole my magic. He stole Neville's soul. He stole Draco's blood. That leaves Ron's body. His heart isn't beating. That means the blood flow to a part of his heart is slowed or stopped—"
"Hermione—" Harry tried, feeling defeated. She still had hope where there was none. "Hermione, you shouldn't…Hermione...he's dead..."
His voice still sounded feeble in his ears. He reached over and tried to get her to stop. It seemed...wrong, somehow...her doing that to their best friend's body…
"It's no use, Hermione...he's already dead…"
"I can save him!" she cried.
Never ceasing from her frantic ministrations, she tilted Ron's head back and breathed into his mouth for the umpteenth time.
Tears streamed down her face. The grief in her voice broke his heart. "V-V-Voldemort used the killing curse on him," she sobbed. "The killing curse stops the heart. When the heart stops, it's called a-a-a sudden cardiac arrest. That's a-a-all it is. His h-heart just stopped beating, which stops the oxygen-rich blood from reaching his brain a-and other organs. A person can die from it in minutes if it is not treated right away. But I-I-I'm treating it. I'm treating it right away. I'm treating it. I'm restoring partial flow of oxygenated blood to his brain a-and his h-h-heart."
Harry crawled over, gently trying to take her arms away.
"Hermione," he whispered. "Ron is dead. He died from the killing curse. Nobody can survive that…"
"You have!" she snapped. "If you can do it, so can Ron. I-i-it's not fair for you to li-i-ive if R-Ron can't!" Hermione's words ended in a sob.
Reeling, Harry's hand snatched away from hers as if he'd been burned. Her words rebounded over and over again in his brain.
"I'm not going to give up on him," she whispered, quiet voice filled with anguish. Still she never let up on those chest compressions. "I'll never give up on him, Harry. I-I-I love him. I can't let him go. I can't. I can't...and I won't."
But they didn't have much of a choice.
Hermione leaned down to breathe again into Ron's slack-jawed mouth. Harry couldn't tear his eyes away from the sensual act, but felt like he was intruding on an extremely private moment...like he had walked in on them kissing…
There was sobbing all around them as Ron's family watched on, confused about what was going on, wanting her to stop but not knowing what she was doing in the first place.
And still Hermione was trying to resuscitate him.
"Hermione…" Harry whispered again. Watching her do this to Ron's body was...wrong, somehow. But she was a witch possessed. "Hermione, you have to...you need to...please...his family needs to say goodbye to him…"
He tried to pull her off the body again, but she wasn't having it.
"Don't! I can save him! I can save him, Harry, I know I can… I can save him…"
"Hermione, no...Hermione...he's gone...you have to let him go…"
"He can't be dead," she cried again. Her tears were falling onto Ron's chest, drenching his shirt, mingling with the blood from the nasty cut still on her head. "He can't be dead," she repeated, sobbing. "I can save him...you need to...you need to shock his heart, Harry…"
"Hermione," Harry whispered.
"Shock his heart, Harry!" She shrieked. "Shock his heart! You have to! You have to, please! I c-can't—I can't do it. V-V-Voldemort took my magic. I don't have magic anymore! Y-y-y-you have to shock his heart so he has a chance. Please, Harry...please…"
He watched her give Ron another breath, then raised his wand. "All right...I'll do it...m-move aside, Hermione."
She raised her hands off of Ron, and Harry sent a shocker spell.
Ron's body jerked...but that was all.
"No, no, no," Hermione gasped. She started compressions again. "It has to work...it has to! Shock him again!"
Harry shakily looked up at Mr. Weasley, unsure on whether to follow her orders. Mr. Weasley just nodded at him sadly, and Harry sent a more powerful shocker this time.
Nothing.
"Hermione," Fred said softly to her. He grabbed her from behind, and she resisted. "Hermione, you're exhausted. Let me take over from here. I'll do it now."
Realizing that he just wanted to help, Hermione nodded feebly and he gave her to Harry. She gripped Harry tight, sobbing into his chest. Arms encircling her shivering body, Harry couldn't take this anymore. He held her tight to him in a way that one only could with such a best friend as she was to him. The white silk of her dress wasn't covering her skin nearly as much as it was at the beginning of the night, and there were so many rips and bloodstains covering it that Harry was surprised it hadn't just given up by now. But she still looked beautiful in her despair.
She was still his best friend.
They watched as Fred gave Ron mouth-to-mouth and pushed exactly the same way and at the same pace Hermione did.
At least Draco was now standing, holding tightly to Luna, and appeared to be better. He and Luna were now watching Ron's body with everyone else. Fred paused the compressions and Harry raised his wand, shocking Ron's body again—
"You're being far too kind, Potter," said Draco faintly, snatching Harry's wand. "You've simply got to hate him enough to do it right."
Without warning, Draco sent a bright bolt of electric charge shooting towards Ron.
There were cries of dismay as Ron's body lit up like he was being swallowed by lightning, his body shaking. Horror coveted Harry.
But then they all took a breath and saw something happen.
It seemed to defy everything they had ever before known to be possible.
Never before had Harry believed in God and miracles until this moment.
Ron sat straight up, eyes wide, gasping for breath.
Everybody gasped.
A wave of awe engulfed Harry.
Ron was alive.
Ron was...alive...
Ron was alive!
Wild-eyed, Ron stared at them all.
Wild-eyed, they stared right back at him.
"Ron!"
At once Harry collapsed on his knees beside his best friend to engulf him in a crushing hug.
But Hermione beat him to it.
"Ron!" she shrieked, and before anyone knew what was happening, her mouth was on his.
The shocked look on Ron's face was almost immediately replaced with love.
For a an endless moment, they just sat there, kissing.
Until finally Hermione pulled him into a hug, whispering into his shoulder, "I love you, Ron! I love you, I love you, I love you!"
Beside Harry, Ginny laughed through her tears. He grinned at her mirth, breathing in her hair and taking in her own scent. Everyone else was crying as well.
Ron's arms wrapped around Hermione, his beating heart no doubt pounding furiously against her, trying to make up for what was lost. "Merlin, Hermione. Way to wake a bloke up! You know I love you too, right?"
Hermione nodded. Then she leaned back and lightly slapped him.
"You great prat!" she sobbed, though there were smiles amidst the tears. Everyone around them chuckled. "Don't ever die on me again. Promise?"
Ron grinned, still holding her. "Promise."
It was like two puzzle pieces coming together, Harry realized. Two halves of the world coming to each other to fit, because his entire world would be broken otherwise.
Ron was alive.
"You saved me..." Ron kept whispering into her hair. "You saved me…"
"No…" Hermione said, pulling back to look at him. "I'm the one who was saved. Because I never could have lived without you."
They kissed again.
Harry reached over and took Ron's arm firmly, helping his best friend to stand, engulfing him in a hug. The rest of the Weasleys soon followed.
Relieved beyond measure that his best friend was back, that Ron was standing, talking, blinking…
Harry was more grateful than he ever remembered feeling in his life.
Ron is alive!
A/N:
The reviews I got, Merlin abroad. Oh ye of little faith...
