Hermione
The sunlight bounced around in the tent, making everything look bright orange. Another day had slowly passed and sunset would soon be approaching. Hermione Granger was sitting on her camp bed reading, her wild hair thrown back into a low ponytail.
She had of course read the book that was resting in her lap many times before, desperately trying to find anything that she could have previously missed. She knew that there had to have been a reason that Dumbeldore had left it to her, she was sure of it. Not having the right answers she was looking for was only adding to her already stressed mind and growing list of problems. Internally berating herself, she examined every word closely, knowing that she only needed to try harder.
Her head jerked up as Ron pulled back the opening and walked into the tent. When his eyes met hers he offered her a warm smile and she hastily looked back down at the book, not returning it.
She watched from her peripheral as he sat down at the small table across the tent. She could vaguely tell that he was lightly tapping his fingers on the wood, his knee bouncing up and down but he said nothing. She knew he was staring at her. She could feel his blue eyes intensely watching.
Since he had been back, he hadn't even been trying to hide the fact that he stared. Before, him doing so would have elated her, but now she only felt anger.
He had left them. For weeks. He had left even though she and Harry had needed him. She had run after him screaming his name, and still he had gone, seemingly indifferent to her cries.
It had been agony for her the whole time he had been gone. She hadn't coped well at all in his absence, her anxiety for his safety a constant rock in her chest.
Once he was gone she had soon realized that he was the glue that held them all together and without him, there was no way that they could win. Most days, her and Harry had hardly said a word to each other, both hurt and feeling as if they were missing a vital piece of themselves.
But then, he had come back, and with him there was hope. He had saved Harry's life, instantly earning back his forgiveness. She had not been as easy to convince.
She knew that he was sorry. She saw it in his face that he was ashamed of himself for leaving. When she had laid eyes on him she had felt both instant relief and white hot fury. She had wanted to throw herself into his arms and sob, and also cause him as much pain as possible for what he had put her through.
He was back, and she never wanted him to leave again, but she wasn't at all ready to forgive him. Her practical mind knew that they needed him, but her heart was still bruised, and she wasn't going to easily forget what he had done.
She knew that he was desperate for her forgiveness, he had tried to apologize to her many times, but she would hear none of it. To her, it really wasn't that simple. She had made up her mind that she wouldn't...couldn't let him make her feel like that again, it had nearly broken her. So, she had decided to mentally build a wall to protect herself, to not let him in.
Oh and he was trying so hard to get in. He was driving her up the wall with his sugary sweet demeanor and obvious groveling. He tried to do everything for her (as if she couldn't do it herself!) Trying to take over cooking for her, offering to take her watches so she could 'rest', cleaning up the tent as best as he could (which he wasn't very good at but not for lack of trying) He tried over and over to start friendly conversations with her, but she had yet to take the bait and only gave him short one word answers. Being his best friend for years, she knew that the cold shoulder was the best way to drive him insane. Secretly she felt a sick satisfaction that she could make him feel even a fraction of what he had made her feel.
Before, if someone would have asked her to pick someone who she trusted her life with wholeheartedly, the answer would have been Ron. No one was as protective of her than he was, she knew that he cared for her. He cared for his family and his best friends more than anything. He was always the first to take the mickey on those he cared for, but if another decided to be malicious towards them, Ron would put himself in the middle in a heartbeat. He had stood up for her or Harry more times than she could count, and that was one of the many things that made her love him.
Love. She had known for years now, that she was in love with one of her best friends. It was one of the many facts of her life that just...was. The sky was blue, she was a witch, and she was in love with Ron Weasley.
She had always been happy that he was such a big part of her life, even if just as a friend. Truth be told, she had pretty much given up hope a while ago that her feelings would be reciprocated. She had seen what kind of girls that he seemed to fancy, and she was a far cry from them. She wasn't a girly kind of girl, she didn't wake up and doll herself up to impress the opposite sex. She was on the plain side, with extremely out-of-control hair, and not much in the way of curves with her too-skinny, petite body. Also, seeing as he had had many chances to show his interest in her if there had been any, she seriously doubted there was. Sure, there had been moments when she thought 'maybe…' but they were few and far between, and she refused to live on false hope. So she had continued pining for him secretly, never willing to take that extra step for fear of ruining what they had.
She turned a page of the book, but was no longer reading. She could still feel him staring, and could no longer concentrate on her task. She sighed and looked up.
"What do you want?"
He startled, seemingly having not expected her to speak to him. "I...uh..I don't want anything…"
"Then stop looking at me." She returned her eyes downwards.
"I'm sorry." he mumbled.
She huffed. "Of course you are Ron."
He stood up. "I'm going into the kitchen for some tea, would you like some? Or is there anything else I can get you?"
That was it. She stood up and threw her book to the ground, the sound making him jump in surprise. "Stop. Being. So. Damn. NICE!"
His mouth gaped open. "You... don't want me to be nice?" He asked slowly, looking at her as if she had gone mental.
"Aggghhhhh!" She spun around. She needed to get out of there, away from him.
She hastily grabbed her coat and sped out of the tent, the cold air hitting her face and cooling down her anger just a bit. Harry had been sitting outside against a tree, seemingly deep in thought and her sudden appearance and obvious anger made him look up at her, his eyes questioning.
"Where are you going?" He asked, his brows furrowed in confusion.
"I don't know. Looking for berries or something." She muttered, still hurriedly walking away.
"Hermione, you know it's not safe for you to just wander away alone like that."
She turned to reply, and saw Ron coming out of the tent, pulling his coat on. "He's right you know, I'll join you."
Her anger returned in full force. "No! you will not join me. Harry can come, you can sit and watch the tent."
Harry eyed both of them. She felt a little guilty as she knew that he hated to get in between any conflict of theirs. "Uh...Hermione, there isn't really any need to go find berries..we still have some food from the muggle market that should last us a week at least. And besides...I think any berries would be long frozen by now and-"
"That's not the point!" She yelled as she stamped her foot. She knew she was acting borderline childish, but at that moment, she didn't even care.
"Then what is the point?" Ron said so quietly that she barely heard him speak. She looked at him then and saw the hurt in his face. As mad as she was, looking at his obvious hurt made her ache. It almost made her want to just forgive and forget, but she refused to do that so quickly and looked away at Harry.
"Harry, come on." She demanded, completely ignoring Ron's question.
Harry looked to Ron, and she watched as the two shared a silent conversation. Ron very subtly shook his head at his best mate, pleading with his eyes.
Harry sighed. "I uh...I think I'm just going to stay here actually. Ron is better at finding stuff than I am anyway."
Annoyance rose up in her but she couldn't blame Harry, he had just gotten his best friend back. "Fine." she huffed. She turned her eyes to Ron. "But do not talk to me." and she started quickly walking away, not bothering to wait for him.
Ron
Could he do nothing right? He had been trying his damndest to make her see that he was repentant, that every fibre of his being regretted the huge ass mistake he had made when he had chosen to leave. He was so guilt ridden for leaving Harry, but even more so for leaving her.
He had made a promise to himself years ago after the department of mysteries, that he would do everything in his power to not let anything bad happen to her. He was disgusted at himself because since then, he had only let her down over and over again in different ways; the tipping point being when he had abandoned her. How could he have possibly let her down...let them down in such a momentous way? Part of him knew that it had been the locket's hold on him that had led him to make the choice to go, but the fact was that he should have been stronger.
Harry and Hermione were admittedly the most important people to him. When he had befriended them he had felt for the first time, a real sense of belonging. Yes, he loved his family, but he had never felt especially important compared to his siblings. He had always been an insecure person, for as long as he could remember he was comparing himself to everyone around him and his friends had been no exception to the rule. Sure, he then had to compare himself to Harry bloody Potter, but at the end of the day he loved his best friend and would gladly stand behind him in everything. And then there was Hermione, who he felt outshined them both. She was so brilliant and perfect and amazing, and he could never grow bored being with her.
He had finally realized around the time that he had made that promise to himself, that his feelings for her were not just platonic. He had always had different feelings for her than anyone else in his life, but he had never dwelled on it. Even after the Yule Ball incident, it had taken a while to admit to himself that his feelings for Krum were not just because he felt protective over her, but raging jealousy towards the famous quidditch player. How could he ever compete with someone like that?
Hermione wasn't the type of girl that would turn all heads when she walked into a room, but to him she was the most beautiful witch he'd ever known. It was more than just the way that she looked. It was the way that she did, well, everything. He was always enthralled with her, whether she was studying or eating, talking, or just deep in thought. His eyes were constantly drawn to her and he had to keep check on himself at all times so nobody would notice him ogling.
Through the years he had memorized the way that she did things. He knew that she bit her bottom lip when she was concentrating (and bloody hell it drove him mad in the best kind of way) He knew that she always carried herself prim and proper, completely opposite from the way he carried himself. He knew the look she got in her eyes when she was hatching some sort of plan, and the look she got when she was being mischievous. He felt that he knew her more than most, and he couldn't help but feel proud of that.
Regrettably, he also knew that she couldn't feel the same about him as he did about her. Why would she fancy him when he had absolutely nothing to offer her. There had been times where he thought she might feel something more for him, but he quickly talked those thoughts down knowing that he wouldn't be able to take the disappointment when she inevitably would reveal to him that he was just a friend to her. He had thought about telling her how he felt, or even imagined just going for it and kissing her, but always decided not to. The fear of ruining their friendship was too real. With a pang, he remembered that he had almost ruined it already and he hoped that he would never fuck up and make that big of a mistake again.
He watched her forging ahead with purpose, her hair escaping her ponytail and blowing around her head, her feet stamping the ground. They had gone past the wards a couple of minutes ago and she showed no signs of slowing down. He knew he could very easily catch up with her, but he stayed a few feet behind, giving her space while also eyeing the thick forest around them for anything suspicious.
It had made him wince when she had ordered that Harry go with her instead. The locket had made him think that she had been in love with the black haired boy, taunting him and making him insane with jealousy. Luckily with it being gone, he had no longer felt that way but her demand had still hit a sore nerve. Thank goodness for Harry not listening and deciding to stay back. He knew he owed him one, as it was always scary to not obey an angry Hermione.
When she had stormed out of the tent, he thought that maybe if they had a nice walk, she would calm down enough for her to finally talk with him. All he wanted was to just have an actual conversation with her, to try and explain himself. He knew that at the end of the day, there really was no valid excuse for his leaving them. But maybe if she would just listen to him for a few minutes, he could make her see it from his point of view, even if just a little. So he plodded along behind her, saying nothing and waiting for her to tire out.
Eventually she slowed down to a normal paced walk, and he got to where they were walking side by side, a few feet apart from each other. He still didn't speak, his eyes straight ahead, his hands in his pockets.
She side eyed him. "Why did you insist on coming with me?"
He sighed "Why did you insist on leaving?"
She took a long moment to respond. "Maybe I'm just tired of you breathing down my neck Ron."
"I wasn't breathing down your neck! I was just about on the other side of the tent!" He said incredulously.
She put her hands up exasperatedly. "You don't have to be in close proximity to drive me crazy!" She paused. "It's just that you seem to care so much what I think or do now when you should have cared earlier...you know, before you left." The scorn was apparent on her face.
And there it was. He rubbed his face. "Hermione. I will tell you sorry every day for the rest of my life if I need to. I'm a complete arse, the worst of the fucking worst!"
"True"
"I'm going barmy with you being so angry with me all of the time." She stopped walking and glared at him.
He put his hands in front of him quickly. "Not that you don't have every right to be angry! And I certainly don't deserve your forgiveness ye-"
"Well it seems that you are at least right about a few things." She snorted, her arms crossing against her chest.
He went on, grateful he was at least getting words in. "When I...left, I really thought that I was doing you two a favor, that you would get things done faster without me slowing you down. The locket made me hate myself Hermione, I don't even want to tell you everything it made me think! I wasn't in my right mind when I made that choice to go, if I had been in my right mind you know I would never have gone."
She looked up at him, and he was surprised to see tears in her eyes. "But you did." she whispered. She blinked and a tear fell from her left eye, and without thinking he reached out to wipe it away. When she saw his hand going towards her, she jumped back, anger coming back into her face. "Don't."
He would rather she had slapped him than look at him the way she was looking at him just then. Of course she didn't want him to comfort her. Maybe she even hated him and he would never be able to fix it. He tried to make his face as blank as possible to hide the fact that his heart felt like it was crumbling inside of his chest.
"What do you want me to say Hermione?" He pleaded, knowing that his voice was on the verge of breaking. "Listen, I know that things can't go back to how they were before. I'm realistic. But things can't continue like this either. It's always been the three of us against the world. We can't do anything if we aren't working together. We need to be at least civil. I need you back on my side Hermione."
She stared off into the trees for a long moment, obviously deep in thought. "You're right." She finally relented. "We really do need to put our focus on Harry and finding these horcruxes. Our personal feelings shouldn't be getting in the way of that. We should be able to be cordial to each other... but Ron, that doesn't mean that we are friends again or that I forgive you. I just know that the task at hand is more important than our problems and like it or not we have a really important job to do."
He nodded, happy that she had at least agreed to be civil. That was a start, and all he could hope for for the time being. He reached his hand out. "Cordial not quite-friends with the same end goal?" He slightly grinned at her.
She looked down at his outstretched hand and rolled her eyes. The action made his stomach happily flip, she hadn't rolled her eyes at him in so long.
She ignored his hand but told him that was agreeable enough, her tone implying that was all that would be spoken of it today. She turned and started looking around. "I don't see any berries. We should get back though, it's getting pretty cold out here and we probably have walked too far away than we should have."
He agreed, not daring to mention that this whole thing had been her idea in the first place and that they hadn't even so much as looked for any berries.
It was already starting to get dark. As they were walking back he let her go ahead of him again, not wanting to smother her and feeling that things had taken a small step in the right direction.
He was walking slowly and dragging his feet when he noticed that she had stopped and was intently staring down. He got closer and realized that there was a large stone circle just under the earth, and she was kicking away the thin layer of snow and dirt that covered most of it. He figured that it was about 12 feet in diameter and saw that there was writing on the stone, but it was in unfamiliar symbols and he had no idea what it might have read. He walked up next to her on the stone as she bent down to use her hands to uncover more of it.
After a few seconds of doing so, she suddenly let out a gasp.
"Ron, get out! Now!" She said urgently.
He immediately took several large steps backwards and backed into what seemed to be an invisible shield on the edge or the circle. Using his hand, he quickly walked all the way around, feeling the invisible wall, and finding no gap, he trailed his hands up and found that the shield..or whatever it was, was dome-shaped and completely around them.
"Uh...can't get out. There's some sort of invisible dome around us." He honestly wasn't too worried about it. He had certainly faced much scarier situations in his life than being trapped in an invisible dome in the middle of the forest. Besides, Hermione was with him and she knew pretty much everything and would certainly be able to free them no problem.
He looked down at her. She was still kneeling on the ground but she stared straight ahead, not moving at all. Although she was clearly trying, she couldn't hide the panic all over her face as he knew her too well. For the first time, he started to feel a little nervous.
"Do you know what this thing is or how to get out? I certainly don't want to miss dinner." He grinned, trying to lighten the mood but she didn't respond to him.
"Hermione...what's going on?" he tried. She wouldn't look at him, but he saw her jaw tighten and she clamped her lips tight.
"What the hell Hermione, you're really starting to freak me out here."
She still didn't respond, but she glanced up at his confused face for a moment before looking down again, very slightly nodding her head.
"Have you forgotten how to talk?"
"Shut up Ronald. I'm thinking."
"Well why don't you do it out loud? That way I can have a bloody idea of what's going on."
Barely over a whisper, she said a few words that sounded like they were in another language.
"What does that mean?"
"You would know it as..Virgin's Circle"
He laughed. "Good one Hermione."
He had of course heard of Virgin's Circle. It was brought up sometimes in a joking manner, specifically in the boys dorm. "I would love to be trapped in Virgin's Circle with so-and-so" etc.
Supposedly, if two of-age magical virgins happened to stumble onto it, it would use ancient magic to trap them there until they were no longer virgins. He had heard that it was actually a real thing, but had never really thought much about it.
He stared at her, she was still silent, her cheeks slightly pink. "Oh shite. You're serious?"
He knew that she was. Her face made it quite apparent that she was, but he was so incredulous that the words had just come out of him.
She stood up and faced him, her hands on her hips. "Of course I'm serious! Do you think that I would joke about something like this?! Do you think I just want to shag you right now in the middle of the bloody woods?!" Her voice coming out high pitched and frenzied.
"I...didn't say...I...what?" He stuttered.
She started wringing her hands, and he found his voice. "Um, I mean...you're you. Surely you know how to get us out of this...situation?" He rubbed the back of his neck.
She shook her head. "From what I've read, it's very old magic, and impossible to ge-"
He cut her out with a barking laugh."Ha! Hermione! It's so damn simple! We just apparate to the other side of this thing. Really easy right?"
She let out a sarcastic laugh. "Oh YES! Ron you are a GENIUS! I can't believe that you have figured it out! Hundreds of years this thing has been around, and no one has ever tried apparition! I cannot believe what a HERO you are Ronald Weasley!"
He didn't respond, but furrowed his brow at her outburst.
She went on. "Of course that won't work!" She closed her eyes and pinched the top of her nose. "Try it if you wish, but that kind of magic won't work in here." she mumbled in a defeated voice.
"I was only trying to help. But obviously if you say that it won't work, then I believe you. You always know more than I do." He shrugged. "So what do we do?"
She put her hands over her face and shook her head slowly.
He gulped. Fuck. Were they really going to be forced to shag to get out of this thing? Of course he had thought about having sex with her, all of the time in fact...but it had been a deepest desire kind of thing for him rather than a future inevitable action. He had always been randy as hell for her and living in the tent had been a whole new form of torture for him as she was always right there. Sleeping so close to her was probably the worst of it. He would lay there and imagine himself crawling into her bed and touching every part of her and burying himself inside of her, but knowing that he couldn't. His sexual frustration was at an all time high and he had to sneak off to go for a wank as often as he could get away with (which wasn't near enough in his opinion)
But now knowing that they would have to have sex didn't make him happy, instead he was terrified. All he wanted from her right now was her forgiveness. He had been willing to work on that for as long as it would take, years even. But now they were stuck in this thing and she hadn't yet forgiven him for leaving...could hardly even look at him, much less any more than that. The idea that she would even let him get close to her was preposterous. How the fuck was this going to go? He ran his fingers through his hair. He thought she hated him now, shagging her when she certainly didn't want to would make it so much worse.
He started pacing back and forth to one side of the circle to the other, panic settling in."So we have to have...sex? Are there any specific rules with this thing? Is there a time limit? What will happen if we can't- what if we-"
She reached out and grabbed his shoulders and he stopped.
"Please stop pacing and calm down! I'm already nervous enough and you are making it so much worse." She suddenly seemed to realize that she was touching him, and pulled her arms away.
He looked at her and knew he needed to calm himself not only for his sake, but for hers too. "Yeah. Yeah you're right. I'm sorry. I can calm down."
"As for the rules..I can tell you all that I know. Virgin's Circle is not in one particular place. It randomly travels around, popping up in heavily wooded areas. Once it traps and releases those who get caught in it, it vanishes to its next destination. Only...intercourse will work in this situation. Whoever made it lived hundreds of years ago, and it is widely believed that it was made for the means of conceiving a child of magical blood-"
His head snapped up, his eyes wide. "I have to get you pregnant?!"
"No no." She shook her head. "The contraception charm prevents that. This circle was made long before such a spell to prevent pregnancy was invented so it's easy to cheat in that regard."
Ron bit the inside of his cheek, questions flooding him. "But earlier you said magic wouldn't work in here."
Apparition or any kind of traveling spells will not work, while other spells will. We cannot get out, but we can use magic. And as for the time limit question. I haven't read anything that suggests that there is one..."
"What about Harry? He's bound to come looking for us soon."
She looked as if she had just realized this. She quickly conjured up her Patronus and spoke to it. "Harry. Ron and I have caught ourselves in a little situation that might take a while. Don't worry, we are completely fine. Stay in the tent and don't wait up for us. Just trust me please. We will be back." Then they both watched as the glowing otter raced off with her message.
Don't hate me! I'm sorry for the cliff-hanger, but this one was too long and I was only planning on 4 chapters. Chapters are already written but will be gone over critically once more before posting!
