I was planning on getting another chapter up yesterday but I bought the new
Nine Inch Nails DVD, figuring that I could wait and watch it after I was
finished writing. HA. No way. I have come to the conclusion that Ron's
favorite band is most definitely NIN, though. They're so angsty and low
sometimes.
For those of you who are country music junkies like me, I've found an example of the way I see Colin. In Kenny Chesney's video 'Young', a trio of boys is shown about halfway through the video by the water. My Colin is the one in the middle in the jean shorts and no shirt. They show another good image of him in a football helmet a bit later with a great smile. (warm and fuzzy feelings….) it's a great song and a fun video too, so check it out on CMT.
Harry awoke to the low growl of his stomach. He opened his eyes and saw the sleeping form still sprawled on top of him. He smiled. Harry glanced over at his snitch clock and saw that they'd slept for about 15 minutes.
"Colin, wake up." no response at all. "Colin! Get up. I'm starving. Wake up."
This time he got a response. Two red-rimmed eyes looked up at him. "Huh? "
"Colin, we need to get to dinner. You know, feed the machine and all?"
"Yeah, I'm starving," Colin said.
As Colin got off him, Harry noticed a wet spot on his shirt. "Colin, I do hope that those are tears and not drool on me."
"Me too," was the grinning reply that Harry received. Colin stretched and started walking to the door. "You know what Harry? I know that I closed that door when I came in here," he said gesturing at the open door while Harry went to grab a shirt.
"Well, it's probably just possessed again. It sometimes has a bad habit of opening whenever we're changing." Harry pulled a dry shirt out of his wardrobe and tossed the damp one in his pile. "McGonagall has tried to fix it so many times I've lost count."
"Weird. And I thought that Aidan's possessed wardrobe was odd."
"His wardrobe's possessed? Does it toss clothes out or what?" The two of them discussed possessed dorm room objects as they made their way down to the Great Hall.
Their arrival was noticed by few people, Hermione the usual exception along with Seamus. Seeing Ron not at her side, Harry and Colin sat by them. Hermione was busy eating meatloaf with one hand while her other held open a book. Seamus was doing his best to annoy her and make her loose her concentration but had apparently failed so far. He switched over to Neville and tried his luck on the other boy. Hermione sighed with relief and rolled her eyes at Harry.
"We thought you weren't coming down for dinner," Hermione said to him and Colin.
"We were but then it was like we took a draught of Snape's Apnea Potion. We took a short nap," Harry answered. He caught a glimpse of Colin sighing in relief, apparently afraid that Harry would have said something. He ruffled Colin's hair and said with a big grin, "And this is one of the most difficult people to wake in the world."
"Seamus!!" a voice called from Harry's left. Neville's pieces of meatloaf were deftly avoiding his fork. Seamus was looking at the rafters for rogue owls trying to appear innocent. He could barely hold back the smile.
"Nope, no owls up there."
Hermione was chuckling against her will at the mobile meatloaf as she tried to continue. "Have you read any of this yet, Harry?" she was pointing to the book.
"I've resisted successfully so far and probably will until Sunday night."
"Harry Potter! You would like this. It's about historic sorcerers and some of the things they did. Quite a few of them even lived around here, before it was Hogwarts. And if I'm not mistaken, Professor Binns said that one of them--"
"Hermione, for Merlin's sake, it's Friday night. No homework can be done on a Friday night," Seamus called from beside her. "You know that. House rules. I think you might need an Appointment tonight to get your mind off the books. How about 8:00?"
"Seamus Finnegan!! I'd never do- oh, that kind of appointment, as in Exploding Snap. We'll see about all that." the rest of their immediate dinner mates were all roaring with laughter over Hermione's outburst as she turned a divine shade of red.
Dinner was finished and the crowd broke up and headed to the four winds. Back in the common room in Gryffindor tower people were milling about everywhere. Hermione had taken her usual chair by the fireplace and still had that history book open. Students were playing Exploding Snap and Wizard Chess all around her but somehow she seemed to be tuning them all out and continued studying. Until that is, Seamus Finnegan happened.
After Harry and the others finished their game, he walked right up to her unnoticed. He gazed at her for a second or two. He looked back at the rest of the Gryffindors who gave affirmative head nods.
"Hermione Granger, I Seamus Finnegan of the Fun Police, hereby put you under arrest for being an old poop." he looked back and saw all his co- conspirators snickering madly. "Your punishment is to have fun all night." Quick as lighting Seamus had reached down and snatched the book from Hermione's hands, not even losing her place. "Deputy Officer Potter, please take this as evidence." Deputy Officer Potter walked over and took the book and put it behind his back. "Thank you, Officer Potter."
"Now, Ms. Granger, it is time to start serving your punishment. Officers Creevey and Creevey, please escort the accused to the Exploding Snap table, please." They pulled a no longer resisting Hermione out of her chair and took her to the table.
She grinned at the lot of them. "You guys are all insane, you know? Insane."
"Aye, but what fun is it to be normal?" Seamus retorted.
She sat in the chair that had recently held Harry. One last attempt to escape… "Harry, isn't this your chair? I don't want to take your spot."
"Go ahead Hermione. I lost badly, so I lost my spot. I'll just sit one out and get back in in a few minutes." Harry flopped down in her chair and popped the book open to her place. "I'll just see if she took any notes…." he thought. He was quickly amazed at how far ahead she was in the book-over 200 pages. Sheesh.
He read for the entire time Hermione was royally stomping Seamus in ES. "These were some horribly mean old bastards," he thought to himself on more than one occasion. One of the most evil that he'd read so far was an old French wizard who'd taken a boat full of people out into the channel for a supposed trip to Dover. He'd sunk the boat in mid channel, drowning them all and powering him through some twisted sacrifice. Harry shivered. Ooohh.
The next one highlighted by Hermione was a local one. An English wizard who called himself Surtain was killed by his love in another twisted sacrifice under a full moon. As he was dying, he promised revenge. In some way or another, he didn't quite die but became a spirit. "Were they just all insane or evil back then or what?" Harry thought to himself. There were a few scribbled notes in the margin. "What's she say?" he asked himself as he read Hermione's script. Oh good. This supposedly happened somewhere on these grounds. "Maybe that's what is possessing my door and Aidan's wardrobe," he thought as he carefully closed her book. He had had enough schooling for one day and went to reclaim a place at the ES table.
Nearly all the Gryffindors were having a good time that evening. Nearly all. The one important exception was Ron. He'd been sitting on the floor in an empty classroom with his knees drawn up to his chin for hours now, staring blankly at a wall, replaying what he'd seen in his mind's eye over and over. He thought he might have slept a bit but he really wasn't sure.
Were they? No. Yes. Probably not. Maybe so. "That would explain why they've grown so close so quickly, wouldn't it?" his mind answered his questions. Ron felt as if he'd had a flaming sword jabbed in his chest. He hurt terribly. His world was collapsing like a sand castle at the tide line. He suddenly had to get out of this classroom. He got up and glanced out a window and saw that the sun had long since gone down and it appeared as it was starting to rain.
"I should be hungry," he said aloud for no reason to a few tables and benches, "but I'm not." Ron peeked out the door and saw that the hallway was deserted.
Not having any idea of where to go, just knowing not back to the common room, to Gryffindor Tower, to Harry and Colin. Harry and Colin. "Dammit," Ron cursed himself. He'd never said anything to Harry at all. But why would he? Harry was Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived, not the Boy Who Was Gay, or so Ron had believed. He had waited too long, hidden his feelings from himself too long and now he'd missed his chance.
His feet had started walking sometime during his mental ramblings. Ron stopped at a stairway and tried to figure out where he was. Somewhere near the Hufflepuff quarter, he finally decided. He walked a bit further and got lost in thoughts once again.
"I don't know how much longer I can deal with this," he told a suit of armor as he passed it.
"It is past time for all young rapscallions such as yourself to be in bed, knave," the suit answered him.
Ron stopped, surprised that the armor talked back, then a bit mad for being called a rapscallion. "Rust, you," he replied to the uppity armor and walked on, sinking back into his mind's black mire.
Pain. It seemed to grow the more he thought about Harry. Then if he tried to stop thinking about Harry, that hurt too. How he wished he could do something, anything to make it stop. Wait, he could. He glanced at his surroundings and recognized exactly where he was. It would seem that some part of him had known exactly where he was going all along. A painfully grim expression crossed his face as he considered his next move and he stopped for a second. After momentary consideration, he assuredly continued on.
Back in the Gryffindor common room, the students had thrown an impromptu party. Fred and George had smuggled a few cases of butterbeer from Hogsmeade the day before and those were broken out. As much as Harry was annoyed by Dobby sometimes, he was glad he had a friend in the kitchen for times like these. Harry and the Creeveys brought jugs of pumpkin juice and cider as well as a few plates of snacks from the kitchen.
A second year brought a radio that was bewitched as to need no batteries or electricity to the room and turned it on. Music filled the room and the party took off from there. (guess what music it was-- yep, country. Give me a big yee-haw!)
There were the few wall flowers as are at all parties, but the majority of the students were dancing. Harry was finishing his glass of cider and a rogue thought crossed his mind. "I wish Ron was here now, he'd really enjoy this. It'd do him good, too." Harry set his glass down and went out to dance, or at least try to.
Rain beat against the windows in time to the music. Everyone seemed to be having a good time. Neville was sitting by the wall laughing at Harry and Hermione as they attempted some sort of odd synchronized dance- thing with a few others.
(A/N: I can't believe I'm going to do this)
Seamus had sat out the last song and gotten a mug of butterbeer. He was quite winded but the butterbeer quenched his thirst. (A/N: oh god, someone stop me, please!) A new song came on, very upbeat. Something about 'not having to be me til Monday'. Seamus liked it already. (A/N: please don't make me do this) he glanced over and saw Neville against the wall nursing his drink. That was unacceptable party etiquette, and seeing as how he was the Law, he had to enforce it. (A/N: NOOOO!!) He tossed the mug into the fire and hopped over to Neville. He pulled the boy's arm and drug him out into the middle of the room and they danced. (A/N: I couldn't help it.) Neville looked very, very surprised but started laughing and dancing. Seamus was also greatly enjoying this and was grinning like a leprechaun. As the song was ending, Seamus pulled Neville in and dipped him like in fancy dances while Neville giggled uncontrollably.
A new song started up, much slower than the last (A/N: I'm such a romantic wuss sometimes ;) ) Seamus pulled Neville up and looked at him softly.
"Um, Seamus, this is a slow song, a really slow song. Should we still be dancing?" Neville asked, a bit scared.
"Only if you really don't want to, Neville."
"Lead on, Seamus," he replied without thinking. (A/N: I wasn't going to do that. I suck.) Seamus pulled him close and they danced, oblivious to the few surprised stares they were receiving. A few songs later, only one of which was a slow song (to Neville's chagrin), they sat down and rested for a bit and chatted each other up.
The rest of the house was still having a grand old time. The Weasley twins were leading some odd dance around the room. Fun filled the air. Dennis was dancing with Hermione, and boy was he enjoying every second of that. Seamus and Neville talked above the din of the music. Finally, the party began to wind down about midnight and the students began heading to their dorms.
The remaining students gathered around the fireplace and relaxed. Hermione wanded the radio off with a quick spell and sat back on the couch. Dennis was sitting on one side of her, with Neville and Seamus on the other. Harry was in a enormously huge and cushy chair with Colin and Aidan, the twins were asleep in front of the fire. This scene was almost perfect, save one person's absence and on some level, they all knew it. The seven of them talked until well past one when Colin had dozed off next to Harry and Dennis and Aidan had already headed off to bed, with Aidan joking on Dennis for oggling Hermione all night just loudly enough to be heard by the others.
Colin began to slide off the side of the chair and Harry pulled him back upright and just kept his arm around him, enjoying the closeness. Colin leaned into him. A gigantic stroke of lightning lit the dimmed room like midday, causing the four awake to jump a bit.
Neville yawned and looked at Seamus. "Come on, I'm tired."
Seamus got up and nodded at Neville. He looked at Harry with the sleeping boy in his arms. "You two have a good night, now, eh?"
"Go to bed Seamus, it's not like that," Harry replied.
"Aye, of course it's not. Aye. Rubbish, Harry. Pure rubbish." Seamus jokingly shook his head as they went to the steps.
So only he and Hermione were left in the room awake now. They chatted a bit more. Harry was planning on waking Colin up in a few minutes, but as he listened to the rain lightly beat on the glass, he was lulled like before. He pulled Colin a bit closer and joined him in sleep without even realizing it, leaving Hermione in mid thought.
"Oh, Harry." Hermione said. She was looking at the two of them with a tear or three in her eyes. So beautiful together. She smiled at the sight and gently laid a blanket over them. "You of all people deserve this. I'm so happy for you. You've had so many hardships. Someday, Ron will come around, I know he will." She bent down and put a small kiss on Harry's forehead as well as Colin's. "I know he will."
Ron walked on for another two floors and three hallways. There was one final tower to go, and he'd be there. Thunder shook the castle, he could feel the walls and floors vibrate a little. What a night for this, he thought. Fitting. Ron climbed the seemingly endless circular steps and finally came to the top. He pushed open the stout wooden door and walked onto the wind-swept observation deck of the Astronomy tower. The rain was coming in almost sideways at times, other times it felt like it was raining from the ground up. Ron looked up at the sky. Somewhere behind all those clouds was a full moon.
Ron was becoming physically numb quickly. The driving rain had drenched him in seconds. He was feeling on the outside like he felt on the inside. Ron walked over to the edge and looked down. All the way down. He looked back up at the sky and was pelted with a bit of sleet as well as rain. He wiped his eyes absently and began climbing the small wall around the edge.
Climbing it was a bit more difficult than normal with numb extremities, but he managed. He pulled himself up and surveyed the grounds for a final time. He looked where Gryffindor tower would be if it weren't for the rain. He looked at the Quiddich stadium. He looked back at the door, pausing to see if there were any last minute regrets, but his mind was silent for the first time in ages. Ron tensed his legs and swung his arms backwards and prepared to jump…..
Oh boy. Here is the big cliffhanger. I hope you don't hate me too much for leaving it there. (evil laugh) I must consider my next move. I have too many ideas of what happens next. I apologize again about Seamus. I just couldn't resist the fuzzy teddy bear monster. Oh, in case you care, Seamus and Neville first danced to 'I Don't Have to be Me Til Monday' by Steve Azar. The more I hear it, the more it sounds like a Seamus song. Then, they slow danced to 'I'm Already There' by Lonestar. I have no backbone. Oh well, it'll maybe lighten the whole Ron suicidal thing. Check back and leave me your suggestions….
For those of you who are country music junkies like me, I've found an example of the way I see Colin. In Kenny Chesney's video 'Young', a trio of boys is shown about halfway through the video by the water. My Colin is the one in the middle in the jean shorts and no shirt. They show another good image of him in a football helmet a bit later with a great smile. (warm and fuzzy feelings….) it's a great song and a fun video too, so check it out on CMT.
Harry awoke to the low growl of his stomach. He opened his eyes and saw the sleeping form still sprawled on top of him. He smiled. Harry glanced over at his snitch clock and saw that they'd slept for about 15 minutes.
"Colin, wake up." no response at all. "Colin! Get up. I'm starving. Wake up."
This time he got a response. Two red-rimmed eyes looked up at him. "Huh? "
"Colin, we need to get to dinner. You know, feed the machine and all?"
"Yeah, I'm starving," Colin said.
As Colin got off him, Harry noticed a wet spot on his shirt. "Colin, I do hope that those are tears and not drool on me."
"Me too," was the grinning reply that Harry received. Colin stretched and started walking to the door. "You know what Harry? I know that I closed that door when I came in here," he said gesturing at the open door while Harry went to grab a shirt.
"Well, it's probably just possessed again. It sometimes has a bad habit of opening whenever we're changing." Harry pulled a dry shirt out of his wardrobe and tossed the damp one in his pile. "McGonagall has tried to fix it so many times I've lost count."
"Weird. And I thought that Aidan's possessed wardrobe was odd."
"His wardrobe's possessed? Does it toss clothes out or what?" The two of them discussed possessed dorm room objects as they made their way down to the Great Hall.
Their arrival was noticed by few people, Hermione the usual exception along with Seamus. Seeing Ron not at her side, Harry and Colin sat by them. Hermione was busy eating meatloaf with one hand while her other held open a book. Seamus was doing his best to annoy her and make her loose her concentration but had apparently failed so far. He switched over to Neville and tried his luck on the other boy. Hermione sighed with relief and rolled her eyes at Harry.
"We thought you weren't coming down for dinner," Hermione said to him and Colin.
"We were but then it was like we took a draught of Snape's Apnea Potion. We took a short nap," Harry answered. He caught a glimpse of Colin sighing in relief, apparently afraid that Harry would have said something. He ruffled Colin's hair and said with a big grin, "And this is one of the most difficult people to wake in the world."
"Seamus!!" a voice called from Harry's left. Neville's pieces of meatloaf were deftly avoiding his fork. Seamus was looking at the rafters for rogue owls trying to appear innocent. He could barely hold back the smile.
"Nope, no owls up there."
Hermione was chuckling against her will at the mobile meatloaf as she tried to continue. "Have you read any of this yet, Harry?" she was pointing to the book.
"I've resisted successfully so far and probably will until Sunday night."
"Harry Potter! You would like this. It's about historic sorcerers and some of the things they did. Quite a few of them even lived around here, before it was Hogwarts. And if I'm not mistaken, Professor Binns said that one of them--"
"Hermione, for Merlin's sake, it's Friday night. No homework can be done on a Friday night," Seamus called from beside her. "You know that. House rules. I think you might need an Appointment tonight to get your mind off the books. How about 8:00?"
"Seamus Finnegan!! I'd never do- oh, that kind of appointment, as in Exploding Snap. We'll see about all that." the rest of their immediate dinner mates were all roaring with laughter over Hermione's outburst as she turned a divine shade of red.
Dinner was finished and the crowd broke up and headed to the four winds. Back in the common room in Gryffindor tower people were milling about everywhere. Hermione had taken her usual chair by the fireplace and still had that history book open. Students were playing Exploding Snap and Wizard Chess all around her but somehow she seemed to be tuning them all out and continued studying. Until that is, Seamus Finnegan happened.
After Harry and the others finished their game, he walked right up to her unnoticed. He gazed at her for a second or two. He looked back at the rest of the Gryffindors who gave affirmative head nods.
"Hermione Granger, I Seamus Finnegan of the Fun Police, hereby put you under arrest for being an old poop." he looked back and saw all his co- conspirators snickering madly. "Your punishment is to have fun all night." Quick as lighting Seamus had reached down and snatched the book from Hermione's hands, not even losing her place. "Deputy Officer Potter, please take this as evidence." Deputy Officer Potter walked over and took the book and put it behind his back. "Thank you, Officer Potter."
"Now, Ms. Granger, it is time to start serving your punishment. Officers Creevey and Creevey, please escort the accused to the Exploding Snap table, please." They pulled a no longer resisting Hermione out of her chair and took her to the table.
She grinned at the lot of them. "You guys are all insane, you know? Insane."
"Aye, but what fun is it to be normal?" Seamus retorted.
She sat in the chair that had recently held Harry. One last attempt to escape… "Harry, isn't this your chair? I don't want to take your spot."
"Go ahead Hermione. I lost badly, so I lost my spot. I'll just sit one out and get back in in a few minutes." Harry flopped down in her chair and popped the book open to her place. "I'll just see if she took any notes…." he thought. He was quickly amazed at how far ahead she was in the book-over 200 pages. Sheesh.
He read for the entire time Hermione was royally stomping Seamus in ES. "These were some horribly mean old bastards," he thought to himself on more than one occasion. One of the most evil that he'd read so far was an old French wizard who'd taken a boat full of people out into the channel for a supposed trip to Dover. He'd sunk the boat in mid channel, drowning them all and powering him through some twisted sacrifice. Harry shivered. Ooohh.
The next one highlighted by Hermione was a local one. An English wizard who called himself Surtain was killed by his love in another twisted sacrifice under a full moon. As he was dying, he promised revenge. In some way or another, he didn't quite die but became a spirit. "Were they just all insane or evil back then or what?" Harry thought to himself. There were a few scribbled notes in the margin. "What's she say?" he asked himself as he read Hermione's script. Oh good. This supposedly happened somewhere on these grounds. "Maybe that's what is possessing my door and Aidan's wardrobe," he thought as he carefully closed her book. He had had enough schooling for one day and went to reclaim a place at the ES table.
Nearly all the Gryffindors were having a good time that evening. Nearly all. The one important exception was Ron. He'd been sitting on the floor in an empty classroom with his knees drawn up to his chin for hours now, staring blankly at a wall, replaying what he'd seen in his mind's eye over and over. He thought he might have slept a bit but he really wasn't sure.
Were they? No. Yes. Probably not. Maybe so. "That would explain why they've grown so close so quickly, wouldn't it?" his mind answered his questions. Ron felt as if he'd had a flaming sword jabbed in his chest. He hurt terribly. His world was collapsing like a sand castle at the tide line. He suddenly had to get out of this classroom. He got up and glanced out a window and saw that the sun had long since gone down and it appeared as it was starting to rain.
"I should be hungry," he said aloud for no reason to a few tables and benches, "but I'm not." Ron peeked out the door and saw that the hallway was deserted.
Not having any idea of where to go, just knowing not back to the common room, to Gryffindor Tower, to Harry and Colin. Harry and Colin. "Dammit," Ron cursed himself. He'd never said anything to Harry at all. But why would he? Harry was Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived, not the Boy Who Was Gay, or so Ron had believed. He had waited too long, hidden his feelings from himself too long and now he'd missed his chance.
His feet had started walking sometime during his mental ramblings. Ron stopped at a stairway and tried to figure out where he was. Somewhere near the Hufflepuff quarter, he finally decided. He walked a bit further and got lost in thoughts once again.
"I don't know how much longer I can deal with this," he told a suit of armor as he passed it.
"It is past time for all young rapscallions such as yourself to be in bed, knave," the suit answered him.
Ron stopped, surprised that the armor talked back, then a bit mad for being called a rapscallion. "Rust, you," he replied to the uppity armor and walked on, sinking back into his mind's black mire.
Pain. It seemed to grow the more he thought about Harry. Then if he tried to stop thinking about Harry, that hurt too. How he wished he could do something, anything to make it stop. Wait, he could. He glanced at his surroundings and recognized exactly where he was. It would seem that some part of him had known exactly where he was going all along. A painfully grim expression crossed his face as he considered his next move and he stopped for a second. After momentary consideration, he assuredly continued on.
Back in the Gryffindor common room, the students had thrown an impromptu party. Fred and George had smuggled a few cases of butterbeer from Hogsmeade the day before and those were broken out. As much as Harry was annoyed by Dobby sometimes, he was glad he had a friend in the kitchen for times like these. Harry and the Creeveys brought jugs of pumpkin juice and cider as well as a few plates of snacks from the kitchen.
A second year brought a radio that was bewitched as to need no batteries or electricity to the room and turned it on. Music filled the room and the party took off from there. (guess what music it was-- yep, country. Give me a big yee-haw!)
There were the few wall flowers as are at all parties, but the majority of the students were dancing. Harry was finishing his glass of cider and a rogue thought crossed his mind. "I wish Ron was here now, he'd really enjoy this. It'd do him good, too." Harry set his glass down and went out to dance, or at least try to.
Rain beat against the windows in time to the music. Everyone seemed to be having a good time. Neville was sitting by the wall laughing at Harry and Hermione as they attempted some sort of odd synchronized dance- thing with a few others.
(A/N: I can't believe I'm going to do this)
Seamus had sat out the last song and gotten a mug of butterbeer. He was quite winded but the butterbeer quenched his thirst. (A/N: oh god, someone stop me, please!) A new song came on, very upbeat. Something about 'not having to be me til Monday'. Seamus liked it already. (A/N: please don't make me do this) he glanced over and saw Neville against the wall nursing his drink. That was unacceptable party etiquette, and seeing as how he was the Law, he had to enforce it. (A/N: NOOOO!!) He tossed the mug into the fire and hopped over to Neville. He pulled the boy's arm and drug him out into the middle of the room and they danced. (A/N: I couldn't help it.) Neville looked very, very surprised but started laughing and dancing. Seamus was also greatly enjoying this and was grinning like a leprechaun. As the song was ending, Seamus pulled Neville in and dipped him like in fancy dances while Neville giggled uncontrollably.
A new song started up, much slower than the last (A/N: I'm such a romantic wuss sometimes ;) ) Seamus pulled Neville up and looked at him softly.
"Um, Seamus, this is a slow song, a really slow song. Should we still be dancing?" Neville asked, a bit scared.
"Only if you really don't want to, Neville."
"Lead on, Seamus," he replied without thinking. (A/N: I wasn't going to do that. I suck.) Seamus pulled him close and they danced, oblivious to the few surprised stares they were receiving. A few songs later, only one of which was a slow song (to Neville's chagrin), they sat down and rested for a bit and chatted each other up.
The rest of the house was still having a grand old time. The Weasley twins were leading some odd dance around the room. Fun filled the air. Dennis was dancing with Hermione, and boy was he enjoying every second of that. Seamus and Neville talked above the din of the music. Finally, the party began to wind down about midnight and the students began heading to their dorms.
The remaining students gathered around the fireplace and relaxed. Hermione wanded the radio off with a quick spell and sat back on the couch. Dennis was sitting on one side of her, with Neville and Seamus on the other. Harry was in a enormously huge and cushy chair with Colin and Aidan, the twins were asleep in front of the fire. This scene was almost perfect, save one person's absence and on some level, they all knew it. The seven of them talked until well past one when Colin had dozed off next to Harry and Dennis and Aidan had already headed off to bed, with Aidan joking on Dennis for oggling Hermione all night just loudly enough to be heard by the others.
Colin began to slide off the side of the chair and Harry pulled him back upright and just kept his arm around him, enjoying the closeness. Colin leaned into him. A gigantic stroke of lightning lit the dimmed room like midday, causing the four awake to jump a bit.
Neville yawned and looked at Seamus. "Come on, I'm tired."
Seamus got up and nodded at Neville. He looked at Harry with the sleeping boy in his arms. "You two have a good night, now, eh?"
"Go to bed Seamus, it's not like that," Harry replied.
"Aye, of course it's not. Aye. Rubbish, Harry. Pure rubbish." Seamus jokingly shook his head as they went to the steps.
So only he and Hermione were left in the room awake now. They chatted a bit more. Harry was planning on waking Colin up in a few minutes, but as he listened to the rain lightly beat on the glass, he was lulled like before. He pulled Colin a bit closer and joined him in sleep without even realizing it, leaving Hermione in mid thought.
"Oh, Harry." Hermione said. She was looking at the two of them with a tear or three in her eyes. So beautiful together. She smiled at the sight and gently laid a blanket over them. "You of all people deserve this. I'm so happy for you. You've had so many hardships. Someday, Ron will come around, I know he will." She bent down and put a small kiss on Harry's forehead as well as Colin's. "I know he will."
Ron walked on for another two floors and three hallways. There was one final tower to go, and he'd be there. Thunder shook the castle, he could feel the walls and floors vibrate a little. What a night for this, he thought. Fitting. Ron climbed the seemingly endless circular steps and finally came to the top. He pushed open the stout wooden door and walked onto the wind-swept observation deck of the Astronomy tower. The rain was coming in almost sideways at times, other times it felt like it was raining from the ground up. Ron looked up at the sky. Somewhere behind all those clouds was a full moon.
Ron was becoming physically numb quickly. The driving rain had drenched him in seconds. He was feeling on the outside like he felt on the inside. Ron walked over to the edge and looked down. All the way down. He looked back up at the sky and was pelted with a bit of sleet as well as rain. He wiped his eyes absently and began climbing the small wall around the edge.
Climbing it was a bit more difficult than normal with numb extremities, but he managed. He pulled himself up and surveyed the grounds for a final time. He looked where Gryffindor tower would be if it weren't for the rain. He looked at the Quiddich stadium. He looked back at the door, pausing to see if there were any last minute regrets, but his mind was silent for the first time in ages. Ron tensed his legs and swung his arms backwards and prepared to jump…..
Oh boy. Here is the big cliffhanger. I hope you don't hate me too much for leaving it there. (evil laugh) I must consider my next move. I have too many ideas of what happens next. I apologize again about Seamus. I just couldn't resist the fuzzy teddy bear monster. Oh, in case you care, Seamus and Neville first danced to 'I Don't Have to be Me Til Monday' by Steve Azar. The more I hear it, the more it sounds like a Seamus song. Then, they slow danced to 'I'm Already There' by Lonestar. I have no backbone. Oh well, it'll maybe lighten the whole Ron suicidal thing. Check back and leave me your suggestions….