Waking
Ron
by Poppy P
Standard Disclaimer:
I do not own anything the characters, setting, etc. Anything you may recognize belongs to J.K.
Rowling. This is a fan fic intended for
entertainment purposes only. First
published at SugarQuill.com and beta-read by the incomparable Zsenya. Enjoy.
Hermione shuddered
with cold and dread after taking the potion that would return her through the
enchanted purple flames. She looked
desperately over her shoulder one last time at Harry, but he was already facing
the doorway alive with black flames.
His shoulders were set with grim determination. Hermione suppressed a whimper and stepped
through the doorway alight with purple flames.
It was a strange sensation to walk through fire without feeling a
thing.
A few short steps
and her nostrils were accosted with a revolting odor as she stepped into the
chamber with the troll. Mercifully, it
was still out cold. Still, she
approached it cautiously as she made her way around its huge form. Just as she stepped over one gigantic leg,
it stirred. Hermione froze with
unspeakable terror. Facing a raging
troll with Ron and Harry was one thing, but alone…. Luckily, it did not wake up
and she made her way out of there as quickly as possible.
Finally she was
back in the room with the giant chess set.
Apparently, now that they had completed a match, the pieces were no
longer in their places on the giant board.
Pieces that had been captured were sitting up, rubbing their hard stone
heads. Hermione wasn't sure what would
happen once they had recuperated. She
wasn't keen on having to play her way back out if Ron was injured or…. or
worse. She hurriedly scanned the
chamber until she spotted him. There he
was, right where the white queen had dumped him on the side of the board after
callously striking him across the head.
Hermione couldn't help the little sob that escaped from her at the sight
of his body prone and deathly still.
She approached Ron quickly and cried out his name as she sank to her
knees beside him. There was no
reaction. Heart in her throat, she
gently turned him over on his back. She
was relieved to see he was breathing, but alarmed at the nasty cut running
across his temple. The dried blood
looked dark against his pale face and red-orange hairline.
"Oh Ron!" she
began breathlessly, "Please wake up! Oh
please wake up! Harry's in trouble and
we've got to contact Dumbledore."
Although Hermione spoke close to Ron's ear, he didn't stir at all. Hermione's voice reached a high, desperate
pitch as she tried again. "Please Ron,
wake up!" Hermione thought about the Ennervate
charm. Of course she had read all about
it, but hadn't really tried it as they wouldn't be covering it until fourth
year. "Ron, wake up!" At her last words she tapped him gently on
the right side of his face. Ron simply
continued to lie there, still as death.
Hermione thought desperately of Harry, alone in that last chamber,
facing Snape in a final confrontation over the Sorcerer's Stone. She knew she had to wake Ron up and get help
to Harry as soon as possible. She
covered her face with both hands in a gesture of hopelessness, and then she was
struck with an idea! Slowly,
cautiously, she uncovered her face and looked surreptitiously around her. None of the chess pieces were paying her any
attention, busy amongst themselves.
She looked back at
Ron's still figure. Would it work? Well, she thought, it worked for Snow White
and Sleeping Beauty. Hermione almost
laughed out loud at the thought of Ron having anything in common with Sleeping
Beauty. "Desperate times call for
desperate measures," Hermione muttered
to herself as she leaned over Ron, caught him by the shoulders and planted a
firm kiss on his warm pink mouth.
Alarmed at
herself, Hermione sat back and watched as Ron's eyes blinked rapidly, several
times. Tentatively he put a hand up to
his injured temple and rubbed gingerly as a long, low moan escaped him.
"Hermione?" He hesitated, then, catching the wide-eyed,
startled look on her face, he attempted to sit up, but faltered. Hermione reached out a shaking hand and
pulled him to a sitting position. She
let go of his hand quickly as though it stung her. Ron took no notice.
"Where's
Harry? Did he stop Snape? What's going on?" He fired off his questions in such a quick succession that
Hermione had to clear her head before she answered.
"Er…." she shook
her head, "He's in that last chamber, he went by himself, and he told me to
come back for you and get to Dumbledore as quickly as possible." Hermione's words grew faster with urgency.
"So what are we
lying around for? Let's go!"
Hermione helped
him to his feet as she saw him struggle.
He teetered unsteadily for a few seconds before resolutely leading the
way out of that chamber and into the one with the winged keys. Intermingled with her fear and anxiety about
getting help for Harry as soon as possible, Hermione felt another emotion. Great floods of relief coursed through her
as she mounted a broom to get through Fluffy's lair. Ron had not been aware of the kiss.
Later on, when
they were in the infirmary with Harry, telling him about how they got to
Dumbledore while he was battling with Quirrel, Harry asked Hermione how she had
woken Ron up.
"Er…." she
hesitated, "it took a while."
Neither of them
pressed it further and she left it at that.
*****
Four years later,
as they shared their first 'real' kiss, (with both of them conscious, that is)
Ron pulled back from Hermione and smiled slyly at her closed eyes and pouty
mouth.
"What?" asked
Hermione defensively, wound up tightly as she was from what she considered a
momentous occasion.
"I was thinking, "
said Ron quickly, "see you didn't really have to knock me out to get a kiss."
Hermione's face
registered three emotions in quick succession:
confusion, shock and indignation.
"You knew I kissed
you when we went after the Stone? You
never said anything, you great prat!"
Ron ducked his
head, this time his smile was shy as his ears took on their characteristic
glow.
"'Course I
knew! I saw you pulling away with that
terrified look. It was written all over
your face."
Hermione returned
his shy, little, hesitant smile as her body relaxed. "You never mentioned it.
I thought you didn't know."
"Hermione," Ron
began as he wrapped his arms around her waist, forcing them to face each other
as they blushed furiously. "A bloke
doesn't hurl slugs for just any girl, you know."
Hermione started,
momentarily stunned by this revelation.
Then she leaned in and gave him a kiss that put all thoughts of
Sorcerer's Stones and slugs out of their minds indeed.
The End
