A sudden flame shooting up in between them cut her off abruptly. She
stopped and shielded her eyes from the light, and it finally faded away. It
left someone standing there in a black, hooded cloak. Fae and Ron's blood
suddenly turned to freezing rivers at the presence of whoever it was.
"Who are you?" Ron demanded.
The hooded figure didn't budge. They spoke with two voices: that of a man's, and that of a young girl about their age. "I am the heir."
Fae's eyes widened. "Enemies of the heir, beware.." she repeated to herself in a whisper, suddenly remembering the prism's writing that she had seen on the wall.
"Oh, so you saw the writing." The hooded figure concluded, still not appearing to move. "But you did not listen, Faelyn. Foolish girl. And neither did you, Ronald."
"How do you know our names?" Ron pressed.
They could just hear the smirk in their voice. "I know you both well. And I'm sure you know me too, by both of my names."
Ron looked as if he was getting to be very frustrated. "Show yourself, coward!" he bellowed, clenching his hand into a fist.
"Very well."
Whoever it was, was facing towards Fae. As they raised their pale fingers to take off their hood, she was slowly reaching for the wand in her stocking. But when the hood fell back, she was frozen in shock.
"Violete!"
Her pale face was twisted in a horrible smile as her black hair hung over it in strands. She was the one who was doing all of these horrible acts and then framing her so-called friend? Fae could see Ron's jaw drop out of the corner of her eye, but he said nothing.
"You're the heir..and you're Lord Voldemort? But how..?" Fae couldn't even finish her sentence, clenching the wand in her hand.
Violete just kept leering at her. "How did I pull it off, you ask? Well, first I needed to look completely innocent. And what way is better than to look disguise myself as a student here? Then I had to find someone to frame for my acts. You coincidentally bumped into me in the library. did you notice that when you did this I took a strand of your hair? No, I didn't think so. I used this for the Polyjuice Potions later."
"So that's how they got the pictures of me," she said in absolute amazement.
Ron stopped. "Well then how do you explain that I saw her holding the wand that created the Dark Mark?" he questioned, just as shocked as she was.
Violete smiled. "Ah, yes. I left it there for someone to pick up, and she just happened to be the one to get it. I put a spell on the wand to use Prior Incantatem as soon as someone touched it. I was quite pleased with this coincidence, and that's when I knew I only had to use one victim instead of two to frame for my work."
Fae looked over at Ron, and he had a change in facial expression. So now he knew that she really wasn't the one who created the Dark Mark. Their eyes met for one second before she turned them back towards Violete.
"Why are you not in Slytherin?" she inquired, surprised that she was actually talking to this Voldemort-in-disguise.
"Hmm, so you remember. Do you recall how the sorting hat was supposedly missing in the beginning of the year? So I was sorted into Hufflepuff because of my parents? I took it."
Fae's eyes narrowed. "So you're the one who hid it in my stuff! And you're the one who created the Dark Mark in the beginning of the year. That's why when you were Violete, you said that you weren't on the bus."
"Oh, you catch on quick, girl." Violete sneered. "Too bad you will both be destroyed, and no one will know what happened. And I will kill Potter for good."
She took her hand out from under her sleeve and hastily wiped it across her face. As soon as her hand left her skin, she was no longer Violete. She was suddenly taller and had a pale green, scaly face. Her all red eyes were big almond shapes now, and she had sharp fangs when she opened her mouth. Not to mention, she was now a he: Voldemort. He pulled out his wand and turned to aim it at Ron, who remained glaring with an angry face. "You won't hurt Harry. I won't let you," he narrowed his blue eyes.
"We will see, Mr. Weasley."
Fae whipped out her wand and threw it over Voldemort's head to him, "Ron!" He caught it with ease and aimed it back at Voldemort.
"Incandensus!" he shouted, and a flame shot out of the tip of his wand. Voldemort moved out of the way and the fire nearly singed Fae's hair.
Voldemort knocked Ron's wand out of his hand, and then turned around to Fae and started throwing more fire at her. She managed to dodge a few of them, but just by a hair. Ron threw his wand over to her and she caught it, and as soon as she did, Voldemort pointed the wand back at him and yelled "Engorgio!"
"Watch out!" Fae screeched, but it was too late.
Ron froze and his wand slipped from his fingers. Everything seemed to go in slow motion as he fell over onto his back. He screamed as his limbs were twisted, and retched as he was thrown around. Fae just stood and watched with a look of horror on her face. She had learned about that spell in her classes, and how after a while it would drain the blood of the victim. It was one of the unforgivable curses. A pool of blood seeped through the back of Ron's shirt and slowly spread across the carpet, and Fae saw a tiny drop of saltwater slip from his eye down his cheek. That was when she lost it.
"Stop it!" She screamed, but Voldemort remained torturing him. She ran up behind him and jumped on his back, knocking her forward. As soon as she laid her hands on her, she felt like a giant ice sculpture. Voldemort shook her off his back and she fell onto the floor, and he kept his wand aimed at Ron. Fae shouted with pained frustration and took off one of her dress shoes and drove the sharp Stiletto heel into his back. It was a lame attempt, but all that she had.
Voldemort let out a shrill yell and fell forward onto his hands and knees. He broke his concentration on Ron, who finally collapsed back onto the ground. The shoe was still sticking to his back, and Fae grimaced at the sight of the darkest of black blood seeping down the tail of his robes. She cringed even more when he reached over his shoulder and ripped her shoe out from his flesh with the sickening sound of someone cutting meat.
He turned to her and hissed, and in a blurry second he was standing right before her. He pointed his wand at her and muttered something in Parcel Tongue and Fae was thrown up against a wall. Her head cracked against the stone and she sunk down leaned up against the wall. Her vision was blurry, but she could still see him advancing towards her.
With another flick of his wand, she was abruptly raised to her feet again, and her head fell forward dizzily. She had a pounding migraine and was almost certain that she was bleeding. Voldemort grasped her neck in his strong grasp, cutting her slightly with his claw-like nails, and smiled evilly.
"You filthy Gryffindor mudbloods will never learn," he hissed, and she arched her neck back and spit in his face.
His eyes filled with rage and he threw her back against the wall again. She cried out and watched helplessly as he brought his wand up and pointed it at her forehead.
"Now you'll be joining Saint Potter's parents. Avada Keda-"
His spell was cut short by the sound of more ripping flesh.
Fae looked down and saw a pointy silver object, covered in black blood protruding from his stomach. He gasped out loud and again as the ripping noise was heard again and it disappeared back under his flesh.
He let Fae go, and she collapsed back down onto her knees, coughing and sputtering. Voldemort grabbed his stomach and glared back at Fae. He sunk back against the opposing wall, and looked down at his hands. The black blood was seeping through his fingers and falling onto the floor like dots of ink. "Enemies of the heir..beware." He whispered through his heavy breathing. Pointing his wand at himself, he muttered something in Parcel Tongue, and disappeared in a cloud of swirling black smoke.
Fae finally tore her eyes off of where the Dark Lord had disappeared and looked around for what had caused his nearly fatal wound. And she saw Ron, knees buckles to brace him self, holding the sword she had seen on the wall earlier. His once white shirt was covered in his-and Voldemort's-blood, and some of his was trailing from his mouth. Breathing heavily, he dropped the sword to the ground with a clatter and finally, a weak smile spread across his face.
Her gray eyes started burning with the hint of tears. "Ron," she cried softly, weakly, and ran to him.
He hobbled over and met her halfway. And in all of their blissful happiness to just know that they were alive, they grabbed each other in a tight embrace. It hurt them horribly to be holding each other so tightly, but Fae didn't want to let go. He was so warm compared to the cold, damp air she had been in for so long. They sunk down onto their knees, still holding on, and both of them sobbing their eyes out into each other's shoulders. They were crying and grabbing each other tighter, probably soaking their shirts in one another's blood, and probably just creating a greater pain for one another.. and they didn't care.
Finally, she met his eyes and managed to choke out a few sentences. "You shouldn't have thrown the wand to me. Look what happened to you. I would have been fine without it."
He smirked. "Oh, shut up, Fae." He said, and pressed his mouth against hers.
If his embrace was warm, then his lips were fire. After a few moments they parted, Fae completely awestruck and still teary-eyed. She felt as if she couldn't move, she was in such shock, but he just sniffed again, still trying to hold back tears, and held on to her for dear life.
"Oh my Goodness, there you are! Albus, I've found them!"
They looked over into the doorway that Fae had come in, and saw Professor McGonagall standing with her wand aimed as if she was ready to kill anything that attacked her. A genuine smile crossed her face and she lowered it, as Dumbledore and Snape burst into the room.
"By Merlin, we must get them to the hospital wing!" Dumbledore exclaimed.
As they were instructed, McGonagall put Fae's good-well, in less of a bad condition-arm around her shoulder and helped her walk, as Snape did the same with Ron. They reached the glass staircase where Fae had last been and found their three brooms leaned up against the wall. Fae was to ride with McGonagall, and Ron with Snape. They sat on the front of the broom while the professors helped to keep them from falling over and steered the handles.
Fae and Ron were fast asleep by the time they reached the hospital wing, and didn't wake as they were carefully put into their separate hospital beds and nursed. It was five o'clock in the morning by the time they got up there.
+ + +
When he awoke, Ron was sore all over and had a splitting headache. Slowly, very slowly, he sat up and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. He winced and looked around the room. He was still in the hospital bed, and sunlight was pouring through the open blinds opposite to him. Looking to his side, he found himself to be surrounded by cards and candies. The one he picked up was a folded piece of blue construction paper. He unfolded it and read on the inside:
Ron, I hope you get better soon. At least it wasn't me this time.haha, just kidding, mate. I can't wait to see you back in the Great Hall fighting over the salt with Hermione. Take care. - Harry
The card was from Harry; he was back awake! He had to be to have written the card, and by the sounds of it, Hermione was okay too. Ron quickly-and painfully-stood to his feet and drew back the white curtains that were surrounding his bed.
All the other beds were empty; everyone was okay. Somehow, ridding Voldemort off of the school grounds broke the spells that had been cast. As he continued to look around, he noticed that Fae wasn't there any more. She had been in the bed next to his, and had surprisingly received some Get Well cards and some candy Ron had never seen. He picked up the thin, black square-shaped package and squinted to read the title.
"Pop Rocks..?" He read out loud, "Must be a muggle candy."
Madame Pomfrey bustled in. "Ah, Ronald, I see you're awake!"
He winced; she always called him by his first name, and it annoyed him greatly. Instead, he forced a smile and she went on.
"I'm sure you'll find that you're a bit sore, but if you're feeling up to it, you can leave as soon as you wish. That little Fae girl was quick to get out of here. Of course it was probably because Minerva came and drug her out."
Ron's eyes widened. "How long ago did she leave?" he interrupted. Madame Pomfrey looked thoughtful for a moment.
"Oh, I'd say about an hour ago. It was something about speaking about her sentence to Azkaban. The poor girl, I hope she doesn't still have to go." She was rambling, but Ron was already out the door when she turned around to him.
"Thanks Madame Hooch bye!" he said in all one sentence as he painfully sprinted down the corridors, searching for he didn't know what. But he had to find Fae and figure out what was going to happen to her. Everyone was staring at him as he ran by and whispering 'did you hear?' rumors.
Instead of finding Fae, when he rounded the corner he plowed right into Harry amongst a crowd of other people. He knocked the boy with the scar off his feet and almost fell himself.
"Harry!"
"Ron!"
They immediately started tackling each other in a huge hug and shouting how much they had missed each other while they were both in the Hospital Wing. They abruptly stopped and looked at the crowd surrounding them, giving looks that said 'you dirty homosexuals!' Ron and Harry exchanged glances and purposefully deepened their voices.
"I mean um.. good to see you." Harry said, giving him a manly punch in the arm.
"Uh.. yeah. You too." Ron said, folding his arms and nodding. They both nervously turned their eyes to the crowd, who shook their heads and dispersed.
After they were far away enough, they burst into fits of laughter and toppled onto the floor again. Eventually, when he regained his breath, Harry said, "Hermione's up in the common room with Ginny. Do you want to go see her?"
Just hearing those words made Ron smile. Everything was back to normal. His brothers were back again, probably already plotting their graduation prank. Ginny and Hermione were up in the common room, probably sitting on the window, where they always sat to talk about, well, whatever it is that girls talk about.
"Yeah, let's go." He said, still smiling. They got to their feet and made their way up the stairs to the Gryffindor common room, talking all the way about everything Ron and Fae had to do to get rid of Voldemort, and how everything worked out in the end.
"So she was innocent," Harry said as they reached the Fat Lady. Ron lowered his eyes and slowly nodded his head. For a long time, Harry just looked at him. Did he actually feel bad about accusing her? Instead of asking, he just mumbled the password to the Fat Lady and the painting door swung open.
Upon entering the common room, Ron was immediately tackled by the twins. A chorus of people shouting his name and followed closely behind. The twins got off of him and barricaded him with hugs and slaps on the back. Ginny ran over too and eventually everyone was a big mass of red hair, glasses, bushy brown hair and tangled limbs.
Ron and Hermione stood facing each other, both thinking of their second year when they would only handshake after she was cured from a similar spell. Smiles spread across their faces as she jumped on him and he lifted her up in his arms and spun her around. He was laughing and crying all at once, something he seemed to be doing a lot lately, and he was sure most everyone else in the room was too.
Fae was standing outside the Fat Lady, debating whether to go in or not. Last time she checked, everyone in that room despised her. She kept opening her mouth to say the password, but then shut it again. The lady in the painting seemed to be getting very frustrated, but that was the least of Fae's concerns at the moment.
Suddenly, everything started happening too fast. The door swung open and all the Weasleys, Harry and Hermione started to walk out. Professor McGonagall put her hand on Fae's shoulder, popping out of nowhere like she tended to do, and drug her back down the stairs. Then a crowd of other students swarmed over to the former victims of the spells. Ron was trying to tear away from the crowd, but they held him back, unaware to what he was trying to do, and kept asking him questions. He barely caught a glimpse of Fae, as she was drug around the corner, her gray eyes boring back into his.
+ + +
That afternoon during lunch in the Great Hall, Dumbledore addressed the school and announced that there will be "Not only a end of the year Feast, but also a tri-school dance with Beauxbatons and Durmstrang that night." After he said this, there was excited titter from the tables; he heard Hermione in particular talking about how she'd be able to see Viktor. He apologized for the late notice, and they all knew it had to do with everything that had happened on Thursday with Ron and Fae, and Voldemort.
There was to be no theme for the dance, but students were encouraged to dress up in costumes. This caused even more tittering from the tables in the Great Hall. Ron looked disgusted as he watched the headmaster nod at McGonagall and they exited.
"He didn't say anything about Fae. What the bloody hell is wrong with him?" he exclaimed, earning disbelieving looks from the rest of the table. He bit his lip. "I just want to know if she's going to be out of our hair or not."
Hermione slammed down her fork irritably. "You are so stubborn, Ron!" she exclaimed angrily, and surprisingly, Harry didn't try to stop her this time. "She's innocent! She did nothing wrong! It was all Voldemort's doing, and you know it! You were there with her. You need to quit being so bloody pigheaded and admit that you don't hate her. You saved her life from Voldemort last night." He was dead silent and she took the opportunity to keep ranting. "You don't have anything to hold against her any more. She was framed for everything she did. If you have feelings for her you shouldn't hide it like you always do! If you would just get your head out of your-"
"Hermione!" Ginny silenced her with a hand over her mouth.
Ron couldn't think of anything to do but stand up and leave the table. All eyes were on him as he left the Great Hall and went back up to the common room. On his way up, he was about to round a corner when he heard Professor McGonagall speaking with Dumbledore. He stopped in his tracks and backed against the wall.
"How are things looking, Minerva?"
He heard her sigh. "Not very good. We have no evidence that she is innocent.no pictures or anything."
Ron suddenly gasped. "Professor McGonagall!" he exclaimed as he rounded the corner and she jumped. He realized what he had just done and swallowed nervously. "Um, I'm very sorry for eavesdropping and all but, I know how we can prove her innocent."
McGonagall gasped. "Ronald Weasley! I should-" but Dumbledore cut her off.
"Minerva, we need to prove her innocent and I believe that we need all the help we can get." He said, and she looked at him for a long time. She finally sighed and nodded and he turned back to Ron. "Do tell."
"Who are you?" Ron demanded.
The hooded figure didn't budge. They spoke with two voices: that of a man's, and that of a young girl about their age. "I am the heir."
Fae's eyes widened. "Enemies of the heir, beware.." she repeated to herself in a whisper, suddenly remembering the prism's writing that she had seen on the wall.
"Oh, so you saw the writing." The hooded figure concluded, still not appearing to move. "But you did not listen, Faelyn. Foolish girl. And neither did you, Ronald."
"How do you know our names?" Ron pressed.
They could just hear the smirk in their voice. "I know you both well. And I'm sure you know me too, by both of my names."
Ron looked as if he was getting to be very frustrated. "Show yourself, coward!" he bellowed, clenching his hand into a fist.
"Very well."
Whoever it was, was facing towards Fae. As they raised their pale fingers to take off their hood, she was slowly reaching for the wand in her stocking. But when the hood fell back, she was frozen in shock.
"Violete!"
Her pale face was twisted in a horrible smile as her black hair hung over it in strands. She was the one who was doing all of these horrible acts and then framing her so-called friend? Fae could see Ron's jaw drop out of the corner of her eye, but he said nothing.
"You're the heir..and you're Lord Voldemort? But how..?" Fae couldn't even finish her sentence, clenching the wand in her hand.
Violete just kept leering at her. "How did I pull it off, you ask? Well, first I needed to look completely innocent. And what way is better than to look disguise myself as a student here? Then I had to find someone to frame for my acts. You coincidentally bumped into me in the library. did you notice that when you did this I took a strand of your hair? No, I didn't think so. I used this for the Polyjuice Potions later."
"So that's how they got the pictures of me," she said in absolute amazement.
Ron stopped. "Well then how do you explain that I saw her holding the wand that created the Dark Mark?" he questioned, just as shocked as she was.
Violete smiled. "Ah, yes. I left it there for someone to pick up, and she just happened to be the one to get it. I put a spell on the wand to use Prior Incantatem as soon as someone touched it. I was quite pleased with this coincidence, and that's when I knew I only had to use one victim instead of two to frame for my work."
Fae looked over at Ron, and he had a change in facial expression. So now he knew that she really wasn't the one who created the Dark Mark. Their eyes met for one second before she turned them back towards Violete.
"Why are you not in Slytherin?" she inquired, surprised that she was actually talking to this Voldemort-in-disguise.
"Hmm, so you remember. Do you recall how the sorting hat was supposedly missing in the beginning of the year? So I was sorted into Hufflepuff because of my parents? I took it."
Fae's eyes narrowed. "So you're the one who hid it in my stuff! And you're the one who created the Dark Mark in the beginning of the year. That's why when you were Violete, you said that you weren't on the bus."
"Oh, you catch on quick, girl." Violete sneered. "Too bad you will both be destroyed, and no one will know what happened. And I will kill Potter for good."
She took her hand out from under her sleeve and hastily wiped it across her face. As soon as her hand left her skin, she was no longer Violete. She was suddenly taller and had a pale green, scaly face. Her all red eyes were big almond shapes now, and she had sharp fangs when she opened her mouth. Not to mention, she was now a he: Voldemort. He pulled out his wand and turned to aim it at Ron, who remained glaring with an angry face. "You won't hurt Harry. I won't let you," he narrowed his blue eyes.
"We will see, Mr. Weasley."
Fae whipped out her wand and threw it over Voldemort's head to him, "Ron!" He caught it with ease and aimed it back at Voldemort.
"Incandensus!" he shouted, and a flame shot out of the tip of his wand. Voldemort moved out of the way and the fire nearly singed Fae's hair.
Voldemort knocked Ron's wand out of his hand, and then turned around to Fae and started throwing more fire at her. She managed to dodge a few of them, but just by a hair. Ron threw his wand over to her and she caught it, and as soon as she did, Voldemort pointed the wand back at him and yelled "Engorgio!"
"Watch out!" Fae screeched, but it was too late.
Ron froze and his wand slipped from his fingers. Everything seemed to go in slow motion as he fell over onto his back. He screamed as his limbs were twisted, and retched as he was thrown around. Fae just stood and watched with a look of horror on her face. She had learned about that spell in her classes, and how after a while it would drain the blood of the victim. It was one of the unforgivable curses. A pool of blood seeped through the back of Ron's shirt and slowly spread across the carpet, and Fae saw a tiny drop of saltwater slip from his eye down his cheek. That was when she lost it.
"Stop it!" She screamed, but Voldemort remained torturing him. She ran up behind him and jumped on his back, knocking her forward. As soon as she laid her hands on her, she felt like a giant ice sculpture. Voldemort shook her off his back and she fell onto the floor, and he kept his wand aimed at Ron. Fae shouted with pained frustration and took off one of her dress shoes and drove the sharp Stiletto heel into his back. It was a lame attempt, but all that she had.
Voldemort let out a shrill yell and fell forward onto his hands and knees. He broke his concentration on Ron, who finally collapsed back onto the ground. The shoe was still sticking to his back, and Fae grimaced at the sight of the darkest of black blood seeping down the tail of his robes. She cringed even more when he reached over his shoulder and ripped her shoe out from his flesh with the sickening sound of someone cutting meat.
He turned to her and hissed, and in a blurry second he was standing right before her. He pointed his wand at her and muttered something in Parcel Tongue and Fae was thrown up against a wall. Her head cracked against the stone and she sunk down leaned up against the wall. Her vision was blurry, but she could still see him advancing towards her.
With another flick of his wand, she was abruptly raised to her feet again, and her head fell forward dizzily. She had a pounding migraine and was almost certain that she was bleeding. Voldemort grasped her neck in his strong grasp, cutting her slightly with his claw-like nails, and smiled evilly.
"You filthy Gryffindor mudbloods will never learn," he hissed, and she arched her neck back and spit in his face.
His eyes filled with rage and he threw her back against the wall again. She cried out and watched helplessly as he brought his wand up and pointed it at her forehead.
"Now you'll be joining Saint Potter's parents. Avada Keda-"
His spell was cut short by the sound of more ripping flesh.
Fae looked down and saw a pointy silver object, covered in black blood protruding from his stomach. He gasped out loud and again as the ripping noise was heard again and it disappeared back under his flesh.
He let Fae go, and she collapsed back down onto her knees, coughing and sputtering. Voldemort grabbed his stomach and glared back at Fae. He sunk back against the opposing wall, and looked down at his hands. The black blood was seeping through his fingers and falling onto the floor like dots of ink. "Enemies of the heir..beware." He whispered through his heavy breathing. Pointing his wand at himself, he muttered something in Parcel Tongue, and disappeared in a cloud of swirling black smoke.
Fae finally tore her eyes off of where the Dark Lord had disappeared and looked around for what had caused his nearly fatal wound. And she saw Ron, knees buckles to brace him self, holding the sword she had seen on the wall earlier. His once white shirt was covered in his-and Voldemort's-blood, and some of his was trailing from his mouth. Breathing heavily, he dropped the sword to the ground with a clatter and finally, a weak smile spread across his face.
Her gray eyes started burning with the hint of tears. "Ron," she cried softly, weakly, and ran to him.
He hobbled over and met her halfway. And in all of their blissful happiness to just know that they were alive, they grabbed each other in a tight embrace. It hurt them horribly to be holding each other so tightly, but Fae didn't want to let go. He was so warm compared to the cold, damp air she had been in for so long. They sunk down onto their knees, still holding on, and both of them sobbing their eyes out into each other's shoulders. They were crying and grabbing each other tighter, probably soaking their shirts in one another's blood, and probably just creating a greater pain for one another.. and they didn't care.
Finally, she met his eyes and managed to choke out a few sentences. "You shouldn't have thrown the wand to me. Look what happened to you. I would have been fine without it."
He smirked. "Oh, shut up, Fae." He said, and pressed his mouth against hers.
If his embrace was warm, then his lips were fire. After a few moments they parted, Fae completely awestruck and still teary-eyed. She felt as if she couldn't move, she was in such shock, but he just sniffed again, still trying to hold back tears, and held on to her for dear life.
"Oh my Goodness, there you are! Albus, I've found them!"
They looked over into the doorway that Fae had come in, and saw Professor McGonagall standing with her wand aimed as if she was ready to kill anything that attacked her. A genuine smile crossed her face and she lowered it, as Dumbledore and Snape burst into the room.
"By Merlin, we must get them to the hospital wing!" Dumbledore exclaimed.
As they were instructed, McGonagall put Fae's good-well, in less of a bad condition-arm around her shoulder and helped her walk, as Snape did the same with Ron. They reached the glass staircase where Fae had last been and found their three brooms leaned up against the wall. Fae was to ride with McGonagall, and Ron with Snape. They sat on the front of the broom while the professors helped to keep them from falling over and steered the handles.
Fae and Ron were fast asleep by the time they reached the hospital wing, and didn't wake as they were carefully put into their separate hospital beds and nursed. It was five o'clock in the morning by the time they got up there.
+ + +
When he awoke, Ron was sore all over and had a splitting headache. Slowly, very slowly, he sat up and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. He winced and looked around the room. He was still in the hospital bed, and sunlight was pouring through the open blinds opposite to him. Looking to his side, he found himself to be surrounded by cards and candies. The one he picked up was a folded piece of blue construction paper. He unfolded it and read on the inside:
Ron, I hope you get better soon. At least it wasn't me this time.haha, just kidding, mate. I can't wait to see you back in the Great Hall fighting over the salt with Hermione. Take care. - Harry
The card was from Harry; he was back awake! He had to be to have written the card, and by the sounds of it, Hermione was okay too. Ron quickly-and painfully-stood to his feet and drew back the white curtains that were surrounding his bed.
All the other beds were empty; everyone was okay. Somehow, ridding Voldemort off of the school grounds broke the spells that had been cast. As he continued to look around, he noticed that Fae wasn't there any more. She had been in the bed next to his, and had surprisingly received some Get Well cards and some candy Ron had never seen. He picked up the thin, black square-shaped package and squinted to read the title.
"Pop Rocks..?" He read out loud, "Must be a muggle candy."
Madame Pomfrey bustled in. "Ah, Ronald, I see you're awake!"
He winced; she always called him by his first name, and it annoyed him greatly. Instead, he forced a smile and she went on.
"I'm sure you'll find that you're a bit sore, but if you're feeling up to it, you can leave as soon as you wish. That little Fae girl was quick to get out of here. Of course it was probably because Minerva came and drug her out."
Ron's eyes widened. "How long ago did she leave?" he interrupted. Madame Pomfrey looked thoughtful for a moment.
"Oh, I'd say about an hour ago. It was something about speaking about her sentence to Azkaban. The poor girl, I hope she doesn't still have to go." She was rambling, but Ron was already out the door when she turned around to him.
"Thanks Madame Hooch bye!" he said in all one sentence as he painfully sprinted down the corridors, searching for he didn't know what. But he had to find Fae and figure out what was going to happen to her. Everyone was staring at him as he ran by and whispering 'did you hear?' rumors.
Instead of finding Fae, when he rounded the corner he plowed right into Harry amongst a crowd of other people. He knocked the boy with the scar off his feet and almost fell himself.
"Harry!"
"Ron!"
They immediately started tackling each other in a huge hug and shouting how much they had missed each other while they were both in the Hospital Wing. They abruptly stopped and looked at the crowd surrounding them, giving looks that said 'you dirty homosexuals!' Ron and Harry exchanged glances and purposefully deepened their voices.
"I mean um.. good to see you." Harry said, giving him a manly punch in the arm.
"Uh.. yeah. You too." Ron said, folding his arms and nodding. They both nervously turned their eyes to the crowd, who shook their heads and dispersed.
After they were far away enough, they burst into fits of laughter and toppled onto the floor again. Eventually, when he regained his breath, Harry said, "Hermione's up in the common room with Ginny. Do you want to go see her?"
Just hearing those words made Ron smile. Everything was back to normal. His brothers were back again, probably already plotting their graduation prank. Ginny and Hermione were up in the common room, probably sitting on the window, where they always sat to talk about, well, whatever it is that girls talk about.
"Yeah, let's go." He said, still smiling. They got to their feet and made their way up the stairs to the Gryffindor common room, talking all the way about everything Ron and Fae had to do to get rid of Voldemort, and how everything worked out in the end.
"So she was innocent," Harry said as they reached the Fat Lady. Ron lowered his eyes and slowly nodded his head. For a long time, Harry just looked at him. Did he actually feel bad about accusing her? Instead of asking, he just mumbled the password to the Fat Lady and the painting door swung open.
Upon entering the common room, Ron was immediately tackled by the twins. A chorus of people shouting his name and followed closely behind. The twins got off of him and barricaded him with hugs and slaps on the back. Ginny ran over too and eventually everyone was a big mass of red hair, glasses, bushy brown hair and tangled limbs.
Ron and Hermione stood facing each other, both thinking of their second year when they would only handshake after she was cured from a similar spell. Smiles spread across their faces as she jumped on him and he lifted her up in his arms and spun her around. He was laughing and crying all at once, something he seemed to be doing a lot lately, and he was sure most everyone else in the room was too.
Fae was standing outside the Fat Lady, debating whether to go in or not. Last time she checked, everyone in that room despised her. She kept opening her mouth to say the password, but then shut it again. The lady in the painting seemed to be getting very frustrated, but that was the least of Fae's concerns at the moment.
Suddenly, everything started happening too fast. The door swung open and all the Weasleys, Harry and Hermione started to walk out. Professor McGonagall put her hand on Fae's shoulder, popping out of nowhere like she tended to do, and drug her back down the stairs. Then a crowd of other students swarmed over to the former victims of the spells. Ron was trying to tear away from the crowd, but they held him back, unaware to what he was trying to do, and kept asking him questions. He barely caught a glimpse of Fae, as she was drug around the corner, her gray eyes boring back into his.
+ + +
That afternoon during lunch in the Great Hall, Dumbledore addressed the school and announced that there will be "Not only a end of the year Feast, but also a tri-school dance with Beauxbatons and Durmstrang that night." After he said this, there was excited titter from the tables; he heard Hermione in particular talking about how she'd be able to see Viktor. He apologized for the late notice, and they all knew it had to do with everything that had happened on Thursday with Ron and Fae, and Voldemort.
There was to be no theme for the dance, but students were encouraged to dress up in costumes. This caused even more tittering from the tables in the Great Hall. Ron looked disgusted as he watched the headmaster nod at McGonagall and they exited.
"He didn't say anything about Fae. What the bloody hell is wrong with him?" he exclaimed, earning disbelieving looks from the rest of the table. He bit his lip. "I just want to know if she's going to be out of our hair or not."
Hermione slammed down her fork irritably. "You are so stubborn, Ron!" she exclaimed angrily, and surprisingly, Harry didn't try to stop her this time. "She's innocent! She did nothing wrong! It was all Voldemort's doing, and you know it! You were there with her. You need to quit being so bloody pigheaded and admit that you don't hate her. You saved her life from Voldemort last night." He was dead silent and she took the opportunity to keep ranting. "You don't have anything to hold against her any more. She was framed for everything she did. If you have feelings for her you shouldn't hide it like you always do! If you would just get your head out of your-"
"Hermione!" Ginny silenced her with a hand over her mouth.
Ron couldn't think of anything to do but stand up and leave the table. All eyes were on him as he left the Great Hall and went back up to the common room. On his way up, he was about to round a corner when he heard Professor McGonagall speaking with Dumbledore. He stopped in his tracks and backed against the wall.
"How are things looking, Minerva?"
He heard her sigh. "Not very good. We have no evidence that she is innocent.no pictures or anything."
Ron suddenly gasped. "Professor McGonagall!" he exclaimed as he rounded the corner and she jumped. He realized what he had just done and swallowed nervously. "Um, I'm very sorry for eavesdropping and all but, I know how we can prove her innocent."
McGonagall gasped. "Ronald Weasley! I should-" but Dumbledore cut her off.
"Minerva, we need to prove her innocent and I believe that we need all the help we can get." He said, and she looked at him for a long time. She finally sighed and nodded and he turned back to Ron. "Do tell."