Ron closed his eyes, grief-stricken.

It had been over five minutes, and not a single student – not one! – had come to the top of the stairs in response to Professor McGonagall's announcement. Ron felt Hermione's chances for survival slipping away with each moment that passed, until he could no longer look. He glanced at the professors, but he couldn't stand to see their expressions. McGonagall's eyes were moist. She also knew the unlikelihood of anyone else having survived, if not even one student had shown up by now.

So Ron closed his eyes against it all, as the pain reared up and ripped his throat out. She was gone. He'd lost her. Somewhere in the castle she lay slain; chocolate eyes that had looked upon him warmly were now cold, fixed open lifelessly, unseeing. He hadn't been able to save her. He'd failed her, on every level, and his misery was unbearable. It dragged his head down, threatened to swamp him as Ginny burst into tears next to him. He couldn't comfort her…he couldn't do anything but feel the pain of this loss more deeply than anything else in his life.

And so it was that he didn't see the first movement at the top of the stairs.

It wasn't until Neville Longbottom's excited, ecstatic "Look!" grabbed his attention that he opened his eyes and lifted his head. The murmurs of those around him grew to joyous shouts and cheering as dozens of students gathered on the landing at the top of the stairs. More and more, they just kept coming. Where had they all hidden?

Ron didn't care. He didn't care where they'd been, as long as they were alive. He frantically searched the tentatively smiling faces for the one he most desperately needed to see, cursing the distance and the debris that prevented him from just going up there and finding her for himself.

And then he saw her.

Her face was smudged with soot, and her hair was a tangled mess. One of her knees was scraped and had been bleeding. She looked beautiful.

She was bringing up the rear of the complement of students, keeping them together. He should have known, but he couldn't think through the wave of relief that washed over him. She was alive…she was alive! His knees buckled, and he ended up leaning forward on the pile of rocks that separated him from her, trying to keep his balance.

As if drawn by his intense gaze, Hermione's own eyes lifted and met his across the distance between them. When her lips curved in a smile for him, Ron felt the vise loosen around his heart, allowing it to beat again. Warmth spread back out to his icy limbs, and he could breathe once more. She was alive!

In a frenzy, Ron attacked the rubble that blocked the bottom of the lowest staircase, barely registering it when Ginny, Seamus, Neville and Dean fell to it with him. Then everyone was lending a hand. Professors McGonagall and Snape levitated the larger rocks away carefully. With all of them working together, from both sides, it was cleared away in no time, and the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff students began to rush down the stairs to be reunited with their fellows.

Ron couldn't wait. He charged up the stairs, turning sideways and leading with his shoulder so he could push his way past the students coming down, until he reached Hermione at the top. She had run to meet him, and was already reaching as he wrapped his arms tightly around her waist and hugged her to him, lifting her off the ground. Hermione's right arm encircled his neck as he spun her around; her left rested lightly on his shoulder. Finally, he let her feet touch the floor again, though he didn't let her go. He just held on, his face buried in her neck as he breathed her name, taking in the smell of her skin, of her hair, and his world righted itself again.

Hermione didn't let go either, and her grip was as tight as his own…her breath as rapid. Now that it was over, reaction was setting in and she trembled against him. "Oh, Ron," she confided, her voice muffled slightly by his shoulder. "I was so frightened."

"I was so afraid," he said at the same time, drawing back enough to look at her face. His voice was shaky. "I thought I'd lost you."

Hermione's hand slipped from around his neck, trailing down his arm until she was holding his hand. She squeezed it, somehow sensing what he needed. "You haven't lost me," she said.

Ron searched her eyes, seeing reassurance and…something more?

Before he could explore the meaning he saw in her gaze, Professor McGonagall drew his attention by clearing her throat.

Ron looked down to see the Professor standing at the bottom of the stairs, looking up at them. Belatedly, he realized that all of the other students had descended to the main floor, leaving only Hermione and himself standing at the top, embracing. He felt his ears begin to flush red, and he let go of Hermione reflexively. She released him with less haste, almost ginger in her movements. It didn't register on him, however, until McGonagall spoke. "Certainly we are all happy to see Miss Granger and the others alive, Mr. Weasley, but if you wouldn't mind terribly escorting her to the infirmary, I think that broken arm needs looking at."

Surprised, Ron looked back to Hermione. Sure enough, she was holding her left arm oddly, and he suddenly remembered the way she'd only rested it lightly on his shoulder before, when hugging him. How could he not have noticed?

Immediately, he took her good arm by the elbow and started to turn around to head to the Infirmary. "Ron," Hermione said, pulling back a little. "You don't have to go with me, I can get there myself all right."

"Not a chance," Ron replied, tugging her along gently. "I'm not letting you out of my sight again!" He gave her his best charming smile, and was rewarded with a smile of her own before she gave in and let him lead her away.