Disclaimer: Don't own it (he he he), just borrowing...really now if we were publishing this (which we're not) don't you think there'd be some money involved? Come on now use ur brain, somewhere in there it's screaming "they r just using the characters for they're own twisted pleasures, nothing more).

A/N: oops we just noticed that we forgot to add in the songs for each chapter like we originally planned. The prologues song is also the theme song for Ghost Ship. It is a Mudvayne song that we think is called Not Falling, but we are not sure. Unfortunately we didn't have a song ready for this chap yet so we will get back to you on that too. We are both running a little behind on our stuff with school and all so we're sorry.

Chapter 1: Awakening

The white clad medi-wizards and nurses hurried up and down the tiled halls, while elevator doors opened, and the sounds of the other patients all made the ward almost unbearably noisy.

But all the noise was a dim echo to the two red-headed wizards at the far end of the ward. Both of which had their eyes glued to the window in front of them.

The Weasley twins had never been so devastated in their whole lives when the news of their family's deaths was brought to them, but the fact their own brother, no ex-brother, had committed the murders had stunned them the most.

It had been a full week since their deaths, and the shock still had not worn off, for either them or Ron and Ginny. That was the reason Fred and George were where they were.

Through the window in front of them, the only other surviving members of their family clung to each other hanging onto sanity by a thread. For their own protection, Ron and Ginny had been placed in a white padded room, where three times a day they were pried apart, to the risk of the nurses, and forced fed. The rest of the time, no one was allowed in or out.

---Ginny

Where ever it was that Ginny was, it was cold and dark. Somewhat reminding her of the Hogwarts dungeons. All except for the big screen on one wall. It was like the movie screen Hermione had shown her in muggle pictures.

Only this screen didn't have a projector and seemed to be playing only her memories, each one ending in the overturned kitchen table scorched with the dark mark and spattered with blood.

She could feel tears trickle down her cheeks, but when she reached up to swipe them away, her fingers came away bloody.

Tears of blood, and no one to help her wipe them away.

Pushing herself back, she slid down the wall and laid her head on her knees.

---Ron

Ron was in the same exact predicament, same screen, same blood tears. Only for him the memories got better each time he saw his friends flash on the screen. There was no dark mark to remind him of his pain, to keep him locked in the darkness.

In one he and Harry were playing chess, the next he was winning the House cup. He was joining the quidditch team. He was talking to Hermione. Hermione cheering him on in his first game.

The darkness faded, turning first a pale blue, then brightening with each memory. His tears stopped all together. Then his memories were gone.

He was at Hogwarts, under a tree by the lake. He was holding Hermione and they were laughing together. Harry was there but he was not really paying attention to what Ron and Hermione were doing. He looked like he was motioning Ron to follow him.

When the young red-head finally got up to follow his best friend, Hermione took hold of his hand and kissed him. "I'll be waiting," she whispered into his ear, then let him go.

Ron followed Harry into the school and into the twisting maze of the dungeons, past dark alcoves, and a place he had never seen. Harry stopped and motioned Ron forward.

He took a step, a torch flaring to life, and there in front of him a glass door appeared.

Ron looked back at Harry but the other boy shook his head. He had to be the hero now.

It was Ginny leaning against that wall with her blood tears and memory screen, but she couldn't see him or hear him calling.

Harry tapped him on the shoulder and with a smile producing an ax. Ron swung as hard as he could and watched the thick glass that held him back shatter and crash to the floor. Without another thought he dove into the room, dragging Ginny out into the nearest alcove.

She clung to him, her knuckles turning white while she gripped his shirt and wept. Ron felt helpless but he did his best to comfort her.

"Let's go outside and sit by the lake, Ginny."

She nodded and he picked her up to carry her there, but he couldn't seem to get past the point of the alcove before he was forced back.

He sat her down on the bench and walked back toward the hall. He walked up and down it, but when he tried with Ginny, he still couldn't get past the alcove.

"Looks like we have to stay here, Ginny," he whispered to her, and tucking some of her hair behind her ears.

She stared at him wide eyed and clung tighter, nestling her face in his chest. Ron wrapped his arms around her, "It's ok I won't leave you. I promise I'll always be here..."

So he did, Ron sat in the alcove holding his sister and telling her it would be ok, even when he didn't know that it would be. Every once in a while Harry would appear smiling sadly, his green eyes sparkling in the torchlight. But not Hermione, Ron feared if she came he couldn't hold his promise to Ginny.

Harry would come and sit on the other side of the bench and watching Ron comfort Ginny, and in his own way he was giving Ron the courage he needed to help his sister. After a while Harry would get up and walk away only to come back a little later.

For what felt like an eternity this would happen, and the more Harry showed, the more Ron wished it was Hermione. Until finally it was her.

She smiled at him in the most enticing way and beckoned him with her finger. Her eyes promised him things he had only dreamt of and before he knew what was happening he was untangling himself from Ginny.

"Ginny I'll be right back. I'll be right back, I promise."

As his sister stared at him in horror, he took Hermione's hand and she pulled him away. Away, back into the real world, leaving his sister to fight the shadows on her own.

---Back at St. Mungos

Hermione stood in front of Ron and Ginny's door, looking through glass window and waiting for the twins to return with food. She had been at the hospital since the day before, and every since she had arrived there she alternated between sitting in the dark cushioned chair against one wall and glancing into the white room in which two of her best friends clung tightly to each other.

It felt odd looking in on the two. Ginny and she had become close friends. Someone she was glad of when she needed a girl to talk, and then there was Ron.

Ron was one of her closest friends, and had been for going on six years. He and Harry had always been there when she needed them. Harry had become like a brother to her, while Ron had become... he had become... she didn't know what he had become to her. Lately when he smiled, she lost all sense of what was going on. She couldn't think clearly around him anymore, and it wasn't because of his constant jabbering or insistent cluelessness. As a matter of fact he had almost grown out of the constant jabbering and the cluelessness was becoming sort of cute.

She had to admit it, she fancied him and she didn't know how that was going to affect their relationship. She didn't want to lose one of her best friends or make it harder on Harry if they did go out and break up. But watching Ron in that cushioned room was becoming torture.

"Hermione?"

She looked up into the window, completely lost in her thoughts, to find the object of them staring at her through the glass.

"Ron!" she squeaked and fell backwards in surprise.

Her butt slammed into the floor, but her eyes never left the glass. However Ron wasn't waiting around to watch her fall he busy trying to open the locked door without his wand.

Hermione now shocked back to her senses leapt up, blushing , and retrieved her wand from her bag.

"Alhomora."

In the blink of an eye, Ron was out the door and scooping her into a gigantic bear hug, one that Hermione was sure lasted a little longer than a normal friendly hug. Then he kind of pushed her back and looked down at her, his eyes sparkling and leaned in to kiss her. Now she was sure it was more than just friendly.

"I knew you'd be here, Mione."

"Of course I would be here," She said in a whisper and still slightly unsure of exactly what was going.

At that Ron smiled again and leaned back down to pull her into another kiss, one that left the both of them breathless.

"Well little brother we can see your busy..." George trailed off eyeing both he and Hermione while Fred gave them a mischievous smile.

Hermione felt her face blush scarlet and tried to pull away from Ron so as not to make a scene, but Ron wasn't having it. He held on to her, not really paying much attention to the fact that she was embarrassed, while he told George that yes he was busy but he always had time for family.

The two twins burst into laughter, for the first time since the murders, and sort of trialed off into an uneasy silence. Ron looked back down at Hermione and smiled, Fred and George sort of glanced around, both of them focusing worriedly at the opened door in which Ginny now sat alone.

"Well it sure is good to have you back," Fred said.

Ron nodded, only halfway paying attention and not really knowing what to say anyway. His mind was torn between Hermione, Ginny, and his brothers. He wanted to hold Hermione and hug his brothers. He wanted to tell them all how thankful he was but somewhere in the pit of his stomach something lurched. Like a large brick had just plopped down inside him.

He had promised Ginny he wouldn't leave her, and he had. He had left her there and now he couldn't go back. The worst part of it all though, was that he didn't want to go back. Not with Hermione here. Not with his brothers here. Here he was safe from the memories and the blood. But none of that stopped him from hating himself for being a coward or for leaving his sister.

Letting Hermione go with another kiss, Ron turned back into the room where Ginny sat, he picked up his little sister as gently as he could, and carried her out into the closest empty room he could find.

Ron spent the next hour in Ginny's new room making her as comfortable as possible. He even sat down and washed her hair and face. To the nurse's glee, yes glee, he even fed her her daily meal, and to their disappointment she put up no fight with her brother what so ever.

For next four days as a matter of fact, Ron did this. When he was not brushing her hair or washing her face with a damp cloth, he was fluffing her pillows or merely holding her hand. Hermione sat beside him through it all.

On the fifth day, Ginny woke up. And she woke up screaming.

---Ginny

It was after her again. The thing was like a shadow or at least moved like one. One minute it was in one place the next another. It stayed in the darkness, not that that had helped, being as Ginny's mind was full of darkness. But the thing wouldn't stop chasing her.

After Ron had left her, she had sat on the stone bench waiting, even contemplating going back into the memory room. But why, he had already brought her out here where it was much better.

After a while, she even got up and wondered around the dungeons, but it always felt like she was being watched. Not by something intending her harm, just watching her. The more she walked and the faster, the more she felt watched. Until at last she turned a corner and saw the thing in the corner of her eye.

"Who's there?" Silence answered.

Ginny glanced down one empty corridor to another, going from scared to frustrated to extremely pissed. And once angry, she converted her anger to courage, fueling her down each hall in search of a way out of the dungeons. And each time she saw the flickering shadow thing in the corner of her eye, it sparked a flame inside her, making her search harder.

Around maybe the tenth time the Thing, as Ginny had come to call it, flickered into view, the youngest Weasley became so enraged she spun in the direction of the Thing and screamed "What do want?!?"

In answer, it made a noise, one that made her think of a very large, vicious predator about to leap on it's prey. Thinking better of trying to fight it, Ginny gave a scream and ran in the other direction only to find herself falling.

That is when she woke up in a hospital bed, surrounded by Ron, Fred, George, Hermione, and two or three medi-witches.

The medi-witches were the only ones in the room that were even completely sure of what to do, but when they tried to sedate her, Ginny flailed, screaming, "Get away! Get away!...Where is Ron? Ron!"

Ron ran to his little sister who grabbed him as soon as he got within arms length of her. "You bastard," she growled, beating him with her fists. "You said you were not going to leave me. You promised, you did, you said you would be right back.

Ron didn't know what to say. She was right, he had left her, but she was here now. They were all ok now. So he just held her until she calmed down and rocked her back and forth until her breathing slowed.

"Ginny I'm so sorry I left you, I... I couldn't come back once I woke up..." Ron searched for the right words, but he didn't know what to tell his little sister that wouldn't upset her.

----Hermione

Hermione sat in Ginny's new hospital room, quietly writing a letter to Harry. Because pf Dumbledore's decree that Harry could not be anywhere except for Privet Drive or Grimmuald Place, the young hero could not come to visit his best friend. And until her letter reached him, he wouldn't even know about the Ron and Ginny. All he knew about was what he had learned in the Daily Prophet.

Dear Harry,

Sorry we haven't written you about the Weasleys. Right now I am at St. Mungo's with Fred, George, Ron, and Ginny. I wanted to write you sooner but well I was to worried about Ron and Ginny. They were in a shock induced coma, and the medi-witches wouldn't let anyone in to see them.. Ron woke up a few days ago, and Ginny woke just this morning.

Dumbledore came by a little earlier to see how everyone is doing, it seems we will see you in a few days at Grimmuald Place. But try not to say anything because I am not even supposed to be telling you this. Dumbledore is sending your guard in two days. You should be getting your other letters today. Well we will see you in a few days.

Love

Hermione

PS I almost forgot to tell you, Ron and I are dating now. I know it is a little sudden but I can't exactly tell you any other way. I thought you should be the first to know though...

Hermione looked down at her letter and almost threw it away, but she didn't have the time. Ron had woken up.

"What are you writing, Mione?"

Hermione quickly sealed the letter, saying,"Oh nothing." She rose out of her chair and walked over to kiss him good morning.

"Oh get a room you two, and stop snogging in mine."

Ron laughed at the groggy look on his little sister's face. "Fine Ginny, we'll leave you and the twins in here for a little while, and go get some breakfast. Do you want me to bring you something on the way back?"

"Coffee, lots of coffee."

Ron nodded and took Hermione's hand as they left the room.

A/N: Oh and if you are reading please give us some reviews...PLEASE gives the puppy dog face and does the cute sniffling we really need reviews