Chapter 3: The Unexpected
Now that I know what I'm withoutYou can't just leave me
Breathe into me and make me real
Bring me to life
Wake me up inside
Wake me up inside
Call my name and save me from the dark
Bid my blood to run
Before I come undone
Save me from the nothing I've become
Bring me to life "Bring Me to Life" Evanecsence
Ron opened his eyes and became extremely confused. He was staring at pale blue walls and lying in a bed much bigger than his own. He glanced down at himself and realized that he was wearing nothing at all, and that's when realization had hit him.
Ron looked down and saw Anna lying on her side using his arm as a pillow. Her silky hair was strewn out around her covering her smooth shoulders. The night before came back to Ron like a dream. She had been absolutely beautiful. Images of her skin and lips and her hair in his face came back to him and wrapped him in warmth. Her body had been so foreign to him, and he had explored her thoroughly.
He began to feel pangs of arousal and started to reach for her when he heard a faint whispering. Ron looked around the room curiously and started to reach for his wand tucked in his pants pocket when he distinctly heard his name, but it wasn't coming from Anna. It sounded more like—Harry?
"The mirror!" Ron exclaimed a little too loudly because Anna lazily turned over in her sleep but did not wake. "Phew," he said much more quietly.
Ron picked up his pants as quietly as he could and brought them out to her living room. Ron took the mirror that he used to talk to Harry whenever he needed him and saw Harry looking back at him.
"Damn, mate! Put some clothes on!" Harry said while laughing. "I guess I was right that you spent the night at Anna's. So, did you sleep—at all?"
"Shut it! What do you want so bloody early?" Ron demanded quietly so that he didn't wake up Anna. She still didn't know that he was a wizard and seeing him talking to Harry through a mirror would look pretty damn odd to her.
Harry face suddenly became very serious. "Ron, Malfoy was sighted in Paris yesterday. I know there's been loads of tips on where he's been hiding, but this one is credible. Neville saw him outside a jewelry store. Malfoy didn't see him though. Neville has been honeymooning there with Luna and he would have told me sooner, but you know Neville. World's worst apparator. He ended up in Siberia, and then got lost on his way back to England."
"He really saw him? Draco Malfoy. In Paris…" Ron mumbled to himself.
"Ron, I'm not going to push you to do anything, but I'm going," Harry said to him.
"And you think I'm not? Of course I'm going! I'm coming home right now. Get a portkey ready," Ron demanded.
"What about Anna?" Harry asked with a look of true concern on his face.
"She can't know anything about it. She has no idea about the wizarding world yet, and now is not the time to tell her," Ron stated flatly.
"So, you're just going to leave and not tell her where you're going?" Harry inquired.
"I'll have Ginny come by later and talk to her. We have to stop stalling. We've already lost too much time!"
Harry shook his head and disappeared from the mirror. Ron hurriedly put his pants on and dashed back into Anna's room to fetch the rest of his clothes when he was startled to find Anna sitting up already awake.
"Leaving so soon?" she asked playfully. Ron really wasn't sure what to say to her. Anna looked gorgeous lounging in her bed with her paisley bed sheets barely covering her tempting body. Ron was at a loss for words. It would have been much easier if she were sleeping soundly. "Were you just on the phone?"
Ron had to think fast. "Yes…Harry…Harry's got a problem…have to dash…sorry though," Ron rambled as he scrambled for his clothing. He had just pulled his shirt on when he looked at her again. She looked skeptical, but she had no reason not to trust him. He hated lying.
"It's work. I'm truly sorry," and Ron meant it. "I think Ginny wants to stop by for lunch though. I hope that's alright."
"That's fine. I'll miss you," she said coyly as she grabbed his arm and pulled him down to her. "You'll come see me tonight right?"
"I'll miss you too," Ron said to her. "And…I'll see you as soon as I can." He wasn't completely lying. He would see her as soon as her could, but it surely wouldn't be tonight.
Ron ran out of the room quickly. He needed to come completely clean and tell her about who he was. It would all be so much easier once she knew. She was rational. She would understand…He hoped.
Ron closed the door of Anna's flat behind him and apparated immediately to his own flat to meet Harry.
Anna was completely confused by Ron's flustered behavior, but Ron was never completely normal. That's what she liked the most about him. He wasn't like every other bloke she'd met. He was different somehow. He acted like everything they did or saw was completely new to him. The best was when he tried to light her lamps…literally. He wanted to know where her gatches were. She laughed all night over that one. He seemed generally amazed when she turned the lights on with a wall switch.
Anna was about to lie back down and sleep a little longer when she noticed Ron's jacket lying on the chair across the room. She pulled the sheets around her, grabbed the coat, and ran to the door to the pub. He left mere seconds ago. 'He would still be on the stairs,' she thought, but when she opened the door he was nowhere to be seen.
"Well, where in the bloody hell did he go?
It was still very early. Draco doubted that even Hermione would be awake yet. At the moment, he was pacing his study in front of the fireplace vigorously. He had made a huge mistake when he bought Hermione that necklace. He normally sent someone to get her gifts, but she never seemed to really care for them. He wanted to go all out and find her something that she would really enjoy. Unfortunately, Longbottom had seen him.
Draco had called Crabbe and Goyle for an early meeting. He had a serious problem on his hands. He was sighted in France. All of the Ministry's Aurors would be concentrating on the country by now. He had to decide if they should risk fleeing or stay and wait until it all blew over.
"Draco? Why did you want us so bloody early?" Goyle mumbled.
"We have a problem. Longbottom was in Paris last week and spotted me when I was buying Hermione that damn necklace! I was tipped off by a contact I have at the Ministry. There are loads of Aurors already in France," Draco bellowed.
"What should we do?" Crabbe asked quietly.
"I don't know! I just don't know," Draco said as he flopped onto his favorite chair across from the fireplace.
"Maybe this is good," said Goyle.
"Good? Good! How in bloody hell could this be good?" Draco demanded.
Goyle was hesitant to answer. Draco had always been smaller than his two goons, but he demanded a lot of respect. "Er—wouldn't Potter and Weasley come looking for you?" he asked timidly.
"Yes…" Draco answered while contemplating where Goyle was going with this.
"Well, with those two out of the way for a while, Crabbe and I could you know—take the girls," Goyle finished hesitantly fearing what Draco's response would be.
Draco jumped to his feet and approached Goyle quickly. "I don't think that you've ever been more brilliant in your entire life Goyle! You are so right. With Potter and Weasle out of the way we can take Ginny Weasley and that—that muggle that Weasley is playing with. When they find out, they will come running to us. They would never get help. The two of them think they are such heroes! Then, we'll get rid of them once and for all. I love it!" Draco exclaimed menacingly.
"The two of you go after the muggle first and bring her here. Then take Ginny Weasley," Draco instructed.
"When?" asked Crabbe.
"Tonight."
Hermione fingered the sapphire necklace hanging around her neck. It was rather beautiful really. A teardrop shaped sapphire with two diamonds along side it. It fell perfectly over her collarbone. Hermione looked at herself in the mirror and remembered that she had never had such a beautiful piece of jewelry before she had been taken there, and this was not the first adornment that he had given her.
Draco's heart was in the right place, but she just couldn't give him hers. It just didn't feel right. She was beginning to worry though. No man buys a woman so much fancy jewelry without getting anything in return. Hermione remembered how Draco had been while in school. He was quite the—well, he had many girlfriends. Hermione worried that he would soon grow tired of her, and she had no idea what would happen to her once that occurred.
Hermione left the mirror and sat on her large canopied bed and gazed out the window. She had dined with Draco for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. He had been in a fantastic mood. Hermione didn't think that she had ever seen him that happy. She was suspicious though. He didn't realize it, but she knew that he had a meeting with his two goons very early that morning, and neither were around the house at all. It was very odd indeed. They had been disappearing on and off a lot in the past week, and her gut told her that it couldn't be good.
Hermione had to ignore those thoughts for the time being though. There was nothing she could do about them at the time. She sprawled out diagonally across the bed on her stomach to read the Daily Prophet, which she had neglected all day.
As usual there was a column dedicated to finding Lucius Malfoy. There had been several sightings in Romania, but Hermione wasn't hopeful. They never panned out, and he was somewhere new almost daily.
Hermione read the newspaper from cover to cover everyday to keep in touch with the real world outside Draco's home. The world outside had calmed down considerably over the last two years. Of course, most of the Death Eaters had been caught and imprisoned, so the world was much more peaceful. There were usually several articles about wizard/muggle relations. There was currently an outreach program enacted to someday have the two worlds coexist in complete knowledge of each other. Hermione doubted that it would ever happen though, but it was a good idea.
"'First ever meeting of the head's of the Ministry departments with British muggle government leaders,'" Hermione read aloud. "Well that sure is something." She continued on reading until her eyes bulged out, and she jumped from the bed to read the article aloud.
"Did I just imagine that…It's a great first step in involving the muggle world in magical affairs and vise versa. 'I can't tell you how thrilled I am that this is happening. I've been waiting my whole life for something like this! I hope that someone can finally tell me how they invented plugs. If that's not brilliant, then I just don't know what is!' says the head of Muggle Relations, Arthur Weasley."
Hermione's heart stopped. Mr. Weasley was the only wizard she had ever heard of to collect plugs of all things. It had to be him. It just had to be, but did that mean—Draco lied to her? If Mr. Weasley were the head of Muggle Relations now, then he would be quite well known. Draco couldn't have just been mistaken about his death. Draco had lied to her. "What else has he lied to me about?" she said disbelievingly.
Hermione read on in the article. 'Arthur Weasley continues to say that, "I can't wait to tell my family all about the meeting. They have been fully behind me since we began planning this conference…' Hermione couldn't believe it. The Weasley family was alive.
"Does this mean that Ron is too?"
"I think you need to slow down and stop drinking," Murph said to a rather intoxicated Anna. She was seated at the bar slouched over with her head in her hands looking quite depressed.
"I know. I've just been so bloody foolish. I'm a complete idiot! It's been a week and not one word from him. What was I playing at? I promised myself that I wouldn't get involved with anyone, and what do I do? I get involved and get burned. I'm so stupid," Anna exclaimed through her hands to the overweight bartender.
"Now you listen here! You are not an idiot, and you are definitely not stupid. I am not going to pity you all night, and you need to stop pitying yourself. I've never seen you like this. Not even after—well, I've never seen you this way. I have a gut feeling that there is an explanation for Red's actions. Now get to bed. I'll close up," Murph instructed Anna. He wasn't harsh, but he wasn't kind either. He had known Anna since she was a child. He knew her better than anyone else, and he knew that she just needed a little tough love to get her through this.
"I know you're right, Murph. You always are. I just haven't opened myself up to anyone in so long, and now I feel like it was a mistake."
"It's never a mistake to be open with someone. You've become so aloof in these past couple years, Anna. You can't be so afraid of getting hurt. Everything will work out, now go to bed."
Anna smiled at her long time mentor and slowly got up from the bar. She glanced around the empty room and saw that it was practically empty. It was almost two o'clock in the morning. "Thanks for everything Murph. I'll get these two to leave, and I promise to go straight to bed."
There were two rather large blokes sitting in the darkest corner of the pub. Anna had never seen them before. They hadn't been drinking or even talking. As she walked briskly towards their table she got a feeling of uneasiness, but she couldn't tell if it was from them or from all of the alcohol that she had drank that night. She swore to herself that she wouldn't drink that much ever again.
"Hey you two. It's about closing time. You don't have to go home, but you can't stay here!" she said to them. Anna always said that line. It usually made people laugh, but not these two. They slowly turned to look at her and didn't say a word, but they did start to rise from the table.
Anna turned quickly and started walking towards the door to the stairs that led to her flat when one of the men shouted to her. "Where do you think you're going?" goon number one asked menacingly.
"That's none of your business! Now get going!" Murph bellowed.
"Stay out of this old man!" cried goon number two. He then pulled something out of his pants pocket that looked oddly like a stick. Anna had no idea what was going on, but she did notice that Murph suddenly looked terrified as he bent down looking for something.
"Anna run!" Murph yelled to her, but she had no time. What happened next was completely alarming to Anna.
All Anna heard was good number two yell some weird word, and Murph fell to the floor with a thud. It didn't matter how intoxicated Anna had felt just moments before because she was suddenly completely lucid and sober. The goon turned towards her with his stick, and some instincts that she didn't know she had kicked in. She jumped aside quickly and in the same instant took the nearest chair and hit the first goon with it across the back of his head. He also fell to the floor with a resounding thud.
Then it was just Anna and goon number two. "Stupefy!" he shouted at her, but she was quick enough to get out of the way of the red spray of light coming at her. She didn't have the foggiest idea of what was going on, but for some reason she knew that if she got hit with that light, then she didn't stand a chance.
Anna must have been feeling very brave that night because instead of running for the door, which any sane girl would have done, she instead rushed her attacker and tried to tackle him. Anna was much smaller than him, but her action surprised him enough that she made him stumbled and drop his stick.
Her smaller size was good for something though. She could move a lot faster than him. She grabbed for the stick and broke it over her knee before he could even try to retrieve it. Unfortunately, the other goon had woken up without her realizing it, and he grabbed her from behind and pinned her arms behind her back.
"Stop fighting! You can't win anyway," the goon on the floor said to her laughing.
"What do you want?" Anna spat out angrily.
"Just you my dear," said the man holding her. "You have gotten involved with the wrong bloke. Ron Weasley has to be taught a lesson, and you are the one who's going to teach him."
"You're going to come along with us, and you're not going to fight anymore," said the one in front of her. He ran a fat finger over her cheek, and she cringed at the feeling of it. Anna spat in his face.
"You foolish girl! We need to take you alive, but our boss didn't say that we couldn't do this," the man said as he hauled his arm back and punched her in the jaw. Anna had never felt such pain in her life. It was like there were bright stars floating in front of her face. The man wasn't done though. She had definitely pissed him off.
She felt each impact of his fists, and her body wanted to scream out in pain but she wouldn't allow it. Anna wouldn't let that scumball know how much he was hurting her. Small moans escaped her lips, but that was it.
Suddenly, she felt herself fall to the floor in a heap. Anna expected to be kicked in the side and braced herself for it, but the kick never came. Through her swollen eyes she glanced up at her attacker and was shocked to see the look of fear in his eyes. Then she saw a body fly over her and tackle the man to the ground. They were wrestling on the ground in front of her, but she didn't even care. Her body ached, and she just had to fight the blackness that was threatening to take her over. Anna had to focus. She couldn't black out. She needed to get away.
"Stupefy!" Anna heard from in front of her. She had no idea what that word meant, but she knew that it was no good. She did not care though. Her body ached. Her head felt as if it were going to explode. She had never been hit in her life until this very moment. She had always been a fighter. She never gave up on anything, but she felt the traces of reality escaping her and she didn't care. The pain was too much. She wanted to stay awake. She wanted to get up and run, but her body refused to obey her thoughts. Her eyes were betraying her, and she felt the blackness closing in when she heard her name.
"Anna! Anna, come on! Wake up! It's me, Ron."
Anna opened her eyes as much as she could, and there he was. Ron Weasley. Anna could only think of one thing to say to him before the blackness enveloped her, "What took you so bloody long?"