Chapter 4- The Plan Is Set

Hermione and Ron woke up early the next day. Minutes later they were dressed in their tattered clothes. Ron was making his way toward the door to the meeting room when Hermione held his hand tightly and tugged him back to the bed. She was wearing a playful smile. She looked radiant and refreshed. Ron was happy that Hermione looked confident, able to take on the day ahead. He pecked her nose and got up from the bed.

"Can't we just stay here?" Hermione whined. She ruffled her hair a little more and leaned on a pillow seductively. Ron couldn't help but smile at this.

"You're so spoiled." He said teasingly and Hermione reacted with a fake frown. Ron put his hands on his hips and pretended to look mad. "C'mon now! We got loads of work to do."

"We could do work here." Hermione said adamantly. Ron suddenly jumped on the bed laughing. He scooped Hermione with his arms as she flailed about as though she was being attacked. He set her down right in front of the door and made a face. Hermione looked away pretending to be mad. Ron jumped on the opportunity to feel her backside.

"I love you Hermione."

"I love you too." They kissed and entered the meeting room.

The room wasn't damp and dark as it had been. Dobby was zooming about the room wiping off grime and then whizzing in and out of the kitchen to cook breakfast. The couple breathed in the heavy smell of butter and oil whenever Dobby opened the kitchen door. Hermione looked out at the sewer drain and followed the small beam of sunlight that sneaked inside. She looked around the room and noticed that the small chairs that had littered it were replaced with medium sized chairs placed around wooden tables. She noticed Dumbledore eating in the right table. She tugged at Ron and dragged him toward Dumbledore's table. As they were approaching, Dumbledore drank some water and wiped his mouth with a small towel. Hermione did a little bow and then sat down opposite the headmaster; Ron sat to her right.

"Good Morning, Hermione," greeted the headmaster. He looked straight at Hermione's eyes for a while smiling, then turned away to see Dobby running toward them with two plates in his hand.

"Thank you, Dobby." Ron and Hermione chorused as they were handed two plates full of pancakes and eggs. They took their forks and knives and took a bite-sized piece of pancake. They felt their bellies warm as they consumed the food. Dobby's cooking was so delectable that their plates were cleared almost instantaneously. "Wow!" They said in unison after they had gobbled up the last crumb in their plates.

"Dobby is glad you likes it sirs" Dobby said as he bowed down to the ground. He looked back up at them beaming. Hermione stood up to clear the table of their soiled plates but Dobby was way ahead of her. In an instant, the table was clean and Dobby was back at their side beaming.

"Dobby! What's up with you today?" Hermione didn't mean to sound so startled at Dobby's manners but it was quite a while since Dobby had been this enthusiastic in serving people. "You don't have to do this Dobby. We're all equal here." Hermione had started S.P.E.W. when she was at Hogwarts on her fourth year. She believed that house elves should have the same rights as wizards. Her plans for S.P.E.W., however, were postponed after Harry's defeat but her beliefs had never changed. "We're not your masters Dobby. We're your friends."

"Dobby told me this morning that he felt cleaning our hideout and fixing breakfast would calm him," Dumbledore said calmly. Hermione gave Dumbledore a what-are-you-talking-about look. "I am not sure what he meant." Dumbledore was then examining the corner of the table with interest. Hermione, instead, turned to Dobby.

"What's wrong Dobby?"

"Dobby couldn't sleep. He heard noises in the night: creaking, moaning. It was terrible." Dobby lifted a long, bony finger and pointed at the direction of Ron and Hermione's room. "It came from there." Hermione felt the blood rush to her face as she looked to Ron, who was as red as his hair.

The two stared at each other for quite awhile until their blood had drained back and their breathing had started again. There was a heavy thud thudding on the entrance door that made Dobby jump and run to the kitchen. Ron and Hermione looked at each other again nervously and slowly pulled out their wands. Dumbledore was eyeing the door with a look of extreme discomfort.

"It's Dean Thomas. He's badly hurt." He said finally. A second later, the door swung open and Dean fell inside shaking. Hermione rushed to his side and felt his head. She retracted it quickly feeling an intense heat as though she was licked by flame. Dumbledore rose from his seat and entered one of the many metallic doors saying, "He will be fine. I shall go ahead and inform Ms. Lovegood. In the meantime, Hermione," he added, "Make sure he doesn't drink water." Hermione nodded her head in reply. Ron was nervously pacing around the room mumbling to himself when Luna came in wearing a careless expression on her face. She looked numbly at Dean, who was shaking all over, then conjured a stretcher.

"Ron, help me." She instructed. Ron walked cautiously to Dean's side as Hermione watched them lift his body to the stretcher. Luna whispered something to the tunnel walls and a magical door appeared and she and Ron carried Dean off.

An hour or so later, Luna and Ron emerged from the same magical door with beads of sweat trickling down from their foreheads. Hermione gave a sigh of relief seeing Luna smiling at her.

"He'll be fine," said Luna lazily. She sat at one of the chairs and Dobby reappeared and fixed her breakfast. "It was a simple operation," she explained between mouthfuls of pancakes, "yellow flame that grows stronger when doused in water; a nasty trick for muggles. A little bit of sand does the trick." Hermione wondered how Dumbledore knew what it was. "You can tell when you touch them. It feels like you touched fire. Oh, and Hermione, you should practice your Occlumency." Luna's eyes flashed as it reflected the sunlight.

As the small beam of sunlight grew thicker, the witches and wizards who had slept in the underground tunnel started to get up from their beds and eat their breakfast. More and more woke up until the whole meeting room became crowded again. Dumbledore came out a few minutes after the last morsels of food were consumed and the room quieted down. Dumbledore waited for a few seconds more for the most minute of whispers had stopped before speaking.

"I am sure every one of you have been well rested." His gaze fixed on a few people around the room yawning sleepily. "There might be few exceptions." Everyone chuckled a bit before quieting down again. "And I'm sure you've been thinking about our meeting last night."

The crowd stared at Dumbledore with disbelief. Some of them whispered to each other, "I can't believe Dumbledore was serious." They exchanged worried looks and shifted in their chairs uneasily.

Ron stood up slowly and gestured for the people to quiet down. "I think..." he said nervously "we should have a vote." He looked around but no one did anything. He felt stupider every minute standing there. "Well? You do know what I mean, right?" He was answered by silence.

Hermione stood up to help him. "Everyone. I know that you feel this is a hard decision." She gulped feeling as though she had a sharp-edged beak traveling down her esophagus. "We can't lose you Dumbledore." She let paused for a while then her face brightened. "But! Like I said, I have a plan too. One that involves... no risk."

Seamus raised his hand "We talked about it already. It won't work."

"How do we even know that this thing is nothing but a legend?" Ron was wearing a pleading look on his face. Hermione ignored him, whipping her hair back.

"Ok, look. If I can find one jewel, promise me you will help." She said with hope radiating from her face. Everyone looked at each other quietly.

"Well, we have time to waste so why not," said Draco mockingly.

The meeting was over and the crowd began to disperse, tending to their different activities. Hermione hurried across the room to Cho with determination shaking her bones. She smiled at Cho heartily as she adjusted her dress and hair automatically. She held Cho's hand tightly feeling that it was slightly warmer than hers. They then breathed in deeply before hurrying out the entrance door with some of the rebels.

"It feels weird." Hermione thought aloud, "Somehow, I feel that this would actually be a plan that would work. But..." she looked at Cho grimly.

Cho shook her head and patted Hermione caringly. "Nobody wants to die," she said as she gently rubbed Hermione in the back, "Nobody wants to lose anything. But every war has its casualties." Cho stopped and Hermione did so too. They hugged each other tightly, sharing all their grievances at the moment with that single friendly gesture. "I feel like I'm the one executing you."

Hermione squeezed Cho's hand, "It's for the greater good. Now no more tears or they'll suspect something."

Cho looked up sighing, "Why do I have to keep this secret."

Hermione looked sideways to see Ron hurtling from the entrance door toward them. She forced herself to smile as Ron caught up with them panting, "Hermione!" He gasped, "I..." Ron's eyes were darting all over as though not to meet Hermione's gaze "I think I should come with you."

Hermione laughed softly, "Oh, Ron. It's okay. We won't be in any danger. Nobody knows where we're going anyway. You should just... guard the place. I don't know. Clean our room." She smiled. Ron looked unconvinced and began to speak. Hermione put her finger on his mouth. "No," she mouthed. Ron scratched his head and shrugged. He turned to leave but Hermione suddenly hugged him feeling an impulse to just hold on to him and what the hell with everything else. "Wait," she whispered urgently. Ron was frozen for a few moments in shock but then he started to feel Hermione's warmth all over him. It was as though Hermione's feelings had transferred to him when they touched. He whirled around and hugged Hermione as tightly as he could. Then they kissed passionately as though Hermione's leaving would be their ultimate goodbye. Hermione felt that every second away from Ron was a dying moment. She had to hold on. Yet, reality had settled back on both of them. They parted their lips and their arms and looked at each other with intense longing. Love had to be put aside to give way for more urgent things: for the greater good.

Hermione looked away feeling the will of the greater good urging her to do her job. She wanted to laugh and say that Voldemort didn't exist and that she and Ron could finally get married, invite a big crowd, with Harry there as the best man and Ginny as their bride's maid. However, all of these were stolen from her. Hermione clutched her heart feeling the pang of reality devour her very soul. Yet again she wished that their lives had been normal. This was not the way, however. Cho embraced Hermione as though to drag her away from Ron's nourishing love. "We have to go," Cho said but Hermione could only hear the soft hiss of reality that taunted her. She wriggled free of Cho with all her might and hugged Ron for one last time.

"I'm right here," Ron said feeling Hermione's deep desire for him. He pressed her closer to him. "I'm right here."

"Oh, Ron. I really have to go." Hermione broke away and forced herself to live life as life was then at the time. She couldn't live in a dream or she would never see Ron truly happy. Cho waved goodbye to Ron as they left the tunnel to the entrance door and traveled a twisted path towards an abandoned muggle museum a few miles near Hogwarts. Hermione stopped Cho from going outside looking around cautiously. "Wait, Cho!" She warned. "There might be Death Eaters. You never know."

Upon hearing the warning, Cho retracted quickly then looked around nervously. "What should we do?"

"We need to have some kind of scout." Hermione was moving her arms around as she thought. "You know, to look around."
"Oh, I can do that!" Cho's face looked relieved. She put on a face that gave Hermione the sense that everything was under control. "I'll be back." She instructed confidently. Hermione watched as Cho transformed into a red-orange butterfly with the same silky black color (of her hair) on the edge of her wings. Hermione did a sort of wave goodbye to the butterfly but it was probably useless since Cho wouldn't be able to see it as she had her back to Hermione.

Back at the meeting room, Ron was having a serious discussion with Dumbledore. The place was empty except for the two conversing men. Dobby was still busy cleaning the tunnel but it was useless: every time he had wiped off a dirty spot or mold, it would seem as though more would magically appear. Exhausted, Dobby walked aimlessly away from the meeting room.

"Dumbledore, I am having this weird feeling about Hermione."
"She is acting very strange since she had found out about that legend?"
"Uh, yeah," Ron sounded surprised, "It's like she can't take her hands off me... not that I don't want her to, you know," he added quickly.

"The girl does love you," Dumbledore said chuckling.

"Yes, but..."

"You feel as though she is keeping something from you?" Dumbledore's glasses flashed.

"Yes. Not something like she's cheating on me... no.... it's as if she feels like she's in trouble." Ron looked at Dumbledore horrified, "Is she?"

"No." Dumbledore said tranquilly

"Ok." Ron sighed. "So... Dumbledore..."

"Ah yes, of course." Dumbledore clasped his hands together. "The commotion that happened last night made me forget that some of us have not been aware of my exact plan."

"I was thinking if we could talk about... well, now that it's out of the way."

Dumbledore looked at Ron with curious interest. "Of course. The spell is very ancient," he began, "it is used to give a person protection from any magic that the caster intends to protect that person from."

Ron looked at Dumbledore with a puzzled look. "But wouldn't that make Voldemort invulnerable?"

"Ah, possibly," Dumbledore replied smiling. Ron didn't feel that it was something to be happy about. "But, you see, my plan was to change the spell a bit so that it would seal the person inside the shield of protection. Voldemort wouldn't be able to do magic because of the shield that traps him."

Ron's puzzlement had not been eased by Dumbledore's explanation; he cleared his throat pretending he had understood. "Um, that's brilliant Dumbledore. But---"

"The spell requires the sacrifice of blood from the caster. It is true for all ancient spells." Dumbledore looked up beaming. "Our ancestors seem to have a better grasp on the concept of death than we do." Ron stared at Dumbledore blankly. He could feel Dumbledore's gaze pierce his head like a flaming arrow.

"I see," Ron croaked.