Friends

"So, Weasel-bee, I hear your friend Potter's gone missing!"

The shrewd, cold voice could only be one person. Unfortunately, that one person was the last person both Ron and Hermione wanted to see.

"Careful Malfoy," Ron hissed, not caring that all of the Hogwarts staff could see them from the long table at the head of the Great Hall. "I have no hesitations about kicking your-"

"Ron!" Hermione hissed as Hagrid passed within hearing range. Not that she really cared. She was just as eager to see Malfoy get his comeuppance as any other Gryffindor, but Hermione was wise enough to know that there was a time and a place for such things.

For Ron, anytime and anyplace was good enough to get at Malfoy.

"Careful, Weasel. You're getting your girlfriend in a huff!"

"Damn it, Malfoy!" Ron launched himself at Draco. The only thought he had was to rip that smug face off of his head for good.

An uproar broke out before the first punches were ever thrown, and by the time Dumbledore arrived on the scene with McGonagall and Snape, there was very little to be said over the situation.

"Malfoy. Weasley. Come with me," said the headmaster very sternly.

Hermione had no doubt in her mind that that was the last time she would be seeing Ron in school again.

"Come in," said a glum voice.

Hermione tensed, hesitating to open the door. What if Ron really was expelled? Could she take that?

"It's all right, Hermione."

Sighing, she opened the door...

...to a sight she did not want to see.

Ron had his suitcase open with most of his belongings already inside. He looked flustered beyond anything Hermione could ever recall, and that wasn't including the newest addition of a black eye; courtesy of the brawl Ron had involved himself in earlier that day.

"You've been expelled." she gasped, tears already forming in her eyes.

"Not expelled," Ron corrected. "Suspended."

Hermione looked up, only slightly relieved. "For how long?"

"A week."

"A week!" she hollered shrilly. "They can't do that! You'll miss too much school work."

Ron sighed. "Yeah, about that. Think you could owl my assignments to me while I'm gone?"

There was a sharp pause in which Ron knew that this was not the conversation Hermione was trying to lead him down. She was worried about more than Ron's school work. In fact, he might have been safe betting that this was the first time his schooling was at the very bottom of Hermione's list.

"Ron?"

He winced and turned finally to look her in the eye. "Yeah, Hermione?"

She stopped, trying, it seemed, to word all of her questions as best she could.

"Why did you do it?"

There was a pause in which Ron himself was left to consider his answer. He frowned, not really wanting to talk about it, but he knew that Hermione had zeroed in on him and there was no evading that.

Not anymore.

They'd both been quiet since Harry had disappeared. Neither ever wanting to say anything in case it may cause an emotional outburst from the other. But now the time had finally come for them to talk. If anything was going to be said, it would be said now, and there would be no more holding back on it.

"I don't know, Hermione," Ron sighed, slumping onto the vacant bed that would have been Harry's that year. "I don't know. I just...I hated the idea that Malfoy took pleasure in the fact that Harry's gone."

"Missing, Ron," she corrected through her own tears. Like a cat she gracefully stepped over the mess of clothes and books that were strewn across the floor, and nestled down next to Ron. He unconsciously put an arm around her shoulders as her head found a cradle upon his own.

"I'm worried, Hermione. I won't lie to you about it. I'm afraid I'll never see my best friend again." He paused. "You don't know how that tears me up inside."

"Don't I?" Hermione asked, her gaze falling onto her lap. "He was my best friend too, you know?"

"Is your best friend," Ron corrected, slightly mocking her sentiments from earlier.

Hermione grinned sadly. "Yes, of course."

"It's so wrong that he's not here. And they...no one...tells us a damn thing!"

"Ron," she whispered as a silent berate to his choice of words. His anger was beginning to show, and as much as Hermione feared that, she also appreciated it. Ron was finally opening up to her!

"We're his best friends, Hermione. They don't have the right to keep anything from us. We were there before anyone else. It should always be that way."

Hermione grinned, slightly touched by Ron's words. 'If only Harry were here now, listening to this,' she thought.

"I don't doubt that he knows we're worried, Ron," she started, trying to sound hopeful.

He only frowned. "What the hell good does worrying do if you can't do something?" He stood up suddenly and paced the room, his brow knit in an uncharacteristic amount of concentration. "By now Harry would have had a plan. He would know what to do in a situation like this! He was brave, and smart, and bloody fearless!"

"And...what were we, Ron?" she asked, the tears still not gone from her eyes. "Weren't we that too?" She paused. "Are you saying...without Harry, we're nothing? You and I...are nothing?"

He stopped and looked up at her. She in turn was gazing fiercely at him.

Something within Ron quivered at that moment. He wasn't sure if it was his heart or his stomach, but he suddenly became very aware of how mature he was acting in front of her and took great pride in his actions. But the sight of her tears changed that, and he found himself feeling instead, quite useless and weak.

Ron slid next to her and put his arms comfortingly around her shoulders.

"No, Hermione. You and I were never nothing. Not to me."

She smiled, taking comfort in that fact. "What do you think Harry thought of us?"

Ron paused, considering these words.

"I think, Harry thought us his greatest friends. Although he despised our bickering, I think he recognized the signs. That's why he always let it be. He knew what we would become, and he was happy for us."

"Do you think he still is?"

There was a long pause in which Ron didn't answer. For a moment, Hermione began to think that perhaps he hadn't heard, but when she turned her head to gaze up at him she was surprised to see that he was silently weeping with his head against one of the bed posts.

"I miss him," Ron said at last as Hermione wrapped her arms around his torso to try and comfort him. "And if he were here right now he'd know exactly what I should say to you, but he's not. And I don't know what to do for anyone. I feel so worthless."

Hermione, frowning against her own tears that now spilled down her cheeks, lifted a finger and pressed it against Ron's lips.

"You're not worthless," she said at last, trying to hide the break in her voice. "We always knew there would come a time when we couldn't help Harry with his battles. That became evident when he fell into that coma. We couldn't help him then, Ron, and we can't help him now. All we can do is make sure he finds his way home again."

Ron started to protest, but Hermione didn't let him. She pressed her lips to his in an attempt to silence both of their self-doubts. Harry was alive, he had to be because there were people waiting for him here. That was all there was too it, and for now it satisfied them both to dwell on this, that it was enough to bring Harry back.

They each lay in each others' arms until they could hear the shuffle of the first years in the Common Room below. When he could hear the new Head Boy telling them to follow him, Ron felt that it was time to leave.

With a last peck on Hermione's cheek, he disappeared down the stairway. Hermione was left holding her arms against the chill that seemed to have found it's way up her spine.