Disclaimer - I still don't own a thing.

Like the last chapter the POV's will be changing, so pay close attention to the headings.

xxxxx

Chapter 4 - Bond, Part II

ooooo Hermione

I stay behind with Ron as Dumbledore leads Harry outside as he requested. Not sure why. I suppose he wanted to see real sunlight after being holed up for so long. Maybe it has something to do with whatever he's going through.

I can't believe what Dumbledore said regarding Harry and Voldemort. Yet it makes a horrible kind of sense. Especially when I remember the times Harry said he could not always tell where one ended and the other began. Whose emotions he was really feeling.

Speaking of emotions...

I felt so many of them the moment the three of us were holding hands. I'm pretty sure not all of them were my own. It was confusing and pleasant at all the same time. Like I could feel what they were feeling and thinking.

I see Ron glance at his wrist and his eyebrows rise in surprise, he mutters something that sounds suspiciously like 'Bloody Potter'. He looks towards me and I can feel he's nervous about something.

He comes closer and I'm surprised at how aware I seem of him. He not just there. He's THERE. Gently, he takes my elbow and guides me outside the Hospital wing without a glance towards the nurse.

"We need to talk."

A couple of hours ago, I would have been secretly thrilled hearing a comment like that from him. Especially after what happened in the Common Room. Now I'm not so sure.

He propels the both of us towards an empty classroom and quickly does a silencing charm on the door and proceeds to do the same with the walls. I can feel his concentration and a little worm of worry forms in my mind. Why doesn't he want anyone to hear us?

ooooo Ron

I face her and I can't believe I'm doing this. I fully understand why Harry said that we would not tell Hermione about the bond. His words back then were 'Not until you sort things out'. I thought he meant the bond, but I think I know what he was really talking about now.

I wasn't ready to let her know. I couldn't face the possible consequences.

I run my hands over my hair nervously trying to figure out the words to tell her. Before she can figure it out on her own.

ooooo Hermione

"What is going on Ron? Why did you place the silencing charms?"

"Because this has to be kept secret. Harry thinks Dumbledore is spying on him. On us. And there are others."

"Didn't we learn it's a bad thing to keeps secrets last year? And you and Harry still kept the bond from me? Now we're keeping secrets from him?" I accuse.

He looks at me oddly. I've sidetracked whatever he was planning to say somehow.

"Hermione, where is Harry?"

"At the greenhouses, of course." I say without really thinking about it. I blink in confusion. How did I know that? I can tell he can see my bafflement.

"For being the cleverest witch in our year, sometimes you're a bit behind, Hermione." He says softly as he reaches over to me and takes my left hand. My skin seems to tingle at his touch. He pushes the sleeve of my jumper and makes me look at my wrist. There's a mark there. Two of them actually. Shimmering colors. Almost like being made out of light itself.

Two intertwined circles and a triangle close together, almost touching.

ooooo Ron

I see the mark on her wrist. Identical to what mine looks like now. Somehow, what happened with Harry, changed it. It feels very different. Stronger, yet incredibly more fragile. Layered.

"We're bonded? Is that how it felt when you and Harry..?"

"More or less."

"Oh."

I touch her mark and I can feel the power of it. Of them. I'm almost sure now it's two bonds. The triangle one connects the three of us. The famous Gryffindor trio is now official, I guess. The other one. The other one only seems to consist of Hermione and I. Damn you, Potter. When you get back, I'm going to kill you. In spite of everything, I think this without emotion. I know I had to tell her sometime.

"Looks like Animae Unitas. But I'll have to look in the Library to confirm it."

I can sense a mixture of surprise and amusement from her.

"Yes, Hermione. I do know where the Library is and I know it's not an evil place. On occasion, I even do research." I tell her lightly. Anything to defer what is coming.

I feel as if my stomach was full of lead.

"Do you remember I said Harry decided not to tell you?"

ooooo Hermione

I look at him in disbelief at what he's saying. He says that Harry was the one who made the decision. But I sense something completely different.

"It wasn't Harry. It was you, wasn't it. You didn't want me to join." All I feel is my own hurt. Ron didn't want me.

"Hermione, Harry did make the decision. Not let you know until I sorted things out."

"Sorted things out?"

"I thought at the time he meant the bond issues but... He really meant to sort things out with you."

I feel a panicked dread at his words. I can feel his discomfort. Maybe he knew all along. He knew I fancied him and he didn't want to deal with that issue if we bonded. It would have been difficult for him to ignore such a thing.

I can feel myself blush.

"It would have made you uncomfortable being bonded with me." I say in sad realization.

ooooo Ron

Merlin, she knows. She knows and understands that I would not have been able to hide it any longer if we had bonded. She can feel it know and what I feared will come true. I will lose her because of what I feel. Because she does not feel the same way.

All I feel is sadness and loss.

ooooo Hermione

"Hermione, you did notice that I kissed you earlier?" The sadness coming from him is too much to bear. I don't want his pity.

"Of course." I say fussily. Maybe if I make myself angry at him, it won't hurt so much.

"Did you wonder why I did it?"

I look into his wonderful blue eyes. Eyes that will never look at me like I want them to. "I don't know. Because you were happy that you could sense Harry again? Excited?" I say trying to shrug.

"When I felt him back, it was like sensing a piece of myself that was lost. I felt nearly complete then. I... I kissed you because somehow I knew that would make me feel fully complete."

I just stare at him not believing what I just heard. I fear my mouth has dropped open. I don't dare to hope.

ooooo Ron

Complete. That is how she makes me feel most of the time. No matter the arguments and the fights. Or the fact that we get into each other's nerves. That she can make my lose my temper like no one else can. Maybe because of it. I don't know. I only know that with her at my side, I can do almost anything.

With Harry gone, a big piece of myself was missing and she was the only one that could make that emptiness better. Because I gave her a piece of myself long ago. Without even noticing that I had done so. Without telling her so.

But now I have to tell her. Because she carries it. Whether she wants it or not, she does have it.

"Hermione, I should have told you ages ago. It took me a while to realize that I felt more than friendship. That being your friend was not enough."

She hasn't pulled away yet. Maybe she does not feel repulsed by me. Maybe she will forgive what I feel and still be my friend.

ooooo Hermione

More than friendship? He thinks of me as more than a friend?

I bite my lip trying to get around the idea that he does care after all. A glimmer of hope is budding somewhere. But I need to be careful.

Of course, if he says he thinks of me as a sister (like Harry does), I will hex him into the middle of next week.

"Why didn't you say anything?" I ask him.

"Because I was afraid of losing you. Because I know you probably don't feel the same way and it would have ruined this with us. With Harry. He needs the both of us, not just me, Hermione." He says. "That is why this happened." He adds raising his wrist so I can see the changed mark there.

A triangle and two intertwined circles. I touch the marks in my own arm again and I can feel the differences now. The triangle is the three of us. Unitas, like he said. Union. The circles feel differently. I try to reach out tentatively, I can feel Ron. Only Ron. Standing beside me feeling resigned. He thinks I don't care the same way about him.

I catch my breath as I realize the circles are Ron and myself. Harry changed it because he felt how we both cared for each other.

Bloody Potter, indeed. I don't know if I will hex him or hug him when he gets back.

ooooo Ron

"You should have told me sooner." She says with irritation. It's a tone I recognize all too well.

I can feel a touch of anger and irritation. Any moment now, she will ask how to lift the bond so she can be free of my unwanted attentions. I make myself go over the incantation Harry and I did originally. To do the counter spell properly we might have to do over them again. Of course, this is Hermione, so she probably already knows it.

"We wouldn't have wasted so much time, because I feel the same way about you." She reprimands me.

"What?" I say in shock and surprise.

"You heard me, you numbskull. How was I supposed to know how you felt, when you didn't tell me? Honestly, Ron. After taking so long to notice I was a girl, how could I tell?" She says raising her voice. Her hair is almost giving out sparks.

This is too much. "I'll have you know that I always knew you were female. I just didn't see you as a girly-girl. Loving pink, reading Witch Weekly or other ridiculous stuff silly girls do. You are nothing like Lavender or Parvati or any other giggling twits that infest the castle. You're Hermione. Brave and smart and loyal and beautiful. Can you blame me if it didn't lump you with the others?" I yell at her.

She looks shocked. "You think I'm beautiful?" She asks in a timid voice.

My ears are starting to turn red. I just know it. "Hermione, you're breathtaking."

"I think you're pretty hot stuff yourself." She says blushing.

If possible, my ears are now redder than my hair.

ooooo Hermione

I feel like I've been knocked out flat. Here we are. We just informed each other that we fancy each other and, in true Granger-Weasley fashion, we did it with a shouting match.

I smile at him hesitantly and he returns the smile. His eyes are looking at me like I hoped they would. I know now that they haven't changed, its just that I see it now. Love isn't always a flash or a strike of lightning. Sometimes it sneaks up on you and it's there. Here. Right in front of you.

Maybe it's the bond. Maybe it's the fact that we've known each other for so long. We move closer and our arms go around each other. His mouth finds mine.

He's kissing me. I'm kissing him. We're kissing. I feel a wonderful sense of completeness tinged with tenderness. I let my lips part and the sensations rise to desire and passion. Scary and wonderful at the same time. And I can tell from his touch that he's feeling much the same way.

When we finally pull back from each other, we're both a bit breathless.

"I told you. Breathtaking." He says softly.

I start to laugh with him. Not letting him go as we hold each other laughing and smiling. Kissing again.

ooooo Ron

There can't be anything more wonderful than holding on to someone you care about and laughing together. Unless you happen to love her and you're also kissing her between the laughter.

I'm the luckiest guy alive.

ooooo Harry

Finally. I feel myself smiling.

It only took them five years of bickering and a bond to make them understand what the rest of us knew for years. They were always meant for each other. In fact, I suspect this if it hadn't been for me, they might have gotten together a lot sooner.

I pull away from the brief contact of the bond, not wanting to intrude.

Maybe now that they have each other they won't miss me as much when it happens. Because it will happen.

Dumbledore is guiding me back to the Hospital wing and Madam Pomfrey's clutches. He is quiet and his eyes show none of the twinkle he uses so well. I know he's considering what I said and I would not be surprised if he puts me under some suicide watch at the very least.

Which would be a waste of energy. I have no interest in taking my own life for the sake of ending it all.

I admit that a few hours ago I almost did. I felt myself as if on the edge of a cliff. Where I only had to take a step to be free from it all. From prophecies and manipulations. To see the other side. It felt wonderful. I was content. I knew in that moment that death is really just another adventure and I've never backed down from one of those.

But I heard him call me back. My best friend. Ron was calling desperately for me and I could also feel a whisper of Hermione doing the same. So I stepped back from the edge. Back to the pain. Because this adventure is not over yet and it was not my time.

But that interminable moment at the cliff's edge, was enough for me to stop being afraid. I am not afraid to die anymore. It's not that I want to, but I'm not really afraid of it. I only need to make sure I bring him down at the same time.

"Harry..."

I turn towards the headmaster, really meeting his eyes for the first time since I don't know how long. Probably since the end of fifth year.

"I know I can't stop you if you decide to follow your idea through." The pain I can hear in his voice is quite real.

I nod in understanding.

"I only want your promise that you will at least consider other options first." He places his hands on my shoulders. "If there's anyone that deserves a full and long life, that person is you."

I blink away the tears that are forming in my eyes in spite of myself. The problem is that deserving anything, rarely influences what happens...

"Death is waiting for all of us regardless of our lives and choices. Always waiting for us. It's an appointment we can always be late for. I'd much rather welcome you there than the other way around." He ends softly, a touch of twinkle in his eyes.

He turns me around and I can see Ron and Hermione waiting for me inside the Hospital wing and Madam Pomfrey hovering close by. I smile and join my... my family.