Lurking Out Of Sight
Chapter 4
Dawn came and the ministry started to fill with tired employees. Loud shouts could be heard in the dungeons, and Ron woke holding Hermione in his arms. It might have just been a trick of the light but Ron thought he saw Hermione smile and cuddle closer to him. He didn't know and he wasn't going to risk waking her by moving. It was still dark, but the faint green light shone upon Hermione's pale face.
She is so beautiful.
Ron leaned down and slowly pressed his lips to her forehead. He knew that if she was awake he wouldn't have dared to even grab her hand but there was something about the darkness and the fear around them all that gave him the strength and courage to act wilder. Well, it might have just been because she was unconscious. Ron shrugged and sat up.
Hermione awoke with a feeling of comfort and protection. The warmth around her was intoxicating and she felt the strong arms of Ron Weasley holding her tight. If she could have she would have sighed right then.
For a moment she thought that she had because Ron seemed to jump but a feeling of something warm and soft on her forehead nearly made her slide right out of herself. Ron just kissed her on the forehead. Hermione had never been kissed before, not ever, and to have one her best friends and crush of all time kiss her on the forehead was something she didn't even want to comprehend.
This fear around them dampened her joy. Hermione began to feel guilty. She felt guilty for Harry, for Neville, for Remus, Dumbledore, Tonks, the Weasley family, For the Order, for- for S-Sirius. He was gone...here she was, having the bloody time of her life (if that was possible for she was paralyzed). Hermione longed to scream. Scream in Anguish, Pain, Passion, Hatred, Fear.
But, because she was paralyzed...she couldn't. This force over her body was even more maddening and horrifying then what had happened to Sirius. He was gone forever...but she was still here. What if this curse could never be lifted? What if she had to suffer this state forever? She would never be able to cry, to eat, to dance...to READ, t-to have a family. She desperately wanted a family. She wanted to raise a home with many children.
All of her life she thought that people like Molly Weasley were insane...children? She had thought.
Hermione always dreamed of the cosmopolitan life. That of Large apartments in the city, Lattes in the morning before work, thousand galleon robes, highest ranking and most successful witch in all of Briton. Everything...but after summers and Christmases with the Weasleys she had changed. She wanted a family...but no one else knew. She wouldn't tell them...they might change their opinions...what if after telling Harry and Ron that they didn't like her...what if they thought she had gone mad...or worse that she wouldn't want to be their friend after her change...she couldn't bear to lose them...no, she needed them.
The two of them where the reason that she could bear the pressure. If it wasn't for them she didn't know what she would do. How she could survive at Hogwarts? Life would be harder now, with Sirius gone...hell, she didn't even know if Harry was alive...she had the feeling he was. She felt that she would just know if he was gone. She wasn't getting her hopes up though.
BAM!
Hermione was torn from her thoughts from the sound. Ron jumped so high that Hermione herself must have rose inches from the floor herself!
Ron heard a loud bang erupt from the door and dust billowed out from the crumbling door that now lay in pieces on the floor. The hair on the back of his neck stood up and he looked at the door, eyes searching the darkness. A vaguely male silhouette could be seen in the shadows breathing heavily. Slowly but briskly he, whoever he was brushed a thick layer of dust off his robes and stepped over the broken door.
Who…?