Chapter Eight

When Ginny trudged up the stairs after another grueling day of lessons, it was quite a shock to see her brother in his room. He was rarely ever at Lupin's, except maybe to sleep, and even then he tended to stay over at Harry's most nights. She had not even heard him enter the house, which in a way she supposed was a good thing. If he was going to be an Auror he needed to be stealthy.

"Hey, stranger," she said, walking in.

"Hey, Gin," he greeted her in return. "What are you doing with all those books?

She heaved a great sigh. "Lessons with Remus. Some of us actually have to get an education."

Ron snorted. "That sounds like something mum would say."

"She did actually," she told him. "And if I'm busy with lessons that means I'm too busy to do anything else, like get involved with the war."

That sounded exactly like something his mother would pull. She was probably doing everything in her power to keep at least one of her children out of the line of fire. He had to take his mother's side on that one, but Ron valued his life so he would never tell Ginny that.

"Ran out of clean clothes at Harry's?" She asked him as he rummaged through his dresser and dumped a pile of clothes into an empty duffle bag.

"Not exactly," he replied, going to his closet and grabbing what was hanging in there.

"Ron, what's going on?" She said, all kidding aside.

"Nothing," he answered, focusing on taking his clothes off their hangers. He actually wished he had paid more attention to his mum's folding charms. He was forced to pack the muggle way since every time he tried that particular spell his clothes would rip themselves to shreds instead of folding neatly.

"You're moving out, aren't you?" She said, not even sure why she had to ask when the evidence was right in front of her face.

"Harry said I could move in with him. He has that spare bedroom anyways," he said in an off hand sort of voice. "I finally managed to talk him in to letting me pay rent."

She could not believe how casual he sounded about the whole thing. This was a big deal – at least it should have been. She already knew how a certain someone was going to react to his decision. "What did Hermione have to say about this?"

He shrugged but made no reply.

"You didn't tell her, did you?" She said, knowing full well that his inability to answer meant just that. "I always knew you were a bit of an idiot, but did you even think about what this was going to do to her?"

"You're right, Gin, I am an idiot – but not about this. It's better for everyone if I'm not here."

"This is hard for her too," she said in Hermione's defense. "You need to talk to her."

"I think we're all talked out, even when it comes to fighting – which is surprising actually."

"Ron, she'll never forgive you if she comes home and finds you gone."

He slung the duffle bag over his shoulder and faced his sister. "Then she can add that to the list of things she's never going to forgive me for," he said to her. "You can tell Remus I'll be back for the rest of my stuff later."

With those last words, he walked out of there, reminding himself that he was doing the right thing. And even though he fed Ginny the 'its better for everyone routine', he had only really been thinking about one person – himself.

If there was one thing Hermione had to admit, it was how good taking a break in the middle of the day felt. On most days she had to force herself to take a lunch because she was knee deep in research and didn't want leave even if it was just for ten minutes to go down to the small café in the Atrium and bring something back up.

Since she had been pulling fifty hour work weeks recently, remembering to take lunch wouldn't hamper her work progress much. Of course if she had known who she was going to run into, she would have gladly skipped it.

She was just entering the line, when off to her left a pale blond person had to bring themselves to a sudden halt to avoid knocking her over.

"Watch where you're going, Granger," Malfoy spat at her, furious.

"Maybe you need to be more careful," she said smoothly.

Malfoy smirked at something passed her shoulder. "Replaced Weasley already, have you?"

"Excuse me?"

He indicated to the man sitting at a small table watching them.

"He's my – we work together," she said, clarifying for him who Jack was.

Malfoy leered. "So a little inter-office relations is it? I always knew you and the Weasel would never last."

"You don't know what you're talking about," she said, an edge in her voice.

"Oh, I think I do," he said, sounding almost gleeful. "I see him almost every day and he's rather pathetic at covering up his feelings. You know what I think? I think Weasley's finally figured out that even though you're just a dirty little mudblood he'll never be good enough for you. You make him feel stupid and worthless. What the hell do you two even have in common, aside from Potter?"

She kept her gaze focused on the back of the head of the witch in front of her. Though it was fairly obvious Malfoy had gotten the reaction out of her he had been hoping for.

"I knew you'd understand what I meant, Granger," he added before walking off.

By the time she made it to the front of the line, her appetite had all but disappeared. She walked over to where Jack was waiting and dropped her tray of food down across from his own.

"You're friends with Draco Malfoy?" He asked her.

"Hardly," she responded, unwrapping her sandwich. "We just went to school together. Do you know him?"

"Everyone knows who the Malfoy's are."

That much was true. Half the wizarding world loathed them, while the other half believed as they did – that the only real witch or wizard was a pureblood one. She didn't want to talk about the Malfoy's anymore, much less think about them. "What did the analysis say for those tests we ran on the necklace charm?" She said, forcing Draco Malfoy and everything he had said to her out of her mind.

"It came up with quite a few interesting results," Jack said lowering his voice, as this was not the sort of area they should be discussing experimental magic items out loud. "It still didn't reveal what makes it work, but we know how it mixes with the human body. Once it attaches itself to the skin, it seems to add enormous amounts of adrenaline into the bloodstream. That's at least part of what contributes to increasing the wearer's natural abilities."

"Is there any way to figure out what the magic's are that's making it work?"

"Probably, we just haven't figured it out yet, which isn't the end of the world considering the Department of Mysteries had it for almost five years and couldn't figure it out. The problem was, once the wearer took it off they couldn't find any residual effects of the magic within the body. It was like once the charm was taken off, it sucked the magic right out with it."

She couldn't believe after almost a month they had learned little more than that. Try as she might, she couldn't help but feel frustrated by the entire thing. She was used to sitting down with a problem and quickly coming up with a solution. Though she had to admit, challenges were what kept her job interesting.

After lunch, she spent the remainder of her day studying the charmed artifact. Jack checked in on her every once in awhile to offer advice or see how she was progressing, but she never had much to tell. It was becoming painfully clear that there was little more theoretical research could do for them. Someone was going to have to try it on, and maybe it would be worthwhile to have another person try on the second charm so the results of both could be studied. But there were procedures that had to be followed before that could happen – dozens of forms and other assorted paperwork needed to be approved before they could move on to that stage.

At seven o'clock, she decided to call it a day, knowing that she wasn't going to have any miraculous breakthroughs. Besides, if she tended to work later than that everyone seemed to worry about her being out alone after dark.

When she made it back to Lupin's she dropped her bag on the small table by the closet and followed the light that was coming from down the hall. Ginny was seated at the dining room table with four books spread out in front of her, writing on a piece of parchment.

"Remus didn't waste any time did he?" She said to the younger girl.

"He gave me about three days worth of work to do," said Ginny.

"Why?" Hermione asked, never picturing Lupin as one to pile on homework.

Ginny gave her a strange look. "It's a full moon tonight."

She couldn't believe how she could have forgotten that. She always kept track of the lunar cycles, and even if she hadn't Remus had been looking quite dreadful the past few days.

"Where's Tonks?" The Auror would almost always stay over on the nights when Remus would transform, and if she couldn't then Mrs. Weasley or someone else would.

"She's outside watching Remus," Ginny began uneasily. "Snape didn't come by with the Wolfsbane potion. It was really bad, Hermione."

Hermione knew all too well what Remus's transformations were like when he hadn't taken his Wolfsbane potion. He had been taking it for years straight that she wondered what it would do to the wolf inside him to suddenly be set free.

"Maybe we should get out of the house for a bit?" Ginny suggested, dropping her quill. "We could go see that muggle film you were telling me about."

It would probably do her a world of good to get out of the house and relax, but she wasn't sure how she felt about having fun when Remus was out there probably clawing himself because he was trapped in that shed.

"Tonks thought it would be a good idea too," Ginny said, seeing her hesitation. "There's nothing we can do for Remus."

She was right. Tonks would be able to handle Remus. There wasn't even a remote chance he could get out of there with all those magical locks in place. She thought about her less than stellar day and her brief confrontation with Mafloy, and decided Ginny was right. "Let me just go upstairs and change first, okay?"

"You don't have to change," Ginny said quickly.

"I can't very well go out into the muggle world with my robes on," Hermione said to her.

"Then maybe we should do something else."

"Give me five minutes," she said, not quite understanding Ginny's sudden odd behaviour.

She left the dining room and Ginny followed after her. Maybe she was more rattled by Lupin's transformation then she was letting on. Then she reached the top landing and realized what Ginny had been trying to keep from her.

She walked into Ron's room, finding all the furniture where it was supposed to be, but there were no clothes lying on the floor or over a chair, and the bookshelves were empty of any personal items.

"He came by this afternoon and took everything. I'm sorry, " Ginny said softly from behind her. "I'm sure he was going to stop by after work and tell you."

She knew Ginny was trying comfort her but it was a lie. Ron wasn't coming by. He had no intention of telling her he had moved out.

"I'm really tired. I think I'm going to lie down for a bit," she said, backing out of the room.

Ginny nodded sympathetically. "Do you need anything?"

Hermione shook her head, Ginny's words barely registering. She retreated to her room, shutting the door quietly behind her.

Harry was sure his watch was broken. No matter how many times he looked at it the hand never seemed to move more than a few minutes. He was starting to think that the atmosphere around Azkaban was somehow affecting it but that was crazy, not to mention impossible. The only thing Azkaban was affecting was him.

He and Ron were on the first of their two-day weekly shift at the wizarding prison. Although the Dementors had not returned since Dumbledore sent them away, the Ministry was being much more cautious now in the event they returned again.

There were two other teams of Aurors at the prison with them. They would rotate every two hours, having one pair outside at all times. Harry supposed it was to provide some sort of relief but he only felt marginally better patrolling the outside perimeter. His temper was already short, and Ron was doing little to help him keep it under control.

"Damn it, Ron, stop looking at me like that," he snapped. All he needed was for the other Aurors to think he was falling apart.

"Sorry, I just wanted to make sure you were still alive," Ron snapped back.

"I'm fine," he practically shouted.

"You're not," Ron said, coming to a stop at a corner on the other side of the main entrance. "Fuck, Harry, those prisoners in there look more alive than you. It's killing you being here."

"Don't you start with me too," he said, his eyes narrowing. He was already getting enough coddling from Hermione and Mrs. Weasley. He wasn't some weak and defenseless kid. He could take care of himself.

"Maybe you should think about asking Snape to give you Occlumency – "

"I'm not asking that bastard for anything. I don't need Occlumency. It never really helped anyways."

Ron silently disagreed with him. Since Harry stopped going to Occlumency, he had been slowly getting worse whenever they had to patrol at Azkaban. He had always sided with Harry when it came to Snape and Occlumency, but now that he could see how much being there was eating away at him, Ron wished he hadn't been so quick to jump all over Hermione when she had insisted Harry continue with his lessons back when he had first quit.

"You could talk to Moody or Mackenzie. Harry, if they knew what it was doing to you, being here, looking like you're reliving your worst nightmares they would figure something out."

"Ron, you better keep your mouth shut, or I swear – "

"You'll what?" Ron challenged. "I've seen corpses with more life then you." To prove his point, he snatched Harry's wand out of his hand and pushed him back against the rocky wall.

"What the fuck was that for?" Harry demanded, once Ron had seized his grasp on him.

Ron gave him back his wand, which Harry grasped with one shaky hand. "You're a bloody mess, that's what. Look at how easy it was for me to take your wand. Do you think a prisoner that gets out is simply going to take your wand and run?"

"I wasn't ready," he responded weakly.

Ron wasn't falling for it. With Harry's reflexes and training, he shouldn't have even been able to lay a finger on his wand, much less take it away from him. Against his better judgment, he said, "you should let Hermione do that spell on you again."

"No!" He shouted, wringing his hands through his hair. "And you know why. I can't become dependent on magic to make me feel better."

In Ron's opinion, Harry using magic to keep himself in the right frame of mind was better then having a partner who could hardly hold himself together.

"I may look like shit but I can still do my job," Harry snarled. He moved away from the wall and started walking towards the prison's one and only entrance. He made sure to keep his eyes focused on the path in front of him instead of the rocky cliffs that plunged down hundreds of metres before finally hitting the water.

Their shift didn't end until ten o'clock, and on any other night Ron would have been ravaged with hunger. But after a day at Azkaban he wanted nothing more then to pass out on his bed. One look at Harry told Ron he was going to do the same thing.

When they walked inside, a small light on in the living room alerted them both. Ron had his wand out a second before Harry, but was thankful his reflexes were a bit slow after a day at Azkaban when he saw who it was. Hermione was sitting alone on the couch, her eyes running briefly over Harry before locking on him.

Seeing that look made Ron wish he had fallen over the side and plunged head first into the water surrounding Azkaban. He didn't need Harry's empathic or other abilities to know that the fiery look in her eyes was directed at him.

"Snape didn't give Remus the Wolfsbane potion tonight," she told them.

Though Harry's skin was pasty white and clammy, he managed to hold himself together quite well. "Remus transformed without it?"

"It's all right, Tonks is watching him."

"Where's Snape?" Harry asked, his tone bordering on rage.

"I don't know. He could be on a mission for the Order. Whatever it is, it must have been important for him not to be there."

"Don't make excuses for him," Harry snapped. "If that was going to happen, the least he could have done was warn Remus."

"Where's Ginny?" Ron asked.

"She's at Remus's."

Ron eyes widened to the size of saucers. "You left her there alone?"

"No, I didn't. Bill's there now."

Harry tossed his cloak on the kitchen table and made for the door.

"Where are you going?" Hermione asked him.

"To find Snape."

"Maybe you should calm down first," said Ron, not quite believing those words had come from his mouth.

But Harry ignored him and left through the front door.

Hermione stood up. "We should go after him."

"He's been at Azkaban all day, so he's not exactly in the right frame of mind. Trust me, he just needs some time to cool off. He won't do anything stupid," Ron said, seeing the concern etched in her features.

"So this is where you're living now?" Hermione blurted out a moment later.

He thought maybe they would tip toe around the issue but Hermione had no intentions of doing that. "I moved the rest of my stuff this afternoon."

"I could see that," she said icily. "Do you want to know what it felt like seeing your room and finding everything gone?"

He flinched at the hurt in her voice. He had been too much of a coward to tell her he was moving out because he had been trying to avoid a conversation just like this one.

"It's not that big of a deal. I've been spending most of my time here anyways."

"It's a big deal to me," she said, standing up.

"I thought you would be happy about this!" He exclaimed. "You wanted space and that's exactly what I'm giving you."

"You thought the only way to do that was to move out? Do you hate being around me that much?"

"You're the one who can't stand being around me!"

"Sometimes I wonder how we were even friends to begin with," she snapped heatedly.

"If it wasn't for Harry we wouldn't even be friends," he shot back. "All we ever did was fight – we didn't even like each other!"

"Do you think my life wouldn't have been a lot simpler if I didn't have to worry about keeping you from getting expelled or failing?"

"I never asked you to do any of that! But you don't have the self-restraint to mind your own damn business. You can be such a righteous bitch I wonder why the hell I ever wanted to be with you!"

"You are the most selfish and insensitive person I have ever met. I guess after all these years I finally understand what all the insults and snide remarks meant. You're right, Ron. Harry's the only thing that ever kept us together. We were never friends and all of this has just been a huge mistake! I should have stayed in Luxembourg!" Tears were streaming down her face now and she stormed towards the door.

"Then why don't you go back there?" He shouted to her retreating back. "Do you really think anyone wants to have around a stuck up, know-it-all who thinks she's better than everyone? My life would have been so much better if I had never met you!"

"My feelings exactly!"

She wretched the door open and slammed it shut so hard her arm was left shaking afterwards.

She never wanted to lay eyes on Ron Weasley again. Ever. She had been so foolish to believe that what they had actually meant something to him, when they were really nothing more than two people who couldn't be more different.