Partonize

Part Seven

Ron Wealsey could feel the cold sweat pouring off his brow, his hair plastered to his head. His tee shirt was stuck to his back with sweat, and he could feel the chill right down in the marrow of his bones.

He was frightened beyond all reason.

The Dementors had arrived.

He looked to his left and saw his brother Fred at his shoulder. He looked extremely pale as if he had never laughed in his life. It also looked as if he had bitten his lip as a slight trickle of blood laced his chin.

On Ron's right stood his other brother, George. He too was ashen and bloodless. His face was full of sheer malice for the otherworldly creatures before him, and his wand hand was shaking uncontrollably.

The Dementors themselves seemed to be in no hurry to reach them, as if they enjoyed toying with their prey. They glided slowly across the garden, the mists swirling about them lazily like water behind a row boat.

Ron was having a hard time trying to keep his wand hand from shaking. It was cold and sweaty and his wand felt precarious in his grip. He switched hands, wiping his sweaty palms on his trousers, before returning his wand to it.

He had experienced the Dementors once two years ago on the train to Hogwarts, but that had been different. There was something utterly horrifying about being in the open air with these creatures as opposed to indoors. And last time there was only one. Now there were several.

He tried to think of happy thoughts, but they were ebbing away swiftly. What was it like to smile and laugh, he tried to think, but it was gone. All that was left was cold and melancholy and terrified.

Now he knew why Hermione had been so frightened. She had seen them nearly destroy Harry and Sirius. She knew what they were capable off. Hermione, he thought. She's inside, she's safe.

He clung on to this one and only thought. It wasn't exactly happy, but it was a fact. Even if it was the end for him, she would be okay. He'd make sure of it.

Fred stirred at his left. The Dementors were only yards away now.

"Last chance, little brother," said George in a voice that sounded nothing like his usual cheerful tone. It sounded hollow and stony.

"No. I s-stay," Ron whispered back through chattering teeth.

"Right then," Fred growled through bloody teeth, "on the count of three."

Ron and George nodded in agreement. All they needed to do, thought Ron, was to keep them off until until their father and Bill arrived. Lee seemed to be taking an awfully long time. Or else time had frozen, just like his feet.

"One," whispered George.

"Two," followed Fred.

"Three," growled Ron, holding out his wand with a determination he had never had before. Hermione is safe, Hermione is safe.

"Expecto Patronum!"

All three patronus's burst from their respective wands. Fred and George's darted towards the Dementors surrounded in a sort of weak candle destine light. It was enough to make a couple of Dementors halt their precession, but nothing more.

Ron's patronus flared brightly, almost blindingly, but was short lived. The dementors flinched and floated backwards a step. The flash of warm light had obviously infused his brothers with some remembrance of the sun, however, as their patronus's became more solid, even as Ron tried again.

"Expecto Patronum!" Ron yelled, but it was just some bright sparks that shot out of his wand now.

"Get inside, Ron!" Cried a voice behind him, he willed his frozen legs to move, and he turned to see Bill followed closely by his father and Mundungus Fletcher who were running towards him. "We'll take it from here, just get inside."

"Expecto Patronum!" Bellowed Mundungus Fletcher, for all the world looking like a suicidal juggernaut as he ran at the Dementors without slowing down. A jet of silver leaped in front of him in the form of a large raven which beat it's wings about the ominous heads of the dementors.

"Ron, did you hear me?" Bill shouted in his ear, "get inside!"

Ron felt foggy and disorientated. There was still a freezing chill in the misty air, but now there were bursts of light everywhere as Bill and his father joined the fray, pushing Fred and George behind them.

"Ronald Bilius Weasley," a shrill voice screamed from the house, "get in here now!"

A warm hand touched his frosty arm. "Come with me, Ronald." The voice was soothing, if slightly exotic, and he followed it almost blindly.

It was Fleur Delacour.

She coaxed him to the house, where on the doorstep he was smothered by his Mum in a bone crushing hug. When he had pulled himself free he saw that Fleur had raced off outside to join the others. Flashes of light were blazing from different spots around the garden, and he could hear the yelling of instructions coming from Mundungus and his father. They were circling the Dementors.

He was to see no more, as his mother pushed him inside and slammed the door behind them. She dragged him into the kitchen and forced a hot drink in his hands.

"What the devil do you think you were doing out there?" She barked. Then tears flooded her eyes and she hugged him again, Ron trying to balance his tea on the sideboard quickly.

"Are you alright, Ronnie?" She sobbed into his already damp shoulder.

"I'm okay, Mum," he replied in a voice that sounded like gravel and tore at his throat.

"Ron!" Squealed a second female voice, as the door to the kitchen flung open. "You're okay!" Ginny flung her arms about the both of them. "I'm so glad you're okay. Where are Fred and George?"

"Still out there," he said almost emotionlessly He felt cold and empty, as if the loss of heat from his skin was being pulled straight away from his very heart.

Ron buried his face in his sister's hair and clung on to the two women, like a leech to blood. He vaguely heard the kitchen door open a second time, but no one said anything. His mother and Ginny relentlessly held him.

Then the back door opened and Fleur followed by Fred and George trooped in. Pale and sweaty, but smiling. Mrs. Weasley looked up and Fleur replied before her question could be asked.

"The dementors 'ave gone. Bill and Arthur are putting up new wards now. Mssr. Mundungus ees helping also." She turned and headed back outside to assist Bill.

"Boys, are you okay? What were you thinking?" Mrs. Weasley turned her speech to the twins before hugging them both to her.

"Hang on, Mum," croaked Fred, "I think I'm gonna be sick." He raced back out the door with George on his heels. Tandem vomiting noises came from the front garden. Mrs. Weasley bustled after them to make sure they were alright.

"They weren't kidding," giggled Ginny, still hugging Ron. "You're not going to be sick are you? 'Cause I need some warning if you do." She drew back and looked in his face. "You look awful, you know."

"Thanks, Gin," Ron replied, trying hard to smile.

"And you smell," she added with a giggle.

"Cheers, Gin. Hermione!" He had suddenly looked from his sister to the lounge door, and he realized who had come through it minutes ago. It was Hermione. She stood in the doorway with her cheeks streaked with tears. Her hands were over her mouth in a mix of shock and relief.

He forgot all about how cold and strange he felt in a second. The tears trickling down her face tore at him like nothing else ever could. "Hermione, are you okay?"

She nodded with a tiny whimper and looked at the floor.

Ron released his sister gently and walked towards Hermione and pulled one of the hands away from her face and held it.

"It's okay, Hermione."

Hermione's eyes instantly brimmed with tears and she began to blubber. Ron didn't really know what to do, but after hugging two sobbing women who now seemed to be alright, he thought perhaps that was the best plan of attack. He took another step towards her and put his arms loosely around her.

She suddenly latched onto him and clung desperately. He could feel her tears soaking through any dry patches that remained in his tee shirt. He hugged her tightly, as if her tears were melting his heart of ice.

"We're okay, Mum – honestly!" Appealed George, who looked as pale as Nearly Headless Nick, as everyone trooped back inside.

"And look at you, Fred, all that blood all over your chin, you look a fright."

"It's nothing Mum," grizzled Fred.

Ron waited for Hermione to leap off of him with the arrival of everyone, including Fleur Delacour, into the kitchen, but it was as if she wasn't aware of anything over her sobbing.

"Y'know what we all need, Molly," grinned Mundungus Fletcher, "is a big glass of brandy. Or firewhiskey, if you've got it."

Ron was amazed. He had always thought of Mundungus Fletcher as some sort of old washed up drunkard, but of everyone he seemed the least affected by the dementors. Perhaps, he thought, that's what happens when you have nothing much left to loose.

"All right there, Ron," he said passing Ron with a clap on the back. Still Hermione clung to him without comment.

"Yeah," said Ron, sounding like his old self again.

Squeals echoed from the lounge and Angelina, Alicia and Katie swarmed into the kitchen and proceeded to hug and kiss Fred and George. Lee, Dean and Ginny stood behind them grinning.

Ron couldn't imagine how Hermione could not realize that they were now in a very noisy, crowded kitchen. Not that he minded. In fact, despite being very wet and cold now, he loved having Hermione hug on to him as if he was the only thing in the world that mattered.

Suddenly he felt Hermione shift in his arms. Her head was still down, but her fists began pounding on his chest.

"How could you do that to me, you prat!" She spluttered.

"Shh! Hermione. What do yo mean? What did I do?"

"You could have died out there," she yelled, her tone pitching over the other voices in the room. Ron was painfully away that everyone was now quiet and staring at them.

"You made me leave, Ronald. You made me leave when you needed me."

"Hermione, it's okay. Everybody's fine now."

"And what if you weren't? I know what you were trying to do, Ron Weasley!"

Ron felt very out of his depth. He wasn't used to being berated for who-knew-what whilst being thudded in the chest.

"Shh! Just settle down," he tried.

"Oh, that's rich!" She screamed. "Maybe you should get Lee to help you settle me down!"

Ron saw Lee slink out of the room out of the corner of his eye.

"What?" He was beginning to move from bewilderment to anger now.

"How could you do that to me?" She repeated hysterically.

Someone coughed.

"You are so thoughtless!"

That was it, he couldn't keep it in any longer.

"Thoughtless was I?" He grabbed her hands about the wrists and steadied them. "I saw how bloody scared you were. You didn't need to go through that. You didn't need to be scared."

She was looking up at him now, red faced and angry. The Weasley family excited the room quietly, until there was only Mundungus and his bottle of brandy left sat at the table.

"I didn't want you to be scared or hurt!" Ron shouted. "That's why we got Lee to take you inside!"

"Don't you see, you idiot? I was scared," she wrenched her hands free and one of them connected to his cheek in a slap. "I can't believe you did that to me.." She stormed out of the room, slamming the door, leaving Ron bewildered with a red mark on his face.

"Don't try to understand them," piped up Mundungus sagely. "They don't even understand themselves, you know."

Ron Weasley was forced to agree.