Chapter Three - Distant Voices

They had waited for a minute or two before deciding it was probably safe to revive Ron. Harry decided to leave that job to Hermione who had been cradling Ron's head in her lap and continuing to talk to him in her soothing tone while stroking his hair away from his face in the same way he had seen her stroke Crookshanks over the years.

"Ennervate!" she said and for some reason Harry took several steps back, feeling as if the two of them needed privacy for some ridiculous reason.

They were outside a long dead family's stately home in the broad daylight with an unconscious redhead who had just had a conversation with thin air, privacy and discretion had nothing to do with this afternoon at all, but Harry could see that Hermione needed a moment with Ron when he came round and remembered how elsewhere the two of them had made themselves every time Harry and Ginny had had to have a moment when they were getting ready to leave the Burrow. That felt like months ago now.

Ron was stirring and he groaned before turning over onto his side and snuggling into Hermione's stomach. She glanced up at Harry, slightly embarrassed before giving Ron a gentle shake and whispering to him.

"Ron wake up, you hit your head and I can't let you sleep I'm sorry."

Harry saw Ron lift his head and look up at Hermione before scrambling back from her and stammering all sorts of different apologies before wincing and rubbing the side of his head. Harry was about to rejoin them and get to the matter in hand but he hesitated when he saw Hermione crawl forward on her hands and knees to give Ron's skull another close examination. She had already done this three times while he was unconscious but Harry didn't feel the need to point this out to her as she ran her fingers through Ron's hair before holding his head in both hands and making him focus his eyes on her.

"Um Hermione, what are you doing?" Ron asked, a tad self-consciously.

She smiled at him but didn't release his head.

"I'm making sure it's you, it feels so strange to look into your eyes and not see you looking back at me."

"Sorry" Ron mumbled.

Hermione released him but they were still looking at each other. Harry really didn't know where he was supposed to be looking but he felt pretty sure it wasn't at the two of them so he pretended to be having another go at re-reading Ron's unconscious shorthand in the book he had been clutching ever since he had managed to pry it from Ron's hand.

He chanced a glance back over to the two of them and saw Ron shake his head rapidly as if trying to get rid of an annoying buzzing in his ear.

"Wait a minute, we're at the Riddle house still right?"

Hermione nodded and glanced at Harry who was now making his way over to them.

"And it's still the same day?" Ron asked as he tried to fathom out exactly what had happened to him.

"Yes Ron, you fell through the floor of the attic and hit your head remember?" Hermione spoke slowly as if believing him to be mentally impaired in some way.

"That's not the point," Ron said as he tried not to sound annoyed at her patronising tone, "you're talking to me as if I've just been on one of my walkabouts...I didn't did I?"

" 'Fraid so mate," Harry said as he squatted down beside him and held out the book, "you were walking and talking and doing graffiti all while being totally out cold."

"I was doing what?" Ron's eyes were wide.

Harry pointed to the page of the book with the scribbling all over it. Ron scrunched up his face as he tried to read it.

"It looks like a drunk wrote this," he said and Harry and Hermione shared a glance.

"So you can't make it out either?" Harry said, not surprised but still a mite disappointed.

"Well that's clearly Borgin's," Ron said as he pointed to the last word, "but as far as the rest of it goes..."

Ron shrugged and took the book from Harry for a closer look. Harry stood up and nodded to Hermione to step away for a moment and join him. She did so with great reluctance.

"What's the matter?" she asked, keeping one eye on Ron.

"Is he alright to apparate? I really think we should get out of here."

Something was making Harry very nervous and he was finding the Riddle house more threatening now than he had when they had first arrived wondering if there was anybody home.

"I haven't even got him on his feet yet Harry," Hermione chided before softening toward him, "but he seems alright considering."

"Good, well let's get him up then."

Harry was standing before Ron with his arm extended before Hermione had even decided whether or not she thought they were moving him too soon. Well, for crying out loud, he had been walking around all right when he was unconscious so why shouldn't he be able to now? Ron took Harry's hand and hauled himself up while remaining focused on his erratic handwriting in Hermione's library book.

"This isn't even a whole sentence y'know?" he said to Harry as he pointed out the first part of the untidy scribble, "I don't use any capital letters until I get to Borgin's name at the end."

"No," Harry confirmed Ron's suspicion, "you started writing without any ink, and this was all we got out of you before you flaked out again."

Ron sighed and closed the book, Hermione was watching him intently, as if waiting for him to fall down again but Harry thought his friend looked pretty sturdy to him.

"Hey mate, sorry to rush you but do you feel up to apparating right now?"

Ron examined Harry's expression before narrowing his eyes and speaking to him the same way he did to Fred and George when they were playing innocent just before a prank.

"Yeah, I feel fine, why do we need to go immediately Harry? Is your scar hurting you or something?"

"No, I just, we need to...there's a good reason but I really don't feel comfortable hanging around here any more. I want to go. I want to go now."

Ron took that to be all the explanation he needed and nodded before bending to pick up his backpack.

"No, I'll get that," Hermione fussed as she struggled to haul both Ron's and her own backpack over her shoulders.

"I'm fine Hermione really, let me take..."

"No!" she barked like a snappy little terrier and turned to Harry, "So back to the cave again? I'll meet you both there."

And with that she disapparated.

Ron turned to Harry with a confused look on his face.

"You didn't wake me did you?"

"No I swear we didn't, we promised you we wouldn't and we didn't" Harry said, holding up his hand and adopting his most sincere expression.

"It's just she's acting a little..."

"Back at the cave mate, we'll talk there."

Ron nodded and they prepared to disapparate. Ron smirked and caught Harry's eye before they did.

"You had another row about waking me didn't you?"

Harry grinned and, with two cracks, they were gone.

"I was really going to jump out of the window?" Ron asked incredulously.

Harry nodded solemnly and Hermione didn't even manage to look at him to respond.

"You wanted to get out of that house really badly," Harry said.

Ron flicked his wand at a large cooking pot as he took this in.

"Legumen!" there was a flash as about a quarter of a pound ofkidney beans appeared in the pot.

Harry leaned forward and pressed his lips together as he prepared himself to address the very uncomfortable thought he had been having.

"Listen, there's one thing about all this that's really worrying me."

"Just one?" Ron huffed as he ran his hand through his hair and tapped the pot with his wand without even looking away from Harry's face, "confundo!" the contents of the pot began to move around as if being stirred by an invisible spoon.

Hermione was in the middle of conjuring up a whole new set of plates and cutlery when she froze to hear what Harry's great fear was, he thought maybe she wanted to see how similar it was to her own.

"Well the thing is, there's somebody or something in your head trying to get you to go somewhere...sound familiar?"

Ron looked as if he knew exactly where this was going but didn't want to be the one to have to say it.

"You're thinking about the Department of Mysteries disaster aren't you?" Hermione asked, her voice hollow.

Harry nodded and fixed his eyes on Ron's to make him understand that there was no issue about trusting Ron himself but there was a real need for caution.

"Voldemort's already got to me in my sleep and, well, I can't stand to think that he's manipulating you when you're unconscious."

"What...makes you say that? I mean..." Ron looked as if he was about to throw up into their dinner.

"This isn't about you I swear Ron, it's just that you wrote the name Borgin while you were like that and we all know the kind of people he does business with don't we?" Harry felt awful for doing this to Ron but he had to explain what needed to be done from now on just to be safe.

"Something's trying to get you to lead Harry to Borgin and Burke's, somebody's setting a trap and using you...as bait maybe or as some kind of Pied Piper" Hermione's voice had grown smaller as she spoke and found herself unable to look at Ron once again.

Ron didn't say a word for a very long time. He was twirling his wand between his fingers while he thought over the way his friends were now having to be suspicious of him. Harry hoped he understood that this wasn't about him at all, none of this was Ron's fault, he couldn't tear his eyes away from Ron while Hermione couldn't seem to even turn hers in his vague direction.

"Oryza!" Ron said with a sudden ferocity that made Harry flinch and Hermione finally look at him.

A huge mound of rice appeared on one of the larger plates. The rice filled the plate and overflowed the edges and spilled onto the floor and was pilled over a foot high like a small mountain.

"Shit," Ron grumbled, "I went a bit over the top there, sorry. Decretum!"

The amount of rice on the plate decreased and Ron met Harry's eyes, looking very much like a puppy that had just done it's business on an expensive rug.

"I trust you with my life mate," Harry smiled at him, "and I think somebody's trying to use that against me. Somebody's trying to use you against me and that was my biggest fear for both you and Hermione, I've made you targets."

"Bullshit," Ron snapped, "this theory is bullshit!"

"Ron please" Hermione reached out for him but he jumped to his feet and began to pace up and down the darkening cave.

"Explain it happening to me when I was seven, explain that, Voldem...he didn't target me when I was seven Harry. I didn't even know you when I was seven."

Harry didn't have an answer for that, he could only watch Ron pace.

"I'm not being possessed; this isn't like that" his friend said stiffly.

"You don't know what it's like yourself, you don't remember do you?" Hermione seemed on the verge of getting to her own feet to grab hold of him and keep him still.

"If I was dangerous mum would've...well dad would've told me, something would have been done back then."

Harry couldn't stay seated any longer.

"I'm not saying you're dangerous Ron, nobody thinks that, you didn't think I was dangerous after I lead you all into Voldemort's trap and got Sirius killed did you?"

Ron looked suddenly tired.

"Oh don't go down that road again Harry, I'll drown myself in this bleedin' chilli I swear."

They stood opposite each other for a second before letting a pained smile flicker upon their lips momentarily.

"Do what you have to do to feel safe," Ron sighed with resignation, "whatever you've got planned to 'control' me I don't mind. I just don't think it's anything bad or evil, this has been going on since I was little, it's just...me. I'm just mental!" he shrugged and smiled a real smile this time.

Harry chuckled.

"You and me both!"

"Can I just ask one last thing?" Hermione said from the floor where she was serving a hefty portion of the rice onto her plate.

Ron nodded.

"How is it you can conjure rice out of thin air so easily and your mother can't?"

Ron frowned.

"She can't?"

"No, she complained about it to me and Ginny while she was preparing dinner for the order once, you can actually do something your mother can't in the kitchen Ron" she smiled up at him.

Ron crouched down and grabbed a large ladle to spoon some of the chilli on top of Hermione's rice.

"Well I think it's the God of magical cooking having a laugh actually, 'cause you see I can't conjure chocolate."

"That's why you haven't been doing it every five minutes!" she exclaimed as if she had just solved a great mystery of our time.

Ron chuckled.

"You seriously think if I had the ability to conjure chocolate from thin air I would be wasting my time making proper meals?" he scoffed.

Harry bent down to pick up his own plate and pile on the grub.

"Plus the fact he would be at least seventeen stone in weight by now!" he teased.

He loved that about his friends, no matter how dreadful the subject matter was they could always do something to alleviate the tension, and that conversation really had some tension.

Ron finished serving himself and settled down beside Hermione, lifting a heaped forkful of chilli and rice up to his mouth before pausing to ask his own casual little question.

"So are you guys going to tell me what you're gonna do to me tonight or are you waiting to surprise me?"