Chapter Eight - Unforgivable

Ron had been sitting up in his sleeping bag and rubbing his head for about five minutes before settling back down to sleep. His eyes hadn't opened and he hadn't said a word when Harry and Hermione had spoken to him.

"So I'll put that seal over the mouth of the cave just in case ok?" Hermione said as she reached for her wand.

"Good idea" Harry nodded, not tearing his eyes away from Ron as he slept.

They hadn't tried to restrain Ron that night, a discussion had been had and Ron had told them he was ok with it if they wanted to do it but Hermione had seemed pretty sure that Ron's walkabout nights were over with.

"This isn't really the same is it? It's not like it was," she said, to reassure herself more than anything it sounded, "this is just restlessness. He hasn't been left alone to just sleep in days, this is just...usual don't you think?"

Harry nodded, that sounded right.

"Yeah, he's just settling down that's all."

They looked from Ron to each other and seemed to be having the same thought.

"Shall I just put a restraining charm on him to be safe?" Hermione frowned.

Harry knew he'd sleep better if she did and nodded.

"Yeah, he told us we could, he'll understand in the morning."

Hermione nodded and pointed her wand at Ron who suddenly sat up again, his eyes open but glazed, and sighed.

"I've had enough," he said weakly.

Hermione, her wand still pointed at Ron gaped over at Harry and mouthed 'what shall I do?' Harry held up a hand and mouthed the word 'wait' back to her. She nodded but kept her wand pointed at Ron, ready to have to stop him if he bolted.

"No" Ron's head dropped as he spoke.

Hermione's free hand reached out and rested on Ron's knee. It was as if she wanted to give him some of her own strength, Ron was sounding defeated before he had even begun this time around.

"No more," Ron sighed, his head still hanging.

"Why is this happening again?" Hermione asked Harry, who hadn't a clue, "We found out the location of the horcrux, why can't they leave him alone?"

"Why can't you find somebody else?" Ron's voice said as his head lifted again and his eyes stared into space ahead of him.

Hermione's eyes almost bulged out of her head as she stared at Harry.

"Hermione, d'you think he heard you?"

She seemed to change from shocked to fiercely determined.

"Yes, yes he did, he can hear me."

She squeezed his leg and stared into his face.

"I'm here for you Ron, you're not alone, don't leave me again you hear me?"

"The gift?" Ron frowned.

Hermione's resolve didn't falter.

"Don't listen to them Ron, listen to me, I know you can hear me. Close your eyes and lay back down, let yourself sleep, if you go back to sleep I can wake you up safely. Listen to me Ron."

"What?" Ron looked a little confused.

"It's working!" Harry gasped and Hermione seemed to swell with confidence.

"Close your eyes and don't listen to them. Close your eyes and lay back down."

"My family, do they know?" Ron asked, his eyes still staring into space ahead of him.

Harry decided to join Hermione; if Ron could hear her he should be able to hear him too.

"Don't pay any attention to them Ron, it's a trick, your family are fine."

"They're safe and well and at home Ron, don't listen, they're lying to you."

"The truth?" Ron asked and Hermione shuddered with excitement.

"Yes! They're lying, you're coming back to us Ron, you can't trust them."

Harry was as awake as he had ever felt in his entire life, he was so proud of his friends. He was proud of Ron for fighting back and proud of Hermione for getting through to him.

"Why are you telling me?" Ron said; a confused frown etched upon his face, "It'll all be gone in the morning."

"No, you're listening to us now, not them. You don't want to listen to them anymore," Hermione ordered.

"I don't know if I can" Ron's weak voice seemed to grow even fainter as he said this.

"You can!" Harry found himself yelling at his unconscious friend, "You can do it Ron, come back to us, you know you can do this."

"I do."

On hearing this affirmative response from him Harry and Hermione looked at one another and smiled.

"What for?" Ron said.

Hermione's smile faded immediately.

"We have to keep talking Harry, the second we stop they get to him again."

"No" Ron seemed to speak with real determination.

"That's it Ron," Hermione said with what sounded like pride, "you can beat them."

"No, it's...I can't" Ron's voice was breaking again.

Why couldn't he shake this off, he was getting so strong just now?

"It's an unforgivable curse!" Ron almost raised his voice to a yell.

This shook Hermione and Harry felt sick to his stomach.

"Hermione what are they doing to him?"

"They can't hurt you Ron, you're sleeping and you're with us, it's a bluff. Don't give in to them."

"But I can't, I'm not strong enough" Ron said with a shuddering breath.

"You're the strongest person I know," Harry found himself getting angry with Ron, he was actually telling him off, "I've seen you fighting with a broken wand, I've seen you protect me with a broken leg, don't you let them tell you you're not strong enough!"

Ron swallowed and stared into the darkness of the cave.

"I don't want it."

Hermione was smiling again.

"That's it, Harry's right Ron, you don't have to do anything for them anymore. We found what we were looking for, we don't need them, you don't have to listen to them anymore."

Ron shook his head, Harry felt a wave of confidence and pride wash over him and beamed at Hermione who looked as if she was experiencing similar emotions.

"Are we going now?" Ron asked the darkness.

"What?" Harry's face fell.

"No Ron, what are you saying? You're not going anywhere!" Hermione was beginning to panic.

Ron frowned.

"Hermione, the containment spells quick!" Harry snapped at her but she was already raising her wand.

But Ron had his wand raised too; they hadn't taken it from him that night. Harry's stomach flipped inside him as his friend flicked his wand to his right and then his left, hitting Harry and Hermione with the same spell.

"Immobulus!"

Harry couldn't move. He couldn't speak. He could only move his eyes and saw that Hermione's were flooded with tears as they could do nothing but watch as Ron crawled out of his sleeping bag and got to his feet. The strangest thoughts rushed through Harry's head as Ron walked forward towards the space he had been conversing with up until then.

He's only wearing that thin t shirt, he'll freeze.

Put some shoes on: put some shoes on: put some shoes on!

How can he go for so long without blinking?

Harry watched as Ron disapparated and found himself with one overriding thought left in his head.

Where are they talking him tonight?

Harry had regained the use of his limbs after about fifteen minutes and had managed to release Hermione from the spell with an awkward flick of his wand as it rested in his numb hand. She still hadn't moved all that much though, Harry understood why as he couldn't manage to say anything himself and it had nothing to do with the spell.

After they had recovered from the shock they had lit a fire and tried to make sense of the night's events. Hermione had been hugging her knees to her chest in front of the fire for several minutes while Harry couldn't stop himself from staring at the spot Ron had disapparated. They had been getting somewhere, he had been responding to them, this was probably the very reason they were taking his surrender to 'them' so badly.

"I almost had him," Hermione's chin was resting on her knees and she was staring into the flames, "I really thought I had him."

Harry tore his eyes away from the blackness and squinted as his eyes adjusted to the light of the orange flames.

"It just changed so fast, he was under their control so quickly, and I don't understand how it happened. He was putting up such a fight towards the end."

A gift, his family, and the unforgivable curse; that had been all Harry could really remember as being the key factors that were being used against Ron.

"If they're on our side why is he so afraid of them?" Hermione's voice was barely audible.

Harry thought about that for a moment. Ron wasn't really afraid but he was always upset by what he was hearing. He had been upset when they told him they were taking him to Borgin's house that night. That worked out as well as they could've ever hoped for. Ron hadn't been caught there and they had discovered information leading them to Hufflepuff's horcrux. Something made him feel uneasy though. Why did it have to be Ron? Ron had seemed to be asking that himself and Harry knew that he would forget the answer by the time he got to speak to him again.

He would get to speak to him again right?

"He's going to be devastated when he finds out what he did," Hermione said into the fire.

"We don't need to tell him," Harry said, knowing that Hermione was right, "we'll just say he disapparated before we could stop him."

She nodded silently.

Harry wondered how long it would be until sunrise. They sat in silence for another half an hour before Hermione's voice broke into Harry's internal meditations.

"He'll have fallen back to sleep by now wouldn't he?"

Harry stared at her; he had nothing to say to make her feel better so he just let her know he was listening.

"Mmmm."

"It never lasts longer than half an hour or so does it? He'll be curled-up God knows where fast asleep on his own."

Harry nodded.

"I just want him back," she said, her eyes shining with the tears she refused to allow to escape onto her cheeks.

"So do I" Harry managed to say.

"We've got to find a way to stop this."

Neither of them said another word until daybreak when an owl swooped into the cave and landed at Harry's feet. He looked from the owl to Hermione and back again, for several seconds totally forgetting what an owl in the morning actually meant, before untying the letter from the owl's leg and letting it fly away.

"What is it? Is it Ron's handwriting?" Hermione asked as she scrambled around the dying embers of the fire to kneel beside Harry as he opened the letter.

"No but it's familiar..." he said, not wanting to get her hopes up before reading the letter aloud, "...Harry, could you please explain to us why our little brother spent last night sleeping on our front doorstep? Yours utterly confused, Fred and George."

Hermione let out a sigh of great relief.

"He's at the shop."

She closed her eyes and dropped her face into her hands at the same time Harry scrambled over to his backpack and pulled out some clothes to wear.

"Get dressed, we'll take his stuff with us, we're not staying here another night. We're staying somewhere with locks on the doors and bars on the windows and something we can bloody well chain him to. He is not going through this again Hermione."

She lifted her head and nodded, a new strength coming over her as she got to her feet and started to pull clothes out of her own backpack. They didn't eat breakfast or even ensure that their magical fire was completely out before the apparated to Diagon Alley.

"Where is he?" Harry demanded as soon as Fred answered the door, it was still quite a while before opening hours so the shop was locked-up tight.

George appeared over Fred's shoulder with his arms folded.

"Oh I think you're going to answer our questions first Harry."

Harry was about to tell them he didn't need this right now after the night of worry he and Hermione had just been through when the said concerned friend of his shoved the twins apart and barged through the shop like a woman possessed.

"Bloody hell Hermione, do you remember manners at all?" George called after her, as she didn't even look over her shoulder on her way to the stairs that lead to the twins' flat.

"Listen, " Harry said as he followed them up the stairs after Hermione, "I know you're probably worried but..."

"Worried?" Fred said, looking at Harry as if he'd just made the understatement of the century, "You haven't seen him yet."

Harry felt the blood drain from his face as he turned the corner at the top of the stairs and saw Hermione dropping to her knees in front of the sofa where Ron lay with his eyes closed. He was covered in bruises, all over his arms and on one side of his face, and his feet were very badly cut and grazed. He jumped forward to join Hermione at his best friend's side but Fred and George held him back.

"We gave him a Weasley brothers version of the dreamless sleep potion," Fred said.

"He wouldn't let us put him to sleep any other way," said George.

"They'll take me again, isn't that what he said George?"

"They'll take me again, you're right that's exactly what he said Fred."

"Who are they Harry?" Fred demanded.

Harry almost fell backwards, this was the famous Weasley wrath from the two people he never imagined he'd ever see it from and never in his worst nightmares thought he'd be on the receiving end of.

"We don't know, I swear, we try to stop them every night but..."

"Every night!" George exclaimed.

"What does that mean?" Fred demanded.

"You found him like this?" Hermione called across the room to the two of them, buying Harry time to plant his feet a little firmer on the floor.

George turned around and strode across their flat to stand over Ron on the sofa.

"No he was worse than this when we found him Hermione, there was blood everywhere."

On hearing this Harry raced across the room to watch as Hermione began to frantically examine Ron for a wound or injury of some sort.

"It wasn't his," Fred said as he joined them, "well apart from the cuts on his feet...his feet!" Fred's eyes were suddenly wide and he looked at George who also seemed to comprehend the same thing as his twin.

"We are idiots! How did we not work that out sooner?" George asked Fred with a shake of the head.

Fred shrugged and looked back at Harry.

"When did he start sleepwalking again?"

Harry let out a breath and realised that the twins were a little less likely to beat the crap out of him now.

"It's been about a week."

"Wait, where are you three staying?" George frowned.

"Somewhere in Lancashire" Harry said, knowing exactly what was coming next.

"Lancashire!" Fred yelled.

"You mean he can apparate in his sleep as well?" George said with horror.

Harry nodded.

"We haven't been able to stop him, we've been trying everything."

"Have you tried chains?" Fred asked, his eyes livid.

"Confinement spells, containment spells, he's been able to break out of them all" Hermione said from her spot crouched on the floor.

"Even without a wand" Harry said, almost shrinking under the twins gaze.

When they were full of sibling protectiveness they really did have a look of Mrs Weasley about them Harry thought.

The twins turned back to look down at Ron and their tension seemed to visibly seep out of their bodies.

"You haven't woken him have you?" Fred asked without addressing the question to either he or Hermione in particular.

"No, he told us we shouldn't, no matter what happens."

George had put a hand to his mouth and started absent-mindedly chewing his nails.

"He remembers last time?"

"No," Hermione said as she finally looked away from Ron to glance up at the twins, "he said your mum told him it was really bad and shouldn't ever be done."

"No it shouldn't," George said with a shake of the head.

Harry's curiosity got the better of him.

"He said it was you two who woke him the last time," Harry paused for long enough to see the twins exchange a guilty glance, "do you remember what happened?"

"He...it wasn't Ron," Fred shrugged.

Harry blinked, what on earth was that supposed to mean?

"What do you mean it wasn't Ron?" Hermione demanded.

"Like Fred said, it wasn't him, it was somebody else for a while. You just shouldn't wake him that's all," George said with quite noticeable discomfort, "ever!"

So when Ron's dad had told him that he hadn't been himself it wasn't just a figure of speech, Harry thought to himself.

"Who was it?" Hermione asked.

"We don't know," Fred shrugged again.

"Why was your mum so much more upset than the rest of you afterwards?" Hermione pressed further.

"I don't know alright!" Fred snapped.

George seemed to be a little more forthcoming, however.

"We think that whoever it was in there knew mum. They were talking to her and she got really upset and we were all shooed away so we didn't see what went on but mum was adamant that nobody ever wake him if we ever saw him sleepwalking again. We never did after that night anyway so it wasn't an issue."

Fred suddenly looked as if a small fire had been lit beneath him and he turned on Harry with narrowed eyes.

"You know I seem to remember saying that we were asking the questions for now don't you George?"

"Yes I do Fred."

"Right so we get informed that the three of you are going on a little mission of Dumbledore's."

"We don't get any information other than that."

"And we don't see or hear anything from any of you since Bill's wedding until this morning."

"When we open our front door to find Ron curled up like a baby, covered in someone's blood, shivering and pretty battered in general," George said as he glanced back down at an obviously cleaned-up Ron.

"In nothing but sweat pants and a t shirt I might add," Fred waggled his finger at Harry, "when you know someone is a sleepwalker you make sure they go to bed with shoes and warm clothes on, we worked that one out in less than a week."

"We thought he'd stopped doing it," Harry tried to explain.

George raised a finger to silence Harry.

"Oh no Harry, it gets better."

"We wake him up, he's understandably confused, until he looks in his hand and finds this," Fred reached over to the mantle and picked up a small gold cup with two handles.

"At which point he completely freaks out and we have to persuade him to let us put him back to sleep to calm him down."

"Hufflepuff's cup!" Hermione gasped.

Harry took the cup from Fred and examined it closely, it was exactly as he had seen it in Dumbledore's pensive, and he gaped at Hermione. He could barely speak.

"He broke into Gringotts."

"He what?" Fred and George both exclaimed at the same time.

Hermione's eyes suddenly seemed to remember something from the night before that seemed to mortify her beyond words.

"What is it Hermione? Tell me," Harry ordered, fearfully.

"An unforgivable curse..." she whispered as she turned back to look at Ron, "...Oh Ron, what did they make you do?"