Chapter Twenty-Nine - The Return of the Phoenix

"Potter is he an..." McGonagall began as they followed Ron out onto Hogwarts grounds. Hermione gripping his hand tightly and Ginny trying to push him back.

"Don't say it Professor," Harry ordered, "think it if you must but don't ever say it out loud."

The woman blinked and smiled a sad smile at Harry.

"Of course I understand, and whatever I think might be going on here I want you to know I would never outstay my welcome in this life."

Harry smiled and whispered a thank you to her. McGonagall turned and sent Neville and Madame Prince back into the school with messages for all the professors to keep the students away from the windows and not to let anybody out onto the grounds. Ron's secret wouldn't become school-wide knowledge after all. Harry felt a little relieved as he ran to catch up with the girls.

"Ron stop, stop walking," Ginny demanded as she pushed on his chest but Ron strode onward.

"How could it be you?" Hermione called at the space around her, "How could you have done this to him? You'd really do anything to get rid of Voldemort wouldn't you? You'd sacrifice anybody for it wouldn't you?"

"Hermione who are you talking to?"

"Miss Weasley, I know this must be difficult for you but I must ask that you go inside and wait for me in your common room."

"I'm not leaving him with a ghost who wants to kill him!" Ginny screamed at the headmistress as if she was a foolish first year playing with matches.

"You told your brother you understood there were some things you shouldn't know about him and this is one now please go inside and see to it that nobody comes outside."

"But professor..." Ginny protested.

"For your brother Ginny," McGonagall insisted and Ginny crumpled and looked at Harry and Hermione.

"I promise you I won't let anything happen to him Ginny, i promise on my own life," Harry said firmly as she wiped her eyes and ran for the castle.

Harry knew that if she didn't do as she was told right there and then she would never be able to leave him. Harry joined Hermione and Professor McGonagall called out from behind the three of them.

"Albus I hope you know what you're doing to this poor boy. I'm trusting you, don't make me a fool to have done so all these years."

Harry felt the burn of internal rage at Dumbledore. It wasn't as bad as this when he had been wrecking the headmaster's office after Sirius' death. Dumbledore had put Ron at risk, he had put Ron in the ground, and yes he had done all he could to protect him during battle and restore his sanity but now he was pushing him over the edge again. Ron has been so terrified that he had been physically ill.

They were almost upon the white tomb of Albus Dumbledore and Hermione was shaking more than Ron had been in the library earlier.

"No, I won't let you, I order you to stop. I forbid you to leave my side Ron, listen to me," she was muttering barely audible commands under her breath, it was as if she was going through withdrawal symptoms from the hoops at this time of need and trying to enforce her will on Ron without them, "Stop walking away from me. Stop moving, stay!"

"He's not a dog Hermione," Harry found himself hissing at her.

She turned on Harry in a rage.

"You did this, this is all your fault, you took the hoops from me and now he's out of control. I can't stop him and it's your fault!" she cried and punched Harry on the chest before crumpling into tears and Harry put his arms around her and watched as Ron reached the tomb and stopped before it.

"He has free will Hermione," Harry said as he suddenly understood all those one-sided conversations, "we only ever heard the half of it but you can see that Ron makes the final decision every time. He allows himself to go where he's needed, He has free will but he just doesn't remember his reasoning when he wakes up and that's why he's been feeling lost and confused."

Hermione sniffed and pulled away from Harry, turning to look at Ron as he climbed up on top of the white tomb, and letting out an anguished cry.

"I've been suffocating him," she wailed as McGonagall put an arm around her shoulder and shushed her, "no professor, he's claustrophobic and how did I chose to help him with that? I made his personal space smaller and smaller and smaller until it was non-existent. I stole his independence because I wanted him to be safe. It wasn't his claustrophobia that was crushing him it was me. It was me all along!"

She fell to her knees and cried her heart out as Ron took a deep breath and raised both his hands into the air and began to call out in a loud and clear voice.

"Invenio intus orno viator!"

"What's he saying?" Harry demanded of Hermione who looked up from her breakdown and sniffed.

She wiped her face and frowned.

"Something about finding the messenger within, summoning Fawkes I think."

McGonagall nodded and helped Hermione back to her feet.

"Albus' spirit and flesh are in the same place at the same time, Fawkes can be recalled to his master."

Sure enough a beautiful sound emerged from deep within the forbidden forest and the phoenix Harry had last seen at Dumbledore's funeral soared towards his master's grave and landed at Ron's feet. Ron squatted and stroked the phoenix, it was as if he could see it just as well as Harry could, and smiled.

"I know you don't trust me but he does so I hope that's good enough for you Fawkes," Ron said to the bird as it bowed its head, allowing Ron to stroke the back of its neck.

Ron stood up again and took another deep breath before directing his hands down at the large bird at his feet.

"Obtineo! Permeo pulpa effodio..."

Hermione was desperately translating for Harry as best she could.

"He's holding Fawkes on the spot so he can...pass through the flesh to dig out..."

"...abduco abrumpo!"

"...and withdraw to sever."

Harry gasped.

"He's trying to extract the portion of Voldemort's soul from Fawkes so it can be destroyed."

"We need something for him to channel the horcrux into once he's got it out!" Hermione snapped urgently.

"He says he already has it Hermione, right here."

Harry felt his stomach plummet, no that didn't mean what it sounded like; it couldn't mean what it sounded like.

"What are you saying Ron?" Hermione asked fearfully, Harry could tell she was sharing the same though he was.

"Albus you can not sacrifice that boy, let me get an owl from the owlery or a magical object...the sorting hat, we'll use the sorting hat Albus," McGonagall said with nervous insistence, "you will not make Weasley a vessel for that poisonous wretch."

Ron smiled and shook his head.

"He's offended, he says you've all offended him," Ron tilted his head and seemed to be listening to something and he sighed, "this is going to look bad but it doesn't hurt...he tells me."

Hermione began to protest when Harry saw Ron's body flinch and go rigid as if he had been stabbed in the back, it was just like the time during the battle with Voldemort when Ron had seemed to be able to cast several different spells at once and see out of the back of his head. Ron's arms were still over Fawkes as white energy crackles between Ron's fingers and a black vapour rose from the phoenix's beak and swirled in mid air before Ron. Harry found himself shaking his head. If Dumbledore drew that fragment of Voldemort's soul inside Ron he would go to any lengths possible to expel it from him again. Expel the soul and track down Dumbledore's spirit and send it to hell.

"Go Fawkes," Ron said in a voice that wasn't his waking voice or his sleepwalking voice.

The phoenix took off and flew back into the forest silently. Ron directed his hands back down at the spot the bird had been resting for the extraction procedure and yelled a spell as he pushed the black vapour back downwards.

"Occludo intus!"

The vapour disappeared into the white tomb and Ron frowned as he began to pant heavily.

"Are you sure about this?" he asked, his own voice sounding strained and breathless.

Ron listened and nodded before calling out.

"Harry when I fall you have to move me quickly, you have to get me off of here understand?"

Harry bellowed over the rumbling sound that was now emanating from within Dumbledore's tomb.

"I'll get up there with you mate, I'll be right beside you don't worry."

Harry clambered up onto the white tomb and stood beside Ron, bracing himself to catch him when he passed out. Now that he was closer to Ron he could see how much effort he was putting into this whole spell, he was sweating heavily and his breathing was becoming even shallower than before, Ron shuddered and became less rigid. The white energy was no longer crackling between his fingers but Ron was still surging with power that had to come out and Ron closed his eyes and released it all through his hands which were directed at the top of the white tomb where he and Harry stood side by side.

"Profundum annullo nusquam esse!"

An intense beam of white light left Ron's body through both his palms and penetrated the tomb. The white tomb glowed and began to quake. Ron was still releasing energy and breathing rapidly with his eyes forced shut for several more seconds, sweat pouring from his brown now and his hair damp and clinging to his face, until his head fell back and he collapsed into Harry's arms. Without hesitation Harry hauled Ron over his shoulder in much the same way he had handled Nagini's body earlier that morning and jumped down off of the tomb, landing heavily but managing to remain on his feet, and breaking into a run after a retreating Professor McGonagall and Hermione.

There was a sound that was like a colossal explosion in reverse and the three of them were knocked off their feet, Harry dropping Ron's body as he fell, and when Harry came to his senses again he looked back and saw a smouldering burnt patch of ground where the white tomb had just been.

"Ron!" Harmione's voice called as she scrambled over to the prostrate red head, "Is he alright? Is he hurt?"

"He's asleep," Harry said, feeling pretty exhausted himself now.

"Nevertheless I'm going to get Poppy to take you both back to the hospital wing for the once-over."

McGonagall was leaving before Harry could even register what had been said.

"Dumbledore's body, he made his own body a horcrux and destroyed it," Harry said, confused about exactly how he felt about his old headmaster right at that moment.

"People are going to wonder where it went," Hermione said while distracted by pushing Ron's wet hair back off of his face.

"Oh do you really think so?" Harry asked with Ron quality sarcasm.

She smiled a sad smile at him before concentrating once more on Ron.

"That really seemed to take a lot out of him Harry, do you think he's alright?"

"We can take him back to St Nectans Glen as soon as he's back on his feet and then..." Harry paused and tried to contain his disbelief that they had made it this far, "...then I can face Voldemort once and for all."

ooo

"I know you can't tell me what happened out there tonight Harry but please just tell me one thing."

Harry looked at Ginny and hoped he could give her an answer.

"Go ahead."

"Are the three of you going to be alright?"

Harry let out a disheartened breath.

"You know that's an impossible question to answer Ginny."

"No I don't mean in the long run, ending the war and all that I mean...When Ron wakes up will he be Ron?"

Harry smiled and nodded.

"Yes."

Ginny seemed to exhale at this before asking her next question.

"And Hermione, she'll get over the bond of blood and be Hermione again?"

"She never stopped being Hermione, she just got a bit possessive that's all."

"She threw him through a window while she was unconscious Harry."

"Because she wanted to be with him, not because she wanted to hurt him."

Ginny lowered her head and looked across the hospital wing to her sleeping brother and his girlfriend who sat at his bedside holding his hand.

"But look at her, she's still clinging to him as if she can't stand to let him sleep in peace for one minute."

Harry had noticed that the physical contact had increased since Hermione had thought that the hoops had been destroyed. It was going to take quite some time before she could get the control issues out of her system.

"But all she's doing now is holding his hand in his sleep Ginny, not throwing him around the place subconsciously, things are getting better. They're not aliens or anything, they're still the same old Ron and Hermione you knew."

"The same old not possessed Ron eh?" Ginny said with a raised eyebrow.

"I knew you didn't buy that story," Harry sighed with a chuckle.

"And I know that you can't tell me what was happening to him either. I know it has something to do with him being used and that the more people who know about it the more people will try to and I wouldn't want that for him, not ever, so I'll never ask about it ever again."

Harry sighed.

"You're a good sister."

"I was a great girlfriend as well."

"I know, I'm sorry."

"So that brings me to the last part of my question, as my question was about the three of you, and the last part is about you."

Harry swallowed.

"Are you going to be the same Harry who spent those few weeks with me at the beginning of last summer when this is over."

"Just you try and stop me."

Ron groaned and rolled over onto his side. Ginny and Harry ran to see if he was waking up for real this time, they had already had three false alarms in the last hour alone.

"I bet you three chocolate frogs and a packet of Droobles that he doesn't wake up this time," Neville said as he leaned in excitedly.

"You just lost your bet," Ron mumbled into his pillow with a lazy smile.

"Oh damn!" Neville grumbled and Ginny laughed out loud causing Ron to open his eyes.

"I thought I told you to go to class?"

"Yeah, this morning, it's almost tomorrow now."

Ron sat up and frowned.

"If it's that late how come you two are allowed to still be here?" he yawned and rubbed his face roughly.

"Well we did get quite a fright y'know, you looked...kind of like you used to when you scared me as a kid. Remember that Ron? When you used to sleepwalk?"

Ron paled and tried not to look too alarmed, Harry wondered just how much Ginny had been able to put together for herself.

"I think I remember doing that...once."

Harry glanced at Neville who was the only one of them who didn't get the significance of this conversation and was just listening with mild interest.

"Those days are long gone now though aren't they?" Ginny smiled.

"Yeah," Ron nodded suspiciously.

"Well I'm glad you're ok, that was quite a heavy book that knocked you out y'know?"

Ron suddenly winced and rubbed the back of his head.

"Is that what it was?"

Ginny nodded to Neville that it was time for them to go and they bid them goodnight.

"Does she know?" Ron turned to Harry urgently as soon as the door closed.

"No, and don't worry she'll never speak of it again, she knows it's something you need to never talk about and she's ok with that."

Ron seemed a little anxious about how much Ginny knew, or thought she knew at least, and turned to meet Hermione's eye. She had been strangely quiet since he had woken up and Harry was about to excuse himself when Ron looked back to him and asked him what went on while he was out of it.

"Hermione'll fill you in, but one bit of good news is we know who it is who's talking to you now."

Ron sat up.

"Who?"

"Dumbledore, Hermione was right," Harry smiled at her and she smiled back weakly.

Ron took her hand and smiled at her himself.

"When isn't she?"

Right well I'm going to go for a walk before bed, maybe pop in on Dobby for a bit, see ya."

Ron and Hermione said goodbye and as Harry closed the door behind him he heard Hermione break down in tears and decided to make his walk a long one.

"Potter? Oh no I thought we'd got rid of you," a Slytherin prefect sneered as he passed by and set off downstairs to the kitchens, "been slapping some sense into the Weasel have you? I heard he had a breakdown in the library, what was it? Too many big words for such a tiny brain?"

Harry didn't want to dignify that with a response and carried on walking. The Slytherin was almost out of earshot now but he did hear one last thing that made him spin around on the spot as he reached the top of the stairs.

"I'm sure Draco would love to hear about the blood-traitor's little 'episode'"

Harry ran back down the corridor as fast as he could, what did that oily little git know about Ron? He couldn't let Malfoy and Snape and the Death Eaters know that Ron was an oracle; they would torture him from within or use him to kill his whole family, the Order of the Phoenix and anybody else he came into contact with. He had to find that prefect and pound him into dust; he'd kill him if he had to. Maybe not, but he's put a memory charm on him worthy of Lockhart himself.

Harry turned the corner and lit his wand tip, he pointed it left and right, he woke up portraits and asked them which way he had gone but it was no good. He had lost him.

Harry hoped that Slytherin was all talk like most of them were.

Then again...wasn't that what they all used to think about Malfoy?

ooo