Harry stared at her. "Hermione, please tell me you're kidding." He couldn't take it in. As if enough bad things hadn't already happened, but Ron missing? That would push Harry over the edge, he knew it. Yes, he'd have Hermione, but it wasn't the same. It was much easier to turn to Ron when he had problems with Quidditch, or when he wanted to talk about girls. Hermione was dreadful at Quidditch, and talking to a girl about girls just didn't seem right.

"No, Harry, I'm not kidding," Hermione said sternly, a hint of worry in her voice.

"Not kidding about what?" came a voice. It was the voice of Molly Weasley, the slightly stressed yet always cheerful mother of the Weasley clan. She came into view, and Harry couldn't help noticing the blueish bags under her eyes and the lines that creased her face. He also noticed that she was losing a lot of weight.

"Oh... um..." Hermione stuttered. Harry could tell she was struggling to process the information. Saying it again would most likely make it more real. He shot her a look that said I'll tell her. Hermione returned it with a grateful but nervous smile.

"You see, Mrs. Weasley, Ron's gone." Harry held his breath, waiting for her response.

The reaction was instant. Mrs. Weasley's jaw dropped, and she let platter in her hands clatter to the floor. "My dear son," she almost shouted. "Missing!" She shook her head, as if she refused to believe it. "B-but he was with you just a few moments ago, right?"

"Yes," Hermione said. "He's the one that Apparated us here, seeing Harry and I can't legally Apparate."

"Death Eaters!" Molly shouted. "They took him! I know it!" She shot a glance at her clock, the most interesting contraption in the house. Instead of two hands that told the time, there were nine, letting them know where each of the Weasley family members were at all times. Last time Harry had been at the Burrow, it always said mortal peril. But lately, the clock had gotten used to Voldemort, so it showed their exact locations. Harry was surprised to see Ron's hand at home.

"Mrs. Weasley, it says Ron is home," Harry pointed out.

"Yes, I noticed," Molly said gravely. She turned to her guests. "What if he's dead? In his own house?"

"Who's dead where?" came another voice.

"RON!" squealed Hermione. She ran over to his tall, gangly figure and planted a kiss on his forehead. Hugging him as tight as possible, she got tears in her eyes. Pulling away she demanded, "Where were you? You scared us so badly, I thought (I mean, we thought) you were gone."

Ron had turned slightly pink when Hermione kissed his forehead. "Nope. I dropped you off and went upstairs."

"Ronald Weasley!" Mrs. Weasley's stern voice rang through the room. "How dare you scare us like that! Harry and Hermione almost killed me with that news. I didn't know where you had gone. Death Eaters! To make matters worse, it's a full moon, and you know what that means for Bill and Remus!"

Harry remembered Bill's bite from Greyback a few weeks ago. But Lupin had said that since Greyback wasn't in his werewolf form when he was bitten, it would only happen half as many times that Lupin transformed. But it was a full moon tonight, so Harry suspected Bill might transform.

"Mum, I'm sorry. It's extremly hard to transport two other people while Apparating. I was too lazy to walk back upstairs so I popped." Ron shrugged. "I didn't know it was such a big deal."

"Of course it is!" shouted Mrs. Weasley. "You know what terrible times these are!" She hugged her son. "Oh well, it doesn't matter. You're okay and that's all we care about." She shooed them off. "You've already eaten. Go upstairs, I have things to do and Fleur is here." Dropping her tone, she added, "I won't make you suffer."

Harry couldn't help grinning. "When's the wedding?" he asked.

"Oh, there won't be any wedding," Mrs. Weasley said. "She's afriad of him now, you see. I always knew she only loved him for his looks. He's actually rather charming, but if he'd only let me cut his hair!"

"But why is she here?" Harry inquired.

"Her parents died. Her sister went to thier aunt and uncle's house, but Fleur insisted on coming here." Mrs. Weasley sighed. "Oh well, it's for the best I suppose. Spit spot, go upstairs. You'll be in Fred and George's room again. With Hermione."

Harry nodded. As he made his way upstairs, he asked, "What time is it?"

"Around seven," Ron said. "I'll let you and Hermione get situated. She just got here today, as well. I have to go do a few things upstairs anyway."

"Okay," Harry answered cheerfully. Inside, he was nervous. Spending time with Hermione alone would make him face his biggest worries.

"Harry, could you help me with something?" Hermione asked, inturrupting his thoughts.

Nodding, Harry said, "Anything."

"Well, you see, Tonks was sleeping in here for a while, and she put the two beds together. She put some sort of charm on them to make them stay," Hermione explained. "I don't blame her either. I wouldn't want to sleep on a bed that falls apart." She shrugged. "Anyway, I found the countercharm, but we have to both stay it, one for each bed, and at the same time."

Peering inside, Harry saw that the two beds had indeed been put together. Another dreadful thought struck him. What if they couldn't get the beds apart? Would Hermione sleep in Ginny's room? Would Harry sleep in Ron's? Would they still sleep in this room? Harry pushed these thoughts away. Hermione was the most clever witch of their year, and if she said she found the countercharm, that meant she did, and it would work.

"What's the charm?" Harry asked.

"It's really easy," Hermione said. "Just flick your wrist like this" (she demonstrated) "and say Incanrub. Hopefully it will work."

"Okay, if you say so," Harry replied. "One... two... three..." He and Hermione both cried, "Incanrub!"

The charm didn't exactly work. What ended up happening was that Hermione's charm hit Harry square in the chest and Harry's hit Hermione. The two toppled onto the bed, Hermione on top of Harry. Hermione was laughing so hard, she couldn't get up. Harry let her lay on top of him, feeling ackward. Finally, she managed to get in control of herself, and stopped. She stood up and smoothed out her shirt. (When they had fallen it had gone up quite a lot, but luckily had not revealed her bra.)

"Sorry," she said. "That was funny. It wasn't supposed to happen. The book said it was supposed to separate the beds."

"It's okay," Harry replied. "Well? What are we supposed to do now?"

"I guess sleep with it as it is. It'll be fine. We can conjour a few pillows so we don't run into or kick each other," Hermione said.
"If it's okay with you, I mean. We can't do anything else until Tonks comes back."

"Yeah, that's okay," Harry said.

As the two finished unpacking, they thought everything was fine. Unfortunatly, they didn't know that Ron had seen them when Hermione was laying on top of Harry, laughing. I can't believe him, he had thought. Doesn't he know how much I like her? I thought best friends were supposed to respect that about each other! The little voice inside his head squeaked back, He probably does. They're friends, it's okay. Just friends.

Ron had calmed down. So when Harry and Hermione came back downstairs later, and explained their situation he smiled. See? he told himself. It was an accident! They're fine. He hoped.