Chapter One - Visions
"Surculus!" Ron said as he aimed his wand at the bare patch of earth before him and watched as a small crop of onions began to grow.
He sat back and looked into the pot that was bubbling away with a rich tomato sauce that was thickening quite nicely if he did think so himself before he felt her eyes on him again.
"What?" he asked and noticed that she blushed as she realised that he'd caught her staring again.
"It's nothing, I just wish I could help that's all, not that you need help or anything. You're really good at this aren't you?" Hermione said as she fiddled around with the sleeping bags she had just arranged on the floor of the old barn for the third time.
"Well bread's still a bit of an issue; you could give that a go if you want."
Ron watched as Hermione reached over to a small rock at her side and tossed it over to him, he caught it in his left hand and felt a little pleased with himself, which was the quiddich keeper in him, he wasn't ambidextrous but he was pretty good with his left hand these days.
"I already did," she said glumly, "I think I could give Hagrid a run for his money in the cookery stakes."
Ron laughed and banged the solid as stone ball of uncooked dough against the wall and tossed it away.
"Well it's no better or worse than anything I've managed bread-wise is it?" he shrugged and began to unearth the fully grown onions.
Hermione shifted over to sit beside him and leant against his side slightly.
"Well at least you can grow food; of all the things they taught us at Hogwarts I can't believe we never covered growing vegetation from scratch, not even in herbology."
Ron thought about this for a moment before dicing the onions with a flick of his wand and sending them flying into the tomato sauce.
"Well herbology's more about cultivation and upkeep isn't it? This is more like household transfiguration and McGonagall's more into making wood into glass and daisy chains into necklaces isn't she?"
"I suppose," she sighed and rested her head upon his shoulder.
"I always put it down to her being a spinster myself," Ron mused as he surreptitiously smelled Hermione's hair beneath his nose.
"Ron!" Hermione tried not to laugh as she nudged him in the ribs for what he had just said, "That is so sexist to put a witch's avoidance of teaching household spells down to her being single. And spinster is such a cruel word."
"It's the correct word Hermione, don't blame me for the English language," he tried not to smirk as he turned his attention back to the earth again, "and besides, you're a spinster too aren't you?"
She shoved him and he chuckled wickedly as she pounced on him and scowled down into his face while holding his wrists over his head with her hands.
"I am an independent woman I'll have you know Ronald Weasley and not a forlorn single reject who could never get a man!"
He was still laughing as he watched her grow suddenly uncomfortable with the position she had put them in and was about to pull back when Ron leaned in and brushed against her lips with his own. She froze and stared down at him, still pinning him beneath her, and smiled.
"Besides, I already have a man don't I?"
He watched her move in for a real kiss and whispered.
"Apparently so."
The sound of grumbling outside the door and the alohamora charm opening the door to the barn made Ron and Hermione leap away from each other and try to appear as if nothing had happened.
"I tried and I got moss," Harry said with annoyance as he closed and locked the barn door behind him, "if you want mushrooms Ron you'll have to do them yourself I'm afraid."
Hermione had her face turned away from the both of them and set about straightening the three sleeping bags yet again while Ron flicked his wand and stirred the pot again.
"Don't worry about it mate, I'll go and conjure some now if you watch over the pot for me," Ron said as he got to his feet, ears burning on either side of his head.
"No no," Hermione suddenly sprang to her feet, "Let me try, after all my bread was pretty useless wasn't it and I'd like to contribute to at least one meal we have during this quest of ours."
They both watched as Hermione grabbed her wand and rushed from the barn as if the place was on fire. Harry turned and stared at Ron who purposefully concentrated on his sauce.
"You could boil me some water if you like, I'll whip us up some spaghetti in a sec," Ron said as he fought to appear as normal as he could and not at all horny and embarrassed.
"Ron?" Harry asked with a suspicious tone.
Shit!
"Yeah?" Ron tried to sound as nonchalant as possible.
"Have you and Hermione had another row?"
He hadn't expected Harry to read their behaviour that way and turned back to face him with genuine surprise.
"Um...yeah we did, that's it, and she's annoyed at me 'cause I called her a spinster."
"What did you do that for?"
"Well I called McGonagall a spinster actually, then Hermione just sort of applied it to herself...it's her fault really."
Harry laughed and shook his head before moving across to an empty bucket and filing it with water from the end of his wand and setting about boiling it up for Ron.
"So we're having spaghetti are we?" he asked as Ron wove the complicated pasta spell while making it look like nothing at all.
"Yup, I went a bit overboard on the tomatoes didn't I so I figured I'd thicken them right up and we'd have a decent pasta sauce."
Harry smiled.
"Your mother would be proud."
Ron lowered his eyes and felt that familiar friend guilt sitting upon his shoulders once again.
"She didn't seem too proud when I told her I was ditching school in my N.E.W.T. year to go and fight you-know-who did she?"
Harry didn't answer, there wasn't anything he could say to that, a devastated Molly Weasley was not something you could ever just shrug off and he had been the cause of her latest devastation, so he believed anyway, and the two of them continued their dinner preparations in silence until Hermione came back. She looked exceptionally proud of herself as she set several odd looking mushrooms down before Ron.
"Who says you have to be a Weasley to conjure your own fungus?" she beamed.
"Well Neville wouldn't say that? Have you seen that infection on his feet? Yuech!" Ron shuddered and Harry laughed.
Hermione simply rolled her eyes and created a makeshift dining area for the three of them as Ron threw the mushrooms into the pot and stirred.
It was only five minutes or so after they had sat back to relax after cleaning their plates that they noticed the change. Harry was staring into the middle distance with such ferocious concentration that Ron found himself mesmerised by him and couldn't look away, not even when Hermione suddenly blurted out of the blue a response to a question nobody had asked.
"I didn't say anything," she frowned and looked from Ron to Harry and back again.
"I never said you did," Ron thought he heard himself saying in reply, he looked shocked, "did I say that without moving my lips?"
"I can see your mouth moving," Harry said, still looking deep in concentration.
Ron shuddered.
"But you're not even looking at me, you're watching me without looking, you're watching me with your inner eye and I'm talking without talking! Is my mouth," Ron put his fingers to his lips and felt for them warily, "is my mouth still there?"
Harry took a deep breath in and forced his eyes closed while Hermione looked panicked.
"Put your hands up when you're talking," she demanded of them, "I can't tell the difference between your talking and me thinking."
Ron looked amazed and grabbed her arm with wonder.
"Neither can I!"
Harry's eyes flew open wide and he looked frightened.
"She's thinking in your head? Where are you thinking? Are you in my head? Am I thinking at all?"
"Stop," Ron said, getting to his feet and looking quite surprised that he had done it, "everybody stop thinking!"
The three of them froze and seemed to be listening for something.
"I need to blink," Hermione suddenly said after a long pause.
"You can blink," Ron nodded before licking his lips to make sure they were still there.
"I can't blink without thinking Ron, it's impossible, I'm thinking about blinking!" she jabbered.
"Only because it rhymes," Ron said as he staggered backwards and steadied himself against the wall of the barn, "you're not thinking about breathing are you and you're still doing that."
Hermione's hands slammed onto her chest and she looked frantic with worry.
"But now I am thinking about it, what if I stop thinking and forget to keep doing it?"
Ron turned around and faced the wooden planks of the wall of the barn; he shook his head as if he was getting dizzy and Harry opened his eyes and looked upwards to the roof uneasily.
"I think the roof is falling," he said as then looked shocked as if it had been somebody else who had spoken.
"Why are you thinking?" Hermione snapped, "I thought we all agreed to stop, and how do you know it's even your thought Harry? How do you know?"
"But the sky is getting bigger outside and the roof is coming down, why is that happening Hermione?"
"The sky isn't getting bigger Harry," Ron said quietly as he leaned in closer to the wall and squinted, "it's because you're sitting down, you're further away from it. If you stand up you'll see the difference."
Hermione felt sick and bent forward, all the way over, and set her forehead upon the dirty ground.
"That doesn't make any sense," she said with a voice that sounded as if she was trapped in a huge glass bottle, "standing just makes the sky closer not bigger."
"But he's right," Harry nodded enthusiastically, "because if you look at a flock of sheep from far away they just look like little white dots but if you look at them close up they're huge. They're bigger the closer you are, just like the sky, Ron's right."
Ron was still staring at the splintered wood in front of him and felt uneasy.
"Ron?" Harry called up to his standing friend.
"Ron come back to the floor," Hermione whimpered, still resting her head on the floor.
Ron was beginning to get paranoid now.
"The wood's still alive, I can see it growing, they chopped it up and built a barn but it didn't die!"
"Oh that's so cruel," Hermione squealed before bursting into tears.
"It's listing to us," Ron said, finally turning around to face his two friends, "keep your voices down otherwise all the trees will know our secrets."
Harry staggered to his feet and drew his wand at the barn wall.
"I'll teach it to keep its mouth shut!"
"No!" Hermione screamed, "It's been through enough, leave it alone."
"Shhhhh!" Ron said, waving his arms urgently, "the barn's turning us against each other, that's what it wants. We need to pack up and go somewhere else, somewhere made of stone."
Harry gripped Ron's arms and stared deep into his eyes.
"Are you sure we can trust stone Ron?"
Ron nodded slowly.
"Stone is good."
Hermione was still crying on the floor.
"But I just got the sleeping bags laid out all nicely; we can't disturb them and move now."
"Hermione we've all got to leave before it all comes crashing down!" Harry said as if he was trying to alert the whole wizarding world that the apocalypse was imminent.
Ron crouched down and looked at Hermione with deep sincerity.
"I've got to keep my lips Hermione, because if I don't I won't be able to talk, and my mouth will just be this big gaping hole in my face!"
"Oh no," Hermione gasped before flinging her arms around him and hugging him tightly.
"We're going and we're going now," Harry bellowed to every wall of the barn, "and you can't follow us. I can make fire you know?"
Ron started laughing and Harry and Hermione turned on him with wide eyes.
"What's so funny?" Harry asked.
Ron shook his head and sighed with a slight giggle.
"I don't know."
"It's affected his mind," Harry said to Hermione with warning, "we'll be next."
"Let's just disapparate and start new lives!" Hermione said hopelessly, "I can't take this anymore."
"No," Harry said, standing up straight and raising his finger as if he was about to deliver a great speech, "we have a mission, and as soon as remember what that mission is we will get out there and do it!"
Ron was still laughing as he clapped Harry on the back.
"I'm with you mate, we have to stop the trees from...the thing they are trying to do."
Harry looked at his amused friend with sad eyes.
"And we'll save you Ron, I swear on my own life as well as Hermione's."
Ron's face suddenly fell and he gasped.
"Why what's happened to me?"
Harry shook his head and looked away hopelessly.
"You've lost your mind."
"But I just had it a minute ago!" Ron said as he looked about his feet, as if expecting to find his mind had fallen out of his pocket and landed somewhere on the floor.
"We can restore your mind Ron, and your lips, and anything else you might have lost. I will make sure the evil doesn't eat you all away."
"Why am I getting eaten and not anybody else?" Ron asked a little hurt at being picked on.
Hermione looked him in the eye and answered him, as if it was the most logical explanation in the world.
"Because you taste so good."
And as Ron cursed his appetising existence Hermione was violently sick on the floor and Harry began to giggle uncontrollably. Ron felt very dizzy and the barn began to spin and rock at the same time. Then everything was silent and everything was black.
ooo
As they marched across the muddy field they couldn't look at each other. None of them had spoken a word and nobody had dared to eat breakfast either. It had been worked out between the three of them that Hermione's mushrooms weren't quite the variety needed in cooking. They had been following a half-hearted charm of Harry's that was supposed to lead them in the direction of one of the missing horcruxes but it didn't seem to be of much use.
They found a cave and settled down for a rest and to have a drink. It was only then that they had anything like a conversation since waking up that morning.
"Look I'm sorry ok," Hermione said stiffly, "but Ron's the one who just threw them in the pot without even checking them first, they could've been poisoned y'know?"
"So it's my fault that you conjured magic mushrooms is it?" Ron snapped.
"I didn't say that Ronald."!
"I can transfigure perfectly edible and non hallucinogenic mushrooms myself but no, you wanted to help because you just can't stand that I can do something better than you can you?" Ron hissed as he threw off his back pack and lay flat on the cave floor.
"Oh here it is, the ego come out again," Hermione scoffed, "you finally found the one thing you're good at and I never hear the end of it."
"Oh come on Hermione that's a bit harsh isn't it?" Harry sighed as he leaned against the cave wall, "And you Weasley don't give her such a hard time, you know she doesn't like to freeload and just wanted to pull her weight."
Ron let out a huff from his spot on the ground and rubbed his head with his hands.
"Oh don't try to reason with him Harry, he's Merlin's gift to wizardry now didn't you know? When we're doing battle with Voldemort he'll be around the corner knocking together a nice quiche."
Harry closed his eyes and waited for the inevitable row to escalate but it never came and he opened his eyes again to see Hermione looking concerned and leaning over Ron.
"Ron are you sure you're alright?" she asked him, her tone entirely different to the one she had been using just moments before.
"Yeah, it's just a bit of a headache that's all," he mumbled as he sat up again.
Hermione felt his forehead with her palm.
"Are you sure, you do look awfully pale you know?"
He smiled as he shrugged off her concern.
"As opposed to the bronze Adonis you're used to eh?"
She smiled and Ron noticed Harry staring at them as if he was catching on to something he had been looking for in his friends for quite some time now and Hermione decided to return to the topic in hand.
"Well I'm sorry, about just now and about last night, that was all a little bit scary and I think I'll take a backseat as far as the cooking goes from now on, as long as you don't think you're being taken advantage of Ron."
Ron raised an eyebrow and swallowed the smart-arse comment he felt his instincts yelling at him to deliver.
"Yeah well, I'm sorry too, I've got to let this need to bicker with you go if we're ever going to be of any help to Harry on this trip."
They both looked to Harry who smiled.
"Thanks guys but I think I'd worry if you started being overly polite to each other."
"Right so let's get settled in, I'll have another crack at cooking us something that won't send us do-lally and we can try to come up with something to help us find these bloody horcruxes, what do you say?" Ron said, seeming to have shaken off his headache now.
"There's a plan," Harry smiled.
ooo
"Ronald, Ronald wake up."
Ron's body felt heavy and he groaned as he turned over in his sleeping bag.
"I've come to help you help Harry. Now please get up and come with me."
Ron opened his bleary eyes and glanced over to the source of the voice and sat bolt upright on seeing his dead headmaster standing in the mouth of the cave smiling at him.
"Professor Dumbledore?" he gasped.
Dumbledore put his long finger to his lips and shushed Ron with a smile.
"We don't want to disturb Harry and Miss Granger do we?"
Ron shook his head and began to wriggle out of his sleeping bag.
"I was planning on introducing myself last night but you were in no fit state for visitors I'm afraid."
Ron was about to protest that last night wasn't his fault but again Dumbledore pressed his fingers to his lips and gestured for Ron to join him outside. Ron walked toward the mouth of the cave, tripping over something along the way and stopped to see Dumbledore's smiling face looking him up and down.
"Ah when Molly told me of your gift I was surprised but at the same time it seemed perfectly obvious, you always were a little more Prewitt than your brothers and sister weren't you?"
Again Ron was about to answer and question his former headmaster but was rendered silent by the man's raised hand and affectionate smile.
"The very thing that you always thought made you different from all your siblings was in fact the secret to your unique gift. You aren't like William and Charlie are you? Nothing like Percival and there are no other wizards like the twins. Then there's your sister and she is a whole other kind of Weasley altogether...a woman. Most Weasley women become so through marriage, she's a real rarity. Where did that leave you Ronald? It left you with the gift that nobody ever spoke of and that nobody can ever know of. You can communicate with those like myself who know where to find you."
Dumbledore began to walk away towards the woods Ron followed and listened.
"Of course your mother swore me to secrecy and made me promise never to visit you once I myself had passed but here I am now breaking that promise and possibly her heart when she finds out...and she will Ronald, she will find out what I have done and it pains me to think of the confusion my future visits will cause you as I help guide you to the remaining horcruxes of Lord Voldemort. Yes Ronald, which is why I broke my promise, there is a greater good that needs our help and we start work today dear boy."
Ron suddenly felt a force against his chest and stopped in his tracks.
"Ah it appears we haven't been as discreet as I would have hoped, oh well, this night was never about the first step. I simply wanted to explain myself to you just this once, despite the fact you will never remember my explanation, I still felt you were owed one."
Ron felt himself being tugged back toward the cave and felt more confused then he had during the mushroom episode the previous night, was this something to do with that he wondered.
"Don't fight them Ron, it's your friends, they are taking you back to the cave. You're quite safe, let them lead you."
Ron let himself turn and be pulled towards the cave again, he saw Dumbledore waiting for him back at the mouth with a smile on his lips.
"You will forget this all in the morning Ronald. I will never be able to do anything about that but I just needed to show you the courtesy of asking your permission before beginning the great journey to stop Lord Voldemort. Do I have your permission Ronald?"
As Ron felt himself being laid back down upon his sleeping bag he gave a slight nod to Dumbledore as he smiled a smile of gratitude and stepped away from the cave and out of sight. It didn't feel as if he had left Ron though, he was still around somewhere, he lay and stared at the cave wall and thought about what the old wizard had said to him. He would forget it all. He would see him again and forget that too. he would be helping Harry in more ways than just feeding him though and that felt good.
He didn't need to remember he helped out to want to go ahead and do it. This wasn't about helping to get the credit for the victory, it was about helping his friend when he needed it most, and he didn't need anything other than the hope that they would win this seemingly impossible battle to send him off into a contented sleep at last. Dumbledore was gone now, the memory faded, and he was just Ron again.
Just like it always was.
ooo
"Crustum!"
Ron watched as his latest attempt to conjure a loaf of bread came close but failed yet again and hissed to himself with annoyance.
"Bollocks!"
"No yeast again?" the sleepy voice of his best friend croaked from across the cave, making him jump.
He sighed and shook his head, annoyed but not the least bit surprised that he still hadn't managed to do it yet.
"I'm missing something, it should already have yeast in it, I just can't get it to rise."
He knocked on the solid bread with his knuckles and felt a wave of disappointment at how badly this attempt had gone.
"Speaking of which," Harry was sitting up with some effort, he looked exhausted, "you seemed pretty eager to rise yourself in the middle of the night."
Ron almost gagged on his own horror; he didn't go all tent pole in front of his best mate did he? Did Hermione see? Oh Merlin please don't let Hermione have seen it.
"No not that!" Harry said as he finally realised what he had just said was being read the wrong way, "You were sleepwalking."
Ron only felt relieved for a fraction of a second. Sleepwalking; this wasn't good news. Why had he done that again after all these years? Had he hurt anybody? He didn't remember anything about his childhood sleeping disorder but he knew he'd almost died because of it once, he also knew he'd upset a lot of his family while like that and he didn't want to have Harry and Hermione look at him the way his mother had that last time; especially not Hermione.
"Has something like that ever happened to you before Ron because in all the years I've shared a room with you you've never done it once."
Ron stared down at the solid lump of anything but bread he had before him and tapped it to transfigure it into porridge. Harry quickly transfigured some bowls for it while Ron levitated it in waiting. The oats hung in the air just like Harry's question and as Ron served the porridge he decided to be honest with his best friend.
"Not for years, I used to wake up in the strangest places but I never remembered doing it." Ron thought back to the very last time he had an attack of sleepwalking and everything had gone very badly indeed, he shuddered internally, "Apparently I punched George once."
"Really?"
"They tell me I'm quite strong when it happens. It used to make Ginny cry, I look a bit scary when I'm like that so I'm told, but I haven't done that since..." he thought back, it must be ten years or so now, such a long time ago, why was it happening to him again after all this time, "...before Hogwarts. Bloody hell years before Hogwarts. I really did it again?"
Harry nodded.
"I can see why it used to upset Ginny mate, it was as if you weren't...in there."
Ron felt sick, this wasn't the first time he had been told this, Fred and George had said something similar to him and it had chilled him to the bone. He hung his head.
"Sorry."
"It's not your fault," Ron looked up to see that Hermione had woken and been listening to their conversation, "although I'd like to request your permission to tie you up tonight just to be on the safe side."
Ron looked down at Hermione, still snuggled up inside her sleeping bag with her eyes closed and he raised an eyebrow at her little innuendo, he also had a mini flashback to the previous day when she had him pinned and they had been about to kiss. Harry seemed to be trying to swallow a laugh unsuccessfully and Hermione suddenly sounded very stern as she spoke again.
"And I don't even have to bother opening my eyes to know you've got that look on your face Ronald Weasley."
Ron looked at Harry and they smiled before shaking their heads and eating their portions of porridge.
"You know there is one thing that Hermione and I really need to know Ron?"
He didn't like the sound of this; he swallowed the mouthful of porridge and frowned.
"What's that then?"
"Do you know if you can be woken, is it ok to do it I mean?"
Hermione sat up and shook the grit from her hair.
"He wants to know that it's safe."
"Um," Ron stalled for time, he had to tell them, it was important that they understand but at the same time he didn't want to go into all of that again, he never wanted to remember how everybody looked at him that last time, "it's best if you don't."
"Why do you say that?" Hermione asked.
He knew it would be her; it had to be her didn't it? She always wanted to know the worst things about people so she could tell them that they weren't so bad at all. This was bad though, and he didn't even know why.
"Well it's just that Fred and George did it once and...mum said that I shouldn't ever be woken from it after that."
Ron realised that he had been looking at his hands this whole time, unable to meet their eyes, and he knew that he'd have to look up at them sometime soon.
"Do you remember what happened?"
"I never remember anything about it when it happens," Ron said as he shook his head, he still couldn't look at them.
He would have to tell them how awful he could become, so awful that his own mother...
"But you were woken up, do you remember waking up?" Hermione pushed for information, always after the little details as ever.
He couldn't take this anymore, he got to his feet and tried his hardest not to snap at her.
"I don't remember anything about anything, I'm just telling you both what I've been told."
He was feeling cornered all of a sudden and headed towards the mouth of the cave to get some air. It was just a fluke that he had done it again, something to do with the mushroom things before, this wasn't going to start happening again. This couldn't start happening again. Hermione was running after him and he knew she wasn't going to let him off that easily.
"Wait what's wrong? You can tell us Ron, we just want to know how to deal with you if it ever happens again."
Don't snap at her, don't make her cry, don't start another argument. Don't be a prat.
He turned to face her; he forced a cheerful grin onto his face and made himself look her in the eye. He gave her what he hoped was a carefree shrug.
"It won't happen again. It hasn't happened for ten years, it won't happen for another ten, you don't have to worry about it."
Ron nodded over Hermione's shoulder to her full bowl of porridge in an attempt to distract her attention away from him for a second or two at least.
"Eat up Hermione, it'll go cold."
He saw his two worried friends exchanging a look and turned to try to leave again but Hermione grabbed at his sleeve and pulled him back.
"Should I send an owl to your mother and ask her how to deal with it?" Hermione said with determination.
Ron couldn't quite believe how low she was prepared to stoop in order to bully the truth of his condition out of him and silently seethed as he warned her off going down that particular road.
"Don't you dare go upsetting my mother."
Harry got to his feet now, Ron was being well and truly cornered by his friends and he didn't like it one little bit.
"Why can't you trust us?" Harry said, his voice betraying his hurt and anger.
Ron knew that they'd never let this go unless he told them everything he knew. They didn't care if he wanted to forget it all and pretend that it never happened. They wanted the truth and there was nothing he could say to avoid giving it to them. He slumped in defeat and gave them both a look of apology while shaking his head.
"I don't know what I did ok? I did something and they wouldn't tell me what it was and it made mum cry...for three days..." Ron felt his voice waved and he tried to keep it together as he went on, "she wouldn't even look at me."
He couldn't bare the looks on their faces, he saw them both imagining what awful things he might have done to turn his own mother against him, and he bowed his head and wished he had lied to them instead. Hermione grabbed him and hugged him tightly. She really did amaze him sometimes.
"It's ok; we won't try to wake you if it ever happens again I promise, we just wanted to be prepared that's all."
Ron hugged Hermione back as she said this and then quickly broke away from her and took a step back. He couldn't cause a scene, he didn't want to lose it in front of anybody and it was the last thing Harry needed right now, he looked at Hermione who looked pained that he had backed-off and felt that he owed her something more.
"Dad told me it wasn't my fault. He kept saying it wasn't me, I wasn't myself when I woke up," he could tell that Hermione had taken his opening up a little more as a sign that she could embrace him again and he couldn't take that again without breaking down so he stepped back again, something which seemed to break her heart, so he rapidly continued, "and that I shouldn't feel guilty about upsetting mum."
"Ron I..." Hermione was trying to reach out for him both physically and mentally and he just wanted to get away from them both for a while, he needed to shake off his old demon and process all of this on his own.
"I'll just go for a walk if you don't mind," he smiled, "a conscious one; I'll be back in...I'll be back."
Ron took a step outside and felt as if he had just fallen through a layer of warm glue that shook the whole cave and Harry and Hermione in particular.
"Whoa!" he gasped, "What the bloody hell was that?"
"I think that was our warning system being triggered," Harry said, looking as if he was about to hurl.
As he glanced at Hermione, also looking extremely shaken-up and nauseated, Ron realised that they'd had to resort to a quite nasty form of security charm and felt a whole new pang of guilt.
"Maybe we'd all be better of if you tied me up tonight after all eh?" Ron said to Hermione before turning and walking away before either of them could waste their breath trying to make him feel better about his latest inconvenient development.
He walked all the way to a small brook where he sat and wished that he had handled that better. He wished he hadn't made Hermione so upset. He wondered if Hermione was wishing she had never got together with him at all now she knew what he was really like. They were barely even a couple and he had already blown it.
His timing, as ever, was impeccable.
ooo