A/N This chapter will be quite a treat for Ron and Hermione shippers, for everybody else it might be quite nauseating! I've not gone down this road before and hope I've done the moment justice.

WARNING: SEXUALLY FRUSTRATED TEENAGERS!

Chapter Four - Passion

She was being really patient with him, they both were, he'd thank them but that would mean looking them in the eye. That would mean looking up and he was quite content to just sit at the side of the riverbank with his head supported in his hands not looking at anything for the time being.

They had both followed him but only Hermione sat at his side. She hadn't said a word, seemingly content to just let him process all the thoughts that were rattling his head at that moment, and would rub his back in a comforting manner every now and then to let him know that she was still there. He knew she was though, she didn't have to be touching him for him to know that, and it made him feel both better and worse at the same time.

Ron had been trying to think everything through, but without success, for twenty minutes now and decided that the best course of action was to just not think at all. He tried to force his mind to go blank and just concentrate on the river rushing by. The sound of the water reminded him of the field behind the burrow and the stream that he and Ginny used to play beside as kids. That was a good thought to have, he decided, and let himself dwell in that memory for a while.

It was only when he felt movement at his side and the warmth of Hermione's body gently pressing against him that he was drawn back to reality. He felt her rest her head on his shoulder and she put her arm around him.

I should look up, I bet I'm upsetting her; I should at least look up to let her know I'm ok.

Ron finally lifted his head out of his hands but purposefully avoided looking at anything other than the river ahead of him. He felt her squeeze his shoulder and let out a sigh. That was all he needed. That was all it took for him to just let it all out.

"I can't stay with you two for this can I?" he said, feeling useless, "I'm a liability."

Hermione looked up at him almost trying to force him to look back at her. He didn't look back so she moved the shaggy red hair that was concealing the side of his face from her back and tucked it behind his ear. She always had this thing about looking him in they eye when she talked to him. Sometimes, times like this one, when he felt like shit the last thing he wanted was to be looked at so intensely. He worried that people would be able to see the truth if they looked hard enough at him when his defences were down, the truth that he wasn't worth their attention.

"Don't say that, we don't know what this sleepwalking thing is really about yet, if it's about anything at all, and you shouldn't go tying yourself up in knots about it until we really know what we're dealing with."

Why was she wasting her breath? It made him angry with himself. They had better things to do than sit around waiting for him to pull himself together. He hated feeling sorry for himself but he hated other people feeling sorry for him a whole lot more.

"What we're dealing with is my fantastic new ability to apparate into homes of Death Eaters and the like in my sleep."

Hermione shushed Ron and rubbed his back once again. She had to hear this, she had to realise the severity of this problem, and she had to accept that he was now a risk to them both.

"I mean what's next Hermione? Do I wake up tomorrow morning in the bath with Bellatrix fucking Lestrange?" he scowled out at the clear water rushing by in front of him and waited for Hermione's inevitable contradiction.

It never came, she was silent, and this is what finally got Ron to tear his eyes away from the river and give her a sideways glance. Maybe he'd made her cry he thought. He saw that her shoulders were shaking and her head was bowed.

Oh shit she was crying!

He was about to say something when he saw her hand clamp over her mouth and stifle several high pitched squeaking sounds. Ron looked at her for a moment before recognising that sound and turning back to the river. He let out a sigh of weary disbelief.

"Oh just let it out will you? You'll burst a blood vessel if you keep that up."

Hermione's hand dropped away from her mouth and her head fell back as she let out a roar of laughter.

"It's just such an image to have planted in my mind," Hermione gasped, her voice high pitched and the laughter still nowhere near subsiding, "it's the look I picture her having on her face."

Ron found himself picturing Bellatrix Lestrange sharing a bath with him against her will and couldn't help himself but chuckle too. His mirth died away pretty quickly though and soon Hermione's had drifted away as well. He felt her shuffling even closer to him and curling her arm around his, leaning right into him now, and he wondered if Harry was still around to see them like this.

"We'll work something out, anti apparition wards wherever we camp and warnings or restraints to alert us when you're on the move, we'll come up with something don't worry" she sighed.

Ron shook his head. He decided to let her in on the secret that wasn't such a secret after all; he just wasn't worth it.

"It just seems like a lot of hassle for somebody who doesn't really have a hell of a lot to offer Harry on this little quest doesn't it? Why go to all that effort just to include me?"

Hermione jammed her elbow fiercely into Ron's ribs.

"Ow! What was that for?" he flinched.

"That was for being an idiot! You're our best strategist and you're the only one of us that can cook, if you go we'll starve and then stumble into a trap and you know it."

She really didn't get it did she?

"Ah a trap, I know the sort of thing you mean, that's where the Death Eaters do something to one of Harry Potter's best friends and summon him to the private residence of a secret Death Eater in the middle of the night. That the sort of trap I'm saving you from falling into is it?"

He was so annoyed at her stubbornness and refusal to accept that he was now a risk to them and they were probably better off cutting him loose until this was all over. He waited for another dig in the ribs or a long winded protest but neither of them ever came. Hermione was looking at Ron as if replaying his little speech back to herself inside her head.

"You think Borgin's a secret Death Eater?" she asked him.

Well that's not what he expected.

"I know he is!" Ron snorted, "you should've seen the room I woke up in, it definitely wasn't a guest room I can tell you that, you know if the Death Eaters knew that room existed they'd probably kill him themselves."

Hermione went rigid and sat up straight as if she's just found what she was looking for after days of research in the restricted section of Hogwarts library.

"What makes you say that?" she asked.

"Well I was looking around for letters or something with an address on so I could find out where I was and I came across this big bundle of receipts and invoices for dodgy transactions over the years."

What was all this about? They knew Borgin was a friend of the Malfoys, what did she expect from a wizard like that?

"How do you mean dodgy? Surely every transaction with Borgin is a dodgy one isn't it?" she frowned.

Ron shifted around on the bank side to face her, this was beginning to interest him now, and Hermione mirrored his movement as he spoke.

"Well there's the borderline stuff that he has on display in his shop and that gets written up in the books he has to show the ministry inspectors whenever they ask to see them but these receipts are for stuff that's either illegal or nicked."

Hermione seemed impressed with him, something that made him unfeasibly proud of himself, and wanted more details, her excitement bubbling up inside of her.

"How could you tell just from receipts and invoices, they couldn't have mentioned that items were illegally obtained, that's just carelessness for stupidities sake?"

"Well," Ron leaned forward; he didn't know if Harry was around, he couldn't see him, "there was a recent one with Mundungus' name on it and it accounted for a hell of a lot of stuff bearing the Black family crest."

Hermione glanced around the bank side, she was obviously thinking the same thing as Ron, and there was no need to get Harry all riled over Mundungus again. Harry must've got bored waiting for Ron to finally say something and gone back to the cave.

"So that's where he palmed off all the things he looted from Grimmauld Place?" she asked when she was sure they were alone.

Ron nodded; he didn't see Borgin's logic though.

"The thing is why would he write all that stuff down and keep records as far back as Hagrid's Hogwarts days? If anyone from the Ministry found any of that stuff Borgin could get life in Azkaban, reason enough to burn it all don't ya think?"

Hermione looked rueful.

"Not if he kept it all for the purposes of doing as many deals as it took to keep him out of Azkaban. He could sell out all kinds of big customers to keep his freedom and he could also do quite a good business in the line of blackmail."

"Sneaky fucker!" Ron shook his head, a tad impressed at the old codger's deviousness.

Hermione slapped him on the arm for his language.

"Seriously though, that's quite sharp of old Borgin really. The amount of paperwork I saw there looked like it covered every illicit transaction he's ever made." Ron said, thinking that the old man was kind of like the Death Eater version of Fred and George "I reckon if someone got their hands on those records they could probably tell you exactly what Death Eater owns what stuff right now."

Ron shook his head and turned his to look back at the river.

Borgin would be a useful person to have around if you were looking for horcruxes, he could probably draw you a map to...

Ron's head snapped back to Hermione and his eyes widened with the realisation of what he had just said.

"We...he probably...records..." he sputtered.

Hermione beamed at him.

"You're nearly there Ron, keep going."

"A horcrux could've passed through him over the years and he...he's...he would have it written down!" Ron felt as if he was about to start jumping up and down and struggled to control himself.

"And you thought you were no good to us on this mission" Hermione laughed.

She was right, he thought, he was such an idiot not to have realised when he was still in there. He could have done a proper search while it was quiet rather than having to go back in the afternoon or evening when they were more likely to get caught. Then he realised what he was thinking. They had to go back to Borgin's secret room and Ron had no idea where it was. He'd just scanned the envelopes to find out where he was and had been so shocked at seeing Borgin's name that he hadn't really taken in the address. He had read it though, he could remember it, he could.

Ron's face fell and he put his head back into his hands. No he couldn't.

"I can't remember the bastard's address!" he exclaimed with despair, "I read it and I can't remember it."

Hermione pulled his hands away from his face and smiled at him.

"You don't need to remember anything other than what that room looked like Ron. You've been there once and you can go there again and in exactly the same way you got there in the first place."

Apparition, of course, he was so thick!

"I can just apparate back there."

Hermione laughed and nodded before resting her hands on each of Ron's cheeks and forcing him to look her in the eye.

"With me and Harry of course, you can take us side-along apparating with you so we can investigate properly, safety in numbers has worked well enough for the three of us so far hasn't it?"

Ron smiled at her, he felt almost dizzy, he was of some use to them after all. Hermione moved closer and he tried to remind himself of their discussion after the wedding.

"We're going to take this slow alright?"

He nodded as he released her from the hug.

"Whatever you say."

"It's not that I don't want...you know what I want Ron but we're about to go into some terrible situations and it's best if we just calm down until it's over."

"I told you I agree with you, Harry doesn't need us smooching all over the place any more than he needs us fighting. We'll just stay us for now. I can wait, I promise you, and I will wait."

She smiled but looked so sad at the same time.

"You think we're going to be fighting as much as smooching? You think we'll still drive each other crazy like we always have?"

"I don't know what we're going to be like Hermione, all I know is what we've been like so far, and well we'll wait to find out what we're like. We'll see if we're different once we've helped Harry."

She hugged him again.

"I hope we can be like this again soon."

"Yeah, me too."

They had almost forgotten themselves that evening in the barn, they had been so close to kissing and so close to getting caught, but Harry wasn't around and Ron needed to feel something other than fear and guilt. He needed to feel Hermione. He needed to feel what Hermione felt for him.

"You know what this means don't you Ron?" she sighed as she spoke, "This means it's not inevitable that whoever took you to Borgin's is on Voldemort's side after all. You could have a guardian angel."

He hadn't even flinched at You-Know-Who's name that was how much he wanted this.

"Another one?" Ron grinned, slightly embarrassed at himself for becoming aso sappy.

Hermione leaned in that final inch that parted their lips and brushed her own against his. She moved her hands back from his cheeks, sliding them through his hair to rest on the back of his head and pull him towards her into a deeper kiss. It always amazed him how forceful she could get when it came to affection, Lavender just used to go limp and submissive in his arms, but Hermione took charge and took exactly what she wanted when she wanted it. She wanted more from him, he could tell by the way she gripped the hair at the back of his head, and he pushed back.

His hand rested on the back of her neck and the other arm snaked around her back, that hand resting upon her waist, as he sucked on her bottom lip briefly before pushing his tongue forward to meet hers. They were good at this. They were really good.

Hermione made a soft moaning sound and Ron pulled back a fraction, this caused her to sigh a sound of protest and pull his head back towards her, but Ron had already angled his head to begin kissing her neck.

"Oh God you're a tease you know that?" she sighed the tiniest of whispers as he brushed his lips against the smooth white skin of her neck.

He pushed back her hair and trailed more kisses from her collarbone to her shoulder, he knew what he was doing and he was doing it on purpose, she couldn't take it anymore and forced him flat on his back and crawled up his prostrate body to take his lips with hers once more. Ron wanted to run his fingers through her hair, at least push some of it away from her face, but she had pinned him down by the wrists again. It was her favourite move, he had come to learn over the summer, as it made it impossible for him to pull back and tease her some more.

She wasn't holding him down by the wrists anymore, her fingers interlocking with his own on either side of his head, and her kisses were lighter and shorter but still coming strong.

"Hermione..." he tried to say when she paused for long enough to take a breath, it wasn't long enough for him to say anything else though as she closed her mouth over his once again.

Ron was worrying that they were getting too carried away now, he was also concerned that Harry might come looking for them pretty soon and gouge out his own eyes in disgust at what he saw, he murmured into her mouth and she pulled back a hair to whisper breathily.

"Don't tell me we have to stop, not just yet," she sunk back down into another deep kiss.

Ron had to be the one to stop this, she was obviously too far in the moment to think clearly, and he sat up. Hermione was tilted backwards with him and slid down his torso a little as she was unprepared for this sudden change in angle and whimpered.

"Really Hermione, we can't do this, not right now."

She looked sadly at him for a second before nodding and curling her arms around him and burying her face into his neck.

"I'm sorry," she mumbled into his skin.

"Don't apologise, it was brilliant!" he found himself laughing.

She looked up at him and smiled at him before rolling her eyes and breaking away from him again. She reached out and smoothed down his ruffled hair, letting a hand linger at the side of his head long enough for her to move forward and give him a peck on the cheek. He smiled at her and took her hand as he got to his feet. He helped her up and kept hold of her hand all the way to the cave, which was empty, Harry must've gone for a walk. They looked at one another before turning their attention back to the matter in hand.

They were off to Borgin's.

Ron gripped Hermione and Harry's arms tightly as they apparated into Mr Borgin's secret den, the two of them were holding their wands in readiness for attack.

"Quick," Ron hissed as they saw that the room was empty, "hide just in case somebody heard us arrive."

Ron pulled Hermione into what seemed to be a wardrobe as if was full of very old but regal looking robes, while Harry disappeared behind a thick curtain, and closed the door. They held their breath and Ron suddenly realised that they were also still holding hands. He let go and leaned back against the side of the wardrobe. It was very dark inside and they couldn't really see each other but their breathing seemed deafening when they finally relaxed enough to begin to do it again. The thick robes made the wardrobe very stuffy and Ron thought he heard Hermione starting to fidget.

"Are you ok?" he whispered to her.

"Yes I'm just tangled..." she let out a small 'eep' sound and Ron suddenly felt something fall against his chest, "...sorry, I think I'm standing on some silky fabric, I slipped."

She was bracing herself against him and he was trying to help her up as quietly as possible before she slipped further and her arms reached out and around him for stability. She was hanging about his waist now.

"Sorry, I can't get my footing," she said nervously.

Ron knew that they were still all wound up from the river bank episode to be getting as close as this again but if she slipped on the silk robe any further her head would be in a very precarious position so he got a firm hold on her and heaved her upright and held her against his chest.

"Thanks," he felt her breath into his face.

They were still unaccustomed to the darkness and unable to see each other or anything else in the wardrobe at that moment so Ron had no other course of action than to keep his arms around Hermione to hold her steady and it wasn't long before he felt her arms snake around him in return.

"Can you hear anything?" she whispered as he felt the weight of her head resting on his chest.

"Nothing," he whispered back at her.

They stood like that for a minute before he felt Hermione's head moving and her breath on his neck, she was obviously looking up at him now.

"Ron?"

"Ron's not here right now can I take a message?"

Well where did she think I'd gone?

Her body juddered with suppressed laughter and she squeezed him around the rib cage in lieu of punching him in the arm.

"Don't make me laugh, we're supposed to be hiding!"

"Well why are you talking?" he hissed.

"I just wanted to...never mind."

He hated it when people did that.

"Either speak or don't but don't start something and then refuse to finish."

"That was kind of what I was going to say actually," she whispered, her head resting on his chest again and her arms tightening around his torso, "I was just thinking that we didn't get to finish...being close earlier and now here we are."

Ron felt as if his head had gone completely numb.

"Don't do this now Hermione," he sighed.

"I'm not saying that, I'm just saying that this is hard. Being with you day after day and not being able to be with you is hard enough but then this...being like this and not being able to...it's not fair Ron. It's too hard."

Her voice had quivered as she said the last few words and Ron squeezed her even closer to him and kissed the top of her head.

"I know."

They held each other in silence until there was a muffled sound from somewhere in the room and they both tensed.

"Oh no, it that Borgin?" Hermione gasped.

Ron swallowed.

"I don't know, it might be Harry, I'll take a look. You hide deeper in the robes and if it is Borgin you promise me to stay hidden alright?"

"But what if he's got Death Eaters with him? I won't leave you and Harry to..."

"You stay hidden until I tell you it's safe understand?" Ron said fiercely.

"Ron!"

That had sounded like Harry. They were probably all clear. Ron opened the door of the wardrobe a crack and whispered out.

"What?"

"I think we're the only one's here."

Harry stepped out from behind the curtain and dusted himself down. Ron stepped out of the wardrobe and helped Hermione out after him. She was looking at him strangely, as if she was hearing good and bad news at the same time, and he wondered if she was angry with him for telling her to stay hidden just now. He looked across the room at Harry who was arching his eyebrows at his two friends.

"Where are these papers then mate?" Harry said, sounding very unlike himself as if he was pretending that he hadn't noticed something very obvious.

"Oh yeah," Ron said, clearing his throat, and strode over to a large wooden desk surrounded by about fifty pigeonholes, all full of different paperwork, "it's all here, the stuff I was telling you about I mean, but I never really got around to investigating the rest of this place. I was a bit confused at the time."

Hermione marched over to the desk and sat down. She seemed to have a false smile on her face as she crossed the room but as soon as she was faced with piles and piles of paperwork the smile seemed genuine. Ron didn't know which aspect of this he found more disconcerting.

"Right well we're going to have to go through every record Borgin ever made as we can't be exactly sure when Voldemort created his first horcrux so this will take some time."

"Yeah, well don't forget that we know the locket was bought from Borgin before Voldemort got his hands on it so don't let that transaction distract you when you come across it Hermione" Harry said as he riffled through the contents of a pigeonhole.

Ron stepped over a stack of broken artefacts, figuring that he and Hermione could do with a little more distance between them right now, and crouched down when he saw a large flat frame around something that shimmered dully. He began to wipe off the thick layer of dust with his sleeve. As the reflective surface became clearer Ron saw several silvery grey figures moving over his shoulder in the mirror and jumped, twisting around to see them but finding nothing there at all. He stared back at, what he thought was a foe glass, and saw himself swallowed up in grey smoke until all that was visible was a pair of blood red eyes staring back at him. He stood up and realised that he was trembling.

"Alright there Ron?"

Shit, had Harry seen it too?

"Fine, it's just a...saw a spider."

Ron moved deeper into the pile of dark artefacts before crouching down again and rummaging through several boxes that balanced in the darkest corner of the room in an unstable fashion.

Their investigation went on until the sky began to darken and Ron heard Harry attempting to get Hermione to pack it in for the day.

"We don't want to risk it Hermione, if Borgin sees a light on in here he'll hex us into next Tuesday."

Ron was about to agree when he saw something glinting at the bottom of a metal trunk with broken hinges. It was two silver hoops, about the size of a grapefruit, and a handwritten note attached to the bag that held them.

"A bond of blood?" Ron's read aloud as he slipped the hoops out of the bag into the palm of his hand.

He was sure he'd heard of that somewhere before.

Hermione spun around in her seat and called over to him urgently.

"I've heard of that, be careful with those Ron, the only witch or wizard capable of breaking the bond is the one whose blood rests on the shackles."

That was it, it was an illegal binding spell, dark wizards used to use it back in the day when it was legal to treat muggle-borns witches and wizards as slaves just like house elves. No wonder Hermione was against him touching them.

"Don't fret Hermione, it says here they've never been used," Ron examined the two hoops and the thought suddenly occurred to him that this would be the perfect way to control his sleepwalking, "maybe we could use..."

"No!" Hermione shouted at him with such ferocity he wondered if he'd just suggested decapitation as a cure for headaches, "We will not bind you by blood just to stop you sleepwalking Ron."

How the hell did she know what I was thinking?

"It's just an idea" Ron shrugged.

"I said no!" she hissed at him before looking back at the paper in her hand and growling, "I'm still only half way through this bloody lot and still nothing."

Harry and Ron shared a glance that expressed the same thought.

Blimey, Hermione swore!

"It's ok Hermione, we can come back tomorrow and finish up..." Ron heard Harry saying while he turned his back to them and ducked into the shadows.

"I would've lost my place by then, I have a system Harry and it's not the same as Borgin's. We will have to put everything back exactly the way it was so as not to tip him off that anybody was here in the first place and then come back and start all over again tomorrow and we just don't have time for any of that nonsense Harry, we just don't!"

Godric she was losing it.

Ron tried to stuff the two silver hoops into his pocket but they were too big, he cursed under his breath and checked over his shoulder that the others hadn't noticed what he was up to.

"Alright, alright, I get you. We can't come back tomorrow and we can't finish up here today," Harry was saying to Hermione, a little aggravated himself.

"No we can't so we'll take the last of it with us."

Ron couldn't believe what he was hearing and completely forgot to keep searching for somewhere to conceal the hoops about his person.

"Are you saying we steal it?" he asked.

"All of this is illegal anyway, what's Borgin going to do, report his invoices for stolen goods as stolen?"

Harry laughed at this and shrugged.

"Load me up then and let's get out of here."

Hermione grinned and lifted a stack of papers from the desk and piled them against Harry's chest. Ron took their momentary distraction as an opportunity to stuff the bag containing the hoops and the instructions for their use down his jeans.

"Yeah, good luck apparating like that mate" Ron snorted.

"You're doing it too" Hermione said, putting her hands on her hips and staring at him sternly.

Ron looked at the clearly amused Harry with a shrug of resignation.

"Would you believe that's her asking nicely?"

Harry nodded.

"Of course, I know her too well."

Ron began to make his way back through the stacks of junk all around him, stumbling occasionally along the way as he couldn't see where he was putting his feet any longer now that the room was so much darker, and he drew level with the foe glass and saw the red eyes glowing through the grey mist again. He tried not to look at it but was caught up on something and tried to yank himself free when he saw thegrey figures swimming around and moving closer to the front of the foe glass. He felt a little sick all of a sudden and gave a good hard tug at his snagged jumper, freeing himself, and kicked at the glass as he staggered past it. It fell to the floor and smashed.

"Oh very stealthy Ronald," Hermione huffed as she picked up a stack of papers for him to apparate with.

"I can't bloody help it, it's a mess over here," Ron muttered while trying not to look her in the eye as she thrust his load into his arms before he was prepared for it, causing him to buckle slightly, "and where exactly are we apparating to may I ask?"

"Back to the cave of course," she said, gathering the last of the paperwork in her arms.

Ron groaned and Harry gave him a look of sympathy.

"Oh not another night in that bloody hole please, my back can't take it," he whined.

Hermione turned on him as if he had said something insulting to her and glared at him. Where was the girl he had been sharing such an intimate moment in the wardrobe with? As soon as he thought about that he realised how strange his life was right now.

"Well you don't exactly sleep there do you? You're up and away after a couple of hours so you've no right to complain."

How could she say that?

He looked at her as her face fell and her eyes pleaded with him to forgive her and to understand that she didn't mean it to come out like that but Ron just wanted to walk out on her and slam a door to let her know just how hurtful a thing that was to have said to him. Had she not been listening to a word he'd said at the riverside that morning? He couldn't look at her any more and he didn't want to hear her apologise or explain, he just wanted to be elsewhere at that exact moment, so he disapparated back to the cave without a word.

He threw the bundle he was carrying onto the cave floor and hurried outside before Hermione apparated and made him feel even worse.

Crack!

He picked up the pace and bit his lip as he heard Hermione's voice calling after him from the mouth of the cave.

"Ron! Ron please I'm sorry I didn't mean..."

He spun around and yelled back at her.

"Leave me alone Hermione!"

He kept on walking, she didn't seem to be following him so he slowed down a little, and he wondered if they were ever going to be able to get past the extremes that their relationship consisted of since they'd first met.

They were either passionately together or furiously apart.