Chapter Eighteen - Recharging
Something poked Ron in the side of his head. He felt the soft pillow against his face and the comfortable surface he was laying upon, he wasn't in another cave, he liked that he was comfortable. He felt as if he could sleep forever. Well he would be able to sleep forever if it weren't for the thing poking him in the face right now.
He let out a groan of annoyance as he turned his head away from the direction of the evil prodder. He felt sleep embracing him once again and began to float away with it when something nudged him in the back of the head.
"Get off," he mumbled.
He tried to roll over onto his side, further away from this aggravating bedfellow of his, and lifted his shoulder. That was has far as he was able to get though. His shoulder fell back down and he realised that he hadn't moved at all. His body was too heavy. The ever present poker nudged him in the back of the head again and Ron heard Harry's voice, sounding very rough indeed, calling out to him.
"Ron, wake up, something's wrong."
He opened his eyes and looked to the source of his friend's voice without moving anything but his eyes and saw that Harry was lying beside him, his head at Ron's feet, and looking as if he had been beneath a stampede.
"What's up?" Ron asked, noticing how weak his own voice sounded.
"I don't know where we are and I don't know where Hermione is," Harry croaked again.
Ron felt as if the air around him was some form of sleeping draught, just being awake was making him tired, and he felt his eyes closing as he replied.
"She's gone out to get ingredients..."
His eyes closed and he felt himself drifting off back into welcoming unconsciousness once again. His brain reminded him that he hadn't really filled Harry in with enough information to alleviate his worries and forced his eyes open a little more to look back at him. He decided that he should sit up a bit and try to keep himself awake as he knew that he'd never be able to engage himself in conversation while in the position he currently was. He tried to lift himself up the bed a little with his arms but couldn't even manage a half hearted wriggle. He made do with just shifting his body weight over to the edge of the bed and hoping that he could maybe balance on one of his elbows.
"...for a potion," he managed to offer as a form of completion to his earlier sentence.
While Harry frowned at him Ron realised that holding his own weight up on his crooked elbow was unusually exhausting and desperately wanted to lie back down again.
"A potion for what?" he heard Harry asking him.
He couldn't do this whole conversation thing, it wasn't a good idea, hadn't Hermione said something about him not talking he wondered? He tried to jerk his shoulders up into a shrug to let Harry know that he didn't have a clue about anything Hermione was doing; only that she was doing it right now, and that was when he realised that he couldn't see Harry anymore.
"Ron!" Harry was trying to raise his voice to get Ron's attention but his voice was very raw so it was more of a haggard whisper.
Ron's head jerked as he realised that he couldn't see Harry because his eyes were closed again and he parted his heavy lids once more to peer out at his battered friend.
"I shrugged," he managed to respond.
"No you didn't, Ron are you ok?"
Ron took a great tiring breath in before struggling to pull himself up a little more but all he accomplished was hauling his dead weight of a body closer to the edge of the mattress. He remembered now, Hermione told him he had been hurt or something in the battle, which must be why Harry was so worried, Ron looked back at his friend and did his best to smile reassuringly.
"I'm just tired. Are you ok mate?"
Harry winced and shook his head.
"Is there anything I can do?" Ron asked before fighting back the incredible urge to lie on his back again and pass out.
"I don't know, you don't seem to be able to do much at all," Harry had answered.
Ron smiled again, Harry was sounding really rough and looked even rougher, and he'd put up with any discomfort rather than complain. Ron knew that he had torn himself up inside worrying about him while he was recovering from the coffin and all through the growing insanity and felt that it was time somebody looked after Harry for a change.
"Seriously Harry, what do you need?"
"Water," Harry said after swallowing uncomfortably.
Ron gave a single nod and looked around for his wand, spotting it eventually lying on his bedside table.
"I'll get you some," Ron said.
He leaned over and tried to tell his arm to move over and pick the wand up but all he seemed able to do was twitch his fingers a little. He concentrated and tried to lift his arm again.
"Any time Ron," Harry said with a sigh.
Ron was getting annoyed now and tried to throw his arm forward by jerking his shoulder in the direction he wanted his arm to move but he wasn't able to get any further than just having his wrist dangling over the edge of the mattress. He steeled himself for plan B, and then searched his brain to see if there was a plan B, and he stretched his fingers out to try and hook the middle one over the side of his bedside table which was just in reach. He missed the first time but managed to get it the second time around and pulled his hand forward with his middle finger, his other fingers crawling along the surface as soon as they reached it, and pulling his hand and his limp arm along behind until they reached his wand.
"Ron what's wrong with you?" Harry asked sounding more than a little concerned for him and his epic struggle to reach over eight inches and pick up a wooden stick.
What's wrong with me? I'm bloody knackered that's what's wrong with me!
"I'm just really tired," Ron pushed another reassuring smile onto his face while edging his hand over to the wand, "I'll get it in a minute, don't worry."
His fingers curled around the wand and his hand slipped off the bedside table, which in turn pulled his arm off the edge of the bed, and Ron fell off the edge of the mattress and onto the floor.
Maybe I'll just sleep here. Yeah, this is pretty comfortable, nice carpet, no rocky cave floor like I'm used to. I'll just close my eyes for a minute or two...
"Ron are you ok?"
Oh come on can't you just wait a little bit longer mate?
"Just gimme a second," Ron mumbled into the carpet as he waited for his eyes to open again, "I'm getting to it."
Ron took a deep breath and made himself open his eyes again. He could do this, this was nothing, he could crawl. If babies can crawl then he should be able to. He gritted his teeth and pushed himself up onto his hands and knees and began crawling very slowly alongside the bed.
Why is this so hard?
He felt a pain in his chest and his arms were getting shaky but still he kept on crawling to the far end of the bed. The far end of the bed felt like miles away to him. When he eventually got there he grabbed the sheet that hung loosely over the side of the bed and pulled himself up into the sitting position, leaning his body weight against the mattress and trying his very hardest not to sound out of breath.
"There," Ron said with an embarrassing amount of pride for such a pathetic accomplishment before wondering what he had put himself through all that for in the first place, "what did I want to come down here for again?"
Harry was smiling at him sympathetically before wincing and pointing at his throat.
"Water please," he struggled to say.
"Oh right," Ron tried not to sound as tired as he felt and looked down at the wand in his limp hand on the floor, he wondered how he was going to get away with getting his hand up onto the bed without letting Harry see that he couldn't actually lift it himself, "I just need to..."
He didn't really know what to say so he just left it at that. He also doubted his ability to undertake any kind of physical exertion while talking at the same time and had decided to concentrate on the matter at hand. He bit his lip and tried to flip his hand up onto his lap with a jerk of the shoulder like he had done before. He managed it but it wasn't easy and he couldn't hide just how out of breath this was making him now. Why was he so tired; what had that evil so-and-so done to him the night before anyway? His little moment of anger and frustration at his situation must've given him a bit of adrenaline rush as he practically threw his wand arm up onto the bed like a beater swinging their bat. He felt a twinge of pain in his chest again and tried not to worry about what Hermione had said about his heart earlier, she was just being melodramatic like she always was, and looked up at Harry who was looking incredibly worried about him.
Ron smiled at him to let him know he was fine before trying to point his wand at him and realising that he had neglected to bring along anything to actually put Harry's water into. What was he supposed to do, squirt it straight from the tip of his wand into the guy's face? He let out a growl of frustration as he dropped his face into the blanket at having gone to all that effort and still not even being vaguely near completion of his task.
"I forgot the fucking cup!"
He had gone from battling the whole of Gringotts, fighting off Death Eaters, and tunnelling out of a grave with his bare hands to letting himself be beaten by a glass of bloody water.
No, this will not be how I die; I will not be remembered as Harry Potter's friend Ron Weasley, the bloke who had a heart attack trying to get him a drink!
Ron's head lifted again and he knew that dying after getting somebody a drink was a hell of a lot less humiliating than dying in the process of getting somebody a drink so he would get Harry this drink if it killed him. Ron hesitated for a moment and wondered just how likely it would be that it would kill him.
Oh well there are worse ways to die, Dean once told me about this bloke called Elvis who died sitting on the toilet, at least my pants aren't around my ankles eh?
He looked around and saw a nasty looking ceramic mug lying on the floor, it must've been knocked over when Hermione was levitating them both into the room last night, and decided that it was his best bet.
"There's one on the floor over there, lemme just..." Ron angled his wand at the cup and tried not to worry that he couldn't even lift it anymore, "...Accio cup!"
The cup dragged three inches before coming to a halt.
Oh this isn't good, this isn't good at all.
"Come on you can do this," he hissed at himself under his breath before looking up at the cup, just a foot away from him and yet agonisingly far in his current condition, and tried again, "Accio cup!"
The cup moved a little further this time, a whole five inches, but Ron wasn't really able to celebrate his improvement as he felt his fingers going cold and his head lolling sleepily. His eyes were closing and he still hadn't managed to get Harry his drink.
"Ron seriously, I'll wait for Hermione," Harry began before being interrupted by the sound of a door opening and footsteps getting closer.
"Ron!" Hermione's voice all but screamed with fear and anger, "What did I tell you?"
Ron lifted his head and forced his eyes open a little.
She's looks really pissed-off. Maybe being dead won't be so bad.
"What?" he mumbled.
Hermione dropped to her knees and took Ron's wand out of his hand.
"Stay in bed that's what I said, don't move, do you remember?"
Ron barely managed a shrug and his eyes began to close again. Now that she was here Harry could have his drink and he could finally get back to sleep.
"You said a lot of things."
"Welcome back Harry, I hope you're not too uncomfortable," he heard her saying.
The silent treatment, he could deal with that, the less she nagged the faster he could get back to sleep.
"I've been worse off," Harry was saying, "and it's my fault, I asked Ron to get me some water. I didn't know he...what is wrong with him?"
Ron's head jerked up again and one eye opened.
"I told you, I'm just tired."
Hermione scowled at Ron and reached into her coat pocket to pull out the silver hoops. She forced one of them up his arm and the other onto herself.
"Right, now you have to stay still until your potion is brewed and no complaints!"
"I'm not going anywhere but bed," Ron barely grumbled as his open eye closed once more.
"I can't believe you got out of bed, I can't believe you survived getting out of bed..." she was chattering as her voice began to fade away into nothing and Ron let himself recover from all the activity that morning.
He wondered what would happen to him if his somnambulist guide showed up to take him somewhere right now. He was kind of curious to know what would happen to both of them if he died while under their influence. He was curious but not curious to ever want to find out first hand. He heard Hermione's voice drifting back into clarity for a fraction of a second before feeling his head been laid upon something soft and he chose that very moment to stop thinking altogether.
"Drink this," he found himself being ordered before he had even woken up properly.
Something wet and utterly vile was being poured down his throat while somebody massaged his throat to make him swallow and another person who was quite strong held his hands at his sides, stopping him from batting away the repulsive drink. His eyes focused and blinked in the sunlight. Hermione was holding the chipped mug and force feeding him its contents while Harry met his eye and tried to smile reassuringly at him. He was about to ask them what the hell they thought they were doing when a wave of energy came over him and his lungs made him inhale deeply. In doing this he choked a little on the liquid still being manipulated down his throat.
"Oh sorry," Hermione frowned and brushed the spatter marks off of herself, "I suppose that means you can swallow it yourself now does it?"
"Hermione what are you doing, that stuff's dreadful?" Ron said, still coughing some of it out of his windpipe.
Harry released the hold on him and pulled him forward to slap him roughly on the back.
"Cough up mate; you're going to be fine now."
Ron was about to ask again what they were doing to him when Hermione slapped Harry's shoulder in annoyance.
"Harry not so hard, we don't know that yet."
Hermione put her head down and pressed her ear to his chest. Ron cleared his throat and glanced up at Harry for an explanation but he was occupied with watching Hermione and biting his lip.
"Well?" he asked her as she pulled back and sighed.
"It's pretty strong," she nodded.
Ron moved his head into her eye line to get her attention.
"Am I going to be told what's going on at any point?"
"We're taking you back to the glen to meditate that's what," Harry said as he took Ron's hand and hauled him up to his feet.
Hermione stood and put her arm around his waist, looking up at him and looking incredibly tired herself now.
"We've got your heart back up to speed but you really need an all over recharge," she smiled.
He remembered how concerned she had been about his heart now and frowned back down at her.
"Min, my heart, it didn't stop did it?"
She squeezed him a little tighter as she answered.
"No, it was there all the time; I just...couldn't find it for a while."
"Wow," he found himself saying as the three of them moved into the living room of their cottage hideout to disapparate back where they had come from.
Harry put a hand on Ron's shoulder and shoved him gently. When Ron turned and raised a questioning eyebrow Harry narrowed his eyes and folded his arms.
"You are going to stop worrying us at some point aren't you?"
"I'm doing my best," he chuckled.
The waterfall at St Nectans Glen thundered in the background, Hermione and Ron were sitting opposite each other, legs crossed and eyes closed in meditation
"In...and out..." Hermione was trying to teach him how to meditate seeing as he'd never actually done it consciously, "and then you say vivificus when you breathe out..."
"Vivificus, right," he nodded and tried to shake out his arms to hang loosely the way she had described them to him.
"After that you say corroboro. Now alternate the two phrases with me ok?" Hermione said and Ron nodded, "Right so in...vivificus...in...corroboro...in...vivificus..."
"You're supposed to have your eyes closed," Harry called across to them and they both complied.
Ron was breathing in and exhaling the incantations just the way he was supposed to do. He didn't feel as if anything was happening to him. It was quite relaxing but he didn't really feel any better physically. He tried to clear his mind, maybe it was all his thoughts and expectations that were getting in the way.
"Vivificus...corroboro...vivificus...corroboro...vivific..."
"I must be doing it wrong!" Hermione's voice suddenly hissed and Ron opened his eyes to see her looking enormously annoyed with herself.
"What's the matter?" Ron said as he squinted in the bright sunlight and leaned forward to rub her arm reassuringly.
"It should be working by now, what am I doing wrong?"
"Nothing," Ron smiled at her, "you're doing nothing wrong, it's probably me. I bet it's my fault, don't be so hard on yourself Min."
Hermione allowed herself to smile at this, she seemed to have accepted Minnie as a term of endearment without complaint now, but she still looked bitterly disappointed. Harry walked over to the two of them and crouched down. He suggested that maybe the spirit was doing something more for Ron on his side that Hermione wasn't able to recreate and that they should put Ron to sleep to let him take him through it. She agreed without much need for persuasion and put Ron into a deep sleep without him giving her any lip like last time. It seemed that they were all too weary to waste time arguing with each other anymore.
Ron and Dumbledore had put in almost a full half hour of healing meditation, this time Dumbledore spread the field of the power to cover Ron's entire body and not just his head, before Dumbledore ended it and smiled down at Ron warmly.
"You are fully restored my dear friend. May I say I thought you fought incredibly well last night, beyond the point many aurors would have lain down and let others defend them, and almost to the point of self destruction which is not something I would like to see again Ronald? Please try not to ignore people when they tell you to stop exerting yourself, we don't do it just for the sake of having something to say you know?"
Ron smiled.
"Have Harry and Miss Granger filled you in on all the details of the battle last night now?"
Ron responded with a slight nod and a 'hmm' of recollection.
"And you didn't think that anything sounded odd?"
Ron frowned at the old man and thought back over the story as it had been told to him again.
"Maybe somebody or something or both wasn't at their master's side when they are almost ever-present with their dark lord?"
Ron's eyes were suddenly wide and he called out loud.
"Harry?"
He looked around for a shadow and soon felt a weight upon his shoulder and Dumbledore nodded with encouragement.
"He's there Ron, tell him."
"Wormtail wasn't there, last night he wasn't there, and neither was Nagini. They're together. We've got to find the rat."
Dumbledore beamed at him as he got to his feet.
"Well done Ronald, you never cease to impress me you know?"
Dumbledore was swallowed up in a brilliant white light and Ron was swallowed up by an inescapable darkness as he slumped backwards and closed his eyes.
Something shook him awake from the inside out and he felt a hand at his back holding him up. He gave a cough as he sat himself up and opened his eyes. Hermione was right in front of him, he blinked and smiled at her in the hope that their plan had worked.
"So did I do it right that time?" he asked.
She grinned and nodded.
"Perfectly Ron, how do you feel?"
Ron shrugged, he was getting really tired of answering that question, and there were only so many ways of saying fine after all.
"Well I used to use my hands," he gave a mischievous smirk as Harry gave a tut and shoved him over.
"You're funny Ron, I'll save that laugh for when I'm having a really bad day," Harry stood up and watched as Hermione did the same, bending to offer Ron and hand up, "seriously mate, are you ok now?"
"Much better, thanks you two," Ron said as he gave Harry a brotherly slap on the back.
"I don't know what you're thanking me for, I didn't do anything," Hermione snorted, putting herself down seemed to be her favourite thing at the moment.
Ron pulled her into a hug that was anything but brotherly.
"You got me here."
Hermione smiled into his chest and lifted herself up onto tip toes to plant a brief kiss on his lips. Harry cleared his throat and the two of them turned to look at him without separating from each other.
"So you had a quick epiphany before you woke up," Harry began.
Ron's eye opened wide and he looked down at his crotch instinctively.
"I what?"
Hermione howled with laughter and shoved him playfully. Harry rolled his eyes and shook his head.
"An epiphany you pillock, a brainstorm."
"Oh brainstorm and pillock in the same sentence, there's an oxymoron for you," Hermione chuckled.
"What's with all these words are we playing Scrabble or something?" Ron huffed while the others became even more amused.
Hermione put her arm back around his waist again and the three of them began walking towards the cave while Harry finished sniggering and explained that Ron had come up with a way of tracking down Nagini.
"Hunting down Pettigrew, sounds like just the quest I could really enjoy. So where do we start Min?"
A/N I have had a nightmare with this site recently haven't I? First they wouldn't let me log-in and yesterday they wouldn't let me upload these chapters. Do you think they're trying to tell me something?
On the Ron's revenge front, I only have bruised knees today and that's a regular occurrence for me, I take a kids theatre group and it involves a lot of crawling around on the hard floor of the drama studio!