Chapter Twenty - Pest Control

They had caught up to Hermione as she was pushing open the door that barely hung on its rusted hinges and scanned the lower floor while keeping her wand up at the ready. Harry took the lead up the stairs, putting his finger to his lips to make sure they kept as quiet as possible and Ron glanced over at Hermione at his side. She looked nervous about what they would have to face at the top of the stairs and he tried to smile reassuringly but she had turned her attention up the stairs, ready to cover him in the event of an attack.

Ron wondered how he would rather deal with Pettigrew, as a rat or as a man, and tried to remember as many spells he could for capturing household pests. It was going to be harder hitting him with a spell if he was in rat form but at least he wouldn't be able to use a wand when he was like that.

Harry reached the top of the stairs and peered over to the room where Ron had been dumped by Sirius all those years ago, broken and bloodied, and Ron gripped his wand in readiness for the inevitable explosion of spells that were about to happen. Nothing did happen though and Harry swallowed and looked down at him and Hermione and shrugged. They listened for several seconds and heard nothing. Eventually Harry moved up onto the landing, closely followed by Hermione while Ron glanced back down the stairs behind them and bought up the rear, and he tried not to make too much noise on the groaning floorboards.

"Shhhh!" Ron hissed, it was instinctive rather than instructive, and he averted his eyes from Harry's glare.

Harry edged along the wall towards the flimsy door. Ron and Hermione were right behind him and Harry paused by the door frame and nodded the count of three to them before diving inside. Hermione followed and aimed her wand at the other side of the room to Harry while Ron stood in the doorway and tried to keep one eye one the landing behind him as well as the empty room that his friends were now investigating with great suspicion.

"So the tracker was wrong then?" Ron asked, not really believing that for a second.

"I don't know," Harry whispered, still prepared for attack, "it was leading us to something so I don't know why it's completely empty in here."

"You're right Harry, it's too quiet in here," Hermione said while frowning at the shadows in the corner of the room with caution.

Ron was sure that Pettigrew was hiding somewhere in rat form now. It was his typically cowardly way and Ron wasn't about to relax until he had checked every little crack in the walls for the mangy old rodent.

"You little bastard," Ron whispered as he crouched down and pointed his wand under the furniture, "get out here you little bastard."

"This is a trap," Harry was saying to Hermione while Ron crawled further into the room looking for his former pet.

Of course, what is the time honoured way of catching a rat?

"Traps..." he smiled to himself before swishing his wand across the floor and hissing "Orno traps!"

The entire floor was covered in mouse traps, set and waiting to snap shut around the neck or any other body part a certain rat might accidentally put into it. Hermione looked at Ron and beamed before pointing her own wand at the bed in the centre of the room.

"Wingardium leviosa!"

The bed was flipped up to reveal a ball of straggly fur and a tiny silver glint shivering on the floor in the middle of a nest of primed rat traps. It was Wormtail, Ron would recognise that podgy disease bag anywhere, and he pointed his wand at the wizard who would do anything to save his own skin.

"Stupefy!"

The rat jumped out of the way of the spell and landed between two traps that were side by side and immediately activated as it took another leap upwards before they clamped around any part of him. He scampered and hopped his way around and over the traps as they snapped to his left and right. Ron was joined by Harry now as they threw more curses at it but somehow he managed to evade them and the traps until one eventually caught his silver paw.

"Gotcha!" Ron said, bending over and grabbing the rat up off the floor where it squirmed in his hand and squealed fearfully.

Harry moved across the floor to join Ron when a huge snake lowered itself down from the rafters in the ceiling between them, causing Harry to stagger backwards onto the mousetrap-strewn floor to avoid being bitten. Unfortunately the floor was full of still un-triggered mouse traps and Ron winced as he saw Harry getting caught up in several of them. Hermione threw an immobilising spell at the snake and tried to get to Harry to help him back to his feet.

Ron felt the rat's fur rippling and swelling beneath his fingers and turned back to see that Pettigrew was transforming into his repugnant self within Ron's very grip. He felt the fur lengthen in to lank greasy hair as he pointed his wand at Wormtail but his silver hand had already fully formed and he swung and slammed Ron across the cheekbone with his solid knuckles. Ron saw mini white explosions before his eyes, like a firework display going on inside his head, as he flew backwards out the door and slammed into the rotten banister. The wood of the banister gave way slightly and Ron shook his head to clear his vision, causing the side of his head that had been struck to erupt with pain, and heard Hermione's scream.

Ron gripped his wand tightly and forced himself back up to his feet while Wormtail tore the trap away from his silver fingers and threw it down with glee.

"Well that was easy," Pettigrew sneered, "who's next?"

Ron saw him raising his wand, aiming right at Harry, and he threw himself back into the room, landing on his back. Wormtail spun around in an attempt to shake him off but Ron was one of six brothers and knew how to scrap better than a coward like Pettigrew ever would. He locked his arm around the animagus' neck and grabbed a handful of hair to anchor himself in an immoveable position on his back.

"I've got him, kill the snake!" he hollered at Harry and Hermione while Pettigrew staggered backwards out of the room.

They fell into the already weakened banister, which cracked and buckled into a 'v' shape, and Ron released Pettigrew to reach up and grab the decrepit brass frame of a chandelier above his head to keep himself from falling down the stairs. He pulled himself up off of the struggling wizard's shoulders and tried to kick out at him to push him through the banister and down the stairs but Pettigrew was raising his wand at Ron and he had no option other than to swing and jump back onto the landing beside him. A flash of red light shot out from the tip of Pettigrew's wand as Ron landed and he ducked just enough so that the spell only grazed his shoulder.

Ron swished his own wand at his grinning attacker and yelled out a defensive spell.

"Detino!"

The light was about to hit it's target when Pettigrew raised his silver hand and reflected the spell back at Ron who had to slam his body flat against the wall to avoid the rebound.

Oh this wasn't good!

"Whatever you throw at me Ron I'll throw it right back at you," Pettigrew said with great amusement, "my master thinks of everything you know?"

"Well he definitely made the right decision in sending you away, Compescor!"

Ron threw the restraining spell at his target while trying to stay light on his feet ready to dodge any rebound of it back onto himself. Pettigrew's reactions were too fast though and he deflected the spell into the ceiling just above Ron's head. Debris toppled down on top of him and while he tried to move out of the way of that he saw Wormtail raising his wand and sending a spell of his own back at him.

"Plaga pulpa!"

Ron tried to dodge the incoming spell but only barely managed it again, not clearing the line of fire completely and feeling a sharp slashing across his chest. He winced and staggered while throwing a spell in Pettigrew's vague direction.

"Oppugno!"

Again the silver arm moved too fast and just as the spell was bouncing back at Ron he ran at Pettigrew and slid across the floor at his feet, grabbing him about the legs and pulling him down with a thud on top of him. Ron tried to roll the overweight wizard off of him so he could get the higher ground but Pettigrew was already raining punches with his silver hand into his stomach. Ron managed to find enough space between the two of them to blast the wizard away and through the banister but he still had hold of Ron by his jumper and they both went flying through the air and down the stairs.

As they rolled all the way down to the ground floor where they both landed heavily Ron heard Hermione calling down the stairs to him.

"Ron, are you alright out there?"

As he struggled to his feet, clutching his back which felt as if it was bending the wrong way, he saw Wormtail transforming back into rat form and scurrying away into the darkness of the lounge.

"Fine," he shouted back up to her, not wanting to distract her any more from her own fight with Nagini, and lighting his wand as he ran into the lounge after the rat.

There were heavy footsteps behind him, Pettigrew wasn't in rat form any more, and as Ron spun around to defend himself he found himself being hit with a levitating dining table and slamming into something behind him that smashed, sending shards of glass and ceramics showering over him.

"Fuck!" he grimaced as his back sent agonising pains all the way up and down his spine, soon he heard scurrying of rat footsteps again and he struggled back to his feet, aiming his illuminated wand around the floor in search of the once again transformed animagus, "duel like a man you bloody coward!"

Ron panted as he closed his eyes and listened for the sound of the rat or the man he was fighting over the sounds of Harry and Hermione yelling spells at the snake upstairs.

"Nox," he whispered as he extinguished the light from the end of his wand tip.

Pettigrew was as blind as him now. Ron used his light footsteps to dart across the room and stand in a different place from where he would have last been seen by Pettigrew and held his breath so his very audible gasps weren't any kind of giveaway. He waited and listened. He heard a heavy foot step, Pettigrew was in human form again, and he aimed his wand at the direction the sound had come from. Then he heard Pettigrew's voice.

"Adficto!"

A lightning bolt of red light arced across the darkened room to the spot Ron had just vacated and illuminated Pettigrew standing and facing away from Ron himself. He exhaled the breath he had been holding with a deafening shout as he struck out at the man with his own wand.

"Impedio indentiem!"

As the spell shot towards his target Wormtail turned, not fast enough to deflect the spell with his arm but fast enough to hit back with his own wand.

"Crucio!"

Both their spells hit their targets at the same time and while Wormtail found himself bound repeatedly by magical ropes Ron dropped to his knees and felt as if his bones were on fire and burning him alive from the inside. He screamed in agony as the existing injuries he had felt as if they were about to explode, the gash on his chest felt as if it was splitting even wider and his back seemed to be twisting in an unnatural direction. It had only been for a second or two, Wormtail hadn't been able to maintain his aim with the bindings attaching themselves to his arms and pinning them to his sides, but to Ron it had felt like an hour's worth of torture. He was shaking and sweating but he would not allow himself to collapse, not in front of Wormtail, and he got unsteadily back up to his feet to stupefy the immobile traitor once and for all.

That was when he felt it.

The slam of an invisible wind pushing him out the door and into the hallway knocked him off his feet and he recognised the pull of the bond of blood dragging him towards to stairs. This couldn't be happening, not now, not when he was about to get the upper hand with Wormtail. Ron tried to grab at the floorboards as he was hauled up the first stair on his stomach, his newly regrown fingernails snagging and his still tender fingertips tearing open on the splinters as he went, and he lost his grip on his wand. The pull was intense now and he was being forced up the stairs so fast he couldn't even attempt to hold on to the stairs as he was dragged past them to anchor himself. He reached out to try and grab hold of the banister as he passed but all he could reach was splintered and broken from the earlier fall.

Soon he was at the top of the stairs and being hurled towards the door, through the last remnants of the banister with such force that he felt a rib crack and yelped with pain, and as he was hauled past the door frame he latched onto it as tightly as he could with the last of his strength. He glanced up from his struggle to see Hermione, wand pointed at the snake, staring at him in alarm.

"What the hell are you doing?" Ron yelled at her furiously, "I almost had him!"

She looked down at him with no comprehension of what she had just done and Ron's bloody fingers lost their grip on the doorframe and he curled them around another floorboard as he was dragged further into the room.

"Take it off!" Ron pleaded with her as he felt his arms trembling under the strain of pulling against the bond of blood.

Hermione seemed appalled and Ron's body was suddenly released and he was temporarily slack on the floor. He clutched his broken and bloody chest as he struggled back up to his feet and glared at her, realising now what Harry had been arguing about with her earlier.

"What the hell did you do that for?" he snapped before turning his head on hearing the sound of the front door being flung open, "Oh no you don't," he growled as he raced back down the stairs after the fleeing Wormtail.

As he ran down the steps two at a time he preyed that his wand was still on the floor where he had dropped it he heard Hermione's voice calling after him.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to, I didn't know!"

Fat lot of fucking use that is if he gets away!

He jumped down the last four stairs and ignored the pain in his back as he bent over to pick up his wand. He ran out the door and hoped that Wormtail was too badly injured to disapparate. He could still see him hobbling along several feet ahead of him and Ron sent out a spell to try to stop him.

"Petrificus totalus!"

Pettigrew spun around on hearing his voice and deflected the spell back at Ron, who threw himself to the ground just in time but causing his cracked rib to send a shooting pain right through him. He was already pointing his wand as he fell though and sent out another spell that managed to hit its mark.

"Everbero!"

Just as the spell slammed into Wormtail, knocking him off his feet like a cannonball, he saw a bright light shoot forth from the tip of the animagus' wand and wasn't able to block it fast enough.

"Proteg..." he grimaced as he was cut off by the pain caused by the new slashes the tore through the flesh on his already tender stomach.

Wormtail was coughing and struggling to breathe through the severe winding Ron had caused him as he staggered back to his feet. Ron forced himself to stand as well, he was going to end this now or never, and the two wizards raised their wands at the same moment.

"Trunco trucido!" the older man wheezed.

"Reluctor!" Ron surprised himself from altering his reducto curse to the spell to resist so quickly and the two met in the space between them.

Wormtail's had been a fatal mutilation spell, Ron didn't know if the reluctor defence would be enough but held it anyway, his wand vibrated with the effort he was making to sustain the spell. Pettigrew on the other hand was advancing with confidence, a smile breaking upon his face as he approached, and Ron's spell seemed to weaken now that the other spell was being concentrated upon him. Ron gripped the wand with both hands and tried to think of something, anything from the D.A. lessons that could help him, but all that went through his mind were all of those household spells of his mothers. He felt Pettigrew advance before he saw him and dropped to his knees with the effort of maintaining his resistance spell.

"I do wish it hadn't come to this Ron, you were such a generous master when it came to snacks and treats and I really did appreciate it you know? The thing is, a blood traitor is almost as bad as a mud blood itself and your family are the worst of the lot."

"Fuck you!" Ron panted as he struggled to keep his wand steady.

"I know all about vermin Ron," Wormtail sneered as he was almost on top of him now, "and weasels are just as bad as rats."

"Abdo!" Ron gasped; it was all he could come up with right then.

Pettigrew laughed.

"You can't just put me away like you're cleaning your room you stupid boy, I am the dark lord's right hand!"

"You're the dark lord's arse wiper!" Ron spat, before his fight against Wormtail's fatal mutilation spell disintegrated completely and the full force shot from his wand and travelled towards his chest, just giving him enough time to blurt out his mother's spell for fixing any mess she might have made in the kitchen, "Verso!"

There was a brilliant flash of white light and Ron and Pettigrew were blown apart from each other. Ron landed heavily on his aching back and his opponent eight or nine feet away on his. The older wizard was screaming and thrashing around on the crab grass beneath him. Ron clutched the stabbing pain in his rib as he sat up and watched in horror as Wormtail was eviscerated before his eyes, his skin being stripped from his bones and his bloody remains being dissected over and over again until he was a bloody pile of body parts in a heap on the ground.

Ron felt his whole body juddering uncontrollably and he fell forwards and began to go into convulsions of disgust, the same kind he experienced immediately after escaping from Black's coffin, and he struggled to breathe and stay conscious. He was having some kind of panic induced seizure that was regressing him back into that hole in the ground with that other ravaged human body. His head screamed out to the rest of him to get under control. He was not going to lose it now. His mind was strong; he wasn't insane anymore; he could shake this off. This was only a memory, this was only revulsion, and he could beat it.

Don't look at the meat, don't look at the meat, don't look at the meat!

Ron felt his eyes burst open wide and he forced himself up with his arms, he tried to calm his breathing and scolded himself out loud as he did.

"It's not meat, it's a person, don't call it meat. It's not meat," he took a deep breath in and out," it's not meat," and another; "you're ok. You're doing fine Ron come on you squeamish bugger get a grip on yourself."

He was breathing steadily again and the juddering was almost gone completely now. He knew this was definitely it for him as far as ever being able to look at meat was concerned, he hoped he never had to explain to anybody in any detail what had happened to him to make him a life long vegetarian, and he suddenly felt as if his stomach was being churned. He lifted his wand to his face and cast a spell on himself.

"Eructo!"

The spell to induce regurgitation did exactly what it promised and Ron expelled his stomach contents onto the grass before him. He wiped his mouth when he was finished and got back up to his feet, feeling a little better now, hoping that getting it over with would put the nausea to bed for good. He turned away from Wormtail's remains and lifted his jumper to get a better look at the hatchet job the treacherous wizard had done on him.

He didn't get to see anything though; he just felt the same awesome pull and forceful invisible wind that was the activation of the bond of blood again. It lifted him clean off his feet and threw him through the air toward the Shrieking Shack. He yelled out with the shock of being forced backwards towards a building and was silenced as he smashed through a window one floor up and slammed down onto the floorboards, sending another reminder to his body that his back was killing him.

"Whattahell?" Ron wheezed as the air left his lungs and he began to sputter to breathe in again.

"Ron are you alright?" Harry leaned over him as he struggled to sit up but found that he was being squished against something soft and warm at his side.

It was Hermione. Ron felt his anger boiling up inside of him now. She had gone too far this time; he wasn't a rag doll that she could just drag to her side on a whim.

"What did I tell you?" he said, his voice still strained from both the winding and the aftermath of his battle to the death with Pettigrew, "Take it off I said, why didn't you bloody liste..."

Ron stopped in mid rant when he saw that Hermione wasn't moving. She was as white as one of Hogwarts' ghosts and her eyes were closed.

"Hermione?" he said with a gentle shake of her shoulders, "Min?" Ron looked up and met Harry's eyes, "Did I hit her when I came through?"

Harry shook his head and swallowed.

"She's been bitten, Nagini bit her on the leg, she summoned you after she..." Harry couldn't complete his story and looked down.

Ron's eyes looked down at Hermione's bleeding leg and then drifted along the floor to the dead snake beneath the shattered window before returning his gaze to Hermione who was lying in his arms. This couldn't be happening; he took the punishment, him and Harry, not her. She couldn't...she couldn't...

"Hermione...can you hear me?"

Don't do this to me.

Ron tried to move his arms to shake her gently but he couldn't do it. He tried to loosen his grip on her and found that was impossible too. His eyes widened; she couldn't be doing this to him while she was in this state, how could she be controlling him while she's unconscious? He looked up at Harry and could barely find his own voice to tell him what was going on.

"I can't let her go Harry."

"You won't have to Ron; we're so close to Hogwarts, we can take her through the marauders tunnel and get her to Madame Pomfrey. She'll be fine I promise."

He didn't get it; Ron shook his head and swallowed.

"No I mean she won't let me let her go."

Harry grabbed at Ron's arms and tried to pry him away from her but they both knew from experience that the bond of blood was the strongest magical binding of them all and there was nothing anybody but Hermione could do to break it.

"Carry her," Harry suggested, "you can carry her."

Ron tried to pull his legs out from under himself to heave the two of them up when he realised that he couldn't move at all, his body was fixed in the very position he was cradling her in at that moment. She had once said to him, when they were lying together waiting for Harry to return from one of his thoughtful walks, that she sometimes wished she could just stay in his arms forever. He wondered if she knew what an awful idea that was in reality. Ron huffed and looked back up at Harry, shaking his head.

"I can't move my legs."

Harry paced back and forth for a moment before stopping at the window and looking out at Hogwarts castle in the distance.

"I'll go and get help, you wait here with her and I'll bring someone," Harry said with a determined resolve before a flash of panic hit him, "wait, did Pettigrew get away, I don't want to leave you like this if he's still lurking somewhere?"

Ron turned away from Harry and looked into the space where he had fist found that rat he had grown up with as Scabbers what felt like an age ago.

They were probably eating him already, the parasites; they had smelt the stench of fresh death and come crawling out of the ground to devour him little by little; feeding on him; laying their eggs inside him.

"Pettigrew's dead," Ron said if for nothing else then to stop himself from thinking about what death really means for the flesh.

Harry did nothing more than nod to let him know he had understood.

"Ok I'll go; I'll be as fast as I can and..."

"No wait," Ron said, he couldn't be left alone with Hermione to think about what was happening to the carcass outside, "let me just try something first."

Ron leaned in to Hermione's ear and whispered to her.

"Hermione? Hey Min, can you hear me? I need you to let me move ok? Can you let me move a little please?"

Ron moved back and tried to lift her again but he was still unable to move. He leaned in again and sighed sadly.

"Please babe, I won't let you go I promise, I'll be holding you all the time I swear, I just want to be able to carry you ok?"

Ron tried to wriggle his toes and found that he was just as restricted as ever. He looked up at Harry and shook his head. Harry gave him an encouraging nod.

"Hermione I just want to move my legs that's all I need, just let me move my legs please," Ron said with a shudder in his voice.

He tried to wriggle his toes again and found that his whole foot gave a twitch. He exhaled loudly and started trying to shuffle his legs out from under himself to stand.

"Thank you," he whispered to her before looking to Harry, "can you help me up mate?"

Harry grabbed Ron's elbow and heaved him up as Ron fought to get his footing and lift Hermione at the same time. Being so still for all that time had given him pins and needles and as he stood he staggered a little on his numb feet. Harry grabbed him around the shoulders and steadied him.

"Are you ok?" he asked Ron without hiding his concern.

Ron somehow managed to smile at him.

"Yeah, other than flying through a window, I'm fine."

"Fine?" Harry raised an eyebrow, knowing Ron's code word for ' I'm shit right now but I don't want to talk about it '.

Ron looked him in the eye and nodded.

"Really."

That seemed to put his mind at ease and he turned to pick up the dead snake, hauling it over his shoulder and lighting his wand tip, before catching Ron's slightly disgusted look.

"What do you want to bring that thing for?" he asked his serpent wielding friend.

"Well it might help Madame Pomfrey and I also want to give it to Fred and George to be absolutely sure that the horcrux side of her is destroyed too."

Ron nodded and they set off back down the stairs and to the secret tunnel of the marauders.

Why is the hospital wing at the very top? What a ridiculous place for a hospital wing!

Ron was exhausted as he watched Harry running on ahead of him and throwing the doors to the hospital wing at Hogwarts wide open, shouting for Madame Pomfrey to come and help Hermione. Ron's spine was like a giant knot in his back now and he tried to stretch it out while keeping his balance with Hermione's weight in his arms but he couldn't quite manage it and staggered to his left. He righted himself and winced as Hermione's weight fell against his cracked rib before making his way through the double doors to the hospital wing and seeing the horrified expression on Madame Pomfrey's face at the sight of them.

"Don't drop her!" she was yelling as she shoved Harry aside.

Oh thank Merlin; I don't have to walk anymore!

Ron's relief seemed to hit his legs first and they promptly gave way under him. He landed hard on his buttocks.

Great, the one part of me that wasn't bruised now is!

"Here, give her to Potter and we'll set her on one of the beds," Madame Pomfrey instructed him.

Ron didn't even have it in him to explain the situation and just shook his head, leaving it to Harry to explain.

"He can't put her down, she won't let him."

"What do you mean she won't let him?" Madame Pomfrey scowled at Harry as if he was talking gibberish.

"It's the bond of blood, she can control him," Harry said as he gestured to the hoops around Ron and Hermione's arms.

Ron guessed that Pomfrey knew exactly what the hoops were and turned on Harry with wild eyes.

"Who did this to them? That is illegal magic you know?"

"Look," Ron suddenly snapped, "can we discuss our law breaking after you save Hermione please? She's been bitten by a bloody snake."

"Right, Potter, help me get him to his feet and over to the nearest bed."

They lifted Ron and guided him over to a bed.

"Get him something to sit on before he falls down," Madame Pomfrey said as Ron rested Hermione on the bed and crumpled his legs to try and give his back some relief.

Harry pushed a chair underneath Ron and helped him into it.

"Do you need anything Ron?" he asked as Madame Pomfrey busied herself pouring potions down Hermione's throat and casting spells on her hand and leg.

Ron smiled up at him tiredly. He really didn't want to complain while Hermione was in the state she was but if he didn't get help soon he was probably going to burst into tears.

"Actually my back is killing me."

Harry looked at Madame Pomfrey and she nodded into her potions bag at her side.

"There's a cream in a round blue jar, spread it along his spine, you've got to rub it in deep though understand?"

Harry nodded and rummaged in the bag, pulling out the jar and holding it up to confirm that he had the right one. After being given the nod he pulled Ron's jumper up his back and began to smear the cream all the way up his vertebrae. It was like a hand of fire burning away all his aches and pains and ironing out every crick in his bettered spine. He tried his best not to give a groan of satisfaction but the relief was just too great. He did manage to restrict his sound of pleasure to a simple sigh and couldn't help but laugh at himself.

"What?" Harry asked massaged the cream deeper into Ron's skin.

"It's just that I'd ordinarily feel weird about you doing this but it just feels so much better that I don't care."

Harry laughed too. Ron wondered what on earth Fred and George would've made of this scene; Ron cradling his girlfriend while being massaged by their best friend.

"So will she be alright?" Harry asked Madame Pomfrey as he looked down at Hermione.

"I have managed to stop her deteriorating any further, I notice you brought the snake Mr Potter, well done, I'll extract some of the venom and brew an antidote within minutes and then she'll be well on her way to a full recovery."

This news did Ron's relaxation a power of good and he felt his stiffened spine melting under the intense warmth of the cream penetrating his pores and doing its work. He jumped out of his state of calm at the sound of the doors bursting open though. He couldn't turn around far enough to see who it was but he knew that voice anywhere.

"Poppy what on earth is going on?" McGonagall said briskly, "Potter, Weasley...oh my goodness what happened to Miss Granger?"

Ron felt Harry pulling down his jumper again before jumping up to defend them against their former professor's rage.

"Professor McGonagall we were in Hogsmede and Hermione got hurt and we needed to get her help immediately and..."

"Weasley!" McGonagall snapped, interrupting Harry's explanation mid-flow, "That is not what I think it is around your arm is it?"

Ron let out a sigh and looked at the floor wearily, he didn't need that lecture now and especially not after the night he'd suffered as a result of the bond of blood, he hated the hoops just as much as Hermione did. Or at least as much as she used to, he was beginning to wonder about her and her need to always put them on him 'just in case'.

"It was necessary," Harry began, bravely fielding the question on Ron's behalf, "well in the beginning it was."

"And now?"

He could hear mumbling, Harry was speaking under his breath or maybe whispering to McGonagall, he couldn't tell. He didn't bother to lift his head. He rested it upon Hermione's warm body and let his eyelids fall closed for a moment. He'd just relax for a second or two, he thought, and then he'd look up again and see what was going on.

Except nothing was going on anymore, everything was quiet and still and black. He let himself be taken into the darkness for a well earned rest.

"Ronald, I want you to get some sleep tonight understand?"

Ron blinked and tried to make out the silvery shape that stood in front of the moonlit window in the darkened room. That voice sounded so familiar.

"And don't ever tell yourself you are a murderer for what you did today my dear boy, Peter died at his own hand with his own curse. You were, as ever, entirely honourable in battle."

"Thank you," Ron whispered to the figure.

"Now rest."

The figure was swallowed up in a brilliant white light and Ron's eyes were closed before the light had gone, his head falling and sleep embracing him again.

A/N Did you notice the good ol' verso spell saving the day again? I'm getting some good mileage out of that aren't I? Three fics it's been in so far, it's becoming something of a catchphrase of mine!

As ever I'm having my doubts about my action writing but this one did come much easier than all those previous attempts so I'd appreciate it if you could let me know if it's just my imagination or if this really does work.

Thanks to all who review and welcome back to Wayne who will be reading this after he returns from his holiday in Russia.

Shari