Chapter Twenty Two - Soul Transfer
Ron was fighting against a pressure on his chest, he assumed that Harry or Hermione was trying to stop him from leaving the castle but he pushed onward. Dumbledore was leading him out and over to the lake where his white tomb waited, for what Ron had no idea, and the silver spirit in the brilliant sunshine was almost invisible to him. He sighed at this; he had yet another person to barely see in his sleep state. Every once in a while Dumbledore would turn around and give him a reassuring smile and a gesture of encouragement to keep fighting against the two different forces that were now trying to hold him back, the pressure against his chest and a pulling on his arm.
The pressure suddenly left his chest while the pull on his arm only grew stronger. He tried not to pay attention to the shadows that darted around behind him. He knew he was out in the open, out in the daylight and that everybody knew now. Everybody knew what he was and what he could do. He was about to lose himself to the demands of the departed. He might as well do something useful for Harry before he was lost to him and Hermione forever. Whatever this involved he would do it for Dumbledore. This might very well be his last sane desicion.
Dumbledore reached his tomb and turned and waited for Ron to join him with a smile.
Don't make me regret trusting you old man.
"Never Ronald," Dumbledore smiled, causing Ron to start and wonder wether he had spoken out loud without realising it, "I didn't work so hard to earn your trust just to throw it away carelessly. Trust is a gift to treasure and I will tresure yours always dear friend."
Can you hear me?
"I've always been able to hear you Ronald; I just felt it rude to interrupt."
Ron almost let himself laugh but was distracted at the pull on his arm stopping abruptly. It seemed that the shadows were going to let him do what he had to. He stood before the tomb and looked at it, amazed that the panic hadn't reared its ugly and all too familiar head yet, and Dumbledore placed an arm around his shoulders.
"I told you Ronald, you have conquered the fear admirably, and although you can't ever forget it you will always know that you can control it. You are stronger than the sum of your fears, you always have been."
He smiled up at the man who had never seemed to notice him in life but who now appeared to know him better than he did himself and nodded.
Thank you.
"Now let us proceed with the destruction of this last independent portion of Tom's soul shall we? I need you to be standing on top of the tomb for me if you would be so kind Ronald."
Ron pulled himself up onto the smooth white surface and turned to look at his old headmaster for further instructions.
"Now I need you to summon Fawkes to me, lift your arms into the air and call out invenio intus orno viator, did you get all of that?"
Ron nodded and readied himself to send out the summoning spell.
"Good now prepare yourself Ronald, as soon as you begin you will feel a surge of power flowing out of you but you have to hold firm do you understand?"
When do I ever understand anything that bloody happens to me?
Dumbledore chuckled and Ron tried to remember to keep his thoughts in check as he took a deep breath and raised both his hands into the air.
"Invenio intus orno viator!"
Ron felt a ripple of energy leaving his body through his fingertips and held his hands up to the sky. He glanced down at Dumbledore who was looking up at the sky expectantly before beaming as the most beautiful sound echoed from somewhere within the forbidden forest.
"You can stop now Ronald, Fawkes is coming."
As he lowered his arms Ron saw the red and gold phoenix landing gracefully at his feet on top of the tomb and blinked with the shock at the clarity he was able to see this living thing before him. He squatted down and stroked the phoenix.
"Fawkes knows I am here but can not see me, can you please reassure him that you act on my behalf Ronald?"
Ron looked into the Phoenix's eyes and smiled.
"I know you don't trust me but he does so I hope that's good enough for you Fawkes."
Fawkes bowed his head and let Ron stroke the plumage on the back of his neck.
"Now I need you to stand above him and hold out both hands again for me, palms facing down at Fawkes, and hold him in place while you magically penetrate the flesh and dig out the portion of Lord Voldemort's soul, I know you know the spells Ronald. Fawkes will not fight against you. Please proceed."
Ron stood up again and took another deep breath before directing his hands down at the large bird at his feet.
"Obtineo! Permeo pulpa effodio..."
"Good Ron, now break off the soul from Fawkes' own!" Dumbledore said with enthusiasm.
"...abduco abrumpo!"
Ron felt the fragment of Voldemort's soul separating from Fawkes', rising up out of the bird's body and floating before him like a small puddle of crude oil floating in mid-air. As the soul was completely severed from the body of the phoenix the thick swirl of dark liquid seemed to become a kind of jet black vapour that swirled around looking for another host.
"Hold it for me Ron," Dumbledore said urgently, "Don't let it decide to see solace inside you, I have a place for it to go. There is a new vessel for it right here, tell Miss Granger I said that please."
"He says he already has it Hermione, right here," Ron said as he concentrated on holding the swirling black smoke of the released horcrux in one place as best he could.
Dumbledore was floating up to join him atop the tomb now and seemed to be shaking his head wearily before looking at Ron and sighing with amusement tinged with a little sadness.
"Was I really such an ogre in life? I cannot believe how little even my closest of friends think of me now that I am dead and gone."
Gone?
Ron raised an amused eyebrow as he smiled at the wizard.
"Well very nearly gone, maybe that's why they don't feel so bad to be speaking so ill of me."
"He's offended," Ron chuckled with a shake of the head, "he says you've all offended him."
"Now Ronald I'm about to do something that we've done many a time before but you have no recollection of so I give you fair warning that I'm about to join forces with you and that it will feel slightly uncomfortable. You may want to warn our onlookers that despite appearances I am not hurting you in the slightest."
Ron swallowed and looked over to a small gathering of dark shadows a short distance away.
"This is going to look bad but it doesn't hurt..." Ron said aloud before making a little addition while catching Dumbledore's eye as he moved behind him and out of sight, "...he tells me."
What felt like two ice cold spears entered Ron's body through his back and he flinched and felt himself go rigid as if he had been stabbed with something that was charging him with magical energy. Ron could see raw white sparks crackling between his fingers like mini lightning bolts as the black vapour moved away from Fawkes and became easier to control and contain. Ron felt Dumbledore speaking through him as he looked down at the phoenix still nestled at his feet.
"Go Fawkes."
The phoenix took off and flew back into the forest silently. Ron saw the soul fragment in the enforced containment between his hands and the surface of the tomb where Fawkes had been sitting just moments before and directed his hands back down at the spot at his feet for the extraction procedure. He took in a deep breath and began to force the vapour downwards while yelling a spell as he pushed.
"Occludo intus!"
This was hard, it was like professor Flitwick trying to push Hagrid through a quiddich hoop against his will, Ron gritted his teeth and pushed down against his own invisible cushion even harder. He watched as the vapour was slowly eased through the lid of the tomb and felt himself breaking into a cold sweat as Dumbledore's chilly presence within him filled him with another wave of power that was immediately channelled through his arms and into the pressure he was struggling to maintain on the slowly sinking fragment of Voldemort's soul. As the last of the dark gas vanished out of sight Ron wondered if Dumbledore really thought this could work.
"Are you sure about this?" he asked, his voice sounding strained as he panted with the effort it was taking to push the soul into the dead body below.
"You should know better than anybody that a body is just the container you leave behind to embark on the next great adventure, what resides within this tomb isn't any part of me, and I'm sure that victory over Voldemort will be a better monument to my life than this monument to my death don't you?"
Ron nodded and tried to shake the hair, damp with sweat, out of his eyes.
"I'm going to run out of time Ronald, when I leave you cannot be allowed to sleep here otherwise you will be destroyed also."
Ron's hands shook and he called out to the group of shadows.
"Harry when I fall you have to move me quickly, you have to get me off of here understand?"
I can't hold it!
"Just a few seconds more Ronald, I nearly have it anchored, you're doing so well, just two more seconds and then..."
The icy spears pulled out from Ron's back and he shivered at the sensation, feeling a lot weaker without Dumbledore's powers inside of him. He was still surging with a power of his own that needed to come out somehow as it was making him feel slightly dizzy.
"Let it go Ronald, do it now!"
Ron closed his eyes and released it all through his hands which were directed at the top of the white tomb.
"Erase it from existence Ron, Harry is at your side to get you out of there."
"Profundum annullo nusquam esse!" Ron shouted as he felt all the remaining power he had flow out of him and down into the tomb which began to vibrate and then shake beneath his feet.
He forced his eyes closed as a blinding white light grew more and more intense as it flowed forth from his palms and into the tomb, which was shaking quite violently now and he felt hot and cold all at the same time as he heard Dumbledore's voice wafting away along with everything else he felt around him.
"It is done Ronald, our quest is over."
He fell backwards and seemed to float before the cold sweat and the burning inside of him faded to nothing and Ron found himself swallowed up in the darkness once again.
Hermione had him pinned down by the wrists again; her favourite move while they were kissing and frolicking like the kind of lovesick teenagers they used to mock, while she sat on his torso and leaned over to kiss him with a mischievous smile of her face. He lifted his head to meet hers as she pressed her lips to his and then pulled back suddenly, looking as if she wanted something so badly that it scared her to be denied it, as if a chocolate cake had just come out of the oven but she had to wait for it to cool before she could get a taste and just wanted to burn her mouth and be damned.
"What's wrong?" Ron asked as he laid his head back down to get a better look at her.
"You'll tell me if you want me to stop won't you?" she asked as she leaned back over him and brushed her lips against his, "You'll tell me if you're feeling constricted?"
He smiled and lifted his head again to kiss her properly, deeply, before moving back and breathing in her sweet warm breath.
"I think I've got that problem licked now Minnie."
Hermione smiled and lowered her full weight down upon him.
"Well let's see what I can do about some of those other problems of yours then shall we?"
Ron groaned and rolled over onto his side.
"I bet you three chocolate frogs and a packet of Droobles that he doesn't wake up this time," Neville's voice said from somewhere.
Why does Neville always show up just as she's about to get dirty?
"You just lost your bet," Ron mumbled into his pillow with a lazy smile.
"Oh damn!" Neville grumbled.
You're fucking telling me!
Ron heard Ginny laughing out loud and opened his heavy lidded eyes.
"I thought I told you to go to class?" he said with quite a hoarse voice.
"Yeah, this morning, it's almost tomorrow now."
Ron sat up and frowned, Ginny and Neville were both sitting around his bed in the hospital wing and Hermione was sitting up in a chair right beside him holding his hand, and he saw Harry walking towards him with a smile on his face.
"If it's that late how come you two are allowed to still be here?" Ron yawned and rubbed his face roughly.
"Well we did get quite a fright y'know, you looked..." Ginny paused and narrowed her eyes at him before carrying on, "...kind of like you used to when you scared me as a kid. Remember that Ron? When you used to sleepwalk?"
She doesn't know does she? Please don't let her know.
"I think I remember doing that...once."
He tried to read her expression but he couldn't make out if she was telling him he had been well and truly sussed or that she was just very suspicious of his ' I don't know what you're talking about ' act.
"Those days are long gone now though aren't they?" Ginny smiled at him.
"Yeah," Ron nodded with caution, he didn't know if she was drawing him into a trap in order to discover the truth.
"Well I'm glad you're ok," she sighed brightly, she appeared to have let it go for now, "that was quite a heavy book that knocked you out y'know?"
Ron winced as he remembered the shooting pain that had shot through his head just before everything went black. It didn't hurt anymore but he rubbed the back of his head to see if there was a lump.
"Is that what it was?"
Ginny seemed content that he was alright, now that she had spoken to him, and said goodnight; leaving with Neville. Ron watched them all the way out until the door slowly closed behind them before glaring at Harry, if anyone had given in to her and told her the truth it would have been him.
"Does she know?"
"No," Harry shook his head vigorously as his eyes widened behind his glasses, "and don't worry she'll never speak of it again, she knows it's something you need to never talk about and she's ok with that."
Ron looked over at Hermione who was holding his hand with both of hers now and unable to meet his eyes. He looked back up at Harry, worried about what could have happened while he had been unconscious.
"So was I just good old fashioned knocked-out or did I have a bit of a wander?"
"Hermione'll fill you in," Harry smiled as he took a step away from the bed to leave himself and give the two of them some privacy, "but one bit of good news is we know who it is who's talking to you now."
"Who?" Ron asked, sitting up anxiously.
"Dumbledore, Hermione was right," Harry smiled at her and she just barely managed to smile back at him over her shoulder.
Ron placed his other hand over the two of hers and smiled what he hoped was a smile of reassurance at her but she was still unable to meet his eye.
"When isn't she?"
"Right well I'm going to go for a walk before bed, maybe pop in on Dobby for a bit, see ya," Harry said while walking backwards to the large double oak doors to the hospital wing.
"Yeah see ya mate," Ron nodded as he watched the doors closing slowly once again.
AS he looked away and back at Hermione, about to ask her what he had done to upset her, she broke down into floods of tears and threw herself at him. She clung to him as if she was terrified it would be the last time she'd ever get the chance to do so and buried her face into the side of his neck.
"I thought I was protecting you all this time and I was just hurting you more and more," she wailed into his skin.
Ron wasn't following this at all, how had she hurt him? She didn't throw the bloody book at his head did she?
"What's all this? You've never done anything to hurt me, well apart from asking McLaggen to the Christmas party but I kind of deserved that at the time what with..."
"The bond of blood!" she suddenly screamed as she pulled away from him to look into his eyes for the first time with her own, now bloodshot ones, "I was keeping you bound to me, chained up like a dog, and Harry saw it. He tried to tell me and I couldn't see it."
"Hey don't be silly Min, you weren't abusing the power, you just got a little bit heavy handed towards the end there, there's no need to get yourself into a state about it," Ron said as he hugged her close to him and began to rock her gently from side to side.
"But I was, don't you see Ron I was abusing it because most of those times you should never have even been wearing that hoop in the first place. I wouldn't have been able to get heavy handed with you in the shrieking shack if I'd have listened to Harry and stopped using the stupid things once we knew that we could trust the spirit."
Ron shushed her and stroked her hair gently but she still had more blame to heap upon herself.
"I threw you through a window Ron!" she said with painfully raw emotion, "I knocked you onto your back and held you down in that cave while you were going through the worst of your claustrophobia and I didn't even think about it, I just did it. I didn't think about hurting you at all, it was all about what I wanted and where I wanted you to be right then. I'm just as bad as those wizards who treat their house elves like worthless scum."
"Don't be stupid..." Ron scoffed before she cut him off.
She pulled out of his arms and began to pace up and down between his bed and the empty one next to it.
"I even said it Ron, I said it to Harry when he tried to get me to give the hoops up to him, I told him you were mine."
She dropped her face into her hands to catch the new wave of tears that hit her at that moment.
"Well I am," Ron said without understanding why he should be angry with her.
Hermione lifted her tearstained face to look at him and shook her head.
"I said it like I owned you."
Ron was about to pull back the covers and get out of bed to hug her again when she jumped forward and pushed him back down again and sat on the edge of his mattress with her hands still resting upon his shoulders.
"I took away your free will Ron, I made you hold me all night while you were hurt and bleeding, and I felt like I was being abandoned while you were right beside me simply because you weren't wearing the stupid thing."
"Min I..." Ron was silenced by Hermione's fingers covering his mouth and her agonised eyes staring deep into his.
"Ginny hates me now for what I've done to you," she whimpered, "I can see it in the way she looks at me, Harry too; they both think I've become addicted to the bond. They're right Ron. If I had the bloody things now I'd want to use them. I'm a horrible horrible person and I almost got you killed."
Ron took her hand away from his lips and held it in his own firmly.
"You didn't pull me through a window to kill me. I've just been putting you through too much worry recently, who can blame you for doing the only thing you could to try and keep me safe, hell Hermione if it had all been happening to you..."
"Don't make excuses for me," she choked as she looked away from him.
"Will you let me finish?" Ron snapped, causing Hermione's head to snap back and stare at him in utter shock.
Neither of them said a word, they just stared at each other while Hermione sniffed and wiped her face with her sleeve, and then Ron remembered what it was he had wanted to say so badly.
"All I've been doing ever since this sleepwalking thing first started is worrying about you. How much worry I'm causing, how badly I could physically and mentally hurt you without even knowing that I've done it, and how much better off you would be without me."
Hermione made a sound from deep inside and Ron wouldn't let her start crying again, he took her face in his hands and kept going.
"And then I said it to you remember?" she nodded and closed her eyes, squeezing out two more fat teardrops as she recalled their conversation when he confessed the true speed of his deterioration at the Burrow, "I told you to get out while you could and you wouldn't have any of it. You were proud to have been with me and you wanted everybody to know it no matter what kind of mess I ended up."
Hermione opened her eyes again and Ron leaned forward and kissed her salty cheek.
"Well there's nothing you could ever do to make me hate you or drive me away and you know why that is Min? Do you?"
She sniffed again and shook her head.
"Because you don't have a spiteful bone in your body and nothing you could ever do that may or may not have hurt me could ever be something I wouldn't be able to forgive you for because look at the state of you babe, look how upset you are about it. You're telling me you're power mad? The Malfoy's are power mad and I don't seem them tearing themselves apart over all the people they've hurt over the years."
"But I still want it Ron," she said with a broken voice, "I don't want the power of the magical binding but I want to know where you are every single second and I want you with me and I want to know that you're safe and..."
"You think I don't?" Ron blurted, "You seriously think I don't want all those things with you?"
She blinked and stroked the side of his face with a sad smile while inhaling with a shudder.
"But I don't even want to go over there and sleep in that bed because it's too far away from you."
Ron slid his hand around the back of her head and pressed his lips against hers, parting them and sinking into a deeper kiss, before leaning back and brushing a strand of hair behind her ear.
"Then don't."
Without another word he pulled back the covers of his bed and shuffled over to one side to make room for Hermione as she crawled in beside him. He threw the covers over the two of them and they curled their arms around each other and he felt her head nestling on his chest while he rested his chin on the top of her bushy brown hair and closed his eyes.