A/N This finale will contain multiple swear words.

Chapter Twenty Four - Through the Foe Glass

He was sweating and he threw back the covers and rolled over to lie on his side but the movement sent shivers all over his skin. The covers were pulled back over him and he wanted to wrestle them back off him again but something wet and cold was being pressed against his forehead and it just felt so nice that he didn't want to move away from it.

He felt so hot and he couldn't understand why he was shaking so much. He couldn't find any position to lay in that let him be comfortable for more than five minutes at a time and every time he tried to toss in the bed and escape the heavy blankets that were piled on top of him somebody would lay him back down on his back and tuck him in tightly.

He shivered all the way deep into his bones and felt his t shirt sticking to his back. He was really hot but at the same time absolutely freezing. Something was wiping his face and there was moisture on his lips for a second or two before that uncomfortable feeling of wearing seven layers of winter clothing in the height of summertime overcame him again and he kicked out at the covers around his legs. If he could just get one leg out and exposed to the cool air then maybe it would cool the rest of him down enough to stay snuggled under the damp blankets.

He just barely got a foot lose when he heard a familiar voice and felt his leg being pushed back onto the bed and the covers being tucked back tightly again.

"...still on fire but the medi wizards said we have to keep him warm. His body temperature's deceptive and a slight chill could make him worse before he gets better."

Who was Hermione talking to he wondered? He thought about opening his eyes before feeling a spell hitting him and the option was taken away from him as he fell still and let the sleep weigh him back down again.

There was something in his mouth now, he flinched and tried to swallow but somebody pulled it out and laid him back down.

"No you don't, we'll have no eating of thermometers on top of everything else young man," the unfamiliar voice said before the sounds of heels clicking away into the distance made him realise that he was probably in the hospital.

Something took his hand while another, rougher touch rested upon his face, pushing his sopping wet hair away from his burning skin.

"It's still not broken then?" his mother's voice sighed as he heard a chair scraping along the floor.

"No but he's not got any worse so that's a good thing isn't it?" Hermione replied.

"What on earth did that Malfoy boy hit him with?"

Ron listened and wondered if he had drifted back into sleep again before Hermione's voice sounded again.

"He said that Ron told him he had to be sick, the sicker the better, and he beefed up the strongest hex for illness he could think of. He's told the medi wizards exactly the spell he used and the modifications he made but they haven't been able to speed up his recovery any more than they already have."

"Little ferret," Harry's voice was growling from somewhere across the room, "I bet he enjoyed doing that. Even came by this morning to gloat over his handiwork can you believe that?"

Sleep overtook him again and the voices faded into nothing.

Ron felt his skin itching from all the old and new sweat that was drying and reforming all over his skin. He fidgeted and groaned at his discomfort under the still damp sheets. Couldn't any of them cast a drying spell for him he wondered? He felt as if he was letting moisture out of his body like an overloaded sponge. Once again he tried to throw off his sodden covers while wriggling into a more comfortable position but he was being held down once again, he crumpled his face and moaned his displeasure at this interference while enjoying the coolness of the hands at the same time.

"Shall I go and find someone?" Harry was asking nervously.

"Yes please, Ha..." Hermione began before he heard his mother's voice interrupting her in the middle of her sentence.

"No Harry, I can deal with this, I have raised seven children you know Hermione dear, I think I know how to handle one of my boys with a fever better than some twenty two year old nurse at the end of a long shift."

Ron tried to open his eyes to scowl at his mother but only managed to huff with frustrated discomfort and grab at his clinging t shirt, ripping it off over his head, and toss it to what he hoped was the floor. That was better, his skin could breathe now.

"I'll get somebody," Harry was saying a little more forcefully now."

"Harry I said no!" his mother barked, Harry really was a member of the family now Ron thought, his opinion was worthless, "Hermione look in that bag down there, I've bought him some fresh ones, we can't put this thing back on him it's wringing wet."

There was a huff and Ron turned on his side away from the sound of his mother's voice. He remembered the look of fear on his uncle's face when he spoke about his sister in a rage and mumbled to himself.

"Even the dead people are afraid of her..."

There was a sharp intake of breath from all sides and another cool dry hand rested upon his shoulder while a voice whispered from close above him somewhere.

"Ron, what was that? Are you awake Ron?"

It was Hermione. He suddenly wondered what he had just said, it didn't make any sense to him, and he couldn't work out why he was seeing an image of his dead uncles Fabian and Gideon in his mind. Had he been having a dream about them or something?

There was a loud sound, like heavy doors bursting open and cheerfully loud chatter overpowering the sound of multiple footsteps. Ron tried again to throw off the thick blanket that was sweltering and the voices stopped.

"What's going on?" Ginny's voice demanded.

"Ron's getting very uncomfortable and trying to cool himself down but your mother won't let Harry go for a medi wizard," Hermione said pointedly.

Oh no Hermione she's going to kill you!

"He doesn't need a medi wizard he just needs to get into some dry clothes," his mother snapped back.

"Look at him," Ginny was almost yelling as the sound of her unmistakeable footsteps stomped over to his bed, "he's dripping wet mother, if she puts that on him it's be soaked in seconds. Harry go and get a mediwizard right now!"

There was a weighty hush in the room and Ron turned all the way over onto his front, anything to peel his back away from that mattress, it felt as if it was becoming a part of him.

"Glass houses..." he murmured from absolutely nowhere, what was he talking about?

"Right, I'm going to get somebody if the rest of you are too afraid to stand up to her," Ginny said haughtily before her footsteps faded down what sounded like a very long corridor.

"Blimey," the sound of one of the twins gasped.

"Um Harry mate," the other one said nervously, "how about you come with us for a cup of tea or something? You've been sitting here all night?"

Ron heard Harry practically running for the door with the twins and the sound of it slamming behind them.

Then there was silence. Ron listened; he breathed into his moist pillow and soon felt an icy chill running down his back where the covers had been thrown back. He kicked out again in frustration, he was either boiling hot or freezing cold, and soon the covers were pulled back over him again, making him feel comfortable for almost a whole minute before the sweating began again. Still there was silence.

He could feel the tension in the room, on either side of his bed, and almost jumped out of his burning skin when the doors boomed open again and Ginny led a group of obviously very intimidated medi witches and wizards over to his bedside.

"Do something," she instructed.

"Miss Weasley, we can't force a fever to break, it will do so when it's ready."

"But he's dehydrating, you're cooking him!" Ginny snapped.

"Ginny we've been giving him water," Hermione began before getting cut off yet again.

"Ginevra Weasley where are your manners?"

A mediwizard cleared his throat.

"Thank you Mrs Weasley, I understand that the three of you are concerned, it has been almost a whole day since your son was brought in but we are doing our very best to..."

"I'm sorry young man, how many children have you raised?" his mother said pointedly.

"Um well, none, I'm not married."

"I thought not, now I know how to sweat a fever out of one of my own children and I don't need my daughter or a bunch of students..."

"Mrs Weasley I'm fully qualified..." the medi wizard began.

"Students!" Ron's mother's voice seemed to be so high pitched that he wondered if his eardrums would ever recover, "Telling me otherwise, now leave us be and I will send for you if you're needed."

Ron heaved an enormous sigh and wished they would all just go away to let him pull his blankets on and off of himself to his heart's content.

"Ron?" Hermione's voice said, sounding relatively calm considering all that was going on around her.

"Out of my way, I'm getting him to drink something," Ginny was saying just before a flash brightened the world outside his closed eyes, "Ennervate!"

Ron didn't need waking up with all this commotion going on around him and he simply turned back onto his back and threw back the top blanket while pulling the thin sheet tightly around his shoulders.

"Ron?" Ginny was saying, her voice having lost all its furious determination and sounding a little wary now.

"Quickly out of the way," the mediwizard who was so nervous and intimidated just moments before instructed and Ron felt a hand pressing hard against his forehead while another pushed two fingers into his wrist.

"What...Why didn't that wake him up?" his mother was saying in a shockingly timid voice.

"What's going on?" Hermione's raw sounding voice whimpered.

Ron felt one of his eyelids being pulled open and a bright light shining into it. He winced and pulled his face away, grumbling as he turned over onto his side.

"'Mawake..."

Something sounded like Hermione gasping before her unmistakeable touch grabbed his hand as the mediwizard seemed to hold in a laugh and pull back from his bedside.

"He didn't wake up because he was already awake Mrs and Miss Weasly, I think he was just trying to ignore you and get some sleep."

There was a loud bark of highly amused laughter from the far side of the room and Ron recognised it as his father's laugh. He didn't even know his dad had been there this whole time.

"Ronnie?" he heard his mother saying close to his face as she stroked his wet hair.

"His fever's broken Mrs Weasley but I really do think we should all just give him some peace if that's what he wants don't you?" the mediwizard said.

"Yes, yes of course, and I'm so sorry for speaking to you the way I did I'm so ashamed of myself I..."

"It's alright Mrs Weasley," the mediwizard chuckled, "I'm the youngest of five myself, if you think you're bad you should meet my mother!"

Ginny laughed the most incredible sounding laugh that echoed through the room like bells ringing, she sounded relieved and incredibly happy in that one exclamation.

"Well I don't know about you but I'm going to tell Harry and the twins the good news and join them in a cup of tea," Ron's father said as the sound of multiple footsteps leaving the room drifted away on the other side of the room.

"Yes Arthur, I think Ginny and I need to take a break from here for ten minutes or so," his mother said, "unless you wanted to go Hermione, I could sit with him for a little while longer until you get back?"

"No thank you Mrs Weasley, I'll keep him company until you get back, its fine."

Ron tossed over onto his back again and the covers shifted down a little further as the retreating footsteps of his family faded away until cut off altogether by the gently closing door. He was still bare-chested and covered in a damp sheen from his latest outpouring of sweat and the cool air of the room made the moisture chill him like ice. He shivered and curled up into the foetal position on his other side. He heard Hermione shifting in her seat and then felt the blankets being pulled back over him, sending away the icy feeling immediately, and he let out a groan of satisfaction before feeling something soft brush against his cheek.

For the first time, not counting his eyelid being forcibly opened by the mediwizard, since they fell closed with the flash from Malfoy's wand Ron's eyes opened and he saw Hermione's face moving away from his own where she had just gently kissed him. She saw him looking and smiled.

"When you're better I'm going to make you pay for that," she said warmly as she sat back in her chair at his bedside.

"Wha?" Ron managed to say with an almost shrug.

"Trying to pull a Lavender on me and pretending to be asleep," she smirked.

Ron's lips twisted into the slightest of smiles as his eyes closed again and he was finally able to drift off again in complete silence.

Ron was passing by several open doors of private wards along his wing as he returned from a much needed shower and heard a familiar sounding yell of disapproval as he moved by one particular open door.

"Weasley did nobody think to tell you that wandering around barefoot does nothing to cure a fever?"

He back tracked a little to peer into the room and saw Snape sitting up in bed flexing a very impressive looking false arm. It wasn't quite as fluid and realistic as Pettigrew's had been but it looked as if it had quite a few interesting gadgets on it.

"Oh hello Professor Snape, I heard you...had a bit of an accident."

"An accident Weasley?" Snape said as he raised his eyebrow and looked down his nose at Ron who pulled his open bathrobe around himself defensively.

"Well alright, maybe not an accident but she didn't know you were on our side at the time, she's really sorry."

Snape looked away from him and at the wall directly ahead.

"So she repeatedly tells me."

Ron took a step into the room and tried not to laugh.

"So they gave you...a new one."

Snape's eyes moved back to fall on Ron while his head stayed rigid.

"You noticed."

Ron cleared his throat and took another step into the room.

"Yeah, it's cool; you can really...intimidate the first years with it."

"I needed a false arm for that did I?" he said as he turned his head back to stare right into Ron with both dark eyes.

"Yeah well I'd better be going," Ron said as he started to back out of the room once again, "like you said, I should put something on my feet, I don't want to get cold."

Snape nodded and looked away again before suddenly calling out sharply just as Ron was about to hasten from the room.

"Weasley one more thing."

Ron turned and saw Snape picking up his wand with the fake arm and rolled it between his fingers with his leather bound mechanical fingers.

"What's that?" he said as he nervously watched Snape grip the wand firmly.

"I won't make the same promise as all the others, I know I wouldn't be able to keep it," he sneered matter-of-factly.

"What promise is that?" Ron asked, fearing that he already knew the answer.

"The promise not to come looking for you, to exploit that little...talent of yours," Ron drew in a shuddering breath and wished that he had his wand on him right now, "I can't make a promise like that, it would be a lie."

Ron swallowed and flinched as Snape quickly flicked his wand. The wand wasn't directed at him though; Snape had directed the spell at himself.

"Obliviate!"

There was a flash and Snape shook his head and looked back at Ron with distain.

"Get out of here Weasley, go and ride Potter's coat tails out of poverty and leave me in peace."

Ron tried to say something but all his voice could do was croak.

"I said out!" Snape bellowed.

Ron swallowed again and nodded as he backed out of the room.

"Thank you sir," he whispered.

"What?" Snape scowled as he put his wand back down at his bedside and winced at the sound of his false arm squeaking.

"Nothing sir, nothing at all," Ron said as he reached the door and paused to take in the sight of his most hated teacher who had just done the most wonderful thing in the world for him, "Um you might want to oil that sir, the students will hear you coming."

Snape looked about ready to spit with rage as he growled back at Ron.

"Leave me in peace Weasley."

"But you could get a cool nick-name out of it..." Ron found himself blabbering, "...like Mad-Eye Moody. You could be S...Scary-Arm Snape!"

Snape's mechanical fingers twitched towards his wand and Ron almost ran from the room in fear for his life, practically falling over a hysterical Draco Malfoy in the process.

Ron had dragged Hermione away from the welcome home party at the Burrow and into Percy's long abandoned bedroom.

"What are you doing?" she giggled.

"What I can't bloody do down there in front of everyone without getting ribbed mercilessly," he grinned before pushing her into the corner of the darkened room and kissing her with as much intensity as he had the very first time.

She relaxed in his arms and let herself sink into the kiss with a smile on her lips. He ran his hands down her sides and rested them upon her bottom. She squealed and broke away with a giggle that sounded most unlike her real laugh.

"Ron!"

"What?" he said with a wicked grin, "I'm sick of bending over all the time."

With that he lifted her up, supporting her by her buttocks, and she curled her legs around his waist as their lips met once again in a series of shorter but equally passionate kisses.

"Let me lay down with you," she gasped in between kisses, while tugging at his hair, an after effect of her slowly diminishing 'primal' side.

Ron chuckled and shook his head as best he could with her clutching fistfuls of his shaggy hair.

"Why not?" she demanded as he trailed little kisses along her neck.

"Because you just want to pin me again and I'm going to be the dominant one for a bloody change."

She laughed before pulling back his head, her fingers gently but firmly tugging him away from her skin and holding him just where she wanted him.

"Who's the dominant one now?" she smiled before gliding her own lips along his exposed neck until she closed them over his mouth and loosened her hold on his hair and curled her arms around his neck.

"I'm glad you're better now Min," he sighed into her hair.

"What?" she asked as she turned and nibbled his earlobe.

"I've noticed that you've been letting me out of your sight a lot more since I got out of hospital, and you destroyed the bond of blood yourself, Harry didn't have to take them away from you or anything. I'm just glad you're ok that's all."

He closed his eyes and kissed her on the lips again. He opened them when he felt her hand resting upon his cheek.

"What is it?" he frowned.

"I might let you go off without insisting on going with you or holding your hand the whole time but I still watch you y'know?" she said almost guiltily.

He smiled and kissed her again.

"I know," he said as the broke away from each other again, "I can feel your eyes on me."

She smiled and slid back down his body to rest her feet on the floor again. She pulled Ron down to kiss her by the back of his neck, then let him stand up straight again, taking both of his hands in hers and interlacing their fingers playfully.

"I don't want to be alone tonight," she looked up at him with her huge brown eyes, "will you stay with me?"

Ron cupped her face in his hand and brushed his lips against hers before resting his forehead against hers and smiling.

"Of course."

Ron woke at the sudden icy sensation of a bony silver-coloured hand being clamped over his mouth and he opened his eyes to see a pair of blood red slits glowing in front of his face. A serpentine face grinned and the red slits narrowed, it was Voldemort.

Ron tried to shake off the hand but was rendered immobile by the other claw like hand plunging into his chest, making him go rigid as an intense power flowed into him with so much ferocity it seemed to burn his insides, and the thin lips parted and hissed a spell that surged into him.

"Aegresco egresco accelero!"

Ron's body arched as the accelerated double strength fever was channelled into his body and his skin seemed to crackle as if he was being roasted over a spit. He tried to cry out but Voldemort cast the silencing spell on him and all that had escaped was a small whimper. Voldemort withdrew his hand from Ron's chest and moved towards his face, extending two fingers to his eyes, and lowered his eyelids while Ron tried desperately to wriggle out from under the spectre of the dark wizard.

Suddenly he felt something soft and warm holding him down and touching his face.

"Ah that's it little mud-blood," Voldemort hissed with pleasure, "Hold him down for me while I finish this."

Hermione no, please no!

"She thinks your fever is the reason you are writhing boy, worried you are having a relapse, she will wake you soon enough to get you back to the hospital."

Don't wake me Hermione please don't wake me, remember what I always told you...

Ron's eyes struggled to open, if she could see that he was in a trance she wouldn't wake him, if she knew he wasn't really asleep she wouldn't try to revive him, he had to open his eyes. He couldn't let himself wake up as Voldemort beside her in bed. He couldn't let this happen. He couldn't let Voldemort kill her with his body. Ron struggled to lift his arms to his face to try and force his eyelids open again but Hermione was trying to restrain him, thinking he was thrashing as he had been in the hospital before.

"Here it comes boy, give my regards to Dumbledore while you're down there won't you?"

NO!

Ron was falling and screaming until he landed upon something spongy and began to sink down into it.

"Fabian, Gideon, help him find his feet!" Dumbledore said urgently.

Ron felt himself pulled up to his feet by the two figures he knew to be his dead uncles, his mother's brothers. He looked around himself and saw what looked like a glass house with every pane shattered. There were lace structures that seemed to form streets and further out some kind of forest and distant mountains but everything looked broken. It was as if something had been intricately carved out of snow and then placed beside a blazing fire. There was a howling wind that cut through him as the ghost of Dumbledore ran from the side of a sobbing woman on the floor and grabbed Ron by the shoulders.

"He's out," Ron panted as he looked into the translucent grey eyes, "she woke me, I tried to stop her but I couldn't."

"It's ok Ronnie," one of his uncles was saying while looking at Dumbledore and seeming to silently plead that he had a solution, "we'll think of something I promise we will right Albus?"

"Right?" the other twin said, looking terrified.

Dumbledore looked back into Ron's desperate eyes sadly and didn't say a word. Ron pulled out of his grip and kicked out at something translucent that shattered into tiny crystal fragments and put his hands on his head.

"He's powered-up, he made me sick before she woke me, that's why she woke me, he made her think I was...Oh Merlin," Ron crumpled to his knees and one of his uncles crouched down and held him, "he's with her. I left her with him. I left her!"

"No you didn't Ron, you didn't leave anyone, and we can fix this I promise. There's some way we can fight this, we can fight him from down here I'm sure of it."

Ron was shuddering on his knees as the sobbing woman crawled across the floor to him and took one of his hands.

"I'm so sorry Ron, I tried to make him see, I tried to keep him with me but he's an animal," she choked on her own words, "a monster!"

"Who the fuck are you?" Ron pulled away from her and tried to stand but he found that he couldn't get any kind of purchase on the non-existent floor.

"Ronald this is Merope," Dumbledore said as he lifted the wailing woman to her feet, "he doesn't remember you my dear, don't take it personally."

One of Ron's uncles heaved him up to his feet and held him in place.

"Stand, ok? The floor is solid as long as you want it to be, if you think of it as soft then it's swallow you up. It's solid, keep telling yourself it's solid."

Ron nodded and tried to think straight.

"He's going to go after Harry, Harry's only upstairs," he began to ramble as he paced up and down, "and my mum and dad are asleep. He's gonna kill them all, he gonna make me kill them!"

"Ronald please, you can not help them or us by panicking now please try to stay calm," Dumbledore said as he stepped away from Merope and towards Ron.

"Calm?" Ron snapped, enraged at the lack of concern Dumbledore seemed to be showing this situation, "This is your fucking fault, if you'd have just stayed the hell out of my bloody head..."

"We would never have defeated Tom in the first place," Dumbledore interrupted.

"You call this victory? He's alive now, don't you understand? He's..." Ron felt as if he was hollow inside, "...me!"