Okay, I finally updated! Yay! I'm sorry, but I completely lost my train of thought over Christmas. So I wrote this during study hall. And check out my new fic! It's not HP, though. Kaysies, merry Christmas and happy New Year!

And this chapter is dedicated to my friend, Hima, because she wouldn't stop pestering me to write this chappie!

Sanctuary:

(Ron's POV)

Days passed. Then weeks. Eventually months. Three months, and they still hadn't found her. They told us she was dead, but I'll never give up hope. I just know that somewhere, she is still waiting for us to rescue her. Somehow, she's been right under our noses all this time. Maybe we were trying too hard…

(Nobody's POV)

Ron Weasley trudged down to breakfast early on Saturday morning. He was having nightmares about Hermione again. Why did she haunt him?

Ron sat down at his usual spot, where Harry and Ginny were already eating. They took one look at his bloodshot eyes, messy hair, and the dark circles under his eyes, and knew what, or rather who, had been bothering him.

They sat in silence, Ron picking at his warm plate of bacon, eggs, and pancakes with syrup. He took a sip of his pumpkin juice, but ate nothing.

"Ron, you can't keep going on like this. I hate to see you such a mess! You're my brother…" Ginny tried to talk to Ron, but he just looked away, lost in thought.

That was when Hagrid burst into the hall, carrying a bundle in his arms that was well the size of a human being. He ran up to the Headmistress, McGonagall, and showed her what he held so delicately in his big, burly arms. She looked shocked for a moment, and then rushed out of the Great Hall with Hagrid, looking alarmed an frightened.

"What was that all about?" wondered Harry aloud.

"Dunno. I wonder what it was Hagrid was holding," responded Ginny, a bit perplexed.

Ron just stared at the ceiling, oblivious to what had occurred.

"Ya know, I wonder…never mind…" Ron started to speak, but trailed off, slowly rising from the bench.

"I'm going for a walk."

When Ginny moved to get up and walk with him, he only added, "Alone."

Ginny sat down again, as Ron trotted sullenly from the hall.

(&)

"I never thought…Oh my…" Madam Pomfrey sighed, and started to work on the person lying on the bed in the hospital wing.

After a few moments, she came out of the wing, face to face with Headmistress McGonagall and Rubeus Hagrid. She grimly told them of the mysterious person's injuries.

"…mainly just spell damage, nothing very serious. A lot of cuts and bruises, and a large gash in her right forearm. Except…but we can't tell yet…but there's a chance of insanity, due to torture using the Cruciatis Curse…"

McGonagall and Hagrid just stared at her in shock, to startled to say anything.

(&)

Ron sat under the tree by the lake. He and Hermione had always sat there together, doing homework. He gazed at the peaceful scenery, until his eyes came across some red liquid splayed across the grass near the Forbidden Forest. Ron got up and sauntered over to the place, kneeling down to examine the goo.

It was blood.

(&)

I escaped…I escaped…I escaped…where am I? Who am I? Where am I going? I seem to know which way…should I trust myself?

What's this?

I'm bleeding. It hurts, it does. Why am I bleeding?

Oh yes, people in masks…and dark cloaks…NO! I don't want to remember.

Wait…how did I get here? Aren't they coming for me?

The others…did they stop looking? I never thought…who are they?

There…there! I can see it…what is it? Is it my sanctuary? It feels safe…I can't move…I'm…I'm…