Chapter 48
The windy drizzle that accompanied the tail end of September became a torrential downpour as October rolled in. The corridors of the castle were cold and drafty, but not nearly as damp and miserable as the grounds. Being prefects, Ron, Hermione and Ginny were called upon to mind the first and second years during their breaks in between classes and after lunch until the storms tapered off. Ron in particular seemed to loathe this chore, but he managed to entertain himself by giving the cheeky little pipsqueaks he was watching Goblin names and then shouting out things like, "OY, BODRIG! Yeah, I'm talking to you. Sit down and shut the hell up," when they got too rambunctious. This of course annoyed Hermione to no end and they often bickered about it as they made their way to their own classes afterwards.
Harry, for the most part, ignored their squabbling. Niggling each other was one of their favorite past times after all, so he just walked along beside them when they started in on one another and left them to it. To the casual observer it might appear as if nothing had changed between Ron and Hermione, but Harry knew the truth and now that he did, he couldn't understand why he hadn't noticed the difference earlier.
Yes, they squabbled, but in a completely different way. The biting comments and scathing little remarks were no longer hurled with venomous looks or malicious intent. In fact, they were often accompanied by a barely concealed smile or a soft chuckle. As disconcerting as it was, Harry now realized that it was just how his friends flirted with one another. They'd been doing it for years without even realizing it and it didn't appear as if they were going to stop any time soon.
That's not to say they didn't have genuine disagreements from time to time, because they did. In fact there was a fairly significant argument about a week after Hermione's birthday that resulted in her storming into the Common Room muttering words like "reckless" and "prat" under her breath. Harry and Ginny immediately knew who the prat was, despite the fact that Hermione proceeded to march up to her room without so much as a word of explanation to them. And their suspicions were confirmed when Ron came clambering through the portrait hole a few moments later with a scowl on his face.
"What did you do?" Ginny barked, abandoning her Muggle-Studies homework to confront her brother almost as soon as he cleared the portrait hole.
"I didn't do anything," Ron said angrily. "It was her. She's the one that did it," he insisted, pointing at the staircase Hermione had just ascended, before pushing his sister aside and stomping off to his own room.
"She's right, you know? You are a prat," Ginny shouted at him, just before her eyes fell on Harry, who was still sitting on the sofa by the fireplace. One look was all it took for them to realize that they were both on the same page. Without saying a word, Harry stood up and the two of them headed up to their perspective dorms to see if they could get to the bottom of the matter.
When Harry entered his dorm, he found Ron pacing about the room, mumbling to himself in much the same way Hermione had been."So?" he asked, as he came into the room and shut the door behind him. "What happened?"
"You wanna know what happened?" Ron asked, as he stopped pacing and spun around to face his best friend. "I'll tell you what bloody happened. Hermione has gone around the bend, that's what. She's bloody well lost her mind. I mean I knew she was still a little paranoid, but this... it's just bloody ridiculous. She could give Moody a run for his money, that one.""What are you talking about?" Harry asked, now more confused than ever. "Hermione isn't paranoid."
"The hell she isn't?" Ron shot back. "When is the last time you saw her go out on the ground, or go down to the Library on her own after dinner? She doesn't even use the Prefects' Bathroom anymore because she doesn't like to be in there alone. "
"What?" Harry asked, more than a little taken aback by this revelation. He had noticed that Hermione had altered her normal routine a bit. She now went to the Library in the morning after a quick breakfast and right after her afternoon classes let out, but most of her evenings were spent in the Common Room. He'd just assumed that was because she wanted to spend more time with Ron, and himself of course. It had never occurred to him that she might be afraid to be on her own once it got dark.
"Are you sure?" Harry pressed. "I mean she has never been the type to spend a lot of time outside and it's not like anyone else has been going out there lately, what with the rain and all. You're going to have to come up with something a little better than that if you want me to believe that she's anywhere near as bad a Moody."
"She cursed the tunnel," Ron said wryly."Huh?"
"The tunnel leading to Honeydukes. She just bloody cursed it."
"WHAT!" Harry yelped, as shock and then outrage flooded over his body. "She did what?" he asked in disbelief. "Why?"
"Because she saw a rat," Ron replied, throwing his hand up in the air in exasperation. "Of course there are rats in there. It's a bloody tunnel. But would she listen to me? No. She went stark raving mad and tried to curse it."
"Why were you trying to go to Honeydukes," Harry asked, and then the absurdity of the question hit him. "Oh," he added, as the truth dawned on him, "you weren't trying to get into Hogsmeade, you were just looking for a private place to... Ok," he said, blocking that thought out of his head quickly, "so she cursed the rat."
"No, she missed the rat," Ron informed him. "And when the little blighter got away she cursed the tunnel instead; cursed it with some spell I've never even heard of. It was some Ancient Egyptian curse that Bill taught her over the summer. Fire shot out of her wand, and these hieroglyphic symbols formed in the air, then burst apart to form a barrier of some kind, and then it sorta shimmered before it vanished, but just because you can't see it, doesn't mean it's not still there. Bloody Bill, this is all his fault. What the hell was he
thinking teaching her how to cast shite like that? Especially when he doesn't even know the counter curse?"
"Wait?" Harry said, as his stomach dropped. "Bill doesn't know the counter curse?"
"No."
"So Hermione doesn't know it either?"
"No," Ron sighed. "Apparently that's what they were working on when he taught her how to cast it."
"So she can't lift it even after she's calmed down?"
"Nope."
"Well this is just great," Harry fumed, right along with his best friend. "That's the only secret passage leading into Hogsmeade that Filch doesn't know about and now we can't even use it. All because of a rat?" he asked incredulously.
"Because she thought it was Pettigrew," Ron corrected. "He threatened to kill me and apparently she took it literally. It wasn't, or course," he added when he saw his best mate blanch at this news. "Pettigrew, I mean. It was just your common variety rat, but she wouldn't listen. She said it didn't matter because he knows about the tunnel. And since he knows about it, she reckons You-Know-Who knows about it as well, and if he knows about it, he could use it or wait for one of us to use it, so she's blocked it off. Like I told you, she's paranoid. Even if she did know the counter curse, she said she wouldn't use it and you know how stubborn she is. Bugger it all," Ron cried, flopping down on his bed. "I don't know what to do," he said a few moments later.
"Nothing we can do, is there?" Harry replied rather resentfully. "Except for maybe write Bill and see if he's worked out the counter curse yet. We should probably warn Fred and George too, you know, in case they're ever in Hogsmeade and get it in their heads to sneak into the castle to surprise us."
"I mean about Hermione," Ron clarified. "I don't know what to do to make this better."
"You two didn't... call it quits over this did you?"
"What?" Ron exclaimed in surprise. "Of course not. I wasn't talking about our fight. I don't give a damn about that. I can fix that tomorrow. I was talking about her paranoia."
"Is it really that bad?" Harry said, as his irritation with her actions gave way to concern. "How come I haven't seen it?" he asked with a sigh, when Ron nodded his head. "Am I really that unobservant?"
"Naw, she's just better at hiding it now," the young redhead confessed. "She had me fooled for a while too. I mean, I really did think she was getting over it until that whole mess with the Boggart. That's when I started noticing things again. But they're subtle, you know? Like the fact she only goes to the Library or walks around the school on her own when it's light out and there are loads of other people around."
"She patrols the corridors at night when you have your prefect rounds."
"Yeah, but I'm with her," Ron reminded him. "Plus she has your map, so it's not like anyone is going to be able to sneak up on us."
"So that's why she wanted the map," Harry said softly to himself.
Part of the reason, Ron thought, but he kept the other reasons to himself.
"What else?" Harry asked, wanting to know the other signs he'd failed to notice.
"Well, there's the whole Prefects' Bathroom thing, and er...some other stuff I can't really tell you about just now," Ron reluctantly admitted. "Because of that whole Occlumency thing, you know? But... she's been working on this plan for a really long time. She only told me about it a little while ago," he added for good measure, "and... Well, I can't really tell you much more than that, except that it's...er... a bit ...um... extreme and er... probably not exactly legal and the fact that she'd go that far has to say something about how freaked out she really is."
"Hermione has a plan?" Harry asked calmly. "To beat Voldemort?"
"Not exactly, but it's still a ruddy brilliant plan," Ron replied, "But I... I can't tell you anything else so please don't ask me, because I..."
"...can't tell me," Harry finished for him. "Because if you do, Voldemort might get wind of it through me."
"I'm sorry, mate."
"You and me both," Harry muttered under his breath.
"Er...so how is your Occlumency going?" Ron asked cautiously. "Have you talked to Tonks about helping you yet?"
"Um... no," he admitted somewhat reluctantly, "but I will." If there really is a plan that might work, I want to know about it.
...................
Much to Harry's surprise, Ron did actually make up with Hermione the next morning. He was never quite sure how his friend accomplished it, since Ron beat him out of bed and managed to get down to the Common Room first. But whatever he did, he did it in record time, because when Harry came downstairs himself about ten minutes later, they weren't arguing, nor was Hermione giving Ron the cold shoulder as he expected. In fact, she was waiting for him at the bottom of the staircase looking rather nervous .
"Sorry," she mumbled almost as soon as he came into view.
"Come again?" Harry asked, convinced that he must have misunderstood her. Hermione had never apologized to him before. As a matter of fact, he couldn't remember her admitting that she was wrong about anything, ever.
"I'm sorry," she said a little clearer, but just as softly as before. "I'm still right," she added a bit louder, bringing her eyes up off the ground to find her friend gaping at her from the stairwell. "That tunnel is dangerous and none of us should be using it, but I...er... I shouldn't have done that without at least talking to you about it first, so I'm sorry. There are you happy," Hermione added, as she crossed her arms in front of her chest and spun around to face Ron, who was standing behind her.
"Yup," he replied with a smirk. "What about you Harry? You satisfied with that? "
"Don't gloat," Hermione snapped.
"Aw, come on love," Ron said softly, stepping forward until he was standing right beside her. "That wasn't so bad, was it?"
"Yes it was," she groaned.
"But you feel better, don't you?"
"No," Hermione stated, pushing him aside and stalking off towards the portrait hole. "You feel better."
"She's just a little embarrassed," Ron sniggered as they watched her walk away.
"How'd you get her to do that?" Harry asked, once the two of them had cleared the portrait hole and began following her down to the Great Hall for breakfast.
"Just turned on the Weasley charm," the tall redhead replied with a chuckle.
"No, seriously?" Harry asked, genuinely curious about Ron's newfound influence of their other best friend. "How did you make up with her so quick?"
"Practice," Ron stated and left it at that.
"More importantly, how did you get her to apologize?" Harry pressed him.
"Aw well, that was a little harder," Ron admitted. "I had to apologize to her first."
"But you didn't do anything."
"Doesn't matter, mate" Ron replied. "It's what she wanted to hear, so I said it. Doesn't mean that I meant it though. Well, not all of it, anyway."
"She probably didn't mean it either," Harry informed him with a slight smile.
"Probably not," Ron laughed, "but she still said it and we both heard her, so technically we won."
....................
The sixth year Gryffindors and Slytherins had Care of Magical Creatures together every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon. Their classes were usually held outside, seeing as how most of the magical creatures Hagrid found interesting were either too big or too wild to bring inside a castle full of younger students. The continual rainstorms caused a bit of a problem however, and after trying unsuccessfully to conduct Tuesday's lesson inside his cabin, which was far too small, Hagrid canceled their next lesson, giving them all a free period to look forward to.
When Thursday afternoon finally did roll around, the boys figured they may as well go down to Hagrid's anyway and use their free period as an opportunity to catch up with him. What with Quidditch practice, Saturday detentions, and the massive amount of homework they'd been bogged down with, they simply hadn't found the time to have a proper visit with Hagrid yet. However, unlike the boys, who had the rest of the afternoon free, Hermione still had one more lesson to attend after their free period and there was no way she was going to skive off Arithmancy, so Harry and Ron decided to wait.
Hermione of course, wanted to spend her free time in the Library, which wasn't exactly the break the boys had in mind. Ron insisted on walking her there however, and only once she was settled in and he was sure that Malfoy and his Slytherin cronies were nowhere in sight, did he follow Harry back up to the Common Room.
"Maybe we should go back," Ron said, as Harry gave the password to the Fat Lady and her portrait swung open. "Not to study," he amended, as he followed his best friend through the doorway. "But, we can play chess down there just as easily as we can up here."
"And that won't annoy Hermione at all, will it?" Harry chuckled, as he envisioned the scowl that would be plastered across her face every time she huffed and looked up from whatever she was reading. "Not to mention Madam Pince. She's liable to throw us out if she catches us doing that, even if we are quiet. "
"What if she leaves?" Ron asked, as he watched Harry flop down in one of the sofas by the fireplace.
"Well, she does have another class," he replied, his bright green eyes darting over to the structure Neville and Seamus were constructing out of Exploding Snap cards, waiting to see which one of them would blow it up.
"Not Hermione," Ron sighed, as he sat down in a chair opposite his friend. "Madam Pince. What if she leaves Hermione in there by herself?"
"Why would she leave?" Harry asked, directing his attention back to his best friend. "She's fine," he added, realizing for the first time that their bushy haired friend might not be the only one that was slightly paranoid, "but if you want to go back down, I suppose we could grab our stuff and..."
"Naw, you're right," Ron replied, whipping his wand out of his robes and pointing it at the staircase leading up to their dorm. "We'll just annoy her and the last thing I want is to have her hacked off at me tonight or all nights. Accio chess set," he said, summoning the box containing his chess pieces downstairs rather than going up to retrieve it himself.
"So you two are still plan on... going through with it then?" Harry asked, before summoning his own chess pieces down and busying himself with setting them up so he wouldn't have to meet Ron's eyes.
"Yeah," Ron responded, as he set up his own pieces and waited for Harry to make the first move.
Isn't he supposed to have last minute jitters? Harry wondered, as he sent his pawn forward to start the game. Try as he might, Harry just couldn't wrap his head around what was about to happen. It just didn't seem real. He kept waiting for it to sink in, but it didn't. But it is real, he told himself, as Ron sent one of his own pawns forward. They're doing it tonight after their Prefect rounds. They're actually going through with it. My best friends are getting married. Tonight. And Ron isn't totally freaked out. How can he NOT be freaking out? He doesn't even look nervous, Harry thought, studying the young redhead very closely as he moved another pawn forward.
They had been best friends for six years now and Harry had seen Ron in enough situations to know when he was agitated. He's seen him worried. He'd seen him nervous. He'd seen him frightened out of his mind. He'd also seen Ron in situations where he was afraid or anxious or both, and yet still resolute and unwilling to shrink away from the task at hand. But that wasn't the case here. He simply wasn't overly nervous or hesitant about what they were about to do. In fact, the longer Harry sat there playing chess with him, the surer he became that the calm facade Ron appeared to be wearing was in fact real.
That's not to say Ron was behaving completely normal, because he wasn't. He'd barely eaten anything at all during lunch and he'd been uncharacteristically quiet and subdued during their morning lessons. It was almost as if he'd spent the day in a perpetual state of preoccupation. Although what he was actually thinking about, Harry could only guess. He knew what he'd be thinking about if he were in Ron's shoes, but his best friend didn't look like or act like someone that had spent the better part of the day thinking about what was going to happen once the ceremony was over and his wedding night began.
How can he not think about it though, Harry wondered, as Ron put his bishop in play. They're going to have sex. He should be going out of his mind right now, but he's just sitting here like it's no big deal, playing chess."Why aren't you nervous?" Harry asked, surprising himself more that he appeared to surprise Ron."Oh yeah," Ron scoffed, "like you're going to beat me.""I mean about... tonight," Harry said, glancing over at Seamus and Neville to make sure they weren't close enough to overhear him and then lowering his voice anyway."Why should I be?" Ron asked casually.
"Oh gee, I don't know," Harry whispered. "How about the fact you're getting married in a couple hours for one?"
"You mean bound," Ron corrected him, knowing full well that they would only be betrothed to one another and not technically married until the union was consummated, which wasn't going to happen until after the Coupling Potion was finished. Of course he couldn't exactly explain all of that to Harry, so he tried to keep his answers vague. "So? It's not like that's going to change anything.""Are you daft?" Harry asked, totally thrown by his friend's blasé response. "It's going to change everything.""Like what?" Ron said, shooting Harry and odd look.
"Like everything," he replied."No it's not," Ron answered in a dismissive manner. "Not really," he amended himself. "I mean it's not going to affect us in any major way. We're not going to morph into different people or anything. Things will be pretty much the same tomorrow as they are today."
Except for the part where you're married and shagging, Harry thought. "Um... Look Ron," he said, flopping back in his chair and glancing at his companion uncomfortably. "I don't want you to take this the wrong way," he continued softly, in order to make sure that no one else in the room would hear him, "but Hermione is my friend and I...er... I wouldn't be a good friend to her if I didn't ask about your... uh..."
"...intentions," Ron finished for him. He'd been wondering if Harry was going to pluck up the nerve to confront him again, seeing as how the 'over protective big brother' responsibilities were normally his department and therefore not a role Harry was comfortable playing. "I thought I'd already made those clear.""I know that you care about her," Harry whispered.
"Love her," Ron corrected, keeping his own voice low."And that you'd never do anything to harm her," Harry continued, as if he hadn't heard him. "But this is all happening a little fast don't you think?" he asked, shifting his eyes to the floor as his cheeks flushed with color. "And I...er... well, I have to ask you if... um... You're not jumping the gun a bit just because you want to sleep with her, are you?""Jumping the gun?" Ron asked, choosing to focus on the Muggle expression his friend had used in order to buy himself a little time to figure out how to respond."You know what I'm talking about," Harry persisted. "Are you doing this now, because you want to shag her?""I could have slept with her before now if that was all I wanted," Ron finally admitted after a few moments of silence had elapsed.
"But you wouldn't have been able to cast this spell," Harry countered. "Because according to the books Hermione gave me, it only works on .... virgins," he whispered the last word so softly, Ron barely heard him. "If you sleep with her, you can't cast the spell, and if you wait to cast the spell, you can't sleep with her, so is that why you're doing this now. Because you are tired of waiting?""I'm doing it now, because I want her protected now," Ron replied in a low voice. "I wanted her protected before we left headquarters, but... well, that wasn't possible.""You still haven't answered my question," Harry informed him with a piercing look."Just because we cast the spell, doesn't mean... well, it won't change all that much as far as our relationship is concerned," Ron said with a sigh. "Besides making it more permanent," he added as an afterthought. "But it's not going to change how I feel about her and I'm certainly not going to pressure her into doing anything she doesn't want or isn't ready for just because I'll have more leverage, if that's what you mean.""It's not," Harry replied, "I want to know why you want to do this now. If it's not going to change anything, why not just wait?""Because I love her," Ron answered quickly. "Because I want her protected as soon as possible. Because I'm going to spend the rest of my life with her regardless and I don't see any reason for us to wait and get married later, when we can do it now. At least this way we're guaranteed to have a couple years together, but once we graduate.... I might not be able to promise her that. If the war is still going on, we'll all join the Order and there's no telling what could happen then. If something happens to me, I don't want her to look back and have any regrets. I know what that's like, because it's how I felt when they took her. I don't want her to feel like that. I don't want there to be anything left unsaid or undone between us. I can't promise her a lifetime right now, because I don't know how long I have, but I can promise her every day from now until then, whenever that might be.""Whoa," Harry exclaimed, as his eye went wide at the intensity of his best friend's statement. "That's... Wow! You ought to tell her that, you know, because it was... wow. But, nothing is going to happen to you," he added, after reflecting on the last few things Ron had said. "Either of you.""You don't know that, Harry.""Yes I do," the young man with glasses stated vehemently. "Because I'm not going to fall for any more of his tricks and I'm not going to let anyone else I care about get hurt because of me.""It's not because of you," Ron informed him sadly. "It's because of him. Because he's a sick twisted bastard and he has to be stopped. You aren't responsible for the things he does or for what we do either for that matter. We all make our own choices and Hermione and I choose to stand with you. You're not going to be able to keep us out of it. I'm not going to stand on the sidelines and let you take him on all by yourself. I'm going to protect my family, and that includes you and Hermione. I just hope she's able to understand that when the time comes.""Understand what?" Harry asked, studying his friend intently. "You wouldn't be planning on trying to keep her out of it yourself, would you?""You're damn straight I am."
"But you just got done telling me that I wouldn't be able to keep either of you out of it. What makes you think you'll be able to stop her?""I'll find a way," Ron stated with determination. "I have to. She already tried to sacrifice herself for me once. I'll be damned if I'm going to watch her do it again.""What about this plan of hers?" Harry asked. "Won't she need to be there for it to...?""No," Ron said quickly, cutting him off. "In fact," he added, as a new thought occurred to him. "She's going to have to stay well out of it for that to work." Because if she doesn't and we both get ourselves killed, there will be nothing to keep our souls earthbound and no way to get them back in our bodies, which means that CPR stuff she taught us would be useless. So she has no choice. She's going to have to steer clear of the action, which suits me just fine. I'm sure she won't be too happy about it, but it's her plan after all."That's all you're going to tell me?" Harry asked, once he noticed that his friend had retreated inside his head and was once again preoccupied with his own thoughts."That's all I can tell you," Ron replied. "For now. But you're going to talk to Tonks tomorrow after D.A.D.A., right?""Yeah," Harry sighed. He didn't really know why he kept putting it off, but he really wasn't looking forward to starting Occlumency training again, even though he was sure Tonks would be only to happy to help him. If she can, he reminded himself, because she might not be able to. Surely if she could Dumbledore would have mentioned it or even suggested it by now. Unless he thinks it's not important now that the dreams have stopped and we know that Voldemort can't possess me for any length of time. He can still spy through me though, which explains why no one tells me anything anymore. Not even my best friends.
"HARRY?"
"Huh?" he said, after being startled from his own thoughts.
"You are going to ask her if those partition things will help, right?" Ron repeated himself, seeing as how his friend hadn't been listening to him the first time he asked the question."Oh, yeah. The partitions. Right, I'll ask about those too. But I don't know if Tonks knows how to do that.""But Hermione does," Ron replied. "Although I'm not entirely sure she knows what she's doing when she does it. I think Dumbledore might have mentioned something about it being instinctive, but she can definitely look Moody in the eye and flat out lie to him, even under the Imperius Curse. Maybe they both ought to work with you," he suggested. "If that will help. But there is no point worrying about it until you talk to Tonks, right? So what do ya say we just try and forget all this serious stuff and distract ourselves by finishing the game?""Sounds like a good idea to me," Harry replied, refocusing his attention on the chessboard set up in between them.....................
The rest of the day seemed to fly by as far as Harry was concerned. One minute he was playing chess with Ron, and the next thing he knew, Hermione was standing in the Common Room beside them, fussing about how they were going to need coats if they still planned on going down to visit with Hagrid before dinner. This of course caught Harry off guard. Not the fussing, that was completely normal, but the fact that so much time had gotten away from them. They should have been watching the clock, seeing as how they were supposed to meet Hermione downstairs when her Arithmancy course let out, but they had been so wrapped up in their games, that after a while, they stopped checking.Luckily Hermione didn't appear to be miffed or put out in any way, so Harry assumed that she must have returned to the tower first, to get rid of her books and when she did, she obviously spotted them.
"Yes Mum," Ron scoffed, looking at Harry and rolling his eyes.
"Suit yourself," Hermione shot back with a smirk. "But just so you know," she whispered, as she sat down on the arm of the overstuffed chair Ron was seated in and leaned forward so only her friends would be able to hear her, "I have no intentions of catching your cold, so there will be no snogging once you get sick.""Oh yeah? We'll just see about that," he chuckled, grabbing her arms and tugging her off the side of his chair and onto his lap. Not that she stayed there for very long. In fact, she was on her feet and standing in front of him looking rather cross within in a matter of seconds."Well played, Weasley," Harry chuckled, once Hermione had snorted at him and gone up to her dorm to change her clothes."Aw, shut up," Ron retorted, rising up out of his chair and moving off towards the boys' staircase. "You coming?" he asked, as he mounted the stairs to grab a jumper and his coat."Naw, just bring my coat down," Harry replied, as he haphazardly swiped the remaining chess pieces off the board and into the same boxes, figuring they could sort them out later.Once they were outside, the boys were glad that Hermione had insisted that they bundle up, although neither was willing to admit it. Even so, they were drenched by the time they arrived at Hagrid's cabin, but as soon as he opened the door and let them inside, Hermione remedied the situation with some well placed drying spells.They spent the rest of the afternoon chatting with Hagrid, although he wouldn't say much about what he did over the summer, other than the fact that he'd kept busy. And he flat out refused to give them any information on what Voldemort might be up to, even after Harry got tired of beating around the bush and asked him outright."Heard 'bout what happened ter yeh o' course," he said apologetically to Hermione, after Harry brought up Voldemort. "Dropped everythin' an' volunteered teh join the search parties as soon as I heard. Course we didn' have the foggiest idea where ter start lookin'. Coulda bowled me over with a feather when we got word yeh'd made it out all on yer own. An' from what I hear, Ron has bin takin' good care o' yeh ever since," he added, winking at Ron whose entire face instantly became a blooming shade of red. "Bout time yeh two stop dancin' around it if yeh ask me."
"Which we didn't," Ron grumbled to himself.
"So what 'bout yeh, Harry?" Hagrid asked offhandedly, as he set a plate of his homemade rock cakes down in front of them. "Got yer eye on anyone in particular?""No," he answered adamantly, hoping Hagrid would take the hint and not press the matter if he responded fast enough. Unfortunately he failed to account for his best mate trying to shift the attention off of himself.
"I'm sure Parvati will be heartbroken to hear that," the tall redhead sniggered.
"No more so that Lavender will be when she find out that you're already off the market," Harry countered, effectively wiping the smirk off his Ron's face."Parvati eh?" Hagrid chimed in. "She seems like a nice enough girl."
"Can we please talk about something else?" Harry sighed in exasperation.
"How is Grawp?" Hermione promptly asked, effectively drawing Hagrid attention. "He must have been awful lonely out there in the forest all by himself all summer."
"Oh, Grawpy is fine. Jus' fine. Much more settled now. The Centaurs still give him a bit o' trouble if he gets too close, but other then that... Bin workin' with him on his English when I can find the time. He understands a far bit o' it now. Don't say much himself, unless he wants somethin'. Bin askin' if yeh was goin' ter come fer a visit ever since he saw you two in the forest with Magorian an' Bane," he said to Harry and Hermione. "We'll have teh wait until the rain tapers off a bit, o' course."
"Yeah, that's what's holding you back," Ron muttered to Harry under his breath. "The rain. It has nothing to do with the fact that his little brother doesn't know how to keep his gigantic hands to himself."
....................
After dinner, the trio returned to the Common Room and despite the fact that Harry knew he wasn't going to be able to keep his mind on what he was doing, he dug into his rucksack and pulled out his incomplete potions homework. He would have asked Hermione for help, but she disappeared upstairs almost as soon as they returned and she didn't show up again until it was time for her and Ron to leave for their Prefect rounds.
"We'll see you at midnight," Ron whispered, as he leaned down and gathered his discarded robes off the back of the sofa Harry was sitting on."Right," Harry replied, as he watched his best friends leave the room together. Midnight, he thought, staring down at his watch. That gave him just over three hours to finish his potions homework, nip upstairs and retrieve his invisibility cloak, slip out of the Common Room unnoticed, and then make his way to the Room of Requirement, where Ron and Hermione would be waiting to perform the Lànain.
Unfortunately, that might not be as easy as it sounded. Not if Ginny Weasley was still sitting at that table near the door working on her homework. In fact, Harry was going to be in trouble if she was anywhere in the Common Room when it was time for him to leave, because she was bound to notice the portrait hole open and then close.
She knows that you have an invisibility cloak, Harry told himself, as he stared down at his potions book, pretending to read, and if she follows you and figures out what is going on, Ron will kill you. This would have been a lot easier if Hermione had just explained it all to her, he thought. Ginny is reasonable enough. I'm sure she'd understand once Hermione told her why they're doing it. And even if she didn't, I doubt she'd interfere the way Ron seems to think she would. Besides, she's going to find out eventually. But
not from you, he reminded himself, as he set his book down, gathered the rest of his things together, shoved them all back into his bag, and retreated upstairs before he could unwittingly give anything away.
Why would she be hugging a first year? Harry wondered, watching Ginny place her arm around the little girls shoulder while he slowly inched his way towards the portrait hole. Of course once he was there, there was nothing he could do but stand still and wait for Ginny and the little girl to go up to bed, which took far longer than he would have liked.
"Took you long enough," Ron, who was standing in front of the tapestry of Barnabas the Balmy, studying the Marauder's Map said, even before his best friend managed to get his invisibility cloak off his head."Since you were watching the map, you must have realized that I was waiting for your sister to clear off," Harry replied, as he materialized out of thin air.
"Naw, I just checked a couple minutes ago and by then you were already out of the tower," Ron replied, pulling his wand out of his pocket and pointing at the folded sheet of parchment. "Mischief managed," he mumbled."Where's Hermione?" Harry asked.
"She's already inside," Ron replied, nodding his head towards the blank wall opposite the tapestry where the doorway leading into the Room of Requirement was concealed. "You know, reading over the incantation for the hundredth time just to be sure she's got it all down."
"What about you?" Harry asked, after Ron had paced back and forth in front of the blank wall three times and a door appeared.
"I pictured a crib sheet as one of the things I was going to need just now while I was walking," Ron informed him."Got everything else you need?" Harry questioned, as his friend reached for the doorknob. "You didn't by chance leave the most important thing in your trunk, did you?""BUGGER!" Ron swore, abandoning the doorknob to pat down the pockets of his robes when realized what he had forgotten. "Hermione only asked me if I had everything ten bloody times while we we're on rounds. She's already nervous about getting caught as it is, and now I'm going to have go back to our room and get the bloody things. She's going to kill me."
"Not tonight, she's not," Harry chuckled, producing an intricately carved wooden box from his own pocket and tossing it to Ron. "Consider my best man duties fulfilled," he said, as the redhead caught the box containing the Lànain talismans and his mouth fell open.
"Harry!" he cried jubilantly, as he stared at it box in wonder. "You're the best, mate. Seriously. You just saved my life. But, how did you know that I forgot them?""Well, that's my job isn't it?" Harry laughed. "To make sure you don't botch up your own wedding, or binding ceremony, or whatever the hell it is. And since you left for your rounds without going upstairs first, I figured the only way you could have had those with you is if you'd been carrying them around all day, so I went upstairs and checked your trunk. I didn't think you'd mind."
"Are you kidding?"
"So you're ready then?" he asked, decided now probably wasn't really the right time to mention the pornographic book he'd accidentally run across as he was searching for the charms. "You really want to do this."
"Yeah," Ron replied, after taking a deep breath and letting it out. "Yeah, I think I'm ready.""I see the nerves are finally kicking in?" Harry said, as he watched all the color drain out of his best friends face. "Finally sinking in, is it?"
"OH GOD!" Ron moaned, as he sunk back against the wall beside the door. "What if I do something wrong and mess the whole thing up?"
"It all seemed fairly straightforward to me," Harry replied. "Just let Hermione go first and mimic whatever she does."
"Yeah. Yeah, ok," Ron replied mechanically. "I can do that. I can do this. It's no big deal," he said, opening his hand and staring down at his sweaty palm. "It's just a few little cuts, that's all.""Maybe I should go check on Hermione," Harry suggested. If Ron was finally feeling the pressure he could only imagine the state he'd find her in, now that she didn't have any schoolwork or Prefect duties to obsess over and distract herself with. "You know, make sure she's ready and everything?""Yeah," Ron replied, stepping out of the way so his best friend could get through the door, "and Harry, tell her if she um... if she's changed her mind or anything, that's all right. No wait," he cried, when Harry reached for the doorknob. "Don't tell her that. I don't want her to think that I've changed my mind and I'm just too cowardly to admit it. In fact," he said, after taking another deep breath and hardening his resolve. "I'd better go in with you, or she's liable to think I've done a runner."
"All right, Hermione?" Harry asked, as the two of them stepped into a room that would have been an exact replica of the Gryffindor Common Room, had they not entered through a door instead of a portrait.
"What are you doing?" Ron asked, when he noticed that Hermione was hunched over one of the study tables, consulting an open book, with a piece of charcoal in her hand."Marking the right lines," she said, turning around and holding her left palm up in the air to reveal three black marks, two of which intersected to form a misshapen cross in the center of her hand. "We barely touched on Palmistry while I was still taking Divinations, so I wanted to make sure I knew which lines were which," she explained. "And I figured as long as I was checking, I might as well mark them, so we wouldn't make any mistakes.""What if that interferes with the spell?" Ron asked, as he approached the table she was standing at and peered down at the open book to find a Palmistry chart.
"It's just charcoal."
"Well, I know which lines are which," Ron replied, taking her hand in his and brushing his thumb back and forth over the lines until they disappeared, "so we won't be need that. Here," he said, dropping her hand and holding his own up for her to see. "I'll show you. This one in the center is the Line of Mentality," he informed her, as he dragged one finger over the horizontal line running across the middle of his palm. "It represents intelligence, so yours ought to be pretty easy to spot. But it also represents our magical prowess, which is why is important for the Lànain. This one," Ron said, placing his finger on the line that began near his wrist and stoking it upward towards his middle finger, "is the Line of Destiny. The Lines of Marriage are the hardest to spot, but I only have the one," he informed her, pointing at the small horizontal slash just under his little finger, "so that ought to make it fairly easier for you. Let me see you're hand again so I can find yours," he said, grabbing her palm, flipping it over, and holding it up so he could inspect it. "Hey! You've got two."
"I do not," Hermione said defensively, yanking her hand out of his and reexamining it herself. "It's just that one right there," she said, pointing at the deep line under her pinky."And what about that one below it?" Ron asked.OH NO! Harry thought, actually groaning out loud as he realized where this was heading. DON'T DO IT! DON'T MENTION KRUM, YOU IDIOT!"Er... Ron..."
"That's barely even a line it's so shallow," Hermione shot back defensively, "and it doesn't even come all the way around onto my palm."
"It still counts," Ron insisted. "I never realized you were that attached to Lockhart," he added with a smirk."I wasn't.""Aw, but you have a line," Ron sniggered, "and I seem to recall a certain someone sleeping with a get well card under her pillow.""Oh, shut up," Hermione groaned, as her cheeks became a lovely shade of red. "I'm never going to live that down, am I? You're going to spend the rest of our lives teasing me about it?"
"Pretty much," Ron replied, his bright blue eyes dancing with amusement.
"In that case I have two words for you," Hermione replied. "Fleur Del..""That wasn't my fault," Ron said quickly, effectively cutting her off. "And I don't have a line," he added, holding his hand out in the air to prove it."You still made a prat out of yourself," Harry chuckled."Thanks a lot, Harry," Ron mumbled, his ears going slightly red."Well you did," he reiterated with a smile."Yeah, well, I make a prat out of myself all the time, so what's the big deal, right?""Not all the time," Hermione said, taking Ron's hand in hers and running her thumb back and forth over the thin line under his little finger.
"Hermione?" he asked, the uncertainty ringing through in his voice. "Are you sure? Because we don't have to do this now. I mean, I...er.. I don't mind waiting and...""I'm sure," she replied softly, her eyes locked on his.
"Really?""I'm sure that I love you," she said, moving in a bit closer. "I'm sure that I trust you. And I'm sure that I want to do this," she added, as she grabbed a small dagger off the table and held it out for Ron to take.
"I don't want to hurt you," he said quietly, as he stared down at the blade in her hand."It will only hurt for a minute.""Will you... do you think you could go first?" Ron asked nervously.
"Okay," she said weakly, looking down at Ron's palm before glancing over at Harry, who had gone very quiet. "Will you hold the charms for us while we...um... start?" she asked.
"What?" Harry said in surprise. "Oh, yeah. I guess. If it'll help," he added, glancing at Ron, whose face was slowly draining of color.
"How do you want to do the last part?" Hermione asked Ron, as he reached into his pocket and handed the box containing the Lànain talismans to Harry. "One at a time, or together?"
"Together," he replied almost instantly."Are you sure?" Hermione said, as she stared into his eyes."Yeah, I'm sure," Ron said softly. "I don't think I've ever been more sure about anything.You're not going to cry are you?" he asked, when he saw her eyes glassed over.
"I might," she admitted.
"Aw, why do girls do that?" he complained.
"I love you," she whispered, before closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. "Are you ready," she asked, holding his right palm face up in front of herself.
"Yes," Ron responded, as Hermione opened her eyes and placed the point of the dagger against the center of his hand.
"The Line of Ability will bind you too me," she said, as she applied more pressure and traced the Line of Mentality with the sharp edge of the knife, leaving a thin trail on blood as she went. "Fate had conspired to make you mine," she chanted, as she repositioned the blade just under Ron's middle finger and dragged it down the Line of Destiny. "You belong to me," she said softly, as she cut the Line of Marriage on Ron's hand, then released it, and cut the same three lines on her own. "Your turn," she said, holding the knife out for Ron to take.
Seeing as how Ron's right hand was already bleeding, as was Hermione's left, he went to work quickly, and in just a matter of seconds their remaining hands had been pierced as well. No longer needed the knife, Ron chucked it onto the table and turned to Harry, who was staring at them both with wide eyes.
"All right there, mate?" he asked, when he saw the look of revulsion on Harry's face.
"What? Oh yeah. Yeah, I'm fine.""It's not as bad as it looks," Ron assured his friend. "Do me a favor though and open that box."
"Oh, yeah, you'll be needing these won't you?" Harry asked, as he removed the lid from the wooden box in his hand and held it out to Ron.
"Thanks, mate," Ron said, as he snatched one of the charms out of the box and placed it in the center of his left hand. "I better not touch the other one yet," he said to Hermione, who nodded her head and retrieved the second talisman herself.
"Ready?" Ron asked, once Hermione had the charm positioned in the center of her left palm, just like he did."Do you remember the incantation?" she asked, after nodding her head."Yeah, I think. I studied it, but there should be a crib sheet around somewhere, just incase," he said, his eyes darting across the table beside them. "Damn, where is it?" Ron asked, when he failed to see it lying there beside Hermione's book.
"Is this it?" Harry asked, snatching a half sheet of parchment off one of the overstuffed chairs and glancing down at what appeared to be a short spell. Although what it actually said, Harry wasn't entirely sure, because it was written in Gaelic.
"Let me see that for a second," Ron said, turning away from Hermione to read the spell over one last time, just to make sure he had it down. "Ok, I got it. Let's do this before I forget. Ready?" he asked, reaching for Hermione's right hand and pressing his own palm, and the charm he was holding, against hers, before linking their fingers.
"On three," Hermione said, after grasping Ron's right hand. "One," she said, pressing her palm and the charm she was holding against him. "Two," she said, linking their fingers in the same way he had. "Three," she said, before nodding her head and chanting the short incantation along with Ron.
As they reached the end of the incantation there was a short burst of red light between their interlinked hands and when they pulled them apart their wounds were healed and the blood gone, leaving only the talismans.
"It must have worked," Ron said, staring down at the spot where the slashes had been.
"There's only one way to know for sure," Hermione said, stepping forward as she took the talisman she was holding out of her hand and unclasped the chain it was dangling on. "If you can get this off, then we'll know didn't work," she said, holding it out in the air, but making no move to put it around Ron's neck.
"Well, go on then," he said, giving her one of his lopsided smiles. "Make me yours. Not that I'm not already."
"You shouldn't joke," Hermione scolded."What makes you think I'm joking?" he asked. "All right, I'll go first then," he added, unclasping the necklace he was holding, then gathering her hair together, shifting it to one side, and placing the silver chain around her neck. "What happened to that protection charm I gave you?" Ron asked, as he fumbled with the clasp of the necklace.
"I took it off a little while ago," she replied, shivering a bit as Ron leaned into closer to see what he was doing and she felt his warm breath on her neck. "It's in my pocket if you want it back.""That was a gift," he said, sounding slightly insulted as he pulled away from her."I thought this was the gift," Hermione replied, running her fingers over the chain now hanging around her neck."Not many women would see it that way," Ron retorted."Maybe that is because their 'husband' isn't willing to do it in return," she shot back, leaning into Ron and placing the charm she'd been holding around his neck."Well, I am now officially yours," Ron said happily, once she pulled away from him. "Whatever will you do with me?"
"I have a few ideas.""Well, that would be my cue to leave," Harry chimed in before Hermione got any further. "Congratulations and all of that," he said, grabbing his invisibility cloak off the chair he'd draped it over when he'd first entered the room and all but running for the door. "I'll see you two later.""Where are you going?" Hermione asked, clearly surprised by Harry's hasty retreat.
"To bed. Goodnight," he said, slipping through the door before either of his friends had time to say another word."Was it something I said?" Hermione asked Ron, who was laughing."Yeah I think so," he replied, as he slipped his arms around her waist. "Guess he didn't want to watch me kiss the bride."