Chapter 65

Chapter 66 on Checkmated

"MR. WEASLEY!" Professor McGonagall's disapproving voice echoed through the room with the force of a small bomb being dropped.

"It's not what you think," Ron replied almost instantly, his eyes going wide with alarm as he glanced at his best friend and sister, obviously hoping for a little help, and took a step away from his glowering Head of House. "I have one too," he stammered, when neither of them came to his rescue, yanking the collar of his jumper down far enough for McGonagall, and everyone else present, to see the silver charm hanging around his neck. "So it's not like I was trying to..."

"You allowed yourself to be collared with a Lànain talisman?" Snape hissed, nearly as horrified as McGonagall, albeit for a completely different reason. "Have you no pride?"

"What I think," McGonagall shouted, her nostrils flaring with outrage as she stood upright once more, "is that you are going to remove those wrenched things this instant! It's disgusting, absolutely disgusting. I'm appalled, Mr. Weasley, that you of all people, would stoop so low as to use an object like that. Let alone against a Muggle-born, who couldn't possible understand the ramifications of..."

"She does too understand," Ron snapped, clearly on the defensive now. "I told her everything including the fact that thing will allow me to protect her."

"Control her, you mean," McGonagall corrected. "I highly doubt that she understood..."

"She does too," the redhead insisted.

"...that by accepting that charm and allowing you to hang it around her neck, she was in effect betrothing herself to..."

"We're not betrothed," Ron interrupted, crossing his arms in front of his chest and looking surprisingly defiant. "We're already married."

"EXCUSE ME!" McGonagall exclaimed loudly.

"You're what?" Snape asked at nearly the same time, clearly as stunned by this revelation as his colleague was. "The stairs," he said accusingly, jabbing his finger in Ron's direction as all the pieces suddenly clicked into place. "That's how you beat the stairs and enter the girls' dormitory. Found yourself a nice little loophole, did you? Thought you'd take advantage of it?"

"Now, Minerva," Professor Dumbledore said, reading the expression on her face and interceding before the situation truly got out of hand. "What's done is done and can not be undone."

"He can and will remove that thing from around her neck," she insisted.

"That would change very little, I'm afraid," Dumbledore stated. "Those talismans are not the only magical bond tying them together, you see. They've also taken a Coupling Potion," he stated, looking pointedly at Snape as he did so.

"Of all the half-baked schemes and ill conceived stunts you three have pulled over the years that has to be the topper," the Potions Master hissed, managing to look both incredulous and exasperated at the same time. "One can only guess what you had to do to get your hands on the ingredients needed, and for what? Coupling Potions are all but worthless, you imbecile. Provided you can even figure out how to sort through the maelstrom of emotions bombarding you long enough to discern your own feelings from hers and function normally, you've bought yourself two weeks at best. Hardly the lasting magical bond you were looking for and not nearly enough to be deemed a legal form of marriage. It took longer for Granger to brew the potion."

"That just goes to show what you know," Ron said sarcastically, "because not only have we figured it out, we've been connected since October."

"Have you completely lost your minds?" Snape shouted, sounding more alarmed than he did angry, which surprised Harry. One didn't normally show cheek to Professor Snape and get away with it. "Two months?" he asked in disbelief. "You can't do that, you fool."

"Then it was surprisingly easy for something that can't be done," Ron mumbled.

"It can be done," Snape retorted, the anger Harry expected long ago finally seeping back into this voice, "But there is a reason it is not. At least not by anyone with half the sense of a mountain troll. The longer you're connected, the more dependent you'll become on the feedback you receive through the bond. If you don't sever that link now, you never will," he stated ominously, "at least not willingly. And when you are finally forced to do it, it will be like loosing one of your senses. The longer you maintain that bond, the more detrimental it will be when the connection is severed."

"Am I to understand that you knew about this?" McGonagall said, whirling around and locking her furious gaze on Professor Dumbledore, who was kneeling over Hermione, examining her as best he could without physically touching her.

"The potion and it's repercussions, yes," the Headmaster replied, extending one palm over Hermione's forehead and holding it millimeters from her skin as he skimmed his wand down her torso, "But the talismans came as a bit of a surprise, I must admit. Mr. Weasley," he said, addressing Ron without bothering to look up. "I believe your wife has merely exhausted herself, but it would be most helpful if I had your permission to touch her."

"What?" Ron asked, not really understanding what Dumbledore was asking him for and then it clicked into place. "Oh," he said, realizing that the Headmaster was being overly cautious because he didn't want to unwittingly call forth the talisman's magic and wind up being hurled across the room like Lavender Brown. "Yeah, go ahead," he replied, his ears flushing in a way they hadn't when McGonagall and Snape were berating him. "But I thought that only worked against people I don't trust. I mean, Harry's touched her plenty of times and nothing's ever happened to him."

"Merely a courtesy," Dumbledore said, allowing his palm to fall against Hermione's forehead momentarily, before leaning down even further to examine the charm hanging around her neck. "I find it is always wise to ask first. May I?" he asked again, nodding his head towards the talisman.

"Yeah, okay," Ron replied.

"Toujours pur," Professor Dumbledore read the words engraved on the back of the charm out loud after spinning it around and examining it closely. "I'm sure Sirius would have been most amused by the irony," he said with the slightest trace of a smile. "Apparently Kreacher wasn't the only one to rescue a few choice items from the purge taking place at Grimmauld Place."

"You're not going to tell my Mum, are you?" Ron groaned. "Please Professor it's not what it looks like. At least talk to Hermione first so she can explain."

"Potter," McGonagall barked, instantly drawing Harry's attention away from Ron and onto herself. "If you and Miss Weasley would be so kind as to take Miss Granger up to the hospital wing," she stated. "You will remain here," she added, pointing a finger at Ron, who took a step forward to help, "until this matter is settled."

"What about what HE did to Ron?" Ginny demanded, using her wand, which was still clutched in her hand, to point at Professor Snape. "How come nobody seems to care about that? He used an Unforgivable on my brother for Merlin's sake. More than once. Isn't anyone going to do anything about that?"

"Not just against Ron," Harry added, wanting an explanation just as much as Ginny did. He couldn't understand why Ron wasn't making more of an issue out of it himself. "He used it against Hermione too."

"Wait. What?" Ron asked, spinning around to gaping at Harry in surprise before narrowing his eyes and glowering at Snape. "When?"

"When he cursed you," Ginny replied. "She felt it too."

"You mean she sensed..." her brother started to say before he was cut off.

"No," Harry insisted. "She felt it, actual physical, fall down on the ground and scream, pain."

"But...but that's not supposed to happen," Ron said, all the color draining out of his face, causing his freckled to stand out even more prominently than usual. "The book didn't say anything about sharing each other's pain. It was only supposed to be emotional. If I had known she was going to feel it too, I never would have agreed to..."

"You agreed to let him use the Cruciatus Curse on you?" Ginny shouted in disbelief. "Are you mad?"

"Enough of this foolishness," McGonagall interrupted. "Professor Snape had his reasons, but that is neither here nor there. Mr. Weasley is fine. Miss Granger, for whatever reason, is not. You two," she said, looking pointedly at Harry and Ginny, "will take her to the hospital wing and tell Madam Pomfrey exactly what happened. You," she said, fixing her glower of Ron, "will remain here until I'm through with you."

"Yes, Professor," Ron and Ginny said at nearly the same time.

"Don't leave her alone." Ron leaned forward and whispered to Harry, as they watched Ginny levitate her off the ground with her wand so they could float her up the stairs rather than carry her. "I can't sense anything when she's asleep or unconscious," he explained quickly, "but she'll go spare if she wakes up alone and doesn't know what happened, so stay with her."

"That is exactly what I was talking about," Harry heard Snape say, as he and Ginny left the room with Hermione in tow. "The paranoia is already setting in. He's already become dependent on that link and now that it's cut out, he becoming overly agitated and cagey. It's only going to get worse. Mark my words."

¤

"How is she?" Ron asked the instant he stepped around the curtain Madam Pomfrey had set up around Hermione's bed and he spotted his best mate sitting in silence beside her, lost in his own thoughts. "Where's Ginny?" he asked, tossing Harry's invisibility cloak, which had been left in the hallway outside Snape's office, into his friend's lap.

"Madam Pomfrey was only willing to let one of us stay," Harry explained in a near whisper. "And she wouldn't have allowed that if Hermione hadn't been so agitated when she woke up."

"Yeah, I felt that," Ron replied, as he gingerly sat down on the edge of Hermione's bed. "McGonagall was right in the middle of her lecture actually, not that I was paying all that much attention to what she was saying, mind you," the redhead added. "You managed to calm her down pretty quick," Ron continued, referring to Hermione. "What did you tell her?"

"That you were fine," Harry replied, purposely keeping his voice low, "that you were with McGonagall and Dumbledore, and that you'd be here as soon as you finished explaining things."

"Things, eh?" the redhead said, knowing exactly what Harry was referring to without him needing to say it. Harry had allowed Hermione to believe that he was telling the Headmaster about what Snape had been doing as opposed to the truth. If Hermione had known that he was downstairs telling McGonagall and Snape what they'd done and why, no way in hell would she be lying in bed asleep.

"Did Madam Pomfrey try and get her to take a sleeping potion or something?" Ron asked, trying to match the emotional responses he'd felt from Hermione, during the brief time she was still awake, to logical triggers.

"Oh yeah," Harry agreed, "that was fun. You might have warned me about that," he added, noting that Ron didn't appear to be all that surprised by the way Hermione had freaked out.

"Didn't have time," he answered with a shrug of his shoulders. "But I did tell you what happened to Fred that time Mum spiked her pumpkin juice with sleeping potion," Ron added. "And about how she wouldn't drink anything Mum gave her after that."

"I didn't realize she's still worried that there will be a Death Eater attack while she's out and unable to defend herself," Harry said with a frustrated sigh.

"I was hoping she'd gotten over that," Ron admitted. "Guess not, huh?"

"Apparently not," Harry replied. "So," he added, his piercing green eyes locked on his best friend. "You going to tell me what that was we walked in on and why you agreed to it, or what?"

"Oh that," the redhead replied nonchalantly. "That was my detention," he continued, as if it were common practice for Snape to use Unforgivables on students as a form of punishment. "Bet Umbridge is looking pretty good now, isn't she?" he attempted to joke, but it didn't go over so well with Harry. "Do we really have to get into this now?" Ron sighed, when Harry's intense gaze didn't waver.

He'd just spent the past hour being grilled about every little detail of Hermione's plan, only to have Snape throw everything they intended into question by reminding them all about what Harry had said about Hermione feeling the effects of the Cruciatus Curse through their bond. If she felt the effects of a Cruciatus Curse directed at him, who's to say she wouldn't be affected by a Killing Curse as well. What if by trying to protect one another, all they did was ensure that they were both killed by the same spell instead?

The smug bastard, Ron thought, replaying the victorious 'I know more than you do after all' gloating expression Snape had worn, over in his mind.

"Ron," Harry said softly, yet insistently, making it evident that he had no intentions of letting the matter drop.

"Fine," the redhead groaned. "Dumbledore thought it would be a good idea for me to know what to expect. He thought it would be useful for me to... um... learn how to tolerate it somewhat... just incase...er... incase..."

"Incase Voldemort decides to have another go at you just to get at me," Harry finished for his friend, making it blatantly obvious that he'd mulled it over and come up with the explanation before Ron even showed up. "So he thinks Voldemort is going to send more Death Eaters after you, huh? No doubt over the Christmas holiday." Happy Fucking Christmas, he thought bitterly. "So your entire family is now in danger because of me?"

"I didn't say that," Ron said defensively. "And neither did Dumbledore," he added, when he saw Harry withdrawing, not just mentally, but physically as well.

"Right," Harry said, rising up out of his chair and stepping away from Hermione's bed. "Well, you're here now," he said, glancing at Hermione briefly and taking a few more steps towards the door. "And you should be the one to stay, so I'm just going to...er... go to bed then."

"Harry," Ron said louder than he meant to, wincing slightly as he jumped off the edge of Hermione's bed and watched his best mate beat a hasty retreat out of the room. "Bugger it all," he swore, knowing full well that Harry was off to brood, not sleep.

"Don't swear," Hermione said groggily behind him, catching him by surprise. Whether it was his raised voice, or the motion of her mattress moving as his weight sprang up off it, he'd woken her up and that was the last thing he'd wanted to do. Now he was going to have to face the questions all over again, unless he could distract her.

¤

Fortunately distracting Hermione did not become an issue that evening. Even without a sleeping potion, she was so wiped out from throwing all her energy into creating a strong Shield Charm that she fell asleep again almost as soon as Ron kicked his shoes off and climbed up on the small hospital bed to lie beside her. Needless to say Madam Pomfrey was not pleased to find the two of them together that way in the morning.

There was nothing quite like being woken at the crack of dawn by someone standing over you and screeching your name. For a second, Ron feared that Professor McGonagall had actually contacted his mother, as she had threatened to do the second time he'd refused to take the Lànain talismans off. But even as he sat bolt upright on the bed, he remembered that Dumbledore had talked her and Snape into keeping the matter quiet. Besides, if it had been his mother standing there, the words 'Ronald Bilius' would have proceeded Weasley, not 'Mr.' She wouldn't be content to stand there and wait for him to climb off the bed of his own accord, either. She'd likely drag him off herself. Even so, Ron's heart was still racing and he nearly jumped three feet in the air. Hermione, he knew, hadn't fared much better. She had been just as startled as he had and she was even more mortified.

"OUT!" Madam Pomfrey scolded. "Get out of that bed at once. This is a hospital wing, Mr. Weasley, not a... wait a minute," she said, doing a complete about face when she noticed the way he'd grimaced and the deep breath he'd sucked in as he tried to detached himself from Hermione and scramble out off her bed. "What's the matter with you?" she demanded, when his feet touched the ground and he damn near fell flat on his face.

"Nothing," Ron said, trying not to groan out loud when every muscle in his body began to throb in protest of supporting his weight. Bloody buggering hell! That hurts.

"Where does it hurt?"

EVERYWHERE!

"Why didn't someone wake me up if you were in that much pain?" she asked, despite the fact Ron had yet to answer her. "What happened to you?"

"Nothing, I'm fine," he lied, going to great efforts to stand completely upright, although he didn't dare try and take a step with her scrutinizing him the way she was.

"Nonsense," Madam Pomfrey declared. "I can't possible help unless you tell me what..."

"It was the Cruciatus Curse," Hermione answered for him, opening a whole can of worms Ron would have just as soon left sealed. He would have groaned out loud rather than in his head as he watched the nurse's eyes go wide, except he knew that she'd take it as further evidence that he was in pain and needed her help. But he already knew that there was nothing she could do for him. His mother had explained that the night Hermione escaped from the Death Eaters and he'd asked her to do something to ease Hermione's pain. However, that didn't mean Madam Pomfrey wouldn't force him drink a whole host of horrible tasting potions just incase.

"The Cruciatus Curse?" she repeated, clearly not expecting that answer. "Why wasn't I informed immediately?" she questioned. "Potter told me that the two of you cast a Shield Charm at the same time," she stated, "Is that what you were attempting to block?" she asked, turning to Hermione, before looking at Ron again. "But surely... they wouldn't leave you behind, so why weren't you brought in with Miss Granger?"

"He was with Professor Dumbledore," Hermione replied, much to Ron's chagrin.

HELLO! he cried out in his head, knowing full well that Hermione could feel how reluctant he was to answer any of these questions. Why are you still talking? I know you recognize the 'shut up' vibe, so shut up already.

he cried out in his head, knowing full well that Hermione could feel how reluctant he was to answer any of these questions.

Unfortunately, Hermione seemed all too eager to spill everything she'd seen, despite his wishes, and if he didn't do something, and quick, she'd mention the fact that it was Snape doing the cursing to Madam Pomfrey. Worst case scenario, she'd believe Hermione, go straight to Dumbledore, and the Headmaster would probably tell her about the Coupling Potion. That wasn't something Ron really wanted to happen. The more people that knew about what they'd done, the more likely it was that his mother would find out. Then again, she might just think Hermione had knocked a few screws loose during her fall.

Fall? Yeah that could work, Ron thought, impulsively pitching sideways and allowing himself to collapse on the ground in order to distract them both.

"RON!" Hermione cried, snapping up into a sitting potion, despite her own stiffness, as she watched him topple over.

In the end, the ploy worked out even better than Ron hoped it would. A bit too well actually. Not only did Madam Pomfrey stop asking questions and start fussing over his condition again, she helped him into the nearest empty bed and then promptly scurried off to gather up whatever potions she thought would help. The upside was he had enough time to tell Hermione that Snape had not been attacking him and to convince her that the less said about his voluntary detention, the better. The downside was, he was now confined to the hospital wing, for the time being any way, and he had to take his medicine.

"Ewww," he groaned, shuddering violently as a result of the horrid concoction he'd just been forced swallowed. "I hope you're happy," he said to Hermione under his breath as Madam Pomfrey walked off to lock her potions back up.

"Maybe they'll make you feel better."

"If by better you mean sore and nauseous."

"Well, I didn't tell you to fall down."

"I wouldn't have had to if you had just shut up about the whole..."

"Nice to see some things never change," Ginny said, as she stepped into the room and caught her brother and Hermione bickering. "I take it that means you're feeling better," she said to Hermione, before locking her eyes on her brother. "And you," she said, wagging her finger at him. "If you think playing sick is going to stop me from tearing into you, you've got another thing coming. What the hell is the matter with you?" she demanded. "You damn near scared me to death, not to mention Harry and poor Hermione. So let's hear it. What were you thinking?"

"Didn't Harry tell you?"

"Yeah, that's another thing," Ginny retorted. "What the hell did you say to him anyway, because he's locked himself in his room and won't come out? Although," she added, "he didn't really do that until after he had that big blow up with Parvati in the common room this morning, which was kind of funny actually. I mean it wasn't," she said, shifting enough to look at Hermione again, "because she made things even worse and Harry is more hacked off now than when he came back last night," she explained. "But at the same time it was because she's just so clueless. You know what I mean?" she asked. "You should have seen the look on her face when he shoved her away and told her the only thing he wanted was for her to leave him alone. I mean, come on, what was she thinking? You can't pester him into opening up when he's in one of his 'woe is me, my life sucks' moods. You have to let him brood for a little while and then you get in his face. Isn't that right?" she asked Hermione. "And of course it helps to know what he's brooding about in the first place, so spill," she demanded, rounding on her brother again. "What did you say to set him off?"

"What makes you think it was me?"

"Oh gee, I don't know," Ginny shot back sarcastically. "Maybe it was Hermione. Maybe she was talking in her sleep or something. Get real. It was you."

"It was Dumbledore's idea, not mine," Ron insisted. "I'm the one that had to stand there and let Snape curse me just so I could prove to all of them that I was capable of handling it, and now Harry's got it into his head that You-Know-Who..."

"Voldemort," Hermione corrected.

"...is going to attack the Burrow during the Christmas holiday or something. And as if that weren't bad enough," Ron said, glancing around the hospital wing just to make sure no one else was around to overhear him, "you three come busting in with McGonagall in tow, and then Dumbledore shows up and tells them about the Lànain and the Coupling Potion, and then you just leave me there to deal with the fall out all by myself."

"HE DID WHAT?" Hermione shrieked, her entire face flooding with color. "He told Professor Snape?"

"No," Ron replied, sharing her embarrassment. "He told Snape AND McGonagall, who proceeded to have a whole litter of kittens because I refused to remove that charm you have hanging around your neck."

"OH GOD!"

"Oh God is right! I would have happily changed places with you. What I wouldn't have given to be unconscious at that moment."

"RON! This is serious."

"You don't know the half of it. Ok, promise me you aren't going to freak out," he said, feeling Hermione's anxiety and impatience course into his own body.

"Just tell me."

"Well you see, the thing is...er... I never meant for you to feel it," he said, intentionally lowering his voice, despite the fact they were the only people in the room. "I mean obviously if I'd known you were going to, I wouldn't have agreed to let him curse me. But I didn't know and you did feel it and well... Snape made a big stink about that after he found out. And he...er... sorta brought up the fact that if we shared the effects of one Unforgivable, we might wind up sharing the effects of another."

"In other words, if one of you gets hit with the Killing Curse, it'll kill you both?" Ginny asked, clearly horrified by the mere thought of it.

"That was one of the possibilities," Ron agreed somewhat reluctantly, because he could sense that Hermione was on the edge of loosing her cool.

"And the other possibilities were?" she asked, keeping her voice calm despite the fact she was anything but on the inside.

"Well," Ron mumbled. "Dumbledore thinks it's more likely that the spell would be divided between both of us, sorta like what happened last night, and since neither of us would receive a full dose, neither of us would snuff it."

"That sounds pretty good," Ginny said.

"The not snuffing it part is good," he agreed.

"But?" Hermione asked.

"But we'd both be too messed up to be of any use to Harry," he admitted. "And then there is the possibility that whoever gets hit will snuff it, just like you planned," he added quickly. "And because their body will shut down instantly, the physical connection would be severed before the effects could be transferred to the other person and diffused. So if that happened, things would work out exactly the way you want them to."

"I don't want any of this to happen at all," Hermione snapped.

"You know what I mean," Ron retorted. "I knew you were going to bite my head off when I told you about this.

"You'll know when I bite your head off." Hermione glared at him.

"Oh, so what was that then?"

"You two can flirt later," Ginny cut in. "We have more important things to do right now. Like figuring out how we're going to tell Harry about this when he's already in a mood."

"Well as long as you're at it." Ron sighed," You can add telling him that we're all staying here during the break, at least the beginning part of it anyway. Dumbledore wants us to test this whole share the effects of a curse thing out with Tonks while everyone else is away," he explained to Hermione. "You know, just see how various curses effect us and such. McGonagall is going to write to your parents and tell them that we're being offered special Defense lessons. You might want to start by telling Harry that actually," he said to his sister, making it clear that he knew she was going to drag Harry out of his room and tell him everything before either he or Hermione were released from the Hospital Wing and had a chance to do it themselves. "Because it'll probably cheer him up a bit, not only will he not have to worry about the Burrow being attacked, he gets to spend half the holiday helping Tonks hex us."

Author's Note:

I thought I'd take the time to give a quick shout out to Anabr. I don't know which site you read this story on, but I ran across your Price of Love trailer and posted a link to it in the PoL thread on the Checkmated forum. I can't see it myself, because my computer is hopelessly outdated, but the posters in the thread that did watch it were VERY impressed. Better get cracking on producing the movie now ;-) You've got a few people eager to see it.

Those of you that want to watch the trailer, a link can be found here:

http/forums.