Chapter 69
"Mione, wait," Ron said in a voice barely above a whisper as he chased her back up to his sister's bedroom. "Don't go to bed yet," he added, catching her just outside the door.
"It's late Ron," she replied softly, without even bothering to turn around and face him. It was easier to refuse him when she didn't have to look into his eyes and see how disappointed he was. It was bad enough to feel it; she didn't want to see it too.
"Look, I know you're embarrassed, but Charlie isn't going to bother us anymore tonight. He isn't going to bother you at all. I'm the one he'll corner when Mum isn't looking. So why don't we just go back downstairs for a little while and... "
"I can't believe you still want to."
"What's wrong with wanting to?" he whispered. "I miss you."
Damn it, Hermione swore to herself. Hearing the words was one thing, but feeling the sincerity behind them was quite another. Ron wasn't just saying what he thought she wanted to hear, he meant it. He really did miss her. She could feel it pouring off of him. He felt the same emptiness she felt. Spending their days together in the presence of other people wasn't enough to fill the void completely. He missed the intimacy of being together as much as the act itself. This wasn't just about sex; it was about connecting, at least in part. How could she possibly turn him away when that was what he wanted?
"I'm tired of sleeping without you," he insisted. "Just... come up to my room and sleep with me instead, in there. Harry won't mind. We don't have to do anything," he added, almost as if he thought it was the physical aspects she was objecting to tonight.
"You know it won't stop there," Hermione said, slowly spinning around to look at him.
"It will with Harry there."
"But that isn't what you want."
"What I want is to spend a night with my wife," Ron stated. "Don't pretend you don't want that too, because I know that you do. I know you're still embarrassed about Charlie catching us. If you're worried about Fred and George barging in at the crack of dawn, imperturb the room so they can't apparate in."
"That'll make it even worse, because then they'll know for sure that I'm in there," she sighed.
"Hermione," Ron groaned her name in frustration. "Then just come downstairs with me for a little while. Please."
"All right," she finally relented. "Just... just give me a minute," she added, opening the door to his sister's bedroom, slipping inside, and closing it firmly behind herself before he had a chance to respond.
Only it took much longer than a minute for the door to open again. It felt like ten or fifteen, although it was probably closer to five. But it was still long enough for Ron to wonder if Hermione really had any intentions of coming out again, a fear that was amplified when the door finally did opened and his sister exited the room instead of Hermione.
"Don't even think about using my bed," Ginny hissed, as she stepped over the threshold looking both tired and disheveled. "Knowing that the two of you are together in my room is bad enough. You owe me big for this," she said, shoving her brother out of her way and moving past him. "Huge," she added, throwing her arms out in front of herself and holding them wide apart to emphasize that fact, since she had to keep her voice down. "As in when I want to borrow that invisibility cloak you gave Hermione for Christmas, the one that's hidden in your trunk at school, you're going to give it to me no questions asked. And I mean it about my bed," she warned, shuffling towards the staircase. "It's off limits. Conjure on your own damn bed."
"What the..."
"Shush," Hermione whispered from the doorway, latching on to Ron's arm and pulling him into Ginny's bedroom.
"What did you tell her?" he asked, as Hermione shut the door and used her wand to shield the room.
"It was easier than I thought it would be actually," she replied. "I just told her that we had to maintain our link or it was going to wear off, and none of us wants that to happen."
"And she bought that?" he asked suspiciously. "She just hopped out of bed and left?"
"Well, it's the truth," Hermione said, waving her wand over the cot she'd been using since they arrived and transfiguring it into a bed large enough for the pair of them to sleep in comfortably. "And she couldn't very well disagree with the fact that her room is the only one in this house, beside your parents', that your brothers don't barge into unannounced."
"You used our invisibility cloak to bribe her," Ron grumbled, as he watched Hermione situate the blankets so they were covering the newly enlarged bed. "If I'd wanted her to know about it, I would have given it to you here and not while we were still at school. Now she's going to ask me for it every time she wants to sneak off and snog that prat. This is just bloody great."
"Stop complaining," Hermione rebuked him as she shed her dressing gown. "If it's really mine, then I can share it with anyone I want," she stated, knowing full well that Ron had used Christmas as an excuse to splurge and buy something for her that he'd always wanted for himself. He'd given it to her as a gift, but in his mind it was theirs to share. Not that she had a problem with that. It made sense given the fact that the three of them could no longer fit under Harry's cloak together without the boys both stooping down so low it was nearly impossible for them to walk. Besides, that was the way it was supposed to be when two people were married; they shared things. But just because Ron was willing to share his invisibility cloak with her, that didn't mean he wanted to share it with anyone else, especially his sister.
"You're missing my point," Ron grumbled.
"No, I'm not," she shot back, unbuttoning the front of her nightgown and letting it fall to the floor, before stepping out of it and climbing into bed. "You don't mind if I use it to sneak up to your room anytime I want, but heaven forbid Ginny do something similar with it."
"She doesn't need to be in Devane's room."
"Ginny is old enough to decide what's best for her herself," Hermione stated, as she burrowed under the blankets to starve off the cold. "And if she wants to sneak into a boy's room, that's her business. As a matter of fact," she added with a slight smile. "That's exactly what she's doing as we speak. Sneaking into your room so your mum won't catch her on the couch and realize what's going on. But you don't mind if she's sneaking into Harry's room," she said, giving him a shrewd look. "It's everyone else you object to."
"Harry isn't going to take advantage of her," Ron said, as he watched Hermione snuggle into her pillow and get comfortable. There was no point denying what she said. She could read him like a book and she knew exactly what he felt when it came to the subject of their best friend and his sister.
"No, he has Parvati for that," she replied, unable to keep the disapproval she felt out of her voice. "You really should talk to him about that, you know. He isn't doing himself any favors. Girls talk. A LOT. And he's going to wind up with a bad reputation if he keeps it up. Maybe if you just gave him a few tips on how to be a bit more sensitive to..."
"Are you mad?" Ron cut in before Hermione had a chance to really get going. "No way in hell am I going to tell Harry something like that."
"You wouldn't treat me the way he's treating Parvati."
"You aren't Parvati. Thank God!"
"Ron."
"She made her own bed," he argued. "Harry didn't ask her to butt into his life. She went after him, not the other way around. Besides, it's not as if she's in it for the right reasons either and unless I'm quite mistaken you were the one screaming at her about that up in the girls' dorm, were you not? And now suddenly you're taking her side? "
"I am not taking her side," Hermione shot back defensively. "It's just... you had your parents and your brothers to teach you how to show a girl proper respect and what that entails. Who does Harry have to teach him those things, expect us? He certainly isn't going to be comfortable talking about it with me, so that leaves you. And you need to say something to him, otherwise he'll continue to emulate Seamus."
"Blokes don't talk about stuff like that with their mates," Ron griped, as he quickly shed his pajama bottoms and climbed into the bed next to her. "I mean we do talk, obviously, but I'm not going to be all girly and tell him he has to be sensitive and worry about her feelings and all that rubbish you're on about. Harry doesn't even fancy Parvati and it's not like he asked her out or anything. It's not his fault she's too dense to get a clue. Maybe if he's a little bit ruder, she'll actually get the hint and sod off."
"Ronald Weasley!"
"What?" he said defensively. "You don't think she's right for him either. Besides, Harry is old enough to decide what's best for him himself," he said, intentionally using her own words against her. "If what Ginny does is her business, then the same holds true for Harry, so as his friends we should just butt out."
"You've completely missed the point," Hermione groaned, flopping back against her pillow in exasperation.
"I don't think I have," Ron replied, flipping over on his side and using one hand to prop up his head as he stared down at her. "You have one set of standards for Ginny and a completely different set for Harry."
"And you don't?"
"You're damn right I do. Ginny is my sister. It's my responsibility watch out for her."
"Which is exactly the reason you should have that talk with Harry," Hermione stated, bringing the conversation right back to where it started and catching Ron a bit off guard in the process.
"Oh really?" he asked, rolling his eyes at her nonsensical girly logic. "And how exactly did you jump to that conclusion?"
"Oh, so you wouldn't have a problem with Harry treating your sister the same way he's been treating Parvati then?"
"What the hell are you talking about, Hermione? Why would Harry..." he started to say, and then he cottoned onto what she was hinting at. "Harry isn't interested in Ginny," he stated. "I already told you, he fancies someone else."
"Yes, I know," Hermione replied, forcing herself not to roll her eyes back at him. "The problem is, Harry needs to be pushed a bit before he's going to do anything about it. Why do you think I sent that 'someone else' up to spend the night with him in your room?"
"You did what? But I thought... no," Ron argued, unwilling to accept that reason when there was a less complicated one to latch onto, "she went up there so we could be alone, not so she could be alone with Harry."
"That too," Hermione agreed. "This way we all get what we want. And I know that deep down you were hoping this would happen when she dumped Michael, so don't bother pretending that you're opposed to the idea."
"But Ginny doesn't fancy Harry anymore," Ron fired back, too stubborn to give up just yet. "If she did, she wouldn't be seeing that tosser Devane?"
"David Devane is a perfectly nice boy."
"Just because he's a prefect, that doesn't automatically make him a nice guy," Ron grumbled. "Malfoy is a prefect and he's a ..."
"That is hardly a fair comparison," Hermione cut in, before he had a chance to say what he really thought about Malfoy. "You don't like David because he's not Harry," she added, "Unfortunately for David, deep down, Ginny feels the same way. Just because she's trying to move on, that doesn't mean that she has. Once she realizes Harry's coming around, she'll drop David. Mark my words."
¤
It had to be close the six in the morning when Harry woke up and realized that he needed to use the loo. He tried to ignore it, because it was such an inconvenience. Not just because the bathroom was several floors below the room he was sleeping in, but because it was the dead of winter and he knew it would be cold when he got out of bed.
Nothing like a blast of frigid air to wake you up when what you really want to do is roll over and fall back asleep, he grumble to himself, as he gave in to the inevitable, reluctantly threw his covers off, and stumbled out of his warm bed.
If it hadn't been dusky when he opened his eyes and glanced at the window to gauge how much longer he'd have to lie in, Harry wouldn't have even bothered getting up. But it was still a deep blue outside, which meant he'd have time to fall back asleep, provided he didn't allow himself to wake up completely in the first place. Even so, he wasn't going to waste time fumbling around for his glasses and looking for a dressing gown. He wasn't liable to meet anyone in the hallway, so he opted to make a run for it as he was, so he could get back in bed as soon as possible.
And that strategy worked, because he was back in Ron's bedroom and sliding back under the covers of his bed in no time. The problem was Harry happened to look at his best mate's bed as he was doing it, and that's when he realized he wasn't sharing a room with Ron anymore. Not unless the twins had slipped him some sort of hair growing potion the night before, which was entirely possible, but even that wouldn't explain why the leg jetting out from beneath the orange bedspread was shorter than it should have been by several inches.
Not just shorter, Harry realized, as he snatched his glasses off Ron's bedside table and thrust them on, so he could clearly see what was in front of him. More shapely and smoother as well, but with just as many freckles, he thought, allowing his eyes to wander over the speckled calf and up the exposed thigh. That's not Hermione, that's Ginny, he realized, taking note of the fact that the further up her leg his eyes wandered, the fewer freckles were visible against the creamy skin illuminated by the pale morning light.
I wonder where the freckles end, Harry thought. Or if they end at all. Maybe she has them all the way up. Stop it, he chastised himself, closing his eyes to avoid the temptation of scrutinizing her any further. Not that it mattered all that much because the image of what he'd just been staring at was still crystal clear in his mind. That's Ginny you're talking about, not some tart flashing a bit of leg for you to ogle. You shouldn't be looking at her like that and you definitely shouldn't be thinking things like that. Not about Ginny.
I do not fancy Ginny. It doesn't matter what Hermione thinks, it's just hormones. I don't fancy Ginny. I can't.
If only Harry actually believed what he was telling himself. But rather than contemplate what he really felt about his best friend's little sister, as Hermione had suggested he do, Harry did what he'd been doing for the past few weeks. He pushed his feelings and all of the questions he preferred to leave unanswered aside, and focused on a topic that was safer to ponder.
Where's Ron? he asked himself. "Oh right," he said, throwing himself back into his pillow with a sigh. If Ginny is in here, that probably means Ron spent the night with Hermione in her room.
And there they were, images he didn't want to have, running thought his head again. But the mental pictures of Ron and Hermione spending the night together quickly transformed into images of him and a girl with long red hair; long red hair that spread out on her pillow as she lay beneath him and wrapped her freckled legs firmly around his body.
STOP IT! Harry shouted in his head. You can NOT do this.
It was bad enough that he'd been dreaming about her ever since Hermione lectured him about sorting out his feelings, but to fantasize about her while she was lying less than five feet away from him was taking it too far. How was he not supposed to think about her though? She was lying right there, wearing god knows what, in a bed that was damn near beside him. There was no getting away from her now. And as long as she was there, the nagging questions were there as well.
It had been so much easier to put off thinking about her when they were still at school and he could avoid seeing her. Hogwarts was a big place and it had been a simple enough matter for Harry to disappear when he wanted to. It certainly didn't hurt that Ginny was a fifth year and so bogged down with holiday homework that she spent every afternoon in the Library for a solid week trying to get it out of the way.
But now that they were at the Burrow and restricted to the house, there was no way he could avoid Ginny for any length of time. He couldn't pop down to the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom and distract himself by helping Tonks work with Ron and Hermione. He couldn't sneak off to the Owlry or visit Hagrid anytime he wanted. He couldn't even use his Occlumency as an excuse anymore, because Dumbledore had taken over where Snape had left off and after a handful of intense lessons during the first week of break, he'd stated that he was satisfied with Harry's progress and reduced their meetings to once a month.
The one saving grace about being at the Burrow was that someone else was always around, so while he couldn't avoid Ginny altogether, he didn't have to be alone with her either. Until now that is. It was just the two of them now; alone, in a bedroom, with nothing to do but... sleep.
Only Harry knew he wasn't going to be doing anymore sleeping this morning. If he nodded off and had a dream about her while she was in the room, it could lead to some awkward questions.
Then an even more horrifying thought occurred to Harry. What if this isn't just a one time thing? What if she spends every night up here so Ron and Hermione can be together? OH GOD! This is so not good. I can't sleep in the same room as Ginny, but how am I supposed to tell Ron that without explaining why? What the hell am I going to do?
"Stop it," a groggy voice grumbled, only this time the words were spoken out loud and not in Harry's head. "Can't you see I'm trying to sleep here?" Ginny mumbled, her face still buried in her brother's pillow. "And believe it or not," she said, rolling over so her back was to him, "it's rather hard to do that with you flopping around like a gigantic fish out of water, so knock it off."
"Sorry," Harry said guiltily. He had thrown himself back into his pillow as he contemplated his desperate situation. More than once actually. He'd even groaned. At least he was fairly sure he had. But the truth was, he hadn't been paying all that much attention to how much noise he was making. He could set off a box of the Weasleys' Wildfire Whiz-bangs in the middle of the room and Ron would likely sleep right through it. He'd just assumed that Ginny would be as sound of a sleeper as her brother was. Obviously not. "I'll just get up and..."
"Can't," Ginny's muffled voice cut in. "Not until Ron comes back," she added, rolling over on her back and throwing one arm over her eyes as she yawned. "If Mum sees you're up, she'll insist that Ron get up as well. It's his duty to be a 'proper host' and all that rubbish. Can't have her barging in here to drag him out of bed when he's not here, so you're just going to have to stay put for a little while. Just... read a book or something. That's what Hermione does. What time is it anyway?" she asked, covering her mouth and yawning again.
"Just after six," Harry replied, after pulling his arm out from under his covers and glancing at his watch.
"Well, Ron won't be up until he smells food," Ginny said, her eyes still shut tightly. "Especially with what Hermione had in mind, so it looks like you're stuck with me. For the next couple hours anyway. And now that you've woken me up, it's your responsibility to keep me entertained."
That's not what she meant, Harry groaned in his head, trying to will his body not to react to her unintentional proposition. Bugger it all. Now I'm going to have to stay in bed until she leaves. What did I ever do to deserve this torture?
¤
"The next time you and Hermione decide to shag in the kitchen while the rest of us are asleep," Bill said, as he threw open the door to his brother's bedroom and walked inside completely uninvited, "do us all a favor and remember to take your clothes with you when you leave," he finished, heaving Ron's balled up dressing gown and pajama top at the lump in his bed.
"Unless you really do want Mum to find out what you've been up to," Charlie added, stepping into the room behind Bill and shutting the door. "You're lucky I took pity on you and brought those upstairs with me."
"CHARLIE!" Ginny shrieked, sending the chessboard that was set up on Harry's bed tumbling as she sprang up and threw herself at her brother, who staggered backwards in surprise. "What are you doing here?"
"Me?" Charlie asked, his eyes jumping from Harry, to Bill, who seemed just as startled as Charlie was to find his baby sister on Harry's bed. "What are you doing in here," he demanded. "Where's Ron?" he asked, when Bill yanked the blankets on their brother's bed down and they both realized the lump underneath was nothing but a pillow. "Forget I asked," Charlie said, at the same instant Bill apparated out of the room. "Obviously he's with Hermione," he added, when Ginny finally stopped trying to squeeze the life out of him and took a step back. "So this is how it is huh?" he asked, grabbing the collar of her nightgown on impulse and tugging it to the side so he could see if she had a chain hanging around her neck.
"What are you doing?" Ginny asked, batting her brother's hand away from herself. "Stop looking at me like that," she demanded. "I slept in Ron's bed, not Harry's. You aren't going to find any marks on my neck, or anywhere else," she assured him. "Not that it's any of your business," she added as an afterthought. "If I wanted to snog Harry, I would, and you're big brother antics wouldn't stop me."
"What about Lànain talismans?" Charlie asked somberly, narrowing his eyes and glowering at Harry. "You two sporting a pair of those?"
"WHAT?" Ginny cried in alarm.
"NO!" Harry said at nearly the same time, his eyes going wide behind his glasses as Ginny's older brother continued to stare him down.
"What are you talking about?" Ginny asked, recovering enough to try and feign confusion.
"Don't pretend you don't know what I'm talking about," her brother cut in, finally looking away from Harry and directing his scowl at his sister instead. "Ron already admitted that you both know what he's done, so you might as well fess up."
"Huh?" Harry said in shock, locking eyes with Ginny, who seemed equally surprised.
Ron wouldn't really admit something like that, would he? Harry quickly asked himself. No way? Not unless he had to. I best keep my mouth shut and follow Ginny's lead on this one. She has more experience dealing with Charlie than I do.
"Seriously, Charlie," Ginny said, wrinkling her brow together and doing a convincing job of looking confused. "I have no idea what you're talking about. Why would Ron..."
"I saw it," Charlie stated, taking two steps backwards as he cut Ginny off, so he could look back and forth between the pair to gauge their reaction. "I flooed in while they were snogging in the kitchen and I saw the talisman hanging around Ron's neck. And I know Hermione had one too, so don't bother."
"Oh that," Ginny lied straight-faced. "That's just one of those rubbishy old protection charms. He gave Hermione one for her birthday."
"Bollocks," Charlie cried. "Ron knows that protection charms don't work, and they certainly don't hurl people across the room."
"He did not," Ginny said despite herself, her brown eyes going wide with surprise. Ron wasn't thick enough to use the Lànain against his own brother, was he? Ok, so he probably was, but in order to do that, Ron would have to perceive Charlie as a threat to Hermione in some fashion. "What did you do to Hermione?" she asked.
"Nothing."
"Liar."
"You're one to talk," Charlie retorted.
"You're the one making thing up just to see if you can trick us," Ginny shot back.
"Look, Ginny, I know that they're married," Charlie stated point blank. "And I know that you two know, because they admitted it. Of course Hermione was just using me as a test run for Mum, and then she was going to obliviate me, but that's an entirely different matter."
Now that sounds like Hermione, Harry thought.
In fact the more he thought about it, the more that made perfect sense. Hermione was prone to over reacting these days, especially when she felt his safety or Ron's was an issue. She didn't know Charlie as well as she did the other members of the Weasley family, certainly not well enough to predict what he'd do with that sort of information. Harry could definitely see why she might feel it was safer for all of them to just take that knowledge away. So why hadn't she followed through? Why hadn't she obliviated him?
"I know that you know exactly what I'm talking about," Charlie reiterated. "So you might as well save yourself the trouble of denying it, because I'm not going to buy your innocent act this time. You know what's going on and you're going to tell me."
"Why?" Ginny asked, crossing her arms in front of her chest defiantly. "You seem to have all the answers already," she added, giving him a look that said I can be just as stubborn as you can. "I'm not saying anything until you tell us what the hell is going on, starting with this nonsense about Ron hurling you across the room."
¤
"BILL!" Mrs. Weasley shouted, when her son surprised her by materialized in the center of the kitchen with a loud crack. "Honestly?" she said, snatching a bowl of porridge off the counter and setting it down on the table beside her husband, who was perusing Hermione's morning edition of the Daily Prophet.
"Mum, could I get some marmalade for this toast?" Fred asked.
"Why is it you three feel the need to apparate all over the house?" she ranted, throwing a stern look in the twins' direction, before opening a nearby cupboard and floated a jar of jam to Fred with a flick of her wand. "And don't feed me that rubbish your brothers did about trying to show Hermione the proper way it's done so she can pass her test next week. The appropriate place to do that is outside."
"Except you won't let her go outside," George muttered under his breath. "Well, it's true," he said, when his mother spun around and glared at him. "You won't."
"That is neither here or there," she retorted.
"She's going to have to practice somewhere," Fred said, coming to his brother's defense.
"Boys," Mr. Weasley cut in, setting the paper down and tucking into his breakfast. "That argument might hold a bit more weight if Hermione were actually in the room you when you apparated into it, don't you think?"
"I knew we were forgetting something," Fred said. "Didn't I tell you we were forgetting something?" he asked his brother.
"Well, she's here now," George replied, nodding his head towards the stove, where Hermione was helping their mother by flipping a pan full of sizzling bacon so it wouldn't burn. "So she can watch all of us apparate to work."
"I can hardly wait," Hermione said sardonically, without even bothering to turn around.
"She's definitely getting better at that," George chuckled.
"Yeah, it's almost like having Ronnikins in the room. Just kick up the sarcasm a notch or two."
"And throw in a few more insults."
"Along with a well timed, 'why not go now'."
"Yeah, that's definitely something Ron would say."
"Where is Ron?" Bill asked, after quickly scanning the room.
"Where he always is right about now," Fred replied.
"In bed," George elaborated.
"Flat on his back and dead to the world."
"Until the smell of that bacon hits him. That'll wake him up."
"Why?" Fred asked, looking at his older brother curiously.
But rather than answer, Bill simply vanish from the room, much to his mother's dismay.
¤
Ron had just shut off the water to the shower and wrapped a towel around his waist when a loud crack on the other side of the shower curtain announced the arrival of one of his brothers.
Bloody tossers, he swore under his breath, all set to yank the material separating them aside so he could tell whoever it was off for entering the room without knocking first. What if it had been Hermione in the bathroom instead of him? When were they going to get it through their thick skulls that they couldn't just pop into a room any time they wanted to while she was here? But before he had a chance to do it, the shower curtain moved aside, seemingly of its own accord.
"Bill?" Ron said in surprise, when his brother's perturbed face appeared in front of him and two hands slammed down on his shoulders to prevent him from turning around. "What are you doing?" he asked. He'd expected Fred or George, not Bill.
"BUGGER IT ALL, RON!" Bill shouted, his eyes locked on the silver charm hanging around his brother's neck, rather than his startled face. "How could you do something so stupid? What in the world made you think you could get away with this?" he asked, dragging Ron out of the bathtub and pushing him towards the bathroom door.
"Charlie told you..."
"You're damn right he did," Bill said, throwing the door open and shoving Ron through it. "He also told me that Tonks knew about this. I'm going to kill her the next time I see her," he ranted, as he marched his brother up the stairs.
"Will you shut up before Mum hears you," Ron hissed, scurrying to his room as quickly as he could, now that he realized that was where Bill was trying to direct him. If he had to have this conversation again, and apparently he did, he did not want to do it in middle of the hallway where anyone could walk by and hear them.
"I can't believe she knew about this and she didn't tell me," Bill continued to rage. "Surely she didn't fall for that 'we're only trying to protect each other' rubbish you tried to feed Charlie last night," he said, following Ron into his bedroom. "That might have flown if you hadn't consummated it."
"Oh my god!" Ginny shrieked, covering her eyes and spinning around when she realized Ron was wearing nothing but a towel. "This is so not something I want to hear," she moaned. "I can't believe you. When Hermione said you'd just barge in on them, I thought she was exaggerating, but ... couldn't you at least let them get dressed first? I mean... eeeeewww!"
"He was in the shower," Bill said. "By himself," he added, when Charlie arched an eyebrow. "Hermione is down in the kitchen helping Mum with breakfast."
"Aw. Hold on," Charlie said, when Ginny tried to make a run for the door. "Where do you think you're going? Downstairs to warn Hermione, perhaps?"
"Trust me," his sister replied. "She doesn't need me to do that. She'll be up here in no time."
As if on cue, there was a loud banging on the door, followed instantly by Hermione's voice. "Harry, open the door. Is Ron in there with you, because something's...Oh," she said, her entire face blooming with color when Bill threw open the door and she spotted Charlie standing in the center of the room. "Um, never mind," she said weakly, understanding exactly why Ron was feeling panicked now.
"No, enlighten us. Ron's what?" Charlie said.
"Starkers," Ginny moaned. "Can I go now?"
"No!" Bill and Charlie said in unison, just as Hermione stepped into the room, slammed the door behind herself, and imperturbed it with a swish of her wand. She might not be able to keep Ron's two eldest brother's in the dark about certain things any longer, but she was damn sure going to make sure that Fred and George stayed there.
"What were you two thinking?" Bill asked Ron, who still hadn't moved or made the vaguest attempt to put on more than the towel he was wearing.
"Obviously they weren't," Charlie answered for him. "No offense, Hermione," he added. "I'm sure you're a perfectly nice girl and I know Ron is crazy about you, but this just insane. You couldn't possibly be ready for something this..."
"...permanent," Bill cut in.
"You're the first girlfriend Ron's had," Charlie continued, with what was obviously a rehearsed speech, "and you've only been together for six months."
"Try six years," Ron shot back defensively, stepping in front of Hermione as if he were trying to protect her from his brother's words.
"Oh please," Bill said, once he was able to stop goggling at his brother's ludicrous statement. "What planet do you live on? Six years my arse."
"And how the hell did you get your hands on not one, but two Lànain talismans to begin with?" Charlie asked. "If you've been skulking around Knockturn Alley..."
"He found them at Grimmauld Place," Ginny sighed, flopping down on her brother's bed and getting comfortable when she realized Ron was going to use the 'let them rant until they wear themselves out' strategy. Sometimes it really was the best course of action to take, especially when the person raving wasn't ready to listen to what you had to say just yet, but it tended to take a long time for one Weasley to wind down, let alone two.
"Not that it's any of your business," Ron added, catching the balled up dressing gown his sister snatched up and tossed at him. "I wasn't going to let Mum chuck them out," he said, taking Ginny's hint and throwing the dressing gown on over his towel. "Not when I knew I could use them to protect..."
"Not this rubbish again," Charlie moaned loudly.
"It's not rubbish," Ron insisted.
"Yes, apparently you can use it to hurl family members across the room," Bill retorted.
"I did not!" Ron exclaimed, clearly offended by the accusation.
"I'll be talking to Tonks about that too, you can bet on that. What was she thinking teaching you how to do something like that?"
"Will you just show them what you're talking about so they'll shut up and leave us alone already?" Ginny said to Ron.
"She's right," Hermione said, stepping away from Ron and handing her wand off to Harry for safe keeping. "Let's just get this over with before your mum gets suspicious. Stun him," she said to Bill.
"What?"
"Stun him," Hermione repeated, looking very much like someone that was being forced to do something she'd rather not do.
"Are you mad?"
"Just do it," Ginny groaned. "Then you'll see what..."
"Stupefy," Charlie cried, drawing his wand while Bill was arguing with them and nailing his baby brother square in the chest with his spell.
None of them was surprised when Ron keeled over. The thing that caught Bill and Charlie off guard was the fact that Hermione fell to the ground as well. But that was nothing compared to the astonishment they both experienced when they both stood back up, Hermione on her own and Ron with a little help from Harry.
"What the hell?" Bill asked, as he watched Ron stand on wobbly feet and sink down on the edge of Harry's bed, shaking his head as if he were trying to clear it.
"Holy shite."
"You didn't do it right," Bill said to Charlie, but you could tell from the tone of voice he used that he didn't believe it. Charlie worked with dragons all day long. If he didn't know how to cast a proper stunning spell by now, he'd have long since been fried to a crisp.
"You try it then," Charlie replied, flipping his wand around and offering it to his brother.
"If you hit one of them again without reviving them first, you'll knock them both out," Harry said. "We tried all sorts of combinations, but the results were always the same. Near as we can tell, most spells that effect the body are dispersed between both of them. If you stun Ron, he'll be more affected, but they'll both go down."
"Of course they both get up again as well," Ginny added. "That's something Voldemort and his cronies won't expect. The only way to knock either of them out for good is to stun them both at the same time..."
"...or hit one of them twice in rapid succession," Harry finished. "Of course if you stun Ron and I revive Hermione at the same time the two spells will cancel each other out and nothing happens."
"I've never heard of the Lànain doing any such thing," Charlie said disbelievingly.
"That's because it's not just the Lànain," Hermione admitted. "It's the bond forged by the Lànain working in combination with a Coupling Potion."
"Oh my god," Charlie moaned, closing his eyes and sinking down on the edge of Harry's bed beside his brother. "This is so much worse than I thought."
"Or better," Ron said. "It all depends on how you're looking at it."