Chapter 75

"I want to see him," Hermione hissed, pulling herself together after a few moments had passed. "We're still married," she said, lowering her hands and leveling her red-rimmed eyes on Madame Pomfrey. "I'm of age and any decisions regarding his health are now mine to make. Not yours, mine! And I'm not giving up on him. Period. End of discussion. Now where the hell is my husband?"

"I beg your pardon?" the Healer replied, clearly taken aback by the young woman's statement. Even so, the startled expression on her face was nothing compared to the astonishment etched across Molly Weasley's.

"Your… your what?" Ron's mother stammered, once she managed to pull herself together and form a coherent sentence. "Did she just say…"

"Husband," Hermione repeated instantly.

"She's in shock," Madam Pomfrey said, after both she and Molly glanced at Hermione's ring finger and found no evidence there to support her outlandish claim. Wishful thinking is what it was. Now that the future she had mapped out had been destroyed, the poor girl was grasping at straws. "Clearly, she doesn't realize what she's saying," the Healer continued, disregarding Hermione as if she were incapable of hearing them due to her overwhelming grief.

"Delusional, am I?" Hermione hissed, throwing the blankets that were covering her out of the way and swinging both legs over the side of the bed before either of the women had a chance to protest. "I suppose the month I spent brewing that potion was just a figment of my imagination. I'll show you delusional," she said, jumping out of bed and looking down at her legs in surprise when her bare feet hit the cold stone floor. "Where are my clothes?" Hermione demanded the instant she realized that the only thing she had on was a hospital gown. "You better not have thrown them out," she added irritably. Her Là nain talisman was in the front pocket of her jeans after all. She was going to need that as soon as Ron was awake. "I need…"

"What you need, Miss Granger," Madam Pomfrey interrupted, "is to get back into bed this instant."

"WEASLEY!" Hermione shouted. "I told you that Ron and I are…"

"I'm sure that Mr. Weasley wouldn't want you to harm yourself," Madam Pomfrey said, trying a different approach. If reasoning with her didn't work, perhaps a little guilt would. "The laceration on your thigh was quite deep. It's liable to reopen if you don't stay off your feet until you've had time to fully recuperate. Mr. Weasley wouldn't want…"

"I don't care about myself," Hermione shot back, reaching for the nearest curtain and pushing it over so she could scan the hospital wing for the familiar head of red hair. No more than Ron cared about himself. That's why he was so quick to make the sacrifice, she reflected, her eyes filling with tears again when she spotted another set of screens set up around a bed at the far end of the room.

"Why is he shoved down there all by himself?" Hermione said accusingly. "He should be right here beside me," she added, darting through the opening she'd created and climbing over the bed closest to hers to avoid walking past Madam Pomfrey.

"Now, really," the Healer protested as Hermione made a run for it, "I've tried to be understanding, but enough is enough. If you don't get back into bed this instant, I'll have no choice but to…"

"RON!" Hermione shouted, ignoring Madam Pomfrey entirely. "Wake up," she said, pushing the screens surrounding his bed out of her way and reaching for him the instant he was in view.

For a moment Molly thought Hermione was going to try shaking him, but almost as soon as her hand landed on his shoulder, it shifted. "There," Hermione said, thrusting her hand under the neckline of Ron's jumper and latching onto the chain around his neck as the two women descended upon her. "Who's delusional now?" she said triumphantly, holding the silver charm up for them to see.

"Is that…" Molly said, coming to an abrupt halt beside Madam Pomfrey and gaping at the intricate symbol now on display.

"That's right," Hermione responded, before Molly even had a chance to finish.

"YOU PUT A LÀ NAIN TALISMAN ON MY SON!"

"Of course I did," Hermione replied unabashedly. "I wasn't going to let him control me, without controlling him in return," she explained. "This way there is no stigma attached to it because we're even."

"Even?" Molly asked in disbelief. "EVEN! ARE YOU INSANE? Are you telling me that Ron… that you two… that you… YOU ALLOWED YOURSELF TO BE SHACKLED WITH ONE OF THOSE VILE…"

"IT IS NOT VILE!" Hermione shouted back. "AND I'VE HAD IT UP TO HERE," she continued, dropping the talisman and raising her hand above her head for emphasis, "WITH PEOPLE TELLING ME THAT IT IS JUST BECAUSE THEY'RE TOO NARROW-MINDED TO UNDERSTAND! It's not the charm that's evil," Hermione said, lowering her voice significantly when Madam Pomfrey gasped and she realized that she was screaming at her mother-in-law. "It's the intent of the person using it that matters. Ron's intentions were good, as were mine," she stated, "and if you refuse to see that, if you insist on believing the worst about your own son, then I'm afraid it's your prob… I felt that." Hermione said, stopping mid rant and turning her back on Mrs. Weasley to look at her son. "Ron?" she questioned, as she felt his confusion give way to apprehension and then relief. "Are you…You can hear us, can't you?"

"Bloody Hell, Mione," he grumbled weakly, causing both his mother and Madam Pomfrey to cry out in surprise. "You give a whole new meaning… to the term 'loud enough to wake the dead'," he joked in a strained voice.

"OH RON!"

Uh oh, Ron thought, clenching his shut eyes even tighter and bracing himself when he heard his mother shriek his name. He'd been so focused on the fact that he was alive and that he could hear Hermione's voice that he hadn't given any thought to who else might be around. He'd realized that Hermione was screaming at someone, but he'd taken that as a good sign. If she could shout like that, it had to mean that she was all right and that was all he really cared about at that particular point in time. That abruptly changed the instant he realized that his mother was present and that she was liable to try and squeeze the life out of him again.

"OW, MUM!" Ron yelped, when Molly threw herself at him and pulled him into a bone-crushing hug. "That… hurts," he groaned, clutching his left side as the pain that had let him know he was once again in his body increased significantly. "Ow. Gerroff."

"Oh, Ronnie," Molly cried, ignoring his protest and kissing him on the cheek several times before moving to his beet red forehead. "My baby boy. You're all right. It's a miracle."

"Get a grip," Ron moaned in embarrassment, trying unsuccessfully to shove his mother away. "It wasn't a miracle," he muttered. "I knew Hermione would be able to…not you too," he grumbled, giving up on his efforts to dislodge his mother and opening his eyes to look at Hermione, who was standing beside his bed with tears streaming down her face. "Don't cry," he said, reaching for her hand when he felt her joy diminish and slowly turn into regret.

Unfortunately the gesture elicited unexpected results and rather than be reassured or take comfort from the contact, as Ron hoped she would, Hermione let out a gigantic sob the instant his fingers entwined with hers. But the anguished cry must have caught his mother's attention in a way that his pleas hadn't, because she pulled away to search out the source, and the instant she did, Hermione threw herself on top of him.

AW COME ON NOW! Ron groaned in his head as the air he'd struggled to regain after his mother's assault was once again forced from his lungs. "Crushing…. me…" he managed to get out between Hermione's sobs, and yet despite his words, he made no effort to move her.

"You… you daft git," Hermione hissed into Ron's ear as his hand slipped up her back and into her hair. "You scared the hell out of me, you prat," she said, hugging him one last time, then loosening her grip, and pulling away to glower down at him. "What were you thinking?" she demanded, using the hand he wasn't clutching to wipe away her tears.

"Um."

"That was supposed to be our last resort, not our first," she said crossly.

"Last resort?" Madam Pomfrey wondered out loud. "Do you have any idea what they're talking about?" she asked Molly, who shook her head.

"But…"

"Don't make excuses," Hermione said sternly, before Ron had a chance to get more than a solitary word out. "There is no excuse. What if I hadn't been able to bring you back?"

"But you did," Ron pointed out quickly.

"But what if I couldn't? Did you even stop to consider that?"

"But. You. Did."

"That's not the point," Hermione said irritably, glowering again when she felt his bewilderment turn into admiration and then love. "Don't even go there," she said, feeling her resolve begin to crumble against her will. How am I supposed to stay angry with him when he's thinking about how much he loves me. DAMN HIM! "The point is," she said, shoving his affection aside and trying to regain her focus, "I don't know how I did it."

"And that matters why?" Ron asked.

"What if I did something wrong?" Hermione shot back incredulously.

"What do you mean wrong?" Molly said urgently, jerking her eyes off the teens and leveling them on Madam Pomfrey. "Poppy?" she beseeched, her voice laced with concern.

"That's enough," the Healer said, the panic in Molly's voice reminding her that she had not just one, but two patients to look after. She couldn't just stand around gaping like an idiot when she had a job to do. "Back to bed you go," she said to Hermione, clapping both hands down on her shoulders and physically pulling her off Ron's bed.

"Why?" Ron asked immediately, his blue eyes going wide and then narrowing quickly as he looked at Hermione closely and realized she was wearing a hospital gown, unlike himself. "What did those bastards do to you?" he demanded, genuinely alarmed now.

"That will be quite enough of that," Madam Pomfrey scolded. "You will remain calm and in this bed until I return. Is that clear?"

The hell I will, Ron thought, despite the fact he knew his mother would do her level best to make sure that he complied with those instructions. "Where are you going?" he said anxiously, not to Madam Pomfrey, but to Hermione.

"Nowhere," she stated, darting out of the Healer's grasp and jumping on top of the bed closest to his. She wasn't about to be led back to the partially screened bed in the center of the room when there was a perfectly good one right here.

"Oh for heaven's sake," Madam Pomfrey sighed in exasperation. "Of all the stubborn…" she muttered under her breath. "I couldn't possibly give a proper exam with you two…"

"Then don't," Ron cut in, taking all of three seconds to decide he'd keep quiet about the pain in his side if it meant avoiding the questions that would accompany a lengthy exam. "I'm fine."

"Ronald Weasley," Molly hissed in warning.

"Well, I am," he replied, jerking his eyes off his mother and locking them on Hermione. As long as I don't try and breathe too deeply.

"You most certainly are not," his mother protested. "You nearly died."

Not nearly, he corrected in his head, but he wisely kept the truth on that matter to himself. If his mother knew what he'd done, she'd go mental. "Tell her that you were overreacting to make your point," he said to Hermione instead. "Tell her that I'm fine."

"How would I know that?" she replied.

"Hermione!" Ron whined, hoping that she'd read between the lines and realize what was going to happen if Madam Pomfrey started asking questions. He couldn't exactly answer them. Not without getting both of them in a boatload of trouble.

Maybe I can distract them, he thought, desperate to find another option when he realized Hermione wasn't going to help him out. The problem was, the best way to distract them was to ask about Harry and Ginny and despite the fact he genuinely wanted to know if there had been any word on them, the fact that they weren't in the hospital wing with the rest of his family pretty much answered his question. They weren't here because they were still missing and if he brought it up now, not only would he upset his mother, he'd upset Hermione as well. That's the last thing she needs, he thought, knowing that she already felt responsible for what he'd done to himself. I don't want her feeling guilty about Harry and Ginny as well. That isn't going to help her or anyone else. Best just to submit to the exam and get it over with. At least then Madam Pomfrey will stop fussing and go away.

¤

"I'm sorry you had to find out about us like this," Hermione said uncomfortably, when Molly maintained her distance and continued to stare at the screens Madam Pomfrey had repositioned around Ron's bed in order to conduct her exam. "It's not the way either of us would have chosen for you to…"

"Humph," Ron's mother cut in, crossing her arms in front of her chest and looking even more standoffish now than she had when Hermione tried to break the strained silence.

"It's… it's not what you think," Hermione forced herself to continue, despite her discomfort. "We did it because we…we love each other," she said, blushing a deep scarlet red, "but we also did it to protect one another, and Harry, too, of course. And it worked."

"Oh really?" Molly replied, her eyes still glued on the screens. "Enlighten me then." I wouldn't want to be accused of being narrow-minded a second time. "How exactly does putting a Là nain talisman on my son protect Harry?"

"It doesn't," Hermione admitted with a sigh, "I was talking about the rest of it, about the Coupling Potion."

"Coupling Potion?" Molly asked in surprise, turning around to face Hermione, despite her decision to give her the cold-shoulder. "The three of you took a Coupling Potion?"

"No," Hermione answered the instant she saw the horrified expression on Molly's face. "Just Ron and myself. A three way connection would have been too overwhelming and we wouldn't have been able to…"

"To what?" Molly asked, when Hermione stopped short.

"Maintain the link," she said weakly.

"MR. WEASLEY!" Madam Pomfrey's shrill voice rang out, as one of the curtains unexpectedly moved aside and Ron came into view. "Get back into your bed this instant," she barked, but her command fell on deaf ears.

"Leave her alone," Ron said, glancing at Hermione briefly before rounding on his mother. "Whatever you're doing, stop it," he demanded. "Can't you see you're upsetting her?"

"It was nothing, really," Hermione said, hoping to defuse the situation before Ron's over protective tendencies got him into even more trouble than he was already in.

"Bollocks."

"Don't you take that tone with me, young man," Molly hissed, placing one hand on her hip and scowling so fiercely that Hermione actually cringed.

"Ron, please," she implored, knowing that he was purposely trying to bring his mother's wrath down on himself to spare her.

"I'm not a baby anymore, Mum," he continued, ignoring Hermione's plea, "despite what you might think. I'm practically of age and I'll…"

No, don't say it, Hermione screamed in her head, hoping against hope that her anxiety would be enough to still his tongue.

"…say whatever I want, whenever I want."

That ought to just about do it, Hermione thought, both grateful and concerned at the same time. He always knows exactly what buttons to push.

"You want to be angry at someone," Ron continued, anxious himself, but doing a relatively good job of keeping that fact hidden, from his mother anyway, "be angry at me. It was my fault anyway, not Hermione's."

"So what you're saying," Molly said in a voice that was altogether too calm, "is that it was your idea to elope?"

"What?" Ron asked, doing a double take when his mother didn't respond the way he'd expected. She couldn't possibly know about… "What?" he asked again, his heart plummeting when he realized Hermione wasn't the least bit surprised by the fact that the word 'elope' had somehow found it's way into the conversation. NO BLOODY WAY! Ron thought, his mouth falling open in disbelief. "You… you told my mother that we're… that we're…"

"Shackled to one another by Là nain talismans?"

OH GOD! Ron silently groaned as all the blood drained out of his face.

"She was going to find out anyway," Hermione said defensively. "I had no choice. I had to be the one in control."

CONTROL! A voice shrieked in the back of Ron's head, as he groaned and covered his face with both hands. Control? She told her because she wanted to be in control. Bloody hell, I knew she was a control freak, but that's… OH GOD! We are sooo dead.

"What was I supposed to do?" Hermione said in a high pitched voice. "Let them ship you off to St. Mungo's and lock you away in the Spell Damaged ward. I didn't know what else to do. When I woke up I couldn't feel you anymore and I panicked. All I knew for sure was that I had just under two weeks to figure out how to get your soul back in your body and that I wasn't going to be able to do that at all if you weren't here."

"What do you mean 'back in his body'?" Madam Pomfrey asked in surprise. "Where else would his soul be?"

"Remus was obviously mistaken," Molly added. "You weren't hit with a Killing Curse, that much is obvious now."

"Er…" Ron said, locking eyes with Hermione and discovering that she was just as unsure of how to proceed as he was. "Um…" To hell with it. I'm in so deep now, it really doesn't matter. "…well, actually… I sorta did it to myself."

"Did what to yourself?" his mother asked anxiously. "You're not suggesting that you tried to use an Unforgivable and it backfired?"

"Dolohov was going to kill Hermione," Ron stated, after taking a deep breath and preparing himself for his mother's impending explosion, "so I… I killed myself to protect her because I knew that she'd be able to bring me back," he finished, unconsciously shrinking backwards as he spoke.

"YOU DID WHAT!"

"Bring you back?" Madam Pomfrey exclaimed in surprise. "That's impossible."

"Do I look like a bloody Inferius to you?"

"Obviously it is possible," Hermione cut in, "provided the victim's soul is anchored to someone else and remains Earthbound. That's why we took the Coupling Potion," she added, "to bind our souls and keep them from crossing over. I knew that as long as our bodies were kept alive, we had two weeks to…"

"POPPY!" a voice shouted, as the double doors of the hospital wing burst open with a deafening bang, taking all four of the people inside by surprise. "Quickly, we need a…"

"I told you that you need Hermione, not Madam Pomfrey," Harry's voice called out, as both the Healer and Molly ran towards the hallway where the commotion was.

"Oh god," Hermione groaned, locking eyes with Ron, who unintentionally confirmed her fear by mirroring her feelings. Just like her, he was relieved to hear Harry's voice, and yet the statement Harry made caused Ron's blood to run cold. There was only one reason he'd be calling for Hermione right now. Once again, Harry had faced down Lord Voldemort and lived to tell the tale; someone else hadn't been that lucky.

"It's Ginny," Hermione muttered as she watched the color drain out of Ron's face. "She…she didn't take the potion," she moaned, adding guilt to the cocktail of emotions they were both experiencing. "I wouldn't let her take it. Oh god, this is all my fault. If I'd only…"

"No," Ron said, shaking his head as if he refused to believe it. "Harry added his blood to the potion and drank it before we left the tower," he explained as Hermione climbed out of bed. "He thought it would help him track Ginny down, but… but… he took it with him," Ron added hopefully. "He took it with him so he could give it to Ginny. He told me that he was going to give it to her. So she'll… she'll be all right. Won't she?" he asked, his denial giving way to uncertainty.

"OH MY GOD! CHARLIE!" Molly screamed, instantly drawing the teens full attention back to the door. "What happened?" she shrieked, moving away from the door so her son could stagger into the hospital wing with his father's help.

No wonder she screamed, Hermione thought, her eyes wide with fear as she saw Ron's older brother practically topple over on the nearest bed when his father released him. He's covered in blood.

"It looks worse than it is," Arthur reassured his wife as he jerked the top sheet off the bed opposite Charlie and quickly wrapped it around his left arm. "He just needs a Blood-Replenishing Potion and then I'll get him to St. Mungo's."

"The hell you will," Charlie protested, reaching for the makeshift bandage and holding it firmly in place so his father wouldn't have to. "It's just a little bite," he said, sitting up straighter and putting on a show of being all right for his mother's benefit. Not that she was buying a word of it. All she had to do was look at his pasty complexion to see that it was a lie. "No big deal," Charlie continued, as his mother ran to the bed Hermione had woken up in and hurried back with a bottle in her hand. "You don't know what bad is until you've been bitten by a drag…"

"It wasn't a dragon," Arthur reminded him, taking the Blood-Replenishing Potion out of his wife's shaking hand, popping the top off, and handing the bottle to his son without even bothering to search for a cup.

"Yeah, well," Charlie said, after taking a swing, "that bloody snake won't be biting anyone else now, will she? I made sure of that."

"Snake," Molly whispered, her eyes the size of saucers. "Not the same snake that …"

"I'm afraid so," Arthur said, moving forward and wrapping his arm around his wife's shoulder. "Not to worry though," he added. "The Healer's at St. Mungo's will have him patched up in no time. Now that they know how to counteract the venom, that is."

"I'm not going anywhere," Charlie stated, his voice getting stronger as the potion kicked in and the color returned to his face. "Not until I know that George is going to be all right."

"George?" Ron asked, the relief he'd felt when he realized Charlie wasn't actually near death instantly stomped down by a new wave of fear. "What happened to…"

"What is he talking about, Arthur?" Molly asked in a high pitched voice.

"Quickly, get him inside, Remus," Madam Pomfrey said as she came bursting into the room, dragging a disheveled Fred along behind her. "You, sit," she barked, shoving him towards the bed opposite Charlie. "I'll get back to you after I've attended to your brothers. Now you're sure it was the Killing Curse this time?" she asked Lupin, as he stepping into the room with George floating behind him. "No, not there," she said, when Lupin answered her question with a somber nod and tried to direct George to the nearest unoccupied bed. "Put him behind the screens," she ordered, pointing to the bed Hermione had been occupying earlier. "There's nothing I can do for him now."

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN THERE'S NOTHING YOU CAN DO?" Fred shouted as he watched his mother crumble against his father. "We did everything Ginny told us to do. She said he'd be…"

"Ginny?" Molly asked, clutching at Arthur's shoulder to help support herself. "You found your sister? Is she…"

"She'll be fine," Remus assured Molly as he disappeared behind the screens with George. "A bit shaken, but other than that…Tonks thought it would be best to take the two of them straight to Dumbledore's office. Harry and Ginny that is. Bill went with them," he added in an effort to alleviate any fears she might have about her remaining family members.

"WHAT ABOUT GEORGE?" Fred shouted.

"MERLIN'S BEARD!" Lupin exclaimed loudly, as he stepped out from behind the curtains and saw Ron standing at the opposite end of the hospital wing beside Hermione, gaping at him in horror. "But you were…"

"HERMIONE!" Fred shouted, when he too looked away from the curtains and saw the couple frozen at the other end of the room. "DO SOMETHING!" he insisted.

"I…. I can't," she said as all eyes suddenly landed on her. "He's not linked to me, he's linked to you. You're going to have to do it."