Hi! Just a fair warning that from here on out, this fic will be almost nothing like the film at all….not even a little bit.
I had originally planned for it to be more similar (never wanted it to be the same) but when I wrote it down, this is what came out soooooo basically it's a 'you get what you get and you don't throw a fit' scenario.
I think the main thing I took from Titanic was this. Poor man and engaged rich woman fall in love on a fancy ship — and I hope I've done that ;p
I hope you enjoy the rest of the fic though, and I promise there are still plenty of upcoming surprises...both good and….very very bad.
With that said, I sincerely apologize for this chapter :(
Thanks as usual to Cheesy, Array, & BGP for their beta help! They are spectacular peeps!
oOo
Day 6-
The room was silent and dark when Ron opened his eyes. He blinked a few times, for a moment not even remembering where he was, but then the feeling of Hermione sleeping in his arms brought it all back, and he took a deep breath, hardly believing what had transpired between them.
It was perfect. She was perfect.
Never in his life had Ron known that love would feel like this — that it was possible to be so blissfully happy.
Even though Ron couldn't see her, he could tell by the sound of her breathing that Hermione was asleep. Everything inside of him wanted to hold her tighter, to wake her up and tell her how much she meant to him, but he knew that he couldn't as it would only make it harder for him to leave.
He hadn't meant to fall asleep in her bed, and couldn't even remember doing so. All he remembered was Hermione. Her smell, her sounds, her taste — the feel of her. Ron knew, without a doubt, that he would never tire of any part of her, never in a million years.
Trying to move Hermione's sleeping form as little as possible, Ron untangled himself from her embrace and scooted back, managing to slide off the side of the bed without waking her. Using touch as his only sense, Ron moved his hands around on the floor where he had deposited his clothes earlier.
Once dressed, Ron hesitated, hating the fact that he was leaving Hermione without waking her — hating the fact that he was having to leave her at all. He sighed, shaking his head.
No.
This was only temporary. Tomorrow, he would be sneaking her away with him, and then they would have forever, just as they'd talked about.
With that thought in mind, Ron made himself walk over to the door where he felt for the door handle before unlocking it. He stepped out of the dark room into the dimly-lit living area, relieved to find it empty. Ron closed the door behind him, locking it from the inside before he did so, and gave the handle a turn to make sure it was secure so that nobody could get in.
Staying quiet, Ron walked over to the door to the suite and opened it. When he did, he immediately locked eyes with another pair, and his heart dropped as he recognized Zabini. Ron knew he'd been caught, and his first instinct was to make a run for it, so he darted out into the hallway, trying to avoid contact with the now-scowling man. Zabini must have been expecting Ron to do this, because he threw his body across the hallway, knocking Ron hard against the wall and forcing all of the air out of his lungs.
Before Ron could regain his breath, Zabini started throwing debilitating punches to the side of Ron's head, not stopping until Ron saw black.
oOo
When Ron came to, all he could feel was pain. His head was throbbing, and his eyes felt as if they had been glued shut. The lower half of his body was slumped against a cold floor, his upper body held up painfully by his arms that were wrapped around a horizontal pole level with his head and secured there by what felt like an extremely tight pair of metal handcuffs. He heard voices in the room around him, and they started to gradually get louder as Ron regained his senses.
He could immediately recognize Malfoy's voice along with Zabini's, and as Ron listened, he heard them discussing what they should do with him. He heard Zabini tell Malfoy the details of how Ron had been found sneaking out of the suite, and Ron could tell by Malfoy's voice that the man was furious about it. Ron tried to open his eyes to see where he was, holding onto hope that he would somehow be able to find a way out of this situation.
Ron held back a hiss as he blinked, the bright light coming from the lightbulb above making his pain even worse. He was in a small steel room, nothing inside except for the three men. His hands were indeed handcuffed to a pole, and Ron tried to sit up a little so he could regain some circulation in his aching wrists. All of a sudden, he heard the two men stop talking and knew that he was now being watched. He tried to hold still, but cried out as someone grabbed a handful of his hair and yanked his head back hard.
"What were you doing in my suite?" Malfoy demanded, staring down at Ron as Zabini held Ron's head steady.
Ron didn't answer, only glaring at the blonde man as if doing so could make him disappear. Malfoy gave Zabini a nod, and Zabini shoved Ron's head back into the metal pole, the sound making a clanging noise as Ron grunted in agony.
"I'm going to ask you again," Malfoy said in a low voice, now bent down in front of Ron. "But this time you're going to tell me. What were you doing in my suite?"
Ron lifted his head, hate filling his entire being for the man in front of him. He resisted the urge to spit in Malfoy's face, instead taking a steadying breath as he tried to ignore the pounding in his head.
"I was looking for something to steal," he lied, hoping that the men would buy it.
Malfoy gave him a tight-lipped smile before standing up, his hands clasped behind his back as he started to pace the small room.
"See, I might have bought that story if you had actually left the suite with something of value. As it is though, when Zabini checked, you had nothing on you."
Ron chose not to say anything.
"So, by order of elimination, you were there because of Hermione. Is that right?" Malfoy asked, glaring down at Ron as if he were something revolting.
Ron shook his head no, but Malfoy didn't look at all convinced. He bent down in front of Ron again, his eyes cold.
"We got back from the party around midnight, and Zabini stood outside the door for half an hour before you appeared, which means that you had to have entered the suite before we got back. If you don't tell the truth, we will not hesitate to beat it out of you. Were you, or were you not, with my fiance?"
Ron clenched his jaw, again shaking his head no.
This apparently wasn't good enough for Malfoy, and he pulled his fist back before releasing it with tremendous force, landing it directly against Ron's nose with a sickening crack. Ron sputtered as blood started pouring from his nostrils, his eyes watering as he gasped for breath.
"DID YOU TOUCH HER?!" Malfoy screamed, his demeanor no longer calm.
"Leave-her-out-of-this," Ron muttered in between pants as he was not able to breathe properly. "This is -between you -and me- not her."
Malfoy stood up again, Ron watching as he took several calming breaths.
"You know," Malfoy started in a slow voice before pausing. "There is another way to get the answer to my question. If I were to take her myself, I could easily find out just how virginal she is."
At the words, a surge of red hot anger rolled through Ron.
"You sonofabitch!" he growled as he stood up and tried to lunge forward to get his hands on Malfoy, but was hardly able to move as the handcuffs held him tight by his painfully-aching wrists.
Malfoy nodded at Zabini again, and Ron was rewarded for his outburst with a hard punch to the gut.
"You really are an idiot, aren't you?" Malfoy sneered as Ron worked on regaining his breath. "Hermione will come to her senses, and when she does, she will realize that you are nothing."
"You think just because you have your Daddy's money that you are better than me?" Ron snarled as he glared at Malfoy without breaking eye contact. "No amount of money could make you anything more than a slimy sack of shit!"
His words earned him a punch to the mouth from Zabini. Ron felt both of his lips bust open against his teeth on impact, but didn't give the men the satisfaction of making a noise.
"I swear, if you so much as touched her, you will fucking pay," Draco seethed as Ron spat mouthfuls of blood out onto the floor.
"And Hermione," Malfoy continued. "Well, my darling fiance will have to pay for that mistake as well, won't she? You can rest assured that she will regret it every day for the rest of her life."
The thought of Malfoy laying a finger on Hermione in any way made Ron feel like he was going to be sick, and the fact that he wasn't able to warn her terrified him.
"Please," he begged, finally reaching his breaking point at the thought of Hermione coming to harm. "Do whatever you want to me, just leave her alone."
Malfoy seemed to immensely enjoy Ron's pleading, and a proud grin stretched across his face as he straightened his suit tie.
"I told Hermione that you would be thrown overboard if I caught the two of you together again, did you know that?" Malfoy asked Ron in an almost nonchalant way.
Ron nodded, not trusting his voice, deciding to play along with Malfoy if only for Hermione's sake.
"But the truth is," Malfoy continued in the same off-handed tone. "That it would be far too easy for you that way. So, when we reach America tomorrow, you will be heading straight to prison." Ron gave him a confused look, making the smile on Malfoy's face grow wider. "See, I don't think someone like you, someone who has nothing — who is nothing — could possibly understand just what money can do. A few bills to the right people, and I can make you anyone I want you to be. I could make you a thief, a murderer, a rapist. I can make it so that you spend the rest of your days in a small cell crying about your innocence, only there will be nobody to believe you."
Ron felt his insides go cold. He couldn't care less about himself, but if he were locked away in prison he wouldn't be able to protect Hermione, and that was something that he couldn't fathom happening.
"Anyway," Malfoy went on. "Right now, I'm going to head back to the suite and get a few hours of sleep. In the morning, I will inform Hermione that I had you thrown off the ship after you were caught sneaking away like the coward you are. You see, in order for my plan to work, I can't have her thinking that you are still alive. This whole thing will be dealt with privately, with very few knowing the truth.
"Don't worry, though," he went on in a cheerful voice. "I'll be sure to come and check on you later to tell you how the conversation went. And then tonight, I'll be sure to pay a personal visit to her bedroom." He shrugged. "I didn't much fancy waiting until marriage anyway."
"You stay away from her, you bastard!" Ron roared, unable to control himself as his anger once again boiled to the surface.
Zabini punched Ron in the side before starting to pummel his face and jaw. Ron's nose and mouth, which had both begun to slow down their bleeding, started up once again, and Ron tried to twist his head to avoid the blows to no avail.
"You'll learn real quick not to talk back to me," Malfoy said in a calm voice once Zabini was finished with his assault.
Ron closed his eyes, fighting the waves of nausea that rolled over him due to what he was sure were several concussions. With that, the two men left after flicking off the lightswitch, locking the metal door behind them with a click that, to Ron, felt like the end.
oOo
Ron woke up hours later to the sound of the door unlocking. Groaning, he stood up from his uncomfortable position on the floor, leaning back against the wall for support. When the lights switched on, he squinted in pain, his head feeling as if it were being stabbed.
"Got news for you, sewer rat!" Malfoy said merrily as he strolled into the room, this time alone. "I've told Hermione about your unfortunate demise!"
Ron said nothing, his heart dropping in his chest.
"She screamed and cried, you should have heard her! Wailing your name like a madwoman as if that would bring you back! 'Ron! No! Ron!'" He laughed. "I didn't even know your name, but now that I do I'll never be able to hear it again without remembering that. It really was comical how much she cared, as if you were a beloved pet or something."
Ron looked down at the floor, painfully clenching his sore jaw and trying to remain calm. Malfoy wanted a reaction from him, and Ron was determined not to give him one.
"She'll get over it though," Malfoy continued. "She'll get over it, and as you rot away in prison, she will be none the wiser. We will get married as planned, and she will do the job that I've chosen her to do. She will give me a son to continue the Malfoy name — several, actually, if things go my way."
Malfoy stepped closer to a still-silent Ron, his breath coming out onto Ron's cheek. "I will fuck her every single night," he said in a quiet voice. "and she will be forced to lay on her back and take it."
Without warning, Ron threw his head to the side and brutally headbutted Malfoy in the nose, the crunching sound giving him a small bit of pleasure even as the action caused an immense amount of pain to his wounded head.
"You stupid fuck!" Malfoy squealed as he held his now bleeding nose.
After a moment he sprang forward, punching Ron repeatedly in the head until he again saw black.
oOo
The next time Ron came to, he barely managed to lift his body up enough to relieve his wrists that felt like they were about to explode from holding up his weight for so long. His head felt like it was full of rocks, and he could tell by how little his eyes were opening that they were nearly swollen shut.
Not long after waking up, the door opened, and Malfoy and Zabini again appeared. Ron was glad to see that Malfoy's nose was now swollen and bruised. There was something different about the blonde man's demeanor this time, and Ron suddenly had a horrible sense of foreboding. Malfoy looked agitated, furious even as he stepped inside the room, a straight-faced Zabini closing the door behind him.
"Come to hit me again, did you?" Ron muttered even though his brain told him to hold still and shut the hell up. "Or would you rather have your hit man here do it for you so you don't have to wrinkle your precious suit?"
Malfoy let out a growl as he started to punch Ron on the side of the head, causing him to see stars. Over and over the blows came, as if Malfoy were releasing some pent up fury. Without warning, Ron felt the handcuffs being released, and a piece of paper was shoved into his hands.
"Read it, ginger," Malfoy demanded, sounding a bit out of breath. "I guarantee that it will hurt you more than any fist ever will."
Ron lifted the piece of paper, immediately recognizing Hermione's handwriting. It was a note addressed to Hermione's mother, and after reading only the first sentence, Ron lost the feeling in his body as he dropped to the floor, a tortured wail coming out of his mouth.
He felt as if his entire soul had been ripped violently from his body.
Nothing mattered anymore.
"I told you his reaction would be entertaining," Malfoy said to Zabini, although there was no humor in his voice.
Ron moved his eyes to Malfoy, silently pleading for the man to say that what Ron had just read wasn't true.
"Yes, you read that right, Hermione threw herself overboard. She wanted to join you apparently." He let out a sigh as he ran his bony hand through his blonde hair. "What a fucking waste," he mumbled under his breath.
Ron was numb, but at the same time, he felt everything. His jaw quivered, and tears ran down across his swollen and bruised nose before dripping onto the metal floor.
"Just kill me. Please," he whispered.
"Ha!" Malfoy barked. "And how satisfying would that be? No, I want to live the rest of my life knowing that you are rotting away. This is your fault! You did this! If you would have stayed the fuck away from her, she'd still be alive!"
Ron closed his eyes, the pain in his chest unbearable. Hermione was gone. She was gone because she thought that he was gone, but instead, Ron was still here.
And he was anguished.
He gulped, opening his eyes. "Maybe...maybe she didn't do it…" he whispered under his breath, trying to hold onto hope that Hermione was still alive.
"I would have thought that as well," Malfoy responded. "Except there was a witness. A woman saw her jump...apparently the poor thing was quite hysterical about it too," he said in a mocking voice.
Ron again closed his eyes, trying to block the words and the mental image that they caused.
"And then, while searching her room, I found this," Malfoy spat out, throwing Ron's portfolio to the floor in front of him. "It was under her bed."
Ron stared at the portfolio full of the drawings that had once been his greatest treasures, but now felt like nothing.
"I went through them," Malfoy continued. "And I have to admit, they are quite good. This one though," he said in a slow voice as he bent down and pulled the drawing of Hermione out of the portfolio. "This one has to be your greatest work."
Still in shock, Ron could only stare up as Malfoy studied the drawing, his head tilted to the side.
"I mean, I've got to hand it to you — well played. How someone like you could get into the knickers of someone like her, I'll never know, but bra-vo! She was quite stunning, wasn't she?" Malfoy let out a snort, and then, without warning, he ripped the paper in half.
"No!" Ron cried out, but Malfoy ignored him as he continued to rip the paper up into little pieces. Ron could only watch, his internal pain already as severe as it could be.
"Hermione," he whimpered.
"Oh, don't cry," Malfoy tutted. "I'll be okay. I'm a Malfoy, after all, and it will be easy for me to find someone else to marry. A woman similar to Hermione… somebody weak."
Ron's pain turned to fury, and despite his injuries, he leapt up, throwing himself at Malfoy, wrapping his large hands around the man's neck as he held him up against the wall.
"She-wasn't-weak!" Ron screamed, watching Malfoy's terrified face turn red as Ron squeezed harder.
He felt something cold and hard being pressed to his temple, and knew that Zabini had a gun to his head.
"Do it!" he challenged. "I don't care!"
Zabini pulled the gun back before knocking Ron over the head with it and Ron's battered body fell to the ground, now only semi-conscious. His eyes were closed, but he heard Malfoy taking in raspy breaths as Zabini asked if he was okay. Instead of answering, Malfoy let out a deranged yell and started kicking Ron in the ribs. Ron curled in on himself as Malfoy carried on, kicking him everywhere, Ron no longer strong enough to fight back.
When Malfoy had tired himself out, Ron's whole body was throbbing, but it was nothing compared to the pain he felt in his chest as he thought about the fact that he would never see Hermione again.
oOo
Day 7-
They were in America, but it wasn't anything like Ron had dreamed it would be. He couldn't have imagined that when he would first step onto American soil that he would do so not as a free man, but as a captive one.
He hadn't fought back and had been silent when Zabini, along with another man Ron didn't recognize, had come to collect him once the ship had reached its destination — Ron had not seen Malfoy since the day before.
The car ride hadn't been long, and once they'd gotten to the prison, Ron had barely listened to the words being exchanged, feeling too dead inside to care. He'd done everything he'd been asked to without saying a word, including getting dressed into what looked like old rags before being led into the small cell that would now be his new home. He'd ignored the jeers around him as he'd been led through the prison, the other inmates calling out names to the 'fresh meat'. He'd crawled onto his small, uncomfortable cot and tried to make himself invisible, still ignoring the loud commotion around him.
Earlier, Ron had learned that his new name was Cal Hockley, and that he had a life sentence for brutally murdering a five year old girl. There weren't very many other details about 'Cal' or his 'crime' because just as Malfoy had mentioned to Ron yesterday, nobody asked a lot of questions once they were handed money.
Ron wondered about Harry, who he knew had to be worried sick. His heart ached for his friend and for the fact that Harry, like Ron, was now alone, something that had both been used to until they came into each other's lives. Ron tried to cling onto hope that Harry would be able to find Sirius and that he would finally have the father figure that he'd always dreamed of — the thought was the only shred of light that Ron could hold onto.
He tried not to think of Hermione, but it was a losing battle as the mental and emotional torture of losing her was there every single second. Every breath was rattled with grief, every moment spent trying to hold himself together as her beautiful face swam around in his mind.
To know that Hermione...his Hermione had felt so desperate...so alone that she had resorted to jumping to her death...it was more than Ron could bear. When she thought Ron was dead, she would have thought that she no longer had anyone — had no other way to escape.
He closed his eyes shut tight and willed himself to go back in time — to go back to that moment he had woken with her in his arms. If only he had known what the future would hold, he would have pulled her closer, and he would have never let her go.
But he had let her go, and now he was here and he was paying for it. All Ron had now was a new identity, a broken spirit, and a lifetime behind bars.
