Everytime
Chapter 4 – Inside Out
A/N – Whew. Just sat down and typed this whole thing up in about an hour, so forgive me if my author's notes are shorter than usual. Anyway, thanks to my reviewers—
Babegurlly411 – The movie you're thinking of is probably Groundhog Day, which David Ken already did a great Ron/Hermione story on (check my favorites). Anyway, thanks a lot! Hope this update is fast enough, and...if the chapters are short, I'm not used to writing huge chapters; my first story had some 1,000-word ones that I thought were perfect, although I tried to make this story's chapters a little longer. But shorter chapters does mean I can update more, so...
Gylfie – (3 times!) Thank you, thank you...lol. I'm flattered with your "This is…awesome" review; thanks a lot! Hope you continue to enjoy!
EE's Skysong – With me from the beginning, one of my greatest reviewers! Thanks a lot and hope the cliffhanger is resolved to your satisfaction... XD
Harry Lvr – Hopefully this is a quick enough update, though I'm afraid that I can't give you your wish of longer chapters...yet, anyway. The end of this chapter seemed like a good cutting-off point, and I wanted to get this out today, so that's why it's not longer, but hope you enjoy!
Anyway, one last thing...in case you guys hadn't noticed, each chapter's title is a song that I thought fit the mood. The first chapter is "The Future Freaks Me Out" by Motion City Soundtrack, the second chapter is "Second Heartbeat" by Avenged Sevenfold (just thought the title fit, don't particularly like the song), the third chapter is "Just a Simple Plan" by Piebald (again, title fit), and this one is "Inside Out" by Eve 6, an excellent song. Onwards...
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For a moment I was...floating. Well, I guess that's the only way to describe it. Reality seemed to sort of fade out into nothingness, eerily reminiscent of what had happened both times I had died so far—I had died twice, bloody hell—and then...nothing. Darkness.
Whoosh.
Something was bursting outwards from within me. Hermione...I thought, and my concern for her was suddenly magnified a hundred times, a thousand times, until nothing else mattered other than the fact that Hermione was about to die out there and it would probably be my fault and I couldn't let her die and suddenly there was an explosion, so huge that I was sure that we all, and maybe even Voldemort himself, were dead, but instead reality faded back into view and I could see Harry's face locked in an expression of horror and Hermione's shocked and fearful face as realization hit her that the snake was poisonous and she was at least going to be seriously injured...
A beam of light, in appearance exactly like an Expelliarmus or Avada Kedavra spell, flew outwards from somewhere within my chest and connected with Nagini's frozen form. Suddenly time seemed to speed back up again and the beam struck the snake, and there was a faint screaming noise before Nagini—Voldemort's final Horcrux, his familiar for decades, the snake that had bitten my father in the Department of Mysteries—dissolved into nothingness.
Then there was silence.
"Ron!" A piercing scream broke the nervous calm, and then suddenly there was bushy hair everywhere and Hermione's slender form was pressing against my body, hugging me tightly and shaking, causing me to shake along with her...
"Holy Merlin! You killed it! It was about to hurt me or kill me and...you killed it! You killed Nagini! Y-You s-saved my life!" her cries became more and more muffled as she buried her face in the front of my robes, sniffling with fright and something else that I couldn't place.
"Hermione!"
Harry had arrived, and Hermione pulled away from me suddenly, struggling to regain her composure. She threw her arms around him as well, and I felt a sudden pang of jealousy that faded just as quickly and was replaced with thankfulness that Hermione was alive and awe at what I had done.
And then Harry turned to me and asked the question that the answer to had been eluding me in the mere moments since reality had faded away...
"Ron...what did you do, mate? What happened there? That looked like accidental magic...and really powerful too!"
Accidental magic? Something clicked in my head, and suddenly it made complete sense. Accidental magic was performed whenever an extremely large burst of emotion was emitted from a witch or wizard...and I had been incredibly worried about Hermione, enough that for an instant she was the only thing on my mind...
Oh no, I thought. I really cared about her. Forget cared about her, I was pretty close to love if not there already! And she certainly didn't feel the same way about me, as she had made perfectly clear during our years at Hogwarts...
"Next time, ask me to go to the ball yourself, and not as a last resort!"
Her words from fourth year somehow found their way into my mind. And then I realized—
No. No. I had to do this. I had to carry out my plan for later, and if anything it was going to be doubly hard to pull off due to this latest realization. But pull it off I had to if any of us were going to live, not just myself—because if I had been the only one left without Harry and Hermione, I didn't think that I could have stood it. Not to mention the prophecy and the fact that if Harry fell to Voldemort it was uncertain if any wizard in the world would be strong enough to defeat him...
"Harry—you know, I think you're right," I replied finally, struggling to get my thoughts in order, but they kept zooming off in other directions, usually toward the bushy-haired witch standing in front of me.
"But—but how did you kill Nagini? By yourself? She was a Horcrux...that's incredibly strong magic, mate. How on Earth did you pull that off?"
"I—I don't know," I said, my thoughts racing. How had I destroyed a Horcrux by myself utilizing accidental magic, when all Harry had been able to do with it in his years of life was blow up an aunt?
And then Hermione spoke up finally, her voice much less shaky. "W-well, I have to agree with Harry, that was definitely accidental magic. And Nagini is definitely gone, I have to admit that," she said, pointing as she spoke to a pile of ashes on the grassy field beneath us, shuddering slightly. "So I guess we should count our blessings and move onward."
"But—but how did Ron do that?" Harry asked. "That was some amazing accidental magic—what were you thinking, Ron?"
I shook my head at Harry—I couldn't admit the truth to him. Instead I said, "I don't know, mate. I wish I could tell you. But like Hermione said, I think it's best that we count our blessings and move on, back to Grimmauld Place. That was the last Horcrux, and now we can take on You-Know-Who—and destroy him."
That sufficiently distracted Harry, who nodded and got a very thoughtful look on his face that Hermione and I knew all too well—his "saving-people-thing" was kicking fully into gear.
"Alright," said Harry, his voice pointed and authoritative. "Let's go back, Ron, Hermione." He squinted his eyes in concentration for a moment and then disappeared with a 'pop!', Hermione following soon afterwards.
I stared at the spot where the snake had been standing for a long while. I must really, really care about her for that strong of a reaction to occur, I thought—no! I tore my gaze away from the ashes on the ground and instead pictured the kitchen of Number Four, Grimmauld Place in my head. Suddenly there was a compressing sensation traveling down the entirety of my body and I was being crushed down into a tiny speck, then hurtled through a darkness that seemed infinite and all around me. My face and torso bent under the force of Apparition, and I felt like I was being squished under some giant's rather large tennis shoes before I finally felt myself expand and with a forceful pop! I arrived in Grimmauld Place.
Harry had already exited the kitchen and was probably making plans to attack Voldemort somewhere, but Hermione was sitting at the kitchen table, apparently waiting for me. My stomach did several flip-flops as she motioned for me to sit down next to her.
"Ron—" she began, her voice trembling slightly. I looked directly into her chocolate-brown eyes and saw my own face mirrored in them staring back at me.
"Ron—I just—I really want to thank you for what you did. I mean—more than thank you. You saved my life, Ron. I—I really want you to know that what you did means a whole lot to me. You—you really—that was some impressive accidental magic," she said and I stared back at her as if in a dream. I nodded my head slightly to let her know that I was listening.
"Ron—I just want you to know that I'd do the same for you," she said, and I stared her in the face. My heart swelled with something unrecognizable—love? No, stop! You care about her because she's your friend...—and an amazing feeling flooded through my body from my head to my toes.
"Thanks—thanks so much, Hermione," I stammered, unsure completely of what to say. She simply looked at me for the longest time, and for as long as she stared at me I was unaware of time passing or Voldemort plotting our deaths or the fact that I had died twice and was trying to prevent myself and my best friends from dying again. All that mattered was that Hermione, the girl that I had liked for years now, the girl I cared about enough to perform the most powerful accidental magic that I had ever even heard about, was sitting there staring back at me and smiling, her eyes sparkling...
I ripped my gaze away. I couldn't do this. I had to save our lives, and then there might be time for...whatever it was that I was feeling towards Hermione.
And then I concentrated as hard as I could to do the exact opposite of what I wanted to do—to annoy Hermione, accidentally insult her, do something to anger her enough that she wouldn't want to save my life and then, if I could somehow prevent myself from dying, Harry wouldn't be distracted and then Voldemort wouldn't be able to kill him and then, just maybe, Harry would prevail and the war would be won. This was what I had been planning ever since my last death, and yet somehow at that very moment it was extremely hard to do it.
I opened my mouth and words sped out before I could do anything about them—
"Hermione, you look really—"
No! I shouted in my head. Really what? Pretty? You can't say that, then she might do it again, she might throw herself in front of you! You have to save her life and Harry's...and your own! Come on, Ron, you seem to be really good at doing this when you don't want to...
"Really what?" she asked, her gaze never leaving my eyes. I was feeling incredibly uncomfortable now, in the presence of the girl that I had a crush on, her eyes staring into mine, her face incredibly close, and then...
It hit me. I felt terrible, absolutely horrible, about what I was doing, but what could I do? I had no choice.
"Really...weird," I sputtered out, almost feeling like crying for a brief instant. "Like—like you got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning or something."
"Oh," said Hermione softly, looking away, the tension between us broken.
That wasn't enough. I had to say something more, something to anger her deeply, as much as I wanted not to. The words came to me from somewhere inside me but yet not inside me, somewhere that I wasn't even aware existed. "You know, Hermione, you could really do with some Sleakeazy's Hair Potion; you know, like Lavender used? She always looked really great with that on..." My heart pounded in my chest.
Hermione turned away, rising suddenly, her knee hitting the table with a crack. She gasped in pain, pushing her chair in violently, and, seeming to change her mind about something, turned to me, her eyes full with tears.
"That's all you care about, isn't it? Stupid Lavender! And you've broken up with her, but that's not enough, is it? You only go for looks, you know; you're such a prat! Who cares if a girl has lots of intelligence and a good personality; all you care about is if they use enough hair potion! You make me sick!" she shouted, and stomped off. I plastered the most confused look that I could muster on my face, at the same time realizing that this was how all of our fights started...
A door slammed suddenly, jolting me out of my reverie. Hermione had barricaded herself in her room, and would probably not come out until that night, when Harry had the vision of Voldemort and she would have to emerge in order to go with us to Hogsmeade to await him. And she definitely wouldn't sacrifice herself for me this time; I had made sure of that.
My plan had worked perfectly, and yet somehow I felt terrible about it. My heart sank as I stared at the grim walls of the kitchen, alone with my thoughts.
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A/N – Please review!
