Night swimming
16th January 2016 (Ron is 35 and Hermione is 36)
RON: I've got the bastard cornered at last. It's been years but I've finally got him. I aim my wand at the breathless snarling wizard who has been leaking Auror secrets from inside the institution and risking the lives of Harry, Boyer, Cavendish, Davis and Eldridge by betraying their movements and feeding them false information. I feel elated and devastated at finally discovering who the Auror mole is.
"You are under arrest, anything you say and do now or have said and done in my presence in the past will be submitted to the wizengamott via pensive as evidence. Put down your wand and lay face down on the ground."
He looks at me and raises his wand from my chest to my face and sneers.
"Agent Weasley, how far we've both come since the good old days eh? Be a good boy and back away from the portkey."
I hate him. I hate his smug face. I hate his self-righteousness and I hate that he knows me so well. He knew me then and he knows me now. He knows what I can do. I used to go drinking with the slimy sod after work back when...well back when I was drinking every day after work and he didn't hate me. Back when she wasn't messing with his head. Before that day in September 1999 that I'm told is all my fault but I've still not been there yet.
"Justice for a crime you think I'm going to commit is that it?" I venture, taking a step toward the portkey, hoping to stand in front of it so he can't make his escape.
He snorts at my comment.
"It's done Weasley. You and I both know that once it's been done and experienced there's no changing it. As long as this is the present and she died with you, because of you, there's no changing it."
"Seamus I..."
"You were there you know you were!" my old room mate roared, "You let her die. You just lay there on the floor and did nothing, the portrait in the hall told me everything. You'll show up at her house and watch her die and do nothing you cold bastard. Nothing!"
"Come on Seamus, think about this, you know what I'm like when I travel don't you? You've seen it. I'm sometimes worse for wear. Sometimes I can't get up."
"You could talk though couldn't you?" he seethed, "The portrait said you talked about how she was going to die. She asked you and you told her and then...then..."
My whole time-travelling life seemed to have been dogged by the actions of my future self being taken out on me in the present. I had almost lost Hermione because of it. I had almost lost my job because of it. Now I find out that this whole internal war within the ministry was all about my future self not being able to save Lavender Brown's life back in 1999. I'm a time epileptic not a miracle worker. I had had enough of apologising for things I was yet to do, especially when my accusers had never been there to see my supposed sins first hand.
"I haven't done it yet for Merlin's sake," I hollered and took a step to stand before the portkey, "and I wouldn't let it happen any more than I could stop it happening."
"You'd save your wife!" sparks flew from the tip of Seamus' wand and flickered brightly.
"She wasn't your wife," I said as I tried to remain calm without sounding callous at the same time.
"I hate you Weasley."
I looked into Seamus' eyes and saw that he really meant it.
"I know."
"I'd kill you now but we both know your number's not up just yet is it? About another ten years isn't it?" his face twisted into a smug look of victory.
"Less than that," I said without emotion, "in theory."
The 'in theory' was Hermione talking, she wouldn't hear of my time travel and life expectancy being linked. It stops at forty-three because she finds a cure and nothing else.
"I theory, there's no theory about it, you can't change death isn't that what you said? The simple fact that none of us see a middle aged version of you turning up naked in our bloody living rooms means one thing and one thing only."
"Well we'll have to wait and see won't we?"
His eyes narrowed with a fresh build up of spite.
"It's just a shame I can't be the one that does it, that would be justice."
I felt dizzy. No this couldn't be happening, not right now.
"That would be sad. You're a spy and a troublemaker Seamus you're not a murderer yet," I felt bile rising in my throat and tried to calm myself down.
I took a deep breath in, then out, all the while holding my position and my aim as firm as ever. He could tell though. I could see it in his eyes, they used to light up like that when he went into Honeydukes as a kid and then later when he got a smile from his great unrequited love.
"You're going aren't you Weasley?"
"Not until I take you down I'm not."
I had tried to sound confident but I was struggling to hold myself in the present. The head rush was worse now and I felt as if I was upside down in thick fog.
"That's a hell of a weakness for someone in your line of work y'know Ron?" he smirked before sending rapid white flickers from the tip of his wand.
Shit, he was jump-starting the seizure.
"Petrificus..." I fell and landed with a splash into freezing water.
My wand was no longer in my hand and I was starkers. It was pitch black and I sputtered and choked on the water that had already forced its way down my windpipe while frantically treading water. I tried to stop myself from shivering while I looked around and then up into the night sky.
Damn, no moon, no light at all. I didn't even know which way to swim to make the shore...or bank...or whatever.
I shook my head, unable to believe I had let myself become sidetracked with stupid thoughts about the correct word to use at a time like this, no wonder Hermione was always so infuriated at me during times of peril. My eyes became accustomed to the darkness and I could see a light through what I realised now was fog. That was why I couldn't see any moon or stars or light of any kind. But I could see one very tiny light. I swam for it and tried to ignore what felt like a tentacle brushing against my leg.
I swam front crawl, backstroke, breaststroke; even the doggy paddle and I still didn't seem any closer. Was I even moving at all? I stopped and floated on my back for a moment, thankful once more for the gift of natural buoyancy, and tried to feel whether or not there was a current I had been fighting against. Nope, didn't seem so, the water was as still as glass. I kept floating for a little while longer. My arms and legs felt like dead weights and my energy level was non-existent. I hadn't eaten all day and was now incredibly dehydrated from the seizure. I took a chance and gulped down some of the icy water. It tasted pretty fresh. Maybe I could drink my way out of this mess.
After satisfying my incredible thirst I took several deep breaths to convince myself I could make it and set off again. I kicked my legs and just glided for a while, sparing my arms a little longer, before dunking under the surface and emerging to realise I had actually fallen asleep while floating on my back.
How long was this going to go on for? When would I get back? How long would I have been gone? Would Seamus still be there?
I coughed and struggled to clear my airway of water before focusing on the light with determination as I began to front crawl with the same regimented rhythm I slip into when on one of my runs.
Nearly there, barely there, almost upon it, there!
I grabbed the metallic thing ahead of me and a bell rang out. I looked up at the light and made the same sound I used to make as a kid when throwing a tantrum at not getting my own way. The frustrated, whiny, whimpering scream evolved into an out and out roar directed at the sky. I shook the buoy as I bellowed my enraged mantra.
"I hate this, I hate this, I hate this! Why me? What's so fucking special about me eh?"
Nobody gave me an answer. I clung on to the buoy for dear life and cursed myself internally. I had wasted all that time swimming further out. Now I was exhausted. I was so cold and tired and hungry that I had to use everything I had left in me not to fall asleep.
I really wanted to fall asleep.
I jerked and the bell clanged above my head as the feeling that something had just curled around my leg woke me from my micro-sleep. I couldn't stop myself from shivering and I tried to think of the names of the Chudley Cannons team from 2010 when I went with Harry to see them play as an early thirtieth birthday present. I went for the keeper first, stick to what you know best after all.
"G-G-G-Gothard," I stammered through my chattering teeth.
I never realised that actually happened for real at times like this.
"Janney and B-Broom were the b-b-beaters."
Ok so that left the chasers and the seeker. The seeker was now infamous for being accused of match fixing and fleeing the country in sporting disgrace.
"B-Bastard Rogers, Naylor and C-C-Cobb," I felt my eyes closing and I felt the buoy beginning to leave my grasp and waited for the inevitable.
I waited for the water to block both my airways and pull me under. I still had my breath though and a solid surface was now beneath me. My eyes were still closed but I could feel that there was a lot of light now. I couldn't stop the shivering or the need to sleep as the sound of Eldridge's voice calling with urgency to Harry and Davis didn't give me any motivation to stay awake at all.
"Ron! Ron can you hear me?" the head of the Aurors was shouting somewhere over me, "Agent Weasley, say something to let me know you're still with us."
I felt a warm blanket falling over me while a hand resting on my back.
"Not again Ron please, come on mate, say something," it was Harry's voice; he sounded even more tired than I did.
Then it came to me. I drew a shuddering breath and whispered.
"McAteer."
Then the sound and the cold and the light all faded away into comforting nothingness.
HERMIONE: I raced along the silent halls of St Mungo's, my heels making enough sound to wake the dead as my heavy steps pushed me onward. Harry had apparated through our wards and right into the flat to tell me the news.
"It looks like near drowning again Hermione," he had panted, "that and hypothermia."
I had flooed straight to St Mungo's that very second without a word, leaving Harry behind. He hadn't been chasing me as I ran the halls of the wizarding hospital so I assumed he was telling the family what had happened.
What had happened?
I flung the doors to the room that the flustered woman at reception had told me to go to while attempting to match my pace down the corridor before I lost her and was faced with my husband, laying in bed unconscious, surrounded by a slow warming charm. I choked back an audible cry and ran to him, planting kisses all over his face and the back of the hand I now held on to as if both our lives now deepened on it.
"Mrs Weasley?" the mediwizard said tentatively from behind me.
I didn't look away from Ron.
"Where's his healer?" I said with a voice as rough as sandpaper.
"Healer Wanless is on his way but don't worry we've already managed to..."
"Just tell me he's going to be ok. That's all I want to hear right now." I said firmly.
A hand slid over my shoulder and gripped hard. It was Eldridge.
"He's going to be fine."
That was it. That was enough for now. I let myself relax.
"Thank you."
FOUR HOURS LATER
"I can't believe it," Neville had said while his head dropped into his hands, "I mean I knew he was a mess but I hadn't heard anything from him in years. I didn't even know he still worked in the building, I never saw him."
"Well he doesn't work there anymore," Percy said as his new wife Pippa rested her head upon his shoulder sadly, "I can't believe he got away with it for all those years right under everybody's noses."
"It's like Longbottom said," Eldridge said gruffly, "he was practically invisible over the past decade. He became a faceless employee of the ministry and that suited his purpose just fine."
"Listen Harry," Fred said with a frown that hadn't left his face since the twins had arrived with George's girlfriend Verity, "are you absolutely sure that when Ron said McAteer he wasn't talking about an accomplice or anything?"
Harry smiled and I saw Ginny squeezing him tightly around his chest.
"It's the chaser of the Cannon's I promise you all," he looked Eldridge in the eye, "I promise you sir. It's one of his techniques to keep himself relaxed. He lists things, mundane things that make him think about something else, and if he was in the water as long as the mediwizards said he was then he would have been trying to stay awake."
"Thinking about the Cannon's would send me to sleep," George mumbled with a small smile.
Verity gave him a reproachful nudge while Molly deliberately ignored the comment.
"Well I'm sure Harry's right about this McAteer person, it certainly sounds like Ronnie to keep himself going like that," she said as she rose from her seat on the other side of Ron's bed.
"Molly?" Arthur said as he wondered where his wife could possibly be going.
"Cam was flooing Fleur from Hogwarts when Bill got the owl and heard about Ron. He was quite upset and I just want to let him know not to worry."
Bill had been at the hospital for two hours before getting back to Fleur who had stayed to reassure her son that his favourite uncle was going to be alright. The family had a method to get through times like these. Ron had come to the Burrow on what was an ordinary Sunday lunch for the rest of us but what turned out to be his fortieth birthday for him. We felt bad for him to be missing it and threw him an impromptu party there and then and that thought would get us through some tough times.
"Remember Ronnie's party?" Molly would always say if ever anybody got too upset as we waited for him to recover from his latest disastrous seizure, "He still has that day to come."
Nobody ever said what was playing on our minds with every passing year. What would we do once Ron was forty years old in the present? As far as our future sightings of him after that went there wasn't a lot to go on other than my insistence that I eventually re-create Dumbledore's spell.
Molly left and Arthur sat across from me with a warm smile. I was surprised that didn't thaw Ron out in itself. I smiled back. Neither of us was really speaking that evening. We just waited for our boy to come round and let all the talk of Seamus' betrayal go on around us.
I would get angry about that later. Arthur would tear the ministry apart and demand a security reform on all internal personnel. But for now we would wait for Ron to open his eyes, smile that tired smile he always threw our way when he woke up in the hospital and mumble something that contained am expletive.
Harry had been taking this Seamus thing very personally. I think something went on during that whole Lavender period that Harry had a hand in and he must have believed that this was the reason for Seamus targeting the whole department rather than just Ron in his quest for revenge.
Revenge for Lavender Brown.
She had been dead for years and she was still a thorn in everybody's side. I pitied the poor girl now. She didn't deserve her memory to be tainted by an ex who refused to let her be dead and an unrequited love that couldn't help but keep returning to her during the summer of 1999 to try and stop her from making the greatest mistake of her life. All she wanted was to be loved after all. All Seamus wanted was to love her. Something as simple as that seemed to have evolved into this catastrophe we now found ourselves in.
"I want to find him," Harry was saying to Eldridge, "I want to track him down. If there's a team I want to be on it sir."
"Not now Potter, we'll assemble on Monday and work something out alright?" the head of the Aurors said with a smile.
RON: I woke up and felt something heavy on my chest. It was Hermione's head.
"Listening to the lullaby again eh?" I muttered.
"What was that son?"
I jumped as I saw my dad's face lean in from the darkness and glow in the candlelight. He was smiling expectantly as he asked me to repeat myself.
"I've gone a bit mutt in my old age," he said as the shadows made every wrinkle on his old face seem three times as deep, or maybe it was just the worry.
I smiled at him and nodded down at my sleeping wife.
"I was just saying that she can't stay awake when she lays her head on me like that, out like a light," I had meant to click my fingers as I said that but was still a little too tired to really be bothered.
"How are you feeling Ron? Do you need anything? Do you need Ben, he's on call for you all night."
"Oh he isn't is he? Send the poor sod home!" I said with a weary laugh.
"It was all I could do to get the family to leave," dad said as he rolled his eyes, "of course your mother's still here, hence my whispering," I laughed again, "Hermione and there's a darkened corner over there somewhere with Harry and Ginny snuggled in it."
My eyelids were falling closed again and my dad took my hand in his.
"McAteer eh?" he said with an arched eyebrow.
What was he talking about? Then I remembered.
"Oh yeah, last one that came to me."
"Did you swear when you got to Rogers' name?" dad smirked.
My eyes closed and I settled back down to sleep.
"Of course."
My dad patted the back of my hand.
"That's my boy."
My eyes opened again, it felt as if I'd slept for another hour but dad was till leaning forward with the amused smile on his face so it must only have been seconds.
"Dad?" I said, the weight of worry falling back onto my shoulders again.
"What is it Ron?" my dad said, ready to call a healer on seeing my demeanour change so suddenly.
"He got away didn't he?"
I watched as my father pressed his lips together firmly and nodded his head. His eyes lowered and he blew air out while his shoulders fell.
"There's always next time," I mumbled as I let myself drift off into unconsciousness once again.
"Yes indeed," my dad said as he met my eyes just before they closed, "only next time you'll be ready for him."
I fell asleep with Hermione's weight on my chest and my dad's wrinkled hand still resting on the back of my own.
I knew who I was looking for now. It would only be a matter of time and that was something I had to my advantage.