Not Waving But Drowning
14th August 2005 and 26th April 2008 (Ron is 25, Hermione is 25)
RON: The twins were late for the Weasley family ritual of Sunday dinner at the Burrow and I had been sent to give them a kick up the arse.
"She said she'll send you a howler if you don't show up within five minutes," I warned them as they grumbled about not being able to have a day of peace to themselves.
While George stomped into his bedroom to get out of his 'slumming' clothes as he called them Fred pulled on a pair of shoes and scowled at me.
"What?" I said defensively, "I'm just the messenger, don't give me the look."
Fred straightened up and began to tuck in his shirt without a word just as George stormed back in with an inaudible grumble and cast a similar glare of annoyance my way.
"Listen I'll just go and let you deal with the howler if you want shall I?" I said as I stomped back over to the fireplace and grabbed a handful of floo powder.
I was already wound-up after Hermione held me up all morning looking for her misplaced necklace. We had taken so long to find the thing that I hadn't had any time left to go running and had been a bit jumpy all afternoon. Ginny had got so sick on watching my leg bounce up and down as I sat beside her on the sofa that she had slammed her hand down onto my knee and yelled at me to sit still or go running and get rid of my pent-up energy before she put a leg locker curse on me to keep me from fidgeting. I think my restlessness had been the main reason for me volunteering to go and light a fire beneath the twins when mum asked.
"What is it with you today?" George frowned with annoyance.
I turned back from the fireplace, the handful of floo powder seeping through my fingers as I did, and saw that the twins were both almost ready to go.
"I'm just sick of you two and your 'shoot the messenger' crap every Sunday that's all. If you don't want to come for dinner then bite the bullet and tell mum rather than take it out on the rest of us."
Fred looked a little ashamed of himself and glanced at George before speaking.
"It's not that we don't want to see mum and the rest of the family little bro," he began as he lowered his head, "It's just that we work all the rest of the week and Sunday's the only chance we get to do our own thing."
I was about to huff and tell them that we all had jobs and our own things but we all made the effort when I saw Fred and George exchange that same look between them again and thought I understood now.
"I'm sure mum wouldn't mind if you...brought somebody," I smiled.
I felt a wave of smugness hit me as George's face flushed and Fred looked down at his feet.
"So what's her name then George?" I chuckled.
"Shut up Ronniekins and I don't want you saying a word to mum about...whatever you're thinking ok?" George snapped at me as he pointed his finger at me and drew himself up to his full height.
"Oh come on, after the hard time you gave me when I first bought Hermione home as a girlfriend and not just a friend you seriously expect me to keep this quiet." my face lit up as a thought hit me, "Oh Ginny's going to love this!"
"Don't you dare tell Ginny!" Fred warned with wide eyes.
"You too?" I exclaimed with amusement.
"I have a reason," Fred said defensively, "my...friend is a muggle and she doesn't know about the magical world or me being a wizard yet so she can't come even if I wanted to inflict mum on her."
Inflict? I admit that mum's a bit keen to get the twins settled down but I don't think she'd force a marriage on them on simply hearing the news of either of them having a girlfriend.
"And I'm only having a bit of fun, I don't want to go introducing anyone to the family any time soon Ron," George said with a shudder.
"So keep your trap shut got it?" Fred said sternly.
"Got it?" George said, as he looked something of a mirror image of Fred in his identical pose.
"How much is it worth?" I smirked.
Just as Fred was about yell his outrage at me the owl with the howler zoomed in through the window and the red envelope began to fizz and smoke. While the twins stepped away from it and towards me at the fireplace, hoping to escape it before it went off, I felt myself sway and forced my eyes closed.
"Ron are you okay?" Fred said as I felt him holding me up just as my legs began to buckle under me and I reached for the mantle to try and support myself.
"The sparks," I tried to explain before concentrating on staying in the twins' living room and not dropping into a seizure.
"Oh shite," George hissed as I felt myself being spun around to face the other way to the howler, which I could now hear was crackling somewhere behind me, "stay with us Ron, she'll go loopy if you miss dinner because of us."
He rubbed my back as he spoke and I opened my eyes and nodded to let him know I was trying. I couldn't focus on anything but the blur of colourful shapes and patterns in front of me and I leaned against the mantle with both hands and took a deep breath.
"You're not going Ron," Fred said reassuringly, "you'd have gone by now if it was a seizure don't worry. You've shaken it off."
My head was spinning now and I still couldn't blink the room into focus but Fred was right, I was still here, I was still holding on to the mantle and feeling the hand on my back. I nodded again and forced my eyes closed to try and stop the dizziness.
"Did you go running this morning?" George asked me and I shook my head while exhaling and trying to stand again without the support, "Well that's all this is isn't it?"
Fred was saying something in agreement but the howler was whistling now and on the verge of going off at any second and drowned him out.
"D'you think we can floo with him like this?" George was shouting, "we need to get him out of here before that bloody thing goes off."
"Can't risk it, he's barely standing George. What if we put him to sleep and see if that sees it off?" Fred was shouting back.
I was about to try to say something when I felt my body arch and a dry gag constrict my throat. The nausea was coming, I couldn't stop it, and I was going into a full-blown episode. I opened my eyes and saw the flickering flames of the fireplace dancing before my blurred vision in an orange haze and my legs were finally lost beneath me. Fred yelled and they both tried to grab me to keep me from falling but I melted through their arms and found myself enveloped in cold, dark water.
Just as I realised that I was under water my body rejected my breakfast and I vomited. I couldn't stop the instinct to inhale immediately afterwards and drew icy water into both my lungs before beginning to choke and trying to force myself to hold my breath. It was impossible though as the panic had set in and my mouth opened to gasp for the air I needed. It never came.
Bright white spots appeared before my eyes and I struggled to try and see which way was up so I could kick for the surface but all I could see was blackness on all sides. I didn't know up from down and I couldn't see which direction to swim. Just as my body tried to expel the water from my lungs with a series of coughs that only pulled more water inside me something brushed against my arm and I thought I could make out the murky silhouette of a mer-person before me. I reached out to try and get their attention, to silently plead with them to pull me up to the surface, but all I saw was the figure waving back and swimming off into the blackness at speed.
My head felt light and my eyelids heavy as my body arched in one final desperate cough before I passed out altogether.
HERMIONE: Molly was furious. Now she was missing three sons for Sunday dinner and her howler didn't seem to have encouraged them to hurry at all. She slammed the palms of both hands upon the table, causing Arthur to jump with fright and all of her children to cower away from her rage, before pushing her chair back and getting to her feet with a huff. She stormed over to the family clock with her livid red cheeks clashing incredibly with her hair and growled to herself.
"They had better be travelling right now or I'll..." she froze and all the colour drained from her face within a second.
Arthur was on his feet with the same speed as Bill and Harry and they all ran to the clock to see what she had seen.
"M-Mortal peril!" Molly said with such a tiny voice I hadn't been sure I had even heard it.
Harry swallowed and looked at me with wide eyes.
"It's Ron," I was on my feet and tossing a handful of floo powder into the fireplace before any of them could reach me.
The green flames dispersed and I hurled myself out of the fireplace and into the twins' living room where I saw the two of them on their knees and in the process of trying to revive a very pale and wet Ron where he lay on their floor.
Fred was pumping hard upon his chest and counting aloud before George pinched his nose and blew into Ron's mouth. This was it, I thought, this was the drowning Ron had warned us all about. He had come back to us dead and he needed us to bring him back.
The fireplace blazed green again and Bill ran out at the same moment to door burst open and Harry ran in with Ginny, they had obviously just apparated into the street and broken in through the shop rather than join the queue for floo powder.
"...two, three, four..." Fred was counting just as Bill dropped to his knees and flicked his wand at Ron's chest.
"Spiritus..." he began to say shakily.
"That won't work on a dead body!" Charlie yelled as he appeared behind Harry and Ginny at the door, obviously having followed their example and gone the apparition way.
While Bill froze in mid incantation and looked at Charlie in horror at what he had just called their baby brother. Charlie seemed to go green in the face but set his jaw in a way that told everybody that he knew what he was talking about. Just as the fire threw out Weasley after Weasley, all crowding into the twin's living room and watching in stunned silence while Fred and George continued breathing for their little brother.
"... five, breathe!" Fred said as he watched George take a deep breath and blow it into Ron's still cold body.
"Come on," Percy was mumbling from somewhere over my shoulder, "come on Ron."
"One, two, three..." Fred began again through gritted teeth.
"Oh Arthur he's going blue, surely there's spells we should be trying," Molly was gibbering through her tears, "there's more we can do then just using the muggle methods. We should be..."
"Mum no!" Charlie shouted across the room at her, "nothing will work until the twin's get him started again now don't panic."
Charlie didn't really seem to be the embodiment of calm himself but I knew he was right. Ron had warned us himself that it had to be C.P.R. and nothing magical was going to be able to save him. I suddenly felt helpless and useless as I watched the twins working with silent determination.
I saw that same expression on their faces when I had come to them that evening after Ron's visit and told them what he had said. I told them that he would come to them one day soon from the bottom of Hogwarts lake, drowned, and they had to learn the muggle revival method in order to save him. They were signed up for a class first thing the following morning. They had been waiting for this and dreading it every day since. Whenever Ron had a seizure at their place they always tried to get him to shake it off in the hopes that he wouldn't go to the lake at all. They hoped that this moment would never come. It was always going to come though. Ron had seen it, it was done, and all we could do was let the twins fulfil their part of the story.
"Here," Harry said as he dropped to his knees beside Fred, "let me take over, you're getting tired."
"No! Four, five, breathe!" Fred growled as he pumped away at Ron's chest.
"Listen Fred that might not be a bad idea," Percy began to say as George filled Ron's lungs once again with air from his own.
"I said no!" Fred snapped before resuming the compressions once again.
"He said we have to do it," George said with a eerie detached quality to his voice, "and we're doing it."
Bill and Charlie glanced at each other before each moving toward a twin with caution.
"And you've done what he asked you both, you've done it brilliantly," Charlie said calmly, "but don't you think Ron could use some more help?"
"We could just give you a little break," Bill began as he set his hands upon Fred's shoulders.
"Five, breathe!" Fred bellowed at his twin, clearly enraged at this interference, "Did any of you learn this?"
George breathed for Ron once again and Fred continued to rant while maintaining the rhythmic pumping upon his brother's chest.
"Did you?" I snarled, "No you didn't now leave us be so we can bring him back!"
George nodded as he turned his head to listen for Ron's breath upon his earlobe.
"We're going to bring him back. He said we bring him back and that's what we're going to do now shut up all of you."
"Breathe!" Fred ordered both George and Ron.
George forced another lungful of air into his little brother. I watched Ron's chest rise and fall and then stay perfectly still until Fred began pumping again. This was going on for far too long for comfort. I took his icy blue hand and stared at his purple lips as George parted them to breathe for him yet again and I knew that he would need more than just Fred and George once he was back with us.
"Ben," I said before I really noticed I was speaking aloud, "He'll need Ben when he comes back, somebody needs to get his healer here quickly."
Harry leapt over Bill and Charlie, who were still on their knees at Ron's side and offering to do the deed in unison, and threw the entire bowl of floo powder into the flames before yelling the name of Healer Wanless' private residence and disappearing into the bright green flames. I turned back to Ron and squeezed his fingers, which were like icicles. I brought his hand up to my lips and kissed it before breathing onto his fingers and rubbing them roughly to try and warm them up.
"Breathe!" Fred nodded to George before seeing the same rise and fall of the chest they had been watching for an eternity now and not a breath more and he began to lose his steely determination and give way to panic, "Breathe you bastard! Come on Ron. You've got to do some of the work too you lazy git c'mon!"
George was listening for Ron's breathing again and shook his head with a whimper.
"What's taking so long?" he said with a crack in his already quiet voice.
Fred pumped forcefully on Ron's ribcage and spoke each word as if it was the count of five.
"He's...not...going...any...where!"
Just as George was going to lean over to give Ron another breath a small fountain of water shot upwards from Ron's mouth and he began to choke and splutter. The twin's froze and stared at each other, mouths agape, while Charlie quickly rolled Ron onto his side and slapped his back roughly.
"Go on Ron, get it all out kid," Charlie seemed to be forcing more water out from Ron's lungs as he coughed and gasped at my feet.
Everybody sprung into action at once now. Molly grabbed a nearby tablecloth and set about wrapping it around Ron's shivering white body while Arthur pulled off his jacket and pulled it securely around his son's shoulders. Percy hit Ron several times with the spiritus charm to help him with his breathing and Fleur took Ron's hand from mine and sent something through him that warmed his icy fingers and toes in a second. As Ron's skin began to pink up again Bill sent a couple of strengthening spells at him while Ginny flicked her wand and conjured a bowl which she held at Ron's head before uttering the spell to induce regurgitation and caught even more of the murky water as it was expelled from Ron's body.
I looked across at the twins as they sat back on their haunches in dumb shock and stared back at me. I forced a smile onto my face and mouthed a silent thank you to the two of them. George could only manage a single nod before staring back down at his, still violently coughing little brother, and Fred sprung to his feet and ran to the bathroom with his hand to his mouth. Just as the bathroom door slammed and the sounds of non-magically induced vomiting echoed around the flat the fireplace was a mass of green flames again and Harry ran out with Ben at his side.
"Alright everybody move aside for me please," Ron's healer said with confident authority, "Ron are you with me mate?" Ben said as he snapped his fingers before Ron's eyes, "Do you remember our plan for this day?"
Ron's back arched and he heaved another gurgling cough into the carpet as he nodded and I looked from him to Ben anxiously and bit my lip.
"Good man," Ben smiled, "Now remember, you'll probably pass out but don't let that worry you okay? Right this is going to feel really uncomfortable and I'm sorry but you're lungs are nowhere near clear yet so whatever you do don't try to breathe in alright?"
Without waiting for even a small nod from Ron Ben aimed his wand at Ron's chest.
"Concavo intus! Aguamenti abduco!"
A spurt of water shot out of Ron's mouth and his body went limp. I almost bit through my lip as his eyes fell closed and Ben began to try and lift Ron up.
"I've got to get him to St Mungo's," he grimaced. Ben wasn't exactly muscular.
"Here let me," Charlie said as he lifted his unconscious baby brother with ease and took a step toward the fireplace.
"Oh shit, no floo powder left," Harry suddenly gasped as he smacked himself on the forehead.
"We've got more, we've got plenty," George said as he scrambled to his feet and ran to the kitchen cupboard to fetch it.
Fred emerged from the bathroom wiping his mouth and Molly began to cry as she planted a kiss on Ron's limp hand.
"We'll follow you there Ronnie, don't you worry, I'm here."
"He's going to be fine mum," Charlie smiled as he got a more comfortable hold on Ron before stepping into the fireplace with Ron and George threw a handful of powder at his feet while he yelled out, "St Mungo's!"
Ben followed on right away and Fleur grabbed Bill and hugged him tightly.
"Well at least it's happened now," Arthur said bracingly as he slapped Percy on the back and tried to smile, "Can't get much worse than that can it?"
None of us said a word. We all knew it was bound to get much worse in ways we couldn't possibly imagine. I felt a tiny hand curl around three of my fingers and looked down to see the grinning angelic face of little Cam. I hadn't even known he had come with Fleur until now.
"Don't worry Auntie Hermy, Uncle Ron never stays dead for very long."