Summary: Hermione and Ron find themselves stuck in a Labyrinth. If they're going to get out, they'll have to learn to work together. But once they do, what will happen when they discover much more than meets the eye?
Rating: PG
Pairing: Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger
Disclaimer: I do not, did not and never will own Harry Potter.
The Labyrinth of Love
Chapter 9: Sick of Colors
Hermione's head was close to exploding as she put one foot inside the next room.
"Is this the eighth or ninth room?" Hermione pondered aloud. She looked over at Ron, who was still in the other room waiting for her to step fully inside.
She noticed the floor. It was made up of tiles of different colors and sizes. The door was about 100 meters away from where she was standing. She put her other foot inside, and analyzed the room. She sensed something wrong.
"Ron, come look at this", Hermione said, looking over at Ron. Ron peered over Hermione's shoulder and shook his head slowly.
"Hermione, it can't be that easy, can it?"
"I don't think so", Hermione answered, "Hand me the never-ending chicken"
Ron took out the never-ending chicken from his pack. It was full of French fries and some ketchup. Hermione took a fry from it and threw it onto a red tile. It suddenly disappeared. She took another fry and threw it onto a blue tile. It melted and it was nothing more than grease. Ron took a fry and threw it onto a yellow tile and nothing happened to it.
"Step on the yellow ones," Ron said, and Hermione nervously nodded as she took a step onto another yellow one. Ron held her hand as she came closer and closer to the door. She and Ron stepped onto a big yellow one, and something moved from under it.
Hermione gasped and Ron held her hand tighter as the tile lifted them up from the floor. Hermione held her arms over her head, expecting to crash with the multi-colored ceiling, and Ron did the same.
Hermione braced herself and pushed herself closer to Ron. They were so close to the ceiling. She closed her eyes quickly as they were an inch from the ceiling, and when she opened her eyes again a few seconds later, she breathed a sigh of relief as she discovered that they had not crashed into the ceiling but rather, they came through the ceiling.
Ron looked around.
"Are you okay, Hermione?" Ron asked, as he saw that they were in a room filled with elegant furniture.
"I'm fine, Ron…thanks for asking," Hermione said weakly. She looked around too and saw that there was a bed, a set of drawers, an open door leading to a bathroom and a mini-fridge. They could as well be in a hotel room.
"We're in the rest room", Ron said, pointing to a sign over the bed.
Welcome to the Rest Room. Take some time to relax and refresh yourselves. You have exactly 2 hours, 58 minutes and 46 seconds left. Once your time is up, you will return back to the Labyrinth.
Rarely does a rest room appear in a Labyrinth. Use your time wisely.
Hermione grinned, and she laid down on the extremely comfortable bed.
"There's only one bed…" Ron complained.
"That's because Labyrinth doors usually appear when one is alone", Hermione explained, as she took off her astronaut suit, revealing a pink shirt and jogging pants.
Ron frowned.
"You could use your sleeping bag…or you could stay here beside me…It's a huge bed", Hermione suggested, and she rolled over to the edge of the bed, pulling up the covers to her neck, "Good night," she muttered, and Ron sat down on the other side.
There wasn't any harm…just for thirty minutes. Ron quickly took off his astronaut suit and lied down on the other edge of the bed. "Good night", he said awkwardly.
In those one and a half hours that they slept, they dreamt…very similar dreams.
Hermione moved to the left as she dreamt about being back in Hogwarts, in the common room…
It was empty, and Hermione stood in front of the bright fire. Suddenly, the portrait hole creaked open and Ron Weasley came in, smiling.
"Ron" Hermione's voice seemed so distant.
"Hermione, Hermione…"
Then he came closer and kissed her.
Hermione shot up from the bed, and she looked over at Ron, who was still sleeping. Little did she know that Ron was dreaming about them.
"Hermione…", Ron said, and Hermione took his hand without saying anything in return. Ron felt flustered and confused, and then Hermione stopped. Music was playing somewhere. It was really dark.
"Ron", she said. Her voice seemed really distant, although she was really close to him. It was also so cold, and they could see their breath.
Suddenly, without any hesitance, Ron inched closer and kissed her.
Ron looked around the room and saw Hermione bending over the small fridge. She held a bottle of water in her left hand, and then she seemed to notice that he was awake.
Ron eyed her curiously, and she looked at him with concern. She sensed something wrong, and she took out another bottle of water. She gently closed the door and walked over to him. She sat down on the bed, beside where he was sitting up.
He was still really speechless. He took the bottle from Hermione and opened it. He took a drink, and he noticed that Hermione was having trouble opening hers. Without saying anything, his hand brushed onto hers as he took the bottle and opened it for her.
Hermione bit her lip and looked at him with her head tilted to the side. He frowned and gave her the bottle.
"What?" he asked, brushing his hair away from his eyes.
"Are you…alright?" somehow Hermione couldn't find the words to say, and she just sat there, waiting for him to answer.
"Nothing…" Ron said, "A dream…that's all"
"D'you have nightmares?" Hermione asked, her interest rising. She wondered if he dreamed about what she had.
"Not exactly—but never mind about that", Ron said. Then he looked behind him, over to the sign. They had a little over an hour to go. Hermione took a sip of water.
"Ron, could you move over a little?" Hermione asked awkwardly.
She lay down on the bed slowly and she pulled the covers up to her neck. She turned to Ron.
She whispered, "Are you sure you don't want to talk about it?"
"Yes I am, Hermione"
"You seem pretty shaken"
"I guess so, but it's nothing to worry about"
"Because—"Hermione started, "—Because I had a dream too"
"What was it about?"
Then Ron started worrying. They might have had the same dream…
"Nothing really, nothing", Hermione said, "Must be because of the Labyrinth"
"Yeah", Ron breathed.
They talked about random things until their time was nearly up. They talked about Hogwarts and about Harry and everyone else they knew. They talked about the Labyrinth.
Hermione stood up and she walked over to the bathroom. When she came out, Ron stood up and entered the bathroom himself.
When he came out, something was ringing. He saw the sign over the headboard. Their time was up.
Hermione was sitting, waiting for something to happen. Ron took a seat too. Hermione grinned, and he grinned back. He couldn't help but notice Hermione's smile. It was blinding and beautiful.
Then, a strong wind blew, and they stood up slowly, holding each others hand.
He was then blinded by something else. There was a loud ripping sound, which sounded ten times more horrible over the loud ringing. Then, there was a portal blinking different lights.
"It must be a portal," Hermione remarked, and she pulled Ron closer to it. Ron covered his eyes. He was so sick of all these colors.
Hermione stepped slowly inside it and Ron quietly followed.
000
They emerged out of the portal. They were really dizzy coz it was spinning inside. Ron's ears were red, not from the spinning but from the fact that Hermione held his hands the entire time…tightly.
"Ron, are you okay," Hermione asked, her brows furrowing.
"Yeah," Ron said, "I think."
It was only then that they got a good look around the place they were at. It was really colorful. Hermione shifted her weight uneasily and looked at where they were standing.
"O my…"Hermione shouted, and Ron looked down.
"Hermione!" he shouted. They were in some sort of colorful quicksand.
Hermione looked at Ron with a terrified look. She was sinking quickly. She had learned before that you weren't supposed to move when you got stuck in quicksand. But no matter how still she stayed, she sank at the same rate.
Ron looked around quickly and saw a colorful handle stuck to a colorful wall. He held onto it, and hoisted himself up to firm ground. He brushed some sticky sand away from him as he held out his hand to Hermione.
Hermione took it slowly and Ron pulled her out. The quicksand was pulling her in, and with every one of Ron's attempt to help her out, the sticky and colorfully muddy sand splattered onto her.
Ron couldn't help but notice that even though Hermione was getting colorfully dirty, she looked gorgeous.
Ron took one more try at helping Hermione out, and Hermione was slowly pulled out of the colorful quicksand.
"Ron!" Hermione said, turning to Ron, "Thanks, thank you so much"
She was almost crying…and she hugged Ron so tightly that it was really awkward for him. He patted Hermione at the back awkwardly and when she pulled away, tears were streaming down her face.
"Hold on…" Ron said slowly, and he reached out to Hermione's cheek. He slowly wiped away some quicksand, and Hermione managed to smile.
"Thanks", she said, her voice shaking.
Ron helped Hermione sit down on a colorful rock. They were in a forest of some kind, a very colorful forest.
Hermione looked up. She saw trees of colorful trunks with colorful leaves shaped in hearts and stars.
Ron looked around. There were little ducks walking around. Each duck was of a different color, and the mother duck looked at Ron and led the little ones to the small colorful lake.
Suddenly, Hermione put her hand on Ron's, and Ron looked at Hermione.
"What?" he said.
"Look, Ron! A hotdog stand!" she pointed.
There it was, a colorful hotdog stand, decorated with stripes. There was a person behind the counter, although Ron couldn't see him clearly.
Ron stood up and pulled up Hermione from the rock.
Hermione wiped away a stray tear and she walked with Ron to the hotdog stand.
"Dude", the person called, "Hotdogs, dude!"
Ron walked closer and got a good look at the boy. He was a young man, in his early 20's. He had dark brown hair, and a golden brown tan.
"Dude…oh, and dudette…want some hotdogs?" he asked in a high but raspy voice.
"How much are they?" Hermione asked. The boy looked pretty cute, and she was suddenly really shy. She wasn't aware that Ron was glaring.
"Dude, how much?" the boy said, "Free, of course"
"Then we'll have two," Hermione said promptly, and she turned to Ron, who suddenly pretended to smile at her.
"Wicked awesome, dude", then he turned his back to the little thing where the hotdogs are cooked.
"You're flirting", Ron pretended to joke.
"No I'm not", Hermione said, still blushing.
The boy turned to them, holding out two hotdogs on buns, motioning to the condiments. Ron took them and gave one to Hermione.
Hermione started to put some mustard on it, when the boy asked, "You want some soda? We have Mocha Cola, Stripe, Wanta, and some Whootbeer…and some butterbeer too"
"I'll have some whootbeer", Hermione said, perkily.
"I want Mocha Cola, whatever that is", Ron said breathing heavily.
The boy gave them the drinks and he took off his apron, "Wicked awesome, it's time for my break!"
He jumped out from behind the counter and joined Hermione and Ron at the bench they were sitting on. Ron glared as the boy started a conversation with Hermione.
"Yeah, dude, so my name's Spats"
"That's a very nice name," Hermione commented.
"What's your name, dude?"
"Hermione", she said, pushing her hair behind her ear.
"That's a wicked awesome name, Hermione", Spats said.
Then the conversation went longer and longer until…
"Red"
"Yeah, dude, I love the color red too", Spats said, running his hands through his hair.
Ping!
"It was wicked awesome talking with you, 'Mione", Spats said, "But my break's over"
He quickly jumped over the counter again, and as soon as he put on his apron, the stall disappeared.
Hermione took the last bite of her hotdog and the wrapper disappeared.
000
Hermione and Ron started walking again. Hermione figured it must have been around noon because it was getting really hot.
Hermione took off her sweater.
"It's getting really, really hot Ron!" Hermione exclaimed.
"Yeah", Ron agreed, "and I think we're lost"
He said this all very coldly. He was still really jealous of Hermione and Spats.
"I think so too", Hermione admitted.
Then Ron saw the multicolored lake. The ducks were still sitting in it, and the little ones were flapping about happily.
"Let's go swimming," Ron said, and Hermione smiled genuinely at him, making his insides melt.
Hermione took her pack and took out the red bikini from it. She still had it from that time in that lake.
Ron had his swimwear too. Ron turned back so Hermione could change and Hermione giggled while Ron changed behind her.
Ron dipped his toes into the lake and it felt really good and refreshing. He stepped inside, and when he went farther and farther from Hermione, the water became colder and colder.
Then Hermione sensed that there was something wrong. She dipped her foot into the lake and then the other. She stayed there in that spot, without wetting any other body part. She stood there and called out Ron's name.
"What is it?" Ron answered.
"Please, get back here"
But Ron was stubborn and he frowned at Hermione.
"What for?" he called out.
"I have a bad feeling a—"
Hermione didn't get to finish her sentence as Ron screamed in a very, very raspy voice.
"Hermi—"Ron shouted, "Herm—"
Something got him, or was it someone?
Then, in confusion, Hermione stepped quickly out of the water.
The whirlpool started, it pulled Ron to the center. Hermione clapped her hands over her mouth.
Ron was screaming, and Hermione was really, really stressed. She was afraid that if she jumped in now, the whirlpool would suck her in too. She stayed put, then she decided to look around for something to save Ron.
Nothing.
She looked helplessly at Ron, who was flailing his hands. The ducks had disappeared, and only the faint sound of quacking was left. Hermione bit her lower lip.
She tried to find Ron amidst all the colors. His hands were gone. They've disappeared. The whirlpool had suddenly stopped.
Hermione got a running start and dove into the waters. She looked for Ron, but she couldn't see much.
She was starting to lose hope. Then somebody grabbed her ankle.
It was Ron. He motioned for her to keep quiet, and he pointed below him.
It was a small door at the bottom of the lake.
000
A/N: Yay! Finally! I had writers block AND finals. So, I'm back! Yay! Thank you for the reviews! They were wicked awesome!
Aweaslylove- this isn't exactly drama but I think you'll like the next chapter!
Kaylee- thank you!
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Unknown- sorry if this chapter came a little late
Coco-pop- very soon…very very soon
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Deep blue quill- I don't know much about Pluto:) thanks for the info! Thanks for the review!
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