Chapter 18

Ron finished his report and turned to a completely amazed Hermione who was still staring at his eye, utter disbelief covering her beautiful features.

"'Mione? Stop. You're making me blush," he said playfully and tried to smirk but without any luck – the blue spot on his face was letting him know it was still there.

"Uh? Um, sorry." She looked at her double-buttered toast and then looked up to Ron once more. "So, you have talked to Harry? You guys are alright, right? You are talking, right? I mean, you' re not angry, right? I'm right, right?"

"No, no, no, no and let's see - NO!" he got up, grabbed his mug of coffee and announced that he and Harry needed to talk. The two of them headed off towards Harry's study and left behind an angry and frustrated Ginny and a calm Hermione, who had already silently decided that it was none of her business and that it would probably be better if the two sorted things out.

"Ron you stupid prat! It's Harry's business, and mine not yours! I'm a grown-up now! I can do what I want!" the door slammed shut and Ginny just stood there facing the door.

"They are going to kill each other." She said to the door, rather than to Hermione.

"Trust me, they're not. Boys are boys. It doesn't matter that they claim they have grown up and everything. The truth is, they are and always will be boys on the inside." Hermione was finishing her second toast and helped herself to more coffee.

"Ron, being your older brother, feels the need to protect you and Harry is too in love to give in. With any luck, one of them will have a black eye. Or in Ron's case two. Come to think of it, I can't understand why Ron hasn't fixed his already. We've had the special training and should be able to treat even the victims of a curse or other severe damages." She lifted the coffee cup to her lips.

"He probably wanted to impress you." Ginny giggled, somewhat relived to hear Hermiones point of view.

She almost choked on her coffee. "He so did not!" She felt blush creeping up on her cheeks.

"You should've seen you two last night. If we hadn't spoiled it, Ron would've, in all probability…"

"Shut up." Hermione tried to look casual, picking an orange from the fruit basket, but failed - her cheeks looked as if they were on fire.

"You know Ron has liked you since…"

"Shut up, I said."

"You two are just too obvious to the rest of the world…"

"Gin, would you be so kind to tell me what part of shut up did you not understand? Was it the shut or the up? Or just maybe, you don't hear well? You should go and see a mediwizard about those hearing problems." She gulped down some more black coffee that she usually hated and preferred with cream and sugar.

"Okay. Keep your hair on woman!" Ginny said, raising her hands in sign of surrendering. "If you don't want to tell me what exactly was THAT supposed to mean, then you could at least tell me what you are doing here? I mean, it's not some kind of a Dream Team reunion of three years, I know that much and seeing you two looking all professional, I presume you are working. The question that I wanted to ask was: Is Harry in trouble?"

Hermione eyed her friend seriously. She was intitled to know, but Harry would probably want to keep her out of it.

"I can't tell you."

"That proves me right. He is in trouble. Knowing the three of you have probably worked out some I'd-rather-die-than-tell promise, which you are not going to back out of, am I right?"

"Yes…well…yes. I can't tell you. It's a… I can't tell you." Hermione finished desperately.

"So you work with Ron?"

"How did you kn… I mean…No!" Hermione sputtered.

"Come on Herms! You'd be discussing the wonderful aspects of your job if it wasn't something secret, not eating an orange. Besides the two of you look somewhat of mysterious. I can't explain it." She played with the loose thread on the sleeve of her jumper, as if dreading the words that escaped her mouth moments later. "Is it… Voldemort? If it were you could put the same spell on Harry that was put on Lily and James years ago and make me the secretkeeper. I'd never tell… die with the secret if I had to…"

"It's not Voldemort." Hermione said quietly.

The tension in the room had thickened as the conversation took darker shades. Ginny looked up to Hermione who was wearing a determined expression.

"Don't worry. We'll look after him."

"It's not Harry I'm worried about. I'm afraid you'll be too preoccupied with protecting him than worrying about your own safety. Look after Ron for me." Tears were making their way down Ginny's cheeks as she was saying this.

"I will, don't worry .I will." The two of them hugged just as two of the Dream Trio walked in.

"Whoa! Are we interrupting some girl-bonding moment here, or what?" The words came out of the mouth of a black-eyed Ronald Weasly.

Ginny quickly wiped the tears that had escaped her eyes and smiled at the two amazed men.

"Ne. Just girl talk, that's it." Then seeing Harry's left eye. "Harry! My God! Are you alright?" She hurried over and examined the bluish spot that was quickly turning lilac. She whispered simple healing charm and the eye healed like magic.

"You'll have to thank your brother for inflicting injuries on your boyfriend."

"My boyfriend? " Then turning to Ron. "Indeed. Thank you Ronald."

"You actually thanked him for hitting me, are you aware of that?" Harry asked, a little bewildered.

"Yes, well, dragging a young girl to your bedroom late at night was most certainly not a nice thing to do, don't you agree with me?"

They headed out of the room, chatting and left Ron and Hermione standing in the middle of the dining room.

This was the time to say something about what happened the night before and Ron knew it. He wanted to tell her how he felt and why he had done it, but couldn't bring himself to it.

One of them had to say something and Hermione knew it. She wanted to tell Ron how it had felt for her, wanted to ask him why it had happened, but waited for him to speak first. When he finally spoke, what came out was definitely not what she had expected it to be.

"We'd better get back to work." Ron said slowly and in a calm voice, just as if nothing had happened between them the night before. "I talked to Justin this morning and he agreed not to open the letters before we pay him a visit. He was, naturally, a little curious so I had to tell him the whole thing about why we were here, but seeing that the guy is Colin, he's not a thereat to Harry."

"I don't trust him." Even Hermione didn't know where that came from. One moment she was deep in thought about the kiss and the next, she just blurted it out.

"What do you mean, you don't trust him? He's been more than helpful with the letter business and friendly to top it all." Ron seemed irritated by her remark.

"I don't trust him, that's all. I have a funny feeling about all of this… I know I don't usually go around doing things by my gut feeling, but this time, it's different. It's like… I don't know… Maybe this is my one and only true prediction, just like Trelawney only predicted the future twice… I stand by what I've just said. I do not trust Justin."

Ron eyed her for a few moments and then said: "Alright. It's not illegal to part opinions with your boss. You stick to how you feel, and I'll stick to how I feel. Now let's get to Justin's cupboard under the stairs, as he so kindly calls it."

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They arrived at the office door and knocked. "Come in, come in!" Justin called jovially.

They stepped in and found out that the office resembled more to a huge bedroom, which it actually was. The room was separated into two parts: an office and a bedroom. The place was as neat as could be: papers were in nice piles, the room smelled of cleanness and ink - most of the papers stacked were letters.

"So, get the party started, as the muggle expression goes, eh?"

"Yeah." Ron looked around the room. "Where the owls drop the deliveries?"

"Well, They drop 'em at the front door and Niles just shovels 'em into a bag."

Ron and Hermione shared a surprised glance.

"No, I'm just kidding. I overheard you two talking last night. I didn't eavesdrop if that's what you're worried about. I just overheard that one sentence. Ne. Actually they drop 'em at the owlery Harry has in the other end of the house and Colin or me usually pick up the bag."

"So Niles has no contact with the bag or its contains?" Hermione questioned curiously.

"No, just me and Colin. You don't think we're suspects do you?" He was very pale all of the sudden. "'Cause you know we love Harry as if he was our own brother and would never…"

"No, Justin. We don't suspect you or Colin. " Hermione explained as if the thought had just crossed her mind that either of them could have sent the letters and dismissed it with soft laughter.

"Uh. For a second there I was afraid that you came here to think of a way to bust me." He laughed nervously.

"Justin? The letters?" Ron reminded him arching an eyebrow at his odd behaviour.

"Right, right. Here they are. I haven't opened the bag since Colin brought it up here this morning." He turned the bag upside down and the letters fell out. There had to be at least 500 of them.

"Right. Let's get to work!" Ron said enthusiastic notes echoing in his voice.

¤

An hour and ten letters later.

"And you do this every day?" Ron asked dispirited.

"Yep. Come on! You're not tired yet, are you?"

"I must admit that filling in the reports and answering the silly questions was better. Reading: Harry! I love you! Written in 12 different languages is tiring." Hermione answered in the same tone as Ron.

Justin hummed merrily and kept reading the letters with enthusiasm neither Ron or Hermione shared.

After twenty minutes Ron announced: "Here it is." And pulled out an envelope with familiar looking handwriting covering the front. "That's library for us, 'Mione. Thanks for all your help Justin."

"Yea, no problem."

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Dear Ron and Hermione,

Yes it is I, sending the letter as I promised. I titled it the way I did 'cause I'm sure that you are not going to show it to Harry. Am I right? Especially now that he and Ginny have gotten to be so close once again… Nice, isn't it? I know you have no idea whatsoever… you don't know who I am. But I know who you are...yes…I know your weaknesses, I know how you are going to act in different situations…I can see you even when you are sure that I can't. Even when you think that nobody can see you… Yesterday, at the library…when you got my last letter…I saw you then. But you already figured it out…that I could get in…and nobody saw me… by now you have probably figured it out that I live in this house, that I'm the person you have probably said' Good Morning' to this very same morning… so who am I? Justin? Colin? Niles? Or maybe Ginny?

Ponder over that last line.

Who am I?

Untouchable

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