Chapter 23

Hermione appeared in her bedroom and started pacing up and down. Thoughts were flying through her head, the main one being, what the hell just happened? It was a minute before she realised that she was pacing in the dark. She marched over to the light switch and slammed her fist down on the piece of small rectangular plastic, anger surging through her as her hand met the wall.

The glass bulb exploded, the filament flickering before dying an extravagant death, glass shards showered the floor and bounced off the wood in every direction.

'Oh for-' she stopped herself uttering the many expletives running through her mind, and settled for hammering her fists on the wall until the pain in her hands stopped her.

As tears filled her eyes she grabbed her jeans and T-shirt off the back of her chair and stormed into the bathroom to change out of her dress robes, her bedroom now being out of bounds. Two minutes later she charged out having left the clothes she was wearing strewn across the bathroom floor. Wand in hand she ran down the stairs and stamped the trainers on that were neatly lined next to Harry's in the hallway. The next second she had apparated out of the house.

Having only ever tried to apparate once into a place which was protected by anti-apparation wards once, Hermione took a second to realise what the force pushing her away from the destination was.

NO! she thought, you are NOT stopping me from seeing him. Like before in her bedroom a surge went through her and she broke through the invisible barrier. She materialised outside the double doors leading to the ward where Ron lay, a quick wave of her wand unlocked them after a nervous peer through the glass to see if any Healers or Mediwitches were patrolling the ward. She quietly opened the doors and ran to Ron's bed. The curtains were half drawn around the bed; Hermione drew them fully then placed a silencing charm on them so she would not be heard.

She moved to his bedside and stood over him. The moonlight illuminated his bright red hair and the top of his forehead.

'Ron…' she fell silent, unsure as to what she wanted to say to him, 'Ron I…I need to tell you something. Cairo…something just happened that I didn't mean to, I was thinking about you…about the night you told me how you felt about me. My eyes were closed and I was imagining you kissing me…then I opened my eyes and I was k-' a sob caught in her throat, stopping her saying anything.

'I need you to wake up Ron. I need you here with me now and I need you to tell me everything will be ok. I can't do this anymore! I can't keep being someone who puts on a brave face and keeps a stiff upper lip. I need you here so I can carry on, I need your bluntness, your occasional stupid comments and I need that cheeky grin that lets me know everything will be fine. So the least you can do is bloody well open your eyes and wake up!'

She looked at his face, willing him to show some sign of consciousness, a flicker of an eyelid, or an eyelash even but there was nothing. He stayed the same as he had been for weeks.

She sat on his bed and leaned towards him, her hands resting on his chest.

'Ron please, please wake up, I need you. Tears fell from her eyes onto the quilt covering him, before long she was sobbing, her head falling onto him and her hands gripping the quilt as if her life depended on it.

'Gin, lets go home, I want to go to bed.'

'You cannot be tired Harry, you didn't get up 'til midday, you've only been awake…' she checked her watch, 'thirteen and a half hours!'

'Who said I was tired?' he replied, a cheeky grin spreading across his face.

'Well why on earth would you go to bed if you weren't tired?' she asked, trying to pull off an air of misunderstanding.

'Well there are plenty of other things to do in bed than sleep.'

'Oh yeah! Like what?' she asked, a sly smile accompanying her comment.

'Well how's about we go home and I'll show you.' He leant forward and kissed her.

She pulled back.

'O-k, I think I get the idea, let's go!'

The pair stood up.

'We need to find Hermione and tell her we're leaving,' said Ginny, her eyes searching the room for her friend. Harry joined in, squinting in the darkened room for his housemate. Although the light was bad they knew Hermione's profile well enough to know that none of the people in the room were her, and besides, everyone in the room was locked lips with someone else, which Hermione would certainly not be doing.

The two of them looked in the rest of the rooms on the lower floors without finding Hermione. When Harry went into the kitchen, Colin was in there, trying to find an unopened bottle of Butterbeer, Harry tapped him on the shoulder and he spun around, a little fast for his balance to handle. Harry grabbed his arm to steady him.

'Woooah!' exclaimed Colin, 'Thanks Harry,' he slurred.

'Colin,' Harry said, trying not to laugh at the swaying wizard in front of him, 'have you seen Hermione anywhere?'

'Her…Hermione?' Colin asked.

'Yes, Hermione. You know, bit shorter than me, brown hair, brown eyes, extremely intelligent, far too perfect for her own good!'

'Oh! You mean Hermione!'

'Yes Colin, Hermione' Harry replied, mimicking the way Colin had said her name, although he didn't see what difference this made to Colin's understanding.

'Yeah…she was…she was…she was outside with Cai last time I…last time I saw her.'

'Ok, thanks Colin, I owe you one!' He turned to leave the kitchen.

'You're…you're welcome Harry! See ya!'

Harry laughed as he left, Colin was very entertaining drunk, he just hoped he didn't suffer too much in the morning.

Harry made his way outside and into the garden. He walked over to the table and benches, but stopped when his foot crunched against the glass that was spread across the ground. He crouched down and looked at the remnants of the glass. Deducing nothing from them he stood back up and walked back inside. He met Ginny when he got inside the door.

'Have you found her?' Harry asked Ginny.

'No, she's not in the house,' Ginny's gaze dropped to the floor.

'What is it?' Harry asked, instinctively knowing something was wrong.

'Natalia thinks she saw Hermione leave, she was in the kitchen getting a drink when she looked outside and saw her and Cairo.'

'Yeah, Colin said he saw her outside,'

'Well, she said she saw Hermione backing away from Cairo, she thought she looked upset, but then she looked away and when she looked up again, Hermione wasn't there. She guessed she apparated, because Cairo swore loudly then walked back in the direction they'd come from.'

'Where is he?' Harry said, barely keeping the anger out of his voice, instantly jumping to conclusions.

'No one's seen him for a while, but then again, this is his house, heshould still be here. Look, why don't you apparate home and see if she's there, if she was upset she might have just gone home.'

'But without telling us? You know Hermione wouldn't do that.'

'Well let's just be sure before we do anything else. I'll stay here, be quick.'

Harry turned on the spot and reappeared outside Hermione's bedroom at home. He walked into her room knowing instantly she wasn't there. He switched the light switch and nothing happened. When he looked at the bulb he gasped when he saw it wasn't there anymore. He looked down at the floor and saw the remnants of it scattered everywhere. He quickly ran through the rest of the house, concern filling him when he found her dress robes thrown carelessly on the floor. Two minutes later he appeared in front of Ginny.

'She's not there but she's been home, her dress robes are on the bathroom floor and it looks like her light bulb exploded.'

'Bloody hell, she must have been really upset or angry to make that happen. We'd better see if Cairo's still here.'

'Yeah, he better have a good explanation.'

Harry set off at a run up the stairs, Cairo had put all cloaks in his room for safe keeping, so wouldn't have locked himself, and them, in. Harry reached the top of the stairs, Ginny running behind him as fast as she could in her dress and heels. They both stopped when they saw the pile of cloaks outside Cairo's room, which he had obviously dumped in a hurry.

'Well, at least we found one of them,' Ginny said quietly.

Harry walked to the door and hammered on it.

'Cairo! Open the door I need to ask you something,' Harry demanded. Nothing happened. The door remained closed.

'CAIRO OPEN THE DOOR. NOW!'

'Harry that really isn't going to get him out here,' Ginny said loudly, trying to calm him down. He sighed deeply, trying to calm his temper.

'Cairo, I know you and Hermione had an argument, you need to tell us what happened, we can't find her and we need to make sure she's ok.'

Still nothing happened.

'CAIRO I SWEAR TO GOD IF YOU DON'T COME OUT HERE NOW I'LL BREAK THE GOD DAMN DOOR DOWN! I KNOW YOU'RE IN THERE!'

After a few seconds Harry and Ginny heared footsteps on the other side of the door. It opens to reveal a rather ragged looking Cairo.

'What?' he snapped.

'Don't you dare take that tone with me!' Harry retorted, 'Where's Hermione?'

'I don't know,'

'What do you mean you don't know?'

'I mean, I don't know! She apparated away in front of my eyes and didn't happen to tell me where she was going.'

'What happened?' Ginny asked, her tone slightly less threatening than Harry's, but only just.

'It's none of your business.'

Harry went to open his mouth but Ginny got there first.

'When our best friend is missing after arguing with you it is our business! Now just tell us what the hell happened.'

Cairo glared at the two of them, knowing they weren't going anywhere until they had the answer they came for.

'I err…we…we…err.'

'Come on Cairo spit it out.' Harry said impatiently.

'I kissed her,' he mumbled very quietly.

'You kissed her?' Ginny asked loudly, 'You kissed my brother's girlfriend?'

'Yes I did, now will you please leave me alone, I've told you what you wanted to know, now I want to go to bed.'

Harry hands were clenching and unclenching.

'What in the name of Merlin made you think you could kiss her?' he asked.

'Look, I don't have to justify myself to you or anyone else, now just leave me ALONE.'

He slammed the door in Harry's face. He went to hammer on it again but Ginny caught his arm.

'Harry, let's go and find Hermione. Cairo's not going to say anything else to us tonight. We know what happened; let's just find her. Ok?'

Harry let his arm fall to his side.

'Fine, where do you think she'll be?'

'I think I know where she might have gone…you don't think…'

'What?'

'You don't think she kissed him back do you?'

'Ginny, you know Hermione wouldn't do anything like that. She loves your brother and she would never cheat on him.'

'So why the hell did Cairo kiss her then, he wouldn't do that unless he thought she might feel something for him.'

'Look Gin, this is Hermione we're talking about, she wouldn't do that. What we need to do is find her. Where do you think she's gone?'

'I reckon she might have gone to St. Mungo's, especially if she's feeling guilty.'

'Stop jumping to conclusions Ginny. I'll go and see if she's there, you go back to mine and wait for me there.'

'I will not, I'm coming with you.'

'Ginny, you will go home because I don't want you starting an argument with Hermione. You're already jumping to conclusions and I know what you're like when it comes to defending Ron ok? I'll go get her if she's there and then you can talk to her when I get her home.'

Ginny scowled at him, she knew there was no way he was letting her go to the hospital.

'Fine, I'll go to your house. I'll wait for you there. Oh, and remember, there's anti-apparation wards on the hospital at night.'

'I know, I'll find a way around them.'

He leant forward and kissed her on the cheek. When he pulled back they both turned on the spot and vanished.