Sorry for the wait people, I've ben deciding which car I'm buying when I get a job, (I looooooove car shopping), but it's here now. There's a few more chapters left in the story yet so stay with it...please!
Let me know what you think...PLEASE ;)
Step XxXxX ;)
Chapter 39
'Harry, Hermione, I could beat about the bush and pretend I don't suspect you have anything to do with Ron waking up, but we know each other too well for that to be necessary.' Arthur said switching his glance between Harry and Hermione. 'Yes, there is the chance that it could have been a coincidence that you just happened to be here when he did, but something tells me it isn't. For one thing, you should both be at work and you're not. For another, you're here when visiting hours aren't until this afternoon and finally you two've been exchanging nervous glances ever since I arrived, so which one of you is going to tell me what's been going on?'
Hermione shifted in her seat and looked at Harry, but before he had chance to say anything she decided to answer Arthur.
'I'll do it Arthur, I suppose it's because of me that this all started anyway. But can I just say before I – we, tell you anything that the only reason we didn't tell you what was happening as it was happening, is because we didn't want to put you in a difficult position with the Ministry. You would have been obliged to tell them everything and we didn't want to put you in a position where you had to choose between what you wanted to do and what you were expected to do. You have to believe that.'
Arthur sighed, 'I believe you Hermione. As much as I have the feeling that I won't like what I'm about to hear, I know you're both intelligent enough to have thought whatever you did through…please tell me you thought it through.'
Harry smiled, 'yes Arthur we did, we were extremely careful. More so than you have known us to be!'
Arthur sighed, 'well, that's one thing at least. Go on then, tell me the worst.'
'Well,' Hermione started nervously, 'I suppose it started on Friday night. We'd been at the ball for the trainee Aurors and then we went to a house party afterwards. Something happened that got me upset that I won't go into and I ended up apparating to Hogsmeade to get away from everything. Whilst I was there I found someone, or rather someone found me, I was shocked to see him to say the least. He's wanted by the Ministry, but before I could do anything about that he told me he knew what spell Ron had been hit with, and that he'd tell me if I arranged a meeting for him with Harry.'
Hermione glanced at Arthur; he seemed quite calm, calmer than Hermione felt anyway.
'Ok, who was it? I take it from the fact that the Ministry wants him that he's a Death Eater, or someone who was suspected of being one. They're the only people on the official 'wanted' list at the minute. And considering…' his eyes narrowed, as he remembered what he had heard about the Auror action over the weekend, 'it was Malfoy wasn't it?' he said quietly, answering his own question after the logical answer had come to him. 'He's the only one who probably wouldn't try to harm you on sight, and if I'm interpreting his want of a meeting with Harry correctly, I'm guessing he wanted something in exchange for his information.'
'Well that saved us some explaining anyway,' Harry said.
'So, ignoring the fact that you didn't report a sighting of a known Death Eater, I'm guessing you then went home and told Harry, and most likely Ginny, considering she went to the ball and the party with you, what had happened.'
'Yes I did.'
'Needless to say I was a bit, er, surprised to say the least at what Hermione had said, and when she told me about the coin-'
'What coin?'
'Oh,' Harry said, 'the coin we haven't told you about. 'You remember when we were at school and we had that Defence group going?'
'Vividly,' Arthur replied with a sigh.
'Well, we communicated via enchanted coins, I changed the message on mine and Hermione charmed the others so they'd change when I did. Malfoy gave Hermione one of those so she could let him know if I'd agreed to talk to him. When I found out we had a way to contact him, the thought crossed my mind to tell him to be somewhere and I'd go and er…well…sort him out is the nice way of putting it.'
Arthur smiled, 'failing to report a sighting, and concealing a way of communicating with a fugitive,' he counted the actions off on his fingers, 'and we've only been talking five minutes, Merlin help me! So what did you decide to do? Or do I really need to ask?'
'Probably not,' replied Hermione, 'we thought of a place to meet and told him when to be there. Apparently he had a problem with the time we'd said but nevertheless we met with him. That was Saturday night.'
'And what did our Mister Malfoy have to say for himself?'
'Well, he did what he said he would, and told us the spell Ron was hit with.'
'Was overpowering him as soon as he told you too easy?'
'We couldn't, he wouldn't tell us the counter to the spell until we'd heard him out.' Hermione replied. 'But once we had, he kept his word, again, and told us the counters. He knew he needed to show us we could trust him so he made us an offer we couldn't really refuse. He'd help us to wake up Ron, and then we'd talk to the Ministry on his behalf and try and get them to listen to the information he was willing to give up. He's got quite a bit, more than has been used in the past in exchange for freedom, and…he's changed, well I think he has, he's learned from his mistakes. He left the Death Eaters and Voldemort a few months before the final battle, to be fair; it was to save his own skin, he found out he was 'surplus to requirements' as he put it, but he had only become that way because he refused to do everything that he was ordered to do.'
'He said he never killed anyone, and he's willing to talk under Veritaserum to prove it,' Harry added quietly.
'He is? When did he tell you that? Hermione asked.
'When we were outside, after we'd performed the spell on Ron. He said he knew they weren't likely to believe him, so he'd do anything they wanted to prove he meant what he was saying.'
'Well that will help him a little bit,' Arthur thought aloud, 'but I don't think it's a good idea to let them know how much contact you've had with him so far. If we make it seem like you've only been corresponding with letters, or if we tell them he sent you the coin to communicate with, then that'll take the heat off you. And if we make it seem like he was blackmailing you in some way to get you here to wake up Ron then-'
'No, we can't do that,' Hermione said firmly. 'We can't make him out to look bad in any way, that'll just go against him. I agree we should say we've only been communicating through letters or whatever but I don't want it to sound like he blackmailed us to get us here. I don't care what the Ministry thinks about us, or what they might charge us with. It would be wrong.'
Arthur looked a little taken aback by Hermione's little speech but turned to Harry.
'I feel the same,' Harry said quietly, 'as much as it pains me to say it, I have started to think he can be trusted. He knows there's not much of a chance that the Ministry will give him what he wants, but he wants to at least try and put a few things right…and I've said I'll help him to do that. Hopefully I'll be able to play my, 'Saviour of the wizarding world' card for the first and only time.'
Arthur smiled and took a swig from his bottle of pumpkin juice.
'Look, I understand why you did what you did. I'd've probably done the same thing if it was me in that position, but we still have to work out the best way to tell this tale to the Ministry. I have a feeling that Molly will demand you come round to the Burrow this evening, so we can talk then.'
'Thanks Arthur,' Harry said.
'That's ok Harry. Now lets see if they'll let us back on the ward.'
Harry and Arthur drained their bottles and stood up. Harry walked towards the double doors and Arthur waited for Hermione to walk past him.
'Arthur, thank you so much for not…for not getting angry with us. I know we should have told the Ministry as soon as he got in contact with us but I couldn't risk waking Ron up on anything. I hope you understand that.'
'Of course I do Hermione. You and Harry seem to have handled this situation exceptionally well and if we spin it right, there probably won't be any repercussions with the Ministry.'
'Ok, but still…thank you.'
'It's me who should be thanking you Hermione, thank you for bringing my son back to me.'
Hermione smiled and walked through the double doors trying not to burst into tears in front of Arthur.
When they arrived back in the ward it was just Ginny and Molly sat around Ron's bed, the twins having gone back to the shop.
Hermione sat on the edge of the bed and kissed Ron hello. She couldn't help but beam at him when she pulled back, but that might have had something to do with the huge smile Ron had on his face.
'I'm allowed to go home tonight!' Ron said excitedly.
'Tonight? Is that wise? I mean, you'll have only been awake a few hours by then!'
'I know, but I'm already taking potions to help build my muscle up again and there was no lasting damage from the spell that hit me, so Healer Thompson decided that being in my home environment would help me more than being in here.'
'Home as in the Burrow?'
Ron looked confused, 'where else would I call home?'
'Oh I forgot, we haven't had chance to tell you yet. Er…well…we have a house, we as in you, Harry and me. The Ministry gave it to us as a thank you present for killing Voldemort. Whilst Harry refused to accept a house for nothing, we are paying a stupidly small amount of rent on it, and it's yours to move in to as and when you want to. Providing you want to of course.'
'Are you kidding me? Of course I want to!' Ron said slightly louder than was absolutely necessary. Molly, Arthur, Ginny and Harry all turned towards him. 'Oops! I think that was a bit loud,' he added quietly.
'Really? I didn't notice!' Hermione said with a laugh. 'I have a feeling your mum will want you at home for a good few days before you move in though, and it's probably best, me and Harry have to go to work, so can't look after you, although I could probably skip a few days and catch up.'
'I still can't believe you're training to be Aurors, or that I have a place on the course too!'
'Do you still want to be one? I mean, I know that's what you'd planned to do but we weren't sure, with the war and everything, whether you'd still want to do it, it took us a while to decide to take the plunge.'
'I suppose I never thought of that, but if you're coping then I'm sure I will too.'
'Yeah I'm sure you will, but if you did change your mind, I'm sure the Ministry will be more than happy to let you train to be whatever you want. It's one of the perks of having helped to defeat the evilest wizard in the world,' she leant to wards him to speak quietly in his ear, 'and the rather spectacular reward, not to mention the Order of Merlin that's waiting to be presented to you, Harry and me, as soon as you're well enough to attend the ceremony.'
She pulled back and laughed at Ron's expression.
'Merlin, is there anything else that I need telling? I know about Harry and Ginny, and what you're all doing, I've had the fastest run down of what the Cannons have been doing in the league, I've found out I have a house that I can move into with my best friend and my girlfriend, and that I now have a substantial amount of gold which I'm presuming is waiting for me at Gringotts?'
Hermione nodded her head, 'I think that's it for all the major news, obviously we'll fill you in with the smaller things as we remember them, but for the minute I'd rather just sit here and hug you all day!'
Ron smiled, 'I'd like nothing more than that either, but I need to eat something first!'
Hermione laughed, 'well as much as there are enough Chocolate Frogs here to last you at least a week, I'd say that maybe something else would be more appropriate!'
'Yeah I'd say so.'
'Not wishing to interrupt you two, but we're going,' said Arthur.
'All of you?' Hermione asked.
'Yes dear,' Molly replied, 'I've got to get everything ready for Ron's homecoming and I've got to tell the rest of the family the news.'
'I need to go back to work I'm afraid,' Arthur said.
'Me too,' added Ginny, 'everyone's probably thinking I've been hit by a Confundus charm by the way I've been coming and going out of here all morning, I need to tell people what's been going on.
'I'm going to go and tell Kingsley what's been going on, and tell him I'm fully recovered from our bout of food poisoning!' Harry said with a grin on his face, 'but I'll tell him you're still ill and suffering at home, that way you can stay here with Ron.'
Hermione went to open her mouth but Harry stopped her.
'Hermione we checked with Healer Thompson, he said he'll be able to sort it so you can stay with Ron whilst he's being moved to a different ward for the afternoon, you hardly need to stay in this one anymore do you mate?' he asked Ron.
Ron looked around the ward and smiled.
'No I suppose I don't.'
'Thanks everyone, I'll make sure he doesn't get into trouble this afternoon, and I'll make sure he does everything the Healers tell him to do too,' Hermione said with a smile, squeezing Ron's hand at the same time.
Everyone smiled at Hermione and then in turn gave Ron a hug goodbye.
Once everyone had left Ron turned to Hermione.
'Hermione, can I ask you something?'
'Of course you can, what's wrong?'
'Well, that night, the night I…the final battle. I came back and found you on the floor. I didn't want to think you were dead, but you were lying on the floor. What happened to you?'
Hermione blushed slightly, still embarrassed slightly by how she had succumbed to unconsciousness.
'Well, it's not half as heroic as I'd have liked. You'd just disapparated to HQ with Moody and the spell that a Death Eater cast at you came hurtling towards me. I managed to deflect it and stun the Death Eater. I walked over to him to make sure he was out cold and tied up properly and whilst I was there, another Death Eater and an Auror who were duelling as fast as anything came towards me. When the Auror managed to stun the Death Eater he carried on moving and knocked me to the ground. It just so happened there was a rock on the floor where my head landed and knocked me out cold. As I said, not quite as heroic as I'd like, but there you go!'
'Oh, right.'
'Ron…I'm sorry about what happened to you. If I hadn't been stupid enough to get knocked out then-'
'Don't you dare sit there and say it was you're fault what happened to me!' Ron said in a rush before Hermione had chance to finish her sentence.
'Well if you think about it logically, if you hadn't been there then you wouldn't have been hit!'
'Hermione stop it, you can't blame yourself for this!'
'Too late,' she said quietly, 'I have been doing since the moment we found you.'
'Well in which case it stops right now, this second, all right.'
Hermione sighed, 'I'll try, it's something I've been living with for two months now, so it might take me a while.'
'Try, for me, please. Promise me, I don't want you living with that kind of guilt anymore.'
'I promise I'll try. Now,' she said, taking a deep breath, 'on to happier subjects. What do you want to eat?'
