The Locked Room

Chapter 7: Animal Instincts

Had the heavens gathered over her head and lightning struck Ronald Weasley square in the chest, Hermione wouldn't have been surprised. It was all she could do to refrain from shouting, stamping her feet and generally boiling over. The only thing she could think to do after witnessing such a betrayal was to go to Mrs. Weasley. Hermione was certain she could find sympathy about Ron's downfalls from someone at the Burrow, and she was right.

"He was kissing her right there in OUR flat, RIGHT after he had said he loved ME!" she boomed, pacing the Burrow kitchen as Fred, George, Ginny, Arthur, and Molly listened in.

"He's a right prat," Ginny declared.

"Maybe she came on to him," Mr. Weasley said.

"I'm going to slip him a Nosebleed Nougat when he isn't watching," Fred murmured.

"I second that motion," George concurred.

"I thought you didn't like Ron," was Mrs. Weasley's misplaced remark. Hermione, stopped dead in her tracks simply gaped at her. The others, after a slight shock, recovered quickly enough to agree with Mrs. Weasley before Hermione could regain her senses. They simply all looked sheepish and knowingly from one to the other as Hermione managed to find a chair and sat down heavily in it.

"That's beside the point," she said finally and with a great deal of agony thrown in. She must have known her rebuttal was futile. Nothing could be done but to throw her head on top of her crossed arms sitting on the table top and groan. "There has to be something I can do," she murmured and nobody heard her. Deciding that something would be done, she got up, held her hand to her head, choked back a few tears and disapparated.

The Weasley's were left in a state of extreme anticlimax. They all stared at Mrs. Weasley before she spoke a few moments later.

"Well, no one would get that upset about someone they didn't care about," she said simply.

"I think they're both a couple of prats," Fred said. The others laughed.

"Ever since Ron wrote home about that bossy girl that no one liked, I knew he was in for some trouble," Mr. Weasley chuckled. "I can remember your mother being rather bossy back in the day," he said as the corners of his mouth twitched from resisting a smile.

"Yes, but I won you over eventually," Molly said, laughing herself.

"Let's keep all the mushiness down to mildly nauseating, shall we?" said George.

"Where do you suppose Hermione went?"

"Probably to their flat, I'd assume," said Ginny with her head downcast thinking it had been a long time since she'd been to their flat. A pang shot through Ginny as she thought about Hermione suffering over her own problèmes d'amour. However, Ginny found she couldn't dwell on that for long, as her own heartaches overcame any others.

BREAK

"Listen, you've got to go now."

"But Ronnie, I don't want to go… Don't you want to finish what we started?" Marie let out an uncharacteristic giggle, leaning in towards Ron provocatively. Ron thought he must have been crazy to be shoving this girl out of the flat like he was, but there were rules about that sort of thing, and Marie wasn't the one he wanted to compromise at the moment.

Finally, he got her out into the hall and slammed the door shut. He leaned against it in overwhelming relief, tempered with concern that Hermione really was mad at him about all of this. Ron wished he knew where Harry had gotten to. He could do with some talk mano a mano, and Harry was always good at this sort of thing. Even though Harry had only dated Cho and his sister, the fellow knew quite a bit about love and the like. Ron didn't know the intricacies of the emotion, but he knew when he was in it, and boy was he deep in it.

Ron flopped down onto the couch where he had recently been conducting his illicit liaison with Marie (according to Hermione) and marveled in wonder at the manner in which he had controlled his animal instincts. Had he not known he was in love with Hermione, he wouldn't have been able to explain the situation at all. He was a virile young man and would take what he could get, which wasn't much. But ever since that night a few months back, Hermione was all he could think about. In the years before that fatal night, Ron had thought about Hermione in that half-curious, half-skeptical way, always cautious when it came to his dealings with her, but always grateful for her friendship. He hadn't really considered dating her until after the entire Lavender Brown fiasco.

The hospital ward, after he had been poisoned was where something changed between them. Ron realized how important she was, at least in the back of his mind. He dreamt about her constantly in that ward. He didn't want to succumb to anything while they were at odds, so he did everything in his power to make up for his ill-chosen alliance with Lavender. Being near to Hermione became second nature to him after that poisoning incident, and he didn't want to jeopardize it again, which was why he felt like a first-rate prat for having allowed Marie to do that to him this evening. There was no denying that his fondness for being around Hermione had blossomed into love at a definitive moment only a few months back.

The fatal night hadn't seemed particularly fatal at the time, but Ron knew that when Hermione had come in that rainy night a few months back, dripping slightly, but smiling, he wanted to dry her off and get her warmer. Her beauty he was fully cognizant of before all of this, but seeing her freshly wet and rosy-cheeked set off something in his mind that added affection to admiration and manifested into a concern for her well-being that he had been feeling in lesser degrees all throughout their school years. Now the concern was paramount, not that he had reason to worry, but he just didn't want to let her out of his sight.

When she admitted that she was going on a date with that Charlie fellow, Ron was able to fully comprehend his feelings for her in every variation, every manner in which he cared for her, in which he was jealous of anyone who could tell her how wonderful she was before he did. That was what had prompted his confession of love for her. He didn't regret it for one moment.

Sighing at the horrible predicament he had landed himself in, yet again, Ron decided the best thing to do was go for a walk. Maybe he would run into Harry and be able to talk this out. Ron didn't know where to start walking, so he turned unconsciously in the direction of the Ministry, thinking he'd just walk until something made sense. All he could do at the moment was curse whatever vicious circumstance had brought Marie into the Atrium at that precise moment on that precise day. Things couldn't have turned out worse.

BREAK

In keeping with fate's decision to keep Ron from having anything good happen to him that evening, a few minutes after he went out in search of Harry, Harry himself popped back into his room. Peering out through the keyhole to make sure the coast was clear, he came out of his seclusion and picked up the Daily Prophet, made himself a cup of tea and settled down on the recently-vacated couch. It wasn't too long after this that he heard another pop and assumed it was Hermione coming back from wherever she had fled to in the wake of Marie's arrival. To Harry's confusion, a horrible noise came from Hermione's room that sounded like a heard of buffalo had stampeded through and knocked everything over that wasn't nailed down. A little concerned to say the least, Harry opened Hermione's door to find her leaning over a book depicting a building's structure, it seemed.

"Hermione, are you alright?"

"Fine, Harry."

"I heard a lot of books fall and thought you might have been hurt."

"Mhm," was all she said.

"Hermione, just tell me what's going on."

"Why don't you ask Ronald? Or is he still lip locked with that slut in the living room?"

"What are you talking about? You don't mean to tell me you stayed here during that whole ordeal?"

"Yes, I did. I wanted to get some research done and after all this is my flat as much as Ron's, isn't it?"

"Well yeah, but I didn't think you would stay…"

"Well I did, and I saw the whole thing. She was all over him. I can't believe the prat would do such a thing under the very same roof that he told me that he-"

"That he loves you?"

"Shouldn't you be putting that in the past tense?" she asked with a furious snap.

"Hermione, you don't understand."

"Oh, I understand alright."

"But you have Charlie, why shouldn't he date someone else if you're not interested? You made quite an ordeal about telling him you weren't interested, so he's trying to get over it the best he can, if he ever does get over you, which I doubt."

"Since when do you know so much about love, Harry? You haven't talked to Ginny in two years!"

"Don't bring me into this, Hermione."

"Yeah, well don't presume to know things that you can't have any idea about. I know Ron, and I know that he doesn't care. For Merlin's sake, he always does this to me!" And with that, Hermione broke down crying. She was so upset she toppled onto a heap on the floor. In between racking sobs, she continued. "Harry, I have tried to understand him, honestly, but every time I think we're getting close he goes and does something that just breaks my heart. So I try this dating thing with someone else – someone who is completely wonderful. He adores me. But Charlie doesn't understand what Ron and I – Ron is always in my head. Do you remember that time in the first year when he made fun of me and I locked myself in the bathroom? That was the first time he broke my heart, and good grief, there were so many times after that… I'm sick of it, Harry! So don't pretend to know what I'm going through or to presume you know what Ron is thinking. He's heartless, just like you. You won't even give Ginny the time of day! If I could I would hit you so hard right now for hurting her just like Ron hurt me."

"Hermione, you don't understand. He cares about you, you just have to-"

"Save it, Harry. I'm getting out of here." And she did.

Harry was left standing in Hermione's room, a few seconds from boiling over. He didn't want to think about what she had said about Ginny and himself, so he didn't. He crossed over to her desk to look at what book she had so frantically opened.

SUBDEPARTMENTS WITHIN THE DEPARTMENT OF MYSTERIES

A Rudimentary Guide to Level Nine, Ministry of Magic

Door Number Twelve: Top Secret

This room is kept locked at all times, for it contains highly dangerous magic and should not be tampered with by inexperienced witches or wizards unaware of its full power.

Harry gasped when he realized what door she was trying to get into. It was the infamous locked room filled with what Dumbledore had said was the most powerful magic known to wizards and muggles alike – love. He frantically tried to recall all that Dumbledore had said that night when he had revealed the prophecy, but he couldn't think of it. It was something about how it had driven Voldemort out of his body that night or something about his mother's sacrifice for him. That wasn't much to go on, but Harry recalled how the door would not open to him, even with Sirius's penknife. What could Hermione want with that room? He knew Hermione, and when she couldn't figure something out, it would drive her completely insane. Harry sighed. He knew he needed to get to the Ministry in case Hermione tried something silly. They had been through too much together for him not to go and help her, and he knew Hermione too well to get angry at what she had said. After all, it was the truth and there was no reason to get upset about what he couldn't deny or alter.

BREAK

Hermione didn't immediately flee to the Ministry. Her first stop was Charlie's flat. They didn't say anything at all when she arrived. He wanted to comment about her red eyes and damp cheeks, but he couldn't get a word out. She had practically thrown herself at him. This impulse of Hermione's made Charlie extremely excited, and he didn't think he could contain himself if she kept this up. His hands ran through her hair and under her shirt. Hardly knowing what she did, Hermione acquiesced to every movement, every touch. It was only when he nestled his head into the crook of her neck and whispered her name between gentle kisses that she said something completely unexpected.

She said "Ron" and gasped. There was passion in her voice when she said the name, and it wasn't because of Charlie's ministrations. It was because she had been thinking about Ron. She had been thinking about that night a few months back when she came in from the rain and he took a towel and wrapped her in it, simultaneously hugging her, placing his chin in the crook of her neck. "Damnit," was the next thing that came out of her mouth.

"What's wrong?" said Charlie, apparently not noticing that she had said some other man's name. He was only put off that she had stopped the fun.

"Charlie, I need to figure out what's in that locked room."

"What, now?" he groaned.

"Yes, or I'll never be at peace," she told him while putting her shoes back on and grabbing her sweater. "I have to go to the Ministry," she said consolingly. "But thanks for everything, it's been fun."

She didn't bother to apparate. She walked. That evening there were four feet directed towards one destination, unbeknownst to either of them.

A/N: Hey there… I thought I'd put up one more chapter before I go on my vacation as a little present. I don't think I can bring myself to finish it before I leave. I'll try and work on it on the plane and update as soon as I can. Thanks for reviewing! Keep it up!