The Locked Room
Chapter Nine: Inside
It was a smooth inky blackness that reached into every corner of Hermione's heart and would have practically swallowed her were it not for that faint dim shaft of light glowing in the corner. It almost resembled wand light…
"Hermione, can you hear me?" Someone's voice was floating through the almost-blackness. The tones of it were enough to comfort her, they sounded so familiar. Soon she could feel the arm cradling her neck. Then she opened her eyes slightly and found that she was not alone in the room. In fact the whole room was filled with people. The first face her blurred eyes focused on was quite close to her own. She could see the red outline of hair and the endearing freckles sprinkled all over that well-known stubborn face.
"Ron," she whispered, like a gentle breeze, sighing out relief.
"I'm here, Hermione. Harry's here too, and Ginny. And I think the angry-looking bloke might be your boss." Hermione shook her head. She was dizzy with relief that it was Ron who was holding her. She was so glad to be in his arms she refused to sit up.
"Where are we?" she asked quietly, so that only Ron heard. He bent his head down closer to hers and she felt his nose brush gently on her cheek as he whispered something back to her. Her eyes rolled back in her head when she felt that secret touch.
It was Ron, and he was in the locked room.
"The room that used to be locked, apparently," he told her without needing to.
"I'm glad it was you in here, Ron. I never realized love could be that simple, I suppose. It's just you."
"Does that mean you like me too?" he asked still holding on to her.
"It means I like you a lot."
BREAK
There were a number of chairs in that locked room, to everyone's surprise. It seems that the Locked Room was rather like the Room of Requirement at Hogwarts.
"So you're telling me that Ron and Hermione found the door unlocked tonight because they were just looking for each other?" Harry asked the Head of the Department.
"Ron found his way in here because Hermione was looking for him, yes. When she got here, he was there – that was what she had locked within herself, her love for him. And when she was ready to come to terms with it, she found him, ready and waiting to help her. To be honest, we haven't used this room in quite a long time."
"Why is it kept locked then?" Ginny asked.
"Because, everyone has to face it when they are good and ready. If people found out how powerful love is when they didn't deserve to know, or when they weren't ready there could be all sorts of horrible consequences. Just think if you found out the person you were destined to love too early, and you hated them… you would avoid it for the rest of your life. It's too powerful to be imagined. Just look at that." He motioned to the corner of the room where Ron and Hermione were holding hands and staring at each other as though they couldn't get enough. Harry and Ginny chuckled. They too were not a little love-struck.
"I can't figure out what brought Ron here in the first place," Ginny said, watching Ron and Hermione start necking again.
"We'll have to ask him later. I think he'll be a little busy tonight." Harry winked at Ginny. She beamed back at him. She thought that Harry might be busy tonight, too.
"When was the last time the room was used? And why is it here in the Department of Mysteries?" Harry asked.
"Because it's always a mystery. Did you even have to ask, Mr. Potter?" the bearded man smiled at him. "Now I think it's time you all went home. Ms. Granger, I trust you will be here for work Monday morning? We still need to fix those remaining Time-Turners, you know."
Hermione looked up and blushed, either from the implied meaning in that statement, or the fact that she couldn't stop blushing tonight.
"I'll be there, bright and early, Sir."
And so the four of them exited the Ministry and made their way slowly back to the flat.
"Ron, what impelled you to go to the Ministry tonight? I'm dying of curiosity," Ginny said.
"I dunno, I just started walking and ended up in that little blue room. Then I reached out my hand randomly, and it opened. I walked in there, except it was completely dark. Then I bumped into a few chairs before thinking I should light my wand. That was when the door opened again and I heard someone fall on the floor. I rushed over, and it was Hermione." Hermione smiled up at him, she hadn't heard the story yet, either. "I was so relieved she was there with me, I didn't think of anything else except how to wake her up until you lot came bursting in."
"Did you all really burst in?" Hermione asked in wonderment.
"Well after you were in such a strop with me, I wanted to know where you were going," Harry told her, "So I looked in your book and realized you trying to get in the locked room. Then I met Ginny on the way, and we were both worried. By the time we got down there, your boss was already there, giving Ron a scolding, actually."
"Was he? I didn't hear much," Ron said, holding Hermione's hand and gazing at her foggily.
"Yeah, he couldn't figure out how you got in there. I thought it was pretty funny."
"Mhm," Ron murmured. Hermione was still smiling at him.
BREAK
Ron and Hermione were sitting on the couch surrounded by a quiet that was as unlike them as anything could be. It was nice to just revel in the fact that they understood without needing to bicker for once. Harry and Ginny were not at the flat; they had disappeared to an unknown location about a half hour ago. Eventually, Ron snaked an arm around Hermione, finally being able to freely embrace her, and know it would not be repulsed. The gesture, surely, would not have been repulsed at any time during their friendship, but neither was aware of it.
It was the end of something, and the beginning of something better. Lives are full of such beginnings and ends, some more remarkable than others. It is impossible to tell exactly when one will happen across such junctures and what they will consist of. The one thing that is always absolutely certain is that there will be things to gain, and things lost at such paradigm shifts. Ron and Hermione were unaware of the loss they had suffered, because it was outstripped irrevocably by their gains. In discovering a deep sort of affection that stemmed from persistent and long-lasting friendship, to feel regard for another person, knowing their faults and their strengths and accepting it all together – that was a situation that silence could sit comfortably in.
BREAK
The August day had coalesced into a spectacle of gold and green as the sun set on the gently swinging leaves holding steadfast to their branches in a gentle breeze that swept across the grounds surrounding the Burrow. If one were sitting in the Weasley's kitchen, it would be possible to hear shouts of joy coming from up on their makeshift Quidditch pitch, a mile or so away. Bill, Charlie, Fred, George, Angelina, Ron, Harry, and Ginny were all there, playing four-on-four, while Fleur and Hermione looked on from below.
"So, when ees ze wedding?" Fleur asked Hermione, who for once was actually inclined to be pleasant to the French invader.
"Well, we haven't really decided yet. Ginny wanted it to be a double wedding, but the boys didn't seem too enthused about that." Hermione held a hand up to her eyes to look up and see how the game was progressing. Harry and Ginny were sitting on their brooms significantly higher than the others, and Angelina was trying to wrestle Fred's Beater's club out of his hands for some unknown reason. The echoes of their laughter floated above the two women, getting damp on the lawn below.
"Eet ees perhaps understandable," Fleur sighed. "Eet would 'ave been extremement belle, n'est-ce pas?" Hermione chose to ignore her lapse into French and pretend she knew what she said. She could almost understand it through empathy, however.
"Yes," she sighed out into the closing of day.
"I always knew you two would like each uzzer," Fleur purred. "I talked to Viktor Krum un peu, when ze tournament was 'appening. 'e was very fond of you," she said with a sideways glance, "but I could tell." Hermione reddened.
"Yes, I'm afraid Ron has always been a bit of a soft spot with me, especially that year. I haven't talked to Viktor in ages."
"Oui, l'amour est tout ce que vous avez besoin," Fleur murmured to herself. The phrase sounded so lovely, Hermione had to ask what it meant.
"Eet means, love is all you need," she said, gazing up at Bill in the reddening glow from the sun. The Weasley's hair in the light truly looked on fire. But it was Ron's smile, as he waved down to her that Hermione took the most delight in observing.
"Well that's true," Hermione agreed. "And to think it was locked up in that room all the time," she whispered to herself. Fleur smiled at her, and placed her hand on top of Hermione's.
"You Eenglish never were very good at ze love-making," Fleur laughed throatily. "You really cannot believe zat a room brought you and Ron togezzer? Eet would 'ave 'appened wezzer you went zere or not. You were meant to be zis way. Come, let us go make dinner, while zey play zat barbaric game," she said and stood up, holding out her hand to Hermione, who took it, and glanced up once more at Ron.
As he waved back at her, Hermione laughed to herself. Fleur was right – Ron wasn't locked in that room all that time. He was locked in her heart and her mind, and she just wouldn't let herself come to terms with the fact that she fell for someone so completely unlike herself and her ideals. But he had outstripped any imaginary perfections Hermione might have been cherishing in her inner heart. He was everything she wanted because he was everything she was not. How cliché, and how damnably true. She laughed again and skipped off down the hill to the Burrow with the sunlight warming her on the inside along with Ron's laughter and smiles ringing across the countryside.