The speed at which he had hit the water rocketed Ron well below the surface, though he could still see the haze of sunlight up above. He began to paddle upwards, but the parachute was taking on water and weighing him down. Contorting himself so that he could reach his sock, he pulled out the spare wand and cast a hasty severing charm, leaving the parasail behind as he swam furiously to the surface.

He broke through the top of the water with a gasp, inhaling deeply as he took stock of his surroundings. The boat was long gone, taking John with it, and there were no other vessels in the vicinity that might have witnessed his fall or that could provide aid. He would have to apparate to the shore and hope he didn't land in the middle of a muggle picnic or something.

Raising his wand above the surface, Ron focused on his destination and twisted as best he could in the water. He landed as planned behind the boathouse where he and Hermione had spied on Berisha, earlier in the trip, and took quick stock of himself. He wasn't in any pain which would be an obvious indication of splinching, but ever since his first apparition test, he had made it a habit of checking both eyebrows upon arrival.

After verifying that he was intact, Ron made a beeline back to the resort. He glanced across the sandy beach as he went, looking for any sign of Hermione. She had said she was going to the pool, but he didn't want to run right by her if her plans had changed. He had to get to her before John did, and he had a limited amount of time in which to do it. Not seeing her on the beach, Ron hurried up to the pool area, and his heart sank when he found it deserted. She was supposed to be headed straight here; where the bloody hell was she?

Ron barrelled through the back door into the dining area, paying no mind to the soggy trail he was leaving behind him. In his haste to reach Hermione, he hadn't bothered with a drying charm, but he reckoned he would have to just extend an apology to the cleaning staff later for the mess he was making. Right now, the only thing that mattered was making sure Hermione was safe.

He entered the lobby almost at a full on sprint, but stopped short at the crowd he found there. The area was crawling with Aurors, and Ron's mind immediately went to a worst case scenario of what must have happened to warrant this response. But then he heard his name above the din, and he barely saw Hermione before she crashed into his arms.

"I'm so sorry," she murmured into his neck. "This was so stupid, I shouldn't have—" Ron cut her off with a kiss, so happy to find her unscathed that he would take whatever bollocking she wanted to give him for interrupting her.

The familiar sound of his best mate clearing his throat made Ron pull away much sooner than he would've liked. Harry met his gaze over Hermione's shoulder, one eyebrow quirked in amusement. "Suppose now's as good a time as any to let you know your cover's blown," Harry chirped, in surprisingly good spirits considering it seemed their mission had been thoroughly compromised.

Ron shook his head, not ready yet to deal with Harry, and fixed his eyes on Hermione. "What happened?"

Hermione pulled away from him and wrung her hands together. "Oh, Ron, I'm sorry!" she exclaimed again. "I've ruined everything."

"Hey, stop. Breathe," Ron instructed, reaching for her hand to calm her. "Tell me what happened."

"I don't know how to explain it," she said with a sigh. "I just had this awful feeling about you going out on that boat, and so I…" She nodded over her shoulder to Harry, who shrugged. "I called Harry." She took a deep breath, and when she looked up at him, there were tears in her eyes. "I shouldn't have, I know that, and I don't want you to think that I think you can't handle yourself because I know you can, but—" As she spoke, it occurred to Ron that the Aurors taking up most of the available space in the lobby were just milling about; there was no sense of urgency in their movements, and Ron realized they had come on Hermione's gut feeling, not because anything had happened, as far as they knew. Now that they were here, though, Ron had backup, and he put up a hand to halt Hermione's rambling.

"Hold on. Has John come back here?"

Hermione shook her head. "He's not with you?"

"No." Ron turned to Harry and spoke in a low voice. "We need to lock this place down, and put a perimeter around the area. Whatever's going on here, John is involved. And he's now wanted for the attempted murder of an Auror."

"For what?!" Hermione screeched. She grasped at the sleeve of his shirt as Harry gave a quick nod and moved away to give orders to the team. "Is that why you're all wet? Did he hurt you?" He watched her eyes do an inventory of his body, looking for any signs of an injury, before Ron pulled her to his chest and held her tight.

"I'm fine. Really." Ron rubbed his hand against her back in what he hoped was a soothing motion. "I'll have one of the Aurors take you home. Harry and I can handle this from here."

Hermione jerked out of his embrace, though her hands never left him, her fingers digging into his forearms like she feared he would disappear if she let go. "Like hell am I going anywhere," she snapped.

Ron sighed. "Hermione, the mission is done. There's nothing more you can do here."

She set her jaw in response, and Ron knew it wouldn't be worth fighting her over. "I'm not leaving." She shook her head determinedly, but the slight tremble of her bottom lip gave her away as she tucked herself back into Ron's arms. "I'm not leaving you."

"Okay," Ron relented, wrapping her up again. "It's alright, you can stay." He kissed the top of her head, and he felt her sigh against him.

"I'm sorry about the mission," she muttered. "It wasn't my place to call in Harry."

"You were right, though," Ron pointed out, shuddering to think what might have happened if she hadn't followed her instincts. For all he knew, John had arrived back at the resort with some nefarious plan to harm Hermione and had bailed when he saw the Aurors. Ron shook his head; it wouldn't do for him to dwell on possibilities. Hermione was here, and she was fine. He tightened his grip on her, and she did the same to him as Harry approached them again.

"I've got the team mobilized. If John is still in town, they'll find him." Harry waved his wand at Ron, hitting him with a drying charm, and asked, "Is there somewhere we can go and talk in private? We should go over everything that's happened so far while you've been here. After that, Hermione, I can have someone—"

"She's staying," Ron cut him off. Hermione gave Harry a defiant look, daring him to argue, but one glance between the two of them was enough for Harry to hold his tongue. He gave a nod of agreement, and Ron said, "We can go up to our suite."

"Good. Lead the way."

Hermione continued to hold Ron's hand all the way up the lift, earning a quizzical look from Harry over her head. She let go only once they were safely inside the room, and even then, her reluctance to lose physical contact with Ron was clear on her face.

"Have you got someone keeping an eye on Berisha, too?" Ron asked Harry as they got settled. "We're still not sure what his involvement is, if any."

"We've got Aurors everywhere," Harry assured him. "Nobody is leaving this resort without us knowing about it." Hermione was restless, pacing the far end of the room, and Harry addressed her next. "What tipped you off about the bartender?"

"That's just it, nothing did," Hermione replied, her voice taking on a high, anxious pitch. "I just panicked."

"Told you Harry would bust in here with half the department in an emergency," Ron joked.

"You had an instinct and you acted on it," Harry replied. "We do that all the time in the field. It's nothing to be upset about."

"Still," Hermione fretted, "I don't have the authority to call for backup."

"You have as much authority as either of us do while you're here, Hermione," Ron insisted. "And it's a bloody good thing you did call Harry. Otherwise…" He trailed off and she moved to sit next to him on the end of the bed, taking his hand again.

Harry took in the interaction with an uncharacteristically keen eye before bringing them back to the topic at hand. "Let's start from the beginning. What have you learned since you've been here?"

"Not much, apparently," Ron scoffed before diving into the details of their week. Harry jumped in to ask an occasional pointed question, and Hermione helped fill in the blanks as Ron talked, until they had covered everything that had happened during their time at the resort. At least, everything that had happened with regards to the mission. Neither of them brought up their undefined reconciliation, and though Harry seemed to suspect something had changed between his two best friends, he didn't question it.

"So, how do you want to proceed?" Harry asked when they finished. "Wrap the mission and regroup from home?"

"Or we go head-on at this thing," Ron countered. "Question Berisha and the rest of the staff about what's really going on. The last thing John said to me before he cut that rope was 'you have no idea what you're really into'. We're not going to find out what that means back in London."

"Okay. Let me go and coordinate with the team. We'll start interrogations soon. You two take a breather. I'll have to see about getting some additional accommodations, too." Harry looked at Hermione, still gripping Ron's hand as if her very life depended on it, and added, "Should I include you in the arrangements?"

Hermione shook her head. "Don't worry about us. We've got plenty of room here."

Harry did a very poor job of concealing his smirk as his eyes flickered behind them to the room's only bed. "Mhm." He stood and headed for the door. "See you two in a bit. I'll have someone stationed outside the room so you can relax."

Once the door had closed behind Harry, Hermione's normally perfect posture went slack, as if she had been deflated. Ron reached over to brush her hair behind her shoulder, letting his fingers graze her neck as he did. "You okay?"

She took a couple of deep breaths before responding. "Yes," she sighed. "Yes, I'm okay. You're safe, that's all that matters."

"Yeah," Ron agreed, wrapping an arm around her shoulder. "My thoughts exactly."

Hermione slid backwards on the bed and laid on her side before crooking a finger at Ron to follow. He obliged, lying down to face her with his head propped on one hand and the other coming to rest on her waist. "If something would've happened to you, Ron…" she whispered.

"It didn't, though. And it won't."

"You don't know that," Hermione said as she shifted closer to him. She paused before continuing, watching as her fingers trailed back and forth across his chest rather than meeting his gaze. "I never wanted to tell you when we were together, but there were times that I truly hated you being an Auror."

"Why?" Ron's brow furrowed; she had never been anything but supportive of his career choice, at least outwardly.

"Because of things like this." Hermione gave him a sad smile and lifted her hand to stroke his cheek. "The fear that you'd go out on a mission and wouldn't come back. I'm so, so proud of you, Ron, and what you've accomplished, and I want you to know that that comes first. But I think…some of my fears may have caused me to be harder on you than I should've been. I took it out on you when it wasn't your fault."

"I wish you'd have told me that," Ron said softly.

Hermione shook her head. "I didn't want you to think that I didn't support you, or make you feel like you had to choose between being an Auror and keeping me happy."

"We could've talked about it."

"Never our strong suit, was it?" Hermione graced him with a half smile before she closed the distance between them to kiss him. Coming down from the adrenaline rush of the afternoon, Ron wanted nothing more than to get lost in Hermione, but she pulled away after only a moment, just far enough to speak as her nose still brushed his. "We're talking about it now. Whatever we're doing, whatever this is…I don't want to make the same mistakes again."

"I don't either. You can tell me this stuff, Hermione. Don't push me away." Hermione nodded, and he sighed. "We don't have to do this now." Ron leaned in to kiss her again quickly before shifting to his back and pulling her into his side. Hermione snuggled against him, resting her head on his shoulder. "Right now, we should rest. Then we'll finish this thing. Together."