AN: well everybody here is the next installment. Enjoy….

Disclaimer: not mine end of story…

Ron sat hunched before the common room fires. He wasn't even bothering to sit on a couch or a chair. He sat hunched on the carpeted stone trying so desperately to become warm. It took merely a single look at Harry as he came down the stairs from the dormitories that Hagrid was wrong. He shook himself almost violently needing it to brush away the doubts forming webs across his soul.

He rubbed his hands together one more time before rising off the floor. He and Harry nodded to each other needing no words. They both plunked themselves down on the burnt crimson couch nearest the fire. The sat in silence each a prisoner to their own thoughts.

For the second time that day Hermione awoke to the quiet grey room swathed in shadows. She shifted slightly beneath the delicious warmth of the blue-grey quilt with only the slightest pangs of pain rippling across her. As her chocolate eyes became adjusted to the gloom she was able to discern that it was definitely sometime in the middle of the night. Her body tried to calculate the passage of time but failed miserably. A shuffling in the darkened corner of the room caused her to take a sharp intake of breath. The room seemed to instantly glow with a kind of light she knew only magic could produce.

Dumbledore stood before her with a look that seemed to plead for forgiveness. He shuffled closer to her bed in the half gloom. The large candelabra he had conjured in the silence floated to a suitable place in the ceiling. With his right hand he waved to the empty space and a plush chintz chair plopped itself next to her bed. He seated himself in the plush flump of a thing with a grace she was sure could never be learned. The heartrending smile that cast his features in such twisted displays of light and dark appeared across the expanses of his face.

"I wish I had better news for you Hermione…" he seemed so genuinely sorry for it to. She smiled weakly it was all she had left, that last little bit of energy borne of sheer stubbornness. She knew she was too weak to speak and she knew that he knew as well. He kept himself from sighing before her; it wouldn't have done to ruin that beautiful smile not for the world. He reached for her hand feeling how flimsy the appendage was in his fingertips. She gave her hand willingly as if she knew everything he was straining to say. As if he needn't say a thing to her but if he would just simply sit with her awhile yet.

They sat in the silence as it filled her with a peace she had never truly believed in. a peace she had but prayed for from the moment of understanding. The silence wasn't heavy or thick with sorrow or regrets; in its own way it was light, warm and comforting. It was like a perfect autumn day, cool and warm, light and dark, dawn to dusk. He sat for how long he did not know, in those precious moments it simply didn't matter.

The passage of time seemed so irrelevant and to worry over such trivial things seemed so irreverent to the young woman lying before him. Hermione lay in the comforting peace as the pain swept over her in waves. She could feel every nuance of it; she could feel herself drowning beneath it. Time was growing far too short for anyone's liking. Her body grew too heavy for her and she met Dumbledore's eyes across the ever growing gap before them. Her eyes closed with a sense of serenity borne only from those who knew their last moments and had absolutely accepted their fate.

He held that hand for just a little longer. He laid it beneath the covers tucking her in like a grandfather does to their sleepy grandchild when they are young. He lingered a moment too long watching the rise and fall of her chest. He knew the conclusion was just beyond the corner.

Ron hadn't bothered to remove any of his clothing. He sat there like a frozen statue before the fire in full cloak and gloves. Harry finally turned to him as if seeing it all for the very first time. His voice came out choked for reasons beyond him, "How did it go or should I even ask?" He let the question hang in the air around them; they both were ignoring the dim sounds of the other students. Ron turned back to Harry, "You shouldn't ask."

With that Ron finally realized how absurd he must look to everyone. He started himself dully making his way to the dormitory they had shared for years. He changed and came back like a new man. A man far more sure of his standings in the world. He offered his hand to Harry in a gesture symbolically helping his friend up from the burnt crimson couch.

"We ought to go practice a bit more, we need it you know." Harry seemed to understand his meaning ad any passerby would have merely thought they were referring to Quidditch. Harry nodded and they both strode from the common room with sharp and sure steps. Ginny stood on the landing up above them caught staring in her own opinion. She sighed, climbing back to her room and back to the life she had chosen.

With quick strides they headed to the room of requirement. Which they both knew would be in one of the more obscure hallways on the upper floors. They were there in less time than either had thought possible. Not a soul had stopped them but there had hardly been enough people to fill a decent sized classroom wandering the halls on this Sunday.

The room of requirement's entrance would have appeared to anyone else to be nothing more than a life size painting of a dumpy grey looking witch. Everything was so ordinary on her that it became extraordinary. She had been easy to miss in life and even after death her painting was no more spectacular. Harry made the sign phoenix across the middle of the portrait. The witch seemed neither bothered nor surprised by his movements. She swung forward with absolutely no noise which was once more extraordinary for any painting.

The room was of an even size being about the comparative size of a rather large classroom. It was filled with dummies and a few wardrobes that held beasties only Harry and Ron knew were in the castle. They spent the next few hours firing off spell after spell. They fought all manner of beasts that the room threw into their midst. They fought together as one a feat that few could have accomplished. Without Hermione there they moved as one. They had every intention of facing Voldemort down just the two of them.

Months after the falling out and disownment of Hermione they had sat down together. Ron had been incredibly blunt to Harry. He had always known Harry would have to face old Voldie at one point or another. It could go no other way. He doubted that he would truly fight that last battle with Harry but he'd be damned if her didn't try too.

They had begun to practice and hone their skills. They had learned to fight as one each relying upon the other wholly. The bond between them had intensified so deeply they were forged together in a way no other person could have ever understood.

They knew the battle was coming. They knew it was making its way ever closer. Each prayed fervently that the battle would be stayed till they could at least graduate but neither truly believed that Voldemort would wait that long. They read the daily prophet they knew the battles were raging closer and closer to this stone fortress. They both knew in some deep part of themselves that it would all end upon these grounds. There was no other way for it to end, it had begun here and so it would end.

Worn thin from the hours of practice they made their way sluggishly back to the Gryffindor common room and the relative safety it offered. They walked in companionable silence each knowing much of what the other was thinking. They were both feeling so much but so much of it could never be expressed. They each wondered profoundly in their cores about the choices they had made. They stopped not far from the common room. Each turned to the other in unison speaking at the same time, "Look there's no turning back lets do this together mate."

With a nod they entered the common room together. Ron would head off to bed straight after entering nodding to his sister who was seated in a far off corner. Harry could not at first work up his courage to cross the space between them. He went to a far off window sill looking out in the inky blackness as deep as the despair that often crawled across his soul. The distance was barely feet but it felt like miles. He sighed deeply dragging himself off to bed, unspoken words burning on his tongue.

I hoped you liked, review if you feel like it. I have nothing else to say so blah!