Ron Involved

At nine o'clock – the lawyer had left around eight – Ginny was working on the letter to her sons when she heard someone approach the house and the doorbell rang. It was Ron, as white as a sheet. The siblings embraced each other.

"Ginny, I can't help it," sobbed Ron, "I've tried everything. When she came home, I immediately confronted her, but she's completely pig-headed ..."

"I know she is," Ginny said, "come in first."

"I've made a decision," Ron said, sitting on Ginny's sofa. "I don't know yet if I'm going to get a divorce, but in any case I'm going to separate from Hermione."

"You won't!" his sister replied sternly. "You will stay with her at any price, and you will even be particularly kind to her. She needs you now more than ever."

Ron stared at Ginny as if she wasn't quite in her right mind.

"You're worried about what Hermione needs? Don't you have other things to worry about now?"

"Yes I have," replied Ginny, "but concern for Hermione was the very reason why Harry got himself into this situation. He's tried to keep you out of it, but given the state of affairs, there are some things you should know."

She told him about the curse, about Ulysses and the sound record. Ron listened with his mouth open.

"Do you understand now why you have to stay with her?" she finished her account. "What meets you as 'Hermione' isn't Hermione, at most a pale copy. Her real soul, her real self, is walled in within herself and deathly ill, but feels the presence of people who love her. Probably this love is the only thing that keeps her alive at all. And because whoever controls her knows it is, he's trying to drive you out of her life, just like he drove Harry, Albus and me out of it."

"My God," said Ron, "now I understand! That explains everything, her tyrannic policies, Harry's dismissal, her quarrelsomeness at home ... But damn it, why didn't Harry tell me? I could have kidnapped her much more easily than he could!"

"Would you have done it? I mean before today?" asked Ginny. "And even if you had: Could Harry have known? Let's be clear: What Harry had in mind was a coup d'état that would have ended Hermione's career she spent years for building. Should he really have counted on you to take responsibility for it? In any case, he would have plunged you into a conflict he wanted to spare you."

"That's all very kind of him, but I'd rather have bear that conflict than lose my best friend to the hangman."

"We won't lose him that easily." The conversation with Greengrass had given Ginny confidence. Now she could also let Ron in on the strategy. It did her good to finally be able to speak familiarly with her brother after the months of discord.

Ron pondered. "Do you still have the hideout?"

"Yes, we have," she replied in astonishment.

"Is it far from here?"

"It's the former Chamber of Secrets, if you want to know for sure. We have converted it into a luxury suite for Hermione. Why do you want to know?"

"Well, who's preventing me from kidnapping her myself?"

Ginny smiled. "Nobody. But that wouldn't make much sense at the moment, because what do you want to achieve? Take her hostage to ransom Harry? Even if you succeeded, which is far from certain, Harry would be on the run for the rest of his life. Or follow the original plan and put someone else in her place? Who's that supposed to be? I could mimic the private Hermione, but I have no idea of the procedures in the Ministry. Even Harry must have made some kind of mistake. At most, it would be a last resort to prevent Hermione from passing sentence if the Gamot found Harry guilty, but I don't think there would be time then."

Ron mused.

"And you still wouldn't have solved the problem of Hermione being under a curse," Ginny continued, "because you have no means of breaking it."

"I'll still think about it," Ron replied. "There has to be some solution."

"Do so," said his sister. "But as long as we can't come up with anything really brilliant, you will concentrate on stroking Hermione's soul to keep her alive, will you?"

Ron could no longer answer, for at that moment the room was filled with a dazzling silver light emanating from a big cobra.

"Don't let it get you down," said the snake. "Your husband will defy the Dementors, that' s what he learned. Your sons are doing well, they are proud of you and their dad. The bear has sent out the snakes. Relax and go to the zoo tomorrow night."

The snake vanished.

Ron stared at the place where the snake had just been.

"A Patronus," he stammered, not looking very smart.

"Cleverly spotted," Ginny beamed at him.

"Yes, but whose Patronus? I mean, who the hell has a serpent ..."

He interrupted himself because he realised that his sister was highly amused.

"A serpent, well, I guess it's a Slytherin ..."

Ginny nodded, and the glowing pride in her face finally put Ron on the right track:

"Albus?" he asked, stunned. And as she nodded again: "Al is able to create a corporeal Patronus? At eleven?"

"His father taught him."

"Harry? When and where did he?"

"Two months ago at Hogwarts. And as no one but he and the Incorruptibles know about this, Albus has put his message in such a way that an outsider cannot guess that the Patronus is coming from him. He could not know who might be present and listening in. Hence the coded wording."

"What does that mean," Ron asked, perplexed, "the bear sent out the snakes?"

"The bear is Roy MacAllister, the snakes are the Slytherins. They will help us in some way, but I don't know how yet. To find out, I'm going to the zoo tomorrow night."

"To the zoo?" asked Ron, confused.

"To the Incorruptibles."

"The 'Incorruptibles' – aren't they the guys..."

"... whom your daughter kindly calls Slytherin's leading Death Eaters. Albus is one of them, he's proud of it, and so are we."

"Strange friends you have..."

"Less strange than your wife."

Ron couldn't keep his promise to stay with Hermione. When he returned home late at night, he found a short letter from his wife. She had packed her bags and moved into the Ministry's guest house, leaving her son Hugo behind.