She froze, wide eyes trained on the still body that lay on the floor. Her body moved forward immediately, shaking him, screaming, anything, to try to get him to wake. The moments it took her to spot her wand again felt too long – she could use those seconds to save him.
In the end, all she was able to do was cast the preservation charm on his cooling body. He'd already been dead by the time she had noticed him.
...xXx...
The towers of books surrounded her, but her eyes still glanced in the direction of his room. It had been a month since she found him, and the horrified disbelief had relinquished it's hold on her. Numbness replaced it, and she had filled the void with research.
The chairs and tables around her were filled with old tomes and parchment that was full of notes and calculates, and random ideas that had popped into her head along the way. She remembered less than half of her inane scribbles, but many of them had turned out to be useful in one way or another.
It made her current project a little easier, sometimes, reminding her of something she had forgotten. The minor details always slipped her mind when she got deep into her research, and it was always the details that caused the project to fall apart.
She offered the door one last glance before sighing. She was getting distracted again. She wanted to test it again, but it wasn't ready just yet. There were a couple of runes that were throwing the Arithmancy off. She didn't know what would happen if she tried it now, and didn't want to make it worse than it already was.
She just hoped she had enough time.
...xXx...
Hermione stared at him, eyes bright as dull blue eyes flickered open. Blinking, once, twice, thrice, before focussing on her.
He wasn't the same – he would never be the same. Magic couldn't bring back the dead, but magic could certainly cover her deeds until this animate body finally did meet its end.
"Come on, Ron, everyone has been so worried about you."
Slowly, mechanically, Ron nodded. Then he followed her.
Hermione would still have to work on Ron's speech and personality and magic, even the preservation charm had to become permanent, but for now, Ron was a little under the weather since coming back from his Auror mission. He was supposed to be on bed rest, but had insisted on seeing everyone.
No one would ever find out.
Hogwarts: Care of Magical Creatures – task 2: write about an unspeakable crime