Chapter 12
Ron
Ron watched as Bree leant into Luke. There was something different about her, but what he couldn't put his finger on. The way she spoke, and acted, was somehow more … powerful.
People didn't think he was very perceptive, but he just noticed the useless things. He wasn't completely clueless. Emotions he couldn't do, but body language he could. And he knew that Bree had changed subtlety, her words and actions each carrying more meaning and weight, as though she had seen everything and knew everything.
Turning his attention back to Hermione, whom he was helping along, he noticed her face had gone white with pain.
'Hermione, are you ok?' He asked, worriedly.
'Yes, I'm…' She leant on her leg and her face went even whiter, a gasp escaped her lips and she crumpled. 'My ankle, I think I've…'
'You've probably fractured it,' said Remus, who had come over. 'Here.' He waved his wand, muttered a few words and the pain immediately left Hermione's face. Ron felt relief wash over him as Hermione cautiously put her foot down and didn't wince.
'Thanks, Remus,' she said, and Ron nodded fervently. Remus smiled and moved away, leaving them standing alone in the road. Hermione looked around shiftily, then leaned in to Ron's ear and whispered, 'is it just me, or does Bree seem… different, to you?'
Ron was relieved to here her say that. He now knew it wasn't just him going mad.
'Yeah, I'd noticed too. She's more… powerful, I 'spose.' Hermione nodded, a thoughtful look on her face.
'And remember when the Doctor called out to them in the street. He called her something beginning with 'Ro…'.'
'Rose?' asked Ron, thinking of his cousin's name.
'Mmmm. Rose. I like that name. Rose,' said Hermione, rolling the word round her mouth.
'Come on, let's see what they're doing over there,' Ron said, his curiosity getting the better of him, and he dragged Hermione over to where Luke and Bree were standing.
'What're you looking at?' he asked casually. He was surprised to see tear tracks on Bree's face, but he pretended not to notice.
'The list,' Luke croaked, gesturing towards the piece of parchment pinned to the bit of wall left standing. Ron looked, and saw a list of names. A list of the dead. As he watched, a few more names were scrawled on the sheet as though by an invisible hand, obviously added by Aurors finding more dead bodies in the wreckage.
'It's…horrible,' hiccupped Hermione, tears coursing down her cheeks. Ron wasn't really sure what to do, and shot a terrified glance at Luke, who jerked his head towards his own arm around Bree. Ron took this advice and gingerly placed his arm around Hermione. He still couldn't quite believe they were going out, and half-expected her to slap his arm away and tell him to stop being silly. To Ron's great relief, however, Hermione buried her face in his shoulder, sobbing silently.
'Shhh,' he murmured, using his free hand to stroke Hermione's bushy brown hair, which had gone almost grey with stone dust from the rubble. His own hair probably looked just as bad, and Luke and Bree also had prematurely grey hair.
Bree saw him looking and grinned slightly, but it looked out of place on her tear-streaked face.
'I know, the dust gets everywhere, doesn't it? Scourgify,' she said, pulling her wand out her pocket, and most of the dust disappeared. 'Oh well, better than nothing,' she said, and she stuck her wand in her back pocket, which, Ron noticed, had something else in it as well.
'What's that?' he asked.
'What? Oh, err… nothing,' she said hastily, turning away from Ron slightly, and slipping whatever it was into an inside pocket of her jacket. Ron knew it was something, but he didn't press the point. Now was not the time to argue.
'Do you think Harry and Ginny will come back to Hogsmeade?' asked Luke quickly, changing the subject. Ron narrowed his eyes slightly. So he was in on it too!
Hermione, who hadn't seen a thing because she had had her face pressed into Ron's shoulder, looked up and sniffed,
'Probably not, look! They're already heading back to the castle with stretchers.'
Ron glanced over his shoulder and saw Neville being levitated back by Megan Jones, along with some other people that he couldn't see over the haze of dust still in the air. The dust was quite thick, and hard to see through, and it also had the added disadvantage of giving everybody a loud racking cough every now and again. Luke himself was coughing at the time, and Ron flinched at the sound.
'Are you ok?' asked Ron, as his coughing had sounded extremely painful.
'Yep. It just feels like my throat has been ripped up,' he croaked, and Bree put his arm around him.
'It's this bloody dust,' she said, and cast the bubble head charm on both of them. Ron copied her and so did the others. Remus gestured towards the fleet of stretchers making their way to the castle, and Ron, getting his meaning, followed them with Hermione still leaning on his shoulder, back towards the gates flanked with winged boars.
Yes, he thought as they walked along, there was definitely something different about Bree. He decided to ask later, however, and he kept walking. Hermione shifted slightly on his shoulder, and he looked down into her face and smiled. His smile disappeared quickly when a stretcher was levitated past and he saw the body on it.
Lavender.
He'd gone out with her for a few weeks, and he had never liked her as much as Hermione, but her death was still a blow. Hermione saw where he was looking, and realized what he was thinking.
'I'm sorry Ron,' she said, and rubbed his arm comfortingly. He nodded, averting his eyes from Lavender's body. The two other stretchers that floated past them didn't shake him as much, but the sight of Crabbe and Goyle dead wasn't as pleasing as he'd imagined in many potion classes. Actually, all his potion classes.
'Is something wrong with the doors?' asked Hermione, craning her neck to see the crowd gathered around the front doors to the Entrance hall.
'Harry and Ginny are still outside! Look, you can see their hair,' Bree said. Ron squinted towards the crowd, and sure enough, he could see the bright red hair of his sister next to the black hair of his best friend, standing just outside the front doors.
'Why would they be locked?' asked Bree. As they got closer, Ron could see some teachers, who had gone to Hogsmeade trying to force the doors open.
'I dunno. S'never happened before,' he said, squinting to see what was going on. He could see Harry and Ginny quite clearly now, and there was also a brown-suited, converse-wearing person running towards them.
'Doctor!' Bree ran up to hug him. This seemed strange to Ron. He didn't think that was usual behaviour with teachers. And you'd never catch Snape hugging Malfoy, or McGonagall hugging Harry. It just wasn't natural.
'Doctor, what's happening?' asked Hermione.
'There's something, or somebody, blocking the doors. The teachers don't understand it, 'cause it's not done by magic.' The Doctor managed to say this while gasping for breath after his run.
'Screwdriver?' asked Bree. Ron cocked his head, confused.
'Nah. Deadlock seal.' Again this flew straight past Ron, and Hermione didn't look like she understood either, but Luke, who happened to be in on the secret, was looking worried.
'Who do you think it is?' he asked.
'Well, they'd have to be pretty clever, generating enough power to create a deadlock seal inside the pulse. They would've had to create a completely new power source, in the matter of minutes. If they weren't all dead, I'd have said Time Lords, but as it is…'
'It can't be them. Anyone else?' asked Luke.
'Everyone I know who'd have been able to do this is either dead or the other side of the Universe. Who else is there?' Bree ran her hand through her hair, clearly annoyed at not knowing.
'Wait a minute… there are more aliens in there? Other than the Sontarans?' asked Ron, trying to get his head round this new piece of information.
'Unless old Voldy has found a way to lock a door using amazing technology beyond anything on earth, then yes, that's aliens,' said the Doctor.
'Oh great,' huffed Ron. 'You get rid of one lot, and another, cleverer lot crop up somewhere else.'
'Story of my life,' said the Doctor, patting Ron on the back.
Harry and Ginny came running up as well.
'We can't get in!' said Ginny.
'We know.' Ron rolled his eyes.
'Are you getting anything from V-voldemort,' stammered Hermione.
'No. It's as if we both have a walkie-talkie, and his has been switched off. I'm not getting anything. Scar pains, visions, nothing.' Harry grimaced. 'Either he's dead, or has figured out a way to break the connection between us.'
'I think I'd rather go with the former,' said Ron. However much he joked, Ron was finding it difficult to hide his fear. Where was a powerful dark wizard when you needed one? He could have got rid of the aliens before Harry killed him!
They all jumped as a creaking groan announced that the doors were opening.
'What?' the Doctor exclaimed. Ron gulped. They started to run towards the doors.
'The first and second years! They're still in there!' called out Harry as he made a dash for the doors. Ron watched as Bree and the Doctor looked at each other, grinned, and rushed towards the doors, Bree grabbing Luke's hand as she went. Ron shook his head in confusion, but grabbed Hermione's hand and started to run too.
The mass of people and stretchers all flocked towards the gap. For some strange reason, everybody suddenly felt they had to get inside, and the resulting crush was terrifying. Ron kept hold on Hermione's hand as people and stretchers squished in next to them, heading for the bottleneck that was the doors.
Ron caught a glimpse of Megan Jones and Neville, now off a stretcher, being carried along by the crowd, and holding each other almost painfully close.
As soon as the huge mass of people was in the Entrance Hall, a creaking and grinding told them the doors were closing. Watching them, Ron felt strange, as though he would never see daylight again. He shook himself and told himself not to be stupid, and caught sight of red and black hair. With much pushing and shoving, and occasional elbow work, he got himself and Hermione to the front of the crowd, with Harry, Ginny, Luke, Bree and the Doctor.
Ron looked at the look of absolute terror and Bree's, Luke's and the Doctor's faces, and turned to look down the entrance hall.
What he saw almost made him laugh.
Pepper pot shaped robots, with eyestalks with blue lights on the end, and what looked like an egg whisker and a plunger attached to its body. There were at least a hundred of them, of what Ron could see. They looked like something his dad might make if locked in the garage for a day.
'Oh no,' whispered the Doctor.
One of the Robot things raised a whisk.
'Exterminate!' A blue light shot out of it, and hit Bree, who screamed, and Ron realized, in horror, that he could see her skeleton. Then the blue light stopped, and she fell to the floor, clearly dead. It was deathly quiet for a painful few seconds, and then the screaming started.
Ron felt like his eardrums were about to explode, but was surprised to see that Hermione wasn't screaming. She was drawing her wand, with such a look of determination and blazing courage that Ron felt himself fall in love with her all over again.
Then everything seemed to slow down, as though he was moving through treacle.
He heard Ginny scream, Harry yell, the Doctor shout, and saw the robots raise their whisk gun things towards the terrified crowd.
Blue light shot everywhere, and Ron saw Hermione sending hex after hex towards the robot in front of her.
He felt, rather than heard himself shout out a warning as the robot in front of her raised its gun up to Hermione. He was running towards Hermione, pushing her out the way with his long arms, as the blue light shot out of the robot.
He saw Hermione's mouth open in a scream, saw Harry, his faced anguished, and Ginny who had tears coursing down her cheeks. He saw the Doctor glance over his shoulder, Luke look up from the floor, where he knelt next to the fallen Bree, who seemed to be surrounded in golden light.
Then the blue light hit him, and after a moment of pain, excruciating pain that filled every nerve ending and made his head scream in protest, everything went quickly, mercifully black.
AN: Now, please don't throw things at me for killing Ron! I promise everything will be answered near the end. Just keep reading and reviewing!