Disclaimer: Bloody hell, this story is longer than I expected it to be...
"I never thought I'd live to see you arrested. Of course I knew Fred and George would eventually do something stupid."
"Oy!"
"But, you Ginny. I never thought that you would do something like this. What were you thinking?"
"We woke them up didn't we?" Mrs. Weasley sighed.
"That's not the point. You could have been hurt. St. Mungos was thinking about putting a much more dangerous alarm system in. I don't want to see you get hurt." Ginny looked down at her hands.
"I'm sorry..." She then looked up. "How are they?" All Molly could do was shake her head. Ginny closed her eyes. They still didn't remember anyone."
"I'm not stupid, I know I'm a witch," Hermione stated, crossing her arms. Harry nodded.
"Yeah, and I already know I'm a wizard... What's the point to this?" He asked. Arthur looked at Mad Eye and then back at the two before him.
"Can you give us a moment?" With out waiting for an answer, Arthur and Mad Eye left the room. Arthur turned to the man.
"They know who they are, Moody. What does that mean?"
"That they just don't remember any people... They don't remember anyone..." Both men looked at each other, the same gut wrenching thought running through their minds.
"Oh no..." Arthur ran his hand through his thinning hair.
"Ron still doesn't know about the break in does he?" Moody asked. The minister shook his head.
"No one's told him yet. We wanted to see if we could get them to remember anything before we told him..."
"Well... What now?"
"We tell Hermione's parents. It'll be easier for Hermione if she saw someone in her relation." Moody frowned.
"What about Potter?" Arthur looked up.
"We have to everything in our power to keep the public from finding out about Harry. If they found out that Harry didn't remember anything about the war then the press is going to have a field day. It'll be all over England in hours and then the whole world will know that the Boy Who Lived doesn't remember that he saved the world." Moody nodded.
"But what are we going to do about him in sense of getting him used to things again?" Moody asked. "I mean. Sure you're all family to him and I'm sure you're all willing to chip in but he's going to want to know more than that. And what about Ron?" Arthur shifted uncomfortably.
"What about Ron?"
"When are you going to tell him that Harry and Hermione no longer remember him?"
Ron was nervous. Draco had been moved without any explanation and he was alone. No one had checked up on him since breakfast and that had been at least four hours ago. He hadn't even seen anyone.
You don't think that Harry and Hermione...
"No," he told himself. "Their fine..." He looked up eagerly when the door opened. It was his mother.
"Hey mum." She waved at him distractedly. She looked nervous. He frowned. "What's wrong?" She looked up and tried to smile.
"Ron... um... well... Harry and Hermione are awake now." Ron let out a whoop and tried to get out of his bed. Molly ran up to him, forcing him back down.
"What? I want to see them!" He protested. Molly shook her head.
"No! No ones allowed to see them right now."
"Why, what's wrong?"
"Nothing's wrong. It's just that no ones allowed in there right now." Ron frowned.
"What? If their fine, then why can't I go see them?" Molly couldn't stand to look at her son. The hopefulness that was radiating off of him was almost unbearable. He was so eager and excited that it broke her heart to be the one to tell him the truth. He was the last one to know. Ron could see his mother struggling with something painful and touched her arm tentively.
"Mm... What's going on?" She looked up at him.
"Oh Ron... They don't remember anyone, honey. They don't remember anyone..." Ron withdrew his arm in shock and just stared at her. He searched her face frantically for any sign of jest. Any sign that would prove to show him that she was telling him lies. He waited for her to kid him on being gulible. He waited for someone to jump out from behind the other bed and tell him that it was all a farce. But it never came. The joke never came and the person never jumped out. All that did come was tears from his mother as she gazed upon her stunned son with pity. But he didn't want pity. He wanted her to leave. He wanted to be alone. He wanted to cry. And that's what he did. At that moment he placed his head in his hands and cried silently, pulling away when Molly tried to comfort him. He didn't want her comfort. Molly watched in horror as the man, once strong, brave and mature disintergrated into a little boy so fast. He had been through so much and now...
Draco watched silently as the officials left the room, extremely fustrated with Draco's cooperation, or lack there of. He had convienently answered all of their questions without giving them the information they wanted, keeping his face completely emotionless as they talked among themselves. Finally they'd given up. Draco sighed. He'd been at the Ministry the whole night, not having enough evidence against him to be placed in Azkaban though by all means he should be there from former charges. The Minister had surprisingly suspended his visit to the hell hole.
"Hey, Draco." He looked up and stared. Tori.
"What are you doing here?" he asked. She sat down in the chair opposite him and looked down at the table.
"They called me in a hour ago. Said you'd gotten in trouble."
"You shouldn't have wasted you time."
"I had no where else to go." They stayed silent for a while, Draco looking her over as she refused to look at him. She was still pale, thinner than he remembered and long red lines marred her skin. She was trembling slightly, though it wasn't cold and she still wouldn't look at him.
"What are you really doing here?"
"I wanted to see if you were ok." Draco snorted.
"Yeah well. I'm not in Azkaban am I?" he sneered. She finally looked up at him. What he saw nearly made his heart break. Nearly.
"I'm so sorry..."
"Why?" She stood up and placed something on the tabe.
"For this..." Draco reached out and picked up the ring. He stood and crossed over to her before she reached the door. She flinched when his fingers curled around her arm in a vice grip.
"What are you doing?" he gritted through his teeth. She turned to him and he saw the tears in her eyes.
"I can't do this anymore, Draco."
"Doing what?"
"Making myself believe that you really love me! Making myself believe that you actually care about me! I can't keep making myself believe that you don't hate me..." she looked away for a moment then looked up at him. "Would you have come up to me that night if you knew?" Draco looked at her and let go.
"Truthfully." She gulped and nodded.
"No." In that moment Draco saw her heart shatter. Her eyes filled up with hot tears and they spilled out, cascading down her face silently as she began to shake again. Biting her lip she looked around. Looking back at him she leaned up and gave him on last lingering kiss. His arm slipped around her waist, pulling her up against him as she cried. She cried as their lips moved together for the last time, trying to get as much out of the kiss as possible. Draco would never say it. He would never admit to himself or to her that he loved her and it hurt her that he wouldn't.
Finally Tori pulled away, opening the door. She gave him one last glance before she closed the door behind her. Draco walked to the door, touching it. Closing his eyes, he laid his head against the door and slammed his fist against it. On the other side, Tori heard his cry of rage, slid to the floor and let out her own sobs of pain.
Ron stood to the side as he watched silently at the painful sight. Harry and Hermione were on a couch, talking quietly with others. The Weasleys and the Grangers were present, chatting quietly, many of them glancing warily in Ron's direction. He hadn't made an attempt to talk to the two since he had arrived, opting to stand in the corner and just stare emotionlessly. Many were worried, wondering if he was going to move or just stand there for the rest of the night. Finally he moved, though he exited the family room and went into the kitchen and pulled out a butterbeer. Sitting down at the table, he stared at the bottle aimlessly.
"Oh! Hi!" Ron turned and stiffened up. It was Harry. The raven head walked over and held out his hand.
"You are?" Ron stood and took the man's hand.
"Ron Weasley." Harry smiled good naturedly.
"Man, you have a huge family. I still don't have the names down yet." Harry then shifted awkwardly. "Um... you wouldn't mind telling me how I know you, would you?" Ron tried to smile but failed miserably. He shrugged and sat down.
"We used to be friends." Harry frowned and sat down also.
"I'm sorry..."
"Harry! What's taking you so long?" In walked Hermione. She was about to say more when she spotted Ron. She smiled.
"Oh! Hello! What's your name?" Harry beat Ron to it, eagerly standing up.
"This is Ron Weasley. Apparently we were friends." Hermione grinned and sat down.
"Well... maybe we can still be friends." Ron smiled.
"Maybe." Hermione, for some strange reason found herself blushing under his gaze and looked down and began to fiddle with the hem of her shirt. Harry looked between the two and smirked.
"So, Ron, right?" Ron nodded. Harry grinned. "Right! How exactly did we meet?" Ron rolled his eyes.
"On a train on our way to Hogwarts. You and I had already met and were sharing a compartment when 'Mione here came running in saying that Neville, a boy who later became a good friend, had lost his frog." Hermione looked up.
"A frog?" Ron nodded.
"Yep. Came in talked for a while then left." Harry frowned.
"And that's it. We just became friends just like that." Ron snorted.
"Far from it. Especially Hermione and I." Hermione frowned also.
"We didn't like each other." Ron smiled.
"We couldn't stand the sight of each other. I didn't want you in my house." Harry looked at the both of them.
"Then how did we become friends?" Ron took a swig of his drink then continued.
"Well.. It was Halloween and Harry and I were at dinner."
"Where was I?" Hermione interuppted. Ron shifted uncomfortably in his seat.
"Well... you were in the loo crying because I had said something really mean." Hermione stood up straighter.
"What did you say?"
"That's not important," Ron said, trying to shift the topic from his words. "Well.. what happened was that this troll had gotten loose. We were going to go to our houses when Harry remembered that you didn't know about the troll. We went after you and fought the troll. After that we were inseperable." Hermione couldn't help but smile.
"You save me?" Ron pointed to Harry.
"We saved you." Hermione glanced over at Harry and then down at her hands. There was something about the red headed man that gave her butterflies, but she couldn't place it. She'd have to ask the guy's sister later about it.
A/N: Ohhh. There was some definite tension there!
WoodsKeeper: I love the language also!
Reader of Canon FF: That's ok! I was just wondering where you had gone! Anyway, Harry and Hermione have a hard time ahead of them, but Ron's going to have to do the best he can to help.
x-Drama-Queen93-x-: Gray's Anatomy rocks!!
Coconut Girl: No, their not... Hope things are going ok at your end!
Wesker888: You make me laugh.
Avanell: It may take a lot longer than expected, but it does look like Hermione's starting to have certian feelings towards our lovable redhead!
Chapter Tease:
"What are you doing?" Ron looked up and smiled at her.
"Denoming the yard. You want to help?" She shook her head, looked down at her white skirt.
"No thank you." He shrugged and walked over to her.
"What are you doing out here?" he asked. She smiled.
"It's a nice day out. I wanted to take a walk. Would you like to join me?" He nodded, grabbed his shirt and led the way towards the lake. As they walked, Hermione decided to speak.
"What was our relationship like?" Ron stumbled, then righted himself. He looked at her.
"What?" She smiled at him.
"Well. Since we were friends, and we didn't exactly start out on the right foot, I was wondering what we were like. It's a perfectly reasonable question." Ron couldn't help but smile. She hasn't changed a bit.