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Ron heard the whispers around him, he heard them go and come, he felt worried glances furtively laid on him, a hand from time to time arise on his shoulder, a brief hug, a word of comfort, whispered, that he would not listen. His hand rested in hers, so small, so still. The healers succeeded at her bedside, anxious, talking in low voices of different potions and forms they had used, but anyways, Ron didn't listen to them.
The heart devastated, he watched the love of his life, lying in her hospital bed, unconscious, almost lifeless. He was unable to let go her hand, to leave her of the look, afraid that the time of a beating of lash, everything was finished.
He knew that Harry was being treated in the next room, he was going rather well and had come to visit Hermione several times per day. He would sit in the chair that was facing Ron, across the bed, and holding Hermione's other hand. He said nothing, what could he say? To see her best friend in this state plunged him in a deep confusion, but he knew that his pain was nothing compared with the one that had to feel Ron. He still heard the tearing shout that his friend had given. The young man had taken so long to confess his feelings to himself, before finally admit them and tell her that he had always loved her... Hermione was a part of him, he knew himself unable to live without her, it would make no sense, he had sworn to protect her, to stay up her, and he had failed, once again.
Her face seemed so peaceful, despite a few burns and scars that remained. But her injuries were serious, Ron knew it, Ginny accompanied every healer who took care of Hermione, she was only apprenticed but she wanted to stay with her friend, Harry, Ron, then she chained the hours of guards, sacrificing hours of sleep, in any case, she would have been unable to sleep…
Her parents came every day, ensuring that Ron fed himself. The redhead man had been unable to say a single word since the attack, he seemed at the edge of a bottomless abyss, as if a gaping hole had formed instead of his heart.
"Ron... I need to groom her..."
Ron didn't bother to look at his sister. He stood up, as an automaton, and went to wait in a corner of the room, locked in his dumbness. He knew her body by heart to have explored the slightest skin texture, so he refused to go out. Ginny swallowed the tears that threatened to spill over. She had never seen her brother so broken, so torn, and it hurt her. She took a deep breath and proceeded to clean her friend.
"Don't die Hermione...Don't leave us, don't leave him, he wouldn't survive..." blew Ginny in Hermione's ear. Once the toilet completed, Ron sat down again without a word and took back Hermione's hand in his. Ginny hesitated, a movement behind the glass drew her attention, Harry, who watched from the corridor, he made an encouraging nod, which ended her hesitation.
"Accio chair..."
She moved the seat beside Ron and sat down.
"You know, she can hear you... Talk to her..."
Ron did not respond.
"She's a fighter, Ron, she'll wake up, it's a matter of days...You gotta take care of you, you haven't left us examine your ankle, when Hermione will know it, she's going to tell you off!
Ron's hands began trembling, Ginny eyes filled with tears, but she should stand firm.
"Where you were unconscious after the history of the love potion, at Hogwarts, Hermione hadn't left your bedside either... She loves you..."
"And what if she didn't ever wake up?"
The raspy, low voice, almost a whisper, took Ginny by surprise. She spent one arm around his shoulders.
"Oh, Ron, she'll wake up, she has to, she hasn't finished yet the mutli-Celtic Runes Encyclopaedia, then believe me, she will wake up, she needs that we believe in it, Ron, that you believe in it, you mean everything for her..."
Ron burst into sobs, a flood of tears, too long retained, that poured on his knees, on his hand holding Hermione's. Ginny tightened him against her.
"Ginny, she... She is my life... I... I'm nothing without her... I don't know how to live without her…"
On the other side of the glass, Harry watched his frail Ginny as she surrounded with great difficulty the broad shoulders of her brother, shaken by sobs, and he felt his own tears flowing…
Her spirit fogged, she felt like in a vise. As two huge steel arms encircled her body, as if she had been hexed a dozen times. She tried to move but this only idea sparked a wave of pain which almost took her, she struggled, then concentrated on her eyes, she had to open them, at the price of a superhuman effort, her eyelids shivered. Light dazzled her, she closed them immediately, tears coming down her cheeks. She flickered eyes, the time to get used to the light. She suddenly felt a pressure in the hand and her look went to her left. Her heart had a familiar blip, one it reserved to Ron. Sitting, his hand clutching hers, he opened wide eyes, daring hardly to believe in it. Her beautiful blue eyes were red, tired, and Hermione could read as in an open book: surprise, relief, happiness.
"Her...Hermione..."
His voice was broken, low, but he cleared his throat, and began to call.
"Please, come fast, she wakes up!"
Hermione winced, her head ached, she wanted to talk, but she felt that her throat was so dry that it had inflated. Ron was as frozen, he doesn't let go her hand, while a nurse rushed in the room. She examined the young woman.
"We have to wait for the healer, but I think that Miss Granger is got out of trouble! In the meantime, drink, a little water... "she said, holding a glass.
"I want to do it..." asked Ron, as he held out his hand.
The nurse hesitated, but eventually reached out the glass of water to Ron. He seized Hermione gently by the neck, he raised her head and approached the glass of her dry lips. Hermione swallowed a few sips with delight.
"Enough, should take it easy, it's been eighteen days that your stomach has nothing swallowed..."
Eighteen days! Hermione tried to remember what had happened... She went to Diagon Alley, Ron and Harry were there then, steps, and then the blast... She blenched and she felt the hand of Ron become tight.
"Are you sure she's going well?" asked the young man.
"Yes, but it will take time to recover, plenty of rest especially!"
The nurse took the glass and went out.
A heavy silence settled. Ron was still helding her hand, but seemed plagued by an internal struggle, and Hermione didn't know what to say. That she was sorry? That because of her unwariness they could have died? She had no time to choose her words.
"You had told me that you'd wait for me before going outside..."
Hermione shivered. She didn't like the tone that he used, a tense and moderate one, that didn't so much look like him.
"Do you realize... Can you just realize… I went through hell..."
"I'm sorry…" she said in a small voice.
This last sentence made him lose all his self-control. Red with anger, he left Hermione's hand by going away and exploded.
"SORRY? YOU ARE SORRY? I AM SORRY TOO HERMIONE, SORRY TO HAVE TRUSTED YOU! BLOODY HELL, WHAT WERE YOU THINKING? YOU HAVE ALMOST DIED TWICE AND THE SECOND TIME SEVERAL PEOPLE HAVE BEEN INJURED BY MERLIN! I THOUGHT I HAD LOST YOU HERMIONE, I THOUGHT I WAS ABOUT TO DIE OF SORROW! HOW CAN YOU BE SO SELFISH?"
Hermione started, as if he had slapped her. Her eyes filled with tears, and at that time, Ginny and Harry rushed in the room. Their euphoria was brief when they saw Hermione, blighted, on the edge of tears, and Ron, shaking with fury. The young man took to his heels and burst out of the room. Hermione worried to see him limp.
Harry shook his head, he approached Hermione, and he placed a kiss on her forehead.
"You almost look good, Filch would have been jealous..."
Hermione smiled weakly, struggling to retain her emerging sobs.
"I'm going to talk to him…" added his friend before leaving the room in turn.
Ginny came to sit on the edge of the bed and embraced the young woman carefully.
"I'm so, so happy that you go better..."
"I'd have liked that...He has this reaction..."
Ginny sighed.
"Hermione, you can't deny that what you did was incredibly stupid, especially for the smartest and most talented recent witch! Hermione, obviously, you know something, and I think that you owe us some explanations...And Ron, he went through hell, you know...
"He said the same thing..." whispered Hermione.
"That's because it's true" gently told her friend. "Hermione, I've never seen Ron as desperate as he was when he brought you in the hospital, he can't live without you, you know that? He hasn't left your bedside, he refused that we look after him, he hasn't left you eyes, he almost didn't sleep or eat, he was so desperate, oh Hermione, if you had seen him crying..."
Hermione felt her bowels become knotted, tears escaped despite her.
"I am sorry, I just wanted to... I didn't..."
Ginny tenderly stroked her cheek.
"You'll tell us everything, but not immediately, we have to wait for Ron and Harry, just have some rest…"
"Ron! Ron! Wait for me mate!"
Harry accelerated the steps to catch his friend, who, despite his injured ankle, came out of the hospital at full speed.
"Ron, wait for me! Where are you going?"
He managed to grab his arm and forced Ron to turn to him. The last time that he had seemed so infuriated, it was four years ago, soon five, when a Horcruxe had affected him. But this time, no evil loquet was hung on his neck.
"Ron! You gotta you calm down!"
"Calm down? She almost died, and got us killed, and she could have, she almost...Harry, you don't understand!"
His voice broke, he wanted to break free, but Harry tugged his grip.
"Of course I do! Do you really believe that I can't put me in your place? I'm in love with your sister I remind you, and I know that if something happens to her, I could never recover from it!"
"But you do how it feels to see her lying between life and death, there when even magic can do nothing, to feel so helpless… She's my oxygen, she has been for such a long time, and that drives me crazy to think that I can lose her, in a split second! And that she does nothing to help, on the contrary! Harry, I can't live without her, why can't she understand?"
A tear rolled on the cheek of the rouquin, Harry was touched by his distress.
"She's alive, Ron, alive, so even though I understand your anger, you have to set on you! Because there, what counts is that she recovers from her injuries, and Ron, contrary to what you believe, she needs you just as much you need her... Ron shook his head with a, unconvinced air, ran a hand in his hair, and then took a deep inhalation.
When they came back in the corridor, Ginny came to meet them.
"Everything is okay, she hastened to say before her brother's worried face, the healer has just left, they keep her a few days longer, as a precaution, but she'll be able to go home then...And she wants to talk to us..."
Hermione hardly dared to look at Ron when he took place on the edge of the bed. But when he took her hand, heat, warmth, flooded her whole body and she relaxed slightly. She knew that he was still mad at her, that he had actually suffered, and she could get it... In the inverse sens, she probably would have cast him a spell... Harry and Ginny settled in the seats and the three friends waited. Hermione swallowed. She had apprehended this moment for so long, but now, the events had taken a turn which left her no choice.
"It's about Voldemort..."
She was expected to be stared as if she had lost her mind, and it was the case. The round eyes, they looked at her, uncertain, ready to call back the healer.
"Hermione, Voldemort was destroyed" said softly Ron, with a condescension which irritated her excessively.
"I know Ronald, I'm not senile, I was here, remember…" she replied sharply, "I know that you overcame him, Harry…"
"We overcame him" the latter corrected her.
Hermione nodded.
"Well… Voldemort is dead... for now…"
The misunderstanding was painted on her friends' faces, and Harry had become livid. Hermione bit her lip, lowering her fogged eyes. That's what she wanted to avoid...But she had to pursue.
" When you destroyed Voldemort, Harry, I was so happy...The world, our world, would finally live in peace! We mourn our dead, but I was nevertheless happy! Ron loved me as much as I loved him...
"By the underpants of Merlin, if you actually love me, you wouldn't let me live this kind of fears... You'll be the death of me…muttered Ron, what had the gift to draw a smile from Hermione's pale face.
"All seemed at best, finally! She continued. And then, a year ago, I started to have nightmares, horrible nightmares, populated by death eaters, Voldemort's..."
Ron started. He remembered this period where he tried to wake Hermione, who was screaming and crying before collapsing into his arms in tears. He had hated this time…
"I was visibly marked more than I thought... So I wanted to reassure me, assuring me that there was no way to get him back... I needed to read it black and white, to turn over a new leaf, I guess..."
Ron raised his eyes to heaven. Hermione and books!
"Except that, as the research got under way, I realized that there was an evil magic, which went beyond the black magic that we have faced so far... I was terrified, I wanted to stop my research, to ignore what I had read, but it was impossible, all the more that one day, while strolling in Diagon Alley, my steps led me farther than I did wish, in the disreputable side, before a bookstore isolated, which seemed almost to the abandonment... The owner was in the backroom and hadn't heard me enter... I browsed the books, mostly outdated manuals, but there was one, a thin one, that drew my attention... He had no title and was written in a language which I didn't know, but there were familiar signs, a Pentagram, names such as Nicolas Flamel... I then realized that this book spoke about resurrection... I wanted to buy it, I called for the owner, but nobody came, the owner was visibly absent... I told myself I'll come back after my stay in Paris, in the meantime, I continued my research, including to discover what was the language in which the book was written, and above all, how to prevent any resurrection,, and once back, there was this attack, at home... The Death Eaters didn't turn on me only because I'm Muggle Born, they wanted my searches... I had to act, to learn more, I was missing elements to help me... Then, I went to Diagon Alley...
Ron squeaked teeth, eyebrows ruffles to this memory.
"I returned to the bookstore, but the book wasn't there anymore! I asked the owner, who, if you want my opinion, was a former supporter of Voldemort... He just told me that a man had come to buy it the day before... I then understood that all these attacks on Muggle born were a diversion... They wanted to keep us busy, while they were looking for a way to resurrect Voldemort, and I believe that this way is in the book that has disappeared... I had decided to tell you, because we had to do something, but then..."
The young woman fell silent.
"Then, you almost died" finished Ron, with a hoarse voice.
The silence that followed seemed endless. Ginny had raised a trembling hand to her mouth, Harry seemed in shock, and Ron had closed his eyes. Hermione felt that she had to add something.
"Harry, I didn't tell you about that, all your life you've lived with this threat above you, you have lost so much, I wanted that you can have finally a normal life, you have the right to be in peace... I thought I could manage…"
Ron let go her hand, with a hard look, tight jaw.
"Why didn't you tell me?" he asked between his teeth.
"Ron, you've lost a lot too, during the battle... Your brother...The mourning was so hard... And I love you so much, I wanted to spare you..."
"By putting your life in danger? Dammit, Hermione, I thought you smarter than that!"
"I'm sorry..."
Attention now turned to Harry. He stood, looking determined.
"I'm going to notify the Auror Department right now…"
Sitting in a sofa, in the cozy lounge of the Burrow, Hermione had the vague look, lost in the brownish liquid from the cup of tea that she had on her knees. She came out of Holy Mongoose, with exceptional permission, Ron had brought her here by the floo, before exiting immediately to join Harry at the Ministry. She hated to know her here, useless, and them there, in the action, but she knew it wasn't the time to be upset. Ron hadn't talked to her, dropping her in his parents' house, he had left without a gesture, and it broke her heart.
"Look, they are coming back!" exclaimed Ginny showing the magic clock of the Weasley family, which now included Harry and Hermione.
Ginny had decided to stay with Hermione to lavish the necessary care. Two sound crackles resounded not far away, Ginny rushed outside, pursued closely by Hermione who came painfully out of the House. Harry and Ron arrived, they both looked concerned.
"Hermione, you would have of remain seated, groused Ron when the young woman felt dizzy arriving next to him. He lifted her and entered the House to put her on the couch.
Hermione didn't like being made childish, but in this moment, she watched for any signs showing that Ron had begun to forgive her. The young people settled, Molly had left visiting at aunt Muriel, as the house was empty.
"So what?" inquired into Ginny, hanging on the arm of Harry. He sighed.
"Well, the situation is worrisome... The Ministry suspected something, they were very surprised to learn your investigation Hermione, they didn't progress as much as you did... We must find out who is behind it and most importantly, how to stop everything..."
Hermione was satisfied to have been right, and terrified, for the same reason...
"I can help you, she declared, I just have to continue my search..."
"Precisely" interrupted her friend.
"You are going to continue your research, but from here, with the most of possible protections" added Ron, his eyes the challenging her to contradict him. "The death eaters need you to translate the book without a title, then you won't move from the Burrow..."
The silence settled down, worried, stunned.
"So… So 'he' could come back…" whispered Ginny.
"NO!"
Harry stood up.
"All my life, I lived with the shadow of Voldemort, with the certainty of having to die very young... But we have destroyed him, Yes, we, together, and we'll prevent anyone to defy death!"