Chapter 15 – What are Friends for?

Ron crept up on the black figure laying on the ground.

"Don't move!" he cried pointing his wand at it.

"Her – Hermione? " Ron stuttered when he saw Hermione staring back up at him.

"Do you mind shining that light away from my face?" she replied angrily.

"Oh right sorry," Ron instantly let his hand drop and walked over towards her.

Ron's eyes took in Hermione's appearance and he gulped nervously.

Her hair was up in a graceful and neat bun with a few stray curls falling down onto her shoulders drawing his eyes to her milky white skin that seemed to glow from the combined effect of the moon and the lake. Ron felt his hands begin to sweat as he stared at Hermione. He always knew she was beautiful but she looked absolutely breathtaking in her silk blue gown, it was simple but glittered magically just like she did.

Ron took a deep breath and it hit him once more. The light and beautiful smell of home floated around him. He took a shaky step towards her.

"You should get back to you're date."

Ron's eyes widened when he heard Hermione's bitter tone.

"Date?" Ron said in confusion "What date?"

"Lavender Brown," Hermione replied her face determinedly staring in the opposite direction.

"What?"

This got her attention because the next moment she had stood up from the ground with such force that Ron was sure she was flying.

"Your blond bimbo of a girlfriend!"

"Whoa! Girlfriend?" Ron said in shock waving his hands around feeling very much like a chicken about to be dropped into a boiling vat of oil.

"Don't play dumb," Hermione seethed taking another step towards him and unlike with Lavender who had made him cringe, Hermione's invasion of his space only drew his attention to her lips, then to her eyes which he realised with a frown were red and puffy.

Ron dropped his hands to his sides and looked down at her in concern.

"You're crying," he reached over to wipe away the tears from her face but she recoiled at his touch.

Hermione glared up at him and despite the wet streaks down her face and flushed cheeks he felt his eyes drawn to her lips again.

"I don't have a girlfriend," Ron whispered his eyes reluctantly withdrawing from her lips and resting instead on her eyes, "I'm not even going to the dance, I'm patrolling the school."

Hermione looked at him in disbelief.

"It's the truth, I would never lie to you Jo – just because you're a girl."

'Nice save, Weasley,' Ron congratulated himself.

"Patrolling the school?" Hermione repeated looking up at him earnestly, "So…"

Ron tried to hide the smile on his face when Hermione blushed before turning away from him in obvious embarrassment. Ron stretched before sitting down on the ground.

"I should thank you actually, I was trying to find a way to get away from her," Ron laughed, "I'll probably have bruises from where she grabbed my arm."

He stared up at the stars before looking at Hermione.

"How are you?" Tonks questioned Remus as she checked the classroom near her before locking the door once more.

Remus didn't reply but continued walking.

"No one blames you," Remus said finally his back facing her as he checked another classroom.

Tonks waited till he had locked the door before replying.

"I know I screwed up, if it weren't for me Sirius wouldn't have - "

"He got past dementors and escaped Azkaban. You would hardly have been a challenge."

Tonks stared at Remus in shock and ran up to stand in front of him angrily. Just as she was about to yell at him for insulting her she saw the smile on his face.

"You jerk Remus," she said as she laughed.

They continued on their way and Tonks looked back to see Ginny and Harry following them in silence.

"I was friends with the two biggest pranksters you know, you're bound to pick up a few things."

Tonks looked back at Remus and she saw that his smile had dissapered.

"Remus - do you honeslty think that he -"

"I don't know," Remus cut her off.

"Yeah," Tonks replied after a few minutes silence.

'I know the feeling.'

"There's something else," Tonks grabbed Lupin's arm to stop him and he turned to look at her.

Hermione turned around slowly and glanced at Ron shyly.

Hermione heart skipped at beat when she saw the exact same image she had seen that night that Ron had saved her from certain death. Her face softened and she sat down beside him.

"My name's Hermione Granger," Hermione introduced herself while looking down at her lap. It felt weird introducing herself to someone she knew almost as well as herself.

"Ron Weasley," Ron replied.

Hermione saw Ron's hand appear before her eyes. She took it hesitantly before shaking his hand. Hermione thought that his fingers lingered longer than necessary as he looked up at her with a lop-sided grin.

"What?" she said in alarm, touching her face and realizing that it was still wet from her crying.

'Is he laughing at me?'

Ron cleared his throat before sitting up properly. She stopped in her fussing when Ron shoved a handkerchief into her hands.

"Thank you," she said hastily wiping her eyes before handing it back to Ron.

"You keep it," Ron said his hand touching hers again to fold her fingers around the white handkerchief.

Hermione eyes withdrew from his and she turned to look at the lake.

"Do you – " Hermione took a calming breath before continuing, "Do you remember the first time we meet?"

"At the train station," she heard Ron say as he lay down on the ground.

Hermione felt something twist inside her.

"We meet before then," Hermione began slowly, "You…you saved me."

'In more ways than one,' Hermione added to herself.

"Really?"

"I was drowning and you saved me," Hermione explained feeling incredibly disappointed that something which had had such a lasting effect on her was not even worth remembering to Ron.

"Oh…" a moment later Ron sat up from the ground and grabbed her by the shoulders, "It was you!"

"Well yeah, I just said – "

"No. You helped me save my sister."

Hermione stared at Ron in confusion.

"I – what?"

"I found you petrified in the library and you had a piece of paper clutched in your hands. If it weren't for that we wouldn't have known what had happened to her."

Hermione looked up at Ron in shock when she heard his voice break and she was shocked to see his eyes glistening from unshed tears.

"You're the reason I still have my little sister."

The next moment Ron pulled her towards him in a bone-crushing hug.

As Ron held her in his arms she flitted through her memory to try to remember the event that Ron was referring to. It finally clicked in her mind.

"You're the one Moaning Myrtle was talking about? She kept going on and on about a boy and his friend trying to figure out what was happening to the students."

Ron finally released Hermione from his hug but his arms continued to grip her shoulders.

"I only went to research about the heir of slytherin because she wouldn't stop talking about it and I wanted some peace and quiet," Hermione gasped before continuing, "Of course. You were the one I bumped into that night near Moaning Mytle's bathroom."

Ron nodded his head enthusiastically and he hugged her once more.

Ginny and Harry walked some distance behind Remus and Tonks who appeared to be discussing matters in hurried whispers.

"Whats with them?" Harry asked Ginny nodding his head at the couple.

Ginny rolled her eyes at Harry.

"Isn't it obvious," she replied, when Harry continued to stare blankly at her she couldn't help but laugh, "You really are clueless Potter."

Harry shrugged his shoulders in response as they continued along the hall, every now and then looking down at his wristwatch.

"What's with you?" Ginny questioned, "You seem distracted."

"What are you doing here Ginny? It's not safe for you."

"Nice side-stepping Potter," Ginny looked at him incredously, "And you're the poster boy for safety huh? Last I recall you have two dark wizards out to get you."

"Don't talk about stuff you don't understand," Harry glared at her.

"Oh I didn't realise that you had cornered the market on harship as well," Ginny glared back.

She felt like physically shaking Harry but instead she only increased her pace until she was only a metre or two away from Remus and Tonks. She had expected for Harry to catch up to her eventually but when she turned around she saw the he was no where in sight.

Hermione sneezed and Ron instantly took off his cloak to wrap around her.

She smiled shyly at him before they sat in silence simply watching the stars above them.

A thought suddenly occurred to him as he looked out at the lake.

"What were doing flying around the lake at night?" he questioned turning to look at Hermione.

He saw her start at his question. She slowly pulled her legs up and hugged them to her chest.

"You'll think I'm a nutter," she mumbled picking up a rock.

"I would never think that about you," Ron replied curious as to her strange behavior.

Ron saw her take a few deep breaths and turn her face away from him.

"I – I," Hermione sighed before continuing, "I was going to drown myself."

Ron didn't know how to respond to this statement.

Hermione. His beautiful, smart, kind and funny Hermione wanted to commit suicide?

"But I changed my mind at the last minute," Hermione added hastily turning around to look at him, "I was half way across the lake and as I sat there just staring at the water I realized how stupid I was being. So what if the girls teased and beat me."

Ron's eyes widened at this.

'If I ever get my hands on the girls that hurt her.'

"It's just school," Hermione continued looking back across the lake, "It's just a few years of your life and what people think of you inside that building doesn't really matter," Hermione looked up at Hogwarts, she placed the rock back on the ground and looked back at Ron, "It's what I think of myself that matters."

"Of course, just as I realized this, there was a gust of wind that caused me to lose my grip and I fell into the water. I was never good at flying," Hermione wouldn't have believed it herself but she heard herself laugh at the memory, "Pretty ironic huh?"

"I'd call it something else," Ron finally spoke from beside her, "If it weren't for that we would never have met."

Hermione smiled and looked up at him. Ron took a sharp intake of breath as he stared down into Hermione's glowing face, her face was slightly flushed and her hair was falling down from its neat bun.

They're smiles disappeared when they both realized just how close they were sitting.

"Hermione," Ron whispered in case he should break whatever spell that was currently cast on them.

"Yes Ron?" Hermione whispered back looking at his lips before back at his eyes.

"I – really – " Ron leaned down and felt his breath catch in his throat.

"RON!"

They both screamed and spun around.

"RON!" Harry was running towards him with Lupin, Tonks and Ginny running after him, "Are you alright?! Bloody hell mate you had me scared out of my wits when you didn't res – " Harry looked at Ron then to the Hermione, "Uh, are we interrupting something?"

'Bloody Harry,' Ron cursed glaring at his friend.

A/N: I apologise for any spelling or gramatical errors I may have missed, I'm not feeling very well, I've had a terrible cold for the last few days. But I hope you still liked this chapter, it was fun to write :) Some responses below:

lilJunebug: Thanks! Yeah the poem I wrote was lame but that was kinda the point, if I remember correctly, Ginny's poem made Harry wish for a hole to come forth and swallow him or something like that lol poor kid. And I know you weren't flaming me, its usually painfully obvious when someone is because they're usually vicious H/Hr shippers who insist on ruining the fun for others. Thanks for commenting - I live for comments :)

emmy1124: LOL I'm sorry, but where's the excitemet without cliffhangers? Thanks for commenting and I'm so happy you are enjoying the fic.

HermioneGrangerTwin: Hey, good to hear from you. I love writing the tension between Ron and Hermione. If I had to be honest, I just love torturing them, it just results in the most comical storylines :)