Remember about a year ago when I updated every three or four days? lol I'd tell you to not get used to it but I do plan to get this churned out pretty quickly so hopefully I'll be able to! Thank you for the reviews for chapter one, much appreciated :D

This one gets a bit angsty, feel free to hug Ron at the end!

Step ;)

Chapter 2 – Desperate for an Answer

He was staring at his mud-spattered boots, unblinking and trying to ignore the thoughts that were flying through his head, but there was nothing to distract him from them. Wherever he had walked to and sat down was quiet. He was glad there was no noise to add to his pounding headache, but the silence only left him staring his thoughts in the face.

He couldn't help but see Hermione in his arms, getting paler by the second, her spirit fading as she mumbled those last three words to him.

He was brought back to his surroundings by footsteps to his left.

'There you are, we've been looking for you,' the person who the footsteps belonged to said.

Ron looked up and into his brother's eyes.

'What are you doing here?' he asked gruffly. 'Shouldn't you be doing something official?'

'I am doing,' Percy replied, his voice tired.

'Look Perce, if you're here to have a go at me, or-'

'I'm not here to have a go at you, and I have no idea why you would think I am. I'm here to take you to Hermione's parents, they've requested to see you.'

Ron felt sick; he didn't think he could face the accusing glares and harsh words from her mum and dad.

'Why do they, er…why do they want to see me?'

He had stood up and was trying to blink his head rush out of his eyes without Percy noticing he couldn't see properly.

'Ron, are you all right?'

Apparently his efforts had been in vain.

'Yeah, fine. Just stood up too fast.'

'Have you been checked over by a Healer?' Percy asked, stepping towards his younger brother.

Ron waved away his question. 'I'm fine, Percy, stop fussing. Why do Hermione's parents want to see me?'

Percy looked reluctant to dismiss Ron's health worries but let it go for the minute. 'I don't know exactly. But they asked me to get you to them as quickly as possible. They were in with the Healer when I left them. I think you should go, Ron.'

'No offence, Perce, but you've been wrong before!'

Percy sniggered. 'True, I have, but if there was a time to believe I'm right about something, then now would be the time. They just want to see you, Ron. I promise you it'll be okay.'

Ron searched Percy's eyes for the truth, and thought he'd found it.

'Promise?'

'I promise, now come on. As soon as you've seen the Grangers you can get checked over. No arguments.'

Ron didn't reply as he followed Percy back down the corridor.

---

They rounded the final corner to the reception area in the hospital and were met by their mother's screeches.

'Ronnie! Oh Percy, you found him! Where've you been?'

'Mum, please, leave him for now, the Grangers have asked to see him.'

'But—'

'Come on, Ron. This way.'

Percy stood between Ron and their mum, providing the much-needed barrier that allowed Ron to escape him mother's clutches.

Molly opened her mouth to argue.

'Mum, he needs to see them, and he won't be long.'

Ron wasn't sure if he was grateful or not for Percy's words. Avoiding his mother when she was frantic was a bonus but it meant that he would have to face the Grangers before he was ready.

He stopped walking when he realised he didn't know where he was supposed to be going. Percy overtook him and pointed in the direction he was expected to go. They went down yet another corridor and then stopped when they came to a dark, wooden door with a brass plaque at eye level. It read 'Relative's room'.

Percy knocked lightly and the door opened from the inside. Ron looked at the man who had opened the door, instantly a little wary of the person he didn't know.

'Weasley?' the man asked.

'This is my brother, Ronald Weasley—'

The door was pulled open from inside the room and Veronica Granger appeared. Ron only had a second to recognise the woman in front of him before she pulled him forward by his robes and hugged him.

'Thank you,' she whispered. 'Thank you for saving her.'

He pulled back automatically. 'But I-, I didn't-'

He couldn't form a sentence properly so stopped trying.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw Charles Granger stand and walk over to him.

'You got her here before it was too late, Ron. She's alive because you got her to people who could help her. Even before you did that you gave her the extra minutes she needed to take her through the worst.'

'But I- it was just a blood replenishment spell and a basic wound healing charm. It didn't help her, she was still bleeding, I couldn't stop it. I tried, believe me, but I—'

His voice cracked as tears filled his eyes. Veronica stepped forward and steered him over to the sofa at the edge of the room. The man who opened the door to him shut it and stood in front of it.

'We haven't had chance to speak to the Healer properly since we arrived—'

'They haven't told you what's going on yet?' Ron asked, outraged that Hermione's family didn't know what was wrong with her. He stood and made his way over to the door. 'I'll get a Healer to talk to you, you need to know what's going on!'

He stopped when the man in front of the door didn't move out of his way.

'It's hard for me to get through the door with you in the way, you know,' he said irritably.

The man was about to answer when Charles took his arm.

'Ron, it's fine, the Healer who is looking after Hermione said he'd be back in minutes but an emergency came in and he had to leave. He told us she's alive, and that's all we needed to know. The rest of the details can come when he's back. That's why we asked you to be here. We want you to hear when we do.'

Ron stopped glaring at the unhelpful man on hearing Charles' words and turned round to look at him.

'But…no, that's not right, you're her family, you should hear this first. Not me.'

'Ron,' Veronica began, 'Hermione loves you, and because of that, we want you here. She told us a little of what you've been doing over the past, eighteen months, but she seems to have missed out a few details—'

'Like the actual taking down of the one who tried his hardest take over the Wizarding world and what could've happened to her in the process!' Charles snapped angrily.

'Charles!' Veronica said sharply.

Charles sighed and nodded his head slightly. 'Sorry,' he mumbled. 'I'm just thankful you were there to look after her, Ron. If I can't be there to look after my little girl, I'm glad there was someone there to watch over her.'

The guilt inside Ron's stomach grew to an unbearable level. He felt sick.

'I…I didn't though, did I?'

Neither Veronica or Charles had chance to reply before the door opened and the large man blocking the door was buffeted out the way.

'I'm so sorry about that Mister and Missus Granger, as you can imagine it is rather busy in here tonight.' He turned to the man – Ron presumed he was Ministry security of some sort, the robes matched their uniform – and gestured for him to leave. The man scowled and reluctantly left the room. The Healer was quite a bit shorter than Ron, his once thick, dark brown hair was greying at the sides and thinning on top. His manner was instantly likeable and everyone felt at ease around him.

'Right, now—' He looked up at Ron and his brow furrowed slightly. 'Mister Weasley, have you been checked over thoroughly?'

Ron was taken aback by being addressed directly, he barely recognised the Healer that he had somehow managed to tell Hermione's condition to when they arrived.

Ron shook his head, again dismissing the question of his welfare and waving his hand in the direction of the Grangers.

'Don't worry about me, there's more important things…'

The Healer's eyes closed a little, scrutinising Ron before nodding to him and taking a seat opposite Veronica. He took a deep breath and took his glasses off before wiping his brow with the back of his hand.

'Ron is here at our invitation, Healer Watson.'

He nodded before taking a deep breath.

'Hermione is stable but is in a serious condition. She was hit by a curse that sliced through her side and spread around her waist and her back. Not only that but there seems to have been some type of contamination, an infection of sorts which infected her blood stream. We've managed to clean her blood but we're concerned of the effects that had along with the reaction her body had to the amount of blood she lost. She's sedated, but there's no guarantee that when the sedation wears off that she will wake up. We are hopeful that she will wake up in her own time though, when her body has recovered fully from the trauma she suffered.'

No one answered the Healer's words. Ron stared at his boots once more, not wanting to meet the eye of anyone in the room. It was Charles who broke the silence.

'When you say you are hopeful that she will wake, how hopeful? What are the chances that she will recover fully from this?

Ron wasn't sure if he wanted to hear what the Healer had to say, but he raised his head to watch the Healer speak regardless.

'I'd say her chances of waking up are good, but of her being unaffected by her trauma on a physical level…well, I'm less optimistic. Please rest assured that we are doing everything we can to get Hermione back to you healthy and happy. It just might take some time. Do any of you have any questions?'

Ron felt uncomfortable about being in the room. He felt like he was intruding on a family moment and he felt his panic start to overwhelm him once more.

He walked towards the door and walked out the room, ignoring Veronica's questioning 'Ron' as he did. He carried on along the corridor, not wishing to return to the never ending questions he was sure his family would throw at him. He didn't know where Harry was, but he hoped that he wasn't being forced to be the Ministry's poster boy when he hadn't had time to absorb the enormity of what he had been through that night.

He went through a set of double doors and met one of the many staircases in the hospital. He took them three at a time and when he was one floor up, sat down heavily on the top step, resting his head against the wall.

He closed his eyes and regretted it instantly.

'I'm sorry Hermione,' he whispered.

He tried to let her words comfort him

'Promise me, Ron. Promise me that if you have to choose between helping me, or helping Harry, you'll help him. He's the only who matters. It's our job to keep Voldemort's henchmen away from him, okay?'

He had promised, he had hated doing it, but he knew, deep down that she was right. He would have expected her to do the same, choose to help Harry over him. That was the way it had to be.

It didn't stop the tears burning his eyes as he saw, once again, the blood staining her clothes and covering her hands, her curled up on the ground, her energy leaving her. How limp she went in his arms and how she put up no fight when he passed her to the Healers.

It tore him apart to let her go, but his brain took over his heart and he let the Healers do their job.

He didn't notice when someone sat heavily next to him until they spoke.

'I'm a bit overwhelmed myself.'

Ron jumped and sat up straight before realising who had sat next to him. He relaxed a little when Charles gave him a reassuring smile.

He sniffed. 'Sorry for leaving like that. I just felt like I was intruding.'

'We wanted you there, Ron. We know what you are to Hermione; you deserved to find out how she was when we did.'

'I'm not sure about that, but, thanks anyway. It means a lot. She…she never meant to keep things from you, you know, but she had something she needed to do, we both did, and she didn't want you knowing the things we went through. We needed to help Harry, there was no way we weren't going to be there for him. She just…didn't want you to worry about her too much. I…I tried to keep her safe…all the time…she hated it sometimes, but I couldn't not! But tonight…'

He had talked himself to the subject he least wanted to talk about, but he couldn't stop himself.

'She made me leave her. She was hurt and I tried to stop and help her, but she told me to leave her and help Harry!'

His breathing was becoming uneven and his voice had started to crack under the emotion.

'I wanted to stay with her but they were going after Harry and we couldn't let anything happen to him. This was our, his, only chance to get rid of him and we had to get it right! I'm…I'm sorry, I'm so sorry I didn't keep her safe. I'm so sorry.'

A tear escaped his eye but he quickly wiped it off his cheek with the back of his hand.

'Ron…as much as I hated knowing that she was in danger, I'm so proud of her for being there with you and Harry. I know it goes against every fatherly instinct I have but…I don't know, you needed her there, didn't you?'

Ron nodded. 'More than she will ever know. Both of us did.'

'Then I'm proud of her for sticking with you. If there's one thing my Hermione is, it's determined.'

Ron smiled. 'You could say that.'

'And I don't blame you for doing what you had to do Ron. None of you should have had to do any of this, but that's the way it played out. You can't second-guess your actions, things never turn out the way we think it will. If she told you to leave her and protect Harry, then that's what you had to do. She'll come out of this Ron, I know she will.'

Ron managed a smile and a nod of the head.

'And I thank you for taking care of her all this time.'

Ron's smile slipped but he managed to nod once more.

Charles stood and held out his hand to Ron. Ron took it and was pulled to his feet.

'I think it's time you got checked out. I have a feeling you'll want to be here a lot over then next few days, but you'll be no good to Hermione ill or injured, okay?'

Ron nodded again. 'I'll go and see a Healer now.'

They both walked down the stairs and stopped at the double doors, looking at Molly and Veronica comforting each other outside the Relative's Room. Charles took a deep breath.

'Thanks, Charles. For…well, not blaming me.'

'Well, maybe if you realise I don't blame you, then you'll stop blaming yourself. Eventually anyway.'

Charles pushed his way through the door and Ron followed.

Yeah, Ron thought, eventually.