::shivers::coughs::
Sorry for the wait on this one people, I've been in Spain and now I'm ill so this took longer than I planned. Hopefully you'll like it.
If you could let me know what you think it would be much appreciated.
::coughs::shivers::

Step ;)

Chapter 7

Like they had many times before, the images assaulted his mind one by one: him and Hermione standing on either side of a tree tracing letters in the bark, him and Hermione watching the sunrise together, him and Hermione kissing. He remembered it all, their time together and the dreams they had shared. But one question still remained: Where the hell was Hermione?

'Okay, I'm here, now what do I do?' he asked his surroundings.

He turned around half hoping the answer would be engraved in a rock or something similar.

'The rock!' he exclaimed.

He spun around trying to find the lump of grey stone he had found his last message on. He saw the tree, which he knew had roughly carved hearts and letters on both sides. He grunted in frustration.

'Just show me where the damn rock is!' he shouted at the sky.

He turned round and the grey stone was behind him. He knelt down in front of it. The Latin phrase appeared in the surface and a second later had turned to English.

'And you couldn't do that last time?' Ron exclaimed.

He wasn't sure why he was angry but he felt so frustrated with the whole thing. He needed to help Hermione and he knew that the second he woke up he wouldn't remember any of what he had remembered, or at least very little.

'How do I help her? Please, tell me, how do I help her?'

The markings in the rock disappeared and no new ones took their place. Ron sighed and stood up. He walked over to the only other landmark around him and looked at the initials at the bottom of the tree.

'Hermione, if you can hear me, I'm trying to help you, I really am but I just don't know what to do! Cryptic Latin phrases aren't much help I'm afraid. Codes don't help me when I'm here. You work stuff out like that, not me!'

He reached out his fingers and traced the heart around his and Hermione's initials.

'I love you, Hermione.'

The pain crashed into his temples and he couldn't move his fingertips from the markings. He held his head in his other hand while still desperately trying to pull his hand from the tree. He started to shake, he could feel his energy leave him. He forced his eyes open and saw the marking he was touching had turned red. His hand was burning, his energy was leaving him and blackness was invading his peripheral vision. He closed his eyes and that's when he saw her.

She was smiling at him and then she stepped closer to him.

'Thank you,' he heard before the blackness overtook him completely.

…oooOOOooo…

'RON!'

His eyes snapped open and he closed them instantly. He brought his hands to his temples and pressed, hoping for some kind of release from the pain.

'Ron? Are you okay?'

He opened his eyes once more and instantly became confused. The ceiling was above him and Charles was looking down over him.

'What-?' Ron asked as the pain in his head subsided to a dull ache. He sat up and swayed a little

'Careful Ron,' Charles said.

Ron felt a hand grip the top of his arm and steady him.

'Charles, why am I on the floor?'

'In all honesty, Ron, I have no idea. But I'd feel better if you were sat in the chair you were supposed to stay in.'

'What? Oh, right.'

Charles held out his hand and Ron took it. He landed heavily in the chair and leaned forwards, trying to stop his head from spinning.

'So, are you okay, Ron? You gave your brother quite a fright, he's gone to find a Healer?'

'He what? Oh, Merlin! There's no need, I'm fine!'

'You don't look it, Ron. You're clammy and shaking.

'It'll pass. Look, Charles, I remember a bit of what happened…in my head, I think, but the more I think about it the vaguer the details become. I need to tell someone before I forget, okay?'

Charles nodded, but he didn't look happy with his agreement.

'Right, I was back there I think. No, I was, definitely. There was grass and there was this tree. I went up to it and there was this heart carved in the wood, it had mine and Hermione's initials in it. I reached out and touched it.' He winced involuntarily. 'That's when my head hurt like hell and I started to feel…weird…like I was losing all my energy to the tree or something…'

Ron closed his eyes.

'Is that all?' Charles asked.

'No…there's something else…I just…can't-. Give me a minute.'

He closed his eyes tightly and concentrated on the last thing he remembered. He saw Hermione in front of him.

'I closed my eyes because I was about to black out and then I saw her. She said…thank you.'

The door burst open and Percy and a rather worried looking Junior Healer entered.

'Perce, I'm fine, there's no need to fuss.'

'No need to fuss!' exclaimed a very red faced Percy.

Ron watched him shake his head in disbelief and turn to the Healer with him.

'Ignore him please, he had some sort of seizure and then collapsed onto the floor. I think he hit his head hard when he landed. I tried to get him on to the floor. I tried to get him on to the floor in a slightly safer manner, but his hand seemed to have gone into spasm because I couldn't get him to let go of Hermione. You must have been squeezing quite hard, Ron, she reacted to the pain.'

Ron jumped up from his seat and moved towards Hermione.

'She reacted?'

He turned towards the Healer who still insisted on performing his diagnostic spells, even though his patient was moving around.

'What are you faffing on with me for? You should be checking Hermione!' His eyes landed on the Junior Healer's name badge. 'Are you even qualified?'

'Ron, there's no need to be rude,' Percy said firmly.

Ron sighed.

'Fine, I'm sorry, but will someone go and find Healer Watson, he's Hermione's healer after all!'

'I know where he was five minutes ago,' the Junior Healer said, obviously petrified. 'I'll go and get him.

He left the room. Instantly Ron turned and stared at Percy.

'Perce, tell me exactly what happened.'

'I told you everything, Ron. You had some sort of fit or seizure. You were about to fall off the chair so I tried to get you onto the floor safely but I couldn't get you to let go of Hermione's hand.

'Is that when she reacted? How did she react? Did she open her eyes?'

'Ron, I won't tell you anything if you don't calm down.'

'Don't fuck about, Percy! Tell me what the hell she did!'

Percy bit back any retort he had come up with and looked at the floor.

'Fine,' he snapped, 'it was like something…like something had shocked her or taken her by surprise. She took a really deep breath…like she'd been underwater and had come to the surface after being under for too long. Yes, like that.'

'Did she open her eyes?' Charles asked.

Ron had forgotten he was in the room, his whole attention being fixed on Hermione and Percy.

Percy shook his head.

'No, not that I saw anyway. She just kept taking these really slow breaths. Then you fell on the floor, let go of her hand and she stopped.

'And that's it!' Ron demanded.

'Ron, I promise you, that's it!'

Ron nodded.

Percy stepped forwards and went to put his hand on Ron's shoulder.

'Ron, I think you should let someone look at you properly. When Healer Watson comes in, let him check you over.

'He checks Hermione first.'

'Ron, Hermione's fine.'

'Fine! FINE! I'm stood here right as rain, Hermione's in a sodding coma and you think she's fine and want me to be checked over first. Seriously, have you been confounded or something?'

Percy was about to argue back when Charles stepped into Ron's eye line.

'Ron, I could really do with a coffee and I think you and Percy could do with one too. Will you come with me?'

'I'm okay thanks Charles,' Ron replied, trying to keep the irritation out of his tone.

'Please, Ron.'

Something in Charles' voice made Ron look at him. There was determination in his eyes and Ron knew he should go with the older man.

He nodded and turned to Percy.

'If her eyelashes move because of a draft I want to know, okay?'

After a second Percy nodded.

Ron walked to Hermione's bed and took her hand in his. He kissed her forehead and stroked her hair.

'I'm sorry I hurt you,' he whispered.

He forced his eyes shut, stopping the tears that had just formed from escaping. He stood and without looking at either Percy or Charles left the room.

…oooOOOooo…

'Your brother's only looking out for you, Ron.'

Ron stared into his coffee mug. He had protested when Charles had asked him to sit in the canteen for five minutes, wanting to go back to Hermione's room to see what Healer Watson had to say.

'He feels like he has to make things right with you and this is his way of doing it.'

'I've already forgiven him for his stupidity, he doesn't need to fuss over me constantly.'

'It's what older brothers do, I'm afraid, I think I'm right in saying if it were Ginny in your position you'd behave in the same way as Percy did.'

Ron sighed and nodded his head an inch.

'Still annoying though,' he mumbled.

Charles laughed but then his face became serious again.

'I've been trying to put things together in my head, Ron, and I think I may have put something feasible together.'

'Yeah?'

Charles cleared his throat.

'When you woke up you said you felt like you were losing energy to the engraving on the bark.'

'Yeah, that's what it was like, I tried to pull my hand away but couldn't.'

'And on this side of things, Percy couldn't get you to let go of Hermione. She reacted when you were losing your energy and you couldn't pull away from her.'

Ron blinked. It made perfect sense to him.

'Of course! I was giving my energy to her and she reacted to it. Percy said it was like she was breathing after being under water like when you need to take in oxygen quickly. Maybe she was taking something she needed from me? But then…Charles, we need to go and see if she's changed at all. This might be the way we wake her up!'

He stood up expecting Charles to do the same.

'Er…are you coming?' Ron asked.

'Ron, sit down.'

'But-'

'Please.'

Ron sat down, searching for some sort of explanation for his lack of action.

'Okay, firstly, please don't build your hopes up on this, Ron. It's a half arsed theory at best, nothing more.'

Ron nodded in agreement.

'Secondly, even if our half arsed theory is something of a goer, we have to consider how this will affect you.'

Ron's brow furrowed in confusion.

'How do you mean?'

'Ron, when I finally woke you up you were in obvious pain and as Percy told you, you had some sort of seizure. I'm pretty sure you're dismissing what I'm saying and trying to work out a way of testing our ridiculous theory…'

Ron had the decency to blush at Charles' comment.

'but Hermione would hate the idea of you putting your life in danger for any reason.'

'It won't come to that Charles. I'm fine!'

'That has yet to be determined and if all Hermione does is take a few deep breaths while you're collapsing on the floor, I don't think we're going to achieve a great deal, do you?'

'No, I suppose not but if there's a chance that doing this will help her then I'll do it.'

'Believe me, Ron, I understand your determination and need to do something. But don't put Hermione through waking up to a life without you because of her.'

Ron looked at Charles and understood what he was saying, but he couldn't live with the idea of not helping Hermione when he was the only one who could.

'Okay.'

'Good. Now let's go and see what Healer Watson has to say.'

Ron picked up his coffee and followed Charles out of the canteen. He walked down the stairs without looking where he was going or taking in his surroundings at all. He was thinking about what Charles has said and was doing exactly what he had been asked not to.

He just had this feeling that they were on track, no matter how half arsed an idea theirs was. He really thought it was going to work. He also dismissed the last thing Charles had said. He would bring Hermione back even if it was the last thing he ever did.