Chapter Four

As he neared the door to the guest room Luna and Hermione were staying in, he could hear faint whimpers coming from the latter. He put his hand on the doorknob and took a few deep breaths before he turned it.

He pushed the door open enough to fit his head in. He whispered, "Hermione?" and took a step inside.

She was tightly wrapped in her bed sheet and she kept twisting her body to try and get out of it, but she was only making it worse. Strands of hair lay across her face, which was contorted in imaginary pain.

Ron could feel his heart beginning to melt as he walked towards her bed. When he reached it, he stood over her and took a moment to look at the scarred girl.

"Hermione." He whispered.

She gave no response. He said her name a bit louder, but there was still no response. He then slowly stretched out a hand and touched her shoulder. She gasped, her eyes flew open, and her arm-which managed to free itself from the tangled sheet-jerked and hit him in the back of the knee. Ron yelped in pain and caught her arm, to prevent her from hitting him again and because it was the closest thing for him to hold onto, as he went down on one knee.

Hermione's eyes went wide when she realized what she did, "Oh Ron I'm so sorry!"

Ron exhaled, looked up at her, and though he said it lightheartedly, there was a serious undertone when he asked, "Why do you hurt me so much?"

Hermione didn't catch the serious part of the question, "I'm sorry, here," she sorted out her bed sheet and scooted towards the other side of the bed, near the wall, "Sit." She lightly patted the bed.

Ron did as he was told, but he felt his ears immediately turn red when he realized that she didn't actually leave enough room for him. He had to sit right next to her leg in order to sit comfortably or risk falling off.

Hermione's eyes flickered to the spot where they touched and then looked down at her hands, "So...what are you doing in here?"

"I was lying down, trying to fall asleep, when I heard a voice coming from my Deluminator. It was your voice, you were saying my name." He paused to take in her expression. The corners of her lips were starting to curve up as she figured out where he was going. He continued, "I stood up, clicked it open, and once again, a blue ball of light came out. Then, it floated into my chest, right here, " He put a hand over his heart, "This time, I didn't apparate though, I just walked right up the stairs." He finished with a smile, hoping that she would laugh instead of hitting him some more.

Hermione looked him in the eye, "Did that really happen?"

"No." He chuckled, "Luna came down and got me."

"Oh." She gave a nervous laugh, "She told you about how I um...could sleep?"

"Yeah." Ron admitted.

"That's embarrassing."

"You shouldn't be embarrassed for having nightmares. You went through something bloody terrible and you are pretty damn strong to only let it get to you in your dreams." He said fiercely.

"Thanks, but I wouldn't call it strength. It's more like me trying not to have a complete breakdown in front of everyone."

"You have the right to have a breakdown in front of everyone as well. More than half the people in this house know what went through and Bill and Fleur know well enough that we haven't been on a nice extended holiday either."

She sniffled, "Could you all…hear everything?"

Ron hesitated, "We could hear Bellatrix yelling, you telling her about the sword, and we could hear you screaming." Ron said the last part very quietly.

There was a period of silence that was broken when Hermione said, "We could hear you yelling."

Ron looked up her somewhat surprised. He thought a charm had been placed on the cellar so that the prisoner's cries for help were muffled and only very loud and sharp sounds, like Dobby apparating, could be heard from above. "You heard me?"

Hermione nodded, "Bellatrix taunted me. She whispered in my ear 'Maybe I should take your boyfriend's offer and question him instead.' She was thinking about bringing you up there and having you watch so you could change your mind. If you didn't she said she would torture you and have me watch." Tears started falling down her face, "I begged her not to and she pretended to think about it before saying she decided to just continue so that when she was done with me no man, wizard or muggle, would want anything to do with me if I managed to live." Hermione was just able to finish the sentence before tears started coming out of her eyes like waterfalls, which she immediately covered by burying her face in her hands.

Ron felt a pain in his chest. It was his heart bursting with sorrow, for what she had to go through, and pride, for how she was able to get through it all. He instinctively moved closer, took her in his arms, and started rubbing her back. She tightly hugged him, buried her face in the crook of his neck, and cried all her troubles away.

"It's okay now. You're safe and I won't let anything like that happen to you again. Ever."

She continued sobbing for a good two minutes and then said in between sobs, "You. Promise?"

"I promise."

It took Hermione several more minutes to calm down. She let go of Ron and started wiping away her many tears, "How am I ever going to sleep?"

"I dunno," Ron answered and looked around the room. He spotted her beaded bag and got an idea, "would you like me to read you a story? From The Tales of Beedle the Bard?"

"Aren't most of the stories pretty melancholy?"

"I guess if you really think about it." Ron said, sounding defeated. He tried to save himself, "But there are a couple that are mostly happy, like Babbity Rabbity…or 'The Fountain of Fair Fortune'! Yeah, how about that one?"

"Okay. Yeah, why not."

Ron took his Deluminator out of his pocket, clicked it to turn the lights on, and then leaned over to get her bag from the nightstand.

Hermione motioned for him to give it to her, "Here, I have the translations in a notebook."

"Oh. Right. I forgot it was written in runes." Ron handed her the bag.

Hermione rummaged through the bag for only a few seconds until she found a small red book. She found the page where the story began and handed it to him.

"You comfortable?" Ron asked.

Hermione surveyed the bed. She repositioned her pillow against the headboard to cushion her back and neatened up her bed sheets some more. Then she looked at Ron quizzically. "I'm good, but I don't think you are."

Ron jumped a little in surprise; almost falling off the bed.

"See. You're going to fall off. Why don't you sit against the headboard so you don't have to be all hunched over, and you can stretch your legs out."

Ron looked as though she had just gone ahead and asked him to get under the covers and sleep with her. His ears and face burned. "Um, no. I'm fine."

Hermione gave a small laugh, "You're obviously not fine. Now I don't want to argue, so just come over here. I promise I won't hit you again."

Ron put a hand up in surrender, "Okay, okay."

She moved over to one side of the pillow so that he could lean against the other side.

When Ron had finally started reading, only the fabric of their sleeves touched, but as he went on and Hermione became more and more sleepy, she started falling into him, until her head rested on his shoulder.

By the time Ron finished reading the story, he found himself in a predicament. Hermione had fallen into a peaceful slumber and if he moved, she would certainly wake up, and who knows how long it would take for her to fall back into a nightmare-less sleep. If he moved, she might actually hit him on purpose this time. Ron also needed to get back downstairs so that Luna and him could sleep as well.

Ron decided to turn off the lights and just stay there for a while. Then, he would maybe attempt to move when he thought she was in a deep enough sleep.

Ron didn't get to try out his plan though, for his own head lolled over on top of Hermione's and he soon fell asleep.