Ron wasn't having a good night's sleep. He was tossing around in his four-poster, breathing heavily. He was haunted by nightmares, the first time since his twin brothers had pulled that prank on him causing him to develop arachnophobia. Only, his dreams were filled not with spiders this time, rather with Hermione.
He saw her facing five cloaked, masked Death Eaters at once, dodging and blocking spells, then being hit by the same Flame-cutter Curse Dolohov had used against her at the Department of Mysteries.
He saw her kneeling before Voldemort, bound in magical chains, the features of the snake-like face twitching in a twisted pleasure as his hand raised his wand and the lipless mouth spoke "Crucio".
He saw her walking alone in a dark alley and he saw a giant dark shadow suddenly stepping in her way; he saw the pale face opening his bloodless lips and he almost felt the sharp fangs puncturing her skin.
Awoken from this dream, he summoned his wand – he didn't even realize what he'd just done, he jumped off his bed not caring he was only wearing his boxershorts and rushed to the door, then through the anteroom. Completely unaware of the painful contact of his leg with one of the armchairs and almost blasting his way through the other door, he entered the girls' bedroom, out of breath, the adrenaline pulsing in his veins.
The picture awaiting him was beyond his imagination. Hermione was – just like him, mere seconds ago – having a bad nightmare; she was tossing around in her bed, screaming from pain, crying out his name loud. On her bed sat Leticia, holding her hands, trying to calm her.
Ron raised his wand. "Get away from her!" he bellowed.
Leticia, not taking notice of him, whispered something into Hermione's ears causing the girl calm down and her breath slow down, then she finally fell in a deep sleep. Nodding satisfied, Leticia turned her head to Ron.
"Put that wand away before you hurt someone, Ron. She was dreaming of you being killed by Voldemort; she was begging him to kill her instead of you. Now she's dreaming of your favourite spot at the Hogwarts Lake, with only you and a picnic basket around." She smiled at the boy who flushed red and then scratched his head in obvious discomfort.
"I'm sorry for having yelled at you, Leticia," he started apologizing, "I've just had a nightmare myself; first Hermione being tortured by Voldemort, then bitten by a vampire in a dark alley. I guess my nerves are a bit dodgy, that's it. With you being a vampire..." he continued bluntly, then snapped his mouth shut.
"I'm used to prejudice, Ron; I wasn't allowed to go to school at all and no children wanted to make friends with me. Of course, when they told their parents that I was a vampire, they were chastised, even punished for lying, but children knew better. I had only one friend, a girl of my human age, who sadly died two years ago from blood cancer," she went on, closing her eyes.
Ron put his hand on Leticia's shoulder. "You have three friends now. We want the same thing and we'll help each other." Six years of being best friends to outcast Harry Potter had left their traces on Ron as suddenly he seemed to be more supportive, leaving his ego behind for a change.
"I love the sound of it," smiled Leticia, as she brushed the soundly sleeping Hermione's hair with her hand, then stood up from her bed. "She needs you tonight, Ron," she whispered and left the room, very silently closing the door behind her.
Shaking his head, Ron let out a sharp breath. "She'll hex me into next century for this," he thought. Then, collecting all his courage, he carefully slid between the sheets and spooned against Hermione's back, draping his right hand protectively around her, carefully, so as to avoid touching her bits. Inhaling the sweet scent of her hair, he repeated "She'll hex me into next century. But what a way to go..." and drifted back in peaceful sleep.
"Ronald!" "RONALD!"
Even the thick walls were unable to filter out Hermione's cries. Harry unwillingly opened his eyes, put on his glasses and with a grunt consulted his watch. It was shortly after six in the morning and his body longed for some more sleep, but he was eager to find out the reason behind his best female friend's distraction.
Opening the door to the antechamber, he was surprised to find Leticia curled up on the sofa, still asleep. It was quite chilly in the room and Harry summoned his own bedcover and carefully arranged it over the fragile body of the sleeping girl. She murmured something, from which Harry could understand only "three friends" and slept on. Harry watched her for a second, with a small smile on his face, then he was awakened again from his thoughts by another loud yell, a bang, and a painful grunt. With his wand at ready, he stormed into the other room, not knowing what would expect him. However, once inside, he lowered his wand and burst into uncontrollable laughter.
The picture in the bedroom was indeed comical. Hermione, Weasley-red and wrapped into the bedcover up to her chin, was standing on her bed and pointing her wand at Ron, who in turn was half-sitting, half-lying on the floor. Just having tripped across a chair, he massaged his buttocks with a painful expression on his face, while trying to raise a "Protego!" shield around himself to keep away the flock of sparrows attacking his head.
"Care to fill in?" Harry inquired, when he gained his breath again.
"Dunno mate, I was enjoying my beauty sleep when all of a sudden she blasted me out of bed. I fell across the chair and the next thing I remembered was those bloody birds attacking me and you blasting through the door. Why do I always have to be at the wrong end of her wand?" Ron complained, eyeing his two friends suspiciously.
"For the record, Ronald, this is the girls' bedroom and this is my bed," snapped Hermione, but ended the incantation and the sparrows dissolved in thin air. "What would you expect from a girl who'd just woken up with a boy in her bed clearly remembering she'd had no intentions sharing it with him?"
"I'll have to thank Leticia for that..." muttered Ronald as he finally managed to stand up from the floor and pull the chair back to the toilet table.
"Pardon me, Ronald?" Hermione asked, raising her wand again.
"Last night both you and I were having nightmares, Hermione," Ron started slowly, "and I woke up hearing you scream my name. I rushed into the room and found Leticia at your bed; she managed to calm you, then you fell asleep again. She told me I should not leave you so I climbed in your bed and held you tight as we slept. I knew you might hex me for that but..."
"You knew that, did you?" interrupted Hermione in a voice, dripping with acid.
But, Ron wasn't that easy to stop. "I knew that alright but I thought it was well worth it. You know, it pained me to see you suffer and I would have done anything to stop that."
He looked into those beautiful eyes and became oblivious to everything else. Neither of them realized that Harry silently had left the room and they'd been left on their own.
Ron swallowed, then slowly licked his dry lips. "Until tonight, I'd been too thick to realize that I'd been in love with you all this time, Hermione. Never had the guts to tell you. No matter what, whether or not we succeed defeating Voldemort, I will always love you."
Realizing what he'd just said and flushing red, he jumped up and fled the room, into the safety of his own bed, hiding himself under the cover, before the startled girl could even realize what he'd just said.
There was one single thought occupying his head now. "You blew it. Just ruined everything," he kept repeating to himself. Suddenly, he felt the cover being pulled off him and sat up, just to get a full-screen view of Hermione's tear-stained but happily smiling face, mere inches from his.
In that instant, nothing, not even Voldemort mattered any more; he awkwardly hugged her to himself and captured her lips in a kiss for the very first time. A kiss neither of them wanted to end as they closed their eyes and gave themselves over to that wonderful feeling, enjoying the proximity and warmth of each other.
Snuggling closer to him, Hermione raised her head and looked into his eyes. "Where are we going, Ronald? What will happen to us now?" she whispered into his ear.
"Well, for a start, we'll date and in the meantime help Harry with whatever he needs our help with," Ron answered, closing his eyes, not taking notice of his heart rapidly pounding in his chest.
Hearing a polite cough but unwilling to break their embrace, the two turned their heads. Harry was watching them with an evil grin on his face. "Took you ages to sort it out, you two. I'm glad you finally have, though." Pointing to Leticia, shyly entering the bedroom, he laughed. "Were it not for her, I would have grown a beard and still been watching you dance around each other."
Ron stood up, letting Hermione go and walked up to the girl. Pulling her into a hug, he said, "Yeah, sometimes I may be thick and need some encouragement. Thanks for the tip."
The girl's emerald eyes glowed with happiness as she simply answered "That's what friends are for, Ron." And then she hugged him back.
"Hey lovebirds," yelled Harry a bit too loudly, causing Hermione to giggle and the other two blush. "Once we're all awake, how about a quick shower and some breakfast? We still have a world to save!"
Nodding his agreement, Ron offered, "Exploding Snap? The winner to use the bathroom first!"
Laughing at his best friend's antics, Harry made a "go ahead" motion with his hand. "Give us fifteen minutes, ladies, and we'll be down in the kitchen," he offered.
"Give us fifteen minutes each, gentlemen," a still gleaming Hermione replied, playfully poking him in the ribs.
"Women!" Harry shook his head, watching the girls leave the bedroom, as he felt the familiar pang on his heart again. He had to find a way to speak to her.
Half an hour later the four friends were sitting in the kitchen where a small table was laid for four. Ron and Hermione were sitting at one side of the table, holding hands and locking eyes, while Harry was teasing them making vomiting gestures earning a Bat-Bogey hex from Hermione.
"Hey! It's Ginny's trademark! I didn't know you knew that spell," he complained, when Hermione finally took pity on him and reversed it.
"A woman, Harry, should never play out all her trumps at once," Hermione said in a mock-serious voice, pocketing her wand.
"Too true, Hermione, too true," Harry answered absentmindedly. Every mention of Ginny was painful; it made him heart sick to have broken up with her and he knew it broke her heart as well, yet he hoped that it hadn't been for nothing. He longed to speak to her, or at least send some message to her, However, they didn't know whether the Burrow was safe as there still may have been Death Eaters on guard expecting the return of Harry and his friends.
His train of thoughts was interrupted by Dobby, who, wearing an impeccably clean apron, reported that breakfast was ready.
"I took the freedom to throw away those four disgusting sandwiches from yesterday, Harry," the elf started, "who knows what that turkey had been in its previous life." The teens rolled with laughter.
"Just tell me Dobby, what would we do without you?" inquired Hermione, still shaking with laughter.
"Well, hunting down Voldemort maybe?" the little elf retorted in an innocent tone. "We elves want him taken down as well, the sooner the better. You see, he's not picky when it comes down to choosing his victims. He and his followers had been torturing and killing humans, goblins, elves alike, without hesitation and I daresay Earth will be a better place for all races without him."
Snapping his finger, Dobby summoned what he called breakfast for four, in fact enough to feed the whole Order. Harry raised his head from the table.
"Dobby, why is the table laid for four? It's five of us now," he asked, locking eyes with the house-elf. He saw comprehension dawn on the elf's ancient face. "Since we are not in a Master-Servant relationship, I'd rather you eat with us as well," he pressed on.
Dobby nodded and a fifth set of tableware and a high chair appeared at the table where he climbed up. "This is why we house-elves have decided to put our fate into the hands of the Boy-Who-Lived. Don't get me wrong, Harry. I know you hate that name and you have every right to do so, but you are an extraordinary wizard from more than one aspect. Surviving a Killing Curse is only one of them."
Smiling at Hermione and Ron, Harry shook his head. "I'm no more extraordinary than anybody else in this room. I'm a barely of age wizard, mediocre with charms and spells, who just happened to be at the wrong place in the wrong time and has been so ever since. It's friendship and love what makes us all do extraordinary things. Remember the Troll? Quirrelmort? Sirius? Buckbeak? The Ministry? We could have never made it without each other, without having friends."
Letting go of Ron's hand, Hermine smiled at him and reached over the table, grasping Harry's hands. "Without having family, you mean. I know you haven't had one for quite a long time, but the Weasleys practically accepted you into the clan and..." she paused and took a sip of her orange juice.
Feeling Harry's questioning look, she continued in a hushed voice, somewhat uncomfortably. "Do the names Wendell and Monica Wilkins ring a bell to you?" Harry silently nodded, then explained Leticia in a few words how Hermione'd sent her parents away from harm's way. When he was done, Leticia was watching the other girl with even more appreciation.
"So, before Wendell and Monica Wilkins boarded the plane to Australia, they put their signatures on two documents. One finalizing your adoption, the other document appointing me as your guardian, effective on my 18th birthday, until you reach the age of 18," Hermione went on in a trembling voice. Tears escaped her beautiful eyes, as she whispered "I always wanted a sibling. Now I have one. Welcome, Harry James Potter-Wilkins, into the family."
Everyone, even Dobby, sat there dumbfounded. Harry's fingers let go of the Butterbeer bottle he was holding in his hand and it made contact with the stone floor, shattering into tiny particles. The teens saw Harry's face go pale as he rose from his chair and without saying a word, turned and rushed out of the kitchen. A few seconds later they heard the loud bang of the front door.
Not knowing what to do, the three remaining teens sat there confused for a minute. Then Hermione stood up. "I have to talk to him. It's all my fault. I have to find him." The others joined her, even Ron forgot about his third helping he'd just put on his plate.
"We have to find him," he said simply.