A/N: I had planned most of this chapter as a part of the previous one but that got a bit lengthy so had to cut it short. Loved the fact that you all liked it

I have to mention that I am kind of assuming that all of my readers have read all the books of the HP series because as I have said before this story is almost a close parallel track to the original one.

Btw have you guys seen this video on youtube called 'Ron & Hermione - someone's bound to get burned' by Wizarding World Shopping Channel? It's my absolute favourite and kind of an inspiration for this after I was stuck with a writer's block.

All character, props etc belong to JKR.

Chapter 17: When You are You

"Go." He said softly and she nodded and with tentative steps crossed the last boundary as he stood behind.

He released a sigh and limped his way out. There was a huge wall with an intricate wrought iron gate that had been pushed open. He walked towards the gate slowly, the gravelled path making the task difficult for his injured legs. He had barely crossed a few yards when there was a heart wrenching sob from beyond the walls and even before he could cross the gate, a blurry image with flying curls ran out and crashed on his chest.

He stumbled at the sudden onslaught of weight, his injured leg giving away and causing him to crash down on the gravel and snow, pulling her along. It was hard to figure out if she had even noticed their change in position as she continued to sob and shake violently, her fist clutching onto his jacket.

"Hey..." he called gently as his left arm wrapped around her waist of their own accord and she gripped him harder. It wasn't clear what exactly she would have witness in the small span of time to return to him so broken but he could at least guess that it was a proof of the harsh truth. Dropping his wand next to him on the ground Ron was at the verge of wrapping her in his arms more snugly but stopped just in time.

"Granger?" he called carefully instead. She twitched slightly at his voice and with a sharp intake of breath made an attempt to move apart. He only realized then how entangled they were having fallen down together. His injured foot was sitting at an awkward angle. He removed his hand from her waist and assumed her to have taken that as a gesture for his need for space as she shifted away a little. Her delicate jaw quivered and she bit her lip to cut out the whimpers as a steady stream of tears rolled down her downcast eyes. She lifted a shaky hand to her face to wipe the moisture off but more tears ran down in quick succession. He groaned internally. A part of him wanted nothing more than to pull her to his chest and let her weep her heart out in his arms and yet there was just another part restraining him. She possibly sensed his discomfort or perhaps needed space too as she untangled herself and clambered away towards the gate. While Ron attempted to stand up on his unsteady legs, he saw her collapsing back on the hard cold ground as her heartbreaking wails tore the silence of the surrounding.

He cursed under his breath. The snow was seeping in through his clothes and almost choking his bones. Neither of them was dressed to be out in this weather. He tried a water repelling charm on his shoes and jeans. He wasn't sure she was in a state to care about these things but a look up at the sky where dark clouds were steadily moving in dimming the sunlight told him they would be in for more rough weather if they stayed here any longer. Exhaustion was almost draining him and the pain where the tree had hit him was sore and stiff. They had to get out of here. What was she expecting to see here? Why couldn't she just believe what he had said and saved herself this agony? Why didn't he just leave when she had suggested it? But he knew the answer - she had been in denial about her parent's death all these months and needed the closure that only the truth, no matter how harsh it was, could provide. He limped towards her just as a few snowflakes drifted down towards them. Ron knew they needed to move inside some sort of shelter or else even with all their charms, they would freeze to death out here before they could make their way back out of this Room.

She had crouched down just inside the limit of the gate. On reaching her, his eyes were instantly drawn towards the scene inside and whatever he was prepared for, this was not it. For a moment he stood still, forgetting that this was just a mirage inside a Room in his school and not the actual grounds of the barbarous crime.

The decaying expanse of land, which must have once been a spectacle of beauty and grandeur, now lay across the snow covered ground like a decaying corpse. Even snow seemed repelled by it as the whole area lay devoid of it, a dark mass in stark contrast against its white surroundings. Pulled to it by intrigue as well as repulsion, he limped closer as his eyes scanned the carcass of the structure. Ron had heard of the Fiend Fire, it was almost a taboo in the wizarding world and now he knew why. The mansion did not look burnt down; it looked like the heat of the fire had melted every brick and body, animate and inanimate, alive. What a horrible way to die! He could roughly make out a few half dissolved pieces of marble that must have adorned the massive structure, for even in death it was not difficult to see how enormous a place it would have been, stretched across acres. So, the true extent of evil they were up against was this. He could hardly fathom what the devil that had no qualms in killing his own so brutally, would do with his enemies. Suddenly he felt extremely vulnerable, his parents, brothers they were all out there without a protection of a magical forest or guards. If the Grangers didn't stand a chance after all this, his family and all the others were barely safe!

He turned around sharply looking at the sole person who had made it alive and unbidden an image of her lying dead among the wrecks came into his mind. He hurried towards her, forgetting his pain momentarily and then ignoring it as it seared through his leg as he walked. He realised he would be eternally thankful to the Headmaster and whoever else had saved her from this horrific fate.

The snow was falling heavily now and Hermione was still crouched down sobbing, a fine layer of snow covering her when a pair of strong but gentle hands touched her shoulders.

"Come on, we need to find a shelter and quick." His voice sounded different somehow, softer, even caring perhaps, but she could barely make out his face through the cloud of tears that hazed her vision. She allowed him to help her up as his arm wrapped around her.

"Should we go near the trees?" he asked her softly. She shook his head and swallowed another sob.

"I w-want to go back R-Ron... I-I want t-to leave this p-place now." She managed between whimpers as her lips continued to quiver from pain and also cold he thought. "T-Take me back, p-please?"

He sighed hard. He wanted to leave too but they still had to fight the snow, the creepers, the Whomping Willows and the forest before they could even reach the door. Their injuries wouldn't be a help either. "I wish we could just get to the exit door now." He groaned and then watched in surprise as the forest melted in front of their eyes to leave an expanse of open snow covered land with a single door standing alone in the middle of it all.

He released a breath he didn't realize he was holding. "Come on..." he called and held her closer. Their feet sunk inside the layer of snow and he cast the same spell on her clothes. The chill was unbearable and she shivered in his arms despite the repeated warming spells that almost faded out soon as they were cast. He wondered if he ought to take her down to the Hospital Wing straight away. But then how on earth would he explain their injuries to the nurse? Even if he made his own up as a nasty fall from the broom, Hermione's bruises in her hidden chamber would seriously make the woman call the Headmaster and Professor McGonagall for added measure.

She was too distraught to notice or care anything apart from leaving this horrific place that seemed to saw her heart into pieces, but she noticed he had stopped walking. It was then she realised that some spell would have been used to stop the cold from seeping into her bones through her shoes; both her dress and her woollen robes were also dry but getting soaked again. The only part of her body that felt genuinely warm was the portion that was pressed to his chest. She looked up at him questioningly.

"We have to heal you first."

"But..."

"We can't go to the Hospital Wing and explain our injuries, not yours at least." He sighed.

"We need ointments and potions for our wounds." She said aloud as her teeth chattered and voice sounded hoarse even to her own ears. They waited and waited and while they grew cold nothing materialized.

"Why is it not working?" he wondered aloud.

"Maybe...Maybe because those things are not related to this room? We... We might have to go out and ask for a hospital ward or something?" she suggested concentrating her focus on the task at hand, it did not kill the pain but helped ever so slightly to be distracted.

"Maybe..." He agreed and pulled out the cloak and dropped it over themselves. "Just in case." He told her as they fought their way towards the door, the cloak making them slightly warmer as it held their body heats in.

...

Harry glanced at his watch again rubbing the drowsiness off his eyes. He hadn't slept much, dozing off in the chair in front of the fire in the early hours of the morning with the map still spread open on his lap. The two names were still missing.

Seven bloody hours since the two of them left.

He rubbed his eyes with the base of his palms and scanned the map again drawing his eyes to the route from the seventh floor corridor noticing with horror as another set of footsteps were steadily walking up the steps on the fourth floor. He knew the owner of those steps and knew exactly where they were heading. Muttering a specific expletive under his breath he stuffed the map inside his pocket and picking up his wand dashed out of the portrait hole.

He couldn't be more thankful for all his sneaking around the castle and the map that ensured that he and Ron were more informed than many about the secret passageways and short cuts to locations within the school. By the time he reached the left corridor before the Room where his adversary would soon appear in, he was panting heavily and holding his sides heaving. He pulled out the map quickly and sighed with relief as two names appeared out of the blue just in the passage behind him but hidden from view so far. But another set of footstep was fast approaching him and he quickly stuffed the map inside even as the actual person rounded around the corner and stood feet away from him, his paler than usual face scrunched into an ugly frown that displayed both surprise and a tiny bit of fear.

"Potter." Sneered the new arrival.

"Malfoy." He replied back in a similar tone, clasping his wand harder and noticing the other boy do the same.

"What are you doing here?" scowled Draco as if he had found Harry loitering around his private chambers in the Manor and not in their school.

"I could ask you the same question Malfoy." He retorted hoping that Ron was able to hear him and also that Granger would do nothing stupid like running out to the blonde for help or something similar.

"What I do is none of your business."

"Likewise." He replied.

"You will never learn to keep your nose out of other people's business, will you?" growled the Sytherin and even before the incantations on both their lips had been completed, a powerful shield charm erupted between the two throwing them backward. Fixing his glasses back Harry sprang up fast to notice the Headmaster watching him with his piercing blue eyes over the top of his half moon spectacles.

"Well I won't say I approve this way of spend the Christmas holidays boys." He said softly but firmly.

Harry looked sheepish but Malfoy merely looked away annoyed.

"I don't want to find the two of you in this position again. Now, Harry go along and Mr Malfoy will come with me for a cup of tea."

The look of annoyance dropped from that face to depict first shock and then anger. "Why?" Draco asked.

"Because I am telling you so!" smiled the Headmaster and gestured for Draco to proceed who glared at Harry and then huffed away without a backward glance. Harry noticed the blue eyes twinkle before Dumbledore too left with a smile. Heaving a sigh of relief he quickly hid behind the nearest passage hidden behind a tapestry and pulled out the map again. He almost groaned out aloud noticing that the two names had disappeared from the map again.

...

As soon as they were inside the warm, white room, Ron pulled the invisibility cloak away and shoved it inside his pocket again. That was a narrow shave, if he had not heard Harry or worse if Malfoy had ended up outside the corridor precisely when they came out, things would have been seriously fucked up. For some strange reason, at the sound of the blonde Granger had gone all stiff and had hid behind him, forgetting perhaps that they were invisible anyway.

He tried moving ahead if only to slump down on the clean bed that looked so very inviting but realised that she was still holding on to his left arm tightly and shaking with her eyes still shut tight. There was no way he could push her off, not after what he saw. He knew this was temporary, the need, her dependency but no matter how much his brain told him to keep away to retain the last traces of his sanity, to avoid getting burned again, he knew he would do it for her. And this was still an illusion; the Room and whatever came with it- material and abstract, wasn't it? He just had to allow things to unfold at their will and later on when the pain came with the darkness of the night, he would simply assume that he had dreamt it all.

"Hermione?" he called again and she opened her bloodshot eyes in shock on hearing her given name from his lips.

"It's okay. We are inside a hospital ward or something. Come on..." he coaxed. She followed him wordlessly. It is alright, just concentrate on one thing at a time, don't think, just focus on this moment. She told herself.

She glanced around. He had called the Room well. It looked more or less like the school's hospital wing but only smaller. There was a medicine cabinet between two beds and fresh set of hospital gowns for two.

"Let's heal your injuries first." He said before her.

"But you are more hurt." She replied. Her voice was strained and hoarse.

"I can go to Madame Pomfrey Hermione, we need to heal you." He reasoned and limped ahead to the space between the beds and began checking on the various potions and ointments that lay there.

She continued to stand behind looking at the tall figure. His jacket was torn at multiple places to reveal the maroon jumper underneath and dark brown stains stood out on his jeans that were ripped at many places where the spikes had pierced through his skin. His usually shiny hair was sticking to his head and if she was not mistaken the spots near his fair neck just below his hairline were not just grime. He looked worn out and shabby and yet she couldn't remember a single man she had ever seen who looked more handsome than Ron Weasley did at that moment.

It isn't the clothes that makes a man Mother, or his pockets or gold.

"Come here." He called and she obeyed. He handed her an uncorked vial. "This should help with the pain." He said.

She met his eyes silently and lowering her own, took a sip. The burning taste scorched her throat for a minute before the heat transferred to the rest of her body dulling the ache, at least the physical part of it.

"You should take it too." She said softly and handed him the vial. For a moment perhaps his pupils dilated as his eyes lingered first on her and then the bottle she had touched to her lips and then the moment was gone. He took a swig and wiping his mouth with the back of his sleeves dropped it back on the table to pick up another taller bottle that held a green gooey liquid.

"This doesn't look very inviting but the label says it should be an antidote to most plant related poisons." He said looking a little uneasy. She nodded slightly and turning around, unbuttoned the robe and set it aside. She heard the sharp intake of his breath and it was a moment before he spoke.

"M-May I?"

"Please..." she whispered and sat down on the side of the bed facing away from him. She closed her eyes as his calloused fingers spread the ointment on her lower back, the very spot which had been extremely lucky to have been touched by his lips earlier. The spark that ran through her at his touch was no longer limited to just her body, somehow it reached her very soul, the core of her heart which she perhaps didn't even know existed before this moment. With every ounce of will power she possessed she stopped herself from turning around and burying herself in his chest. He would probably not push her away but his sympathy was not what she wanted.

"Um... You might want to keep it that way for a while for the ointment to work, you know?" he said and even without turning around she could almost see the reddening of his face. She turned around slowly.

"Your turn." She said unable to hold back the adoration from seeping in her words. He looked at her like she had sprouted an extra head.

"W-What?"

She heaved a sigh and tried to smile although her face muscles seemed to be too tired for it.

"Your leg...", she had almost added 'Ron' but stopped at the last minute. She didn't want to break the spell. After the coldness of the Room before and her fate and future, this Room, this Ron radiated the warmth she so desperately craved. Even if it was an illusion she would easy swap it for her real life if she could.

He was still standing dumbstruck. "Sit." She said indicating the bed and he obliged as if he didn't know what else to do if he refused.

Hermione pulled a footstool from below the other bed and sat down. Gingerly she placed her hands at his ankles to pull the cloth up and he winced aloud. "What are you doing? I-I can do that myself!" he muttered through his teeth as he grasped the bed in pain.

She gave him an exasperated stare. "No you can't. You can barely bend your knees."

She rolled up the legs ignoring his protest and ripped the jeans with her wand slightly once she reached his calves to avoid them grazing his wounded skin underneath. She could always mend it later.

She almost cried out at what she saw. More than six places had deep puncture marks on that fair skin that was covered with a fine layer of ginger hair. How was he even walking around with this? Not to mention fighting the Whomping Willow?

She bit her lips in anguish as she tenderly applied the ointment, pouring generous amounts inside each wound.

"Um... Thanks. You shouldn't have." He said when she was done.

"Don't thank me...please..." she replied softly as guilt seeped out of her eyes in the form of tears.

There was a moment when blue orbs met the brown, that space of a heartbeat where things could change and future could be something else. But the two held on their positions and the moment passed.

Ron handed her another ointment for the cuts which she identified as Essence of Dittany and they passed it amongst each other silently as they rubbed it on their faces and arms. Finally, skin healed and looking slightly better she picked up the last bottle.

"This is for severe bruising." She said reading off the label.

"Well you should apply it first." He suggested and moved away to stand near the window facing away. She took in his form and went behind the hospital curtains that stood a little distance away.

His leg was healing and the pain in the other parts of his body had subsided to a large extent too. His back still felt stiff and strained though. He stood watching the sunny but snowy grounds that resembled nothing outside the school grounds and was just another illusion. A shuffling and he realised with horror that the glass reflected the curtains beyond which she stood. And although he could not see her, he could make out her dark gown that she had undone and hung up on the frames of the green stands. He looked away immediately trying not to pay attention to the image that was steadily forming in his mind of her in her satin under garments. As the image began to get more detailed, highlighting the swell of her breasts covered by a thin layer of black satin and the creamy skin he had seen partly only moments ago, he closed his eyes shut, fisting his fingers till his nails dug inside the flesh.

"FUCK!" he swore quietly, his breath coming out in gasps.

She cleared her throat behind him moments later and he turned around a little guiltily.

"Your turn." She said handing him the bottle looking a little pink around the cheeks herself. He took it and moved towards the curtain while she stood as if words she wasn't sure about voicing aloud were held at her lips.

It was a little difficult with the stiff back to get his jacket off but the jumper was worse, already tight as it was. He finally pulled up his tee and smeared the ointment all over his multiple bruises on the chest and let out a sigh of relief. He twisted his arm back but there seemed to be no possible means to get his back done by himself. After a few tries that only left his arms tired he was ready to give up.

"May I?" came a quiet voice from beyond the curtain and he could almost feel his ears and neck flaming up.

"N-No, thanks... I can manage." He said.

"Please? I know how bad the ones on your back possibly are." She said again.

"Please?" She called again as he was still silent and this time Ron came out clad only in his jeans that hung low on his waist.

She cursed her eyes that hung onto that scratched but sexy exposed body, that almost white chest that was not completely chiselled yet but was getting there soon, those shoulders that looked perfect to bear all the strain that his Gryffindor heart would pull onto himself, that taunt muscle at his navel and the faint line of ginger hair that ran down to disappear below... She averted her eyes and was very aware of the blood pumping through her veins; her cheeks would burst out at this rate.

It was difficult to know his reaction without looking at his face but she could not call the strength to glance up. The silence of the room was broken by the rugged breathing of the two occupants and then he turned around and she was pulled to reality at the sight of the dark blackish purple marks that covered almost the entirety of it.

...

Harry stood watching the map. Merlin, Ron had to leave that Room now! Suddenly two sets of feet appeared and he spent not a moment in leaving his hiding place and stormed out.

He watched the map and heard a whisper coming from ahead.

" Harry!"

"You're an arse Ron! Do you have any clue what time it is?" he hissed.

"Yeah... Sorry mate." Came a voice from his next and he huffed.

"Straight to the dorm now."

"Yeah." Called Ron and he felt himself being pulled inside the cloak and surprisingly he was pressed between Ron and a very flustered looking Hermione Granger.

A/N: Thanks for reading. Waiting for your reviews as always...

Thanks to all of my lovely reviewers

Wallflower Weasles: Well Rowling just needed to kill Sirius off, that annoys me to no ends but I doubt the Room would have worked that way. Any way Harry could have asked the Room to give him a safe fireplace perhaps, who knows? He should have used that mirror! Stupid bloke!

Auror Ron Alan Weasley: Yes it was a horrible flood. Thanks.

chemrunner57: what about this chapter?

Zalini: Oh please do write. There is a dearth of Romione writers

JeanandBilius: Thank you.

whdixon63: So how was this?

notsigh: So glad you liked it. Hope you like this one too.

Guest: Well yes, you are right.

brighteyes2889: Lots of change coming up for the two.

nirdoodle: Well taking her out actually would be much too difficult to write! Glad you liked it.

rhfan:Well I love writing him this way too

recks21: I can barely wait to know your views on this.

mia2788: Lot of angst and generous does of sexual tension in lined for future.:)

Gogoldel: Don't we all love Ron, angry, jealous, whatever he does, don't we?

Guest: That is such a so fantastic

heronlove: Yes she will but Ron has a long way to go before he trusts her.