Ron's POV

I probably misjudged this first task.

I was a little disconcerted after the fall, so when we landed (safely, thanks to Hermione's quick use of Aresto Momentum), I didn't even notice the species of plant we had landed on. I was just catching my breath, but I made a comment about being lucky the plant was there…

Turns out, it was a devil's snare.

The thing is, devil's snares, along with spiders, are some of the only things I have trouble fighting.

Owe it up to practice lessons gone horribly wrong. I still have scars, both physical and mental, from those.

So when Hermione's shouts of 'Just relax' echoed through my head, I could only think of the time I was six years old, and my training teacher told me the same thing.

Unfortunately, that time, I was faced with a rather unpleasant mutant devil's snare, one whose vines grew tighter the more one struggled. It was one of the closest calls I've ever been in.

I futilely called for help, yelling names of people who I knew would not or could not help.

All the while, all I could see was the same memory repeated, as the vines wrapped tighter around my neck.

Hermione's POV

I straightened up after dropping underneath the devil's snare.

Harry dropped next to me, panting heavily.

Above us, Ron yelled for help.

"He's not relaxing is he," I said, trying to buy time. Surely a devil's snare should be able to kill someone faster than it was.

The thought felt weird. I wasn't an assassin, I wasn't supposed to kill people. Did that extend to Ron?

"Apparently not," Harry said, a desperate look in his eyes.

I began rambling, buying myself time, trying to figure out my morals and to what degree they extended.

Harry kept fixing me with the same desperate look.

Ron's pleas for help reverberated through my head, even though his actual voice had gone quiet…

I continued talking to buy myself a few more seconds time, before making up my mind.

"Lumos Solange!" I cried, pointing my wand at the devil's snare.

A few seconds later, Ron fell down.

As Harry helped him up, I tried to consider whether I had made the right call.

I wasn't a killer. And Ron and I have never targeted each other.

But I don't know if there's a rule against it.

I felt on the spot, and figured it was wiser to make a decision that I could reverse if need be.

I stopped dwelling on it, as Ron made a snide comment about not panicking.

I know it was a remark about my poor decision to let him live.

Ungrateful little…

Ron's POV

As we moved on, I hung back for a moment, casting a modified memory charm on myself. The charm would erase all emotions I associated with the previous event, so I would basically lose my fear of devil's snares.

The only problem was that you had to cast the charm while, or soon after, you felt the emotions you wanted to erase them.

We headed on to the next room, where we heard what sounded like birds, flying around.

We walked in the room, to find, not birds, but keys flying around the room.

"Curious, I've never seen birds like these," Hermione whispered.

I could tell that she hated playing stupid. To make it worse for her (because she always does this to me) I commented,

"They're not birds. They're keys."

Harry then came up with the brilliant solution that one of the flying keys probably fit the locked door.

No, duh.

I moved to the far end, where I let loose a slew of spells, locking the door. If we were gonna move on, Harry was gonna have to play into their hands, on the broomstick.

Hermione glances at me, suspicious.

"Alohomora," I said loudly, covering my tracks.

Hermione glared, realizing what I had done.

Harry seemed uncertain of what to do.

Hermione tried to talk him out of it, pointing out how hopeless it would be to search the keys.

I replied, trying to convince Harry to give it a shot.

Harry spotted one that seemed like it would work. Still, he seemed uncertain about getting on the obviously bewitched broom.

He said it was too simple.

Whatever.

I sensed that there had been curses on it before, but they seemed to have been removed, either because they had taken effect, or because someone had taken them off.

At first I thought it was Hermione. But she also seemed confused.

If she didn't take the curse off…

Then maybe there was someone else down here.

Hermione's POV

This was bad. Those keys had poisonous… beaks, for want of a better word.

If it weren't for the fact that I had enough ant venom on me to heal him, Harry would be dead.

Not to mention the multiplying curse that would double the keys every five seconds.

Thank goodness I was able to delay it before Harry got on the broom. Though it was only temporary…

Plus, with Ron continuously jinxing Harry's broom, strengthening the keys, and goodness knows what else, it was all I could do to keep him alive.

As the battle got more fierce, I realized that any second now, Harry was either going to get enough poison in him to kill him, the keys were gonna start multiplying, or Ron was going to succeed.

Just then, he caught the key.

I thought we were saved, 'til I heard him yell, "Catch the key!"

Oh God. He wasn't going to let go of it was he?

He did.

In fact, he threw it at us.

I was only just able to cast a traction charm, drawing it to my hand.

We bolted for the door, where I learned that not only had he done expert locking charms, Ron had also shrunk the keyhole.

Fidgeting with the key and the lock took precious seconds longer than it should have, but I got it open.

We ran out, with Ron trying to close the door on Harry, but I was able to keep it open it time.

Ron's POV

How had two tasks managed to go by, and all he had were some scrapes.

I could only watched as Hermione summoned her anti venom, an odorless vapor, purging him of the harmful poisons.

Ahead, we saw a chessboard, obscured by darkness.

For some reason, Harry thought it was a graveyard, but neither of us really paid attention.

We were busy going through the motions, but both of us were planning our moves.

Hermione stepped toward her position on the board, a castle, I had turned to the castle, and didn't even notice her curse until it hit me.

It was a binding curse. As long as it remained, I couldn't leave this room without her, and she couldn't leave without me.

I sighed, as I climbed onto the knight. Looks like I could forget about trying to sacrifice her piece.

No matter. I'd focus on Harry…

The game commenced.

Hermione mainly spent the match making sure Harry never got killed. I have to hand it to her, when she tries, her magic is top notch. She tapped into the spell controlling the pieces.

I didn't even notice until I hung our bishop (Harry) and the white knight didn't take it.

After that, I was more careful. I tried my best to sacrifice him, in a situation where he wouldn't notice until it was too late, but it was hard with Hermione blatantly ignoring my blunders.

Analyzing our position, way into midgame, a plan snapped into place.

I had already realized that someone else was down here. What else would explain the disenchanted broom, the discarded and destroyed pieces…

Someone else was down here, for sure.

And if I could convince Harry to go ahead, without Hermione…

My path was clear. I'd have to sacrifice myself, in order to prevent Hermione from helping Harry battle whoever was down here.

I analyzed the position a final time, before speaking.

"You realize what I have to do Harry…"

After a long conversation, involving Hermione puzzling over why I did what I was doing, I made my move.

"Check."

The queen came closer and closer.

Anticipating pain, I did a numbing spell on myself.

Part of Hermione's spell was a mirror charm. If I died, she would, and vice versa.

Closing my eyes, I heard the queen come closer and closer.

I knew Hermione would have to keep me alive.

The queen struck-

Hermione's POV

Ron's action made no sense. Why would he sacrifice himself?

Yes, I was now bound to stay with him, but to what end? What would this prove?

Ron must've realized something I didn't. But what…

Something ticked in my mind. Perhaps, perhaps there was someone else here. Clearly someone had disenchanted the broom…

That was it. Harry was going to go on, to fight an enemy, and I wouldn't be able to help him.

One look at him, however, told me that he wasn't about to turn around.

So I gave him a few words of encouragement. Ron being unconscious, well, I couldn't even put an enchantment on him. I could only hope that his opponent would be weak…

"-and Harry, just be careful."

I watched him walk off, feeling helpless.

He turned to look at me, one last time, before he went through the door, and was gone.

.

Alright, a few ANs: One, someone has asked me, so I'd like to state that I have nothing against Ron as a character. This idea was a stupid idea my sister and I had over a year ago, which we recently decided wouldn't make a half bad fic.

Also, I wanted to make sure that no one feels that either Ron or Hermione get too much POV time. I'd like to know if anyone feels I'm not giving either their fair share.

Also a thank you to those who voted on my poll! The fact that this is most voted for is what got me to write a new chapter so soon after the old one. Thanks guys!

Also a big thank you to all my reviewers! You guys also inspire me to write more chapters sooner! Thank you all!

Drop another review to completely make my day! I may even update again before I leave for my trip in a week or so (though I do have some tests. We'll see…)