In this chapter we learn how Hermione's grief even influences her own magic. Can Ron help her to overcome her own insecurities and finally help her to do magic again?

Hm...not really happy with this chapter...feels like something is missing...but, it's up to you to judge!

5. Of Magic that fails

Ron stood on the treshold of the Burrow's frontdoor and watched her. Hermione stood only a few metres away from him, her face turned towards the slowly sinking ball of sun so that the back of her body was darkened by the sunny shades. Thus he couldn't see her face, however he didn't need to see her face to know that her eyes brows were frowned in that typical manner she always got when she didn't understand or couldn't accomplish something. Given the fact that this happened not quite often made the incident only worse.

Again she lifted her wand, the words left her mouth in a shy, insecure whisper and again only little sparks resulted from her spell. Discouraged she lowered her hand with the wand, her fingers desperately clinging to the thin wooden stick until her knuckles turned white. He could hear her taking a deep breath and again she lifted her wand, but he knew she would fail all over again.

Almost a week had passed since that fateful night she had fled to the Burrow and although she behaved like a normal-living-breathing human being again they all faced a new tragic problem, now, that left them without any idea to help her.

Hermione couldn't do any magic any longer.

Ron had been the first one to notice it. He'd come upstairs after the dinner one evening and had found her standing in the middle of his room. She shivered heavily in her thin nightgown, her lips almost purple because of the cold, and the wand still in her shaking little fingers. After he'd pulled her into his arms, she had cried out that she hadn't been able to make a fire in the fireplace. She hadn't been able to do magic. She had lost it.

Ron shivered heavily when he thought about her words and remembered the talk he'd had with his mother about her. As usual he'd come to her and hoped for her help, her maternal advise. But even his mother couldn't have helped him this time.

..."She hasn't lost her powers, right? One can't lose his powers, right? Mum?", Ron felt uneasy when he saw how his mother avoided his glance.

"Of course it is impossible. A witch or wizard is born with these powers, they can't lose it.", she took a deep breath, before she continued, "However, our powers are affected by our emotions. Strong or disturbing experiences can change the powers that we possess, sometimes even permanently.".

"Are you saying...are you saying she has lost her powers...for good?". His mother looked at him, she hadn't missed the way his voice broke at the last words.

"It depends on her." she said quietly and upon the questioning look of her son she added, "It's difficult to explain. Her own grief and her feelings of guilt block her powers. She doesn't feel worthy of having them and so they fail her now.

Just think about it, Ronald, if everybody told you that you weren't a real wizard, not worthy of doing magic- how long would it take you to believe such lies?"...

Ron sighed heavily and in thus revealing himself to her, revealing that he'd watched her for the whole time. As expected she flipped around and faced him with her deep brown eyes, furiously narrowed. If she could have done magic right now he might have been scared. Hermione stared at him for a long, very long minute, before she turned around and lifted her wand again, simply trying to ignore his presence, or the fact that he baffled her.

"Want something special, Weasley?" she asked with a teeth-grinding-like patience and he tried hard to suppress his usual smile he always got when he succeeded in breaking her usually sheer unbreakable concentration.

"Nothing." he said and she was already about to get back to her exercise when he spoke again. "Just, as I recall correctly, it was Wingardium LeviosaR.".

"Wingardium LeviOsa.", she corrected him, and by the tone of her voice he just knew that she'd shut her eyes, inwardly shaking her head over his stubborn attitude and ongoing slips. Ron smiled quietly, they both knew that he'd made this mistake on purpose, and they both knew why he'd done it. He looked up and actually caught a light smile shining on her lips, if only for a brief moment, but he had seen it, even if she tried to turn her back on him in order to hide it.

They both knew he had seen it.

"Let's try this together, will you?" he said lightly, already drawing his wand, but he didn't miss the way her face darkened again and she backed off. Even Ron lost his smile, but he certainly didn't give up. He'd never been good at giving up. No one would if he grew up with six other siblings.

"Wow. So this is finally the day that Hermione Granger shied away from a task, because she is...".

"Okay, I'm in.".

Ron looked down on his feet in order to keep this grin from claiming his lips. Sometimes she was far too easy to read. There would never be a task in the world she would decline to do. And she would never let herself get beaten by someone like him. She was a girl after all, she had her pride. Both lifted their wands and directed them at the small stones that lay scattered all around the Burrow. They spoke the spell almost in unison, but although his stone flew right up in the air, hers didn't leave the ground, as if it was glued to the cold it lay on.

"It's not working, it's pointless..." she whispered and automatically the hand that held her wand lowered again. Her look fell down to the earth and it literally broke his heart to see her like this.

But he couldn't do anything against, and it outraged him, his own helplessness was the one thing that outraged him most. He couldn't stand it, just as he couldn't stand it to see her this broken.

"Nonsense. Just...", he started again, before an idea shot through his head and he gave himself only one second to think about it. He blushed and this got her attention, because he hadn't done this in a long time. Blushing. It felt somehow normal and thus made her breath quicken in response.

Ron came to her and placed himself behind her. At first she stiffened in response to whatever he was up to again, she startled because of the warm, tingling feeling in her stomach she didn't want to feel. She knew that it wasn't right to feel something like that, not after everything that had happened. She knew she couldn't allow it to herself to feel such feelings, since it would mean that something like normal was possible again after everything that had happened.

But how could everything go back to normal again? How could she ever feel happiness after what she'd seen, after what she'd done? How could she allow herself to be feel happiness when she knew that her parents would never be able to feel that again? How could she ever allow herself to do magic when she knew (deep in her heart she knew it) that she wasn't worthy of it?

Ron, however gave her no time to find answers to any of those questions, he simply leant closer to her and took her wrist within his fingers, his soft touch bringing her to lift her wand. She could hear him whisper something into her ear, she believed it to be something like Together, but she was much too distracted by his breath that hit her neck than to pay any attention to what he actually said. His touch on her wrist appeared to warm more than just her skin and so she spoke the spell for one last time.

And if she'd actually cared to look at the outcome of her spell and hadn't turned round to him, she would have seen that the stone slowly lifted up into the air, flying higher and higher until it finally disappeared into the clouds which broke up to reveal the sun.