Hello again! I was a bit worried because there were no reviews for the last chapter, but we all get lazy sometimes! :) Here's the next one, the longest so far. Enjoy!

They Are Next

Ron hated being injured. He hated that he couldn't work, or really walk anywhere, or the fact that it left him bored alone in his home all day, waiting for his leg to heal. It had been an unfortunate accident in which is leg nearly was mauled off. Ron Weasley worked at Florish and Blotts as a employee, filling shelves with books and paper. It was two weeks ago when the new edition of The Book of Monsters had arrived, and they were more ferocious than ever. Ron was unloading them and placing them on the highest of shelves when the last book in the box fell out and attacked his leg. It took two other employees to pry it off. Needless to say, Ron was to stay home until the wound healed, which he hated.

So, being stuck home with his family, Ron started to notice a few strange things. And as he heard the sound of the Burrow's door slam shut, it got him thinking. Ron saw a flash of long bright hair.

"Ginny, where have you been?" Ron asked, turning over on the sofa to get a better glimpse of his sister's face.

"Just taking your shifts at the store like you asked me to," Ginny shrugged, not seeing an issue.

"I meant at night," Ron clarified. For the past few days, Ron noticed that Ginny wouldn't come home until late into the night, he was surprised that the Snatchers hadn't took her in yet, like so many of his friends. He wondered what she was doing, whether she was working another job, or maybe even snogging a bloke senseless-which Ron would kill him for later- he thought about all the possibilities.

Ginny's footsteps stopped gradually and looked around the room quickly. "What are you talking about?"

"You come home late," Ron stated simply, "Why?"

Ginny sighed loudly, it was very typical of him to be on her case, seeing that he had nothing else to do all day.

"It doesn't concern you, Ron. You're not Mum," Ron opened his mouth to say something but Ginny cut him off. "I'm not meeting up with a boy, if that's what your concerned about," she said bluntly.

Ron, somewhat satisfied, slumped back unto the couch. Ginny rolled her eyes and walked up the stairs, but her brother stopped her once more.

"Ginny," he began.

Annoyed, Ginny turned around. "What?!"

"Blimey, I was just going to ask you a favor," Ron defended. Ginny lifted an eyebrow.

"Can you get me my-"

"You can get it yourself. You have a bad leg, your not paralyzed," she quipped. Ron tossed his head.

"Please, Gin? I'd do it for you," Ron asked again. This time Ginny scoffed.

"Like hell, the last time I asked you for something, you shrugged it off." Ron laughed.

"I just need the textbooks on my dresser and my clothes. C'mon Gin," Ginny gave Ron a hard glare, but obliged a few seconds later.

"Fine," she muttered, "but since when were you interested in school?" she realized. For as long as she can remember, school wasn't his forte, not that he wasn't good at magic.

Ron sat up a bit straighter on the sofa and pushed the blankets aside.

"Since, this bloody leg of mine isn't going to heal any time soon, I took it upon myself to self-teach... myself,"

Ginny started to smirk. Sometimes her brother was too much.

"Really?"

"No."

Ron looked up and saw Ginny smiling, he liked seeing her this way."I'm actually teaching someone else. I thinks it's called 'tutoring'."

The thought of Ron trying to show someone else how to properly brew a potion made her burst out laughing. But as she studied Ron's face, she found that he was not.

"You're joking, right?" Ginny asked, amazed. Ron deflated slightly.

"I wish I was."

As Ginny was about to apologize awkwardly, Fred and George came bounding into the room, taking over.

"Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but did our ickle Ronny just say that he was going to tutor someone?" George mocked a shocked expression.

Ron's ears were turning red. "Always the tone of surprise, isn't it?" he said bitterly.

"Oh, we wouldn't say 'surprise'," smirked George.

"Just one of shock, astonishment, and flabbergast," finished Fred, elbowing his brother.

Ginny was trying very hard not to crack a smile, it was times like these where she felt a little bad for Ron. They all knew Ron was capable of doing magic perfectly fine, they just gave him a hard time about it.

"So, who's the lucky kid?" asked Fred, deeply interested.

Ron shrugged and rolled up his sleeve. He wrote the name down and their address. Yesterday, Ron sent a letter to the address to confirm the session and this morning he received the response, it said yes. In half an our his "student" would be knocking on his door.

"Um," Ron said, craning his neck to read his messy writing " Hermione Granger."
He looked up at his brothers and sister to see if the name rang a bell. The twins frowned and Ginny shook her head.

"Never heard of her. What class is she?" George asked, "not that it matters, " he added quickly. They were blood-traitors for a reason.

"I dunno. But she's coming here soon so I could help her out," he said. Ron thought back to the letter. She hadn't really given any information about herself, not her age, her class, nothing. Just that she wanted extra help and she'd pay for it, which didn't bother Ron at all.

"Poor girl," whispered Fred to his brother, which Ron heard.

"Hey, no one else wanted to help her, okay?" Ron's voice started to rise.

Ginny stepped in, "Well, I think that's great Ron."

Ron gave her a weird look, he was never use to praise from his sister. She cleared her throat and said, "I'll just go get you your stuff," and vanished up the stairs.

The twins clapped Ron's back and left the room as well, leaving Ron to his thoughts. The closer the clock ticked, the more nervous Ron got. He wasn't sure he could handle teaching someone else magic, he wasn't very confident at it himself. All he wanted was a few extra sickles or knuts to help his family out, and also to help Hermione Granger become a better witch. Ron bit his lip and his palms were starting to sweat. Maybe Fred and George and Ginny were right, maybe he wasn't cut out for this. He should probably cancel the session now before he embarrasses himself, especially in front of a girl. Ron was reaching for a quill and parchment when Ginny walked down stairs. The squeaking of the wood made him jump, causing ink to spill everywhere.

"What are you doing?" asked Ginny, concern crept into her voice. Ron grabbed his wand and muttered a spell. The ink vanished.

"Nothing," he said. Ginny stared at him with a look that Ron couldn't decode. She shook her head and handed Ron his clothes and textbooks.

"You better hurry, she'll be here soon," she advised. As soon as Ginny left the room, Ron changed into some suitable clothes. Seeing that it was much to late to cancel, he would have to stick it out. Ron brushed his hair and folded the blankets on the couch. Fred and George entered the living room again, with water jugs in their hands.

"Just in case you two get thirsty," Fred said, taking notice of Ron's confusion.

"Or if you set the house on fire!" smiled George happily. They left the room in good spirits, while Ron's optimism was dampening.

Before Ron had the chance to do anything else, there was a knock at the door.

"You'll get it!" shouted the twins. Ron stomach was doing flips and his brain was going crazy. He took a few deep breaths to clam himself down, which wasn't working very well.

"Hello?" said a voice, it was soft, "Anyone there?"

Mustering all his courage he had left, Ron limped his way over to the door and timidly turned the knob. As he pulled the door open, it didn't budge. The door often got stuck when it was cold outside.

"Hold on!" he called out to her. Ron kicked the door with his undamaged foot and it burst open.

In the door frame stood a girl, around the same age as him, with wild bushy hair. He couldn't see her face very clearly because she was wrapped head to toe in scarves and jackets.

"Er- come on in," he said awkwardly, gesturing her indoors. She nodded in appreciation and shuffled inside. Ron shut the door behind her, as Hermione began to defrost within the Burrow.

The Burrow was something Hermione couldn't quite explain. It was small and cozy yet big and loud. It smelled familiar to Hermione, which scared her because she had never been there before. There were photographs of the family all over the walls, and the house was lined with a certain comfortableness she couldn't explain. It was like...home. But she dismissed the feeling. Her home was far from here, one she would never return to. Hermione snapped out of her thoughts to look at her soon-to-be mentor. He was tall, almost a whole head taller than her, and his hair was such a bright red it seemed fake. But as she looked at the portraits, she realized it was their family trademark. And he was nervous, even though Hermione could tell he was trying very hard to hide it. She hastily unwrapped herself with the scarves and took of her coat.

"Um, let me get those for you," Ron offered. Ron mentally scolded himself for not being polite sooner. But his gesture caught Hermione off guard.

"Oh, thanks- I mean thank you," she stuttered. It was usual for another class to be so-kind-to her.

Ron fumbled with her coat and scarves for bit, she had quite a few. How she managed to walk with all the extra weight was a mystery to Ron. He scanned around for a place to put home but the coat hanger was already full. Ron settled for an armchair.

"I'm Hermione Granger," she said, extending a hand to Ron.

"Ron Weasley," Ron replied, giving her hand a firm shake. They locked eyes for the shortest of moments, but qiuckly looked away.

"So, why don't we start?" Ron said, avoiding Hermione's gaze. Hermione nodded excitedly.

Ron reached for his textbooks and placed it on his lap with a little to much force. He winced.

"Um, well, what would you like to know?" Ron asked as causally as he could. Hermione thought about the question, she certainly was the most advanced in her blood class level, but she wasn't sure how much more advanced from the rest of the other blood classes.

She bit her lip thoughtfully, "What's the most difficult thing you've been taught?" It was a good start. Plus, the different blood classes used different books from one another.

"Oh," began Ron, and he searched his brain for the hardest spell he had yet faced. The spells themselves weren't the big problem, it became difficult when it had to be don non-verbally.

"Well, do you know how to do non verbal spells?"

Hermione shook her head, "No, but I'm guessing it's when you preform a spell without saying the incantation aloud. I've read about them."

"Yeah, pretty much," said Ron, very surprised at the perfect answer. He knew it was going to be hard to teach someone something he barely got the hang of, but she most likely wasn't going to master it on her first try. Most likely. With that on his mind, Ron flipped through the pages of his textbook. He stopped on page 49 and frowned, page 50 had fallen out somewhere. It was then that he became fully aware of what he was holding; an extremely battered hand-me-down book set. The pages we folded and yellow, the binding had broke, and pages were missing. Ron's ears began to burn crimson again.

"Sorry-it looks like the page fell off,"Ron apologized, he expected to see Hermione to be disappointed, but she showed no signs of it.

"That's alright. Honestly, I'm sure I can learn it some other way," Hermione said. The thought of doing magic without saying a word entralled her, it would make her life, and work, much more pleasant.

Although Hermione was ready to move on, Ron was not. Out of nowhere, Ron's wand lit up, his books began to enlarge at an alarming rate, and the carpet beneath them zoomed out of sight. The spontaneity of events caused Hermione to jump.

"Did you just do that?" she asked, itching to try it out herself.

Ron beamed, "Yeah, but it was nothing. Why don't you give it a go?"

Hermione withdrew her wand from her boot.

"Why do you keep it there?" Ron asked, he didn't see the point.

Hermione dropped her gaze to the floor. "I'm not allowed to carry it around all the time," she said quietly. Suddenly her head snapped back up, "You can't tell anyone, Ron. Please. Muggle-borns don't have that...privilege," her voice trailed off. "Purebloods," she muttered.

Ron smirked,"You can say that again,"

"Why? What are you?" she asked. The freckles on his face were starting to distract her. Now that she thought about it, there weren't many gingers in her class.

"Blood-traitor, " Ron replied proudly. Hermione's eyes lit up.

"Really?" he breathed. "So you don't think your superior than us?"

Ron leaned back in surprise. "Of course not." Hermione let that sink in her mind. It was a comforting fact.

"You know, it's against our codes of conduct to be together like this-I've read all codes of conduct too."

The words 'together like this' made Ron uncomfortable.

"My brothers are in the other room if this makes you feel-" Ron blurted.

Hermione laughed lightly. "No, I meant something else. I'm fine, thanks."

"Right-o, so why don't you try?" It took Hermione a moment to register what he was talking about.

"Oh, right."

"So, you sorta, have to focus a bit on-" Ron instructed, but before he got to finish, the water in the jugs were boiling.

"Bloody hell, that was fast! That's brilliant, Ravenclaw," Ron praised, slightly put out that she was much more skillful than he was. The water stopped boiling.

"Excuse me?" Hermione said, crossing her arms over her chest, "What did you just call me?" Hermione had never heard the term before, it did not sound pretty at all and this was coming from a girl who was degraded with words every day. She did not come here to be blindly insulted.

"What? Ravenclaw?" Hermione raised her eyebrows, "Oh, it's just a word that means 'smart', 'wise' you know.. that sort of stuff." Ron scratched the back of his head nervously, " 'Not sure where it came from originally, just sort of a compliment..."

"Well, thank you. Sorry," Hermione apologized, a tinge of pink started forming in her cheeks. Hermione had never been so embarrassed in her life.

Ron shrugged, " 'S all right."

From there they continued the session, and it did not take long for Ron to realize that Hermione had mastered everything he learned a long time ago. It was when Hermione was handing him a few knuts that he formed an idea.

"Keep them. I learned more from you than you did from me," he joked. "In fact, maybe you can even, you know, teach me..." Ron voice faltered.

"I don't see why not," Hermione said thoughtfully.

There was a loud squeaking of stairs and pattering feet as Ginny ran to her brother at the door.

Alarmed, Ron said, "Ginny? What's-"

Ginny raised a hand to silence her Ron and turned her attention towards Hermione.

"Look, I'm sure you're nice and everything from what I over heard, " Hermione smiled," but you need to leave. Now." Ginny said, in a serious and desperate manner.

Flustered, but taking notice of Ginny's urgent tone into account, Hermione grabbed her things as fast as she could.

"What the hell is-"

"The Agency is coming, I can see them from my window. She might get spotted here," Ginny said in a low voice.

"That's fine, I'll leave," Hermione said. "Thanks for the lesson anyway."

"Er- no problem," Ron replied, it was more like an embarrassment for him. And as if Hermione didn't impress Ron enough, she disapparated.

Ron, along with Ginny, stared in disbelief. "She just disapparated. I don't think the pureblood students even know how to do that yet!" Even Ginny had to admit it was an awing sight.

"So where are they?"Ron opened the door and peered over the side. Ginny pulled him back in and slammed the door shut. There was the echo of the slam, then the house be came eerily dead silent.

"I lied. They aren't coming," she whispered, it was something much worse.

Ron turned to face his sister. Ginny, a girl who never showed any signs of worry or fear, had the smallest of tears forming in her eyes. It scared Ron to the bone.

"Ginny," he said calmly and slowly, "What's going on?"

Ginny pushed a strand of her fierce colored hair behind her ear and stared at the floor. Out of her sweater pocket she pulled out an envelope. A black envelope. She held it out to Ron, who took it gingerly. There were wet stains on the front, Ron guessed Ginny had already cried, and she was fighting to hold the rest of it in. But Ron didn't open it. He didn't need to. His family had been receiving them every week now, it seemed. Strangely, this was the first time Ginny reacted to it in such a emotional way and it terrified him. But he knew what the black envelope meant. They all did.

Ron swallowed hard. "Who- who is it?" he asked, when in reality, he didn't want to know at all.

Ginny lifted her head to look her brother in they eye, but she did not have the heart to do it. She hastily wiped away her tears and focused her vision on the envelope.

"It's- it's Mr. and Mrs.- Longbottom," she finally managed to choke out. She was doing her very best to hold herself together. "They took them."

Ron felt like someone had dropped a boulder on his chest and left it there. They took the Longbottoms. Their closest childhood neighbors, the one's they saw every morning and afternoon, the one's who would babysit them when they were younger. The family that they invited over for Thanksgiving and Christmas and birthdays. One of his only best friends, Neville's, parents were kidnapped. Neville was all alone. Without a Mum or Dad there for him. They were gone along with the others. Ron never thought Mr. and Mrs. Longbottom's time was so soon. Ron couldn't help but wonder where was Neville now.

Ron wasn't responding to the news, he was just staying still, staring down at the letter, completely lost. Ginny advanced on him.

"Ron!" Still no answer. She grabbed the envelope Ron dazed at and threw it across the room. She sunk her nails into the arms of his shirt and shook him fiercely. Ron's body couldn't feel the pain, it was numb anyways...

"RON! DO YOU KNOW WHAT THIS MEANS?!" Ginny screamed. Ron could see she was on the verge of a meltdown, and Ginnys' never have meltdowns.

Ron looked away, he couldn't stand meeting his sister's frantic stare.

"Yeah," a clap of thunder rolled over the Burrow, rain drizzled steadily, "it means Mum and Dad are next.

Hope you liked it! ps I really need some OC's, so if you want to submit any please PM me and they will definetly be a part of the story (I suck at OC's). Also, it would absolutely make my day if you reviewed! Did you hate it? Like it? Want to see something else happen? Tell me! (it would make an excellent birthday present!) Stay tuned and thanks for reading! :)

-hsdc