vii: Back on track

The radio blared, but Ron wasn't really listening to Lee Jordan's idle chatter – it was mostly things Bill had told him before, anyway. No, Ron was only interested in the list of the dead and missing. Though he dreaded it, he kind of wanted to get it over with at the same time. Sometimes it was just good to know, so that he could stop worrying. Worrying was pointless; it wouldn't change anything.

Still, he couldn't help wondering how he'd react if he heard his family's names. He knew Bill was okay, but what about Mum, Dad, Fred, George, Ginny, Charlie... or even Percy? It would just feel so wrong, be so hard to take in... it would be like having a missing limb, a hole in his life that could never quite be filled again.

Harry or Hermione, on the other hand... he thought the guilt would just rip him apart. The thought that they could have been caught by the Death Eaters, and Ron wouldn't have been there to at least attempt to stop it, was literally painful. Hermione... he'd had some confusing feelings towards her over the years, but now he was pretty sure that he loved her. And she was so insignificant to the Death Eaters that if they caught her, she'd be dead within the hour. The sickening thought made Ron wish more than ever that he could turn back the clocks and never storm out of the tent that night. And Harry was the best friend he'd ever had, but not only that - he was their only hope of finally ending this war. You-Know-Who would want to parade Harry's capture, to let everyone know who was in charge. And when that was clear, he would be unstoppable. Life would never be the same again.

Finally, the reel of names began, and Ron hardly dared to breathe. They passed the 'g's and the 'p's, and it seemed like an eternity, but eventually they reached the 'w's, and no Weasleys were mentioned.

Ron exhaled; he could relax for another day. He looked out of the window. It was very early on Christmas morning, and the sky was just beginning to lighten. They didn't have snow at Shell Cottage this year, and Ron was kind of glad; it would have brought back all sorts of painful memories of Christmas at Hogwarts. Waking up to a huge pile of presents on the end of his bed, stuffing himself full of Christmas dinner, snowball fights with Harry, Hermione and the twins... it was like a different world.

This year, Christmas would just be like any other day, or maybe even worse than any other day – Bill and Fleur were going to have dinner with Mum and Dad, and clearly Ron couldn't go with them, since his parents still believed he was on the run with the other two. So he'd be spending Christmas Day on his own, just like he'd been spending every other day since he arrived, as Bill and Fleur had to go to work.

Ron felt lost. Bill and Fleur had been wonderful – when Ron had arrived, Bill had been so disappointed in him that they'd barely spoken for a few days, but they'd got over that, and both of them had said that Ron could stay for as long as he needed. However, Ron didn't feel like he could impose himself on them for much longer. They'd just got married, for Merlin's sake, and they'd bought their first house together – they can't have wanted Ron in the middle of it. And besides, his new, monotonous life was going nowhere. Every day was the same, and Ron couldn't see that changing any time soon.

He'd had days when he'd felt like that when they were on the run, and the feelings only increased when he was under the Horcrux's influence. But then there had been Hermione. She was his hope, his light in the midst of darkness, and without her, he sometimes felt he couldn't go on.

The guilt came washing back over him. Here he was, sitting around feeling sorry for himself, while Harry and Hermione were hunting out the Horcruxes which would eventually lead to the death of Lord Voldemort, and the restoration of the Wizarding world to its former glory. How could he have left them?

Suddenly, he heard a name that definitely wasn't a part of the list on the radio.

"Ron."

He jumped – he hadn't thought that Fleur would be up yet.

"Yes?" he replied. When there was no further response, he crossed the room to open the door, but there was nobody there. How odd. He tiptoed down the hall to the master bedroom, and the snores of its occupants were clearly audible.

He made it back to the guest room and was on the verge of dismissing the voice as his imagination when he heard it again.

"Ron."

Unless he was very much mistaken, somehow the voice was coming from inside his pocket. And what's more, it definitely wasn't Fleur's voice.

"Hermione?" he asked in disbelief, as he withdrew the only thing that was in his pocket: the Deluminator.

The voice continued speaking, but Ron was unable to register what it had said; he'd just heard Hermione's voice. His heart went wild – she hadn't come here looking for him, had she? Impossible. And what did the Deluminator have to do with it? He was certain it bore some significance.

He clicked it experimentally, and sure enough, that was exactly the right thing to do.

The guest room was plunged into darkness, and an otherworldly blue light illuminated the garden. Somehow, and he didn't know why, Ron knew that the pulsing light would lead him to Hermione.

Hardly able to contain his excitement, Ron gathered his few worldly possessions and shoved them into his rucksack. He took one final look around the room and hurried down to the garden, direction in his life for the first time in months.

A/N: I've been wanting to write this for a while, but I've been lacking in inspiration lately so I'm glad I finally managed to get this published! I hope you liked it, despite the shortage of Romioneness.

This is for the prompt "lost" on the OTP Boot Camp, and also Track Cycling on the 2012 Hogwarts Games.