Chapter 5: Understanding (Ron)
"He has depression" Hermione said sadly, as they sat at the breakfast table. Over the past few days, the three had barely talked. Harry was busy with planning, Hermione was trying to recover from the torture, and Ron was spending time helping Bill. "Who?" I asked curiously, she looked down and said "Charles,". There was silence for a minute, "How do you know?" Harry said in a concerned tone. "Well…" Hermione muttered "Last night he had a night terror and I had to calm him down" she paused. "And the other day he said he didn't feel like eating." She thought for a moment. "And it's fairly obvious, considering his mother died when he was five, and he was tortured by Bellatrix." she said plainly. My stomach growled, I got up, headed in the kitchen and heated up some of the leftover steak with my wand.
"Why is it you're always eating?" she asked, sounding rather annoyed. "This is serious" she said "I need to figure out how to make Charles happy" she frowned. Inbetween bites of steak I muttered "Terk tuh huum" Hermione glared at me "What?" she said, rather puzzled. "Talk to him" I repeated while swallowing, "About what?" she asked "The torture." I explained. She stared blankly. "The thing is, it's really hard to get him to open up" she said, disappointed "Just give him some candy, that always opened me up" I said, remembering my old fondness of chocolate frog cards. "And if all else fails, show him your scar." Harry said plainly. Hermione instantly looked down at her arm. I got up, sat next to her and put my arm around her back. "I'm sorry" I muttered in a depressed tone. A tear fell from my eyes into her hair. I smelled her hair, and got lost in the faint scent of jasmine and fresh parchment. "Ron." Hermione said, "Do you have any sweets" I awoke from the trance "I think so, let me go check" I went up into my room to check my bag. I looked through every pocket until I found a small stash of Chocolate Frogs and Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans. I grabbed two of each and headed back downstairs. When I got down to the living room I saw Hermione standing, looking out the window at Charles, who was sitting on the beach looking down at the sand.
"Here" I said, handing her the candy. "I hope he's ok" she said, her expression blank. I hugged her "He's not" I said "But you can make him better."