Chapter 20 It's in the Blood
Ron collapsed back into his chair in frustration. He had looked at this stupid piece of paper for days and was no closer to figuring out where Hermione and Harry were.
He scratched the scruff of his three-day beard as he read over the note he already knew by heart.
To Ron and Ginny,
I am so sorry. The same people that took Harry have taken me. We are together and we are safe so long as we cooperate, which we plan to do. They were kind enough to allow me to send you a note so you wouldn't worry.
With all our love,
Hermione and Harry
Ginny was certain there was some sort of code embedded in the note. She had numbered letters and counted words but had yet to break the code if there was one. Their captors, whoever they were, would watch for something like that. Hermione was smart enough to make it impossible for her captors to determine if there was a code, but then he and Ginny might not figure it out.
And cooperate with what? What did they want the two of them to do? He felt he was missing something. Something right in front of him.
Ginny echoed his thoughts when she exclaimed, "What am I missing?"
Ginny was devolving into an absolute mess. Her hair hung in greasy hanks around her face. Her eyes were bloodshot, and Ron was sure she hadn't slept for over two hours at a stretch since Harry went missing. This had to stop. She was slowly killing herself.
"You will not like this, but I think we need to sleep on this."
"You're right," Ginny retorted. "I don't like it. Are you not worried sick about Hermione and Harry? Your wife and your best friend? And you want to sleep while they are being tormented? Forced to do who knows what?"
"I want to find them, too. Just as much as you do. But I need a clear head and so do you. Go shower. Get some sleep. We keep looking at this repeatedly and getting nowhere. We'll take a break and attack it fresh in the morning."
Ginny's lips thinned, but he could see he was getting through to her. She had to be exhausted. She sighed, "OK, but just for a few hours."
"Yell when you are out of the shower, OK?"
Ginny nodded and shuffled towards the stairs. Ron leaned over the table, pinched the bridge of his nose, and tried to clear his mind. His brain had been circling around and around searching for clues and his head ached from the effort. Now his brain was dredging up memories of Hermione he hadn't thought of in ages. Her face when they first met. Her haughty attitude and her frizzy hair had annoyed him at first, but the more he had gotten to know her, the more he had grown to love her, and the more beautiful she had become, even before she had straightened her hair and teeth.
He had been in love with Hermione long before their kiss in the chamber of secrets. He had told himself it was impossible, even scary, to change their relationship. They were friends. Good friends. And he had nothing to offer her. Not really. Harry had everything a girl could want. He had money. He wasn't horrible to look at, and he was famous. Why would she choose him over Harry?
He had realized many years later, he and Ginny had what Hermione and Harry valued over everything else; a family. Harry, because he had never had a real loving family, and Hermione, having given up the only small family she had ever known. Not saying Hermione or Harry didn't love Ron or Ginny. They did wholeheartedly. But there was something special to be wrapped up in the love his mum and dad had lavished on the two of them. His brothers had accepted them as siblings, teasing and protecting them as if they were born to their parents.
"I'm out!" Ginny shouted down the stairs.
Ron cleared the mess of napkins, plates, cups, and mugs that littered the table, piling them high on a tray to take to the kitchen to wash in the morning. His hand knocked over a teacup, causing the contents to spill across the table, soaking the edge of Hermione's note before he could stop it.
"Bloody hell!"
Ron picked up the note by a dry corner and shook it to get remnants of the lukewarm tea to run off. Grabbing a used napkin, he quickly dried the table and laid the note down. He was dabbing lightly at the parchment when letters appeared. Shocked, he stopped and watched as the letters MA bloomed into sight. There was another letter after the A, but he couldn't make it out. The letters MAN developed right below that.
"Ginny! Ginny, come quick!"
