The Man Who Wasn't Thereen-usEA19E59059

The Man Who Wasn't There

by

Solstice muse

Table of Contents

Prologue
Chapter 1. Visions
Chapter 2. Talking In Your Sleep
Chapter 3. Spirited Away
Chapter 4. Passion
Chapter 5. Two Kinds of Dough
Chapter 6. Ron Unlimited
Chapter 7. The Recovery Position
Chapter 8. Into The Arms of Death
Chapter 9. Waking The Dead
Chapter 10. Lazarus
Chapter 11. Food For Thought
Chapter 12. Those You Leave Behind
Chapter 13. Tearing My World Apart
Chapter 14. Clouding Your Mind
Chapter 15. Clearing Your Head
Chapter 16. Dizzy
Chapter 17. The Battle of Pevensy
Chapter 18. Recharging
Chapter 19. Reunions
Chapter 20. Pest Control
Chapter 21. Back From The Dead
Chapter 22. Soul Transfer
Chapter 23. See You on the Other Side
Chapter 24. Through the Foe Glass
Chapter 25. An Open Invitation
Epilogue

The Man Who Wasn't There

(A Companion piece to 'Lost in Parasomnia')

A/N I will attempt to keep the narrative as independent of the original as possible but still recommend to new readers who stumble upon this fic to first read Lost In Parasomnia...if for nothing else then to enjoy the most evil cliff-hanger I've ever written (and this is the woman who actually had Ron jump off a cliff in one of her fics!) So please enjoy and if you are one of the wonderful souls who review it would be a great help if you could tell me whether you are reading this pre or post LIP, although this obviously doesn't apply to my regulars, thanks a lot!

Dedication - This is for Wayne and Amy in Australia.

The people who make the biggest difference in our lives are the ones you least expect. So for everybody who loves and relates to Ron Weasley...this is yours as well. Shari

Introduction

"C'mon Ronniekins, time to go walkies!"

"He's not a dog!"

"He knows I'm only teasing."

"Well be nice about it, we've only got half an hour and we need him to be in a good mood so he just comes with us and doesn't ask more questions."

"I hate it when you make a valid point."

"Ah well it's a foreign concept to you isn't it?"

He was trying to ignore them, he really was, just like him mummy had told him to. Ignore them and they'll go away she would always say after tucking him into bed at night and he would always frown and ask her 'ignore who?' and she would just look sad and kiss him goodnight. Now he knew what she had been talking about. They were here and they were trying to wake him up. He had been awake ever since the twins arrived and he tried to stay as still as possible and keep his eyes closed and hoped that they would go away as promised.

"Molls," one of the twins grumbled, "she's working on him before he goes to bed, I told you she'd notice straight away."

"Well you've hardly been subtle with him have you? We never get caught when I'm showing him the way."

"No but we get lost!"

Ron had enough of this, he let out a frustrated growl, like a baby fox cub attempting ferocity for the first time in its life, and opened his eyes and sat up in bed.

"Go away!" he grumbled.

The pair of bickering red heads turned to look at him and their faces lit up.

"Ah there you are little man Prewitt, nice of you to join us this evening, come on get out of bed and follow me."

The twins moved to the bedroom door and waited eagerly for him to join them. He knew who they were but couldn't quite work out why they were here. He also knew that he couldn't get out of bed even if he had wanted to, his mother had put several charms on the bed and on the room as a whole to prevent him from going on his night time wanders, and he decided to point this out to his over enthusiastic uncles.

"But mum's done magic on me so I can't go sleepwalking anymore, I have to stay here."

Fabian Prewitt let out a huff and turned to his twin brother with annoyance.

"Why is she doing this Gids? She knows it's us, she knows we'd look after him, we have been looking after him."

Gideon Prewitt was about to respond to his brother when Ron pushed back the covers and sat up a little more before interrupting him.

"Uncle Fabian," the twins looked at their little nephew and Fabian smiled.

"What is it Ronnie?" he asked while his brother looked annoyed at all this time wasting.

"Mummy told me you were dead."

He kept the same smile on his face and nodded.

"Yeah Ron, we both are."

"But I'm talking to you."

Fabian smiled again, a little broader this time, and took a step closer.

"That's because we're special, the three of us, mummy's family are special people and we can do things like that. We can break wards and charms without wands as well see?" Fabian waved his hand and nodded at Ron to do the same with his.

A swirl of magical power flowed from Fabian into Ron and he sent it out through his fingertips and felt the charms on himself and the door dissolve.

"Wow!" he gasped.

"Now I can explain it to you some more if you like but we need to take you outside and show you something."

"Yeah Ronnie," Gideon said, smiling at Ron himself now and extending his hand in Ron's direction, "we're going to go looking for buried treasure!"

Ron grinned and bounced off the bed.

"Like pirates?" he said, the Weasley sense of adventure and the Prewitt gift mingling into one unstoppable eight year old boy.

"Yeah," Gideon grinned, as if finally seeing the person he wanted to see before his eyes instead of the confused little mummy's boy he had been letting Fabian deal with up to this point, "but we need you to help us find it Ron, you're the only one who can help us find the treasure and make your family rich and happy. You don't like being poor do you Ronnie?"

Ron was shaking his head sadly while Fabian scowled and hissed at his brother.

"Gids that's not nice, she's doing her best you know that."

"Well it isn't good enough Fabian!" Ron jumped as he saw his uncle Gideon snap back at his twin before putting the smile back on his face and bending over to talk to Ron again, "Mummy wants us to help her, and for us to be able to help her you need to help us, and you want to help mummy don't you Ron?"

Ron nodded and walked over to the bedroom door to let the three of them out.

"Low Gids," Fabian was saying, "you're sinking low these days."

"We want to find our stash as soon as possible and we can't keep talking to him as often as we have been...you know what'll happen."

"We agreed never to go past fifteen nights, play it extra safe 'cause he's only a kid, we agreed on that Gids."

Ron opened the door and watched his uncles arguing over him before one of them glanced out the door and jumped with shock.

"Do you seriously think I'd...Whoa shit!" Gideon flinched.

"Um Ron can you look out into the hall and say the words 'go to bed' for me please?" Fabian asked the bewildered little boy calmly.

Ron didn't know what was going on but followed the instructions nevertheless.

"Go to bed."

He looked back at his uncles for their approval and Fabian nodded and smiled. Gideon bent over and whispered to him.

"Pretend its Ginny standing there and she wants to come with us. We don't want her to come and we don't want her to tell on us for going so make her think you're just going for a glass of water ok?"

Ron nodded and looked back out at the empty hallway and tried to picture Ginny in front of him, bugging him to know what was going on.

"I'm going to get a glass of water, go back to bed and leave me alone, and don't wake anybody. Be quiet."

Gideon beamed.

"Good boy. Now come on, let's go."

He felt warm hands around his shoulders and he heard his mother screaming, that was what made Ron finally decide to open his eyes.

"Blankets, quickly Percy, and Arthur give me your coat!"

He saw brilliant white everywhere around him and felt himself being lifted up and smothered in warm dry fabric. That was when he realised that he was actually very cold and quite wet. He wanted to ask his mother what was going on but he couldn't speak, he could only shiver.

"Mummy is he dead? I'm sorry mummy, he told me he was getting a drink and not to tell anyone, he's not dead is he?" Ginny's voice was filled with tears and sniffles.

"Fred, George, I told you to keep her inside!" Ron heard his mother screech while his body began to bob along rapidly, he thought he was being carried.

"We heard you screaming and...Mum he's not dead is he?" George asked, sounding far away.

Ron's eyes were heavy and he tried to sink further into the blanket that was wrapped tightly around him to sleep and he jerked up and down quite harshly. Whoever was carrying him was obviously running now.

"Get her back inside boys," Ron's father's voice made him jump as it yelled out directly above him, "light a fire and one of you floo St Mungo's and ask for a mediwizard to come to the Burrow immediately."

"I'll do it dad," Percy's voice said and Ron didn't want to stay awake any more.

"Ron! Ron, it's dad," he felt himself being shaken and opened his eyes, they were inside the Burrow now, he was beside a roaring fire and his mother and Ginny were both crying in another room somewhere, "Ron stay awake for me please, just until the mediwizard gets here, can you do that for me?"

Ron tried to nod but his eyes were closing again.

"Oi Ron, the Chudley Cannons are crap!" one of the twins shouted out and he blinked and looked around the room for them but could only see his father's face looking down at him.

"That's it Ron, that's my boy, why'd you go wandering off in the snow like that eh? You're freezing cold," his father smiled and began to rub Ron's arms and legs vigorously.

"D-D-Dad?" he tried to speak, to find out what on earth was going on? The last thing he remembered was snuggling into his bed and promising his mother he would ignore anybody who tried to wake him up.

"That's it son, you're going to be ok, you'll just have a nasty cold for a little while won't you? You're fine, everything's going to be fine," his father was beginning to shake now.

Ron wondered whether his father was cold too and tried to share his blanket with him.

"No no you keep yourself covered up, keep yourself nice and warm there and Percy'll be here with the mediwizard any second now."

As soon as his father had spoken those words the fireplace blazed green and Percy and a healer Ron had seen before when part of his tongue had been burnt away by one of the twin's pranks stepped out and brushed themselves down.

"Arthur, your boy tells me he's been out there all night, have you tried to warm him?"

Ron felt more warm hands on his skin and looked at Percy who was trying to smile at him before his eyelids felt heavy again.

"Just blankets and we lit the fire but Molly was saying something about not warming him too fast...his heart, she said something about stopping his heart so we waited."

"Good, she was right, here let me see him properly."

Ron felt the warmth of the coat and the blankets leave him and his ever present shiver worsened.

"My word, he wasn't out there dressed like this was he?" the healer gasped.

"He was sleepwalking, he was barefoot in the snow and I've been rubbing his feet but they're awfully pale, is there something I can do to...?" Ron's father asked frantically before being interrupted.

"Why don't you set him down for me and take the children next door with their mother? I'll get started and you can look after the rest of your family alright Arthur?"

Ron felt a hand linger upon his own and he drifted off to sleep again.

He only heard one thing while he was sleeping off his hypothermia that day.

"Oh shit Gids, what did we do?"

"If we weren't dead already Molls would kill us."

Chapter One - Visions

"Surculus!" Ron said as he aimed his wand at the bare patch of earth before him and watched as a small crop of onions began to grow.

He sat back and looked into the pot that was bubbling away with a rich tomato sauce that was thickening quite nicely if he did think so himself before he felt her eyes on him again.

"What?" he asked and noticed that she blushed as she realised that he'd caught her staring again.

"It's nothing, I just wish I could help that's all, not that you need help or anything. You're really good at this aren't you?" Hermione said as she fiddled around with the sleeping bags she had just arranged on the floor of the old barn for the third time.

"Well bread's still a bit of an issue; you could give that a go if you want."

Ron watched as Hermione reached over to a small rock at her side and tossed it over to him, he caught it in his left hand and felt a little pleased with himself, which was the quiddich keeper in him, he wasn't ambidextrous but he was pretty good with his left hand these days.

"I already did," she said glumly, "I think I could give Hagrid a run for his money in the cookery stakes."

Ron laughed and banged the solid as stone ball of uncooked dough against the wall and tossed it away.

"Well it's no better or worse than anything I've managed bread-wise is it?" he shrugged and began to unearth the fully grown onions.

Hermione shifted over to sit beside him and leant against his side slightly.

"Well at least you can grow food; of all the things they taught us at Hogwarts I can't believe we never covered growing vegetation from scratch, not even in herbology."

Ron thought about this for a moment before dicing the onions with a flick of his wand and sending them flying into the tomato sauce.

"Well herbology's more about cultivation and upkeep isn't it? This is more like household transfiguration and McGonagall's more into making wood into glass and daisy chains into necklaces isn't she?"

"I suppose," she sighed and rested her head upon his shoulder.

"I always put it down to her being a spinster myself," Ron mused as he surreptitiously smelled Hermione's hair beneath his nose.

"Ron!" Hermione tried not to laugh as she nudged him in the ribs for what he had just said, "That is so sexist to put a witch's avoidance of teaching household spells down to her being single. And spinster is such a cruel word."

"It's the correct word Hermione, don't blame me for the English language," he tried not to smirk as he turned his attention back to the earth again, "and besides, you're a spinster too aren't you?"

She shoved him and he chuckled wickedly as she pounced on him and scowled down into his face while holding his wrists over his head with her hands.

"I am an independent woman I'll have you know Ronald Weasley and not a forlorn single reject who could never get a man!"

He was still laughing as he watched her grow suddenly uncomfortable with the position she had put them in and was about to pull back when Ron leaned in and brushed against her lips with his own. She froze and stared down at him, still pinning him beneath her, and smiled.

"Besides, I already have a man don't I?"

He watched her move in for a real kiss and whispered.

"Apparently so."

The sound of grumbling outside the door and the alohamora charm opening the door to the barn made Ron and Hermione leap away from each other and try to appear as if nothing had happened.

"I tried and I got moss," Harry said with annoyance as he closed and locked the barn door behind him, "if you want mushrooms Ron you'll have to do them yourself I'm afraid."

Hermione had her face turned away from the both of them and set about straightening the three sleeping bags yet again while Ron flicked his wand and stirred the pot again.

"Don't worry about it mate, I'll go and conjure some now if you watch over the pot for me," Ron said as he got to his feet, ears burning on either side of his head.

"No no," Hermione suddenly sprang to her feet, "Let me try, after all my bread was pretty useless wasn't it and I'd like to contribute to at least one meal we have during this quest of ours."

They both watched as Hermione grabbed her wand and rushed from the barn as if the place was on fire. Harry turned and stared at Ron who purposefully concentrated on his sauce.

"You could boil me some water if you like, I'll whip us up some spaghetti in a sec," Ron said as he fought to appear as normal as he could and not at all horny and embarrassed.

"Ron?" Harry asked with a suspicious tone.

Shit!

"Yeah?" Ron tried to sound as nonchalant as possible.

"Have you and Hermione had another row?"

He hadn't expected Harry to read their behaviour that way and turned back to face him with genuine surprise.

"Um...yeah we did, that's it, and she's annoyed at me 'cause I called her a spinster."

"What did you do that for?"

"Well I called McGonagall a spinster actually, then Hermione just sort of applied it to herself...it's her fault really."

Harry laughed and shook his head before moving across to an empty bucket and filing it with water from the end of his wand and setting about boiling it up for Ron.

"So we're having spaghetti are we?" he asked as Ron wove the complicated pasta spell while making it look like nothing at all.

"Yup, I went a bit overboard on the tomatoes didn't I so I figured I'd thicken them right up and we'd have a decent pasta sauce."

Harry smiled.

"Your mother would be proud."

Ron lowered his eyes and felt that familiar friend guilt sitting upon his shoulders once again.

"She didn't seem too proud when I told her I was ditching school in my N.E.W.T. year to go and fight you-know-who did she?"

Harry didn't answer, there wasn't anything he could say to that, a devastated Molly Weasley was not something you could ever just shrug off and he had been the cause of her latest devastation, so he believed anyway, and the two of them continued their dinner preparations in silence until Hermione came back. She looked exceptionally proud of herself as she set several odd looking mushrooms down before Ron.

"Who says you have to be a Weasley to conjure your own fungus?" she beamed.

"Well Neville wouldn't say that? Have you seen that infection on his feet? Yuech!" Ron shuddered and Harry laughed.

Hermione simply rolled her eyes and created a makeshift dining area for the three of them as Ron threw the mushrooms into the pot and stirred.

It was only five minutes or so after they had sat back to relax after cleaning their plates that they noticed the change. Harry was staring into the middle distance with such ferocious concentration that Ron found himself mesmerised by him and couldn't look away, not even when Hermione suddenly blurted out of the blue a response to a question nobody had asked.

"I didn't say anything," she frowned and looked from Ron to Harry and back again.

"I never said you did," Ron thought he heard himself saying in reply, he looked shocked, "did I say that without moving my lips?"

"I can see your mouth moving," Harry said, still looking deep in concentration.

Ron shuddered.

"But you're not even looking at me, you're watching me without looking, you're watching me with your inner eye and I'm talking without talking! Is my mouth," Ron put his fingers to his lips and felt for them warily, "is my mouth still there?"

Harry took a deep breath in and forced his eyes closed while Hermione looked panicked.

"Put your hands up when you're talking," she demanded of them, "I can't tell the difference between your talking and me thinking."

Ron looked amazed and grabbed her arm with wonder.

"Neither can I!"

Harry's eyes flew open wide and he looked frightened.

"She's thinking in your head? Where are you thinking? Are you in my head? Am I thinking at all?"

"Stop," Ron said, getting to his feet and looking quite surprised that he had done it, "everybody stop thinking!"

The three of them froze and seemed to be listening for something.

"I need to blink," Hermione suddenly said after a long pause.

"You can blink," Ron nodded before licking his lips to make sure they were still there.

"I can't blink without thinking Ron, it's impossible, I'm thinking about blinking!" she jabbered.

"Only because it rhymes," Ron said as he staggered backwards and steadied himself against the wall of the barn, "you're not thinking about breathing are you and you're still doing that."

Hermione's hands slammed onto her chest and she looked frantic with worry.

"But now I am thinking about it, what if I stop thinking and forget to keep doing it?"

Ron turned around and faced the wooden planks of the wall of the barn; he shook his head as if he was getting dizzy and Harry opened his eyes and looked upwards to the roof uneasily.

"I think the roof is falling," he said as then looked shocked as if it had been somebody else who had spoken.

"Why are you thinking?" Hermione snapped, "I thought we all agreed to stop, and how do you know it's even your thought Harry? How do you know?"

"But the sky is getting bigger outside and the roof is coming down, why is that happening Hermione?"

"The sky isn't getting bigger Harry," Ron said quietly as he leaned in closer to the wall and squinted, "it's because you're sitting down, you're further away from it. If you stand up you'll see the difference."

Hermione felt sick and bent forward, all the way over, and set her forehead upon the dirty ground.

"That doesn't make any sense," she said with a voice that sounded as if she was trapped in a huge glass bottle, "standing just makes the sky closer not bigger."

"But he's right," Harry nodded enthusiastically, "because if you look at a flock of sheep from far away they just look like little white dots but if you look at them close up they're huge. They're bigger the closer you are, just like the sky, Ron's right."

Ron was still staring at the splintered wood in front of him and felt uneasy.

"Ron?" Harry called up to his standing friend.

"Ron come back to the floor," Hermione whimpered, still resting her head on the floor.

Ron was beginning to get paranoid now.

"The wood's still alive, I can see it growing, they chopped it up and built a barn but it didn't die!"

"Oh that's so cruel," Hermione squealed before bursting into tears.

"It's listing to us," Ron said, finally turning around to face his two friends, "keep your voices down otherwise all the trees will know our secrets."

Harry staggered to his feet and drew his wand at the barn wall.

"I'll teach it to keep its mouth shut!"

"No!" Hermione screamed, "It's been through enough, leave it alone."

"Shhhhh!" Ron said, waving his arms urgently, "the barn's turning us against each other, that's what it wants. We need to pack up and go somewhere else, somewhere made of stone."

Harry gripped Ron's arms and stared deep into his eyes.

"Are you sure we can trust stone Ron?"

Ron nodded slowly.

"Stone is good."

Hermione was still crying on the floor.

"But I just got the sleeping bags laid out all nicely; we can't disturb them and move now."

"Hermione we've all got to leave before it all comes crashing down!" Harry said as if he was trying to alert the whole wizarding world that the apocalypse was imminent.

Ron crouched down and looked at Hermione with deep sincerity.

"I've got to keep my lips Hermione, because if I don't I won't be able to talk, and my mouth will just be this big gaping hole in my face!"

"Oh no," Hermione gasped before flinging her arms around him and hugging him tightly.

"We're going and we're going now," Harry bellowed to every wall of the barn, "and you can't follow us. I can make fire you know?"

Ron started laughing and Harry and Hermione turned on him with wide eyes.

"What's so funny?" Harry asked.

Ron shook his head and sighed with a slight giggle.

"I don't know."

"It's affected his mind," Harry said to Hermione with warning, "we'll be next."

"Let's just disapparate and start new lives!" Hermione said hopelessly, "I can't take this anymore."

"No," Harry said, standing up straight and raising his finger as if he was about to deliver a great speech, "we have a mission, and as soon as remember what that mission is we will get out there and do it!"

Ron was still laughing as he clapped Harry on the back.

"I'm with you mate, we have to stop the trees from...the thing they are trying to do."

Harry looked at his amused friend with sad eyes.

"And we'll save you Ron, I swear on my own life as well as Hermione's."

Ron's face suddenly fell and he gasped.

"Why what's happened to me?"

Harry shook his head and looked away hopelessly.

"You've lost your mind."

"But I just had it a minute ago!" Ron said as he looked about his feet, as if expecting to find his mind had fallen out of his pocket and landed somewhere on the floor.

"We can restore your mind Ron, and your lips, and anything else you might have lost. I will make sure the evil doesn't eat you all away."

"Why am I getting eaten and not anybody else?" Ron asked a little hurt at being picked on.

Hermione looked him in the eye and answered him, as if it was the most logical explanation in the world.

"Because you taste so good."

And as Ron cursed his appetising existence Hermione was violently sick on the floor and Harry began to giggle uncontrollably. Ron felt very dizzy and the barn began to spin and rock at the same time. Then everything was silent and everything was black.

ooo

As they marched across the muddy field they couldn't look at each other. None of them had spoken a word and nobody had dared to eat breakfast either. It had been worked out between the three of them that Hermione's mushrooms weren't quite the variety needed in cooking. They had been following a half-hearted charm of Harry's that was supposed to lead them in the direction of one of the missing horcruxes but it didn't seem to be of much use.

They found a cave and settled down for a rest and to have a drink. It was only then that they had anything like a conversation since waking up that morning.

"Look I'm sorry ok," Hermione said stiffly, "but Ron's the one who just threw them in the pot without even checking them first, they could've been poisoned y'know?"

"So it's my fault that you conjured magic mushrooms is it?" Ron snapped.

"I didn't say that Ronald."!

"I can transfigure perfectly edible and non hallucinogenic mushrooms myself but no, you wanted to help because you just can't stand that I can do something better than you can you?" Ron hissed as he threw off his back pack and lay flat on the cave floor.

"Oh here it is, the ego come out again," Hermione scoffed, "you finally found the one thing you're good at and I never hear the end of it."

"Oh come on Hermione that's a bit harsh isn't it?" Harry sighed as he leaned against the cave wall, "And you Weasley don't give her such a hard time, you know she doesn't like to freeload and just wanted to pull her weight."

Ron let out a huff from his spot on the ground and rubbed his head with his hands.

"Oh don't try to reason with him Harry, he's Merlin's gift to wizardry now didn't you know? When we're doing battle with Voldemort he'll be around the corner knocking together a nice quiche."

Harry closed his eyes and waited for the inevitable row to escalate but it never came and he opened his eyes again to see Hermione looking concerned and leaning over Ron.

"Ron are you sure you're alright?" she asked him, her tone entirely different to the one she had been using just moments before.

"Yeah, it's just a bit of a headache that's all," he mumbled as he sat up again.

Hermione felt his forehead with her palm.

"Are you sure, you do look awfully pale you know?"

He smiled as he shrugged off her concern.

"As opposed to the bronze Adonis you're used to eh?"

She smiled and Ron noticed Harry staring at them as if he was catching on to something he had been looking for in his friends for quite some time now and Hermione decided to return to the topic in hand.

"Well I'm sorry, about just now and about last night, that was all a little bit scary and I think I'll take a backseat as far as the cooking goes from now on, as long as you don't think you're being taken advantage of Ron."

Ron raised an eyebrow and swallowed the smart-arse comment he felt his instincts yelling at him to deliver.

"Yeah well, I'm sorry too, I've got to let this need to bicker with you go if we're ever going to be of any help to Harry on this trip."

They both looked to Harry who smiled.

"Thanks guys but I think I'd worry if you started being overly polite to each other."

"Right so let's get settled in, I'll have another crack at cooking us something that won't send us do-lally and we can try to come up with something to help us find these bloody horcruxes, what do you say?" Ron said, seeming to have shaken off his headache now.

"There's a plan," Harry smiled.

ooo

"Ronald, Ronald wake up."

Ron's body felt heavy and he groaned as he turned over in his sleeping bag.

"I've come to help you help Harry. Now please get up and come with me."

Ron opened his bleary eyes and glanced over to the source of the voice and sat bolt upright on seeing his dead headmaster standing in the mouth of the cave smiling at him.

"Professor Dumbledore?" he gasped.

Dumbledore put his long finger to his lips and shushed Ron with a smile.

"We don't want to disturb Harry and Miss Granger do we?"

Ron shook his head and began to wriggle out of his sleeping bag.

"I was planning on introducing myself last night but you were in no fit state for visitors I'm afraid."

Ron was about to protest that last night wasn't his fault but again Dumbledore pressed his fingers to his lips and gestured for Ron to join him outside. Ron walked toward the mouth of the cave, tripping over something along the way and stopped to see Dumbledore's smiling face looking him up and down.

"Ah when Molly told me of your gift I was surprised but at the same time it seemed perfectly obvious, you always were a little more Prewitt than your brothers and sister weren't you?"

Again Ron was about to answer and question his former headmaster but was rendered silent by the man's raised hand and affectionate smile.

"The very thing that you always thought made you different from all your siblings was in fact the secret to your unique gift. You aren't like William and Charlie are you? Nothing like Percival and there are no other wizards like the twins. Then there's your sister and she is a whole other kind of Weasley altogether...a woman. Most Weasley women become so through marriage, she's a real rarity. Where did that leave you Ronald? It left you with the gift that nobody ever spoke of and that nobody can ever know of. You can communicate with those like myself who know where to find you."

Dumbledore began to walk away towards the woods Ron followed and listened.

"Of course your mother swore me to secrecy and made me promise never to visit you once I myself had passed but here I am now breaking that promise and possibly her heart when she finds out...and she will Ronald, she will find out what I have done and it pains me to think of the confusion my future visits will cause you as I help guide you to the remaining horcruxes of Lord Voldemort. Yes Ronald, which is why I broke my promise, there is a greater good that needs our help and we start work today dear boy."

Ron suddenly felt a force against his chest and stopped in his tracks.

"Ah it appears we haven't been as discreet as I would have hoped, oh well, this night was never about the first step. I simply wanted to explain myself to you just this once, despite the fact you will never remember my explanation, I still felt you were owed one."

Ron felt himself being tugged back toward the cave and felt more confused then he had during the mushroom episode the previous night, was this something to do with that he wondered.

"Don't fight them Ron, it's your friends, they are taking you back to the cave. You're quite safe, let them lead you."

Ron let himself turn and be pulled towards the cave again, he saw Dumbledore waiting for him back at the mouth with a smile on his lips.

"You will forget this all in the morning Ronald. I will never be able to do anything about that but I just needed to show you the courtesy of asking your permission before beginning the great journey to stop Lord Voldemort. Do I have your permission Ronald?"

As Ron felt himself being laid back down upon his sleeping bag he gave a slight nod to Dumbledore as he smiled a smile of gratitude and stepped away from the cave and out of sight. It didn't feel as if he had left Ron though, he was still around somewhere, he lay and stared at the cave wall and thought about what the old wizard had said to him. He would forget it all. He would see him again and forget that too. he would be helping Harry in more ways than just feeding him though and that felt good.

He didn't need to remember he helped out to want to go ahead and do it. This wasn't about helping to get the credit for the victory, it was about helping his friend when he needed it most, and he didn't need anything other than the hope that they would win this seemingly impossible battle to send him off into a contented sleep at last. Dumbledore was gone now, the memory faded, and he was just Ron again.

Just like it always was.

ooo

"Crustum!"

Ron watched as his latest attempt to conjure a loaf of bread came close but failed yet again and hissed to himself with annoyance.

"Bollocks!"

"No yeast again?" the sleepy voice of his best friend croaked from across the cave, making him jump.

He sighed and shook his head, annoyed but not the least bit surprised that he still hadn't managed to do it yet.

"I'm missing something, it should already have yeast in it, I just can't get it to rise."

He knocked on the solid bread with his knuckles and felt a wave of disappointment at how badly this attempt had gone.

"Speaking of which," Harry was sitting up with some effort, he looked exhausted, "you seemed pretty eager to rise yourself in the middle of the night."

Ron almost gagged on his own horror; he didn't go all tent pole in front of his best mate did he? Did Hermione see? Oh Merlin please don't let Hermione have seen it.

"No not that!" Harry said as he finally realised what he had just said was being read the wrong way, "You were sleepwalking."

Ron only felt relieved for a fraction of a second. Sleepwalking; this wasn't good news. Why had he done that again after all these years? Had he hurt anybody? He didn't remember anything about his childhood sleeping disorder but he knew he'd almost died because of it once, he also knew he'd upset a lot of his family while like that and he didn't want to have Harry and Hermione look at him the way his mother had that last time; especially not Hermione.

"Has something like that ever happened to you before Ron because in all the years I've shared a room with you you've never done it once."

Ron stared down at the solid lump of anything but bread he had before him and tapped it to transfigure it into porridge. Harry quickly transfigured some bowls for it while Ron levitated it in waiting. The oats hung in the air just like Harry's question and as Ron served the porridge he decided to be honest with his best friend.

"Not for years, I used to wake up in the strangest places but I never remembered doing it." Ron thought back to the very last time he had an attack of sleepwalking and everything had gone very badly indeed, he shuddered internally, "Apparently I punched George once."

"Really?"

"They tell me I'm quite strong when it happens. It used to make Ginny cry, I look a bit scary when I'm like that so I'm told, but I haven't done that since..." he thought back, it must be ten years or so now, such a long time ago, why was it happening to him again after all this time, "...before Hogwarts. Bloody hell years before Hogwarts. I really did it again?"

Harry nodded.

"I can see why it used to upset Ginny mate, it was as if you weren't...in there."

Ron felt sick, this wasn't the first time he had been told this, Fred and George had said something similar to him and it had chilled him to the bone. He hung his head.

"Sorry."

"It's not your fault," Ron looked up to see that Hermione had woken and been listening to their conversation, "although I'd like to request your permission to tie you up tonight just to be on the safe side."

Ron looked down at Hermione, still snuggled up inside her sleeping bag with her eyes closed and he raised an eyebrow at her little innuendo, he also had a mini flashback to the previous day when she had him pinned and they had been about to kiss. Harry seemed to be trying to swallow a laugh unsuccessfully and Hermione suddenly sounded very stern as she spoke again.

"And I don't even have to bother opening my eyes to know you've got that look on your face Ronald Weasley."

Ron looked at Harry and they smiled before shaking their heads and eating their portions of porridge.

"You know there is one thing that Hermione and I really need to know Ron?"

He didn't like the sound of this; he swallowed the mouthful of porridge and frowned.

"What's that then?"

"Do you know if you can be woken, is it ok to do it I mean?"

Hermione sat up and shook the grit from her hair.

"He wants to know that it's safe."

"Um," Ron stalled for time, he had to tell them, it was important that they understand but at the same time he didn't want to go into all of that again, he never wanted to remember how everybody looked at him that last time, "it's best if you don't."

"Why do you say that?" Hermione asked.

He knew it would be her; it had to be her didn't it? She always wanted to know the worst things about people so she could tell them that they weren't so bad at all. This was bad though, and he didn't even know why.

"Well it's just that Fred and George did it once and...mum said that I shouldn't ever be woken from it after that."

Ron realised that he had been looking at his hands this whole time, unable to meet their eyes, and he knew that he'd have to look up at them sometime soon.

"Do you remember what happened?"

"I never remember anything about it when it happens," Ron said as he shook his head, he still couldn't look at them.

He would have to tell them how awful he could become, so awful that his own mother...

"But you were woken up, do you remember waking up?" Hermione pushed for information, always after the little details as ever.

He couldn't take this anymore, he got to his feet and tried his hardest not to snap at her.

"I don't remember anything about anything, I'm just telling you both what I've been told."

He was feeling cornered all of a sudden and headed towards the mouth of the cave to get some air. It was just a fluke that he had done it again, something to do with the mushroom things before, this wasn't going to start happening again. This couldn't start happening again. Hermione was running after him and he knew she wasn't going to let him off that easily.

"Wait what's wrong? You can tell us Ron, we just want to know how to deal with you if it ever happens again."

Don't snap at her, don't make her cry, don't start another argument. Don't be a prat.

He turned to face her; he forced a cheerful grin onto his face and made himself look her in the eye. He gave her what he hoped was a carefree shrug.

"It won't happen again. It hasn't happened for ten years, it won't happen for another ten, you don't have to worry about it."

Ron nodded over Hermione's shoulder to her full bowl of porridge in an attempt to distract her attention away from him for a second or two at least.

"Eat up Hermione, it'll go cold."

He saw his two worried friends exchanging a look and turned to try to leave again but Hermione grabbed at his sleeve and pulled him back.

"Should I send an owl to your mother and ask her how to deal with it?" Hermione said with determination.

Ron couldn't quite believe how low she was prepared to stoop in order to bully the truth of his condition out of him and silently seethed as he warned her off going down that particular road.

"Don't you dare go upsetting my mother."

Harry got to his feet now, Ron was being well and truly cornered by his friends and he didn't like it one little bit.

"Why can't you trust us?" Harry said, his voice betraying his hurt and anger.

Ron knew that they'd never let this go unless he told them everything he knew. They didn't care if he wanted to forget it all and pretend that it never happened. They wanted the truth and there was nothing he could say to avoid giving it to them. He slumped in defeat and gave them both a look of apology while shaking his head.

"I don't know what I did ok? I did something and they wouldn't tell me what it was and it made mum cry...for three days..." Ron felt his voice waved and he tried to keep it together as he went on, "she wouldn't even look at me."

He couldn't bare the looks on their faces, he saw them both imagining what awful things he might have done to turn his own mother against him, and he bowed his head and wished he had lied to them instead. Hermione grabbed him and hugged him tightly. She really did amaze him sometimes.

"It's ok; we won't try to wake you if it ever happens again I promise, we just wanted to be prepared that's all."

Ron hugged Hermione back as she said this and then quickly broke away from her and took a step back. He couldn't cause a scene, he didn't want to lose it in front of anybody and it was the last thing Harry needed right now, he looked at Hermione who looked pained that he had backed-off and felt that he owed her something more.

"Dad told me it wasn't my fault. He kept saying it wasn't me, I wasn't myself when I woke up," he could tell that Hermione had taken his opening up a little more as a sign that she could embrace him again and he couldn't take that again without breaking down so he stepped back again, something which seemed to break her heart, so he rapidly continued, "and that I shouldn't feel guilty about upsetting mum."

"Ron I..." Hermione was trying to reach out for him both physically and mentally and he just wanted to get away from them both for a while, he needed to shake off his old demon and process all of this on his own.

"I'll just go for a walk if you don't mind," he smiled, "a conscious one; I'll be back in...I'll be back."

Ron took a step outside and felt as if he had just fallen through a layer of warm glue that shook the whole cave and Harry and Hermione in particular.

"Whoa!" he gasped, "What the bloody hell was that?"

"I think that was our warning system being triggered," Harry said, looking as if he was about to hurl.

As he glanced at Hermione, also looking extremely shaken-up and nauseated, Ron realised that they'd had to resort to a quite nasty form of security charm and felt a whole new pang of guilt.

"Maybe we'd all be better of if you tied me up tonight after all eh?" Ron said to Hermione before turning and walking away before either of them could waste their breath trying to make him feel better about his latest inconvenient development.

He walked all the way to a small brook where he sat and wished that he had handled that better. He wished he hadn't made Hermione so upset. He wondered if Hermione was wishing she had never got together with him at all now she knew what he was really like. They were barely even a couple and he had already blown it.

His timing, as ever, was impeccable.

ooo

Chapter Two - Talking in Your Sleep

"Sorry Hermione, what were you going to tell me?"

"I was just going to fill you in on the basic facts but you don't have to humour me, I'll just deal with Ron by myself tonight."

Bloody hell, did she not understand the word discretion when I used it?

"You're going to have to stop saying stuff like that Hermione, it'll give people the wrong idea" Ron said before re-arranging the contents of his back pack.

Ron wondered if she kept making little slip-ups like that because she was getting increasingly flustered around him these days. They were both a little weirded out when they had first got together and they were both excited and self conscious at Bill and Fleur's wedding, desperately searching for places to hide and get up to all sorts of mischief while also terrified of rushing into any kind of relationship when they knew that they would be living in each other's pockets for Merlin knew how long while helping Harry on his mission. He had thought he was playing it pretty cool but Hermione was forever losing her composure in front of Harry and he couldn't work out why she wasn't able to keep up the act like he could. They had agreed after all, this wasn't to become a distraction and they weren't going to make Harry feel like a gooseberry, their friendship was too important to risk with a relationship that was probably going to crash and burn any day now.

Well that was an awful thing to think about but Ron couldn't help it, he was used to ruining things as far as Hermione was concerned, it would only be a matter of time.

Wouldn't it?

"Right then, sleepwalking or somnambulism usually happens in childhood and very rarely continues into adulthood. You will find it incredibly difficult arousing a patient during an episode. The patient is not aware of what is happening and not formulating memories of his or her actions, this amnesia only lasts a short time after waking."

"Tell me something I don't know" Ron mumbled, he hated being told about the things he'd done and stared at as if he was expected to provide some sort of explanation for his actions.

"The sleep walking only ever happens when the patient is in a state of deep sleep which usually occurs three or four hours in," Hermione continued, "Adult sleepwalkers can be more aggressive and there is potential for self-injury."

Hermione stalled at this paragraph. Ron knew that she was trying not to get upset about that side of his problem, he hadn't told them about the time he almost froze to death in the snow as a kid, and he felt a pair of eyes on him as he faked untying a knot in his shoelace. Hermione took a deep breath and carried on reading.

"If the patient is suffering from a fever the symptoms can become much worse. Ah, here it is," she said with a confident tone as she pointed to the sentence she was reading aloud, "It is a common misconception that sleepwalkers shouldn't be woken. See I told you it was a myth didn't I?"

Merlin Hermione, why can't you just take somebody else's word for it just once? She'd rather wake me and have me go crazy on her than back down and follow my advice about it.

Ron kicked at his misshapen back pack and growled with annoyance.

"Bloody thing!"

Hermione looked from Harry to Ron with concern as she closed the book and got to her feet, crossing the cave as she spoke.

"This is a muggle medical book Ron, I don't doubt that there could be a big difference between magical somnambulism and muggle somnambulism, Harry and I will still follow your mother's advice and be sure not to wake you up I promise."

Ron let his shoulders loosen up a little on hearing this and stared at her for a second before nodding.

"Thanks. It might not even happen again eh?" he said with a hopeful smile.

Hermione grinned back at him.

"There's absolutely no reason to think it will."

Hermione turned back to shrink the library book and stuff it into the mini library in her own backpack and Harry leaned in to whisper something to her. Ron tried not to feel paranoid and carried on with his own preparations to leave. Were they just humouring him he wondered? He really hoped she meant what she said and wouldn't try to wake him if it happened again. He couldn't take it if he hurt either of them in his sleep. He couldn't take it if he broke Hermione's heart in the same way he had temporarily broken his mother's.

Of all the talents a wizard could posses and Ron's had to be the ability to upset people while unconscious.

He looked over to his two friends, still talking about him under their breath, wondering how to ask him to go back home and leave them to defeat You-Know-Who alone no doubt. He decided to remind them that he was still there and not planning on going anywhere until this thing was over.

"Right so where else can you think of from what you saw of Riddle's childhood then Harry?" Ron called over to them as he hoisted his backpack over his shoulders.

Harry and Hermione flinched and recovered from the interruption quickly.

"You said he was really fond of the school didn't you? He kept wanting to come back to Hogwarts all the time" Hermione pondered.

That didn't mean what he thought it meant did it?

"Please don't tell me we have to go back into the Chamber of secrets again" Ron pleaded with them.

"Well that can be a last resort," Harry smiled a smile of sympathy at him, “I've been thinking actually, he spent a lot of time at the Riddle house considering how much he hated that family."

"There's an idea," Hermione nodded.

"Come on then, let's go," Ron said, glad for a change of focus away from him.

Who'd have thought he'd ever embrace the idea of going to a known Death Eater hangout to avoid being the centre of attention?

ooo

The Riddle House was bathed in brilliant sunlight when they arrived, Ron felt thankful that they weren't doing this at night, and they approached it with a relaxed caution. There was still caution all the same.

"You don't think he still uses this place do you?" Ron asked.

"I'm sure Voldemort doesn't but you never can tell where you'll find a Death Eater these days can you?" Harry said bitterly, "wands out just to be safe though alright?"

Ron and Hermione complied and the three of them approached the house.

Ron felt Hermione's hand brush against his as they followed close behind Harry, who always insisted on going into dangerous situations a slight fraction ahead of both of them, and he glanced at her and smiled as reassuring a smile as he could manage at that moment. She curled one of her fingers around his little finger and squeezed before letting go and whispering to Harry.

"So of all the things that could be a horcrux here what do you think's the most likely then Harry?"

"Well all I know is that Dumbledore felt pretty sure that Nagini was one of them, she could be here I suppose."

"Oh great," Ron muttered as they neared the large oak door at the front of the house, he didn't have much of a fear of snakes but he wasn't looking to acquire one either.

"Then," Harry went on, "there's that goblet thing of Helga Hufflepuff's, I can't think why that would be here though, at least I've seen Nagini here so that would make sense."

"Well it looks the sort of place to be filled with old relics so an ancient cup would blend in easily wouldn't it?" Hermione ventured as her own fingers tightened around the handle of her wand.

"Isn't this place generally known to be deserted though? It's a bit open for thieves isn't it? Surely anything of value would've been nicked ages ago" Ron stopped at the doorstep to the Riddle house and prepared himself for an attack he hoped wouldn't come.

"That's why this place screams snake to me for that very same reason mate," Harry said, his face grim, "she's her own defence isn't she? That fake horcrux, that had a hell of a lot of protection and surely if something like that was in place here then there'd be a lot more dead and missing muggles connected to this place than just the Riddles and that old man a few years back."

"We still don't know what it is of Gryffindor that we're looking for do we?" Hermione said; they had gone along with Dumbledore's inkling that it was more likely that one of the horcruxes was Gryffindor and not Ravenclaw's, she flicked her wand and unlocked the door, "We could be walking into anything."

"Or even worse," Harry said as he took a deep breath and stepped into the house, "nothing."

They started off investigating the house together but Ron didn't really feel able to concentrate and was pretty sure that Hermione was having the same problem as every time he glanced at her to check that she was alright she was staring right back at him. He wondered if she was just keeping an eye on him like he was with her or if this had something to do with last night. He cursed himself internally and shook his head, he was getting really paranoid about this sleep walking thing now, and it was only once, only one night. It probably wouldn't happen again at all so why was he stressing about it so much?

"Are you ok Ron?" he heard her whisper over his shoulder.

He jumped, not having heard her approach him while in his deep thought, this seemed to worry her even more and she placed her hand on his arm gently.

"Yeah, I'm just a bit tightly wound what with being here and everything, constant vigilance remember?" he grinned.

She wasn't buying it for a second and squeezed his arm, pulling him down to her level.

"You look as if you've got the problems of the world on your mind, what's wrong?"

He smiled his best fake smile and stood up straight again, shaking off her grip, and crossing the reception area to go back into the entrance hall where Harry was examining several jewelled artefacts with scepticism.

"Just being here that's all, don't you feel weird about it Hermione?"

He didn't wait for her response. He joined Harry who, to his great relief, suggested they split up to cover the house before nightfall. Hermione was going to cover the ground floor, Ron the second and Harry the third, and when they were all done they were going to venture up into the attic together.

Ron was searching the second floor, feeling strange at how much more relaxed he was to be on his own in the house frequented by the dark lord and his murderous followers than he had been while in the company of Hermione just before, and wondered what he would do if he ran into that bastard Wormtail.

I'd kill him. I'd boil him alive. I'd transfigure him into a slug and pour salt over him...yeah, that last one was good, and he knew how to conjure salt too.

"Where are you little sluggy? I've got a treat for you."

He didn't know why he felt the need to talk aloud to himself as he searched, it was hardly the epitome of stealth, but he just needed to reassure himself that he was confident and prepared. Nobody would be taking him by surprise today. He was ready for them, whoever they were; he was ready for them all.

He saw one of the doors open a slight crack and kicked it wide with his foot while aiming his wand in readiness to attack. That was when he saw it, the snake, it was huge and coiled and right in front of him ready to pounce.

"Detineo!" he yelled as a flash of brilliant light shot out from the tip of his wand and hit the flimsy patterned paper-like thing he had just mistaken for Nagini.

He stumbled backwards and knocked over an empty bird cage which in turn fell and smashed several perfume bottles and a large powder puff on a nearby dresser. Ron spluttered and regained his footing, trying not to inhale the scented white powder that now filled the bedroom he had just done a demolition job on, and couldn't quite believe that he hadn't smashed the large mirror that was there. It would've been just his luck really; maybe that was a good sign.

He heard Hermione calling out his name as she ran up the stairs noisily and then he heard Harry's feet pounding down from the floor above him. Well he'd just caused a hell of scene hadn't he? He took a step toward the thing he had attacked and groaned, he may as well have been fighting You-Know-Who's toenail clippings for all the good he had done them in blasting away at a snakeskin, and he backed out of the room, wafting dust and debris away from himself and sputtering.

"What happened?" Harry demanded as he ran to him as he brushed himself down and looked at his two worried friends, slightly embarrassed.

"False alarm. All my fault. Sorry."

"What were you defending yourself against?" Hermione snapped, obviously annoyed at Ron having given her such a scare in this huge intimidating house.

The dust had settled a little now and Ron ventured back inside the room to pick up a long fresh snakeskin with his wand.

"I only caught it out of the corner of my eye and I sort of panicked" Ron explained with a shrug.

Hermione backed away a step.

"That looks as if it came from a big snake."

Harry nodded.

"That looks as if it came from Nagini."

Ron let the snakeskin slide off of his wand and coughed some more of the stale ladies vanity products from his lungs as he walked back over to the two of them at the doorway.

"So does that mean we just missed her or I just tipped her off that we're here?" he asked Harry, fearing the answer was the latter of the two scenarios.

Harry thought about this for a moment and then lowered his wand.

"I think that when we find Nagini we find either Voldemort himself or a hell of a lot of Death Eaters. I can't see her slithering around by herself can you?"

"So," Hermione tilted her head at an angle and squinted at Harry, "there was a horcrux here and there isn't now."

Harry raised his eyes to the ceiling and said the one thing that none of them wanted to hear.

"If there is there's only one place left to look...in the attic."

ooo

The attic was dark and musty smelling. Ron felt his skin crawl as soon as he stepped off the top rung of the ladder and balanced upon the wooden beams, this place would be crawling with spiders. He tried to remain as calm as he could, distracting himself by turning to help Hermione up and keeping hold of her while she regained her balance, but a strand of her long hair brushed against his arm and he couldn't help but shudder at the sensation. His skin felt itchy and he felt as if invisible arachnids were crawling all over every inch of him, it was the psychological side of his phobia, he knew that, he just had to keep reminding himself that they weren't on him. They weren't on him and they weren't near him and they were probably terrified of him and running for cover right now. Running away on long hairy legs; so many legs, so fast that you couldn't even see them. He subconsciously scratched his back.

Harry took a step forward, it didn't appear that he saw that there wasn't a solid floor in the attic, and he lost his footing. He seemed to twist his ankle as he slipped off the narrow beam he had been balancing upon. Ron's arm had caught Harry as he fell and Hermione's voice broke the darkness.

"Lumos!"

Harry stumbled against Ron and he struggled to keep the both of them upright. Ron managed to find a secondary beam to rest his other foot, making himself a lot more solid as he braced himself to pull Harry up to rest both feet on the widest beam beneath him.

"Cheers mate," Harry winced.

"Well this is going to be more difficult than we thought isn't it?" Ron huffed as Hermione's wand light was directed around the walls of the attic, "Balancing across a rotten piece of wood three inches wide in the dark, looking for something that you don't recognise or that could be a huge snake with huge fangs..."

"With a sprained ankle?" Harry added.

"Well there is that too" Ron shrugged as he shifted his weight out from beneath Harry and manoeuvred himself in front of him on the widest beam, he had to say it as he knew that they were probably both thinking it anyway, "and you do realise that if a spider lands on me I'm going to completely lose my composure."

Harry smiled at him through the obvious pain in his ankle. They both looked to Hermione who rolled her eyes.

"So essentially this is all down to me then is it?" she huffed.

As Hermione lightly hoped onto a beam to her left and began to walk along it with ease Ron raised his eyebrows at her sense of balance. She glanced across at him as he tried to find a way to balance on the narrow beams with his large feet and he smiled at her and mouthed the words 'very impressive', she almost glowed for a moment before continuing on her way with total nonchalance.

"I used to want to be a gymnast before I found out I was a witch, the beam was never my best apparatus though, but you never forget do you? Like riding a bike isn't it?" she said as she reached the far wall of the attic.

"I'd like to see you riding a bike up here," Ron snorted as he lit his own wand.

The light immediately illuminated a massive cobweb right in front of his face, he was barely and inch away from touching it with his nose, and he felt an uncontrollable wave of panic grip him and he flinched away from the fine thread before remembering that his balance wasn't secure enough for such a movement and jumping across to the next beam over. He tried to find his centre of gravity and keep himself steady while he moved his feet further apart to steady himself a little more. All the while he was losing the battle to calm his nerves. His heart thudded and he feared that it was so loud that it was echoing around the attic.

I can't do this, there everywhere, they're in the shadows and they'll be on me any minute now.

"Ron please try to stay calm," Hermione huffed as she set about rummaging through the dusty shelves, "they're more scared of you than you are of them you know?"

"I seriously doubt that Hermione!" Ron snapped, trying in vain to keep his breathing regulated.

He glanced up at the roof above him and wondered how many spiders were dangling right over his head. What if they fell on him? What if they dropped on him and got under his t shirt? He shuddered and tried to progress along the beam a little further but couldn't shake the feeling that his skin was crawling alive with cobwebs and insects and creepy crawlies of every kind.

"So when you eventually get to your side of the wall remember you're looking for a gold cup with a badger on it, anything with something to do with Godric Gryffindor or a locket with an 'S' engraved on it" Hermione called across to him.

Ron scowled at the back of her head. She never seemed to understand just how badly he was affected by his fear of spiders. She and Harry seemed to treat it as if it was some kind of joke most of the time. If he had something to throw at her right then he would have done.

"Thank you for emphasising the word eventually Hermione. It's so nice to be reminded that, yet again, I'm nowhere near as good as you at something" Ron snapped.

He didn't wait around to see if she glared back at him as he saw a large cobweb in his path and took three rapid but deep breaths in and out to build himself up before batting it away with a cringe. He felt sick as the strands clung to the hairs on his arm and he brushed them away frantically while fighting to keep his balance.

"Can we concentrate guys?" Harry called to the two of them from his spot beside the ladder.

Easy for you to say injured-boy!

"We?" Ron's head snapped around to glare at Harry before he realised that Harry knew just how hard this was for him and he gave him an uneasy smile, "I'll take a twisted ankle over this anytime, you want to swap over?"

Harry chuckled and Ron seemed to find it in himself to walk the last few feet of the beam without stopping to freak out about everything that crawled over him on his way. He took a deep breath and faced the back wall before hopping, he had intended to just run for it but the first step he took was into something that tickled his neck and made him jump into the air, along the beam and throwing himself against the shelving against the wall. He braced his back against the shelves and clawed at every inch of himself, to get rid of the cocoon of cobwebs, dead flies and ravenous spiders that his mind but not his eye saw as clear as day. He felt very shaky and pathetic and couldn't look at Hermione, ashamed of himself for being such a baby about all this, but Harry's voice called over to him giving him hope that maybe he wasn't a total loser.

"See, you faced your fears, you can do anything now Ron."

Ron began his search of the items on the shelf in front of him. He couldn't believe that Hermione hadn't even given him any credit for holding himself together this far. When it comes to the sleepwalking, which he'd rather forget, she's all about the reassurances but when he really needed a bit of sympathy and comfort from her she's silent as a grave. He suddenly realised that he was swearing to himself out loud and his ears burned. He swallowed and called back over his shoulder to Harry.

"I've got to get back yet."

He saw the silhouette of a cup or a jug and wrenched it out of its hiding place and into the light. It was a tarnished looking tankard, not what they were looking for at all and he threw it to one side.

"Gold with two handles Ron," Hermione said.

Oh now she speaks to me, let me know when I'm doing things wrong don't bother talking to me otherwise; I'm not bloody worth it.

"I don't think there's anything up here Harry, this is all just muggle junk," she called back to Harry, ignoring Ron's scowl.

"This was the most obvious place to look wasn't it?" Harry's said, "And isn't it obvious that he wouldn't hide something that valuable in such an obvious place as this? I'm such an idiot!"

"Harry don't say that. Even if this turns out to be a non-productive day at least we have another place to cross of the list. We can only find these things by narrowing the list of places they could be down."

Am I even here? He's not doing anything! He's just moaning and she's being nice to him.

Ron shook his head and carried on rummaging around for possibilities. He was letting his anxiety make him all irrational and tetchy. Hermione wasn't his mother for crying out loud, she didn't need to congratulate him for walking through a spider's web. How pathetic was that? How pathetic was he?

Get a grip Weasley.

He took another calming breath and opened a small wooden jewellery box and yelped like a puppy who had it's tail stamped on as a spider with a tiny body but exceptionally long legs scampered out and along his finger, across his hand and set off up his forearm at an alarming pace. He stumbled backwards and slipped off the beam.

"Agh, bloody hell!" Ron said.

Then the floor gave way beneath him while he desperately tried to shake off the spider and the darkness of the attic was sucked away from him and replaced by a blur of bright sunlight and then he felt his back slam hard against the springs of a mattress before he bounced up and slammed down hard on the floor beside the bed he had obviously just landed upon.

He felt his brain shaking inside his skull and a feeling similar to sea sickness before he was once again plunged into darkness. It was darker than the attic, it was black and silent and...then there was nothing.

"Ronald? Ronald are you hurt?"

Ron opened his eyes and felt as if he had an axe embedded in his skull.

"My head," he mumbled.

He tried to focus as he saw a grey coloured figure looming over him, hands reaching out and resting so lightly upon his face it was as if they weren't there at all.

"Hold still Ronald, I will heal you as much as I can do in my present state."

Ron felt warmth flowing through his head and the pain receded. He blinked his eyes and stared at the person who was now taking a step back to smile at him. He suddenly felt as if his world had come crashing down all around him.

"Professor, oh Merlin am I dead?"

"No no Ronald, you are merely sleeping," Dumbledore chuckled, "I am just watching over you until Harry and Hermione can reach you. Do not fear you will wake soon enough."

Ron tried to nod but he was having trouble processing his thoughts at that moment. He looked around himself and could only see a smoky haze. There was a bright square light behind Dumbledore and he felt sure that it was a door. He needed to get outside for some air. He needed to clear his head. He struggled to his feet and staggered over to the door. He slammed against it and then understood that it was a window.

Oh well, same difference, it'll still get me out of here.

He slid the window open and sat on the ledge, swinging a leg outside.

"No Ronald, where is it that you think you're going?" Dumbledore asked, momentarily distracting him from crawling the rest of the way out of the window.

He felt himself yanked back away from the window by the waist and he slammed backwards onto the floor, flat on his back but with something warm and soft beneath him.

"Now I think we'd all prefer it if you took the stairs rather than the window if you don't mind. Come, I'll show you out the safe way, I have no desire to stay in this place either."

Ron got to his feet and tried to follow Dumbledore but felt a tug on his arm holding him back. Then there was warmth as if somebody was touching his face, he tried to see but all he could make out were dark shadows moving around in front of him.

"Ignore them Ron, they won't ever hurt you unless I warn you that they're dangerous do you understand? Now come with me, I think we need to get you onto the ground floor just to be safe."

Ron pushed forward against the shadow, the barrier that seemed to want to keep him from following Dumbledore, but he kept fighting against it. He felt quite strong even if he couldn't quite place himself in a time or place at the moment. Dumbledore wouldn't lie to him; he could trust Dumbledore, even if he was a bit...dead. Eventually he forced his way through the barrier and followed the old man down the ghostly looking tunnel.

"Now we have stairs here Ronald so you need to concentrate quite hard, I can't catch you you see and the last thing I want is to see you get hurt any more than you already are."

Ron nodded and tried to focus on the stairs that plunged downwards before him. He couldn't make them out as well as he would've liked to so he descended them more through instinct and by feeling for the edges with his feet and lowering himself down slowly. Soon after starting down the stairs he felt a support around his arm and Dumbledore smiled up at him from the bottom.

"One of the shadows is guiding you, they won't let you fall now, you can relax Ronald, you're almost here."

Ron found himself walking the last few steps with greater ease than the first few and as soon as he set foot on the floor Dumbledore gestured outside.

"You know after your mother told me of your unique condition I did quite a bit of reading and it's not uncommon for those like yourself to be drawn to the light. You can be like moths if left to your own devices, something to do with the fact that the walkabouts tend to always occur during the dead of night you seem to seek out the light, although those like you are very rarely left to your own devices. These episodes are always instigated by one who wants to use the...well, what I mean to say is you will always have me as a guide Ronald so you won't go walking off any cliffs under my supervision I can assure you." the old wizard smiled.

Ron passed through the narrow doorway and into the blazing light. He didn't have anywhere to go so he just kept on going forward until something solid but springy pushed him back and he could go no further.

"Ah now this is a containment spell Ronald, never mind, we had no plans to travel today, in fact I hadn't expected to be seeing you until tonight but your accident has given us an opportunity to get right to it sooner rather than later. How is your head now may I ask?"

Ron leaned against the spongy clear barrier and thought about the dull pain in his head, it wasn't anywhere near as bad as it had been.

"Still a little sore?" Dumbledore frowned.

Ron nodded and stepped back from the barrier to stare at him. He looked better than he had during the last year of his life that was for sure. He actually looked pretty happy for a dead guy. One thing Ron really liked about him was how in-focus he was, it felt good to have something to look at properly.

"I can see you as if you're really there," he said, his voice sounding foreign to him.

"Well I am really here Ronald, where else would I be?" the old wizard smiled.

Ron didn't really have an answer for that.

"I think, in time, you will be able to get a better feel for your surroundings but the shadows will always remain shadows I'm afraid. Now let's get you out of here and see if we can pass on my message shall we?"

Ron nodded.

"Who do I tell and what do I tell them?"

"Ah now well you're a little to raw for the real stuff just yet, you'll scare them and confuse yourself, I think a written note might suffice until we both get used to this. I'm a first timer you see."

"Me too," Ron smiled.

"Actually no you're not Ronald, you have done this many times before, and only you are unable to remember. Now wand out and let's disperse this barrier of Miss Grangers shall we?"

Ron withdrew his wand and pointed it at the barrier as Dumbledore stood behind him and rested his hands upon his shoulders and whispered into his ear.

"Solvo."

"Solvo!" Ron said as a burst of energy flowed through him and out of his wand, hitting the barrier and making it fall away as far as his fuzzy vision would let him see.

"Good Ronald now I need you to turn back and walk toward the two shadows you can see over there, behind them are three bags, one of them will have some kind of paper to write upon and a quill or a pencil of some sort. I need you to find them as quickly as possible as we are running out of time do you understand?"

Ron took a deep breath and nodded before walking back toward the two shadows that had been helping him down the stairs earlier on. He knelt between them, feeling one of the shadows resist slightly before his hands found a colourful blur and plunged inside to feel around for something to write with.

"When you find the quill and parchment you need to write a note for Harry and Hermione telling them they have to go to Mr Borgin's house, not the shop you hear, the Borgin home?"

Ron wasn't about to send his friends off into Death Eater territory with out him and he told Dumbledore so.

"Not without me."

"They will wait for you Ronald; you know that, they'll never leave you behind."

Ron suddenly felt as if something was touching his face again, lifting his chin and he shook it off to turn his attention back to finding something to write this message down. After a moment he looked up at Dumbledore and asked him a question that was playing on his mind.

"When are you going to leave me?"

"When it's done Ronald."

Ron felt something brush against his still hand inside the bag but maintained his focus upon Dumbledore.

"When it's over?" he asked.

"Yes," Dumbledore nodded solemnly.

"How long?"

"As long as it takes you to help them find them all."

Ron lowered his head and sighed.

"I can't see them. They're like shadows"

"Write it down for them then, and quickly Mr Weasley, my time with you this afternoon is almost spent."

Ron renewed his efforts to find something to pass on Dumbledore's message with, blindly feeling around the contents with his fingertips for a familiar shape, the shape of a feather quill or the texture of a roll of parchment. Then he felt it, a quill, just at the same moment Dumbledore said with considerable urgency.

"To your left Ronald, there's a book, do it now before it's too late!"

Ron plunged his left arm into one of the shadows and felt a book against his fingers, he curled them around and snatched it towards himself, while at the same time yanking the quill from the bag and scratching away on the page of the open book he had on his knees.

Dumbledore watched him and sighed sadly.

"Alas, I cannot think of everything, maybe tonight Ronald, we can try this again tonight."

What was he talking about? I'm writing his damn message aren't I?

Ron suddenly felt his right arm being tugged at by one of the shadows, he tried to fight against it but now the tip of his quill was being pulled around in every direction instead. If these shadows really were Harry and Hermione then what the hell were they playing at? His hand and the quill were suddenly free to write again and Dumbledore seemed excited.

"Quickly Ronald, this is our last chance this afternoon, get the name down now!"

Ron wrote the last part of his sentence and realised he could see the shapes of the letters forming, so that was it, he hadn't inked the quill, he'd just write the name and then go back to the beginning to go over the first part of the message.

B

He had to write this clearly so even he could read it in his semi blind state.

O

Either his sight was improving or his handwriting was he thought.

R

Dumbledore was becoming blurry now, he was saying something but he couldn't make it out, he seemed to be fading away. Ron couldn't stop though, he had to finish.

G

He had to finish this for Dumbledore.

I

Nearly there, why did his head hurt so much?

N

He was falling asleep, everything was getting dark.

S

He couldn't feel the quill in his hand, he couldn't feel his hand, and he couldn't feel anything but the overwhelming need to sleep.

So he did.

ooo

Chapter Three - Spirited Away

He felt the sun on his face and the breeze in his hair, so soft and regular like fingers combing through his mass of red locks, and he snuggled into his soft pillow and gave a groan of contentment before turning over onto his side andnuzzling into something warm and sweet smelling. The smell was familiar and hesighed into the pleasant welcoming comfort. He felt something shake him gently before hearing a whisper close to his ear.

"Ron wake up, you hit your head and I can't let you sleep I'm sorry."

Ron lifted his head and his eyes squinted in the brilliant sunlight, he blinked several times before looking up to discover that he was laying in Hermione's lap, his face burrowed into her stomach and he came back into full consciousness with a jerk and scrambled away from her.

"Oh Merlin I'm sorry, I didn't...how did we? I wasn't...what was...? I'm really sorry Hermione I didn't, I don't...remember..."

He was trying to articulate himself a little better and understand what exactly was going on when a sharp pain sliced through the side of his head and he sucked air in through his teeth and winced, rubbing his sore head and feeling slightly sick. Hermione was crawling toward him on her hands and knees and he opened his mouth to start apologising to her again but she shushed him and reached out to him silently. He felt dizzy and he didn't think it was just because of his splitting headache. He looked at her as she began to run her fingers through his hair, feeling for bumps or bleeding he guessed, before holding his head in both hands and looking him in the eye.

"Um Hermione, what are you doing?" Ron asked, a tad self-conscious of the fact that Harry was right there watching them getting a little too intimate with each other.

She smiled at him and kept a firm hold on his head, forcing him to keep looking at her.

"I'm making sure it's you, it feels so strange to look into your eyes and not see you looking back at me."

"Sorry" Ron mumbled, not really following her but feeling sure he needed to apologise for something or other.

Hermione's hands fell away from his face but she didn't move back away from him. She was still smiling sadly at him and staring right into him in the most unnerving way. He glanced over and saw that Harry was trying to busy himself with a book, doing anything rather than look at his friends behaving...differently with each other.

"You scared me Ron, you're going to have to be more careful because I can't take the worry like I used to," she whispered so only he could hear.

"I'm sor..." he began before she shook her head to silence him.

"Don't Ron; just promise me that you're not keeping anything from me."

"What? Of course I'm not. Hermione what the hell's going on?"

She started saying something to him but he was distracted by a ringing in his ears and saw her stop mid-sentence and look at him with some alarm. He shook his head to try and clear it and heard the tail end of what she was saying.

"...your head? Let me take another look at it."

Ron pulled away from her when he recognised his surroundings and saw that Harry was watching them again.

"Wait a minute; we're at the Riddle house still right?"

Hermione nodded as Harry joined them.

"And it's still the same day?" Ron asked trying to place himself.

"Yes Ron, you fell through the floor of the attic and hit your head remember?" Hermione spoke to him as if he was simple.

"That's not the point," Ron huffed, he had hit his head not had a lobotomy, "you're talking to me as if I've just been on one of my walkabouts...I didn't did I?"

“‘Fraid so mate," Harry said as he squatted down beside him and held out the book he had been looking at earlier, "you were walking and talking and doing graffiti all while being totally out cold."

Ron feared he was about to fall down before he remembered he was already sitting on the ground.

"I was doing what?"

Harry pointed to a page of the book which had scribbles all over it. Ron scrunched up his face as he tried to read it. It was the most bizarre scrawl he'd ever seen, it didn't seem to be written in any language he'd ever heard of, and he squinted at the page.

"It looks like a drunk wrote this"

"So you can't make it out either?" Harry sounded disappointed.

Ron did pick out one group of letters that seemed to form a recognisable word.

"Well that's clearly Borgin's," Ron said as he pointed out the only legible thing in front of him, "but as far as the rest of it goes..."

He shrugged as he took the book from Harry and tried to make out anything else. Harry stood up and Hermione went with him, casting Ron a smile as they stood a little way away from him to talk behind his back no doubt. He didn't even bother getting angry with them about it and chose to try and make out the rest of what looked like the handwriting of a blind man riding a broom. Did he really write this? What on earth was he trying to tell them or himself for that matter?

Harry was suddenly standing before Ron with his arm extended and Ron wondered why their conversation had been so short. Ron took Harry's hand and hauled himself up while remaining focused on his erratic handwriting in Hermione's library book.

"This isn't even a whole sentence y'know?" he said to Harry as he pointed out the first part of the untidy scribble, "I don't use any capital letters until I get to Borgin's name at the end."

"No," Harry confirmed Ron's suspicion, "you started writing without any ink, this was all we got out of you before you flaked out again."

Ron sighed as he closed the book, Hermione was watching him as if she expected him to feint or something and he didn't like this new dynamic between the two of them, and she was being very argumentative with Harry recently too. Maybe it was the stress of the whole horcrux thing. Maybe he had been really awful while unconscious. He hoped not.

"Hey mate, sorry to rush you but do you feel up to apparating right now?" Harry said with a look of apology and urgency mingled together.

Ron wondered why his friend was so edgy.

"Yeah, I feel fine, why do we need to go immediately Harry? Is your scar hurting you or something?"

"No, I just, we need to...there's a good reason but I really don't feel comfortable hanging around here any more. I want to go. I want to go now."

Ron gave nod and bent over to pick up his backpack.

"No, I'll get that," Hermione fussed as she struggled to haul both Ron's and her own backpack over her shoulders.

This was getting ridiculous now, he wasn't an invalid, he just had a little bump on his head.

"I'm fine Hermione really, let me take..."

"No!" she snapped at him so harshly that he flinched and then she turned to Harry, "So back to the cave again? I'll meet you both there."

Then, without another word, she disapparated.

Ron looked at Harry, a dreadful thought striking him to his very core and churning his insides.

"You didn't wake me did you?"

Harry looked alarmed and seemed to want to put Ron's mind at ease immediately.

"No I swear we didn't, we promised you we wouldn't and we didn't" Harry held up his hand as he made his vow.

Ron nodded to the spot Hermione had just vacated.

"It's just she's acting a little..."

"Back at the cave mate, we'll talk there," Harry really was anxious to get out of there.

Ron couldn't really blame him, the Riddle house was eerie day or night, and they readied themselves for apparition. As Harry glanced across to Ron he couldn't help but smirk as he realised that all the tension between his best friend and his secret girlfriend was probably all over him.

"You had another row about waking me didn't you?"

Harry didn't have to do anything but grin to answer his question. And with that, they apparated back to the cave.

"Listen, there's one thing about all this that's really worrying me," Harry said to Ron as he prepared a chilli for the three of them back at the cave.

"Just one?" Ron snorted and ruffled his hair, drawing another look from Hermione, he couldn't touch his head at all without her watching him and looking all concerned, he tapped the cooking pot and stared at Harry in anticipation of his big revelation, "confundo!"

The pot began to stir itself and Hermione paused from transfiguring cutlery to listen in.

"Well the thing is, there's somebody or something in your head trying to get you to go somewhere...sound familiar?"

Ron had tried not to think about it and wished that Harry had kept that particular thought to himself.

"You're thinking about the Department of Mysteries disaster aren't you?" Hermione said grimly.

Harry nodded.

"Voldemort's already got to me in my sleep and, well, I can't stand to think that he's manipulating you when you're unconscious," he looked at Ron and seemed to be ashamed of himself, as if he had chosen to put his friends at risk.

Ron didn't want to talk about this, he didn't want to think about this, he couldn't even say you-know-who's bloody name and now Harry was suggesting that he was getting inside Ron's head. He wondered if he was going green, it felt like he was.

"What...makes you say that? I mean..."

"This isn't about you I swear Ron, it's just that you wrote the name Borgin while you were like that and we all know the kind of people he does business with don't we?"

"Something's trying to get you to lead Harry to Borgin and Burke's," Hermione said.

Oh great, they were ganging up on him...but for what purpose?

"Somebody's setting a trap and using you...as bait maybe or as some kind of Pied Piper" Hermione's voice was so meek and she didn't seem able to look Ron in the eye.

He didn't speak for what felt like forever until he decided to try and distract himself from this uncomfortable theory of theirs by turning his attention back to their dinner.

"Oryza!"

A huge mound of rice filled the plate and overflowed onto the floor.

"Shit," Ron grumbled, "I went a bit over the top there, sorry. Decretum!"

The rice thinned out to a more realistic amount and Ron forced himself to look at Harry as he felt his eyes burrowing into the top of his head.

"I trust you with my life mate," Harry smiled at him, "and I think somebody's trying to use that against me. Somebody's trying to use you against me and that was my biggest fear for both you and Hermione, I've made you targets."

No, Harry wanted to send him back home, he wanted to ditch him because of this sleepwalking thing starting up again. If Harry felt that way then fine but he wasn't going to let him use it against him in this way. Using You-Know-Who's past record for invading Harry's sleep to try and scare him off was out of order.

"Bullshit," Ron snapped, "this theory is bullshit!"

"Ron please" Hermione reached out for him but he jumped to his feet and began to pace up and down the darkening cave.

"Explain it happening to me when I was seven, explain that, Voldem...he didn't target me when I was seven Harry. I didn't even know you when I was seven."

Harry was speechless.

"I'm not being possessed; this isn't like that."

"You don't know what it's like yourself, you don't remember do you?" Hermione looked upset but determined to prove her point.

"If I was dangerous mum would've...well dad would've told me, something would have been done back then."

Harry jumped to his feet.

"I'm not saying you're dangerous Ron, nobody thinks that, you didn't think I was dangerous after I lead you all into Voldemort's trap and got Sirius killed did you?"

Oh not this again!

"Oh don't go down that road again Harry, I'll drown myself in this bleedin' chilli I swear."

There was a tense standoff for a moment before they both broke into small smiles and let the tension go.

"Do what you have to do to feel safe, whatever you've got planned to 'control' me I don't mind. I just don't think it's anything bad or evil, this has been going on since I was little, it's just...me. I'm just mental!" he shrugged.

Harry chuckled.

"You and me both!"

"Ronald you need to get to Borgin's"

Ron stared at Dumbledore as he stood before him large as life. He breathed a sigh of relief, it wasn't You-Know-Who, he wasn't being messed with by anyone bad. He also knew he couldn't be taken anywhere this time as Harry and Hermione had done a number of restraining charms on him.

"I can't move."

"Do you have a wand?"

"They didn't make that mistake twice."

Dumbledore waved a dismissive hand and shook his head.

"No matter, we can find a way to liberate you and get you over to the Borgin's."

"I don't want to go there."

"You need to."

Ron heaved a deep sigh and wished he could just sleep like normal people.

"Why?"

Dumbledore's image seemed to shimmer like mercury floating upon still water as he leaned in closer to Ron and smiled a thin but genuine smile.

"That is where Harry needs to go to begin his search. I need you to show him the way."

"He knows where it is, he's already been there."

Dumbledore seemed surprised that there was something about Harry he didn't already know and straightened up stiffly.

"Harry has been to the Borgin's ancestral home?"

"No, the shop."

Dumbledore sighed, Ron thought this was a strange thing for a dead person to do as they didn't need air or have lungs, and tried to explain the plan with a little more clarity.

"Ronald, you don't need to guide him to Borgin and Burke's he can find that in his sleep...if you pardon the pun, it is the Borgin residence where you will find your answers."

Ron was being sent into the house of a suspected Death Eater? He began to get suspicious and remembered how Harry had been so sure that he had seen Sirius in his sleep. You-Know-Who was powerful enough to do that, who was to say he wasn't powerful enough to appear in Ron's head as his trusted headmaster? Dumbledore wouldn't ask him to do this would he? Not the real one. Ron frowned; he didn't know for sure, he never really knew the headmaster as well as Harry did. How was he to know if he was acting out of character?

"I shouldn't be talking to you."

Dumbledore's smile grew from the slight wisp across his face to a broad curve upwards that made his eyes twinkle in that mischievously familiar way.

"Why is that Ronald, because I'm dead? Do you no longer need my help now that I have passed on?"

"I need you to leave me alone," Ron tried to appear immoveable but still respectful, just in case this really was Dumbledore, as he explained what was going on in the real world, "You're making them scared of me."

This seemed to sadden Dumbledore, but his determination remained as strong as ever.

"I need you to show Harry the way and you won't remember it when you wake up so it has to be like this Ronald. It has to be done now."

Ron began to panic at this, he didn't want to be taken into a dark wizard's home in any state but especially not partially blind and totally unconscious, there had to be another way.

"I'll write for you again, I'll write..."

"They can't read it Ron. It has to be this way."

He shook his head and struggled to keep himself together. The last time he let himself be taken he almost died. He couldn't trust this...whatever Dumbledore was supposed to be, and didn't want to lead Harry and Hermione into a trap. He was going nowhere. This wasn't Dumbledore, Dumbledore was dead.

"I do not want to cause Harry any more worry than I already am by using you this way but it has to be done."

Dumbledore crouched at Ron's side and tried to rest his ghostly palm onto his shoulder. It was strange, he wasn't there at all, like the Hogwarts ghosts, but he could touch him. It was only a feather light touch but it was there. It made a chill run right through him.

"You will wake in the Borgin home and come to your senses before apparating back to the cave. You will tell them where you found yourself and you will be able to take them back there because you would have been there. You can apparate the two of them back to the room you found yourself in and they will understand."

"It's a trap" Ron's exhaled as he tried to shake of the nightmare.

That was all this was, a really realistic nightmare.

"You have to trust me Ronald. Did your uncles lead you into harm when they used you as their oracle?" Dumbledore persevered.

Uncles, what was he talking about, the only uncles Ron had were all dead. He gasped, dead people...he was being haunted by dead people, he began to panic and found himself breathing as heavily as if he had just been at quiddich training for an hour.

"Well I heard about the incident that winter but I know Fabian and Gideon well and I know that was just poor timing on their part. They are sorrier for that then you can ever know, not to mention terrified of the day they must face your mother again!" Dumbledore chuckled.

Jokes? He's trying to make jokes? I'm possessed and he's making jokes!

"Wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up!" Ron tried to shake himself awake, to shout or punch himself into consciousness, anything to escape this.

Ron felt pressure upon his shoulder and it wasn't coming from Dumbledore's hand, he was being shaken roughly, he could see nothing but darkness and the silvery glow of Dumbledore before him.

"Harry is watching you right now Ron, he is going to wake you and you know what will happen if he does that Ronald. I will be there."

"No!" Ron shouted, afraid of what he might be releasing upon his friends if it really wasn't Dumbledore, "Harry don't wake me."

"If I believed it would make your life easier I would come forward in a second but right now I fear it would simply put you on the fast-track to St Mungo's and a bed beside poor Mr Lockheart."

That was it, he was beaten, Ron gave up. Either he allowed himself to be plunged into the depths of dark territory all by himself or he would release Merlin-knows what upon his best friends in the middle of the night. He slumped and heaved a trembling sigh of resignation.

"I'll do whatever you want just don't come out," he sounded so empty that it took even him by surprise.

Dumbledore smiled, he appeared to be relieved that Ron had finally come round; Ron hoped that it wasn't a smile of triumph.

"Well we must postpone for a while until Harry goes back to sleep. I'll leave you be in the meantime. You will see Ronald, that I am helping the three of you. You will understand...even if you do not remember you do."

Ron had been woken again, not long before daybreak, by Dumbledore. He didn't even put up a fight; he just allowed the spectre to free him from his body bind and got to his feet.

"You don't seem surprised to see me Ronald," Dumbledore frowned with interest, "am I to believe that if I visit you during the same period of sleep you retain the ability to remember?"

Ron shrugged, he didn't feel much like being an experiment or a novelty for the afterlife, and Dumbledore rested his palm on Ron's shoulder. He shivered and the pair of them apparated out of the cave.

He couldn't see anything, his vision and the darkness of the room rendering him completely blind, and Dumbledore put his finger to his lips to tell Ron to keep quiet. They listened to see if they had disturbed anybody in the house, there was nothing to indicate they had, and Dumbledore relaxed and gave another one of those affectionate but sad smiles in Ron's direction.

"Well here we are Ronald; it is as simple as that, I will leave you to sleep now. Why don't you get yourself comfortable, I would hate to leave you and just let you fall down, I think your poor skull has been through enough without battering it on the floor here as well?"

Ron swallowed and stared at the wizard for a few seconds before getting down onto the floor without a sound. He hadn't been ambushed, maybe this was really Dumbledore, and the ghostly figure gave him a nod before fading away. The blackness swallowed Ron up and he was once again asleep.

Godric his pillow was hard, and rough, was he sleeping on a cement block?

Ron's eyes opened and he sat up just enough to try and pound his pillow into some kind of shape when he realised that he was staring down at a Persian carpet; a very bald looking Persian carpet. Why was there a Persian carpet in the cave he wondered?

A wave of nausea hit him and he leapt to his feet, fumbling for his wand before remembering it had been taken away from him before he went to bed, and desperately trying to work out how he had come to be here. Where were Hermione and Harry? Were they still at the cave, why wasn't he at the cave, had he been sleepwalking despite all their charms?

He frowned as he looked around the mahogany panelled room, it was a little bit like Snape's dungeon but with Slughorn's taste in luxury items and there was something of the fake Mad eye Moody's room about it too. Something didn't feel right. He really thought he should get out of there right away but his curiosity got the better of him and he crept over to an elegant but well worn desk pilled high with all sorts of papers. He picked up one of them from the top pile. It was a letter from the ministry of magic demanding access for their aurors within seven days; forceful entry was being threatened if the occupant didn't comply.

The occupant, Ron turned the letter over and read the address.

"Bloody hell!"

He threw the letter back down and nervously scanned every wall around him, feeling as if he was being watched or as if a trap was about to be sprung, he tensed to defend himself but there was no attack. He was readied for an ambush that never came. He still felt uneasy and refused to relax, however, and pressed his ear against the solid wooden door beside the desk. There didn't seem to be anybody moving around out there. He tried the door handle, it was locked.

"Crap!" he grumbled before shaking slightly as the awful realisation hit him.

He couldn't have got into this room through the door. There was only two other ways he could have done it and there was no fireplace in there so that just left apparition. His knees gave way and he collapsed into the three legged chair in front of the desk, making a little gagging sound as he did, this couldn't be. This wasn't right. This was terrifying.

He put his head in his hands and closed his eyes for a few minutes, taking deep breaths to try and calm himself down, before opening them and scanning over all the different kinds of paperwork that looked as if it didn't make any kind of sense at all. Only at first though. There didn't appear to be any kind of filling system but all these letters and invoices were bundled and stacked in a very specific way. Ron had an eye for organised chaos as he used that very same filing system in his room at home.

"Ronald Weasley will you tidy up this mess, it's no wonder you lose things when you just throw them into the corners like this!" his mother had once ranted when she came barging in during his preparations for another year at Hogwarts.

What she hadn't noticed was that he didn't ever lose papers or important letters. He lost pet rats and chocolate frogs or the odd shoe here and there. If she had asked him for his Hogwarts letter he would know where it was without even having to rummage. He could find his transfiguration homework from the second year if he really needed to. He had a whole stack of Quiddich match programmes stacked alphabetically and chronologically under his bed, they looked like they'd just been pilled on top of each other higgledy piggledy but if anybody actually took the time to go through them you could follow four years of the Chudley Cannons progress (or lack of) in the league without missing a single match.

Borgin's desk may have looked like a parchment dumping ground but Ron could see how the system worked straight away. He could see the stuff that wasn't any kind of secret and could pick out the piles that were decoys, there to make an intruder think they had found the hidden papers. Then he could spot the important papers, looking as neglected as a stack of old Prophets, and then the really vital stuff. Ron picked through that pile without disturbing the way they were stacked and saw just how dodgy a businessman Mr Borgin was. He suspected as much. His eyes fell upon a few familiar names and he scowled and grumbled under his breath before freezing as still as possible.

He thought he had just heard movement from upstairs somewhere. He bit his bottom lip and held his breath but there were no more sounds. Maybe he had imagined it.

He let the breath out and got up from the chair. He wanted out of here right away. He took one last look around the room before disapparating.

Crack!

"Ron?" it was Hermione's voice, she sounded worried.

Well of course she was worried, he'd gone in the middle of the nighthadn't he? He padded into the cave barefoot and very cold now that he was out in the open again. Harry was staring at him as if he'd just been given a reprieve from execution and Hermione was pure white. He knew what they were going to ask him so he decided to get in there first.

"How did that happen?"

As he spoke Hermione ran to him and forcibly hauled him over to the fire, rubbing his arms to warm him, before grabing Ron's jacket and flinging it around him.

"Harry," she snapped at their friend who seemed to be paralyzed with relief, "make him a hot drink or something will you?"

Harry nodded so hard that his glasses bounced up and down on the bridge of his nose. Ron almost laughed at this but then he caught sight of Hermione looking stern and very business like and realised she would probably kill him if he made light of the situation right now.

"Where did you wake up?" she said as she forced herself to smile despite how obviously she didn't feel like it at that moment, "Did you wander far?"

Ron glanced across to Harry who, unless Ron's eyes were deceiving him, was carrying a mug of boiling mud in his shaking hand. Hermione nudged him, impatient for an answer to her question. He knew he had to tell them of this new evolution to his sleepwalking but he dreaded their reactions.

"I didn't walk there. I hadn't thought about that...it was never an issue when I was seven."

He was so desperate to explain himself that he wasn't explaining anything at all.

"Calm down Ron, take a deep breath and start again. Where did you wake up?" Hermione sounded just like she did when he was getting angry at his inability to understand his potions homework.

He took a shaky breath in and let it out before swallowing and forcing himself to look her in the eye and spit it out.

"I woke up at Mr Borgin's house."

Hermione's face dropped. Harry dropped the mug of boiling mud and Ron found himself unable to look at either of them anymore.

"I can apparate in my sleep," he mumbled, though that was now probably quite apparent to them both considering what he had just told them, they were right all along about him being used by You-Know-Who and the Death Eaters and there was now nothing they could do to stop it.

Hermione grabbed him and hugged him tightly. He didn't care that Harry was watching, he curled his arms around her waist and clung on tight, and burrowed his face into the side of her neck.

"It's ok, it'll be ok, we'll figure something else out to keep you safe at night alright? It'll be fine," she seemed to be chanting a mantra, willing he words to come true rather than telling him she was certain that was how it was going to work out.

"Was anybody there?" Harry's voice sounded as if he had a mouth full of gravel it was so rough.

"They were all still in bed when I woke up, I couldn't make any sense of what was going on at first, I just started to look around. I found some papers on a desk and saw his name on them. There was dark magic stuff everywhere; I think I was in his secret den or something."

Ron gave an involuntary full body muscle spasm which caused Hermione to pull his jacket tighter around him, thinking it was a severe shiver. Ron's eyes met Harry's own and they both shared the same awful thought.

"I'm apparating into dark wizard's houses that I've never ever been before Harry. I think...what you said last night...I think you might be right."

Hermione made a whimpering sound and held him tighter and Harry looked utterly lost.

Why was this happening to him?

Chapter Four - Passion

She was being really patient with him, they both were, he'd thank them but that would mean looking them in the eye. That would mean looking up and he was quite content to just sit at the side of the riverbank with his head supported in his hands not looking at anything for the time being.

They had both followed him but only Hermione sat at his side. She hadn't said a word, seemingly content to just let him process all the thoughts that were rattling his head at that moment, and would rub his back in a comforting manner every now and then to let him know that she was still there. He knew she was though, she didn't have to be touching him for him to know that, and it made him feel both better and worse at the same time.

Ron had been trying to think everything through, but without success, for twenty minutes now and decided that the best course of action was to just not think at all. He tried to force his mind to go blank and just concentrate on the river rushing by. The sound of the water reminded him of the field behind the burrow and the stream that he and Ginny used to play beside as kids. That was a good thought to have, he decided, and let himself dwell in that memory for a while.

It was only when he felt movement at his side and the warmth of Hermione's body gently pressing against him that he was drawn back to reality. He felt her rest her head on his shoulder and she put her arm around him.

I should look up, I bet I'm upsetting her; I should at least look up to let her know I'm ok.

Ron finally lifted his head out of his hands but purposefully avoided looking at anything other than the river ahead of him. He felt her squeeze his shoulder and let out a sigh. That was all he needed. That was all it took for him to just let it all out.

"I can't stay with you two for this can I?" he said, feeling useless, "I'm a liability."

Hermione looked up at him almost trying to force him to look back at her. He didn't look back so she moved the shaggy red hair that was concealing the side of his face from her back and tucked it behind his ear. She always had this thing about looking him in they eye when she talked to him. Sometimes, times like this one, when he felt like shit the last thing he wanted was to be looked at so intensely. He worried that people would be able to see the truth if they looked hard enough at him when his defences were down, the truth that he wasn't worth their attention.

"Don't say that, we don't know what this sleepwalking thing is really about yet, if it's about anything at all, and you shouldn't go tying yourself up in knots about it until we really know what we're dealing with."

Why was she wasting her breath? It made him angry with himself. They had better things to do than sit around waiting for him to pull himself together. He hated feeling sorry for himself but he hated other people feeling sorry for him a whole lot more.

"What we're dealing with is my fantastic new ability to apparate into homes of Death Eaters and the like in my sleep."

Hermione shushed Ron and rubbed his back once again. She had to hear this, she had to realise the severity of this problem, and she had to accept that he was now a risk to them both.

"I mean what's next Hermione? Do I wake up tomorrow morning in the bath with Bellatrix fucking Lestrange?" he scowled out at the clear water rushing by in front of him and waited for Hermione's inevitable contradiction.

It never came, she was silent, and this is what finally got Ron to tear his eyes away from the river and give her a sideways glance. Maybe he'd made her cry he thought. He saw that her shoulders were shaking and her head was bowed.

Oh shit she was crying!

He was about to say something when he saw her hand clamp over her mouth and stifle several high pitched squeaking sounds. Ron looked at her for a moment before recognising that sound and turning back to the river. He let out a sigh of weary disbelief.

"Oh just let it out will you? You'll burst a blood vessel if you keep that up."

Hermione's hand dropped away from her mouth and her head fell back as she let out a roar of laughter.

"It's just such an image to have planted in my mind," Hermione gasped, her voice high pitched and the laughter still nowhere near subsiding, "it's the look I picture her having on her face."

Ron found himself picturing Bellatrix Lestrange sharing a bath with him against her will and couldn't help himself but chuckle too. His mirth died away pretty quickly though and soon Hermione's had drifted away as well. He felt her shuffling even closer to him and curling her arm around his, leaning right into him now, and he wondered if Harry was still around to see them like this.

"We'll work something out, anti apparition wards wherever we camp and warnings or restraints to alert us when you're on the move, we'll come up with something don't worry" she sighed.

Ron shook his head. He decided to let her in on the secret that wasn't such a secret after all; he just wasn't worth it.

"It just seems like a lot of hassle for somebody who doesn't really have a hell of a lot to offer Harry on this little quest doesn't it? Why go to all that effort just to include me?"

Hermione jammed her elbow fiercely into Ron's ribs.

"Ow! What was that for?" he flinched.

"That was for being an idiot! You're our best strategist and you're the only one of us that can cook, if you go we'll starve and then stumble into a trap and you know it."

She really didn't get it did she?

"Ah a trap, I know the sort of thing you mean, that's where the Death Eaters do something to one of Harry Potter's best friends and summon him to the private residence of a secret Death Eater in the middle of the night. That the sort of trap I'm saving you from falling into is it?"

He was so annoyed at her stubbornness and refusal to accept that he was now a risk to them and they were probably better off cutting him loose until this was all over. He waited for another dig in the ribs or a long winded protest but neither of them ever came. Hermione was looking at Ron as if replaying his little speech back to herself inside her head.

"You think Borgin's a secret Death Eater?" she asked him.

Well that's not what he expected.

"I know he is!" Ron snorted, "you should've seen the room I woke up in, it definitely wasn't a guest room I can tell you that, you know if the Death Eaters knew that room existed they'd probably kill him themselves."

Hermione went rigid and sat up straight as if she's just found what she was looking for after days of research in the restricted section of Hogwarts library.

"What makes you say that?" she asked.

"Well I was looking around for letters or something with an address on so I could find out where I was and I came across this big bundle of receipts and invoices for dodgy transactions over the years."

What was all this about? They knew Borgin was a friend of the Malfoys, what did she expect from a wizard like that?

"How do you mean dodgy? Surely every transaction with Borgin is a dodgy one isn't it?" she frowned.

Ron shifted around on the bank side to face her, this was beginning to interest him now, and Hermione mirrored his movement as he spoke.

"Well there's the borderline stuff that he has on display in his shop and that gets written up in the books he has to show the ministry inspectors whenever they ask to see them but these receipts are for stuff that's either illegal or nicked."

Hermione seemed impressed with him, something that made him unfeasibly proud of himself, and wanted more details, her excitement bubbling up inside of her.

"How could you tell just from receipts and invoices, they couldn't have mentioned that items were illegally obtained, that's just carelessness for stupidities sake?"

"Well," Ron leaned forward; he didn't know if Harry was around, he couldn't see him, "there was a recent one with Mundungus' name on it and it accounted for a hell of a lot of stuff bearing the Black family crest."

Hermione glanced around the bank side, she was obviously thinking the same thing as Ron, and there was no need to get Harry all riled over Mundungus again. Harry must've got bored waiting for Ron to finally say something and gone back to the cave.

"So that's where he palmed off all the things he looted from Grimmauld Place?" she asked when she was sure they were alone.

Ron nodded; he didn't see Borgin's logic though.

"The thing is why would he write all that stuff down and keep records as far back as Hagrid's Hogwarts days? If anyone from the Ministry found any of that stuff Borgin could get life in Azkaban, reason enough to burn it all don't ya think?"

Hermione looked rueful.

"Not if he kept it all for the purposes of doing as many deals as it took to keep him out of Azkaban. He could sell out all kinds of big customers to keep his freedom and he could also do quite a good business in the line of blackmail."

"Sneaky fucker!" Ron shook his head, a tad impressed at the old codger's deviousness.

Hermione slapped him on the arm for his language.

"Seriously though, that's quite sharp of old Borgin really. The amount of paperwork I saw there looked like it covered every illicit transaction he's ever made." Ron said, thinking that the old man was kind of like the Death Eater version of Fred and George "I reckon if someone got their hands on those records they could probably tell you exactly what Death Eater owns what stuff right now."

Ron shook his head and turned his to look back at the river.

Borgin would be a useful person to have around if you were looking for horcruxes, he could probably draw you a map to...

Ron's head snapped back to Hermione and his eyes widened with the realisation of what he had just said.

"We...he probably...records..." he sputtered.

Hermione beamed at him.

"You're nearly there Ron, keep going."

"A horcrux could've passed through him over the years and he...he's...he would have it written down!" Ron felt as if he was about to start jumping up and down and struggled to control himself.

"And you thought you were no good to us on this mission" Hermione laughed.

She was right, he thought, he was such an idiot not to have realised when he was still in there. He could have done a proper search while it was quiet rather than having to go back in the afternoon or evening when they were more likely to get caught. Then he realised what he was thinking. They had to go back to Borgin's secret room and Ron had no idea where it was. He'd just scanned the envelopes to find out where he was and had been so shocked at seeing Borgin's name that he hadn't really taken in the address. He had read it though, he could remember it, he could.

Ron's face fell and he put his head back into his hands. No he couldn't.

"I can't remember the bastard's address!" he exclaimed with despair, "I read it and I can't remember it."

Hermione pulled his hands away from his face and smiled at him.

"You don't need to remember anything other than what that room looked like Ron. You've been there once and you can go there again and in exactly the same way you got there in the first place."

Apparition, of course, he was so thick!

"I can just apparate back there."

Hermione laughed and nodded before resting her hands on each of Ron's cheeks and forcing him to look her in the eye.

"With me and Harry of course, you can take us side-along apparating with you so we can investigate properly, safety in numbers has worked well enough for the three of us so far hasn't it?"

Ron smiled at her, he felt almost dizzy, he was of some use to them after all. Hermione moved closer and he tried to remind himself of their discussion after the wedding.

"We're going to take this slow alright?"

He nodded as he released her from the hug.

"Whatever you say."

"It's not that I don't want...you know what I want Ron but we're about to go into some terrible situations and it's best if we just calm down until it's over."

"I told you I agree with you, Harry doesn't need us smooching all over the place any more than he needs us fighting. We'll just stay us for now. I can wait, I promise you, and I will wait."

She smiled but looked so sad at the same time.

"You think we're going to be fighting as much as smooching? You think we'll still drive each other crazy like we always have?"

"I don't know what we're going to be like Hermione, all I know is what we've been like so far, and well we'll wait to find out what we're like. We'll see if we're different once we've helped Harry."

She hugged him again.

"I hope we can be like this again soon."

"Yeah, me too."

They had almost forgotten themselves that evening in the barn, they had been so close to kissing and so close to getting caught, but Harry wasn't around and Ron needed to feel something other than fear and guilt. He needed to feel Hermione. He needed to feel what Hermione felt for him.

"You know what this means don't you Ron?" she sighed as she spoke, "This means it's not inevitable that whoever took you to Borgin's is on Voldemort's side after all. You could have a guardian angel."

He hadn't even flinched at You-Know-Who's name that was how much he wanted this.

"Another one?" Ron grinned, slightly embarrassed at himself for becoming aso sappy.

Hermione leaned in that final inch that parted their lips and brushed her own against his. She moved her hands back from his cheeks, sliding them through his hair to rest on the back of his head and pull him towards her into a deeper kiss. It always amazed him how forceful she could get when it came to affection, Lavender just used to go limp and submissive in his arms, but Hermione took charge and took exactly what she wanted when she wanted it. She wanted more from him, he could tell by the way she gripped the hair at the back of his head, and he pushed back.

His hand rested on the back of her neck and the other arm snaked around her back, that hand resting upon her waist, as he sucked on her bottom lip briefly before pushing his tongue forward to meet hers. They were good at this. They were really good.

Hermione made a soft moaning sound and Ron pulled back a fraction, this caused her to sigh a sound of protest and pull his head back towards her, but Ron had already angled his head to begin kissing her neck.

"Oh God you're a tease you know that?" she sighed the tiniest of whispers as he brushed his lips against the smooth white skin of her neck.

He pushed back her hair and trailed more kisses from her collarbone to her shoulder, he knew what he was doing and he was doing it on purpose, she couldn't take it anymore and forced him flat on his back and crawled up his prostrate body to take his lips with hers once more. Ron wanted to run his fingers through her hair, at least push some of it away from her face, but she had pinned him down by the wrists again. It was her favourite move, he had come to learn over the summer, as it made it impossible for him to pull back and tease her some more.

She wasn't holding him down by the wrists anymore, her fingers interlocking with his own on either side of his head, and her kisses were lighter and shorter but still coming strong.

"Hermione..." he tried to say when she paused for long enough to take a breath, it wasn't long enough for him to say anything else though as she closed her mouth over his once again.

Ron was worrying that they were getting too carried away now, he was also concerned that Harry might come looking for them pretty soon and gouge out his own eyes in disgust at what he saw, he murmured into her mouth and she pulled back a hair to whisper breathily.

"Don't tell me we have to stop, not just yet," she sunk back down into another deep kiss.

Ron had to be the one to stop this, she was obviously too far in the moment to think clearly, and he sat up. Hermione was tilted backwards with him and slid down his torso a little as she was unprepared for this sudden change in angle and whimpered.

"Really Hermione, we can't do this, not right now."

She looked sadly at him for a second before nodding and curling her arms around him and burying her face into his neck.

"I'm sorry," she mumbled into his skin.

"Don't apologise, it was brilliant!" he found himself laughing.

She looked up at him and smiled at him before rolling her eyes and breaking away from him again. She reached out and smoothed down his ruffled hair, letting a hand linger at the side of his head long enough for her to move forward and give him a peck on the cheek. He smiled at her and took her hand as he got to his feet. He helped her up and kept hold of her hand all the way to the cave, which was empty, Harry must've gone for a walk. They looked at one another before turning their attention back to the matter in hand.

They were off to Borgin's.

Ron gripped Hermione and Harry's arms tightly as they apparated into Mr Borgin's secret den, the two of them were holding their wands in readiness for attack.

"Quick," Ron hissed as they saw that the room was empty, "hide just in case somebody heard us arrive."

Ron pulled Hermione into what seemed to be a wardrobe as if was full of very old but regal looking robes, while Harry disappeared behind a thick curtain, and closed the door. They held their breath and Ron suddenly realised that they were also still holding hands. He let go and leaned back against the side of the wardrobe. It was very dark inside and they couldn't really see each other but their breathing seemed deafening when they finally relaxed enough to begin to do it again. The thick robes made the wardrobe very stuffy and Ron thought he heard Hermione starting to fidget.

"Are you ok?" he whispered to her.

"Yes I'm just tangled..." she let out a small 'eep' sound and Ron suddenly felt something fall against his chest, "...sorry, I think I'm standing on some silky fabric, I slipped."

She was bracing herself against him and he was trying to help her up as quietly as possible before she slipped further and her arms reached out and around him for stability. She was hanging about his waist now.

"Sorry, I can't get my footing," she said nervously.

Ron knew that they were still all wound up from the river bank episode to be getting as close as this again but if she slipped on the silk robe any further her head would be in a very precarious position so he got a firm hold on her and heaved her upright and held her against his chest.

"Thanks," he felt her breath into his face.

They were still unaccustomed to the darkness and unable to see each other or anything else in the wardrobe at that moment so Ron had no other course of action than to keep his arms around Hermione to hold her steady and it wasn't long before he felt her arms snake around him in return.

"Can you hear anything?" she whispered as he felt the weight of her head resting on his chest.

"Nothing," he whispered back at her.

They stood like that for a minute before he felt Hermione's head moving and her breath on his neck, she was obviously looking up at him now.

"Ron?"

"Ron's not here right now can I take a message?"

Well where did she think I'd gone?

Her body juddered with suppressed laughter and she squeezed him around the rib cage in lieu of punching him in the arm.

"Don't make me laugh, we're supposed to be hiding!"

"Well why are you talking?" he hissed.

"I just wanted to...never mind."

He hated it when people did that.

"Either speak or don't but don't start something and then refuse to finish."

"That was kind of what I was going to say actually," she whispered, her head resting on his chest again and her arms tightening around his torso, "I was just thinking that we didn't get to finish...being close earlier and now here we are."

Ron felt as if his head had gone completely numb.

"Don't do this now Hermione," he sighed.

"I'm not saying that, I'm just saying that this is hard. Being with you day after day and not being able to be with you is hard enough but then this...being like this and not being able to...it's not fair Ron. It's too hard."

Her voice had quivered as she said the last few words and Ron squeezed her even closer to him and kissed the top of her head.

"I know."

They held each other in silence until there was a muffled sound from somewhere in the room and they both tensed.

"Oh no, it that Borgin?" Hermione gasped.

Ron swallowed.

"I don't know, it might be Harry, I'll take a look. You hide deeper in the robes and if it is Borgin you promise me to stay hidden alright?"

"But what if he's got Death Eaters with him? I won't leave you and Harry to..."

"You stay hidden until I tell you it's safe understand?" Ron said fiercely.

"Ron!"

That had sounded like Harry. They were probably all clear. Ron opened the door of the wardrobe a crack and whispered out.

"What?"

"I think we're the only one's here."

Harry stepped out from behind the curtain and dusted himself down. Ron stepped out of the wardrobe and helped Hermione out after him. She was looking at him strangely, as if she was hearing good and bad news at the same time, and he wondered if she was angry with him for telling her to stay hidden just now. He looked across the room at Harry who was arching his eyebrows at his two friends.

"Where are these papers then mate?" Harry said, sounding very unlike himself as if he was pretending that he hadn't noticed something very obvious.

"Oh yeah," Ron said, clearing his throat, and strode over to a large wooden desk surrounded by about fifty pigeonholes, all full of different paperwork, "it's all here, the stuff I was telling you about I mean, but I never really got around to investigating the rest of this place. I was a bit confused at the time."

Hermione marched over to the desk and sat down. She seemed to have a false smile on her face as she crossed the room but as soon as she was faced with piles and piles of paperwork the smile seemed genuine. Ron didn't know which aspect of this he found more disconcerting.

"Right well we're going to have to go through every record Borgin ever made as we can't be exactly sure when Voldemort created his first horcrux so this will take some time."

"Yeah, well don't forget that we know the locket was bought from Borgin before Voldemort got his hands on it so don't let that transaction distract you when you come across it Hermione" Harry said as he riffled through the contents of a pigeonhole.

Ron stepped over a stack of broken artefacts, figuring that he and Hermione could do with a little more distance between them right now, and crouched down when he saw a large flat frame around something that shimmered dully. He began to wipe off the thick layer of dust with his sleeve. As the reflective surface became clearer Ron saw several silvery grey figures moving over his shoulder in the mirror and jumped, twisting around to see them but finding nothing there at all. He stared back at, what he thought was a foe glass, and saw himself swallowed up in grey smoke until all that was visible was a pair of blood red eyes staring back at him. He stood up and realised that he was trembling.

"Alright there Ron?"

Shit, had Harry seen it too?

"Fine, it's just a...saw a spider."

Ron moved deeper into the pile of dark artefacts before crouching down again and rummaging through several boxes that balanced in the darkest corner of the room in an unstable fashion.

Their investigation went on until the sky began to darken and Ron heard Harry attempting to get Hermione to pack it in for the day.

"We don't want to risk it Hermione, if Borgin sees a light on in here he'll hex us into next Tuesday."

Ron was about to agree when he saw something glinting at the bottom of a metal trunk with broken hinges. It was two silver hoops, about the size of a grapefruit, and a handwritten note attached to the bag that held them.

"A bond of blood?" Ron's read aloud as he slipped the hoops out of the bag into the palm of his hand.

He was sure he'd heard of that somewhere before.

Hermione spun around in her seat and called over to him urgently.

"I've heard of that, be careful with those Ron, the only witch or wizard capable of breaking the bond is the one whose blood rests on the shackles."

That was it, it was an illegal binding spell, dark wizards used to use it back in the day when it was legal to treat muggle-borns witches and wizards as slaves just like house elves. No wonder Hermione was against him touching them.

"Don't fret Hermione, it says here they've never been used," Ron examined the two hoops and the thought suddenly occurred to him that this would be the perfect way to control his sleepwalking, "maybe we could use..."

"No!" Hermione shouted at him with such ferocity he wondered if he'd just suggested decapitation as a cure for headaches, "We will not bind you by blood just to stop you sleepwalking Ron."

How the hell did she know what I was thinking?

"It's just an idea" Ron shrugged.

"I said no!" she hissed at him before looking back at the paper in her hand and growling, "I'm still only half way through this bloody lot and still nothing."

Harry and Ron shared a glance that expressed the same thought.

Blimey, Hermione swore!

"It's ok Hermione, we can come back tomorrow and finish up..." Ron heard Harry saying while he turned his back to them and ducked into the shadows.

"I would've lost my place by then, I have a system Harry and it's not the same as Borgin's. We will have to put everything back exactly the way it was so as not to tip him off that anybody was here in the first place and then come back and start all over again tomorrow and we just don't have time for any of that nonsense Harry, we just don't!"

Godric she was losing it.

Ron tried to stuff the two silver hoops into his pocket but they were too big, he cursed under his breath and checked over his shoulder that the others hadn't noticed what he was up to.

"Alright, alright, I get you. We can't come back tomorrow and we can't finish up here today," Harry was saying to Hermione, a little aggravated himself.

"No we can't so we'll take the last of it with us."

Ron couldn't believe what he was hearing and completely forgot to keep searching for somewhere to conceal the hoops about his person.

"Are you saying we steal it?" he asked.

"All of this is illegal anyway, what's Borgin going to do, report his invoices for stolen goods as stolen?"

Harry laughed at this and shrugged.

"Load me up then and let's get out of here."

Hermione grinned and lifted a stack of papers from the desk and piled them against Harry's chest. Ron took their momentary distraction as an opportunity to stuff the bag containing the hoops and the instructions for their use down his jeans.

"Yeah, good luck apparating like that mate" Ron snorted.

"You're doing it too" Hermione said, putting her hands on her hips and staring at him sternly.

Ron looked at the clearly amused Harry with a shrug of resignation.

"Would you believe that's her asking nicely?"

Harry nodded.

"Of course, I know her too well."

Ron began to make his way back through the stacks of junk all around him, stumbling occasionally along the way as he couldn't see where he was putting his feet any longer now that the room was so much darker, and he drew level with the foe glass and saw the red eyes glowing through the grey mist again. He tried not to look at it but was caught up on something and tried to yank himself free when he saw thegrey figures swimming around and moving closer to the front of the foe glass. He felt a little sick all of a sudden and gave a good hard tug at his snagged jumper, freeing himself, and kicked at the glass as he staggered past it. It fell to the floor and smashed.

"Oh very stealthy Ronald," Hermione huffed as she picked up a stack of papers for him to apparate with.

"I can't bloody help it, it's a mess over here," Ron muttered while trying not to look her in the eye as she thrust his load into his arms before he was prepared for it, causing him to buckle slightly, "and where exactly are we apparating to may I ask?"

"Back to the cave of course," she said, gathering the last of the paperwork in her arms.

Ron groaned and Harry gave him a look of sympathy.

"Oh not another night in that bloody hole please, my back can't take it," he whined.

Hermione turned on him as if he had said something insulting to her and glared at him. Where was the girl he had been sharing such an intimate moment in the wardrobe with? As soon as he thought about that he realised how strange his life was right now.

"Well you don't exactly sleep there do you? You're up and away after a couple of hours so you've no right to complain."

How could she say that?

He looked at her as her face fell and her eyes pleaded with him to forgive her and to understand that she didn't mean it to come out like that but Ron just wanted to walk out on her and slam a door to let her know just how hurtful a thing that was to have said to him. Had she not been listening to a word he'd said at the riverside that morning? He couldn't look at her any more and he didn't want to hear her apologise or explain, he just wanted to be elsewhere at that exact moment, so he disapparated back to the cave without a word.

He threw the bundle he was carrying onto the cave floor and hurried outside before Hermione apparated and made him feel even worse.

Crack!

He picked up the pace and bit his lip as he heard Hermione's voice calling after him from the mouth of the cave.

"Ron! Ron please I'm sorry I didn't mean..."

He spun around and yelled back at her.

"Leave me alone Hermione!"

He kept on walking, she didn't seem to be following him so he slowed down a little, and he wondered if they were ever going to be able to get past the extremes that their relationship consisted of since they'd first met.

They were either passionately together or furiously apart.

Chapter Five - Two Kinds Of Dough

"Crustum!"

A small shrivelled loaf as solid as a lump of coal fell to the ground.

"Shite!"

Ron kept on walking deeper into the woods. He passed an abandoned bird's nest and pointed his wand at it.

"Crustum!"

The nest wove and folded and swelled and solidified and then exploded.

"Crap!"

He stomped onwards and flicked his wand at anything he could see lying around the forest floor.

"Crustum, crustum, crustum!” more solidified dough littered the path ahead of him.

"What the fuck is wrong with me?" he shouted up at the canopy of leaves above his head before leaning against the trunk of one of the trees and sliding down it to the ground.

Ron felt something digging into him and lifted up his jumper to plunge his hand down his jeans and pull out the silver hoops he had stolen from Borgin's place. He looked at them in silence, turning them over and over in his hands in deep thought, and wondered if they were the reason Hermione had suddenly turned on him back there. Well she was stressed, he knew that, and she had been working hard all afternoon looking through all those documents but that didn't mean there was any need to...

Ron forced his eyes shut tightly and gritted his teeth as he banged the back of his head against the tree trunk behind him three times. He opened his eyes again and let out a breath of defeat. He tossed the bag containing the hoops down in front of him and pulled off his jumper, it had a huge hole in it from where he had snagged it earlier, and threw it down alongside the bond of blood hoops.

Was she mad at him? Should he be mad at her?

He couldn't even remember what had happened now. He remembered this morning by the river; he remembered that as clear as anything, and he remembered being inside the wardrobe but everything after that bloody foe glass was just confusing.

If it's seven years bad luck to break a mirror what do you get for breaking a foe glass?

She had been angry with him for suggesting the illegal binding spell but that was no excuse for her to blame him for what he did at night was it? Was it, he asked himself again, giving the matter a lot more thought? He was a burden to them and Hermione only wanted him around to...well, for times like this morning maybe, and for cooking for them.

No! You cleared all that up you prat, she told you that wasn't the case, why are you doing this to yourself?

He was doing this to himself because he was tired that's why.

"Crustum," he mumbled, half-heartedly as he pointed his wand at the tatty old jumper.

The jumper swelled and grew upwards and outwards and browned before his eyes. He sat up and watched in amazement. The woollen knit smoothed out and a golden crust formed while a wonderful aroma drifted his way and he inhaled the scent of freshly baked bread. He'd done it. He'd made bread.

Out of a jumper?

Was it that his casting was always too ferocious or enthusiastic all those other times? Maybe he was rushing it when bread making is a slow process. He picked up the loaf and tapped it on the bottom. There didn't seem to be any nasty surprises inside. He'd really done it at long last.

"Well beat my bludger I actually did something right for a change."

He almost smiled before looking around and realising that it was very dark outside now and he didn't have a jumper any more. He'd have to get back, that or freeze, and maybe the bread could be a peace offering. Whatever the hell had gone on was probably his fault, it usually was, and he was too tired to care about it anymore.

Ron grabbed the hoops and stuffed them back down his jeans before picking up the bread and disapparating. He reappeared a little way away from the cave. He could see that a torch had been lit, he guessed to help him find his way back in the dark, he smiled at this. At least one of them wanted him to come back. He trudged across the clearing towards the cave and readied himself for their stares.

Harry was cleaning one of the plates from last night as Ron walked inside, avoiding the brown eyes that were immediately upon him, and he tossed the loaf of crusty brown bread on it. Ron reached into his backpack for another jumper and pulled it on as Harry jumped and looked up at him. Hermione was standing up and moving across the cave toward him. He couldn't do this right now, so he leaned over the cooking pot and saw that Harry was boiling whole onions in water.

"Ron I'm so sor..." she began.

He cut her off and looked from the pot to Harry.

"Are you planning on putting anything in that onion stock Harry?"

"I admit it, I'm more useless than we first thought" Harry smiled at him.

So Harry was still ok with him, it was a thing between him and Hermione then, but Ron didn't smile back. He just wanted to curl up and get some rest. No arguments, no apologies, no explanations, just rest. Hermione was standing right behind him, he could feel her staring at him but he wouldn't turn around.

"Look I don't really feel like cooking tonight so," Ron flicked his wand at an empty bowl, "Lactis! Confundo accelero!"

The bowl filled with milk that began to churn itself rapidly. Ron put his wand away and kicked off his shoes.

"That'll turn into cheese in about five minutes, you can make sandwiches if you want."

Harry seemed impressed at this and looked back at the bread.

"You finally did it then, well done" he seemed to be trying to look unconcerned for Ron and not doing the most convincing job of it.

"Yeah," he said as he unfurled his sleeping bag and crawled inside.

Harry seemed to decide not to bother with the pretence anymore.

"Ron, are you ok?"

"I'm fine," he nodded, he didn't even care if they believed him or not, "I could just really use an early night that's all."

Harry nodded and started slicing the bread. He thanked him wordlessly but didn't think that he saw. He did see Hermione readying herself to say something to him as she walked to his side and crouched to force him to look at her. She lowered her voice to almost a whisper, but not quite, and looked so distressed that he felt like a pig for not doing anything to make her feel any better about their little spat.

"I'm sorry Ron, I really didn't mean to..."

"It's fine, don't worry," Ron mumbled, he heard himself sounding tired but sincere and hoped Hermione heard the same thing too.

"No it's not fine, I'm such a..."

He knew she'd be like this, he couldn't let her tear herself up over saying the wrong thing for once in her life, he had hurt her feelings plenty of times and she hadn't tortured him over every single one of them, just some of them.

"Hermione don't, it's fine, I just need to sleep."

"But," she began, Ron sent her a pleading look and she hesitated before smiling across at his loaf of bread being evenly sliced by Harry, "good job on the bread Ron, it looks perfect."

He smiled at her and fidgeted as he tried to remove the hoops from his jeans as discreetly as possible. She didn't seem to notice as she was staring into his eyes and smiling with a little less concern now. She seemed to believe him that there were no hard feelings between them.

"We'll talk tomorrow ok?" she said before moving to stand up again.

Ron reached out and grabbed her wrist, pulling her down again, maybe if he got her to help him she would be able to let it go.

"Hermione wait, could you do me a favour?"

"Of course, whatever you want."

"Can you put me to sleep please?" he whispered.

She nodded as she pointed her wand at him. Their eyes locked and he saw a look that he last saw at the river side that morning, theyreally wouldn't ever be able to be just friends again, and he liked it.

"Goodnight Ron, obdormio!"

A blue light blinded him before his eyelids shut it out and his limbs turned into heavy weights. All sound and sensation left him and he was swallowed up in the blackness of sleep.

"Did I do it again last night then?"

"Nope, slept like a log, you were fine mate."

Ron felt more relieved than he ever thought he could be at this news and began slicing the remains of his bread to make toast. Harry was trying to scrape the last of the cheese from the bowl so he could have cheese on toast for breakfast. While his friend was distracted Ron nudged Hermione, who was sitting at his side, with his elbow. She had been sitting with him without forcing him to talk about last night and giving him the occasional smile and he wanted to reassure her that he really wasn't angry with her anymore. She looked at him and they shared an affectionate smile before she looked back to her own toast. Ron felt quite satisfied about the look of relief that was now upon her face as she began to talk to him about her productive night with the papers.

"I found Hufflepuff's cup in the inventory of an old wizard called Lotterby's possessions. It was his will and the cup was put in a vault at Gringotts that can only be accessed by a witch called Olive Lotterby once she comes of age and can prove her bloodline as a true descendant of Lotterbys."

Ron raised his eyebrows as he watched Hermione pull the longest scroll of parchment he had ever seem towards her and pointed down at some kind of addition in a different handwriting.

"The thing is Lotterby was the last in his bloodline, he never had any children and he never had any brother's or sisters, so Olive Lotterby never existed and never will do. That vault can never be opened. Sounds like a hell of a good place to hide something don't you think?"

Ron tried to process what she was trying to tell him. Did this mean that he had been taken to Borgin's secret room not to be ambushed or captured or killed but to find out where Voldemort had hidden one of his horcruxes? He tried not to get his hopes up but the look on Hermione's face made him dare to think that maybe he was doing some good to them after all.

"If all of this is correct then it's going to be pretty impossible to get to the thing but at least we know where it is now. It's all thanks to you that we do know Ron, you were taken there in order to take us back when you woke up, so the guardian angel theory seems to have been right doesn't it?" she beamed at Ron, "you helped us find out the location of one of the horcruxes and then you got a peaceful undisturbed night right after. I'd say that meant there's nothing sinister messing with your head."

Ron wanted to throw his arms around her and cuddle her for the next hour with gratitude. Maybe this wasn't all good news, maybe his sleepwalking had been more than a friendly spirit guide trying to help, but he didn't want to think about that right now. He wanted to feel normal and useful and not in the least bit possessed by evil.

He reached out to take the roll of parchment that never seemed to have an end to it from Hermione and marvelled at her ability to have read so much legal mumbo jumbo without her brain dribbling out of her ears.

"Wow, how did you not fall asleep three paragraphs into this Hermione? This is like a handwritten sleeping draught."

Hermione chuckled at this but Harry sighed. Ron frowned at his friend.

"You alright there mate?"

"Fine, why do you ask?" Harry had forced an entirely unconvincing fake grin onto his face; Ron was an expert at pretending everything was great when he felt like screaming so he wasn't buying it for a second.

He did know what it was like to just want to be left alone too and decided to give Harry an opening to talk without being pushy.

"Oh nothing, it's just that your toast is kind of black now."

Ron gestured to the square piece of charcoal that used to be Harry's slice of toast by the fire and he hissed as he withdrew it from the flames, seeming to have burnt his fingers as he removed it from the stick he had been using to toast it. Ron laughed and threw another slice of bread over to his distracted friend, maybe it was a Ginny thing and he really didn't want to get into heartbroken little sister territory with his best mate right now.

"So we're off to Gringotts today then are we?" Ron asked while Harry set about skewering the bread onto the stick and having another go at making his breakfast.

Hermione nodded.

"We can say we're going to make a withdrawal from Harry's vault and see if we can get a decent look around and come up with a plan."

Ron shook his head and took a bite of his toast.

"You seriously believe you can find a way to break into Gringotts vaults? You're off your head Hermione."

Her eyes were alive as she poked him in the side with her finger.

"I'm an optimist Ron Weasley!" she said with a wicked little smile, was she flirting with him? Before he could test the waters she frowned down at her piece of dry toast, "Um, I don't suppose you're still averse to conjuring up any food are you?"

He blinked, where did that come from, that wasn't any kind of flirting he recognised?

"What?" he crinkled his nose before following her eyes down to the piece of dry toast she held in her hands, "You can make honey Hermione, I know you can make honey, I've seen you make honey."

Ron wondered if she was just humouring him or if it was genuine laziness on her part. Hermione bowed her head and blushed.

"Yours is nicer."

Ron glanced across to Harry and couldn't suppress the smirk that was splitting his face. He'd not only made Hermione blush but she had told him that he could do something better than she could. He pulled out his wand and tapped on Hermione's toast, honey dripped from his wand tip and trickled over the surface of it.

"I'm beginning to think you're making inferior ingredients on purpose," Ron's eyes darted across to Harry, "both of you, just to lumber me with all the cooking duties."

He was still smiling quite smugly about this as Hermione took a bite of her toast and feigned innocence while Harry pretended he hadn't heard Ron speak at all.

"Hmmm, I thought as much," Ron muttered before biting another chunk out of his own slice of toast.

He felt something brush against his hand where it rested between he and Hermione and glanced down to see her fingers resting across his own. She rubbed up and down gently while nonchalantly munching away on her slice of toast and honey. Ron swallowed and noticed that a blob of honey was oozing from his wand tip and brought the wand to his lips to lick it clean. Hermione's hand was entirely resting on top of his own now and she was interlacing their fingers and squeezing gently.

"So back to Gringotts, there's no way we can do this," he said with a shake of the head.

"Oh come on Ron, there's always a way with us," Hermione said with an ' I'm not holding Ron's hand ' kind of nonchalance after swallowing her mouthful, "we see something impossible and laugh. Ha, we say!"

Ron couldn't believe how out-of-character Hermione was acting in front of Harry. He too was relieved that they were ok with each other and that last night was well and truly behind them but he wasn't drawing attention to himself in the way she was. Did she want Harry to notice something was going on? They had agreed, what was she doing?

"Are you alright?" he asked her, trying to slide his hand out from under hers but she gripped it even harder.

"I'm in a jovial mood this morning," she said with a merry shrug.

Ron turned to Harry.

"Why does that scare me?"

Harry just laughed and got up to fetch himself a drink of water. While his back was turned Hermione leaned in close and whispered into Ron's ear.

"I'm so proud of you," she said before kissing him on the cheek.

As Harry turned around and sat back down again she sat back and loosened her grip on his hand while still resting her hand upon his while smiling at him. He glanced across at Harry, who was going through his backpack searching for something with a look of concentration crinkling his brow, before mouthing the word 'why?' to Hermione. She was almost glowing now and rubbed the back of his hand with her own cool smooth fingers before whispering so low that he really only understood what she was saying by partially reading her lips.

"You're being so strong. You never lost your temper."

Ron smiled and glanced back at Harry who was still distracted.

"You didn't see me in the woods," he shrugged guiltily.

"Exactly!" Hermione mouthed to him.

Harry pulled a key out of his backpack with a satisfied look on his face and glanced back over at the two of them. Hermione moved to get up, pausing to gather the breakfast things strewn around them, and as she leaned across Ron to pick up his empty plate she breathed into his ear.

"You didn't let anybody see."

He almost shivered and his eyes followed her as she stood up and carried the plates and cutlery over to the corner of the cave. She smiled and gave him a wink. He didn't really understand what she was so proud of entirely but it made him feel good anyway.

"Harry James Potter?" the goblin snarled.

"That's me" Harry nodded.

"Do you have your key?"

"I do" he held up the key to his vault at Gringotts Bank.

"And you would like to make a withdrawal?"

"Well understood, yes that's exactly what I want to do."

Ron found Harry's attitude extremely amusing. There's nothing quite like winding up bureaucrats while seeming to be as polite as possible at all times. Fred and George used to do the same thing to Percy, back when the family were talking to Percy that is. The goblin turned on him, after he let out a snigger.

"And would sir like to make a withdrawal from his own vault?"

"I don't need to visit my vault thank you, I'm just here to help Mr Potter carry his money, galleons can be so heavy y'know?"

Yes! I can do it too; this is going to be fun.

The goblin's eyes darted up to Ron's bright red hair and back down to his face before a spiteful glint flickered in his eyes.

"A visit to the Weasley family vault maybe?"

Hermione's hand slipped into his own but he was fine, this little bank clerk wasn't going to faze him, and Ron didn't even blink.

"No thank you, I've seen an empty vault before."

Hermione's fingers wove between his own once again and he finally understood exactly what she had been talking about that morning, what she had been trying to tell him for years now, that there was nothing that riled an antagonist more than their target not taking the bait. The goblin turned with a snort and shuffled off toward the back of the bank where the transportation to the vaults were picking up and dropping off customers.

"Come on Ron, we wouldn't want to lose sight of him, he is quite tiny after all" Hermione said haughtily.

The goblin cringed and Ron struggled not to smirk as the three of them followed the goblin, his hand still in Hermione's.

When they reached Harry's vault, after quite a hairy journey that caused Hermione to leave imprints of her fingernails in the palm of Ron's hand, the goblin grinned a patronising grin that looked more like a dog chewing on a mouthful of bees in Ron's opinion and bowed.

"Here you are, the vault of Harry James Potter, key if you will sir."

Harry handed the goblin the key and watched as the vault was opened. The goblin shoved the key back into Harry's hand as if it was a weapon he was attacking him with before taking a step back. Harry peered in at his vault and glanced over his shoulder to Ron. Ron knew that he was feeling self conscious about the piles and piles of gold galleons there were, stacked floor to ceiling in some places, when he hadn't done a thing to earn them. He also knew that Harry had tried to give money to his parents in the past, he wasn't supposed to know this and never once told Harry that he did, to pay his upkeep during summers at the Burrow but Ron's mum would have none of it.

"In your own time sir, I have no other business to be getting on with today, take as long as you want," the spiteful little goblin sneered.

Harry glared at the goblin who stared right back at him to let him know he didn't give a damn who he offended.

"Don't let me keep you, I'm sure we can find our own way out by ourselves."

Harry was obviously trying to get rid of the goblin for two reasons. The first was that he was an insufferable prat and the second being that they could go and explore the vaults in search of number 3830, the vault of Olive Lotterby. The goblin arched an eyebrow and looked at Harry as if he had just suggested the two of them entering the Cornish midget toss that summer.

"I think you'll find it impossible to remain in the Gringotts vault without the presence of either myself or one of my colleagues Mr Potter. I will step to one side if sir is sensitive about being watched admiring his money in front of his," the goblin's narrowed eyes moved across to fall upon Ron again, "let's say, less fortunate friends."

The goblin shuffled away into the shadows before Harry could do anything other than look utterly furious on the behalf of his best friend, who was smiling at his friend's protective streak before shaking his head.

"Don't worry about it mate, I'm above it," Ron felt Hermione squeeze his hand once again before releasing it for the first time since they had met the nastily little runt downstairs, "about five feet above it actually!" he chuckled.

"I never thought the day would come when I missed his temper."

Hermione laughed at this. Ron rolled his eyes; he couldn't win with these two could he? He smiled at Hermione before looking back at Harry and giving him a carefree shrug.

"What can I say, I've been seeing a specialist in anger management."

Harry seemed to tense up, Ron wondered whether he suspected anything was going on between he and Hermione, before turning back to the vault. Ron wondered if they weren't being quite as subtle as they'd have liked as Harry gestured for the two of them to follow him inside the vault.

"Well now we know that, even if we could find a way to get in here, it's impossible to remain here unaccompanied by a Gringotts goblin. This is going to be more of a challenge than we originally thought isn't it?" Hermione said quite quickly.

If there was one thing Hermione was good at it was stating the obvious. Ron put his arm around Hermione's shoulders and gestured to her for Harry's benefit.

"Harry, the queen of understatement, I believe you've met?"

Hermione shrugged off Ron's arm and rolled her eyes as he and Harry chuckled.

"Maybe you were better off when you channelled your energy into angry outbursts after all," she grumbled.

Never satisfied this woman.

"I'm merely the blob of clay, you've been moulding me, it's your fault" Ron shrugged.

"So back to the...problem in hand," she said, sounding a little weird in Ron's opinion, "any ideas Harry?"

"All I'm seeing is more obstacles," he shook his head, seemingly more discouraged now that he had seen first hand how difficult this was going to be, "it's like we found the most impossible place to get into and then found out that we had to get into it blindfolded and with both our legs hacked off at the knee!"

"I had a dream like that once," Ron said to himself before realising he was speaking out loud, "except I was running away from spiders instead of breaking into a..."

"Sirs? Young Miss? Is your business complete today?" the goblin leaned around the door, his gnarled fingers curling around the doorframe.

Ron's skin ran cold.

Shit he didn't hear me did he?

Harry reached out to a stack of coins at his side and grabbed a single bronze Knut.

"Yes, got what I came for," he said flicking the coin into the air and catching it with a jaunty wink, "I need something to tip the house elf."

Ron was amazed by the cheek of his friend and just stared at him, impressed and greatly amused, while Hermione looked disgruntled on behalf of house elves everywhere as they followed him out of the vault. Harry slapped the tiny goblin on the back, almost knocking him for six.

"Thanks' for your help my good man, I'll ask for you again next time."

It was at times like this that Ron wondered if Harry was a secret member of the Weasley family, only with black hair.

Chapter Six - Ron Unlimited

"Ronald."

Ron heard it the first time the familiar sounding voice called out to him but he refused to respond to it. He would stay sleeping, he would pretend he couldn't hear, and let the thing talking with Dumbledore's voice think that Harry and Hermione had come up with a cure and go away.

"Ronald come now, I know you can hear me."

He'd get bored and leave him alone soon. All Ron had to do was sit it out.

Don't open your eyes, don't make a sound, and don't let it get to you again.

"Ron of all the nights to waste time this really is the absolute worst you could have chosen now get up please."

Ron tried to block the voice out, tune into the sound of anything else around him, and he listened for some other sound to distract him from the voice of his old headmaster. There were no other sounds. There was nothing, Ron shivered.

"Please Ron; this is of the utmost importance, I beg of you to trust me. I haven't lead you into trouble thus far have I?"

Ron sat up; keeping his eyes closed, and rubbed his head vigorously with both hands. He wasn't really there, he was inside his head and he was pretending to be Dumbledore, he was pretending to be somebody Ron trusted to trick him.

"Ronald come now this is quite enough!" the voice sounded impatient and infuriated with him now.

Ha! Dumbledore's always super calm, I knew this wasn't him, I KNEW it!

Ron lay back down again and tried to send himself off to sleep once again. For a time it was quiet and Ron began to believe that he'd actually won this small battle for control of his sleep.

"Ronald Weasley, son of Arthur Weasley and Molly Prewitt, and the thing Harry Potter would miss most in the entire world. When you woke up after what happened at the Department of Mysteries last year the first thing you said to me was 'Why won't you let them die?', you were talking about the brains, you felt the pain of their captivity. Get up and believe that I am who I say I am. We have work to do."

Ron sat up and sighed, he didn't care if this really was Dumbledore.

"I've had enough."

"We're only just beginning Ronald," the silver ghostly Dumbledore said as he stood before him.

"No" Ron's head dropped as he spoke.

"Come now Ron, you saw the level of security at Gringotts for yourself, you can't expect to get through all of that without me."

Was he kidding? They couldn't break into Gringotts like this, one of them dead and the other asleep, Dumbledore was good but he wasn't that good.

"No more," Ron sighed, his head hung wearily.

"Look at me Ron; do you really believe I enjoy doing this to you?"

Ron's eyes drifted up to meet those of Dumbledore, he genuinely looked sad, but he still couldn't understand why he had been chosen to go through all of this.

"Why can't you find somebody else?"

"There is nobody else Ronald, your mother is the last surviving Prewitt and she passed the family gift on to you."

"The gift?" Ron frowned.

"Yes, I was surprised to discover it was you as well. I had assumed that if it was to appear in any of you it would be Ginevra, being the seventh child of course, but Gideon and Fabian recognised it in you the first time they saw you. Your uncles were oracles too you see?"

"What?" Ron had never met his uncles as far as he knew.

"You are an oracle Ron, you see and hear the dead and can communicate on their behalf, though you don't seem to be able to do it in the same way your uncles could but then again they were twins so their circumstances were very different."

"My family, do they know?" Ron asked, wondering why this had been kept from him for all this time.

"Molly does of course, after that night you were woken and she was faced with Gideon inside her youngest son's body, I have to say she was greatly distressed for you when she realised the truth."

"The truth?"

"To her great relief we found that only those who knew of your gift could use it to communicate with the living. Explaining why Sirius has never tried to use you to speak to Harry."

Ron couldn't take all of this in, it was too much, and he suddenly realised the pointlessness of him doing so anyway.

"Why are you telling me? It'll all be gone in the morning."

"I am telling you because you are before me now and you need to know. I need you to trust me."

"I don't know if I can" Ron could barely get the words out at all.

He was an oracle, Dumbledore wanted to drag him off on a mission in the middle of the night, and he just had to trust a dead man who knew more about him than he did.

"Your caution is wise but it delays us in our task Ron. Do you have your wand tonight?"

"I do."

Ron's fingers curled around his wand where it lay beneath his pillow.

"Good, you will need it."

"What for?" Ron asked.

"For casting the Imperius curse."

He was right, this wasn't Dumbledore, this was a trick.

"No," Ron stated, determined not to be used to hurt anybody against his will.

"Ron listen," Dumbledore began.

"No, it's...I can't" Ron's voice was breaking again.

"It's a necessity I'm afraid."

"It's an unforgivable curse!" Ron yelled his outrage at being asked to do this by the very person who was most opposed to the use of such curses.

"And in the control of a dark wizard it is indeed unforgivable but you and I will be wielding this curse together and neither you nor I wish to harm anyone. I have only ever asked wizards I trust implicitly to use unforgivable curses and I trust you Ronald, more than you trust yourself."

"But I can't, I'm not strong enough" Ron said with a shuddering breath.

"You underestimate yourself Ron. You are not filled with enough hate to use the cruciatus or the killing curse but with the right motivation and my help you can perform this spell to meet our needs. I will give you my strength and my power."

"I don't want it."

Dumbledore seemed to be losing patience with him now.

"Ronald, Harry and Hermione will be caught if they attempt to break into Gringotts and they will be sent to Azkaban. Is that what you want?"

Ron shook his head, the idea of Harry surrounded by so many Dementors every minute of the day was too much to think about, and thethought of Hermione in that place...he couldn't bear to contemplate it.

"Are we going now?" Ron asked Dumbledore.

The old wizard smiled and let himself relax for a moment before looking as if he had just seem something that caused him great concern.

"Yes Ron, but first I need you to cast an immobulus spell to your left and right immediately."

Ron frowned at this bizarre request, was he being attacked? Where were Harry and Hermione while this was happening?

"Do it now Ron!" Dumbledore ordered.

Ron gripped his wand tightly and withdrew it from beneath his pillow and flicked it to his right and then his left, muttering the spell quickly but clearly as he did.

"Immobulus!"

He looked to Dumbledore to see whether he had done what was needed correctly. The old wizard nodded.

"Thank you Ron. Now come with me."

Ron wriggled out of his sleeping bag and got to his feet. He walked toward Dumbledore who seemed to be taking in Ron's attire with a sad glance.

"Not even anything on your feet, you poor boy, I hope you learn the lesson all oracles must eventually learn and go to sleep in preparation for a long walk in the Artic in future," the ghostly figure placed his semi solid hand upon Ron's shoulder, "Whenever you're ready Ronald."

Ron felt something flow through him from the spot Dumbledore was touching him and suddenly saw the image of a darkened narrow room, full of tiny jackets and cloaks, and disapparated to the place he now had set inside his mind.

Ron tried to focus, he shook his head and blinked several times, but it was no use. He was just as blind as ever, only able to make out shapes and fuzzy outlines of the things around him, but for the clear image of Dumbledore just ahead of him.

"Now Ronald I'm afraid we are going to have to work extraordinarily quickly, too much time was wasted at the cave and I can not leave you while you are still within the walls of Gringotts or...well I simply won't leave you here Ron, you have my word."

Something about the sincerity in Dumbledore's voice as he said that made Ron feel suddenly safe despite his complete disorientation.

"Ok professor, just point me where you need me and I'll go," Ron said, gripping his wand a little tighter in his hand as he spoke.

"Now there is a way to do this quickly and efficiently but I won't do it unless you grant me the permission to do so Ron."

"Do what?" Ron was a little scared now, if Dumbledore was being hesitant then that couldn't be a good thing.

"It is a little invasive I'm afraid. You will never at any time lose control of yourself; I promise you that, it will not cause you any pain of any kind. One very positive thing about my doing this will mean you will be able to see what I see so you will know exactly what's going on."

Ron realised that Dumbledore still hadn't told him exactly what it was he wanted to do yet.

"Ok, so what are we talking about here?"

"We are talking about, only with your full consent, me partially possessing you and using your body to get this job done and get you to safety."

Ron swallowed.

"Possession?"

"Partial, only partial Ronald, and you can evict me at any time with ease. This isn't like the time you were woken when you were lost to the land of the living while your uncle took over entirely. This will be like me acting as your guide and steering you in the right direction but you never leave your body and I never enter any further than up to my elbows."

Ron looked alarmed at this statement.

"What does 'up to your elbows' mean exactly?"

Dumbledore chuckled at this and explained.

"I simply plunge my hands into your back and we walk together, you channelling my power and mingling it with your own, think of me as a kind of guide dog for the blind. You will be my master and I, the loyal hound."

Ron still wasn't sure what this was going to feel like but if it meant getting out of here as quickly as possible then he was up for it.

"So does that mean you'll be expecting a bone when we're done?" he asked the silver figure before him.

Dumbledore let out a delighted laugh and his eyes twinkled brilliantly.

"Oh I can see why Harry refuses to take on a death defying mission without you Ronald; it takes true courage to laugh in the face of adversity. Mind you, adversity does have quite a funny face."

Ron found himself laughing along with Dumbledore at this. He always said his headmaster was barking mad.

"Well come on then, let's do it."

Dumbledore stepped behind Ron and before he could ask how it was going to happen he felt something cold thrust into his back, making his entire body go rigid, and the room he had seen in his mind's eye when apparating zoomed into sharp focus. He felt momentarily dizzy before Dumbledore pushed him forward and the door ahead of them flew open without either of them doing anything to open it either physically or magically. That was when Ron felt it, the incredible power flowing into him and bursting to be released, and strode out and into an enormous hall overlooking a massive network of tunnels and side rooms beneath him. There were goblins and security trolls everywhere and they all turned and stared at Ron as one.

Almost fifty different mouths opened and several wands raised but Ron already had his own pointed ahead of him and he heard Dumbledore speak through him.

"Petrificus infenitum!"

Every living thing in the vicinity froze there and then.

"Obliviate!" Ron's voice yelled without his instruction and he moved forward.

Dumbledore had been quite right, it did indeed feel as if he was being steered from behind, and he was still quite rigid as the cool sensation of Dumbledore's arms in his back guiding him across the crowded floor and down into one of the many tunnels below reminded him that he was actually being guided from within.

As they stopped at the tracks Dumbledore raised Ron's left arm and summoned a cart while swishing the wand hand and casting a memory charm upon the goblin riding within. Ron stepped inside and flicked his wand again.

"Imperio! Take us to vault 3830 please.

"Vaults in that area require..." the goblin began in a strained voice.

"I am Olive Lotterby."

"You are Olive Lotterby." the goblin repeated blankly.

"You have verified my age and my bloodline."

"I have verified your age and your bloodline."

"You have the authority to open vault 3830 for Olive Lotterby."

"I have that authority."

"Go."

Ron felt himself shaking slightly and he heard Dumbledore's voice inside his head.

'Ronald stay calm, it's alright.'

"I know," Ron whispered to himself, "I'm fine, don't worry about me."

The cart hurtled along to the vault and Dumbledore sent a wave of warmth through Ron's body, stopping the shaking and calming his nerves, and he watched as the Goblin raised his gnarled hand to stop the cart suddenly.

"What happened?" Ron blinked.

"There is a security breach in Gringotts. All carts have been stopped and all tunnels are being checked by a team of aurors from the ministry," the goblin said without emotion.

Ron felt Dumbledore raise his wand arm and point it at the cart.

"Accelero invenio vault three thousand eight hundred and thirty!"

The cart almost took off as it tore up the track on its way to the vault once again. The goblin fell out after a rough bump and Ron's left hand sent a cushioning spell behind them to catch him before sending a wave of magic ahead of them from the tips of his fingers and down the tunnel.

"Permeo!" Ron felt them passing through several powerful magical barriers and saw figures up ahead with wand tips lit and aiming at them, Dumbledore raised the wand and pointed it at them, "Cado!"

The floor gave way beneath the figures and they fell through just before they had the chance to send any spells Ron's way. The cart was going so fast that it passed over the hole without even a judder. Ron heard Dumbledore's voice inside his head again.

'Ronald, remember to breath.'

Ron let out the breath he hadn't noticed he had been holding for an uncomfortably long time and was thrown from the cart as it came to an abrupt halt outside vault 3830. He hit the ground and Dumbledore left him momentarily. He was empty and blind again. He scrambled up to his feet and tried to feel his way around when he felt Dumbledore plunging his arms into his back again and the winding track ahead zoomed back into view, along with row upon row of numbered doors. He turned to his left to see the numbers they had been looking for and Ron realised that he had lost his wand and searched the floor for it.

"Accio wand!" Dumbledore said through Ron's lips and his wand flew into his hand.

'Put that away Ronald, the wandless magic is working more effectively than I would ever have predicted. You must be coming down with something.'

Ron tucked his wand in the waistband of his sweatpants and tried to keep his head as clear as possible.

"I didn't feel too good last night in the woods after Borgins."

'Never mind, that only helps our cause, now try to let me guide you and don't panic too much.'

Ron took a deep breath and nodded as Dumbledore placed his hand onto the vault and raw energy coursed through his arms and into the door.

"Abduco, abduco, abduco, abduco, abduco..." Ron began to sweat heavily and his knees were weakening but he concentrated on his breathing and told himself not to fight Dumbledore for control, "...abduco, abduco, abduco!"

Ron gasped as a gold cup with two handles, one on either side, emerged through thedoor as if it was liquid and rested in his hands. He clutched the cup and his vision went blurry for a second, causing him to sway slightly, and he reminded himself not to expel Dumbledore from him.

"Stay, don't leave me here please!" he whispered.

'I am still here Ronald, don't worry, we still have time enough to make our escape. Remember what I said, try not to panic, stress is what is driving me out.'

"I'm sorry," Ron sighed as he decided to focus his entire mind on taking slow deep calming breaths and letting Dumbledore concentrate on casting the spells and getting him out of there.

"Stop, you're under arrest!" a voice bellowed from behind them.

Ron just kept on breathing and he felt Dumbledore raise his hands to the figure holding them at wand point.

"Expelliarmus, petrificus maxima, abdo!"

The figure was gone and Ron was running towards the space they had been standing. Ron saw that they were at the top of a staircase in the entrance hall to Gringotts, he could see the huge doors leading back to Diagon Alley, and he went back to breathing again. He had to keep himself calm.

"Imperio crebro intus!" he heard himself shouting with both his arms outstretched.

Every goblin, security troll and auror went limp and impassive where they stood and Ron actually closed his eyes and screamed at himself to keep breathing and not to think about what he had just done.

"All of you cast a memory charm on the person standing next to you," Dumbledore instructed them.

Ron's ears were full of the sounds of murmurs and the whooshing of spells leaving wands.

"Now cast another obliviate spell on yourself."

Ron opened his eyes, he supposed Dumbledore wanted to be sure that nobody could identify Ron, and he exhaled another slow breath.

'You are doing splendidly Ronald, not long now I promise you.'

Ron started walking down the staircase and both his arms were still outstretched, the cup hooked over his right thumb by one of its handles, and Dumbledore yelled once more via Ron's vocal chords.

"You will all go about your usual business for thirty minutes before turning your wands on yourselves and lifting the imperius curse."

The people began to move again. Goblins did filing; trolls did inspections, customers made their transactions and aurors left to go back to headquarters. Ron crossed the floor and passed through the large doors and out into Diagon Alley. Ron felt the cool breeze upon his face and Dumbledore withdrew from his body he let out a shudder and his knees buckled on having full control back again.

"Ron are you alright?"

"I'm fine," he nodded with a hoarse voice as he struggled back up to his feet and tried to make out a familiar shape on the murky street.

"Oh dear of course, your vision would have left you again won't it?" Dumbledore muttered to himself as he took Ron's elbow and guided him down the street for a minute or two minutes before Ron decided to ask where they were going.

"You're going nowhere Weasley," said a sinister voice somewhere ahead of him.

"Who's that?" Ron said before icy cold arms thrust into his back again, filling him with power and dragging the dark shapes into perfect clarity before his eyes.

A group of hooded figures stood before them. Death Eaters blocking his path, about eight of them, and they all sent hexes his way at exactly the same time.

"Protego!" Ron said as he held out both hands and Dumbledore cast a shield in front of him to catch all the curses that were flying at him.

Ron tried to grab his wand from his sweatpants, he wanted to help, but Dumbledore was using his arms to send out more defensive spells and he couldn't do it.

"Obtineo! Oppugno! Compescor indentiem!"

'Please Ronald; don't fight me, not now!' Dumbledore pleaded with him.

"Stupefy!" Ron bellowed as the spell shot forth from the tips of his fingers and hit two of the Death Eaters.

One of the tallest Death Eaters ran at him just as another just behind sent a fatal cutting curse Ron's way.

"Sectum leto!"

The curse was deflected by Dumbledore and it hit the oncoming Death Eater who screamed in agony and fell onto Ron, blood spurting from his jugular all over Ron's t shirt and down the front of his sweatpants as the Death Eater slid down his body slowly and lay dead at his feet.

Ron felt sick all of a sudden and the Death Eaters who stood before him flickered back into shadows before becoming clear again.

'Ron please no!' Dumbledore said as he pushed further into his back, 'I know it seems impossible right now but please stay calm and let me defend you. If you reject me there's nothing I can do to help you'

Ron was about to begin taking the calming breaths again when a spell caught Dumbledore off guard while he worried about him and slammed Ron hard in the chest. He flew backwards and into a wall behind him, the side of his face smacking into a lamp post as he did, and he was amazed to still be feeling Dumbledore at his back despite this. He tried to breathe through the winding he had just taken and Dumbledore went on the offensive again.

"Absisto!"

Another of the Death Eaters disappeared into thin air. One of the hooded figures stepped forward and aimed their wand at Ron. Dumbledore raised Ron's arms to cast a counter spell but it was almost too late.

"Obtineo trunco pulpa!" the spell flew at him and wrapped around his arms, battering and grazing his skin.

It was agony, as if a dull wire brush was being ground into the flesh around his arms and trying to scour away his skin altogether. Dumbledore roared out a counter curse to stop the mutilation spell before it cut too deeply.

"Reluctor!"

The pain stopped and Ron gasped with relief.

'Try not to reject me Ron, try to stay strong for me and keep me with you.'

Dumbledore sounded fearful to Ron. He wondered how much time they had left before the old ghost would leave him. He cursed himself for wasting so much time back at the cave earlier. Their conversation seemed so long ago now.

"Aberro!" Dumbledore yelled through Ron and he felt himself being dragged along the ground and down the street, away from the fight.

Dumbledore was still with him, he could feel him piercing through his torso and sending out spells back towards the distant Death Eaters. Ron winced as his feet caught on jagged cobbles and debris on the street as he was dragged further and further.

'Not long now Ronald, I will hold them off, conceal you until morning and then I fear my time will be up for another night.'

Ron wanted to say something, to say thank you or goodbye or anything, but the soles of his feet suddenly scraped over what felt like broken glass and all he could do was yelp.

"Detino crebro! Obliviate!" Dumbledore shot down the street to the remaining Death Eaters before Ron was jerked out of the street and up the kerb to settle in a doorway, the ghost was leaning over him now and held his hands inside his chest as he said one last spell, "Dissimulo!"

Dumbledore pulled his hands out of Ron and the world was sucked away from him once again and he was returned to seeing nothing but shapeless shadows. Dumbledore leaned over Ron again, looking greatly concerned.

"Ronald, I'm so sorry, the ambush should have been expected. Are you badly hurt?"

Ron opened his mouth but his throat was too dry to speak so he merely shook his head and tried to smile.

"I have cast a spell over you to make you unnoticeable until daybreak so the Death Eaters shouldn't find you before your brothers. I'm afraid it is all I can do, you are too anxious to let me inhabit you any longer and my time is all but spent anyway."

Ron fought to speak but Dumbledore was fading away before him and his eyes were getting heavy. The shadows merged together to form total blackness and Dumbledore was gone with a whisper.

"As selfless as Nectan himself..."

"Ron?"

Ron heard his name, and the voice that said it sounded very familiar too, but he was more concerned with the pain that was shooting through his arms and the throbbing on one side of his head to waste too much time trying to identify it.

"Oh Fuck Ron, what the hell happened to you?"

Hands were on him now, trying to lift him into the sitting position. No that wasn't good, that hurt, he tried to force his eyes open but one of them felt as if it had a plum jammed into it and he couldn't.

"Fred!" the voice hollered from above him, so loud that it rattled his brain so hard that even his teeth hurt, "Fred get down here now!"

It was George, obviously, and he managed to open his good eye and squint up at his frightened looking older brother.

"I'm cold," he found himself saying, it wasn't a lie but it definitely wasn't one of his priority complaints either.

"Hey little brother, it's ok, we'll get you upstairs and fix you up ok?" George tried to smile at him.

"What in Merlin's name are you shouting about you...fuck that's not Ron is it?" that must've been Fred.

"Someone's beaten the shit out of him Fred and there's all this blood. I can't see where it's coming from."

Ron tried to look at himself on hearing that.

"Am I bleeding?"

"Shh, don't fidget until we can find out exactly how you're hurt ok?" Fred was crouching at Ron's side and pointing his wand at him now, "Mobil corpus!"

Ron floated upwards and was steered all the way up the stairs to the twin's flat above the shop.

"Set him on the sofa, I'll get out thefirst aid kit," George said as he went into another room.

Fred pointed his wand at Ron and said a cleaning spell, clearing away most of the blood and dirt, before staring at something in Ron's hand.

"What's that you've got there?"

Ron tilted his head to follow his brother's eyes and they fell upon a gold cup with two handles and a badger on the side. It was Hufflepuff's cup. It was a horcrux. It was the thing that they had just declared impossible to remove from Gringotts. It was in his hand.

Ron sat up sharply and winced while trembling violently.

"Whoa there Ronnie, what is it, you're ok now don't worry."

"This...this...where'd I get it? How did I get it? Where are Hermione and Harry? Why am I here? Fred what the fuck...?"

"Come on Ron, calm down a second will you? It's ok, I don't know what happened but I'll find out for you alright? You've just got to promise me to calm down though."

Ron struggled to get off the sofa and he grimaced and yelped as he put his feet on the floor, they were red raw all over as if they had been minced, despite this he still tried to stand up.

"I've got to get back to the cave. They'll be wondering where I am. I've...They'll be..." Ron looked up at Fred desperately as George came back in carrying a magical medical kit, "I did it again. It's supposed to stop. What if it never stops Fred?"

Fred turned anxiously to George who crouched at his side and rested his hand on Ron's knee.

"We don't know what you're talking about Ron; you've got to calm down for us ok?"

"Calm?" Ron blurted with disbelief, "Calm, how can I be calm with this?" he held up the cup, "How can I be calm George, how did I get it? I shouldn't have been able...what did I do?"

Fred turned to his twin and said, without any hesitation.

"Go and send an owl to Harry and Hermione now, get them here, I want some answers."

Ron began to struggle to get to his feet again.

"I'll apparate to them, I need to get back, let me apparate back to them."

Fred pushed him down and held him down.

"Ron no, you'll splinch yourself if you try to disparate on those feet, now sit still will you?"

"Get off me Fred, you have no idea what's going on, you have no idea what I've got here, you can't make me stay," Ron garbled as he struggled under his brother's weight.

"Oh no? George, get me the sleeping draught."

Ron's eyes widened and his face paled.

"Not sleep, don't send me to sleep please, they'll take me again!"

Fred stared down at his terrified little brother and then over to George who had just sent an owl flying out of the window. George took a step towards his brothers and swallowed.

"Is somebody after you Ron? Is somebody trying to take you somewhere?" he asked.

"I can't please, I can't sleep, that's when they come for me. They did this!"

Ron struggled to try to leave again and it took the two of them to hold him down this time, which then seemed to aggravate his injuries, Fred met George's eyes and they knew that they'd have to enforce sleep on their frantic little brother for his own good before he ended up hurting himself.

"George, the potion, now."

Chapter Seven - The Recovery Position

Ron felt warm and then cold before shifting in his sleep and finding himself at a comfortable temperature again. There was a hand on him, he didn't want to get up just yet, he was comfortable.

"Five more minutes," he mumbled as he turned over.

An agonising slither of pain shot through the centre of his head and his cheekbone and eye on that side of his face felt three times the size they should be and incredibly sensitive.

"Ow!"

He hauled himself up on what appeared to be a sofa and tried to take in his surroundings through the bleary eye that blinked in the morning light and the other eye which was almost swollen shut. He struggled to remember what happened to him and where he was.

"Where the hell...?" he began before remembering he was in big trouble and he jumped up off the sofa and onto his feet, which hurt him more than he could ever have expressed, searching himself for his wand, "Where the hell...?" he said again, his tone now much more urgent.

"Looking for this?" George's voice said as he held up Ron's wand.

Ron stared at him, before remembering how he had originally been woken that morning. Ron's eyes darted from left to right rapidly, looking for the cup and hoping it had just been a bad dream.

"Where's the...?" again he didn't manage to complete his sentence as Fred held up Hufflepuff's cup.

"The thing you apparently stole from Gringotts last night, is that what you're looking for?" Fred asked while George stood at his side and folded his arms in that way that made him look as solid as a brick wall.

Ron saw that Harry and Hermione at his side and felt thankful that he was at least back in their company again before shuddering.

"I didn't did I?"

Hermione rubbed her hand up and down Ron's arm, he looked down at his arms to see the dreadful bruises that covered them, and he grimaced at the punishment his poor arms had taken over the last couple of years, the only thing that stood out from the grazes and bruising were the scars from the brain attack at the ministry.

"We don't know what happened," Hermione sighed, not seeming to realise that she was causing him great discomfort by touching him like that.

"How did you get hurt?" Harry asked, blatantly noticing every little injury on his body and looking a little queasily at his swollen eye.

Ron took another look at his bruises and then at his feet which were in the most dreadful state and shrugged.

"What is going on?" George demanded.

Ron was about to begin weaving an improvised cover story to his brother when Hermione pushed him back onto the sofa, causing his ribs to ache painfully and Ron to wonder if she had learnt her bedside manner from Grawp, and began to magically treat Ron's injuries. Harry seemed to have decided to give the twins an edited version of the truth and Ron was too busy watching Hermione with scepticism as she aimed her wand directly into his face and set about trying to reduce the swelling in his eye.

Fred sat down and stared at the cup in his hands.

"So you're saying that if you destroy this cup You-Know-Who gets a little bit weaker?"

Harry nodded.

"Well destruction is our middle name," George said as he disappeared off into another room.

"Fred," Ron winced, Hermione was trying to pull his swollen eye open to check his retina so she said, though it felt as if she was just making things worse, "do you get the Daily Prophet delivered?"

"We do little bro, we do indeed," Fred nodded as he sat forward in his chair, "why do you ask? Afraid you'll see your face on the front page?"

Ron's stomach flipped at that thought, all he wanted to do was find out if the break-in at Gringotts was newsworthy but now he realised that it was probably the talk of the wizarding world and he was probably the most wanted wizard in the country after the dark lord himself.

"Well I wasn't until you just said that," Hermione was attempting a swish and flick motion in order to send a spell into Ron's swollen eye but all she had managed to do was send the tip of her wand into it instead, "Ouch, Hermione!"

Hermione huffed and lifted her hands away from Ron's face, dropping them into her lap in annoyance, and stared into his battered face with impatience and sadness.

"I'm just trying to help you Ron, don't be such a baby."

"You were poking me in the bloody eye!"

"Now now Ronniekins, be a good little soldier for nurse Hermione or we'll call in matron mum to heal you," George teased as he re entered the room carrying a large block of stone with a deep indentation all the way around the top of it.

Oh Godric, I can only imagine the look on mum's face if she saw me like this, she babies me when I've got a tiny little shiner so She'd go off her nut if she saw me with a head like a rotting pumpkin!

"Don't you threaten me with mum," Ron snapped at his evil brother.

Fred was grinning wickedly.

"Oh how we'd love to see you squirm little brother," his mirth seemed to dissipate rather quickly as he spoke, "but I wouldn't want to mention your name and sleepwalking in the same sentence to her for all the galleons in Gringotts."

George gave a derisive snort to break the tension.

"The ones you left in there after your 'raid' last night at least."

Great so the twins knew that he was sleepwalking again too, although that much would be pretty obvious to even a total moron, and he hoped they were serious about keeping it from their mum. She would be a woman possessed if she knew it was happening again.

"Oh you're funny, both of you, I could listen to you for hours," Ron said while Hermione surreptitiously sent a couple more healing charms into his face, working on his blind side in the hope he wouldn't be able to tell what she was up to.

"Look Ron," Harry began, "I know you're going to tell me you don't but I have to ask you anyway. Do you remember anything at all?"

"Nothing. Did I talk before I left?"

Harry and Hermione shared a glance before Harry nodded.

"Yeah, a bit."

"What did I say, anything interesting?" Ron wasn't sure that he really wanted to know the answer to this but at the same time he wanted to find out if he had been as reluctant as he had when whoever it was had taken him to Borgin's place.

"Nothing that made any sense, it was only one half of a conversation mate," Harry shrugged.

Ron slouched and noticed that Hermione had tensed up and seemed to be scowling at Harry. Then she remembered that she was attempting to treat his eye, which had started to go down quite a lot surprisingly, and Ron found that he could actually see quite a bit more out of it now. It did feel as if it was bulging an inch or so out of his skull though and he put his hand up to his face to feel the contours of his tender side.

"So what's with the brick then George?" Ron asked as Hermione pulled his hand away and finished off her treatment of his eye with somewhat more confidence than she had started the job.

"This brick, as you so ignorantly put it," George said, "is a chest."

"Carved out of stone from Pevensy Bay and naturally hinged, making it ideal for the incineration of magical objects." Fred nodded.

"Um, will it destroy any magical enchantments when it destroys the actual object then?" Harry was trying to sound nonchalant.

"It'll destroy anything you put in it no matter how magical the protection spell put upon it," George said proudly.

"And no matter what might be secretly hidden inside...for example," Fred smirked as he opened the lid of the stone trunk.

George took the cup and placed it inside the stone trunk. Fred closed the lid and nodded to George who withdrew his wand and tapped the top of the trunk three times.

"Aboleo, nusquam esse, absisto!"

The sound of a raging fire came from the chest as it violently shook in Fred's hands before smoke pushed out of the indentation where the lid rested.

"There, all gone."

Fred handed the trunk to George who turned to return it to wherever it was he had got it from. As he did he winced at Ron's mangled feet and pulled out a small green bottle from his back pocket.

"Ron you're feet are putting me off having breakfast, go to the bathroom and soak them in some hot water with a capful of this will you?"

Ron eyed the bottle he had just been handed with great suspicion, this was no time for pranks but he knew that the twins sometimes had a warped sense of humour and a poor sense of timing.

"Alright but if this stuff makes my feet swell up to five times their normal size I'm going to use them to kick your arses!" he warned them.

George chuckled as he left the room with the trunk in his arms. Ron struggled to his feet, declining Hermione's attempt to help, and hobbled across the room towards the bathroom. It felt as if he was walking over a scalding hot soup of broken glass and stinging nettles and every step he took hurt him in a whole new place. He hissed as some of the scabs broke open on the soles of his feet and struggled not to whimper like a total girl. As soon as he closed the bathroom door he turned on the hot tap and let the thunderous echo of the running water in the twin's bathroom drown out his cry of pain as he leant against the door and slid down it. He lifted his feet off the floor and rested them up on the side of the bathtub.

He couldn't believe how hard he had to fight against the tears that threatened to flow. He was ok, he had found Harry another horcrux, and he might even have got away with it. He hoped that he had. Azkaban would kill him within the day. That did it, a tear escaped from Ron's swollen tear duct; it's hard to hold back a tear from an eye that is weeping in the first place. He sniffed and wiped his face, the sore side of his face, and yelped again.

"Oh pull yourself together you bloody wimp!" he growled at himself.

He changed his demeanour to that of a hardened soldier, not fazed by anything, and leaned forward to pour some of the solution from the little green bottle into the bath tub, which was now a few inches full. He gritted his teeth and put his weight back on his feet without a sound, sitting on the edge of the tub and leaning to turn off the tap, before swivelling and lowering his feet into the shallow green tinted water.

The sensation was bizarre.

His feet were burning with painful intensity while being satisfying soothed. Open wounds were closing and sealing, which was good, but the movement of his skin as it rapidly healed was a form of mini torture, which was very bad. Ron grimaced and hissed and flinched while wriggling his toes and feeling a sense of relief at last. It was almost as if he was eating something he really loved, like chocolate, only to find that there were pins hidden within it but not being able to stop chewing because the chocolate just tasted so good. His feet felt so much better but he had to go through the pain of the rapid healing in order to get there.

The sores and cuts still looked dreadful but the pain was now entirely gone and Ron lifted his red patchy feet out of the blue steaming water and shook them off before biting his bottom lip and standing on them with his full weight. He exhaled and smiled, they felt great.

He pulled the plug and watched the water drain away before picking up the tiny bottle and opening the bathroom door to rejoin the others.

"You know I've got to say you two have impressed me with this," Ron said as he handed George back the green bottle, "I mean they still look a bit raw but they feel great. Ever thought of doing business with St Mungos?"

The twins were staring at Ron and he stared right back at them, waiting for an answer to his question that never came. It was then that he realised that everybody had become very sombre in his absence. He looked down to Hermione, who was sitting on the sofa with her head down, and he wondered exactly what kind of a conversation he had been missing.

"What?" Ron looked down at himself and then felt his face before glaring at the twins, "What did that bloody stuff do to me? If I've turned green or something I swear I'll..."

"You're exactly the colour you're supposed to be Ron, we were just talking about how dreadful the Cannons are this season and didn't want to offend you," Harry lied quite obviously.

Hermione glared at Harry again, they always seemed to be angry with each other recently Ron thought, before getting to her feet and walking over to him and taking his hands in hers.

"Ron there's something I think you should know," she began.

She didn't get any further than that because of the post owl that swooped into the flat and landed on the table beside Ron with some letters for the twins and that morning's Daily Prophet. All thought's of Hermione's revelation vanished and his need to see just how his night time activities had been reported to the rest of wizard-kind took him over.

"Oh great the Prophet's here," Ron said as he grabbed the Prophet and shook it open with fear that he might just see his own face staring back at him.

He didn't see his face. H e didn't see his name. He didn't seem to have been caught. He appeared to have got away with it. He wasn't relieved at this news and he wasn't the least bit happy either. In fact he felt as if he was going to drop to his knees and be violently sick for several hours until he managed to turn his entire body inside out just by retching.

He felt himself shaking and he knew they were all waiting for him to tell them the good news, the news that he had got away with the crime of the century, but he just saw one word.

Imperius.

He had used an unforgivable curse. He had used an unforgivable curse in his sleep. He was officially dangerous now. He was only a short step away from becoming a subconscious murderer. He would never be able to sleep again. He wondered if they all knew and that had been why they were all so weird when he came out of the bathroom. He lowered the newspaper and looked at Hermione who shook off Harry's hand, he had obviously been holding her back while Ron read, and took a step towards him. Ron looked over at the twins who seemed to be getting up from their seat as if they were joined at the hip and he shook his head and took a step backwards. They were all about to tell him everything was going to be fine but it wouldn't, nothing would be fine ever again.

"I couldn't have done this," Ron heard himself say as he shook the paper before him; "it's not possible. I didn't do this. I didn't do it. It wasn't me."

Ron looked at the paper and waited the proof that he had done it out of his hand and out of his life as quickly as possible. He felt his body trying to make him vomit but he hadn't eaten yet so there was nothing for him to give and he tried to gulp down the mini convulsion within him.

Fred took a step toward him and spoke in the same way he had after Ginny had been taken into the Chamber of Secrets, as if he was borrowing the voice of a much warmer and considerably more subdued person.

"It wasn't you, you're absolutely right about that Ron, whatever happened last night it wasn't you. We know that."

Ron looked back down at the paper that was shaking in his hands itself now and he feared that his legs weren't going to be able to hold him up much longer. He was going to fall.

"That's...That much power, I shouldn't be able...I couldn't do that, it's not possible," the paper had to be lying Ron told himself, he wasn't that good a wizard to have pulled something like that off.

Hermione bundled Fred aside and tore the paper from Ron's hands. She thrust it into Fred's and threw her arms around Ron's neck, hugging him tightly, Ron wanted to cling to her and draw strength from her but he couldn't bear to infect anybody with his touch. He was out of control and he was dangerous. He would end up hurting her and he couldn't let that happen.

"I don't care what the paper says happened in Gringotts last night because you weren't at Gringotts last night," Hermione said firmly as she gripped Ron even tighter, "you're right Ron, it was somebody else who left us in that cave. It was somebody else who dumped you on Fred and George's doorstep this morning. Whatever happened, had nothing to do with you do you hear me?"

She pulled away and forced him to look her in the eyes, Ron couldn't speak, and Ron felt his heart ache as he realised that he had to spare Hermione all the hurt he would inevitably cause her. She seemed to get cross with him for not being able to shrug this off and boldly join in with the, anything Ron does in his sleep isn't Ron's fault, sentiment and shook him quite roughly.

"I said do you hear me Ron?"

Ron shook his head. He hadn't really been listening to her; he was watching Fred passing George the newspaper and sinking back into his armchair with a mortified look on his face. That was the reaction Ron was looking for, that was the honest reaction to these events, Fred realised the truth for what it was. Ron was a danger to them all and soon to be a wanted man. He had to have been seen, they had to be searching for him right now, and his life as he knew it was over.

"I can't trust myself to be around you, either of you, not anymore," he explained to Hermione, she had to accept the truth.

"Rubbish!" Hermione snapped.

Harry ripped the Prophet from George's hands and read the offending article for himself while George fell back against the wall. So that was it, the twins were both terrified of him; he had lost the both of them. George suddenly took a deep breath and grabbed Ron out of Hermione's arms, pulling him into a hug of his own. Ron was startled by this and stiffened with shock.

"Bollocks Ron, I trust you with my life and don't you forget it."

Well that had been unexpected. Yet again his siblings he thought he knew so well managed to surprise him. Ron pulled away from his brother and ran his hand through his hair. George being the one to have said that in particular meant everything to Ron as he had already been on the receiving end of Ron's propensity to be violent while asleep.

"I've already hit you when I was like that," Ron scoffed as he began to pace up and down; he suddenly felt an extra wave of gratitude for his pain free feet as he did this.

Fred got back up again.

"Oh come off it, you can't blame yourself for that, you were just a kid."

"It wasn't you!" George said to Ron, sounding quite angry with him for not understanding what they were saying to him.

Didn't they get the magnitude of this? Didn't they read the fine print? Didn't they see how much power he had been using, how many people he could have hurt?

"Goblins and powerful enchantments and aurors guys, aurors! I...I...all of 'em!"

"Stop it, stop it all of you!" Hermione screamed.

Ron froze on the spot, Fred and George were silenced just as they were both about to express their joint opinion of Ron's idiocy, and Hermione stood with her arms in the air just as she had been standing to let out her scream. Harry carefully folded the paper and set it down on the table.

Ron looked down at himself and saw the dried blood that stained his clothing, blood that the twins told him hadn't been his own, somebody had been badly hurt last night and it seemed that it was at his hands. He leaned against the wall and slid down it, his head dropping into his hands.

"I'm going to go to Azkaban for this."

Chapter Eight - Into the Arms Of Death

"No, you're fine Ron, they don't know it's you," Hermione said in an attempt to reassure him that he wasn't about to be arrested on sight as soon as they left Fred and George's place.

"It wasn't him," George said stubbornly, Ron thought that George had always taken anything to do with his sleepwalking very personally due to the fact it had been he who had disobeyed his mother's instructions and woken Ron that time ten years ago.

Hermione nodded in agreement.

"What I mean is that nobody saw you there to blame you. You won't get into any trouble over this."

"No trouble?" Ron rose to his feet and began to pace even more frantically than he had been before, "No trouble Hermione? I attacked aurors!"

"You didn't attack anybody, you controlled people."

What they hell was with her? Why isn't she scared of me?

"Oh well that's fine, perfectly acceptable isn't it?" Ron scoffed with a wave of his hand.

"Calm down," Hermione said, grabbing him by the shoulders, "nobody got hurt. Nothing belonging to anybody got stolen remember? You are not in any trouble because, along with everything else, you managed to perform a memory charm on everybody."

"Witnesses Hermione," Ron prodded at the paper with his finger, "did you not read the word witnesses...plural?"

"Witnesses who, along with everybody else, didn't see the wizard's face and weren't able to supply any kind of descriptive details to the investigators who arrived on the scene. You're in the clear Ron."

He wished that was the case, he really did, and he felt Hermione's firm grip on him loosen and her hands gently rub up and down comfortingly. He looked her in the eye and just wanted to bury his face into her shoulder and hide until all this was over. She seemed to have more faith in him than he did. She really did trust him more than anybody else in the world ever had done before. He wanted to tell her...to tell her... No, he told himself, it wasn't fair of him to do that now. He pulled himself together and out of her reach in order to pick up his frantic pacing once again.

"All those people Hermione, I had one wand and I was asleep, and I performed an unforgivable curse and an unbreakable memory charm on all of them."

Harry suddenly stood up and glared at Ron.

"So what?"

Ron looked at Harry as if he was clearly insane.

"So I need to be locked-up!" Ron said incredulously.

"You need to be shut-up," Harry said harshly, "you're talking bollocks."

"Hear, hear!" George said.

"Look at the state of me Harry," Ron said through gritted teeth as he held out his bruised arms for Harry to get a good look at, "and I was covered in blood when I first woke up, you're seriously telling me I'm not dangerous?"

"That's easily explained," Hermione chipped in, tugging at Ron's elbow, "Voldemort would've got word almost immediately that one of his...possessions had just been stolen from Gringotts and sent as many Death Eaters as he could summon to Diagon Alley to get it back. If you hurt anybody it was only somebody who was looking to hurt you."

Why was it that every source of comfort came with another huge worry?

"Oh so I'm fighting Death Eaters in my sleep too now? What the hell is going on?"

"What's going on is that Voldemort now knows what we're trying to do," Harry's words were like a kick in the stomach to Ron, "and unless you managed to perform that memory charm while fighting those Death Eaters Voldemort also knows that the wizard the Prophet has just declared to be as powerful him is you. This mission just got a whole lot harder."

They were in a room above the Leaky Caldron, Hermione was sleeping on the bed and Harry was being gradually swallowed by a battered old armchair in the corner, and Ron was sitting on the windowsill gazing out at the rooftops and sipping on his third or fourth cup of coffee since they had checked in that afternoon. They had eaten lunch in total silence an hour earlier and still not said a word to each other since. There wasn't really anything they could say. Every word of reassurance seemed to make Ron feel steadily worse and every time Ron got visibly upset Hermione would become either tearful or livid. Harry was just determined that Ron would never be taken out of his sight ever again and had been vowing to ensure Ron's security to Fred and George when they left the shop for the Leaky Caldron.

Harry let out a deep sigh and Ron took another sip of his coffee.

"Listen Ron," Harry's voice came as something of a shock to Ron when it finally penetrated the weighty silence, "if you want to get some sleep we can work something out."

Ron smiled across at him and shook his head before turning to look at Hermione as she slept soundly on the bed, he envied her, and then he realised that maybe this was the best time to bring up a subject that he knew she was vehemently opposed to but one that he really felt warranted serious consideration in light of recent events.

"Look," Ron twisted his body away from the window to face into the room as he spoke, "in my backpack there's..."

"I know, I saw them," Harry nodded, he had packed up Ron's things before they had apparated to Fred and George's place with them, "I thought Hermione made her feelings about that pretty clear."

Ron lowered his head and looked over at her sleeping form again. It was her SPEW mindset that was so against the bond of blood, he told himself, if she really thought about it she would see that it was for the best. Just because they used to be used for enslavement that didn't mean she and Harry would be enslaving Ron.

"Yeah well that was then wasn't it?" he raised his eyes to stare into Harry's with determined ferocity, "Do it before she wakes up so she can't stop it."

Harry sat forward in his chair and clasped his hands together.

"Ron I don't know about this, she was cautious for a good reason you know?"

Well there was that other loophole too but why did he have to bring that up?

"The reason being that whichever one of you does it for me...if anything happened to you, I'd be stuck forever, but you know what Harry? If anything happened to either of you me being stuck would be the last of my worries."

Harry was giving this some serious thought, which encouraged Ron no end, as his eyes drifted over to Ron's backpack where it rested on the floor.

"The thing is Ron," Harry said, Ron's face fell, this didn't sound promising, "I really don't think it should be me."

"Why not?"

"Because I'm almost certainly going to get killed."

Ron shuddered involuntarily, he hated it when Harry talked like this and he was talking like this more and more often these days.

"Don't say that."

"It's the truth Ron; I've told you the words of the prophecy haven't I? Neither can live while the other survives."

Ron swallowed, he hated that damn prophecy.

"Well you're going to kill Vol..." Ron stalled, almost able to say it but not quite, "you'll kill him and then you'll be able to live won't you, there's no problem."

Harry smiled. Ron realised that he was brilliant at instilling confidence and bravery in other people and wondered why he had never been able to do it for himself.

"I intend to kill him Ron, I just can't be sure that he won't take me with him and if you're bound by my blood when that happens, when my blood stops flowing, you're bound for the rest of your life."

Ron blinked and fixed Harry's eyes in an unbreakable glare, wasn't that motivation enough for him not to die and why the hell would Harry bind him during a fight anyway?

"Well you better not bloody 'bind' me anywhere during the battle eh?" he said firmly.

"I didn't mean that Ron, I was thinking of a nigh time attack, I could get caught up in defending myself and not have time to release you."

Ron stood up and crossed the room to crouch down at his Backpack and rummage around for the two silver coloured hoops that he had been hiding from Hermione since he took them from Borgin's secret room. Ron withdrew them and held them out to Harry.

"It's the only way to stop me Harry," Ron looked up at Harry with pleading eyes and his heart leapt as Harry's hand slowly reached out to take the hoops from him, "please."

"Don't you dare!" Hermione's furious voice hissed from the bed, "Either of you."

Shit!

Ron's head dropped and Harry jumped back from the hoops as if they were covered in dragon dung as Hermione threw herself off the bed and stormed over to yank the offending items from Ron's open palm.

"I don't care what you did last night Ron, I don't care what you do tonight or the night after that, you are not restraining yourself with the bond of blood and that is final!"

Ron cringed beneath her rage from his position crouched on the floor.

"It was just a maybe Hermione," Harry said, trying to help him friend out, "we were just talking about the idea of it. I wasn't going to do it."

Ron glared up at Harry, who tried to signal to him with his eyes that he was just trying to get them out of trouble and to keep his mouth shut.

"No you were going to suggest I do it, I heard you both Harry," Hermione yelled and stamped her foot, she really was furiously against using those hoops.

Ron pulled himself back up to his feet and rounded on Hermione.

"I knew you'd never do it and I would never have asked you ok? Now give them here."

Ron held out his hand for her to give the hoops back but Hermione was gripping them so hard that her fingers were almost turning blue from the lack of blood reaching them. She seemed to swallow down a ball of rage and her eyes were burning fiercely as she stared at him.

"What was that supposed to mean?"

Oh not he couldn't take another row, not now.

Ron lowered his voice but tried to remain firm.

"I knew you'd say no. I didn't want to waste my time."

The two of them seethed at each other until Ron lowered his hand and turned away from Hermione.

"Keep 'em then," he growled under his breath before stomping back over to the window to sit on the sill and silently seethe.

"Harry's right Ron," she said, her voice sounding suddenly weak, "if you're bound while the binder's blood stops flowing you're bound for life."

Ron looked back at her, his resentment being replaced by the depressing truth, and he laid it on the line.

"If the binder's blood stopped flowing I wouldn't care about being bound for life."

Hermione was suddenly running at him, her eyes flashing with outrage, and Ron tensed from his position on the windowsill. As she reached him her right arm flew back and swung forward, slapping him on his good side and stinging his cheek. The sound was like a thunder crack and he stared up at her as he felt the sensation of her handprint beginning rise to the surface of his skin.

Hermione's hands were covering her mouth and she looked appalled at herself. Well she had just hit somebody who had, only that morning, been recovering from a beating from murderous Death Eaters. Ron was still just staring up at her without reacting in any way. They were just looking at each other. They were like that forever, that's what it felt like, until Ron couldn't bear to look into Hermione's eyes any longer, and he jumped to his feet before he even had the thought to move.

He grabbed Hermione in a full body hug while whispering into her hair with a broken voice.

"I'm sorry."

Hermione held him tight and began to uncontrollably yammer

"We'll find another way I promise you. There's got to be a way to keep you safe, to keep you with me, and I can't let you do something this drastic so soon. There has to be something else we just haven't thought of. I can't let you do it, I won't, it's far too risky. We can chain you up physically and magically tonight and I'll stay up with you all night and you won't go anywhere. I won't let you go tonight. I won't let you go, not ever, ok? You're not a bad person. You're not a dangerous person. The thing that comes to you at night isn't dangerous either. They didn't hurt anybody last night. They didn't make you hurt anybody. It's going to be ok Ron, I promise you, I swear."

Hermione's hands were resting on his face, now sore on both sides, and he realised that he should have said that thing he wanted to earlier. He should have said it ages ago. He should say it now. Instead he made a joke.

"Say that again, I didn't quite catch it," Ron muttered.

They both laughed and Ron suddenly remembered that Harry was there too when he heard him laughing as well. Harry made himself scarce, leaving the two of them alone and still in each other's arms at the window, and Hermione rested her head against Ron's chest.

"I'm sorry I hit you, I can't believe I did it, does it hurt?"

"Stings a bit but I deserved it, its ok. I can't believe that after all the times I've pissed you off over the years that this is the first time you've ever done it," he chuckled and squeezed her a little tighter.

She looked up at him and smiled before standing on tip toes and gently kissing him. She dropped back down again and looked tired.

"I was so worried about you last night, I couldn't sleep until I knew you were safe, and I was so scared that they were hurting you from the inside," Ron felt her shudder against him before continuing, "I convinced myself you could hear me for a while but it wasn't true, they had you from the very beginning, they had you all alone in there and there's nothing I can do to help you when they come for you again tonight."

"They may not come any more Hermione, we got the impossible one, it's over," Ron smiled down at her and lowered his head to kiss her, she met him halfway.

As they separated again Ron felt Hermione squeeze him again, he felt another dull ache around his ribs and his back but kept it to himself, and they sat down on the window sill.

"You know that's not true, don't lie to make me feel better, I hate it when you lie to me."

Ron pushed the hair away from her face and saw her tired eyes shining as she looked back at him.

"I'd tell you the truth but it scares me too much, I'm protecting myself as well y'know?"

She thrust her face into the side of his neck and curled her arms around his neck with a breathy whimper. Ron rubbed her back and kissed the top of her head.

"Hey come on, don't get upset, everything's going to be fine. You'll see."

Hermione's muffled voice sounded against his skin and her breath was warm and slightly ticklish as she said something that silenced Ron for several minutes afterwards.

"If they ever break you Ron I'll find a way to make them pay. I'd kill for you. I'd die for you."

Harry had returned with a pair of handcuffs and an apologetic look on his face for interrupting what he thought was an intimate moment between Ron and Hermione. Ron had finally found his voice and had told her that no matter what happened to him he forbade her to become a murderer or a victim in the name of revenge.

"I can just about handle ruining my own life let alone yours too."

She had kissed him with increasing ferocity for ten minutes before resting her head in his lap and drifting back to sleep. He had stroked her hair and watched the sun go down through the window before carrying her over to the bed and laying her down, immediately causing her to wake up, and she had insisted upon having another go at healing the visible bruises and swelling on Ron with her wand.

"You're just feeling guilty about smacking me aren't you?" he had smiled and she had been about to threaten him with another red handprint on his anatomy when Harry coughed to catch their attention.

Now Ron was tugging against the handcuffs as Harry finished fixing the one that wasn't around Ron's wrist to the radiator.

"These'll be off in a second you do know that right?" he warned Harry apologetically.

Harry shrugged.

"Well we'll take your wand from you, that'll make it a little harder for you won't it?"

Hermione had a book open on her lap and had been casting charms on Ron, on the handcuffs, on the door and window and pretty much anything she could find a charm for.

"You shouldn't be able to get out of them and my magical re enforcements on them Ron and even if you do the room should hold you."

Ron glanced up at her.

"And if it doesn't?"

Hermione looked a little upset, but only for moment, before standing up straight and closing the book.

"Harry or myself would have woken up long before that becomes an issue, if either of us sleep tonight at all, and if you apparate anywhere we'll be taken with you."

Harry nudged Ron and grinned.

"Don't worry mate, we'll be on you like glue tonight."

Ron rolled his eyes and smiled as Hermione took a step back and regarded the sight of him sitting on the floor, one arm chained to a radiator, on top of his sleeping bag and began to frown.

"Well you're obviously not going to doze off in that uncomfortable position are you?" she said, before raising her wand and twirling it in front of her, "Let me know when you're ready and I'll..."

"Cheers Hermione," Ron nodded as he turned onto his side to continue chatting with Harry.

Harry gestured to the radiator with a nod of the head.

"Why does this room even have one of those when there's a fireplace right here?" he asked.

Ron shrugged.

"Hot water's got to come from somewhere hasn't it? Besides, these fireplaces are really for flooing rather than heat, the chimney's haven't been cleaned in an age."

Hermione settled down on the end of her bed with another book and Harry and Ron played wizard chess until Ron found himself losing the fight to keep his eyes open. Harry must've noticed this as he lost their last game.

"Well mate I don't know about you but I'm knackered."

"Oh very subtle," Ron snorted, "couldn't you have just said, you're boring me now, knock him out Hermione?"

Harry laughed at this.

"I didn't want to hurt your feelings," he shrugged.

Hermione put her book aside and sank down to the floor with her wand in her hand.

"You have been looking sleepy these last few minutes Ron," she smiled as she held up her wand to his face, "I think it's time for you to get some rest don't you?"

Ron tried to lay himself down in a comfortable sleeping position. Hermione held her hand over the delicate side of his face as he wriggled around, fearing that he would knock it against the radiator and ruin all her good repair work, and as he rested his head down onto his pillow she stroked the cheek she had previously felt the need to strike and stared down at him with a smile.

"Are you ready?" Hermione asked him, he nodded, "Obdormio!"

Ron's eyes closed and his body slumped, he was submerged in blackness again and the world was drawn away from him, he was back in his own personal void.

"Ronald, it's time."

He knew that voice. He sat up and saw the ghost of Dumbledore standing in front of him.

So that's who it was, that's how he broke into Gringotts.

He felt a wave of relief and answered him.

"For what?"

"To find the next of Lord Voldemort's horcruxes."

"Now?" Ron wearily, he really wanted to just get a good night's sleep after all the activity of the night before.

"The sooner the better now that he has been alerted to our task."

"There's really no other way?" Ron asked.

Dumbledore shook his head.

"I'm afraid not Ron," Dumbledore's face suddenly brightened as he took a step closer and crouched down before him, "Come now, cheer up, you have been doing a wonderful job and I am very proud of you."

Ron couldn't help but find this amusing.

"Throwing your lap dog a bone huh?"

Dumbledore stared at him with surprise for a moment.

"I think there's still something of last night lingering within you Ronald."

Before Ron could ask what that was supposed to mean Dumbledore shook his head and returned to his point.

"You're no lap dog Mr Weasley; you are a divine instrument sent to rid the world of Lord Voldemort once and for all."

Ron felt something against his hand. He looked but could only see a shadow darkening the skin. He looked back up at Dumbledore.

"You know just how to play me don't you?"

Dumbledore smiled.

"I sense your hostility has lessened towards me Ron. Dare I hope that you now trust I am who I say I am?"

"I don't know, do you dare?" Ron said, wondering if his past conversations with Dumbledore had been particularly frustrating for the old wizard.

"I am ever the optimist, even in the afterlife Ronald, and do not fear for tonight you will travel nowhere."

Ron let out a sigh.

"Thank you."

"Oh don't thank me Ronald, thank your friends, they have seen to it that I will not be able to take you where you need to go this evening."

"You can't break the spells?" Ron was asked, wondering how he could have been beaten by Harry and Hermione's efforts when he managed to walk into a vault at Gringotts and out the front door without any problems at all.

"I can Mr Weasley, of course I can, but I can do nothing to prevent Harry or Hermione from trying to side along apparate with you and that cannot be allowed on this next part of the journey."

"I have to go alone?" Ron asked, wondering if this meant that he was in for another battle to the death.

"In order to ensure that the locket was indeed destroyed, yes I'm afraid you do."

"When?" Ron asked with resignation.

"When you aren't being quite so closely scrutinised by your friends," Dumbledore said before looking away.

Ron narrowed his eyes slightly, Dumbledore looked deeply unhappy all of a sudden, and he wondered what it was about this mission that Ron had to go on all alone that made the man so sad.

"What? What's the matter?"

He still couldn't bring himself to look at Ron.

"You finally trust me. You and I have finally had a light-hearted conversation. Look at you now Ron, you are even showing concern for me when a few nights ago you were convinced I was a trick of Voldemort's sent to use you to get to Harry. This next task Ron, I wish there could be another way, I fear that I will lose the trust I have only just earned from you."

"Why? What is it?" Ron demanded, uneasy at both what he was being told and this previously unseen demeanour in Dumbledore, "Where are you sending me?"

"I will send you to the locket Ronald. I wish there was some way I could spare you this but alas, I can think of none in this time of urgency. I only wish you had some memory of our conversations in your waking hours. I wish that when you wake and find yourself with Regulus you could know that I am with you and you are not alone."

"Regulus?" Ron frowned.

"Sirius' brother Regulus Black, R.A.B. Ronald," Dumbledore said before another wave of unhappiness caused him to avert his eyes from Ron's own, "I fear you will never forgive me when this is done."

Ron wondered what on earth could be worse than him having performed an unforgivable curse.

"You're not going to make me kill anyone are you?"

"Never Ron, never that, but I will be sending you into the arms of death," Dumbledore was looking at him again; he seemed to have strengthened his resolve despite still being clearly unhappy about this next step.

"You're going to kill me?" Ron shuddered, still not able to translate exactly what he was getting at.

A dark shadow passed between Ron and Dumbledore and remained while Dumbledore answered the question.

"No. It will be much worse than that I'm afraid."

Ron had more questions, he wanted Dumbledore to let him in on the plan, and he wanted to reassure the old man that together they could do anything but he didn't get the chance. His body felt limp and heavy and his head fell backwards while the black shroud of unconsciousness fell over him once again. Something was cushioning him from behind and his arm was suspended in mid air by something but that was all he knew before the darkness penetrated his mind as well as his body and thought left him until morning.

Chapter Nine - Waking the Dead

The floorboards beneath Ron juddered and he fought not to wake up. He desperately wanted more sleep and all this thumping around him wasn't helping him to achieve that goal. He tried to turn over before a cramp-like pain in his arm stopped him and he settled into a more comfortable position. Except no position was comfortable, not at all, the floor was hard and his joints were stiff. Voices were bringing him further out of his rapidly diminishing state of sleep and he groaned and tried to banish the intruding sounds from his brain.

"Too much noise!" he grumbled.

He really was uncomfortable now and shifted his weight and tried to turn over onto his other side before the arm suffering from the cramp yanked him back and something cut into his wrist.

"...you put his shoes on."

That sounded like Harry. Why was Harry giving orders? Then he felt somebody handling his feet quite roughly and jamming something unnaturally hard onto his foot. His toes hurt and Ron realised that something was wrong and forced himself to wake up.

"Is the building on fire or something?" he blinked as he tried to sit up.

Harry was practically sitting on his chest and trying to un-cuff him from the radiator. Ron remembered everything now.

"Stay still for a second Ron, I'm trying to liberate you from the radiator."

Harry shoved Ron hard in the chest and he fell back onto his back. Harry was struggling with the key to the handcuffs and Ron's feet were both feeling as if they were twisting in an abnormal way. He looked down at them and saw Hermione tying his shoelaces with an intense look on her face.

"Hermione, why are you putting my shoes on the wrong feet?"

Ron strained to look around the room; desperately trying to discover their source of panic and seeing nothing, while Hermione pulled his shoes back off roughly. At the same moment Harry turned the key and the cuffs slid open. His feet and his arm free, Ron snaked away from both of them and out of his sleeping bag, he got to his feet and demanded an explanation.

"Look what is wrong with you two? What's the panic about?"

"We're going to take you home," Harry said in a way that seemed to dare Ron to argue with him over the matter.

He looked at the floor, he had been expecting this, for all their reassurances, and was surprised it had taken them this long before deciding to cut him loose.

"Oh, right, I'll just pack my..." Ron suddenly saw that his things were already packed and ready to go, they were eager to rid themselves of him, "...you've packed for me already? How efficient."

Hermione moved closer and handed him his shoes with a look that managed to combine amusement, affection and sadness.

"We're coming with you silly," Ron lifted his head, not daring to get his hopes up, "we need stronger wards and the Burrow has them."

"Sorry mate, I didn't think about how it must look, I'm a prat," Harry said, looking as if he had his mind on about a dozen other things and kicking himself for not remembering that Ron was the kind of idiot who would always think the worst, "We managed to keep you safe last night but you said some stuff that made us think that we really need to be around somebody who's dealt with your sleepwalking before."

Ron suddenly felt ill, they hadn't told on him had they?

"You didn't tell my mum about this did you?"

"No," Hermione insisted as she grabbed his wrist, the handcuffs still swinging from it, "but we think that things might get nasty tonight and we're going to need..."

"Wait you think things are going to turn nasty so you're bringing me closer to more people I don't want to hurt? Where's the sense in that?" Ron snatched his arm back away from Hermione and glared at her with alarm.

Harry put the key into Hermione's hand and grabbed Ron's arm back. He held him still for Hermione to unlock the other cuff while fixing Ron with a fierce look of his own.

"Ron you are going to have to trust us and stop being so sensitive about this sleepwalking stuff alright?"

Easy for you to say, robbed any banks lately?

Hermione tossed the cuffs aside but Harry kept a hold on his arm. Ron tried not to let either of them see how painful this was for him, the bruises on his arm being almost completely concealed but still just as painful as they had been the day before.

"We don't think that you're going to hurt anybody. We don't think that the person sending you after the horcruxes is anything to do with Voldemort, we think they're genuinely trying to help us with the mission, but we also don't think that this person is being careful enough with you ok?"

Harry suddenly seemed to remember Ron's injuries and let go of his arm as if it had burned him. Hermione took another step closer and let out a pained sigh.

"Something you said last night made us worried, for you Ron, not for the safety of us or others but for you and we want to take you home so there are more people there to protect you. There are wards there that Dumbledore put up himself and right now Harry and I can't think of anywhere safer for you."

Ron's head began to spin briefly and he put his hand to his previously swollen eye before shaking the micro headache off almost immediately. He felt Hermione rest her hand on his cheek and he wondered if he was coming down with something as his skin seemed to burn beneath her touch and it didn't feel the same way as when he was blushing.

"We're not trying to take you to the Burrow to get rid of you, we're trying to keep you with us," Hermione said warmly.

"Listen Ron, something was in this room with you last night telling you that you were...that somebody was going to die and I don't want to stay here any longer than we have to. We're flooing from Fred and George's place in ten minutes and that's final."

Hermione seemed to glare at Harry in the same way she had the morning after Gringotts and Ron worried that his condition was causing his two best friends to be at each other's throats while he was asleep...or away.

"Ron," Hermione began, tearing her stern gaze away from Harry's, "last night, whoever it was you were talking to threatened to kill you."

Ron said nothing; he just blinked and turned to Harry.

"That was only what it sounded like, it could've been anything, we've miss-interpreted things before haven't we?"

"You're going to kill me, that's what you said Ron, that's what you said word-for-word!" Hermione said before shoving him backwards onto the bed and forcing his shoes back onto his feet, the right way round this time, "We are getting you out of here now and no arguments."

Somebody wanted to kill him? Somebody wanted to kill him and Harry wanted to keep it from him? Ron waited for Hermione to finish putting on his shoes while he watched Harry picking up their backpacks and walking out the door.

"Here, get this on, you look like death warmed up," Hermione snapped at him, throwing a jumper into his Ron's face, before her own face suddenly fell and she clamped her hand to her mouth, "Oh God Ron, I didn't mean...I'm sorry."

Before Ron's brain could catch up with who he was annoyed with and who he wasn't Hermione had managed to shake off her guilt and pull him off the bed, dragging him down the stairs after Harry.

Harry pounded on the twin's door with a face like thunder and Fred answered and stared at him, then a scowling Hermione, before looking at Ron with some never before seen degree of sympathy and grabbing him and hauling him in off the street. Ron still hadn't found any words to say about this subconscious death threat on his life or the fact that his friends were fighting over him for some reason and let Fred shove him up the stairs to the flat.

"So I take it Hermione won the 'do we tell him' war then?" George said as he saw them climbing the stairs.

Ron finally understood what was going on between them. Hermione was always the one for outright honesty even if it wasn't what you wanted to hear and Harry was the king of bottling things inside to protect everybody else. He had obviously wanted to spare Ron the worry. He heard Hermione hissing at Harry.

"What would you have me do, tell him everything was fine like you did the last time?"

Ron turned on them.

"What about the last time? What didn't you tell me then?" he asked, wondering what else Harry was keeping from him 'for his own good'.

Harry glared at Hermione as she became flustered at letting Ron hear her little aside.

"What's the matter little Miss honesty?" Harry snapped at her.

"Harry don't," she warned.

Harry turned to Ron who was looking at him in a way that demanded an immediate explanation.

"You hexed Hermione and me in your sleep to get away and rob Gringotts the other night," his best friend said matter-of-factly before his face dropped and he looked disgusted at himself.

No. He couldn't have done, not his friends, he couldn't have hurt them, not even in his sleep.

"I did what?" Ron gasped.

Hermione turned on Harry with her full fury.

"You wanted to protect him from that Harry...You! How dare you do that to me," she punched Harry on the arm hard, "how dare you do that to him! After all you said..."

Were they having lengthy debates about how to handle him and what to tell him? Ron felt sick. It was bad enough being taken every night and being left with no memory of his own actions but to discover that his own best friends were keeping what little else he had to go on from him made his insides burn. They were arguing over him as if his opinion was completely invalid.

"Shut up the both of you," Ron snarled, "I am sick of being treated like the fragile little nutcase in this scenario!"

Both Harry and Hermione froze and stared at him with stunned shame and he felt Fred thumping his hand on his shoulder for support.

"I have to say I'm with Ron on this one, you two are letting the stress get to you and you're disguising it as concern for the nocturnal wanderer here."

How very unlike Fred, Ron thought, this was the same bloke who tormented him for all those years wasn't it?

Hermione bowed her head but Harry seemed just as tense as ever.

"Look I'm sorry Ron but you've got enough on your plate right now and..."

"I think I'll be the judge of that," Ron interrupted.

There was a silent standoff for a moment until George decided that he had enough of the tension and sent them off on their way via the fireplace. Ron returned to the Burrow with mixed feelings. It felt good to be going back home again but it also felt like failure. He hadn't prepared himself to be seeing the place until this quest was all over.

Ronald Weasley, the boy who went off an epic quest and came back home after a couple of weeks because he was having scary nightmares. I am officially pathetic.

ooo

Ron saw the living room through the dissipating green flames and stepped out, spluttering on the soot in his lungs, his mother flung herself at him and planted a wet kiss on his forehead. Then she clamped his head in her vice like grip and scanned him for injury in her time honoured way of seeing him again after knowing he had been out in the thick of things.

Don't let her see your head hurts, don't let her see your head hurts; don't let her see your head hurts.

"You look different Ronnie dear, what is it?" she said with a frown.

He suddenly remembered her ability to spot old injuries, she was a pro after all the concealment charms Charlie had used over the years for Quiddich and then dragon related wounds, and gave a shrug.

"It's only been a couple of weeks mum."

"Nearly a month is not a couple of weeks Ronald," she said before turning the tender side of his face to the light and squinting, "have you been healed recently?"

Oh shit!

Ron pulled his head back and turned his previously swollen side away from his mother's eagle eye.

"It's soot mum, I'm fine really," he rubbed his cheek rigorously for effect; making him flinch inwardly at the extra discomfort he was causing himself.

There was nothing else for it, he thought, he had to go to the emergency back up plan. The one thing he had up his sleeve to distract her attention away from worrying was his 'gotta love me' smile and that wasn't always a guarantee to work. He tried it after he, Fred and George had liberated Harry from the Dursleys in his dad's flying car and she had nearly smacked it right off his face with rage.

It seemed to have done the trick this time though; she gave him a chuckle and hurried into the kitchen to begin making a feast for the three of them after declaring that they had all become so thin after such a short time away.

As they heaved their backpacks onto their shoulders to take them upstairs to their rooms Ron's dad pulled him back by the shoulder and gave him a conspiratorial wink before muttering.

"I'd ask Hermione to have another go at that face of yours Ron, when your mother sees those bruises aren't soot she'll go spare."

After a long evening of humouring his mother and avoiding awkward questions the three of them made their excuses and went up to bed. Harry and Hermione had been doing a special set of enchantments on everything they could think of while he helped his mother with the dinner downstairs that afternoon and now they were about to put them to the test.

Ron noticed that Hermione and Harry seemed to have resolved their conflict and were on pretty good terms again so he decided against bringing up his own annoyance at being kept in the dark. There was no point in restarting a dead argument after all he told himself.

Harry left the room to go and brush his teeth and Ron sat on his bed wondering if he should tempt fate and wear shoes to sleep just in case. That was when Hermione came in swinging a pair of handcuffs from her finger and grinning at him and all other thoughts left his head.

"You don't have to look so happy about chaining me up you know?" he teased.

"I am though," she said as she sat beside him on his bed, "I could get used to having you exactly where I want you Ronald Weasley, it makes a nice change."

Ron didn't know whether to blush, laugh or flirt back. He didn't have to choose as Hermione leaned in and pressed her lips against his with a wicked smile.

"Oh I like it when you're lost for words," she said as she sat back again.

Ron licked his lips to taste the remnants of their brief kiss once again and leaned into her, lifting his hand to stroke her hair, he closed his eyes to return her kiss but opened them again at the sound of the cuffs clicking closed around his wrist.

"You're under arrest sugar," Hermione giggled.

"And you call me a tease?" Ron scoffed as he lay back on the bed and lifted his cuffed arm up to the bedpost and watched Hermione fasten the other cuff around the brass frame.

She was practically lying on top of him as she did this and she didn't move back once it was done. Instead she smiled down at him and stroked his fringe out of his eyes and ran her fingertips over his thrice healed cheekbone, admiring her own handiwork on his now entirely reduced swelling around his eye, and stared right into his eyes with her huge brown ones and smiled. Before Ron knew what he was happening he found himself trembling violently all over, his skin extraordinarily sensitive to the touch, and Hermione looked concerned for him and was about to ask him what was wrong when he just let it go.

"I love you."

There, he'd finally said it; at long last he'd finally got the nerve to put it out there. He was still shaking, unable to believe how nervous it had made him to say those words to her after coming so close so many times recently, and he swallowed as he watched her face for signs of reciprocation or fear and disgust.

"What did you just say?" she whispered into his face, her expression still not having changed from the one she wore just before he said it.

He shuddered as he exhaled and wished more than anything he wasn't handcuffed beneath her right now. He wanted to run away and bury his head in the back yard until she had forgotten all about his stupid little declaration.

"Don't make me say it again."

Her face fell and Ron's heart tightened in his chest.

"Why, didn't you mean it?" she asked him, looking hurt now.

"No, I meant it," Ron said before stalling again and feeling as if his mouth was his worst enemy and willing it to shut the hell up, "it's just I think I might explode if I say it again and you don't..." he couldn't get the last couple of words out as Hermione had kissed them away with one of the hungriest kisses the two of them had ever shared.

Ron thought for a moment he was going to pass out. His heart was pounding so hard that he could hear his pulse in his ears and Hermione seemed to be kissing all the air out of his lungs. On top of that he was still shaking with the nerves he had built up to actually say those words to her after all this time. She was crushing him beneath her and he didn't mind in the slightest. Hermione was so deep into their kiss that it took Ron by surprise when she suddenly pulled back a fraction, panting heavily.

"You know I love you too right?" she said at rapid speed.

"I..." Ron began to respond before he had even began to draw breath but Hermione was back on him, lips devouring his and his need for oxygen seeming insignificant now as he prepared himself to die in the most wonderful way possible.

They heard the bathroom door opening and Hermione launched herself off the bed and stumbled backwards towards the door.

"Wait here," she said breathily, "there's something else I've got to make sure you can always reach me when you want to."

With that she ran out of the room and Ron found himself flapping his jaw like a goldfish on dry land.

Wait here? Where the hell was he supposed to go while shackled to a bloody bed? Something to make sure he could reach her when he wanted to? He wanted to reach her now. Where in Godric's name had she gone running off to?

"Alright there mate?" Harry said as he returned to the bedroom without paying Ron's expression that much attention, "I see Hermione's already got you restrained for the night, are you comfortable?"

Ron was still watching the doorway that Hermione had disappeared through and saw Harry pulling back the bedcovers out of the corner of his eye. He was thankful that his friend hadn't noticed how stunned Ron was at that moment and he tried to pull himself together again.

Hermione cleared her throat, appearing at the door again just as Harry was climbing into bed, before walking over to Ron, and sitting down on the edge of his bed. She withdrew a small black object from her pocket.

"What's that?" Ron frowned, more confused than he could ever remember being before.

"It's a mobile telephone Ron," Hermione said, sounding as calm and clinical as if she was explaining a homework assignment to him, "I got one so you can contact us even if you end up in the muggle world, it's a way to tell us where you are and if you need help."

She held up the mobile phone and flipped it open.

"See? You'll see public telephone boxes everywhere and all you have to do is put one of these coins into the slot," Hermione held up a silver coin with corners and slid it into the pocket of Ron's tracksuit bottoms causing Ron to almost lose his composure entirely, "and dial the number and you can speak to me wherever I am in the world right then and there ok?"

Right pay attention Weasley, she's saying something about a number; I have to remember a number.

"What's the number?" Ron asked; trying not to sound amazed at Hermione's ability to stay so calm after what had just happened between them, while she closed up the phone and slipped it back into her pocket.

"It's 0744..." she began.

What?

"Whoa, how many numbers is this? I thought you said a number, as in one?" Ron sputtered.

Harry was laughing at him now and Hermione smiled and shook her head.

"Sorry Ron, a phone number is actually several numbers long and this one is eleven digits."

Oh she's having a laugh!

Ron couldn't even remember his own address at that very moment, how the hell was he supposed to remember eleven random numbers in his state?

"I'm never going to remember that Hermione."

Her eyes met his briefly before she began to search around for a solution. She spotted something on his bedside table and leaned over to grab a spare quill and a pot of ink.

"I'll write it on your arm for you ok?"

Ron extended the arm that wasn't manacled to the bedpost and Hermione inked the quill and began to write the numbers up the length of it. Ron began to feel the trembling returning to his body as Hermione held his arm tightly in position with one hand and caressed the surface of his skin with gentle strokes of the quill with the other. He felt her hands were shaking now as well and looked down at the numbers she was transcribing onto his body. She was making slow work of it, Ron assumed in an effort to keep the numbers neat and legible despite her quivering hand, and with every pause she took to re-ink the nib of the quill her eyes would dart back up to meet his and they would both tense up again. When she finally completed the final number and placed the quill back on Ron's bedside table he felt as if he was shaking so violently that he would go into a full on convulsion.

"There," she swallowed as she released his arm with some reluctance.

Ron wasn't able to speak any more and just about managed to give her a nod as she sat up again.

"So that's my number then," Hermione said, her voice sounding breathless, "and you dial this number and the phone will ring and I'll answer and be speaking to you ok?"

Ron nodded again. Hermione braced herself to get up from the bed.

"Ok then, I'll be saying goodnight."

Ron managed to make a sound as he nodded this time and Hermione left his side and set off across the room towards the door, never tearing her eyes from his the whole time, walking backwards as she went.

"Well goodnight," she said, making a very un-Hermione-like girlish sound as she smiled at him.

Harry made an amused snorting sound and Ron suddenly realised that he'd probably been watching the whole thing all this time and felt suddenly humiliated. Hermione jumped, obviously not having noticed Harry's presence in the room either, and gave him a rather over the top wave.

"Oh, goodnight to you too Harry."

" 'Night Hermione," Harry grinned and Ron cringed internally, he was going to make him pay for this tomorrow.

Ron looked back to Hermione who was edging out of the room again with an irrepressible grin on her face. She ended up backing right into the door.

"Goodnight."

She finally made it out of the room and closed the door behind her. Ron immediately looked down and pretended to examine the numbers on his arm so as not to have to meet the eyes he knew were on him.

"Don't smudge 'em mate or she'll have to come in and do it all over again," Harry teased.

"What?" Ron said as he forced himself to look up at his friend and concentrate on something other than the fact he had just told Hermione Granger that he loved her.

"I said do you want me to put you to sleep tonight or are you ok?" Harry smirked.

"No, I'll be fine I think, as long as this thing doesn't get too uncomfortable," he jangled the handcuffed arm against his bedpost.

Harry smiled at him before wishing him a goodnight and blowing out the candle at his bedside. Ron stared into the darkness and wondered if Hermione's touch would always make him feel that way from now on. He closed his eyes and thought about tomorrow. They were going to be very different from now on.

"Give 'em hell from me Ron," Harry's muffled voice drifted across the room to him.

"Will do," Ron's answered back.

ooo

Dumbledore had woken Ron, in a way, which was something of a surprise to him considering he had been to the man's funeral not so long ago now. He had been told not to say anything and wake Harry, who he couldn't quite make out in the darkness, and Dumbledore had released him from the handcuffs and broken Hermione's enchantments on the room as if they were nothing more than paper chains. He had lead Ron out of the room and down the stairs all the way down to the kitchen where he had muttered something about forgetting about Molly and Arthur's late nights and directed him to go and try the front door after Ron had found the back door to be locked.

"My own wards have turned out to be my biggest obstacle Ronald," the ghostly figure said, "I would ordinarily laugh at such a thing if it was any other night than tonight."

Ron thought that Dumbledore was staring at him in a very unhappy way, had he done something to upset him he wondered?

"Floo powder!" Dumbledore suddenly announced brightly, "there's nothing to prevent a Weasley using the Burrow fireplace Ronald...but alas I am not the only one of us to have thought of that."

Ron wondered what all these mood swings were all about. Were they flooing or not? He moved into the living room to fumble for the bowl on the mantelpiece anyway. He wondered why the Burrow was so dark, he couldn't see a thing, and Dumbledore rested his arm on his shoulder and sighed.

"Well we'll just have to resort to the first ever escape plan you came up with Ronald. The window it is."

Ron crossed the room to the window and slid it open. He climbed out and found himself being encouraged to run by Dumbledore. This was a hard thing to do in the pitch black but he did his best anyway and soon Dumbledore announced that they were outside his anti apparition wards and took his arm firmly.

"Ronald, I want you to take us to the image you see, no questions asked and I will perform a spell to account for the change of angle as we go alright?"

Ron nodded and waited for an image to appear to him. Nothing came so he glanced up to Dumbledore and saw the old man had a sombre look on his face as he stared back down at him.

"Sir, what is it, what's wrong?" Ron asked.

Dumbledore squeezed his arm and answered in a low tone.

"I am sorrier than you will ever know Ron."

Ron was about to ask him what he meant when the image of dirty satin and some kind of dank sludge with what looked like twigs sticking out of it flashed into his mind and Ron disappareated with Dumbledore without another moments hesitation.

Crack!

Ron was lying down on his back, not flat on his back though, there was something lumpy and gooey beneath him. Dumbledore seemed to be beneath him as well. He felt something cold penetrate through his back and he heard Dumbledore's voice inside his head.

'Close your eyes Ronald and hold your breath until I tell you otherwise'

Ron did as he was told; he wondered what the icy feeling in his back was as he listened to Dumbledore shouting incantation after incantation.

"Concavo! Contego! Effodio! Permeo! Orno spiritus! Accelero ennervate!"

The chill left Ron's body and he heard Dumbledore's voice again, it sounded shaky, instructing him to open his eyes and take a breath again.

"What was that?" he gasped as he inhaled air that seemed to have been recently created in the tight space.

"I have tried to lessen the weight above you so you will be able to get out, I have given you something breathable for the time being and you should now wake as soon as I leave you which has to be now while you still have the air. Your right hand Ronald, feel for a wand, there should be a wand somewhere at your side."

Ron felt around and his fingers plunged into the most revolting lumpy slime, it was like stirring congealed bile with his bare hands, until they curled around a thin wooden stick that could only be a wand.

"Found it," he said with a shudder as he withdrew it from the ooze.

"Now all you have to do is get out and bring the others back here to find the locket. If I had just shown you the grave from the outside Ronald none of you would ever have attempted to dig up the coffin to recover the horcrux. If you did you would have taken too much time over it and Lord Voldemort knows you are looking for them. It had to be this way I'm so sorry Ron, I really am."

Ron suddenly drew a sharp intake of breath and slammed the palms of his hands against the dirty satin above him.

"What grave? No you didn't, you can't," he pushed against the solid surface above him and heard creaking wood, "you can't leave me here!"

His arms fell back down to his sides as if they were made of lead and sleep hit him with the same speed and silence that Dumbledore left him.

Chapter Ten - Lazarus

Something crawled across his forearm, he brushed at his skin and felt a trickle of something thick and slimy slip from his fingers and onto his arm, and he opened his eyes and scrunched up his face. Had a chocolate frog melted in his hand or something?

At the same moment Ron realised that he couldn't see a thing in the darkness he realised that there was the world's most awful smell in the room and Ron groaned and sat up.

Bang!

"Ow fucking hell!" Ron exclaimed as his head slammed against something solid just inches above his head.

He extended his hands and felt for what he had hit his head on and found some moist liquefied fabric running as far as he could feel. He reached around to his sides, beginning to choke on the putrid smell now, and felt the same solid slimy surface surrounding him all the way around. He retched and coughed, what was that awful stench he asked himself, and his eyes began to water. It was as if the smell was so strong it was burning him.

He fidgeted as he felt the discomfort of sharp pointy objects poking him in the back and managed to manoeuvre one of his hands behind his back to yank one of the protrusions out from between his ribs. He vocalised his disgust at the layer of slop that his hand plunged into and tugged at the offending item. Something snapped and Ron pulled it and his arm back around to the front of him. He really needed some light, and some air come to think of it, and he fumbled around for anything he could use. He found what felt like a wand resting at his side and grabbed it hopefully.

"Lumos!" the wand tip illuminated and Ron let out a relieved sigh.

Then he saw the state the wand was in, it was almost rotted away and covered in the same dreadful crud that was also all over Ron's hand, he wouldn't have thought it was possible but the stuff looked worse than it smelled. He winced and glanced around at the tight space he was in. It was like a box. Maybe he was in a trunk.

Why the hell was he in a trunk?

He looked at the stick that had been digging into him from behind and his entire body went cold. It was a bone. He had a bone in his hand. Then he realised something even worse, the bone had a hand on the end of it.

"It's a fucking arm!" Ron screamed in an understandably horrified way.

He threw the arm as far away from him as he could, which wasn't far considering the confined space, and it landed on his lower leg. He shook his leg to try and get the bones of the hand part of the arm, held together with nothing but slime and sinew, off of him. It felt as if it was holding on to him. He kicked out frantically until his foot went through the splintered wood above and soil poured in from above. Ron went into full panic mode now.

"No no no no no, this isn't what I think it is, this can't be what I think it is," Ron stammered as he began to scramble around with his fingers to find some kind of opening around the seems of the box, "I'm not in a coffin. I'm not, it's a trunk or a case or something, I can't be in a coffin. It's not a fucking coffin, it's not a coffin, it's not!"

Ron's fingers were tearing at the satin fabric that lined the box, it had to be a box, he couldn't think of it as a coffin otherwise he would lose his grip altogether. He ripped his way through the lining and then a layer of padding and then clawed frantically at the wood for some weakness, some join that could be broken, something that he could break through and get out.

He had to get out. There were weird crawling sensations all over his skin now, he noticed, and he knew that he couldn't stand it if there were spiders in her with him. That would be the absolute worst thing he could think of o be trapped with, well that and an arm of course, then Ron suddenly froze.

Where there was an arm there was usually...

He felt around beneath him once again and began to recognise the shape of...the shape of...

A body!

"Harry!" Ron bellowed as he pounded on the coffin lid until his knuckles began to bleed, "Harry get me out! Harry, Hermione!"

More earth tumbled in from the end of the coffin and onto his feet. Ron was having a series of mini convulsions as he tried not to touch anything while trying to scramble his way out of his deathly prison. He felt another wave of sickness hit him as the toxic smell grew harsher and he felt as if he was suffocating. Well he probably was, there couldn't be much air down there. Suddenly he remembered the wand that was glowing on his chest. He grabbed it and pointed it at the coffin lid and screamed.

"Reducto!"

There was an explosion of light and force and Ron felt splintering wood and several chunks of he didn't know what spatter his face and he pushed against the weakened wood above him while trying to hold his breath and lift himself away from the corpse he was laying on all at the same time. Soil tumbled down through the crack that Ron was struggling to widen with his bare hands. Something slithered over his foot and he flinched and yelped. One of his hands slipped away from prying the coffin lid apart and he felt two of his fingernails rip away from the flesh and he fell backwards again and landed heavily on the body with a revolting squelch.

"Where are you?" Ron yelled through the crack he had made in the coffin lid, "There must be somebody up there for fuck's sake, somebody help me!"

Ron was beginning to choke on the air again and he kept feeling things crawling all over him. What if they were eating him? What if the maggots and worms mistook him for the dead flesh they had almost devoured and started feasting upon him. He was being eaten alive and suffocated and nobody knew where he was.

"I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die..." Ron began to jabber incoherently to himself, "...No one knows I'm here, no one knows where to find me, I'm gonna die here and rot here and it's not fucking fair!" he had punched the coffin lid on every one of the last three words before whimpering, "What did I do? Why did I come here? Why did this happen?" Ron said, losing himself in an escalating anxiety attack as he hollered at the coffin lid and he pounded on it once again, "Why did you do this to me?"

He managed to break through another panel of the wooden lid and loose earth poured in on top of him.

Loose earth? I can break through loose earth.

Ron searched himself for the wand again and aimed it at the tumbling soil.

"Absisto!"

To his eternal relief he saw some of the falling earth disappearing and a small hollow area forming unsteadily above him. He punched and clawed at more of the loose wood in the coffin lid and ignored the pain in the tips of his fingers and splinters sliced into him and fingernails tore and split. The fumes were making him dizzy now. He couldn't pass out, if he passed out he was dead, he had to get to the surface and get some clean air. He had to get out and away from the parasites that were crawling over every inch of him now. He broke through another panel of the lid and thought that he would be able to wriggle through and begin tunnelling his way up through the soil now.

It was then that the stench, the fumes and the horror of his circumstances all hit him at once and he felt himself fighting back the urgent need to vomit. He tried but there was nothing he could do, it was coming and he had to turn over otherwise he was going to choke on it, so he turned on his elbow and gave a heave. He forced his eyes closed, not wanting to look at the body beneath him but the sound of collapsing earth startled him and he spat the last of the residue from his lips and opened his eyes to see a rotting skull, still with some hair and infested with some kind of larvae. He let out a horrified cry and forced himself up through the hole in the coffin lid and began to dig his way out.

Ron got part of the way up, the earth was getting compacted again, when he realised that he hadn't taken the wand with him. There was no way he was going back down there for it. He would rather die just a few inches out of that coffin then ever have to go back inside it again and he scratched at the heavy soil and tried to shoulder his way through. He pounded on it, trying to cause a collapse or a mini cave in , some of the earth gave way but not enough and he scrambled his way up further just by scratching at the earth above him with his bloody fingers.

Suddenly he felt something curl around his hand, something that felt like hair or spider's legs and he flinched and tried to shake it off of him but then he realised what it was. It was a root. There were things growing just a little further up. He had to be near the surface. Ron took three deep breaths in and out before thrusting his shoulder into the earth above and breaking through. As soon as he had penetrated the surface huge clumps of the stuff was falling down into the space he had created and he heaved himself out, gasping for air and crawling as far away from the hole in the ground as he could. He looked back, feeling terrified that the body might be trying to escape the grave with him and saw the name on the headstone, and realised exactly who he had been trapped with under the ground.

Regulus Black

He crawled past grave after grave, on his hands and knees, still taking in enormous lungfuls of air until he came to a stone wall that he clumsily climbed over and fell to the pavement on the other side. He curled up into a tight ball on the ground for several minutes, his knees almost touching his chin, and his arms wrapped around his shins. He could still feel things crawling over him, he could still smell the stench of death and decay, and he couldn't close his eyes because he would see the skull and the deep empty holes where eyes had once been crawling with other forms of life. He couldn't move, he couldn't speak, he couldn't do anything but hope that something would take him away from this place soon.

"Where are you?" Ron heard himself mutter into the moonlit street, "Where are you?" he said again, rocking backwards and forwards and feeling tears start to come.

Ron needed Harry and Hermione, he needed his mum and dad, he needed Fred and George and Bill and Charlie and everyone. He needed somebody to have come for him. He needed someone to have stopped him. Why hadn't they been watching him? They promised they would watch him this time. What about the bloody wards at the Burrow? Why did they all just let him be taken like that, to that place, to this place?

"You just left me, they just left me," he said, his voice a high pitched hoarse exhalation, "Why didn't you come? Why didn't you stop me?"

Ron was breathing quite fast now and he was shaking as if he had just climbed out of a deep freeze. He tried not to lose his mind. He didn't fight so hard to get out of there just to go insane as soon as he did.

"I might of hurt them," he suddenly realised aloud, "I might have hurt them again," he gasped and his eyes widened, "or mum and dad."

He shuddered as he squeezed his eyes closed before remembering something. He looked down at his forearm. There it was, the number Hermione had written. It seemed like a lifetime ago when he and Hermione had been so close that it felt as if they were going to burst into flames with raw passion. Was it really just hours ago?

Ron clambered up to his feet and saw one of the boxes Hermione had told him about. He plunged his hand into his pocket for the coin and jerked his hand back out again at the sensation of things moving around inside. He tried to pull himself together again and forced his hand back in, gritting his teeth and grimacing with a whimper, until he found the small silver coin. He brushed what looked like a squished maggot off the coin with a shudder and put in into the slot as he lifted the receiver. He read the numbers off his arm and pressed them into the keypad.

He listened.

There was a shrill sound that kept stopping and starting and then a click and the sound of Hermione's voice.

"Ron, where are you? Did you get any clues to...anything?"

He fell to his knees and tried not to burst into tears. It was her, it really was her, it had worked. He couldn't speak for fear that it would just evolve into a never-ending scream.

"Ron, it's Harry, where are you mate?"

Harry too, he didn't hurt either of them, he leaned his head against the side of the phone box and concentrated on breathing the cool clean air that didn't threaten to choke him.

"Ron are you hurt?" it was Hermione again, "your mum and dad are here, we know what's going on with you now and it's nothing to worry about. Ron? Please answer me."

No not his mum, anything but that, he couldn't let her see that. She couldn't ever know what he had to do. She couldn't ever know where he'd been. Then there she was, her voice calling out to him through the piece of plastic he cradled in his hand.

"Ronnie, it's mum, let us know where you are and we'll come and get you. We'll lift the wards and you can apparate right back here if you want to."

Apparition? No, too close, too tight, he wouldn't be able to do it.

"No, I can't, I can't apparate right now," he didn't even recognise his own voice as he spoke.

"Ron tell us where you are and we'll come and get you. Do you know where you are Ron?" it was Harry again.

He didn't have a clue where he was. He didn't know anything other than the fact he was surrounded by dead people, dead people in the ground and every one of them rotting and decaying and crawling alive and smelling as bad as the body Ron had just woken up on top of, and he didn't want to go back any closer to that graveyard to see what the sign said it was called. He didn't want to go near the hole in the ground he had just left behind. The open grave he had almost died in. He felt the pain and the fear all over again and he couldn't hold it in any more. He began to cry.

He wasn't embarrassed, he didn't care what anybody thought of him, and he couldn't stop himself when he heard Harry's voice again sounding as if he was in a similar state of unashamed emotion.

"Ron please, tell us where you are. Tell me where to find you and I'll be there in a heartbeat."

Ron strained his tearful eyes to try to read the sign from where he was.

"I'm in..." Ron wheezed as he realised he couldn't see the sign without moving back towards the graveyard and let out a chesty sob before glancing around to try and find some other way of discovering his location, "...I'm in..."

"Where?" Harry said urgently.

Ron didn't care where he was anymore. He'd had enough of it all. He couldn't live this life anymore. He began to think that he was better off back in the ground again.

"I can't do this anymore Harry, this has to stop, I can't take it anymore," he was amazed at how hollow his voice sounded.

"Ron, tell us where you woke up and tell us now," it was Hermione and she was shouting at him, she was obviously angry at him for giving up, "it'll be ok we're coming to bring you home. Where did you wake up?"

Ron heard a strange beeping sound over the end of Hermione's sentence, it was like an alarm or a warning, he hauled himself up to his feet again and looked at the little screen on the telephone where the number he had dialled had appeared. It was flashing the words 'insert coins to continue'. Ron realised that his money had run out and he had to tell them now or never.

"In a coffin," his voice sounded like a death rattle as his raw vocal chords and the rising gurgle at the back of his throat combined.

The line went dead and Ron stumbled out of the phone box and was violently sick once again. He wiped his mouth and crawled over to the wall to wait for them.

ooo

"There," Ron recognised Hermione's voice in the distance, "I see him!"

They were here, they had come, and he was safe now. Harry skidded to a halt in front of him and fell to his knees. Ron suddenly wanted him to go away. It didn't make sense to him, nothing did any more, all he had wanted was for somebody to come and put their arms around him and carry him away from this nightmare but now that he was faced with another human being all he could think of was the rotten corpse he had woken with. Harry held out his hand and lifted his chin and Ron saw the dead skull crawling with bugs and running with rank slime flash before his eyes and flinched away from his friend's touch. Ron tried not to be sick again, the sensation of anything brushing against his skin was all too much now and he felt as if his own skin was rotting away from his bones.

He heard footsteps, rapid steps as if somebody was running towards him, and Hermione suddenly threw herself at him. Ron's body arched and he gasped for breath, as if her embrace was squeezing all the air out of him, and he tried to throw her off. She was clinging to him like a snake coiling tighter and tighter and he squirmed until her hold on him loosened and he could wriggle free.

"Ron?" it was Hermione's voice, she sounded as if she was crying, "Are you hurt? Did I hurt you? I'm sorry."

Ron suddenly felt as if something was under his skin, eating him from the inside out, he was being consumed by death. He had bought death with him when he crawled from the coffin, it was following him, and it wanted what he owed. It wanted his flesh. It wanted his life. It wanted his innards.

"Hermione don't touch him, he's in shock, he needs space right now," Harry sounded so far away, were they leaving him now?

Was he too far gone to save? How much of his body was left?

"Ron, I'm so sorry," Harry's voice was close now, too close, "I'm sorry I let this happen to you. I'm so so sorry."

Ron jerked away from the sound of his friend, it felt as if he was towering over him, and he forced something out of his own mouth just to get them to leave him alone for a little while longer and stop expecting him to talk to them.

"Take me home."

Then he saw something that made him want to curl in on himself once more, he saw his mother crouching down before him with tears in her eyes, and he shuddered. He couldn't take it if she touched him. He couldn't infect her with his vile rotten flesh. She couldn't touch him without getting some of his decay on her. He couldn't feel one of her hugs that almost enveloped him whole, he would die in her arms then and there, he would suffocate.

"We will, Ronnie, we're taking you back to the Burrow right now, we can apparate with you whenever you're ready."

Apparate? No, it would crush him.

Ron's head shook and he went green, apparition would wring the life out of him the same way his mother would wring the water out of a wet flannel, and he tried to get his constricted throat to open up again just long enough for him to protest this idea.

"Claustrophobia," he heard Harry say.

"Of course," Hermione whispered, "apparating is too constrictive, he's not ready for that so soon...so soon after..."

They knew he was dying, being eaten away before their eyes, Ron wondered if he still looked like himself or if he was ravaged beyond recognition yet.

"We'll floo Ron, don't worry, we can floo from the place we came in..." Ron's dad began but Ron shook his head again,"...no, maybe not eh? Tiny little fireplace like that."

Ron felt as if the wall he was leaning against was tumbling down upon him. He moved forward and saw the pavement coming up to meet him. Hermione was on one side and his mother on the other and there was no air left to breath and nowhere to go for more. They were all closing in on him and he wasn't going to be able to hold them back. He felt the last of his stomach contents rise and leave him in a raw and painful burn against his throat and he felt something rubbing against his back as he vomited. He threw himself away from the hand on his back and gagged.

"Don't touch me!" he gasped before vomiting again, this time it was a dry retch, he had nothing left to purge other than his own stomach lining.

"We're going to have to put him to sleep to move him," Hermione was saying to somebody.

"No," Ron struggled to warn her that sleep was what bought him here in the first place and sleep would be the death of him for sure, his back arched and his vocal chords sounding raw, "no please, I can't go back. I can't go back there Hermione please."

He saw Hermione starting to cry as she withdrew her wand and pointed it at him. He raised his hand and felt his eyes burning with fresh tears as he shook his head, silently begging her not to do this to him, while his mother's voice kept telling him that he wouldn't have to sleep and that it was just a last resort. Hermione was going to do it though, he could see it in her eyes, she was going to send him back to them. She was going to let them finish him off. She was going to kill him. Then he saw Harry's hand rest upon Hermione's wand, lowering it, and he was about to throw a look of gratitude his way when Harry raised his own wand and spoke the word that caused that dreaded flash of blue light to hit him in the face and condemn him to the mercy of his subconscious torturer.

"Obdormio!"

ooo

He was inside the coffin again. The parasites were crawling over him and he couldn't move, couldn't scream or close his eyes or look away, and two bony arms rose on either side of him and skinless fingers descended onto his stomach and tore away his t-shirt. He felt rancid hot breath on the back of his neck and tried to squirm away but he was still immobilised with fear and his breathing became ragged as the hands reached back towards his bare exposed stomach and the fingers plunged into the flesh and ripped him open. He tried to scream but as soon as his mouth opened the parasites swarmed inside and choked him. They blocked his airway and filled his lungs before beginning to feast. Ron watched in horror as some of the parasites crawled back out of him through his open stomach which pumped blood onto the needle-like fingers as they began to pull out his intestines and unravel them around him, mummifying his body in his own entrails.

The hands suddenly gripped him tightly around the chest and Ron managed to throw them off with a full body convulsion and he suddenly felt himself falling and hitting the floor. It was bright now, there was light all around him and he heard voices coming from somewhere. He scrambled across the floor and over to a door, all the while checking his stomach and feeling relieved to find it was as it should be, before something grabbed him by the shoulders and pulled him into a sitting position. It was Harry.

"...a nightmare ok? Ron can you hear what I'm saying to you? Are you listening to me?"

He squirmed until Harry let go of him and he glanced across to his bed to see Hermione looking mortified. Why was she laying on his bed? Was it her? Was she the one who had been squeezing him so tightly? What was she thinking after the night he'd had?

"Was she touching me?" Ron blurted out to Harry.

Harry bit his lip and looked back across to Hermione who was burring her face in her hands now.

"She wanted to stay with you after your last nightmare, do you remember the last one Ron, are you still with us mate?"

Ron did remember. He had told them what they had wanted to know. He had told them about Regulus. They hadn't let him go and wash again. They told him he was clean now. He didn't feel clean. He was filthy, he was infested, and he was alive with them. Then she had, he remembered now, she had pointed her wand at him after he had let her touch him. He had tolerated her hand in his, after she knew about the dead hand, she had asked him to touch her and he had done it for her. He had done it to make her feel better and then she had...she had...

"You put me to sleep you bitch!" he gasped.

Harry looked at him sternly as Hermione let out an agonised cry and buried her face into his pillow.

"Ron no, you don't mean that, pull yourself together come on."

"They're pulling me apart!" Ron yelled into Harry's face, it was a testament to how the night had been going for them so far that Harry didn't even flinch at this outburst.

The bedroom door opened and Ron's mother and father peered in.

"It's ok Mr and Mrs Weasley, I've got this under control, I'll try and keep him quiet. Go back to bed."

Ron's dad gave his mum a gentle nudge back out of the door before leaning over to ask Harry a question under his breath.

"Is this another violent one Harry?"

Ron tried to remember back. He had had several nightmares since waking up at at Burrow and he didn't remember being violent with anybody. Harry shook his head.

"No he's just confused, he doesn't know what he's saying."

Ron tried to explain to his father that he wasn't the dangerous one.

"Dad they're killing me, I can't breathe and they're opening me up and feeding on me," Ron pointed at Hermione, "she's clawing at me with dead hands!"

He suddenly lowered his head and tried to hold in the wave of emotion that was hitting him. Across the room he could hear Hermione's own sobs renewing. What was he saying? She wasn't Black, what was happening to him?

"Hermione my dear, I think it might be best if you come back and sleep in Ginny's bedroom don't you?" he heard his father saying kindly.

There was a sound of creaking bedsprings and slow footsteps of bare feet crossing the room towards the open door. Ron heard her sniff and his father make a comforting sound as he held the door wide for Hermione to escape the madman. Ron's arm jerked out and grabbed her ankle as she passed. He heard her gasp and freeze on the spot. He couldn't look at her, choosing to keep his focus on his own feet instead, and he tried to make her understand.

"I can't stop it, I'm sorry, they just keep coming."

She bent down and he released her ankle, leaning away from her and tensing his body involuntarily, and whispered to him.

"This isn't your fault Ron, don't worry about me ok? I know that wasn't you talking just then."

Ron felt a sob heaving it's way up his throat and struggled to keep it at bay as he turned to face her and blinked away the tears that were welling in his eyes.

"Then who is it and where did I go?"

Hermione's expression mirrored his own and he knew that what she wanted to do more than anything was the thing he feared the most. She wanted to embrace him tightly and he just wanted to run out into the open and away from everyone.

"Come on Hermione," Ron heard his father say as he pulled her back up and guided her out the door, "there's no point in upsetting each other is there?"

The door closed and Ron heard Hermione suddenly let out her repressed sob and wheeze the agonising question.

"What have they done to him?"

Ron wiped his eyes with his shaking hands and looked back at Harry who was watching him intently.

"You're going to be ok mate, I'm right here alright, and I'm not letting you out of my sight you hear me? Are you listening to me Ron?"

He nodded and sniffed. Harry smiled at him, the smile was only in his lips though, his eyes betrayed the fear and concern for his friend.

"Are you going to be able to get back into bed do you think?" Harry asked him.

Ron shook his head again and hugged his knees to himself. Harry gave a nod and moved to lean against the wall beside him, paying extra care not to touch him as he did so, and summoned the glass of water that was resting on his bedside table with his wand.

"Are you thirsty?" he asked Ron on catching the glass in his free hand.

Ron nodded and spoke with a hoarse voice.

"I don't think I can swallow though."

Ron had been suffering from a very sensitive gag reflex ever since he had crawled out of Black's coffin and hadn't been able to keep anything down.

"Yeah mate I know it's unpleasant but you're really dehydrated now and I think you should have another try."

Ron gave this some thought, he really was thirsty, and he gave another nod as he held out his hand to take the glass. Harry put the glass in his hand, taking noticeable care not to have their fingers touch as he did, and was about to let go when he saw how badly Ron's hand was shaking and hesitated. Ron tried to grip the glass and hold it steady but the shakes were just getting worse. Eventually he let go and turned away from Harry with a disheartened exhalation.

"I can't."

Harry let out a slight huff before shifting around to face Ron side-on. At this movement Ron looked back and tensed up again.

"Listen I can hold the glass for you but I'd have to lean in a little bit for you to be able to drink properly."

Ron swallowed.

"I don't want to crowd you but," Harry said with a shake of the head, "this is the only way we can do this without you getting water all over you."

Ron took a deep breath and nodded. Harry leaned in a little closer and brought the glass up to Ron's lips. He took several small sips, he had made the mistake of attempting a large gulp earlier that night and immediately brought it back up again, before pulling back again and giving Harry a nod to let him know he was finished.

"Good man," Harry smiled a real smile now, "you don't need the bucket no?"

Ron closed his eyes and thought for a moment. The water still seemed to be going down, as it should. He shook his head and opened his eyes again.

"I'm being a right pain aren't I?" he tried to give Harry a smile but wasn't quite able to pull it off just yet.

Harry put the glass down at his side and stared at Ron win disbelief.

"You are, without doubt, one of the bravest people I have ever known."

Ron lowered his head.

"I'm a bastard."

"What?" Harry said, shifting around to lower his head and force Ron to look at him again.

"I called Hermione a bitch," Ron met his friend's eye and felt thoroughly ashamed of himself.

"No you didn't, it wasn't you."

"That excuse is getting old Harry."

Harry took in a deep breath and picked up his wand.

"Right, I need you to stay calm Ron."

Ron felt his body flinch and his mind was racing with all of the fears of what sleep had done to him that night.

"Is it that time already?" he asked, his voice trembling.

"I'm afraid so," Harry nodded.

"Can't you just give me another five minutes," Ron begged him as he edged away from him across the bedroom floor, "please?"

"Come on mate, you were doing a lot better just then," Harry got to his feet and regretfully pointed his wand down at Ron, "don't get yourself all wound-up again."

Then he felt it, it was coming back on him, he had to stop Harry before he terrified the little liquid he had in his body back out again.

"Two more minutes please Harry, I'm going to be sick!"

"Not if I do this first," Harry began to flick his wand just as Ron grabbed the bucket that was now beside him on the floor and heaved the water back out before he could utter the spell.

Harry lowered his wand and knelt at Ron's side.

"Don't worry about it Ron, we'll try this again in another few minutes ok?"

Ron looked up from the bucket and into Harry's determined eyes.

"What?"

"You're going to take some more water and keep it down and then you're going to let me put you to sleep. We will keep doing this until that happens."

Ron spat the fowl tasting bile into the bucket and thrust it aside with a nod.

"Ok, let's try again."

Chapter Eleven - Food For Thought

Ron had actually managed to hit the ground running this time. He was almost out the door when Fred tackled him and the two of them went crashing to the ground, knocking over a messy stack of Chudley Cannons match programmes and smashing an empty water jug that had been balanced on the top of them.

"Ron stop thrashing about will you," Fred barked as he tried to restrain his little brother from throwing wild aimless punches into thin air, "you're awake, you're home and you're safe alright?"

Ron was panting heavily and seemed to come to his senses a little more now, despite continuing to squirm quite frantically in his brother's grasp.

"Get off me!"

"I'll let you go if you promise to calm down ok?" Fred insisted, pinning Ron down a little harder.

He knew that this was the worst thing he could be doing right now but he and George had tried almost every other tactic during the night and none of them had worked. Harry and Hermione had gone to check out the grave Ron had been trapped inside in the cold light of day and Fred was on nightmare duty while George opened the shop. He had explained this to Ron about three times already but each time he woke up again it was with a sense of bewilderment at Fred's presence in his bedroom.

"Fred you're crushing me," Ron pleaded.

That was almost enough to make Fred let him go but he set his features into a look of fresh determination and held firm.

"No I'm not, I'm just holding you Ron, you know that. You can trust me."

"Since bloody when?" Ron shouted into his face and Fred actually let out a laugh.

He let his brother go and watched as Ron wriggled away from him and tried to calm himself down, he was still breathing as if he had just run a mile.

"You've got a point there."

Fred turned his attention to the fragments of glass that were strewn all over the bedroom floor and cast a warning glance back over to his barefoot brother.

"Don't move for a minute alright? Reparo!"

The jug put itself back together and Fred picked it up and got to his feet. Ron looked up at him and wondered if he was going to ambush him with the sleeping spell while he wasn't looking. Fred smiled and extended his arm towards his brother.

"Come on little bro, let's call it morning and go downstairs and get you some breakfast eh?"

Ron got to his feet without taking his brother's hand and hugged his arms to himself.

"What time is it?"

"It's just gone six, I know that's what most people call morning but we're Weasleys and we know better don't we? Six o'clock in the morning is the middle of the night for us," Fred grinned.

Ron shivered, he wasn't cold but he kept feeling a chill running down his spine, and took a very small step towards him.

"I can't eat anything."

Fred scoffed at this.

"Well you're gonna, mum's been cooking her woes away and somebody's got to eat it. Besides, since when do you have no appetite?"

Ron couldn't believe that Fred was trying to be normal with him. Nothing was ever going to be normal again, couldn't he understand that?

"Since I almost choked to death on the fumes from a decomposing corpse," he mumbled.

"So you went through all that shit last night, survived the impossible, just so you could starve yourself to death in the comfort of your own home did you?"

"You don't," Ron began before having to stop and try to keep the internal convulsions of an empty body desperate to regurgitate something to a minimum, "it's not," he dropped to his knees and grabbed the bucket, "I can't talk right now."

Fred was at his side immediately as Ron tried to take slow deep breaths and keep his stomach steady for the moment. He hung his head over the bucket just in case and felt Fred ever so slightly rest his hand on his back.

"Don't touch me!" he flinched and Fred's hand was gone instantly.

"None of us are going to hurt you Ron. None of us are dead or rotting or trying to choke you or crush you, we're just trying to help you, you know that don't you?"

Ron didn't think he was going to try to bring anything up now and lifted his head from the bucket to look at his brother who was wearing an expression he wasn't familiar with seeing on his face, a look of compassion.

"Leave me alone Fred."

"Not on your life."

Fred illustrated his immovability by sitting cross-legged in front of Ron on the floor. The two of them sat staring at each other for almost fifteen minutes before Ron let out a sigh of defeat and hauled himself back to his feet again, his movements mirrored by his brother, and picked at one of his almost non-existent fingernails absent-mindedly.

"I'll come down when I've brushed my teeth ok?" he offered with a shrug.

Fred nodded before sidestepping to block him as he rushed for the door again.

"But don't get back in the shower again, or the bath, you have scrubbed your skin red raw and it's got to stop understand?"

Ron nodded and tried to pass his brother again, again Fred sidestepped and blocked his path.

"What now?" Ron growled.

"Stop picking at your fingers that's what, mum and Hermione spent nearly two hours fixing those up when you finally stopped washing your bloody hands and I'm not going to eat my breakfast while watching you tear all their good work apart."

"Ok, I've stopped look," Ron held up his hands and waited for Fred to move out of his way, "now if you don't mind I'd quite like to wash the taste of dead guy out of my mouth!"

This shocked his brother so much that Ron was able to get past him and dash into the bathroom, locking the door behind him, before he could say anything.

Ron stared at his reflection in the mirror and was amazed to still see himself. He leaned in closer and began to examine his scalp, he felt sure there were still things crawling around in his hair, but he couldn't see anything and told himself to stop after a while. He began to brush his teeth with far more vigour than was absolutely necessary, and then he brushed his tongue and then the insides of his cheeks and the roof of his mouth before finally rinsing out and noticing that he had made his mouth bleed. He kept rinsing until he stopped spitting blood and unlocked the door to go downstairs.

Fred and his mother were having a very animated conversation under their breath before hushing each other and turning to greet his arrival with unfeasibly wide grins.

"Ronnie, so good to see you up, I've been preparing all your favourites for breakfast. Help yourself dear,” his mother declared merrily.

"Tea?" Fred offered as he poured himself a cup.

Ron shook his head.

"No I'm fine."

Fred stared at him and raised an eyebrow.

"Well ok then, I'll have some water," Ron mumbled.

"Water?" Fred confirmed, obviously not comfortable with the concept of Ron turning down a cuppa in the morning.

Ron picked up a glass and held it out to his brother to fill, which he did without another word about the matter.

"Come on then Ronnie, eat up, there's bacon and sausages and three different kinds of eggs..." his mother fussed.

Ron's stomach did a flip. He could smell burning flesh and he just couldn't look at the bacon without his mind picturing it gradually rotting and decaying into mould and then mush. The sausages were even worse. He was unable to contemplate putting anything's flesh into his mouth and chewing it up. He fought to suppress that damn gag reflex that kept rearing it's ugly head as he tried to swallow the tiniest sip of water and he knew that he wouldn't be able to eat anything at all.

"How about something from the..." his mother began as she pushed one of the large platters towards him with a hopeful smile.

Ron's chair scraped along the kitchen floor and he was on his feet and backing out the door and back towards the stairs before he knew it.

"You know what mum I don't think I'm really all that hungry right now, maybe later ok?" he strained to give her a smile before running up the stairs as if he was being pursued by rabid dogs.

"But Ronnie, you've got to eat something!" she called after him.

"Mum leave him, we'll try again later," he heard Fred saying as he thundered up the last flight and ran back into his room, slamming the door behind him and leaning against it.

He sunk to the floor and put his head in his hands. This was just great; he couldn't sleep, he couldn't eat, he couldn't touch anyone or have anyone touch him; all he did was worry people and upset them when they tried to help him. He was a mess. What the hell use was he to anybody right now? He felt tears forcing their way out of his eyes and he began to shudder when a loud crack snapped him out of the tidal wave of self-pity that was about to drown him. Fred had appareated into his room.

"You forgot your drink," he said as he held out Ron's glass to him.

"Go away," he said, his voice betraying him and the tears overflowing and spilling down his cheeks.

Fred sat down in front of him, just as he had done before, and set the glass down between the two of them.

"No way."

Ron just wanted to have his little breakdown in peace, crying in front of either of the twins was a ticket to be ribbed and humiliated for the next three years or so about it.

"Just get out, I want to be on my own for a minute alright?" he choked.

"I'm not going anywhere," Fred seemed determined about staying and Ron couldn't figure out why, "you won't let any of us give you a hug and that's fine but I'm sure as hell not going to leave you all on your own in this state."

Ron wiped his face and sniffed. He stared at his brother in disbelief at this never before seen side of him.

"You give me a cuddle and I'll be out of your hair for the next hour and I'll keep mum out of your face too but if you can't do it then you'll just have to put up with my company."

Ron reached out for the glass of water and lifted it to his lips, taking three short sips and concentrating on swallowing them and keeping them down, before putting the glass down and sliding it across the floor to his brother with his foot.

"Want some?" he asked as he hugged his arms to himself and snuggled into the corner of the room, leaning against the wall beside the door.

Fred smiled and picked up the glass taking a swig and setting it back down again.

"Cheers mate."

Ron had just managed to evict Fred from his bedroom when his mother came in and closed the door behind her.
"Mum please, I'll eat in a little while I swear, just leave me alone for a bit will you?" he groaned.

She was looking at him with tearful eyes and she pulled up a chair and sat down before him with a shake of the head.

"Ronnie there's something I have to tell you. Your father wanted to be here when I did but when we found out about what happened at Gringotts he didn't want to draw any undue attention to the family by missing work so it's just me."

Ron stiffened, what was this all about?

"Sweetheart, do you remember when you were a little boy and you used to sleepwalk a lot of the time?"

Oh no, not this, she wasn't going to tell him what awful thing he had done to her back then was she?

"I don't want to know mum," he shook his head and she look at him with confusion, "whatever I did to you that made you hate me so much I'm sorry but I don't want to know ok?"

She almost leapt from the chair and threw her arms around him, it seemed to be taking up a lot of her will power not to do so, and she put her hand over her heart and shook her head.

"There isn't a thing in the world you could ever do to make me hate you Ronnie, it would be impossible for me to ever hate you my beautiful boy," she sniffed before continuing, "don't you ever think that any of this is your fault."

"What are you talking about?"

"Your gift Ronnie, I'm talking about the gift you inherited from my side of the family. You are just like my brother's Fabian and Gideon, they used to do it too you see?"

"They...what?" Ron shook his head and tried to keep track of all this new information about his own life.

"They were oracles, just like you."

Ron felt as if his insides were suddenly hollow.

"I'm a...what?"

"An oracle dear. You can talk to the dead. You can talk to the dead in your sleep."

Ron shook his head, this couldn't be right, she couldn't be telling him the truth. Why would she lie though? Then again, why would she have kept it from him for all these years if it were true?

"I," he shook his head again, "no you're wrong."

His mother wiped a tear from her eye.

"I wish I was wrong, I wish I had some way to make it all go away and keep you safe, and I wish I could give you a peaceful undisturbed life but there's nothing I can do. There's nothing anybody can do except keep the condition secret from as many people as possible. I didn't even tell your father until last night."

Ron sprung to his feet with rage.

"What?"

His mother burst into tears as Ron began to pace up and down and chew upon the fragile skin around his stunted thumbnail.

"The more people that know about you the more people can seek you out when they die and use you. The only people who can do this to you are people who knew your secret while they were alive. Fabian and Gideon did tests when you were a baby and thought you were one of them but I told them they were wrong, I didn't want it to be true Ronnie, and then they were both killed and...and..."

"It was them wasn't it?" Ron said, suddenly frozen on the spot and staring at his mother with livid eyes, "they were the ones who took me when I was a little kid all those times."

"When George woke you that last night you were taken into the afterlife and Gideon took over your body and, well he came downstairs to talk to me," her face crumpled up and tears squeezed out of her eyes as she gave an anguished whimper, "my dead brother Ron, inside my baby, that was why I couldn't face you afterwards. He was...I could still see him in there, in you."

Ron suddenly found himself breathing rather erratically, he was getting very hot and couldn't calm himself down, he leant against the window frame and looked out into the woods where he was found as a child almost frozen to death.

"Ronnie calm down, you're making yourself ill," his mother said as she got up from the chair.

Ron spun around and managed to shout at her despite his increasing breathlessness.

"Calm down! Are you serious mother? Dead people are putting me in the ground with other dead people and you're telling me to calm down?"

"Ron please, you're hyperventilating, you've got to stop..." she tried to reach out for him and help him deal with his oncoming panic attack but he backed away from her into the wall.

"Don't fucking touch me!" he gasped.

At that moment Fred came bursting into the room, causing both Ron and his mother to almost jump out of their skins, and roared at the top of his voice.

"Right that's enough, both of you!"

"Fred I told you to wait downstairs," their mother began to chide, before her eyes widened in alarm as Ron's breathlessness caused him to collapse onto the floor.

"Well it's a good job I didn't isn't it?" Fred snapped at his mother before pulling a Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes paper bag out of his pocket and dropping to his knees and pushing the bag over Ron's mouth and barking at him with just as much ferocity, "You breathe into this and don't ever use language like that to our mother again!"

Ron was doing as he was told but it wasn't really working due to the fact he was squirming under his brother's touch and that Fred was towering over him and shouting quite a lot.

"You don't like me touching you then you'll have to hold this in place yourself understand?" Fred said firmly.

Ron nodded and took the bag in his own hand. Fred moved back and watched as Ron breathed in and out, the bag inflating and deflating, until he eventually began to calm down.

"Oh thank you Fred," their mother sobbed, "is he going to be alright?"

Fred gripped her shoulders and guided her back out of the room.

"He's going to be as fine as he can be right now but this conversation's going to have to stop."

She nodded and dissolved into more tears as Fred led her to her own bedroom to compose herself. Ron let the beg fall from his mouth and felt his chest ache from all the exertion of a full blown anxiety attack. He struggled back to his feet and crossed the room to take another sip of the water from the glass on the floor. Fred returned just as he swallowed and was somewhere between seething with rage and absolutely mortified with fear.

"Are you ok now?" he asked, his eyebrows furrowed so they met above his nose and his lips thin.

Ron nodded and took a deep but shaky breath.

"Thanks."

"Look I'd be pissed off if she'd kept this from me as well but it's been killing her Ron and this is neither of your fault," Fred was sounding a little shaky himself now.

"But why me Fred?" Ron asked desperately.

Fred shook his head and shrugged sadly before a small smile grew upon his face.

"Maybe because you're the strongest one of the lot of us."

Ron laughed and cried at the same time.

"I accused my girlfriend of being a corpse last night. I'm not strong."

Fred smiled at him.

"If you weren't something special why would your girlfriend have kissed you goodbye in front of me and Harry before she left?"

Ron swallowed.

"She did?"

Fred looked smug now.

"If this girlfriend of yours is called Hermione, then yes."

Ron was sitting at the table. It was his second attempt at having breakfast after Fred had tried to get him to eat some buttered toast in his bedroom and he had excused himself to go and brush his teeth again. Now his brother had put a plate of scrambled eggs in front of him that Ron had built himself up to try and eat to put his mind at rest. He plunged a forkful into his mouth as Fred had turned to leave the kitchen. It was then that Ron was reminded of the texture of the sludge on the bottom of the coffin and he spat the unchewed eggs back into his hand and vanished it with his wand under the table. He looked up to check that Fred hadn't noticed any of this before his eyes drifted over to the door where he was watching him with arched eyebrows and his arms folded.
He looked back down at his plate and pushed the remaining eggs around with his fork wondering how on earth he was going to be able to get away with not eating them.

"Harry, Hermione, you're back!" Fred said, sounding overly delighted to see them

Ron looked up to see them walking through the back door and into the kitchen. Harry gave him a tired smile and Hermione took a seat across the table from Ron. He met her eyes and saw from the look on her face that she had seen the absolute worst of his former prison. Fred was taking Harry's jacket from him and they were mumbling about something. Hermione smiled at Ron and mouthed the words 'are you ok?' to him. He almost considered lying but thought he owed her better than that and shook his head. Hermione laid her hands on the table and moved as if she was going to take his hand before remembering his aversion to touch and remaining still as Fred bounded out of the kitchen.

Ron tried to give Hermione a smile as Harry pulled out the chair next to him and sat down.

"So, where have you been?" Ron's voice was so raw after all the goings on that morning he hoped they wouldn't notice.

"You know where we've been," Harry said sadly before picking up Ron's fork and taking a mouthful of scrambled egg, "Mmm, this is good."

Ron smiled an easier smile and slid his plate across to Harry.

"You can finish it if you want, I've had enough."

Harry looked at Ron, he knew he was lying and Ron hoped that he wouldn't push him on the matter.

"Thanks mate, I left without any breakfast," Harry looked up at Hermione and pushed the plate towards her, "do you want some Hermione or are you still feeling a little queasy?"

Ron's eyes darted across the table to Hermione who was shaking her head.

"No, I don't think I could manage it Harry, you go ahead."

Ron's hand edged across the table a couple of inches, Hermione noticed this immediately and moved hers slightly closer but didn't force her touch onto him, keeping a little distance between them for Ron to make the first move. He worried that she was starving herself out of worry for him.

"Did you have anything for breakfast Hermione?"

She shook her head.

"No but I'm fine Ron, I honestly don't feel like eating anything right now, maybe later."

Harry pulled the plate back towards him and scooped up another forkful.

"Well if you're sure," he said, not seeming to notice Ron's look of concern for their fried, before shovelling more eggs into his mouth.

Ron tried to get Harry's attention so he could silently tell him to push Hermione a little further on the eating thing. He obviously couldn't do it while he was declining food himself, she'd just call him a hypocrite and use it as an excuse to go hungry, but Harry wasn't meeting his eyes. He needed to grab their attention some way. Eventually he knew the only thing for it was talking about the last thing he really wanted to talk about right now.

"So you went back and saw him then?"

Harry stopped chewing and swallowed uncomfortably.

"Yeah, it was...nasty."

Ron looked down at the table, that was an understatement, before noticing that Hermione was tilting her head to try and catch his eye. He looked up at her, almost afraid of what she had to say.

"We can't imagine what it must have been like in there Ron but if you ever want to talk about it we're both..."

Ron decided to have a go at persuasion as a form of distraction from the conversation that he definitely knew he didn't want to be getting into now.

"You sure you don't want to eat Hermione? You look a bit pale and you know mum'll notice and start fussing."

"I really don't think I could keep anything down right now."

"So we found the locket. Regulus destroyed it and swallowed it, he was buried with it in his stomach Ron, so that's another one to cross of the list thanks to you."

They heard Mrs Weasley's heavy footsteps on the stairs and Ron let out a sigh. He hadn't seen her since their little confrontation in his bedroom earlier on. Hermione frowned and opened her mouth to say something but Ron rested the tips of his fingers on top of her hand and she was silenced before she could even begin. This was the second time he had touched anybody of his own free will and both times it had been Hermione. It still made him feel a little uneasy though. He felt the need to warn them about the possible tension that was about to be felt in the kitchen on his mother's arrival.

"She told me the truth, what I am, it didn't go well and she's been in her bedroom crying for ages. I've made her cry again," Ron felt ashamed of himself as he spoke.

Hermione's eyes began to redden and she reached out to clasp her other hand on top of Ron's but he jerked back and gave an involuntary shudder just as Fred re-entered the kitchen.

"Dear me Ron, who just walked over your...grave?"

Fred's face fell as he had said it and his shoulders slumped. Their mum had been walking in behind him and she smacked him across the back of his head but Fred didn't even cringe. He just stared at Ron and mouthed incomprehensibly, shaking his head, and their mother bundled him aside to get to Ron and make sure that he wasn't going to get upset again. He couldn't let her touch him otherwise he'd flinch and she'd think he still hadn't forgiven her for keeping the oracle thing a secret from him so he sprang out of his chair and backed away as calmly as he could.

"It's ok mum, Fred's made bad jokes before, and he'll make them again, no harm done."

Ron smiled at Fred who still shook his head in disbelief at his comment as he made his way to the kitchen door.

"I'm just going to brush my teeth ok? I'll be right back."

He heard his mum calling after him as his feet pounded up the stairs.

"But you've brushed your teeth three times already Ronnie."

He could still feel the texture of those damn eggs on his tongue and he just needed to have another go at making his mouth feel like it used to. He just wanted his tongue to taste like him again, he never realised his mouth had a taste until he couldn't taste it anymore. He brushed with a little less ferocity than he had done the last two times, although his gums still bled anyway, and he suspected that brushing your teeth three times in one morning probably wasn't good for a person's mouth.

He looked at himself in the mirror and hoped that he looked ok. He didn't look like the living dead. It seemed so long ago now that he had woken from that nightmare thinking his face was rotting away. He opened the bathroom door and set off back down into the kitchen.

Ron stepped into the kitchen, pausing in the doorway to look at the grinning faces all staring back at him. It couldn't have been more obvious that they had all been talking about him behind his back. What else was new?

"Subtle...very subtle," he smiled at them.

"Teeth clean?" Hermione smiled back at him.

Ron ran his tongue over his teeth and nodded before looking away from them all and at the kitchen cupboards. He really thought Hermione should eat something it was nearly lunchtime now.

"It wasn't really my teeth, I had a bad taste in my mouth," he muttered under his breath.

Ron took a step towards one of the cupboards and opened it. He knew he couldn't cook meat anymore than he was able to eat meat right now and wondered what he could make for her.

"You feeling any better Hermione?" he asked over his shoulder as he realised he was going to have to make something he could stomach as well as she would almost certainly refuse to eat if he wasn't going to join her.

"Yes I think my stomach's settled a bit now," she sounded a little confused as to what Ron was getting at.

Ron turned away from the cupboard and looked back at her, avoiding the eyes of everybody else around the table as he did.

"It's just, I was going to make some...soup or something, if you wanted some."

"I'd love to join you for lunch Ron, no offence to your mother but I've missed your cooking these last few days," Hermione smiled at him.

I knew it! 'Join you for lunch', she was so sneaky.

Ron gave a half smile and looked at the others around the table.

"Anyone else?"

Harry looked down at his eggs and then back at Ron with a nod.

"The eggs have gone cold, if you don't mind I'd love some soup."

Ron nodded back at him and tried not to read too much into the sad expression his friend was trying so hard to hide from him.

"This isn't you're famous Oxtail soup is it? I still think you could go into business selling that stuff, it's addictive!" Fred grinned.

Ron looked away from his brother and tried not to visibly gag at the thought of the gristly chunks of meat floating on the top of the beefy scented soup and began grabbing at different ingredients from the cupboards.

"No, sorry Fred, I'm doing vegetable soup."

"That's good too, make extra and I'll take some back for George, he'll be miffed that he missed it otherwise," Fred obviously hadn't understood what he had said that had caused Ron to react so badly but was trying to make up for it anyway.

Ron tried to relax as he looked back over his shoulder at Fred.

"Sorry."

"No it's fine little bro, what have you got to be sorry about?"

Ron lowered his eyes before pulling a couple of potatoes out of the cupboard. He busied himself with dicing them while answered the question with his back to them all. They needed to know this. He couldn't face another meal where they all pestered him to cut into something's body and put it into his mouth.

"It's just that...I don't think I can cook meat right now, or touch it, not for a while."

"Good for you Ron," Hermione said, startling him a little, "a vegetarian diet is so much better for you, no cholesterol worries, no fat..."

"No food!" his mother scowled, Ron had always thought that she would never truly believe that her children were eating enough unless they were totally spherical in shape.

"Mum!" Ron heard Fred snapping at her.

She seemed to be playing along with the 'nutter humouring' that had taken the kitchen at the Burrow by storm.

"Oh but I'd love some vegetable soup Ronnie, a nice light lunch is just what we could all do with I think."

"And Ron," Hermione called over to him, he turned to look back at her, "if you could manage some croutons that'd be great."

Ron blinked. Of course he could manage croutons. He was a bred-maker now she knew that didn't she? Then he noticed his mother rising from her chair.

"Well for croutons you need bread, I'll get cracking while you do the soup Ronnie."

Hermione smiled from Ron to his mother and he understood what she was doing for him.

"No need. Ron can conjure bread in an instant, delicious it is too."

Ron blinked again and smiled at Hermione before taking out his wand and pointing it at the table. The table was bare but he felt sure he could conjure the bread out of thin air now he knew where he had been going wrong all those other times. He gently flicked his wand in slow motion and said the spell smoothly and slowly.

"Crustum!"

A large loaf swelled on the kitchen table and gave off the most delicious warm aromas. Fred looked impressed and his mother gasped.

"How did you do that? I can't do that."

Ron sent a look of thanks back to Hermione and smiled at her before turning back to his vegetables.

"He can feed the three of us with all sorts of nourishing stuff Mrs Weasley," Hermione boasted from behind his back, "why I don't think I'd ever need to eat meat again if I had Ron around all the time."

All right babe, don't overdo it!

Ron tried to ignore the fact that it was getting dark outside. He tried to ignore the fact that he was feeling more and more exhausted with each passing hour. He tried to ignore his mother's constant anxious glances in his direction and the nods of understanding from his father whenever he looked up. More than anything else he wanted to try to ignore talk of binding spells that were just 'bound to work' and go outside and lay beneath the stars.
Something didn't feel right about the Burrow now that night had fallen. It felt smaller to him without any open spaces visible through the windows. The living room seemed stifling and he wondered how he had never noticed just how much stuff was on every wall. The walls were already too close together but when you take into account all the shelving and picture frames and the big mirror over the fireplace, which was raging so ferociously that the flames seemed to be consuming all the oxygen from the room, and the many accumulated trophies and awards displayed for all visitors to see Ron convinced himself that the room was only really three feet in width.

Ron suddenly felt as if the fire was so close to his face that it was burning his skin and roasting him alive. He jumped to his feet, causing Hermione to squeal with shock, and practically ran out of the door and up the stairs.

"Ron where are you going?" he heard Hermione calling after him.

"I'm just going to my room to get something to read," he managed to lie before reaching his room and closing the door behind him. As soon as he did that he rushed over to the window and flung it open wide before sinking into a corner of the room and sitting on the floor, feeling the cool breeze blow against his face, and he tried to remember that he was in the middle of a huge open field. He wasn't boxed in; he could jump on his broom if he wanted to and fly away. He dropped his head into his hands and imagined he was outside right now. He imagined he was flying on and on and on and forever. He was as far away from the ground as possible. Nothing could swallow him up from way up there.

He heard his door clicking open and found his mind brought back to earth at the sound of Harry and Hermione entering his room with caution.

"Ron, it's going to be alright, we're going to stay awake in shifts and we've found some older binding spells in one of your grandma Prewitt's spell books, she had them highlighted for when your uncles needed restraining in the night. Your mum says they'll work and I believe her," Hermione seemed to believe that saying anything was better than doing nothing.

Ron didn't even bother with a response. His mother had tried all those spells when he was little and he'd still beaten them all with the aid of his uncles. This ghost seemed to be ten times more powerful then they had been so the Prewitt restraining techniques were of no comfort to him whatsoever. Hermione was reaching out for him, he knew how much she hated it when he didn't engage in conversation when she wanted him to, and he tried to let her lay her hand on his shoulder. She needed it even if he wanted nothing less in the world right now. Just as she was about to make contact his resolve failed him and he squirmed away from her.

"Oh sorry," she pulled her arm back and bit her lip, "I keep forgetting."

Godric, if only he could too.

"Lucky you," Ron mumbled, he glanced back up at Hermione and saw that her faux pas had upset her but not nearly as much as his revulsion of her touch, "I'm really sorry."

"Don't be silly, this isn't your fault, you take as long as you need. I can wait."

Ron wondered what she was waiting for him to do.

"Wait for what?"

She gave him a sad smile.

"Wait until I can get a hug of course."

Ron looked away from her and let out a weary sigh. He'd never felt so tired in his entire life and he'd never dreaded sleep with as much paralysing fear as he did right now.

"Are those hoops still in your backpack?" Harry asked out of the blue.

Ron looked up into Harry's eyes and saw that old look of determination he recognised as his ' I'm about to do something incredibly stupid and I don't bloody care ' look and Ron almost dared to hope. He felt some of the tension leaving his body and with that some of the strength he needed to stay awake. If Harry wasn't about to say what he hoped he was going to say he would just throw himself out of that open window and into the bramble patch to wake himself up again. He nodded weakly, and felt his eyelids growing heavier, and he silently pleaded with his friend not to be toying with him about this.

"Harry wait..." Hermione began.

Ron's head dropped and he almost let out a cry of frustration except he was too damn tired to make any noise at all.

"No Hermione, I've heard everything you have to say about this and I don't care, look at him for Godric's sake!" Harry barked.

Ron glanced up to see Hermione looking at him and then back at Harry. She nodded and got to her feet. Ron's body relaxed even more now. Soon, he told himself, soon he would be able to trust himself to go to sleep. Harry turned and grabbed Ron's backpack but Hermione laid her hand on his arm and told him again to wait. Something inside Ron's head screamed and he wished Hermione wasn't so thoughtful all the time. So what if this was dangerous, so what if it was illegal, so what if she was morally against it? He was morally against being buried alive and robbing banks and fighting Death Eaters without his knowledge or consent. He was morally against feeling sick every minute of the day. He was morally against hating the touch of his own girlfriend's hand on his skin.

Fuck her morals!

"They're not taking him Hermione, if this bond of blood was going to kill me I'd still do it, I don't care if they're helping me anymore. I'm going to do this," Harry understood, Harry would do this for him.

"No you're not," she said firmly and Ron wanted to cry out with frustration, "I am."

Ron and Harry gaped at her as she stood before them with her arms folded and her jaw set with determination.

"He's not going anywhere without me Harry. I'm doing it."

Ron watched the blade slicing through Hermione's palm and winced, trying to control his discomfort at seeing mutilated flesh, as he watched her picking up one of the silver hoops. Her blood seeped into the metal and the hoop to glowed and hummed in her fingers. She looked right into Ron and bit her lip.
"Are you sure?"

Ron nodded, he still felt too tired to really interact with proceedings any more than nodding his consent every time she sought it again, and held out his arm.

"Thank you," he said in barely a whisper.

Harry held his breath as Hermione put the hoop over Ron's fist and let it go at his wrist. The hoop floated there, the hum and the glow fading, and Hermione stepped back apprehensively.

"Can you take it off?" she asked him.

Ron tried to slide the hoop back down his arm but it wouldn't budge. Hermione nodded, she still didn't look happy about this but she seemed reassured to see that it was working the way it was supposed to be. She picked the second hoop up from the floor and let her blood connect with it until the same glowing hum began again. She slid the hoop over her own fist and let it float in place around her wrist. The glow faded a second time and Harry took out his wand and healed Hermione's cut hand.

"This is only until morning Ron, they come off as soon as you wake up understand?" she warned him.

Ron nodded and looked down at his hoop.

"So how far do I get from you before it kicks in?"

"As far as I allow," she seemed a little disgusted with herself as she said the words, "and while we're asleep I won't allow you to leave your bed."

Hermione walked away from Ron and stood at his window, looking out and sniffing quietly. She obviously didn't want him to see how much this had upset her but it was pretty clear. Despite this Ron still needed confirmation that everything had gone to plan and unsteadily got to his feet.

"Hermione," he called across the room to her, she took a breath and turned around to face him, "can you just try it once, I need to know what it feels like."

She looked at him as if he had just asked her to throw the cruciatus curse at him.

"I need to know," Ron pleaded, "so I'll know it's you and I won't...freak out or fight it or anything."

Hermione still didn't look happy about this but she nodded all the same. She raised the arm with the hoop around it and jerked it back suddenly. Ron felt a pull, something similar to how a portkey made him feel but this was more like a solid wind slamming into him bodily and sending him across the room to her faster than his feet were able to keep up with, and he thudded into her. They both slammed against the wall behind Hermione and Ron was temporarily winded. Hermione kept her balance by steadying herself against Ron while he braced himself against the wall behind her and tried to keep as much of himself away from her as possible. He struggled not to let her see how their close proximity was affecting him wile they both struggled to get their breath back. He must have subconsciously squirmed away from her as she pulled back from him immediately.

"Sorry, I knew that was a bad idea, are you alright?"

Ron nodded and felt like shit for still treating her this way after what she had just done for him.

"I hate this!" she cried aloud and wiped her eyes to prevent any tears from escaping, "I'm just as bad as them now, whoever they are, I'm controlling you against your will and I hate it!"

Ron had taken a couple of steps back from her as she went through her attack of frustration. He owed her, he owed her big, and he tried to get himself together enough to thank her properly. She had made such a big sacrifice for him, she had sacrificed her principles for his own sense of security and he couldn't even lean against her for a couple of seconds without feeling trapped.

You can do this; you can do this for her. She loves you enough to have gone against what she believes in and all she wants is to know you're still the same guy who told her he loved her last night. Merlin was it only last night? Where had his life gone in the last 24 hours?

"Ron do you need...?" Harry began to say from the far side of the room.

Do it, do it now!

He took two steps back toward Hermione and leaned forward, kissing her incredibly briefly on the lips, before pulling back and fighting the urge to shudder with everything he had in him.

"Never mind," he heard Harry saying.

"I trust you to control me ok?" Ron felt as if he was going to pass out at any second and he needed to say this before he did, "I need it, I need you, and I'm sorry that's all I can give you right now but..."

"I can wait," she said, looking happier than Ron had ever thought he could make a person, "I can wait for as long as it takes for you to be comfortable again, don't rush it for me."

She held up her arm, the hoop suspended before her.

"I'm not going anywhere."

Ron tried to smile but his eyelids weren't obeying him anymore and he felt the weight of the day making his body heavy and his brain began to shut down for the night.

"I don't want to seem ungrateful but..." he felt himself sway on his feet and heard Harry take a couple of rushed steps behind him, "...I think I'm going to pass-out."

The world whooshed away and he heard Harry's voice whispering to him from what sounded like miles away.

"I've got you..."

He thought he felt a spell hitting him; a light brightened outside his closed eyelids, and then it was as if a dark heavy blanket of sleep was being draped over him. The sounds of the room drifted into silence.

He settled into nothingness for a blissful hour or two. Too tired even to dream, or maybe a dreamless sleep draught had been snuck into his drink before he came up to his room and felt the sudden onset of exhaustion hitting him like the Hogwarts Express, until a familiar voice shattered his peace.

"Ronald, please forgive me..."

Chapter Twelve - Those You Leave Behind

Ron sat up, drawing his knees up and hugging his legs to himself, and refused to look up at the wispy silver spectre that was standing before him. It was Dumbledore, Dumbledore had been the one who came back from the dead to use him, Dumbledore had been the person to break his promise to his mother and seek him out to complete his unfinished business. Dumbledore was the person who didn't give a crap about what happened to him as long as he helped Harry beat the Dark Lord.

"That was not an easy decision for me to have to make and I will understand if you can't ever forgive me Ronald but please try to understand that I never wanted to hurt you physically or mentally. You have dealt with this whole horror admirably, better than I could ever have hoped, and I am in complete awe of you my dear boy. You have amazed me."

Was that supposed to make it all right? Was he supposed to just shake it off and get down to finding the next horcrux for him? Where would Dumbledore have him wake up next he wondered, was there anything worse than that coffin? How much more could his old headmaster put him through he asked himself?

"You will never believe the pain I feel for what I did to you Ronald, I know that, but please don't believe that I do not care for your suffering. I never left you that night, I stayed with you the whole time and I couldn't bear to hear you calling out to me and slowly suffocating down there, and I tried to do everything I could think of to aid your escape before I let you wake."

What does he want from me, thanks? Thank you for making some half arsed attempt not to kill me.

"I do not have a heart that beats Ronald but I can assure you that it is still capable of breaking."

Oh I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry to have upset you, how inconsiderate of me to put you in such an awful position. This is entirely my fault, I see that now you sodding bastard. You selfish, narrow-minded, victory obsessed old fucker! Well your sacrificial lamb isn't going to play along anymore, it can't, not since you took it to the slaughterhouse to be butchered you sadist.

"Ronald please talk to me," Dumbledore's wavering voice called out, "it will devastate me if you let the insanity take you so soon, you have such a resilience to it. These past few visits you have handled the exertion so well and if you just surrender to it now...well I wouldn't be able to think of a way to punish myself to do you justice. You are more than just a vessel to me Ron, you are not simply a device I wish to use until it breaks, you are my partner, my comrade, my friend."

This was too much for Ron to take anymore; he lifted his head and struggled to hold in the tears.

"How could you do that to me?" Ron managed to force out through his reluctant vocal chords, as the tears went ahead and flowed anyway.

"If there had been another way to show you the horcrux within our time constraints I would have done it, I would have done anything to spare you that horror Ronald, please believe me."

Something tightened around Ron's curled up body and he felt as if it was squeezing the outrage and indignation out of him and towards Dumbledore.

"Believe you? I trusted you!" Ron gasped as the words shot forth from him with ragged ferocity.

"You can still trust me Ronald, I just wish you could still have me with you when you wake at times like that so you won't feel so alone."

"Times?" Ron found himself trembling at the thought, he didn't like the sound of that plural at all, "There'll be more times?"

Dumbledore shook his head just as Ron felt his chest constricting even more, something was wrapping around him and tightening uncomfortably, and he saw a shadow encircling his body and wondered if the ghost of Black was trying to come for him and finish the job. He had disturbed his spirit as well as his body and it wanted to take his life...what was left of it.

"Not if I can help it," Dumbledore was answering his question, it was as if he hadn't noticed Ron's invisible attacker.

"That's not good enough," Ron said as he tried not to convey the fear he was feeling, at being manipulated in so many ways by so many different dead souls.

Their time was up. They should be resting. They should accept that their business on this earth was done and leave him alone. He wasn't their puppet, he was...he was...losing. He was losing himself to them.

"It pains me more than you will ever know to have been the one to have done that to you but time is of the essence and that was the fastest way to eliminate the locket as a horcrux."

Ron felt the compression encircling his body loosen and his breathing ease, maybe Black wasn't going to squeeze the life out of him after all, and he shook his head. Dumbledore didn't care at all. He just wanted to get him on side again so he would jump through some more fiery hoops for him like a good little drone.

"I'm just expendable to you, you don't even care."

Dumbledore looked genuinely hurt by this, Ron tried to stay firm, he wasn't going to fall for the old man's tricks any more, he wasn't going to let him play on his emotions ever again.

"Of course I care, do you think I would jeopardise your life?"

"What do you call last night then?" Ron blurted out, unable to believe the selective memory of the ghostly figure before him.

"I had faith in you to get out, you should have more in yourself."

What the hell was that? That was justification was it? 'I knew you could claw your way out of a coffin deep underground so I didn't have to worry all that much' I hate him. I hate the callous bastard.

"Leave me alone," Ron let his head drop once more.

"I know you feel let down, betrayed by me but..."

"You betrayed my mother!" he found himself screaming at the top of his lungs at the startled old wizard.

Dumbledore held up both of his hands and nodded sadly.

"Yes I did. I admit it, I took Molly's confidence, and I broke my promise to her not to use your gift should I pass on but I didn't estimate the three of you taking on this quest alone," he stepped closer to Ron and sat at the foot of his bed, "You need my assistance and I will not abandon you Mr Weasley, not even in death."

"Yours or mine?" Ron said coolly.

There were more shadows moving around him now, the dead were all coming out to get him, they were going to make him pay, or maybe they were waiting in line to use him after Dumbledore. His life was not his own anymore and it was all Dumbledore's fault.

"I wish I could take that pain from you but I can't. I wish I hadn't been the cause of your pain. I don't want you to think I do not value you Ronald," Ron wanted to hit him, he wanted to hit the old man so badly, but then he felt one of the shadows gripping him again and tried to concentrate on keeping them out, "Risking you isn't something I do lightly and not something I want to do again."

Ron looked him in his icy grey eyes and glared.

"I bet you wouldn't have done it to Harry at all."

You move heaven and earth to spare him any pain. He's the one you want to help. If anything ever happened to Harry you'd just abandon me without a second thought. I'm nothing to you.

"Ron the things I have done to poor Harry over the years. The protection I gave him that involved his own emotional suffering, it is the difficult decisions that make us."

Why are our bloody lives ruled by your decisions you arrogant shit?

Ron was about to vent his fury at Dumbledore when the tightness around his chest intensified to an unbearable degree and the shadows began to dart before him rapidly. What were they doing to him? Why wasn't Dumbledore helping him if he was so concerned about him? Couldn't he see what was happening?

Then Ron noticed that he did seem to be looking at the commotion in the afterlife and looked somewhat alarmed himself.

"What if I decide I've had enough?" Ron managed to say, hoping that the old man was sorry enough to give him a way out of all this.

"You have for tonight I'm afraid. Harry is about to do something rash and I cannot allow that, not just yet anyway, and besides Ron I think the decision to let me take your body lies with you and you alone."

Take him? Oh Godric he wants to swap places with me. He wants me to give up my life to let him have his back.

Ron could barely breath now, the crushing sensation around his chest was beginning to hurt him, and he tried to remember what his mother had told him about the possession side of his oracle abilities. Would he be dead forever? What did Dumbledore want to do with him if he did take him over? Then the most important question of all flashed into his mind.

"If you take my body where will I go?" Ron asked, his eyes wide with alarm and his voice wheezing with the lack of air behind it.

Dumbledore smiled at him, only a small smile but it was definitely there.

"That is one guarantee I can make you. You will be safe there."

The old wizard stood up and moved forward, through Ron's bed, to lean over him and rest his cold palms on either side of his head. He was still smiling as a wave of warm magic flowed into Ron and he felt his eyes falling closed and his body loosening.

"Rest now Ron, your poor mind needs some respite, and I fear that Miss Granger is about to suffocate you."

Dumbledore's touch faded into nothing, as did everything else around him, and all that was left was the warmth and the weight of sleep as it darkened his mind and closed his mind once again.

Regulus Black's skeletal arm was clinging to him while he struggled to find a way out of the coffin. He felt around in the darkness for the wand but he couldn't find it anywhere. The arm moved up his body and something crawled up the back of his neck. The coffin was caving in, buckling under the weight of all the compacted earth above it, and the wood bowed as it splintered and cracked. The soil started pouring in and the lid lowered and pressed Black's arm against him and him down onto Black's body firmly. He could feel the maggots in the eye cavities crawling into his hair and he could feel the sickly hot breath from Black's jawless mouth on his skin.

The air was all but gone from the coffin now and the soil was crushing him into the bones beneath, which popped and snapped under him, and Ron was gasping for anything to fill his lungs but there was nothing but fumes and toxins and dirt.

Black's hand slid further up Ron's body, across his chest and gliding across his face trailing rotten flesh across his skin and resting on the side of his face. Ron struggled to turn his face away from the deathly caress but the soil was burying them both in position now, he would feel that touch until he eventually died. He would lay with Black like that for all eternity. The hand was suddenly withdrawn and Ron found it in him to move his arms and push up against the collapsed coffin lid.

"Gemme out," he gasped through the ever-cascading soil as it forced the coffin lid back down, pressing it flat against Ron's chest and squeezing the last of the air out of his already empty lungs.

Ron felt something bright illuminate his face and suddenly he was able to breath again. He opened his eyes and saw that Harry was standing before him with his wand pointed at his face and a terrified look on his face. Ron found himself shivering uncontrollably as he tried to sit up.

"It's ok mate, you were just having a bad dream, you're fine now," Harry smiled at him.

He turned back to his own bed and pulled a blanket off it before turning and draping it around Ron's shoulders. Ron couldn't believe how shaken up he had got over a stupid little nightmare. He really thought he was dying in there. It really did feel as if he couldn't breathe. He wondered why he was shaking so much.

"S-s-sorry," Ron said.

"What are you sorry for?" Harry frowned.

Ron almost laughed as he shrugged and pulled the blanket around him tightly. He was just so used to apologising these days that he just did it automatically without thinking.

"I dunno."

Harry smiled before looking over his shoulder and calling out.

"Hermione, do you want to take off the hoops?"

Ron turned and flinched at the unexpected sight of Hermione behind him, crouched on his bed with her back pressed flat against the wall, and he tried to smile at her and force his shivering to stop. She had obviously slept beside him again and he didn't want her to think that his terrible state that morning was her fault. He was still feeling guilty for the way he had treated her after his nightmares after they had first brought him back to Burrow.

"Morning," he said before looking down at his hands, he hadn't managed to stop them from shaking, "I don't know what's wrong, I'm not even cold."

"It'll pass soon enough," she beamed falsely; "let's get that hoop off your arm shall we?"

While Hermione removed their hoops Ron bit the bullet and asked Harry how bad it had been last night. His heart sank when Harry told him that he had been visited again. There were never going to stop coming for him were they? He was going to have to fight them off every night for the rest of his life.

Huh, what life?

His life was officially over as of now.

"You gave them what for, you actually shouted at them, you were brilliant," Harry was saying to him proudly.

It wasn't enough; nothing was ever going to be enough. He saw that Hermione was crawling off his bed now, she seemed to be trying her very hardest not to come anywhere near him, and she turned and smiled another unrealistically large smile at him.

"I'll bring you up a cup of tea I think, would you like one Harry?"

Harry nodded and Hermione turned to make her way out and Ron realised that he was hurting her so much with his fear of physical contact that it had to stop right now, whether he was ready or not, and he grabbed her by the wrist. She gasped and froze, Ron felt as if she was charging him with something powerful that he couldn't contain and stared back at her. The shivers had dissipated into a slight tremor in his voice as he tried to acknowledge her unfaltering loyalty to him despite his ill treatment in return.

"You stayed with me didn't you?" he asked her.

"Yes," Hermione nodded breathlessly.

He was really trying, more than he ever had before, but it was going to send him back into a similar state to the one he was in when his mother told him the family secret. He let go of her wrist and, not being able to take the look of hurt in her eyes, glanced over at the silver hoops. She had kept him safe that night. It was all down to her. She was his protector, his guardian angel, and his only hope.

"Thank you," he whispered as he forced himself to look back at her.

She left the room on the verge of tears and Ron looked down at his hands, the pink and tender fingertips and the overly short fingernails, while Harry tried to tactfully broach the subject of leaving him behind.

"I'm sorry, I wish..."

"It's ok," Ron half smiled, "I can't go anywhere at the moment can I? I'm no good to anyone right now."

"No don't say that," Harry said, obviously feeling like crap right now.

"It's alright," Ron smiled a little wider to try and convince his best friend that there were no hard feelings, "at least we've found a way to stop me eh?"

Harry nodded before suddenly blurting out something that almost brought Ron's attack of the shakes back with a vengeance.

"I almost woke you last night, I'm sorry, don't worry I didn't do it. Your dad stopped me, well no it was you, you stopped me."

"Why did you...?" Ron began.

"I was just so angry with them for what they did to you, I wanted to get them to face me, and I let my temper get the better of me as usual. I was going to..." Harry shook his head with regret, "...I just needed to yell at them so much, to find out who the hell was doing this to you, that I was willing to let them posses you. I'm so sorry Ron."

Ron let the blanket slip from his shoulders and he crossed the room to sit beside Harry on his bed.

"It's ok, I understand, I'm kind of curious about who this bastard is myself," he shrugged.

"That's not the point. I'm not leaving you behind because you're not up to the trip anymore, not just that, I have to leave you behind because I scared myself last night Ron. I'm scared of what I almost did. I can't trust myself to keep my cool when they're getting to you."

Ron and Harry both looked at the floorboards, tense and silent, for several seconds before Harry took a deep breath and told Ron the last of his worries. He told him that this spirit knew him and was using Ron to protect him. He explained that he was worried that they would use Ron until his was spent and then move on to Hermione. He wanted to go on alone without either of them.

"Now that Hermione's bound to you she can't leave anyway, it's all worked out for the best."

"I don't think so," Hermione was standing at the bedroom door holding two cups of steaming hot tea and with a livid look on her face, "I could restrict Ron's movements from the other side of the world as long as he was held by that hoop, that was one of the reasons I was so against that bloody ritual in the first place, the bond of blood is an incredibly powerful way to contain somebody. I can be sure that he's safe without being anywhere near him."

"So you'd do that to him would you?" Harry snapped at her, "Bind him and rush out into all sorts of potentially fatal danger with me, risking your life, while he sits at the Burrow bound by your blood. That was another one of your worries wasn't it Hermione? The binder dies while Ron is bound to them and..." Harry's voice was fading into nothing.

Ron could see his lips moving and his face twisting with the frustration of trying to prove a point to Hermione when she was adamant not to listen to it but he couldn't hear a thing any more. He wasn't looking at Harry now either, he was toppling off the edge of the bed and onto his knees, as a warm yellow light swelled in front of his face and he felt icy hands on either side of his face. He could hear Hermione shouting at him now and he could hear himself, he was talking to them but he wasn't at the same time, and he tried to concentrate on a third voice. It was inside his head, almost like a memory. It was almost familiar but not quite.

Deja vu?

"Ron you can control this..." Hermione was still screaming at him.

He didn't want to hear that though, he wanted to hear the voice in his head, he knew it, he knew him. It was almost there, if he could just make out the words then maybe...

"...Your poor mind needs some respite..."

Ron heard him that time. The grey shapeless thing that floated just before him and was gone again. He heard Hermione shouting again but tried to tune her out and find that man again.

I know him, where do I know him from? If only he was a little clearer.

"...fear Miss Granger is about to suffocate you."

He fell forward and extended his arms to hold himself up, he was sweating and panting, and the violent shivering had begun again. What was he doing just now? He was sitting on the bed talking to Harry and then he and Hermione were arguing and now he was really hot...and cold...and somebody was there.

Hermione grabbed him and pushed him back so he was resting against the foot of Harry's bed. Ron only realised that she had touched him after she had let him go. He was too distracted by this weird feeling inside him.

Did I just leave?

Hermione stared into his face and didn't seem to be able to believe her eyes.

"Ron? Oh my God Ron you're ok," she turned to face Harry and gasped, "that should've killed him."

What was she talking about? He only fell off the bed for crying out loud.

"Oracles have a resilience to it," his mother's voice drifted over from the doorway, "It only works on a waxing moon, they won't be able to send you a direct message like that again for another month."

Ron shuddered and tried to speak but nothing came out. His mother had been keeping more secrets from him? This had to stop, he had to know exactly what was going on and what the hell else he had to expect, there was something in the look she was giving him that told him there was one last biggie that she wanted to protect him from and the time for protection was long gone as far as he was concerned. He cleared his throat and tried again as he looked to his mother.

"Mum?"

"Yes dear?"

"What else didn't you tell me about myself?"

The four of them were sitting around the breakfast table listening to Ron's mother telling them the curse of the oracles. They all descended into madness sooner or later unless their gift was kept a complete secret. Every story of a known oracle, every documented case of oracle activity, ended with the subject's irreversible insanity. Ron was going to go crazy and there was nothing he could do about it.

"So the nightmares and the...and how I've been feeling recently, it isn't just about the shock and the stress. I've been going mad little by little?"

"Nearly all oracles go insane if they are used for a prolonged period of time," his mother had nodded sadly.

"What's a prolonged period of time?" Hermione asked.

"More than twenty or thirty consecutive nights of visits, so I've heard," she said with a sigh, "and with things like the viator spell and the spirit being drawn into the body to posses the host the deterioration happens even faster."

"Why didn't you tell us this when you told us about the whole oracle thing in the first place?" Harry said, Ron had never seen this before but he was actually getting a little bit angry with his adopted mother.

Ron's mother looked at him and shook her head in apology.

"I didn't want you to lose hope Ronnie. If you knew you might just give in to it and...stop fighting. You have so much on your mind and I didn't want to add another worry when it's something none of us can do anything about."

"Every cloud has a silver lining Ronnie," she had sighed as she carried him home from the woods on a brilliantly sunny autumn day.

"The black ones don't," he yawned as he looked up at the cloudless sky with tired eyes.

"The black clouds have the brightest lining of all of them sweetheart. Do you know what contrast is Ronnie dear?"

Ron frowned, not another word game, he was sleepy and they had been doing spelling all afternoon. Just because she took him outside didn't make his lessons fun. He would be glad when it was Ginny's turn to learn to read and he would be left alone to do as he pleased.

"There's a turny thing on that muggle box daddy's got that says that, and one that says brightness and one that says colour..."

"Yes yes, well done dear, but I wasn't looking for a word list right now. The thing I asked you was if you knew what contrast meant...hold on," his mother stopped walking and tilted her head back to get a better look at him, "...you read those words off of the box daddy keeps in his muggle cupboard?"

Ron wiped his sleepy eyes and nodded.

"What else did it say?"

"Volume and tuning."

She smiled at him and gave him a hug before walking onward again.

"You really did pick this up fast didn't you? It took forever for me to get the twins to pick up how to read words I hadn't sounded out for them myself before. You're a little prodigy do you know that?"

"Who's he?" Ron frowned.

"Never mind, that can be discussed tomorrow, I was talking about contrast wasn't I?"

"You were talking about clouds," Ron grumbled, mummy was always going on about lots of different things and forgetting the thing he'd asked her about in the first place.

"Yes we were and you told me that black clouds don't have silver linings didn't you? Well they do Ronnie, more so. Just like your eyes aren't any bluer than your cousin Nigel's; except Nigel has sandy coloured hair and you have red coloured hair; and the contrast between the colours make your eyes look as if there's a light on behind them and Nigel's look a little flat. Although I'll thank you not to tell his mother I made that comparison as she thinks her baby boy is the most beautiful thing in the world."

Ron chuckled at his mummy huffing and getting cross with Nigel's mummy.

"Ginny's the most beautiful isn't she? I've heard you tell her."

"Ginny's the most beautiful girl and you are the most beautiful boy, but don't tell your brothers I said so!" his mummy had said while tickling him and making him giggle, "So a black cloud has a much brighter lining than a white one or a grey one you see?"

"So a dark day will mean a sunny day is coming soon?"

"Very good, you might be a poet when you grow up Ronnie, can you think of any more like that?"

Ron thought for a while and remembered one of his daddy's muggle music Frisbees.

"The darkest hour is just before dawn."

His mummy beamed and began to sing to him as she carried him the rest of the way home, while he drifted off to sleep.

"Each night before you go to bed my baby, whisper a little prayer for me my baby, and tell the stars up above this is dedicated to the one I love..."

Ron met his mother's eyes and smiled.

"What's the use of worrying eh? It never was worthwhile."

His mother bit her lip and laughed at him before grabbing him into a hug where he sat that he didn't feel the need to fight against as she sang a familiar tune into his shoulder.

"Pack up your troubles in your old kit bag and smile, smile, smile."

Ron glanced over to Hermione and rolled his eyes.

"Dad's muggle record collection, you wouldn't believe the kind of crap you people used to listen to to ignore the great wizarding war of the forties."

Hermione smiled at him and Ron smiled back at her as he patted his mother on the back and let her know she was forgiven for all her secrets and omissions over the years. If he could he would protect everybody from the truth about himself so he couldn't really blame her for wanting to do the same for him. Hermione turned to glance at Harry who seemed to have been bracing himself for a small explosion rather than a Weasley family sing-along before looking back at Ron and his mother as they parted again.

"Que sera sera eh?" Hermione asked with a sad smile.

Ron watched as his mother's face lit up.

"Oh Hermione that one's my favourite!"

She cupped Hermione's face with her hand and Ron noticed that they were staring at each other in a really strange way before his mother turned back to the kitchen counter and busied herself with making a fresh pot of tea. Ron got up, his chair scraping on the stone floor as he did.

"I don't know why you thought I wasn't prepared for a life of insanity mother, you did name me after crazy uncle Billius after all and that bloke was off his head!" he chuckled.

His mother spun around and huffed with a wide smile.

"Don't let your father hear you saying that Ronald Weasley, he was very fond of batty old Billius, and he wouldn't thank you to bring up his little eccentricities in that derogatory manner."

Ron shrugged.

"All I'm saying is that you jinxed me. I always knew I was destined to be a nutter. In the wizarding world we call a spade a spade and a madman Billius, it's just the way it is."

He was about to laugh when he saw his mother's shoulders falling and her head dropping with them, as she dissolved into tears. Ron grabbed her and gave her another firm cuddle, this one felt even more natural than the last, and he tried to remind her that they were aiming for chirpy denial rather than devastated despair.

"Come on mum, don't do this, we think this is funny remember?" his mother squeezed him a little tighter to her and nodded, this made him feel a little panicky but he didn't want to ruin the point he was trying to make with an anxiety attack, "This is nothing, we're not going to worry about this, and how much more loopy can I get anyway?"

It seemed to do the trick as she loosened her hold on him and chuckled.

"I am surprised you didn't snap sooner, having the twins for brothers and everything," she sniffed, causing Ron to laugh and rub his mother's back, "and I should have sent you to St Mungo's for treatment when I heard about your little stroll in the forbidden forest in the second year."

Ron pulled back from his mother and frowned at the smiling woman who was doing her best to put on a brave face for him.

"How d'you mean?" he asked as he wiped away the tears that had been falling earlier.

"Well any arachnophobe who follows a trail of spiders into the lair of an enormous spider that wants to eat him is really in need of a head examination."

Ron snorted and even Harry was laughing now. Hermione, suddenly rose from the table and ran out of the kitchen in tears. Ron was used to making her cry but this must be something of a personal best for him. He sighed and let his mother go, something she didn't seem to want but accepted all the same, and shrugged as he walked backwards toward the door.

"I s'pose I'd better..."

His mother nodded.

"You go after her, I'll finish making the tea," she smiled.

Ron turned and followed Hermione out of the kitchen and up the stairs.

He found her face down on his bed, her face buried into his pillow and her sobs coming from so deep inside her that her whole back arched with each one that was muffled into the pillow, sounding something like a donkey with a head cold.

"What is it with you and my bed eh? You're in it more than me these days," he tried to joke.

She wiped her face on the pillowcase before turning her blotchy face to look at him with her bloodshot eyes.

"Why won't you stop that?"

Ron took a step into his room and closed the door behind him.

"Stop what?"

"Trying to be ok about this. This isn't healthy Ron, this is not the way you're supposed to handle news like that," she strained not to shout at him as she sat up and crossed her legs, clutching the pillow to her as if it was a teddy bear.

"So I'm supposed to handle it the way you are right now?" Ron said, a little cross at being told how to cope, "I'm sick of worrying myself into a state Hermione. Yesterday..." he remembered that he hadn't told her and Harry about his full blown panic attack and collapse, "...well yesterday was worse than I let on and it doesn't help so what's the point in getting myself wound up when it changes nothing?"

Hermione got to her feet and tossed the pillow aside as she stared at him and swallowed.

"You touched your mum."

Ron blinked and shook his head to see if he had missed a chunk of the conversation.

"What?"

"Downstairs, you cuddled your mum, I was just wondering if you could touch people again or if it was just her."

He looked down, he knew what she wanted and he wanted to give it to her but he also knew how intense she could get and how fast, and he knew that holding Hermione wasn't the same as holding his mother.

"Never mind, I shouldn't have asked you, I promised I'd wait until you were ready and not push..."

"No it's not...I was," Ron tried to find a way to explain himself that wouldn't hurt her feelings and he was having more trouble than he would have liked to admit, "I want to, we can, now."

Hermione heaved a thankful sigh and ran to him and he panicked and threw his hands up and took a step back. She stopped in her tracks and looked mortified.

"I'm sorry, I knew I was rushing you, you don't have to force yourself to do this for me."

"I'm not there's just some things we need to clear up first, like rules or dos and don'ts if ya like," Ron said as he took a cautious step forward to show her he was ready.

Hermione nodded her head frantically.

"Whatever you want."

"Right; well I'll come to you," he began and she nodded again and smiled at him reassuringly as he moved closer, "and try not to squeeze too tight and if I say that's enough we stop right away 'cause I don't want to throw you off, I hate it when I do that to you."

Ron looked at her as she gave another nod of understanding and then he looked down at his feet to compose himself and prevent his anxiety levels to rise any more than they already were. He nodded to himself and looked back up at her, taking a deep breath in and out, before taking the final step towards her and curling his arms around her waist. He bent over slightly, he was after all considerably taller than Hermione, and she rested her head on his shoulder. She placed her hands tentatively on his back, going the extra cautious route rather than coiling her arms around him in the usual way she liked to, and slowly moved them around to hold him loosely.

"I'm so sorry I hurt you," Ron whispered into her hair as he gave her a small squeeze.

"You didn't, I was just worried about you that's all," she said before nuzzling gently into his shoulder.

"But the other night when I woke up with you and said all those horrible things..."

"You were scared and tired and...and well," Hermione didn't want to say the rest.

"Damaged?"

She broke away from the hug, Ron knew it was to stop herself from gripping him tightly, and turned away to walk over to the window and stare out.

"I know every one of your secrets now Ronald Weasley," she said huskily as she folded her arms for the sake of having something to hug against herself, "and I love you even more."

Ron's head dropped and he put his hands in his pockets for want of a better thing to do.

"Fred knows, about us I mean," he mumbled to his shoes.

He heard Hermione make a small sound that sounded something like laughter.

"I know, I think everybody knows Ron."

"That's what I'm afraid of," he mumbled again and forced himself to look up.

Hermione had turned around to stare at him, her arms now hanging at her sides and her eyes round and wide.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

He swallowed and sat down on the corner of his bed.

"Well from what mum says, and the way this dead guy isn't letting up on me, I'll be gone within a week."

"Don't say that!" Hermione gasped and buried her face into her hands for a second before rushing to sit beside him on the bed and stare up at him with fresh pain setting into her eyes.

"The thing is," Ron began, knowing that this was going to be the hardest thing he had ever had to say to Hermione, even harder than when he told her he loved her, "if we don't make a big deal about being together then it won't be so hard for you when you want to move on."

Hermione looked as if she was shaking with repressed anger.

"You have no idea how much I want to hit you again."

Ron smiled and looked away; he tried not to start picking at his healing fingers again.

"Please look at me Ron," she said with a determined voice.

He lifted his head and took her hand in his, he could tell she was aching for physical contact again and at least thought he owed her that, and looked her in the eye.

"I don't want people judging you for leaving me and getting on with your life. I'm not having us turn into Neville and his parents I can't do that to you."

She squeezed his hand and then loosened it to such a degree that he could barely feel her, he assumed she had corrected her instinct to hold on to him tightly as soon as she had done it.

"If anything happens to you Ron, anything, I will tell everyone I meet from then on that you were mine. You are mine and I will never be ashamed of you."

Ron shook and lowered his head, he'd just told himself he wasn't going to get into a state anymore, he told himself he was going to hold it together and go down fighting, but he couldn't stop the tears pushing their way out and he couldn't let her see him break.

"I'm scared Hermione."

"Me too."

He forced himself to look up at her and saw her own tears mirroring his as they fell unchecked all the way down their faces and dropped onto their clenched hands.

"I don't want to disappear," Ron heard his voice cracking as he spoke.

Hermione flinched and seemed to be holding herself back from something that she wanted more than anything else in the world right at that moment.

"Please let me hug you again."

Ron pulled her forward and they both burrowed their faces into the other's shoulder. This wasn't a loose hug, or a suffocating hug, this was exactly what they needed right now. This was a firm and secure hug. They sat like that for five minutes until Ron's next statement made Hermione pull away and stare at him with a new break in her heart.

"I want you to go with Harry."

"What? No, I can't leave you, I know that I protested when Harry suggested it but that was before I knew, that was before I found out how much time we had left, I can't."

"He needs you Hermione, he'll need you in Wales, he'll need you to defeat Voldemort and..."

"You said his name," Hermione gasped.

Ron shrugged.

"I've got bigger things to be afraid of now."

Chapter Thirteen - Tearing My World Apart

Hermione was trying not to look at him.

She started crying every time she did and now that they were about to leave she was welling up just looking at the crack in the stone floor tiles on the kitchen floor.

"Well I've packed you enough food to last you until dinnertime at least, you can come back any time you like to get some more, I don't want either of you going hungry Harry," Ron's mum fussed as Harry hauled his backpack onto his shoulders.

"You've packed enough food to last us all weekend Mrs Weasley, don't worry we'll be fine," Harry smiled.

Hermione sniffed and stared at the wind chimes above the back door. Ron glanced at his mother who nodded to him to take her outside and say goodbye in private. Ron pointed to the hoop that floated around his arm, he was restricted to within the Burrow, something that caused quite a bit of grief in itself as Ron had gone through a moment of claustrophobia as soon as he knew he wouldn't be able to get out if he wanted to. Hermione had burst into tears then too, leaving Harry to calm him down and work out a psychological technique to make him feel a little less closed-in by the walls of the house. Harry had, after all, lived in a small cupboard for several years of his life.

"Um come on Harry, let's see you off, I'll show you to the edge of the anti-apparition wards," Ron's mother smiled as she guided Harry, who knew well enough by now where Dumbledore's wards ended, outside to give Ron and Hermione some peace.

Hermione let out a juddering exhalation and turned to look back at Ron. Her eyes were filling rapidly and Ron raised a warning finger.

"I don't want to see that anymore, I want a proper goodbye, I want to remember you happy and confident and strong. That's what my girlfriend's like, not this."

Hermione sniffed and wiped her face, she nodded, and walked across the kitchen to plant a soft kiss on his cheek and look into his eyes.

"Tell me to stay with you," she pleaded.

He smiled and pulled her into his arms. They held each other for a couple of minutes, rocking from side to side, before Ron let her go and took a step back from her.

"It's still hard for you isn't it, to touch me?"

He shook his head.

"Don't lie to me," she said roughly, her throat constricting with restrained emotion.

"I'm not, it isn't hard to touch you, it's just hard sometimes, with everyone."

"I don't want you to go through this by yourself," she said, straightening her backpack on her shoulders.

"I won't be, mum and dad will be here and Fred and George are coming tonight, it might not happen at all. They might now come if Harry's not here."

Hermione huffed and turned to walk out of the kitchen without another word to him.

"Bye then," Ron called after her.

She didn't even get all the way through the doorway before running back to him and throwing herself at him with a whimper. Ron closed his eyes and pictured himself on his broom flying out in the open. His body relaxed in her grasp and he was able to open his eyes and hug her back.

"I know you didn't really need me to do that but I just had to."

"It's ok, I need the practice," he smiled and nodded, "it worked. Did you feel it work?"

She nodded against his chest.

"I barely even noticed you tense up," she lied.

Ron kissed the top of Hermione's head and tried to tell himself that she wasn't going to be gone long enough for him to be lost to her when she returned. He would still be able to be there for her. It would only be for a few days, he knew it, and he could hold the madness off that long. Who's to say that the viator spell that had passed the message on to Harry that he was to go to Wales in the first place had deteriorated him even more? It might not have and then he'd still have a couple more weeks, maybe three, which would be good wouldn't it? He marvelled inwardly at his own optimism. He was thinking of three weeks of lucidity for the rest of his life as a treat.

"I can't leave," Hermione whispered, "I can't walk away from you, I can't."

Ron cleared his throat and shoved her away from him firmly but gently.

"Right then I'm going to do it for you ok?" he looked down at her tear streaked face and quickly bent over to kiss her on the cheek, he whispered, "I love you," and turned quickly and walked out of the kitchen and up the stairs.

He heard the door closing and a few seconds later the sound of Harry and Hermione disapparating away. He threw himself face down onto his bed and tried to stop his brain from going off on one of the tangents that he'd found himself unable to escape from over the last few hours. It was as if he would be in the middle of a conversation and then suddenly burst out laughing for no reason or feel suddenly paranoid or aggressive. He told himself if wasn't the oracle madness, he was just tired and he still wasn't eating as much as he should.

By the time night had fallen Ron was beginning to feel the claustrophobia setting in again. He knew that the living room wasn't the best place for him to be and made his excuses just after sunset. George had followed him upstairs and sat in the corner of his room while Ron stood by the open window with his eyes closed, feeling the breeze on his face and focusing on the open fields and rolling hills that stretched out ahead of him. He pictured gliding over them, following the sun so it never went down, and nothing could pull him down or close him in. He was free and calm and able to breathe.

He heard the door behind him creak and Fred's voice whispering to George.

"Everything ok?"

"Fine."

"You wanna swap?"

"Nah, I'll stay for another couple of hours more."

Ron opened his eyes and was startled at how dark it was outside now. He turned around and saw Fred retreating from his bedroom. He saw Ron looking and smiled.

"Hi little bro, want me to bring you up a drink or a snack or anything?"

Ron smiled and shook his head before looking at George sitting on the chair and fanning through a copy of '101 things muggles think when they see magic and how to modify their memories'.

"You don't have to sit up here with me y'know George, I'm doing better tonight."

Fred gave George a look out of the corner of his eye and slipped out, closing the door behind him as he went, and George closed the book and sat forward in his chair.

"What will you do in here all on your own?"

Ron nodded to the open window.

"I'll keep doing this."

"And what about when you get tired, what'll you do then?"

Ron averted his eyes and turned back to look out of the window. George stood up and walked across the room to join him at the window.

"Why don't you let me put you to sleep?"

Ron looked back at his brother and remembered that he had been the one to let him know that everything he did at Gringotts meant nothing to him. He was the one who had been punched while Ron was taken over by their uncle Gideon. He was never the one to instigate any of the cruel Weasley twin pranks. He was the one Ron hadn't really spoken to since the coffin. George was feeling as if he was useless to him.

"Because I can't win after tonight that's why."

George sat on the windowsill and stared at him.

"What do you mean by that?"

Ron looked back out the window.

"If they come for me tonight, while Harry's away, then that means they'll keep on coming every night until I lose it and if they don't come for me then I'll know I can't ever be around my best mate ever again else risk it happening again. I'm done for either way."

George put a hand on Ron's shoulder and gave him a shove.

"You're a prat you know that?"

Ron smiled.

"Yeah, what of it?"

George shrugged.

"Nothing, I just thought I'd remind you that's all."

They sat and looked out the window until George saw Ron shivering and made him get into bed. It wasn't until his brother was about to place the sleep charm upon him that Ron realised that the chill still hadn't gone away. George noticed it too and put his hand to his forehead.

"Shit Ron, you're on fire, don't move I'll go and get mum."

George got up to leave and Ron called out to him.

"Don't bother, I get this feeling on and off every now and then since Gringotts, it's like the beginnings of the flu but it goes away after a while. Don't worry about it."

George took a step back towards him and frowned.

"Are you sure, you're looking shittier and shittier the more I look at you."

Ron chuckled.

"And you're a handsome devil too."

George smiled and shrugged with resignation as he flicked his wand at Ron and said the sleep spell. Ron was blinded by the blue flash and felt his chill dissolve away into the darkness.

Ron woke at the sensation of an ice-cold hand clamping over his mouth and the unnerving sight of his dead headmaster leaning over him. He began breathing erratically as he tried to shake off the ghostly but strangely solid hand from his mouth to take in the air he needed.

"Ronald stay calm, I don't want you to hyperventilate again, I'll remove my hand but you have to come with me and not ask any questions. We have to get to Harry and Miss Granger do you understand?"

Ron was still breathing in and out way too fast through his nose as he nodded.

"The Death Eaters are coming for them and they are injured, we need to assist them now, follow me."

Dumbledore released his hold on Ron and he gasped a huge lungful of air in as he threw back the covers and run after Dumbledore out of the room and towards the stairs.

Just as he was about to descend the first flight something grabbed him around the legs and he crashed down onto the landing and began to crawl down the stairs, pulling what felt like a very heavy weight behind him, and unable to move his legs. He struggled after Dumbledore this way until they reached the bottom of the stairs at which the old wizard turned and yelled at him.

"Kick Ron!"

He kicked out as franticly as he could until he felt his legs become freed from what looked like two flailing shadows on the stairs. He kicked them off as he reached the ground floor. Dumbledore was looking up the stairs and Ron was about to turn and do the same when the old man's eyes went wide and he yelled at Ron to dive for cover behind the kitchen door. He did as he was told, wondering why he couldn't see his attackers. Was this one of Voldemort's new tricks?

"You didn't bring your wand did you?" Dumbledore asked him as he crouched before him.

"Was I supposed to?" Ron panted with confusion.

"Let us hope I have kept you feeling ill enough to do adequate wandless magic to get us out of here."

"That was you?" Ron blurted

"Come, the back door, we must see if it's possible to break the bond of blood without hurting you."

Ron got to his feet and ran to the back door, flinging it open and slamming his palms against it, he was about to ask Dumbledore what to try next when he felt two ice cold spears penetrate his back and he heard his old headmaster inside his head.

'Let me try Ronald, keep calm for me won't you?'

"Lentesco solvo depulso!"

Power flowed through Ron's back and down his arms before crackling against the barrier. It didn't even waver. Ron felt his breath getting away from him again.

'No Ron, please, I need you to keep your breathing steady. You have done this with me before and you were astonishing so I know you can do it again. Breath calmly and let me try to make you a little more powerful.'

"What, how?" Ron said as he began to sweat with the amount of extra energy he was trying to process inside him.

A spell was cast inside him, a spell that he recognised as an effective form of defence that led to no permanent injury or risk of fatality, the fever spell.

'Egresco!''

Ron felt stronger than he had ever felt in his entire life. He pressed against the barrier with his full force and with Dumbledore's encouragement but still there was nothing, no give whatsoever. He hissed as he stopped trying forceful measures and waited for Dumbledore to come up with something intellectual for him to try.

The ghostly old man was pacing back and forth mumbling to himself though. All Ron could hear him saying was the words, 'no way to beat it' and Ron realised that forceful approach was what Dumbledore had been counting on working. Ron stared around the kitchen. Yes he could see a little better now, the power was clearing his vision, and he saw that the kitchen was full of things that he could use to smash his way out with. He pointed his hand at the kitchen table and magically threw it at the barrier where it splintered into several pieces that he threw back at the barrier, splintering them further still.

"We need more than brute force Ronald, we need... we need..." Dumbledore was looking around the kitchen himself now and his eyes lit up as he shouted across to Ron to throw the floo powder at the breach and call out the spell to pass through solid objects.

Ron didn't know where his mum kept the spare floo powder so raised his hand and summoned it to him. A huge stone jar flew into his hand from beneath the kitchen sink and he hurled it at the barrier while bellowing the spell with his full force behind it.

"Permeo!"

The floo powder burst into an inferno of green flames that threw Ron against the barrier so hard that he bounced off it and hit the floor hard. Dumbledore was already thinking fast and Ron flipped back up to his feet as if he was just doing a roll on his broom during quiddich.

"Try to shatter it Ronald, wait no, we'll join forces."

Dumbledore ran to stand behind him and Ron once again felt the cold rods penetrating his back and the power within him swelling and rumbling and almost burning through his skin. He was pouring with sweat now and he and Dumbledore lifted his arms to rest on the barrier and shouted the spell with one voice.

"Perfringo!"

Dumbledore withdrew from him and Ron huffed and kicked at the barrier as it remained strong. He turned and saw that the old wizard was losing hope of being able to get them out in time to help Harry and Hermione and Ron felt his anger sear through him like a hot knife. He thrust his arms behind him to levitate whatever he could find and hurled it forward at the barrier where it bounced of or broke into smithereens on impact. He did this again and again and again until he felt some of the power draining away from his body and felt himself getting uncomfortably hot. He guessed that the fever was breaking.

There had to be some way to break the bond of blood. Ron looked down at the hoop around his arm and realised why Hermione had protested the idea so much. He had to get it off and he had to get it off now. He gripped it with his wand hand and growled as many spells he could think of to release him from the hoop's grip.

"Absisto! Reluctor! Expedio! Labour lapsus! Solvo! Depulso!"

Ron felt dizzy now and nothing had worked. Dumbledore was shaking his head.

"Stop Ronald, it's no use, they're on their own."

"No!" Ron said through gritted teeth as he scanned the kitchen and saw his mother's block of kitchen knives on the worktop. His eyes widened as he ran towards it and Dumbledore tried to block him.

"Ronald no, I forbid you to do this, Harry wouldn't want you to try to do this for him, I command you to stop!"

"You command?" Ron snarled under his breath while hurling his mother's entire dinner service at the wall behind him without even noticing he had done it, "You put me in a fucking coffin you can fuck off!"

Dumbledore reeled from Ron's rage.

"Ronald, you can beat the madness, please stay strong for me, for us all, for yourself! Don't do this."

A brilliant flash hit him with such force that he flew through the air and hit the wall. The kitchen blurred and disappeared and he heard Dumbledore's voice through the darkness.

"I could bring you back for the last ten minutes Ron but I think it's best if I leave you for tonight don't you?"

The world was sucked away from him and his skin burned while his bones felt as if they had been plunged into cold water. Then he didn't feel anything more.

"I feel like shit," Ron groaned as he turned over in his bed and opened his eyes a crack to see George staring at him intensely, "Did you not go to bed at all last night?" he mumbled.

George put his hand upon Ron forehead and Ron flinched away, not really out of a fear of being touched but out of confusion at his brother's out of character behaviour.

"You weren't very well last night mate, I think you're well out of it now though," George smiled with a relieved sigh as he sat on the edge of Ron's bed and looked down at him.

"Out of what?" Ron said as he winced, his head was killing him for some reason.

"You had a really bad fever in the middle of the night, had us all worried but it broke and now it's not there at all."

Ron sat up and put his hand to his temples, massaging slowly with his fingers, while blinking the sleep away from his eyes.

"I've got a headache."

George snorted.

"I'm not surprised."

"What d'you mean by tha..." Ron was in the middle of asking George to clarify his comment as he climbed out of his bed only to find himself thrown back into it with the familiar force of the bond of blood, "...whoa! Hermione's got me restricted to my bed. Why would she have done that?"

George jumped up to his feet and looked as if his mother was about to catch him doing something she didn't approve of.

"I'll go and fetch you a cuppa and something to eat, you're still doing that vegetarian thing yeah?"

Ron nodded with suspicion and watched as George ran out of the bedroom. He grunted as he stretched, his back felt as if he'd been hit with eight bludgers at the same time, he wondered if he had been visited during the night. Maybe that was why George had been so weird with him, he'd never really seen it yet, and Fred had always been the lucky one so far. Ron suddenly felt something shifting and shuddered for no reason. He tried to get off the bed again and found that he could. Maybe Hermione had been sleeping and subconsciously restricted him to his bed. He climbed out and walked with heavy footsteps to the bathroom to brush his teeth.

Ron looked at his reflection in the mirror and tried to work out if his face looked any different to when he had last looked at his reflection. He peered closer. He was definitely different but he couldn't work out how. Maybe it was the fever. Ron shook his head as he brought the toothbrush up to his mouth and began to clean his teeth. He remembered George commenting on him looking a bit ill before he went to bed now that he thought about it. He was never feeling one hundred percent these days but had put that down to all the sleepwalking. He spat and rinsed out his mouth while he wondered if this little overnight sickness would put an end to his permanent state of 'coming down with something'.

He left the bathroom and went back to his bedroom to get dressed. He was halfway into his jeans when he suddenly laughed out loud.

"Who needs that much floo powder in a big jar? Was she expecting a really fat man to show up and want to floo somewhere?" he asked himself before braying with laughter again.

He hopped up and down on one leg and wrestled the other leg into his jeans, pulling them up and buttoning them before suddenly stiffening.

What the hell was I just laughing about?

Ron rubbed his face firmly and shook his head to try and clear his mind. He was doing it again, that tangent thing. He felt suddenly horrible about the un-ignorable craziness in him coming out again.

He set off down the stairs to see where George was with his breakfast.

I've never seen a black hippogriff.

He heard voices coming from the living room and then more in the kitchen. How many people were at the Burrow for breakfast Ron asked himself.

Wait a minute, was I just thinking about hippogriffs?

Ron paused at the bottom of the stairs and shook his head again. This had to stop, he had to focus, he wasn't going mad. He wasn't going mad just yet anyway.

Ron walked past the living room door and let out a yawn before walking into the kitchen where his parents and Fred and George were brewing tea and making enough breakfast for seven people. Ron wondered if his mum sometimes forgot that most of her children had grown up and left home.

"I wonder why Hermione waited so long to let me get out of bed, d'you think she slept late or something?" Ron pondered aloud on seeing George spreading jam onto a piece of toast.

"Didn't you just see them?" Fred's amused voice snorted.

"See what?" Ron blinked.

"Harry and Hermione, they're in the living room you nit!" George laughed.

Ron ran back to the living room door and skidded to a halt when he saw Hermione sitting on the sofa with both her arms bandaged up and her clothes covered in dried blood.

How long was I out with this fever?

"Oh Merlin, what happened, did something go wrong?" he gasped.

Hermione looked at him as if she hadn't seen him in years and reached her arms out to him with a whimper of longing. Ron was suddenly dragged off of his feet, by a wind that seemed to pull rather than push, across the living room floor on his knees and into Hermione's waiting arms.

"Whoa!" Ron gasped as he recognised the sensation of the bond of blood being utilised again.

Hermione let him go as if she feared that her embrace was killing him.

"Oh God Ron, I'm so sorry!"

"No it's fine," he laughed in amazement at being hurled into her arms in such an undignified manner, "I'm not so bad about the touching anymore."

Hermione looked incredibly disgusted at herself for some reason.

"It's not that," she whimpered, "it's what I did, I hate these things! I don't care what your mother says I'm taking them off you now!"

What the hell is she talking about? Am I on a tangent again?

Hermione slipped the silver hoop off Ron's arm and did the same with her own.

"My mother?"

Hermione was hugging him close to her despite her horror over how she had got him to be at her side.

"Don't you get it Ron? I wanted to hold you and the second I thought it you were dragged into my arms on your knees. When this is over I want those hoops destroyed in the twins chest do you hear?"

Ron began to rub Hermione's back soothingly.

"It's ok Hermione, I don't mind really, it's alright as long as it's you doing it."

"It's never alright," she snapped as she pulled back from him to stare into his eyes, "I'm manipulating you to my own ends and it doesn't matter if you understand or you grant me permission, I'm just as bad as whoever's messing with you every night, and I wish you were angrier with both of us about that."

"You want me to be cross with you?" Ron frowned.

Was he listening to this conversation properly? He wondered if this was the insanity kicking in. He didn't know how long he'd been asleep, he couldn't remember having a fever, he didn't know what his own girlfriend was talking about and he was kind of scared that he didn't trust his own reflection in the mirror this morning.

"C'mon Hermione, give the poor bloke a break, he got stupefied last night," Fred's voice sounded from the doorway.

Ron glanced over his shoulder and then back at Hermione before doing a double take.

"I...What?"

Oh Godric I have gone crazy, I'd remember being stupefied.

"Sorry little bro," Fred spoke again, only this time he sounded a lot less amused, "I had no choice, you were kind of out of control."

Ron's eyes looked down from Fred and he flinched on seeing Harry lying on the sofa on the other side of the room, watching the proceedings in stunned silence.

"So, how long ago did this happen?"

"About eight hours ago," George said nonchalantly.

Ron stared at Harry.

"You two were only gone one day?"

So my time line isn't completely messed up.

"Yeah and look at the state we got ourselves in without you," Harry smiled.

"So I got struck down with a message while I was awake and you two had to fight of a whole magical forest and for what?" Ron frowned as he examined the figure in his hand, "It isn't even a horcrux."

"It's help," Harry said, "it's something to help us find horcruxes."

"How does it help though?" Hermione took the figurine from Ron and tapped it a few times with her wand, nothing happened, "It doesn't have any magical properties other than us using it as a portkey this morning."

Harry sighed.

"Maybe it's a message, who is St Nectan anyway?"

Ron was about to answer this when his brain made him think about St Jude and how he was all the more fitting to this quest. The patron saint of lost causes pretty much summed the situation up for Ron. He ran his fingers through his hair and tried to get the nursery rhyme 'oranges and lemons' to stop playing in his head over and over again.

"The patron stain of nectarines?" he sighed, partly to distract himself with a silly joke and partly because he had fruit on his mind.

Hermione had noticed that Ron was distracted by something as he tried to shake off this new tangent he was being sucked into and looked at him with concern.

"Ron why don't you go back to sleep? All that wandless magic last night must have taken a lot out of you. I'll put the hoop on just to be sure you don't go anywhere."

Here comes the night-light to light you to bed...

Ron shook his head in an effort to clear his mind and grinned at her.

...and here comes the chopper to chop off your head!

"No, it's alright, I'm fine. So St Nectan then, that sounds like research is called for," he nudged Hermione, "that sounds like your sort of thing."

Chip chop, chip chop...

Hermione forced a smile onto her face and nodded.

"Yes well I'm sure you two wouldn't mind helping me out would you?"

...fall down dead!

Harry looked at Ron with resignation and the two of them nodded their agreement to hit the books with her. Ron was getting up to follow them out the door when he accidentally told himself off out loud.

"Stop it!" he had hissed to his wandering thoughts.

"Stop what?" Harry frowned as he turned back to look at Ron with worry.

"What?" he asked, a blank expression on his face, "Did I say something?"

Ron was curled up inside the tiny box full of broken chess pieces watching the game progress above him. St Nectan, Ron recognised him fro his figurine, was playing against St Jude, who looked like Dumbledore for some reason. St Jude was losing, obviously otherwise he wouldn't have been living up to his reputation, and his pieces were being tossed into the box on top of Ron.

Pawns, rooks, bishops fell upon him in heavy chunks. He was being buried in them and was trying to shove them off of him to climb out and back to the top of the pile to watch the rest of the game when St Jude's knight was taken. The broken horseman plummeted down and hit Ron on the chest. Ron was winded and struggled to push the knight off of him but he and the horse were too heavy and the game was now over. St Nectan was victorious, he and St Jude shook hands over the board and the rest of the pieces were tossed into the box on top of Ron and the crushing knight.

His chest felt as if it was caving in, he couldn't lift his rib cage enough to pull what little air was around him into his lungs, and he saw St Jude closing the lid on the box above him, plunging him into total darkness. He was getting frantic now and gasping for breath while he felt the bodies around him begin to liquefy and stink. They smelt just like Black's decayed flesh in the coffin and without another thought Ron realised he was back in there, the earth collapsing in on top of him and no wand to blast his way out.

Ron gasped, his eyes flew open and he felt a hand on his face that he smacked away as he sat up, and panted heavily.

"I can't breathe!" he shuddered.

Ron looked around at Harry and Hermione's distressed faces as the leaned over a pile of weighty books to see if he was all right. He tried to calm himself down when he realised that he had been dreaming again and took several deep breaths. It was then that he realised that hand was almost certainly Hermione's and he felt sickened to think that he had just struck out at her. He took her hand and squeezed it tightly.

"Sorry about that, I didn't hit you did I?" he asked breathlessly.

She smiled and squeezed his hand back.

"No you just made me jump a bit that's all. Are you ok?"

Ron smiled and his breathing slowly began to even out.

"Yeah fine, it's just the claustrophobia again, it's getting better though isn't it?" he attempted to give them a reassuring smile as he lied, he wasn't sure how well he was covering up his deterioration.

Harry and Hermione glanced at each other for a moment before smiling at him encouragingly.

Good, they bought it.

"Yes, much better."

Ron felt himself shudder before he pulled the book he had been sleeping on back towards him and tried to force the feeling of the walls moving in on him unnoticeable slowly out of his head.

"So Hermione was just telling me that she found something weren't you Hermione?" Harry said, nodding at Hermione to tell him her news.

"Oh yes!" she suddenly sprung into action and read aloud from her book while Ron and Harry listened with interest, "St Nectan was originally from Wales, which probably explains why we found his icon in a Welsh forest, and moved down to the west of England where he became one of the most celebrated saints in the region."

"Yeah but celebrated for what? I can't find that the guy actually did anything," Harry grumbled as he closed his book with annoyance.

"Well he did settle at a valley in Hartland point and created a never ending spring there. Creating eternal fresh water is something of an achievement don't you think?"

"Creating eternal butterbeer would be a better one," Ron snorted, he could really do with a drink right now.

Harry sniggered and Hermione rolled her eyes and carried on.

"He tended to the needs of the poor, mostly muggles but he did a lot of good in the wizarding community too. He sounds like a quiet peaceful man who kept himself to himself despite having an awesome amount of power. He wielded it but it didn't seem to have any negative affect on him."

"So what are you saying?" Harry frowned.

"I'm just telling you what's written down here," she huffed, "so it goes on to say that he had two cows stolen from him and he was beheaded while in the process of retrieving them."

Chip chop, chip chop...Stop it!

"They chopped his head off because he wanted his cows back?" Ron said as he tried to ignore the nursery rhyme picking up in his head again and tried to look as if he found the story amusing.

"Hold on, if he was so powerful how on earth did they manage to chop his head off in the first place?"

Hermione rolled her eyes.

"He's a magical martyr Harry, he did it for a greater good."

Ron cursed under his breath as a deja vu threatened to come back to him and then wafted away with as much vagueness as it had come.

"Oh not the greater bloody good again, I've had enough of that to last me a lifetime," he muttered with annoyance.

Hermione smiled at him sadly and pushed her book in front of him.

"But it says here that legend has it Nectan picked up his severed head and returned home to his chapel."

Ron blinked at her and looked to Harry before trying to understand what Hermione was finding so informative about this.

"So he's the patron saint of headless people is he? Nick will be pleased."

Harry chuckled before shrugging at Hermione to let her know that this had passed him by as well.

"Oh you two can be so literal. Of course he didn't pick up his head and go home, that's not possible, it's a metaphor isn't it?"

I'm going crazy Hermione, just do me a favour and talk like a normal person will you?

"Is it?" he grunted.

Hermione seemed to be grinning and not the least bit annoyed at Ron's grumpy demeanour.

"Let her finish," Harry said, nodding for Hermione to continue.

"He didn't lose his head, even when they chopped it off, that's the metaphor. A powerful wizard who didn't lose his head Ron."

She threw Ron a meaningful look and he shrugged, all this talk of chopping off heads wasn't doing anything to get rid of those bloody sing song voices in his head.

"Think about it," she huffed as she took Ron's hand in both of hers and looked him in the eyes, "he was really powerful but there are no stories about his power, no demonstrations or legends about his deeds during his life. Why did he become a saint if there was nothing more to him than his creation of a spring and the fact that someone stole his cows?"

Ron turned to Harry with exasperation.

"Am I really that slow or are you not following this either?"

Harry shushed him and leaned across the table, eager for Hermione to continue.

"He was very powerful but for some reason his power had to be kept a secret, sound familiar Ron?"

No way!

"He was an oracle?" Ron gasped, eyes wide with hope for his situation.

"Make sense doesn't it?" Harry nodded, "So what are you thinking Hermione?"

Hermione took a deep breath in before laying it on the line.

"I think that Ron's night time companion is on his side just as much as yours Harry."

Ron snorted and Harry almost jumped out of his chair with his eagerness to refute this crazy theory.

"How can you say that after what they did to him Hermione, you said yourself that they were just using him and didn't care if he got hurt along the way as long as he got the job done."

Ron looked at Hermione in shock.

"You said that?"

"Listen," Hermione raised her hands to silence them both, "This wasn't a horcrux, this wasn't even a clue to the whereabouts of a horcrux, this was a six inch high icon of an oracle...who kept...his head."

She said the last sentence with such emphasis on every word that there was no way she could be misunderstood.

"An oracle that didn't lose his mind?" Harry said, seeming to try and stifle his optimism.

Hermione nodded victoriously. Ron swallowed and looked at the figurine.

"So what you're saying is..." he began.

"What I'm saying Ron is that the message, the viator spell, that wasn't for Harry at all. It was for you."

"They're trying to help you, they know that they're d...damaging you and they're trying to keep you sane," Harry's hesitation had caused Ron to look away from both of them.

Had they both noticed? Were they both humouring him? Was it that obvious?

"So how does knowing that this guy didn't go mad help me?" Ron said, refusing to get his hopes up about this theory.

Hermione cupped Ron's face in her hands and beamed.

"That's what we're going to find out."

Harry rushed out of the room to tell the twins the good news and Hermione's hands fell away from Ron's face as she realised that he wasn't exactly jumping for joy about this.

"I think we can stop this before it even starts Ron, this is really promising news, and I wish you were happier about it."

Ron forced a smile onto his face.

"Of course I am, we did it, we found a way to stop it. Everything's going to be ok."

Hermione looked about as convinced as Ron himself had when Hagrid told him that Aragog thought of him quite fondly. She took his hand and stroked the back of his hand while staring up into his eyes with that 'you are going to talk to me whether you like it or not' look on her face.

"We were gone for a day and you're much better about being touched aren't you? You said so yourself and you didn't deteriorate so we're way off having to worry about that aren't we?" Ron nodded and Hermione shuffled her chair around the table to sit right beside him now, "You're not getting any worse since I last saw you, you're getting so much better and all the facts we know from your mother tell us that you should be getting worse with every consecutive visit and you're doing the exact opposite of that. You seem to be pulling yourself together and getting stronger don't you?"

Ron cleared his throat and nodded at her with a relaxed smile, he had done it; he had convinced her he was ok. He leaned forward and kissed her on the cheek. She had closed her eyes as he did and they remained closed until some time after he had pulled back again. He rested his hand on the side of her face with concern.

"Hermione?"

Her eyes opened and he knew she had him, he knew she wasn't fooled at all.

"It's all a lie isn't it Ron?"

He dropped his hand into his lap and his head followed its path so he didn't have to look into her accusing eyes. He didn't respond to her question.

"You're not getting better at all are you? You're just getting better at covering it up. You're becoming a better liar," her voice sounded hurt and broken.

"I..." Ron began before realising that he had nothing to say.

Hermione lifted his chin and forced him to look at her. He did so with a gulp.

"We'll keep up the act for Harry if you like, I don't think he's noticed, but don't you dare hide this from me Ron. I won't let you go through this alone do you hear?"

He nodded and glanced around the table to put away the mess he had made earlier on.

"What are you looking for?" Hermione frowned at him as he searched around the table in confusion.

"The chess pieces," Ron said as he furrowed his brow and wondered where the chess set he had just been occupied with had gone to.

"We weren't playing chess Ron," Hermione said with a hollow sounding voice and fearful eyes.

Ron suddenly remembered his dream and stiffened with fear that he couldn't differentiate his sleep state from reality any more.

"Ah, no we weren't."

Hermione looked at him with more determination and intimidation that his mother had ever managed to muster in all her years of dealing with secretive Weasleys.

"Right, you're telling me everything."

Chapter Fourteen - Clouding You Mind

Ron was grateful to get out of the Burrow after the uncomfortable scene his mother had caused. She was always over-protective but after all of Ron's troubles she was now on the verge of re attaching the umbilical chord. He knew that she had a point about camping not being the best thing for him as he was still recovering from that nasty fever but he also knew that the Burrow was feeling smaller and smaller with every night longer he spent there.

Harry and Hermione were bringing him to St Nectan's Glen to try and find out how to stop the inevitable insanity. Hermione was now in the loop as far as the occasional tangent moment went, she had scolded Ron for not telling her as soon as the 'chip chop' stuff had started, what with her being the person who had been going on non-stop about beheading but other than that her mind seemed to have been put at rest. Her determination that the tangents were the worst things he was going to have to deal with had given him hope as he faced his mother and told her they were leaving immediately.

"Oh wow!" Harry gasped.

The hill they had been climbing up had suddenly dropped away and plunged downward to reveal a deep valley. Thundering down to the bottom was a sixty foot waterfall that was partially framed by a natural arch made from the same stone as the surrounding rock face and the white foam at the bottom dissipated into a rippling pool of deep blue water that filled all but the very edges of the valley below. Ron began to climb down, he had the most experience with this sort of thing as Charlie had bee quite the adventurer even as a teenager and had taken Ron climbing many times unbeknownst to his mother of course.

Hermione was removing her back pack while Harry marvelled at the amazing wizard-made sight beneath him. Ron had instructed them to take of their back packs and levitate them down to him before climbing down themselves. Ron would be comfortably on the ledge by then and able to cover them with his wand to catch them if they fell.

"There's no way this is the eternal source of water you were talking about is it Hermione?" Harry asked his awestruck friend as she started to climb down after Ron.

"Why not?" she smiled as she was overtaken by her backpack as Harry levitated it down into Ron's waiting arms, followed by his own.

"Because when you were talking about a never ending spring I pictured a little trickle of water spurting out of the ground not a sixty foot waterfall!" Ron chuckled.

Ron watched as Hermione, edging along to a kinder climbing surface, glanced down to be sure that he was ready to help her down when she got close enough to him. She lowered herself a little closer to and called over her shoulder to him.

"I told you he was a powerful wizard didn't I?"

Ron got into position beneath her and nodded that she was ok to drop into his arms whenever she was ready at the same time Harry began his own descent.

"I can't jump!" she said, slightly flustered.

"Well you're gonna have to climb down a little bit further than aren't you? 'Cause I may be tall but I can't reach that far up to lift you down."

She gave a huff and eased herself down a little more. Ron managed to curl his arms around her waist and lift her down onto the ledge. As he lowered her down to set her feet on the rock she breathed into Ron's ear.

"When did you get so strong?"

"I didn't, you weigh like an ounce!" he teased as she rolled her eyes and tried not to grin to widely back at him, "Alright then an ounce and a half, too much more meat on you and we'll have to start calling you porky."

She slapped him on the arm and was about to tell him how amusing she didn't find him when her face suddenly registered panic.

"What is it?" Ron asked, fearfully, "What did I do now?"

"Nothing, it was me," Hermione said as she gently stroked his arm where she had just playfully smacked him, "I...I just hit you. I'm so sorry."

Ron's eyes were wide with disbelief before he broke into laughter and shook his head.

"You call that a hit?"

Hermione looked relieved but still quite annoyed with herself at forgetting that Ron had only just recovered the ability to touch people.

"Seriously Ron are you sure...?"

Ron took her hands in his and lowered his head to look her in the eye.

"I told you, when I'm not ok you'll be the first to know, no more secrets."

She smiled a real smile at him this time and Ron looked back up to see that Harry was almost down as well.

"I can't believe he made this," Ron called up to him before helping Harry down.

"I know," Harry said, sounding impressed, "and to think he was worried about a couple of missing cows!"

They laughed and Hermione rolled her eyes and picked her backpack off the ground and hoisted it back onto her shoulders.

"Look, I can see a great place to set up camp for the night," Hermione said as she pointed to a narrow cavern in the rock face.

Ron hoped that their shelter for the night wasn't too cramped otherwise he'd have to sleep outside. Harry seemed to be reading his mind so he tried to alleviate his concern with a shrug of resignation.

"Oh good, another cave," he groaned to his friend before following after Hermione.

She strode inside and kindled a small fire to light up the cave as Harry heaved his backpack off his shoulders with a moan and stretched out his tired limbs. Ron bit his lip and peered in from outside. It didn't look very big in there. He looked up to see how high the roof of the cavern went, and struggled to see how stable it was, what if something fell on him during the night? There were too many corners for spiders and all sorts of things that wanted to nest inside his...

"Ron, its ok mate breathe for me," Harry was saying urgently.

"What?" Ron wheezed as he realised that he was gasping for air.

Harry gripped him by the shoulders and looked him in the eyes confidently.

"Close your eyes, you're on your broom remember?"

Ron did as he was told and he nodded as he heaved a hoarse breath in and shuddered it back out rather too quickly.

"You're in the open, you're flying, the ground is miles below and nothing can touch you alright? Nothing can touch you up there."

Ron nodded again and coughed before opening his eyes, his breathing beginning to even out some more now.

"Thanks," he said to Harry who was still staring at him intently.

"I can't believe I just did that," Hermione was saying as she wrung her hands at his side, "I'm so sorry, I just walked right in and expected you to be able to spend the night here. I am such an idiot."

"Hermione he doesn't need this right now," Harry said calmly.

Ron wondered how Harry could keep so calm.

"We'll find somewhere else to camp, don't worry about it mate, its fine."

"No," Ron said, almost surprising himself as he did, "I can do this; I want to try at least."

He looked back into the cave and up at the dark roof. He was sick of this. He'd be fine as long as he could see the way out. He would be able to lay his sleeping bag so he could see outside at all times. It would be ok as long as he didn't go in too deep.

"Ron you've got enough on your plate," Hermione said anxiously, "please don't force this before you're ready."

"Let him try if he wants to Hermione," Harry said, always the one with more faith then sense.

"Ron," Hermione huffed after throwing an annoyed glance at Harry, "we both know that you and denial are a dangerous combination."

Ron found himself laughing at this and Harry seemed to relax too.

"I just want to sit a couple of feet inside and see how I do. It's an empty cave Hermione, of all the things I'm now scared of I will not be scared of that."

He expected a protest from her but she broke into a smile and took his hand. She led him inside and they sat just within the mouth of the cave together while Harry grinned at her and began to settle in for the night. Ron looked out at the wide pool and the distant waterfall; he could concentrate on the open space and keep himself calm. It was fifteen minutes before he turned to Hermione and offered to go further inside to start preparing dinner.

"We'll get the hoops on as soon as I'm done making sure there's nothing you can use to cut yourself with in here," Hermione said, matter-of-factly, "I don't want to wake up in the morning to find you missing a limb."

Ron grinned mischievously.

"Oh come on Hermione, I don't know why you're fussing about last night so much, I was arm-less!"

Harry was laughing while Hermione grumbled under her breath to herself. He and Harry had been trying to keep Ron's mind off the darkness falling outside with lots of silly jokes and childish behaviour that made Hermione quite annoyed with them but seemed to do the trick claustrophobia-wise. On seeing Hermione's latest disgruntled huff Ron lowered his head and muttered to Harry.

"Oh I'm in trouble now."

"Well if you do insist upon bringing 'the missus' everywhere you go..." Harry teased his friend.

Ron stared at Harry for a moment before breaking into an smile of embarrassment.

"So you two have been talking behind my back as well then eh?"

Harry smirked.

"Well you two have been doing a hell of a lot more than talking behind mine haven't you?"

Ron's ears flushed pink and he turned away to straighten out his sleeping bag on the hard ground.

"Shut up Harry," he mumbled.

Harry chuckled and then seemed to remember that Ron had done something that annoyed him greatly.

"Oh yeah, I forgot there was something I had to do to you," he said sternly.

"What's that then?"

"This," Harry punched Ron hard in the arm.

"Ouch! What was that for?" he exclaimed, rubbing his numb arm.

"I heard about your little chat with Hermione, the one where you told her not to make a big fuss about the two of you being together because it would be harder on her when she had to put you away with Lockheart and Neville's parents in St Mungo's," Ron looked away guiltily, "that's right you prat you should be ashamed of yourself."

Ron took a deep breath before meeting Harry's eyes again, of all people he would've thought that he would understand the need to protect the woman you love.

"Wouldn't you have done the same thing if it was Ginny?"

Harry was the one to look away this time as he turned to his own sleeping bag and began to fuss with it.

"Well never mind all of that now," Harry mumbled under his breath, "you're not going to go crazy, we're going to fix that when we find out how St Nectan did it, so this entire conversation is redundant isn't it?"

Ron snorted with amusement.

"It's funny how when I back down during an argument you and Hermione claim to have won it but when either of you back down the conversation suddenly becomes redundant."

The chuckles and the teasing continued until Ron offered Harry a nightcap and Harry revealed that he had no plans to sleep that night.

"Ron-watch is still in action then is it?" he asked glumly.

Harry nodded and shrugged.

"It's not that we don't trust you mate, I think you won't be half as bad now that we're all together again, but I do think that one of us should really stay up until you've said your piece. I mean come on Ron, you and I both know you'll probably have something to say tonight and if me and Hermione are both asleep you'd have had another consecutive night of it for nothing."

Ron was about to protest Harry's sleep starvation tactic when his mind suddenly went blank and he looked down at the ground. He was going to do something really important but now he couldn't remember it at all. Was it really that important then? It couldn't have been if it was so easily forgotten. He shrugged to himself and looked up to see Harry staring at him expectantly. Had Ron just been asked a question? What had they just been talking about anyway?

Harry leaned forward and put his hand to Ron's forehead. Ron pulled away and wondered if he had just said something strange again.

"What are you doing? Are you my friend or my mother?" he snapped at Harry.

Harry laughed as he turned to Hermione.

"He really is feverish if he can't tell me and Mrs Weasley apart."

"Honestly though, that woman, I think she just makes stuff up to worry about. It's as if she doesn't know what to do with herself if there's nothing to fret over so she just creates problems."

"Oh come on, all mothers are like that," Hermione was smiling too as she crawled into her sleeping bag.

"Yeah but my mother is a mother seven times over with no kids at home to focus all that extra strength worry on," Ron said as he too wriggled into his sleeping bag, "so the second any one of us walks through that door, or the fireplace, she's on us like a middle aged witch on Lockheart!" Harry howled with laughter at Ron's rant, "If she's not putting a forkful of food in your mouth she's putting a thermometer in there."

"Be thankful she take temperatures orally Ronald, you wouldn't want her to get confused and put that fork anywhere else," Hermione said as if she wasn't being the least bit coarse at all.

Harry began to choke with laughter now. Ron settled down into his sleeping bag and rolled his eyes.

"I'm only away from you two one day and you're starting on me already," he grumbled while Harry and Hermione chuckled, "I don't know who you're going to pick on when I'm not around anymore."

Ron smiled at them, waiting for the double comeback in their three-way game of banter tennis but Harry and Hermione weren't laughing anymore. Harry was just staring at him and Hermione had given a shudder before her eyes reddened and welled up. Ron suddenly realised what he'd said and sat up on his elbows.

"I didn't mean it like that, it's a figure of speech!" he said quickly.

Hermione got back out of her sleeping bag and ran to the mouth of the cave in tears.

Shit, I am such an idiot!

Ron was about to get out of his sleeping bag to go after her when a solid wall of wind threw him bodily down onto his back and held him there. Ron might have got a little anxious about being pinned down in such a constrictive way if he hadn't been distracted with recovering from the winding he'd just been given in the process. Harry looked alarmed and couldn't seem to understand what had just happened to Ron so he nodded to the hoop around his upper arm.

"Great, so she can keep me away from her as well as dragging me across hot coals for a cuddle," he tried not to be angry at her for being so careless with him in his semi claustrophobic state, "it's funny how she doesn't want to abuse the power until it comes to her storming off in a huff isn't it?"

"I don't think she did it on purpose, she probably just thought that she didn't want you to see her crying and bam, you're on your back," Harry said with a frown and a shrug.

Ron rolled his eyes and shook his head. He was all for giving Hermione her space to cry in private but he would kind of appreciate his own space back before he started breathing like his family's, now asthmatic, owl Errol.

"Well could you maybe go and ask her to give me a couple of inches more so I can at least turn over?"

Harry nodded and went outside. Ron could only pick up snippets of their conversation.

"...Ron was asking if you could maybe let him move a little, you really threw him down hard you know."

"Those bloody hoops! They're driving me up the wall. I didn't hurt him did I?"

"No, he just can't move, he asked if you could give him a couple more inches breathing space that's all."

Ron suddenly felt the invisible pressure lift and closed his eyes for s few seconds to picture that broomstick ride out in the open, over the fields of the Burrow, and in the brilliant never-ending sunshine. He wasn't in a dark cave with a girlfriend who had the power to crush him to death on a whim. He was free and flying and...

"I know he didn't mean it, tell him I know he didn't mean it, I'm just being over-sensitive that's all."

"Ok."

"And Harry, could you put him to sleep before I come back in? I...I just can't..."

Ron turned over onto his side and looked into the fire, maybe it was for the best if they just shut him up for the night, he didn't have a clue what he was and wasn't saying half the time. He heard Harry stepping back inside but didn't turn his head. He sat back down on his sleeping bag, took a sip of his coffee and pulled out his wand.

"Um Ron I..." he began.

"I heard," Ron sighed with resignation and tried to settle into a comfortable position, "go ahead then."

Harry tried to give him a reassuring smile but Ron knew that he wasn't going to go to sleep in the right state of mind for a peaceful night's sleep. He'd be in for another rough night, they both were.

"Night mate, obdormio!"

The cave was crumbling and he couldn't get out of his sleeping bag. He couldn't move to run and the rocks were falling down; large ones, small ones, dust and grit; it was all cascading down from the blackness above him and all he could do was lay there and wait to be buried by it.

"Hermione please!" he yelled out to her but she, just like Harry, slept soundly through the deafening cave-in.

A lump of rock hit him in the chest and he felt the air leave his lungs and not come back. The roof was tumbling down at an alarming rate now; he could see the ceiling getting lower and lower, and closer and closer to him. The whole rock face was going to crush him if she didn't wake up and release him from the bond of blood.

"Hermione let me go you're killing me!" he barely managed to gasp through his empty lungs.

The ceiling was almost upon him now and more large heavy rocks slammed into his body. This was it, this was the end.

"It's crushing me!" he panted as he sat bolt upright in the cave, clutching his chest and struggling for breath.

"...nightmare Ron," Harry was saying as he forced Ron to focus on him again, "it's just the same old nightmare ok? It's nothing that can hurt you, there's nothing that can crush you, and Hermione's right here and she's looking after you alright?"

Ron frowned, how did Harry know what that had been about? Had he really been shouting? He turned to try and reassure Hermione that he knew she wouldn't let him get crushed but no sooner had he caught a glimpse of her tear streaked face then Harry was grabbing his jaw and turning his head to make him look back into his determined green eyes again.

"I couldn't move," Ron heaved a laboured breath in as he spoke and Harry shook his head to get him to keep quiet.

"No talking, just breathing ok? I want you to close your eyes and get on that broom and fly with me ok? We're flying and there's nothing above you, nothing around you, it's all just space. Space and air, can you feel it Ron?"

Ron took a deep breath in and let it back out smoothly, he nodded and took another long breath in and out before opening his eyes.

"No keep 'em closed for me," Harry said and Ron complied," just keep doing what you're doing and lay back down for me alright? That's it, just keep breathing."

When he had eventually calmed down sufficiently Harry said something about putting him back to sleep and Ron's eyes shot open and he sat up.

"Wait," he said as he turned onto his side.

"No Ron, don't get yourself upset again, you've got to get back to sleep now ok?" Harry said calmly.

"I know, I will," Ron nodded before reaching out for some water, "it's just my throat."

He drank a whole cupful before telling Harry he was ready and laying back down to be sent to sleep again. Just before Harry hit him with the spell he looked across to Hermione, she was still looking devastated.

"Goodnight," he tried to smile to her.

"Goodnight Ron."

Sleep hit him again before he even realised Harry had lifted his wand.

There were grey shadows everywhere. He was surrounded on all sides and they were closing in on him. With alarming speed one of them burst forth from the crowd and grabbed him roughly and shook him, she had thin hair and a burned face and was pleading with him to let her take him to her daughter's home to see her grandchildren.

"Maybe I could just take your body for an hour or two so I could hold the little ones, half an hour."

Ron shoved her away and backed into eight pairs of hands all grabbing at him and making demands of him. Their lives had been ripped from them and it was unfair, it wasn't their time, they had unfinished business, they had mouths to feed, they had revenge on their minds and he had the gift. He tried to back away from them but he only found more clawing hands behind him and demands for his help.

"You can bring me back, all I ask is one evening, one night..."

"Twenty four, what kind of age is that to leave a widow with three children alone in the world? Let me find her, let me see my wife and tell her I love her."

"You have a life and all I need is one night you selfish little blood traitor, give me my life back!" a wiry looking wizard with a strong accent and a tight grip shook him and Ron squirmed to get away while the other faceless grey shapes closed in on him and he felt his throat closing up.

A hand grabbed him and pulled him away from the crowd, dragging him into a corner.

"Don't listen to them Ron, I know you and you know me," it was Sirius, he was pushing him into the wall and his eyes looked wide with frenzied excitement, "you know Harry wants me back don't you? We could share your life, your body, it's only fair. It's not fair that he doesn't have me. It isn't fair Ron!"

Sirius shook him, slamming him against the wall as he made his point.

"He doesn't have anybody and you can bring me back. Don't you want to give him back his family?"

Ron opened his mouth to try to explain to Sirius that he couldn't do it, he was going mad and Harry wouldn't believe it was really Sirius anyway, and the grey figure of the man he once knew began to dig his fingers deep into his shoulders. This couldn't really be Sirius, he would never ask that of him, and how would he have known about Ron to seek him out anyway? How did all these spirits know about him? Did everybody know now?

Arms tore Ron away from Sirius' arms and a screaming old woman knocked him to the ground and tried to force her spirit inside him, beating on his chest with her claw like fists.

"I can change the world boy, I can save them all and you'd keep me out just to get a peaceful night's sleep? You spiteful..." she pounded, "...little..." and again, "...son of a..." and with her final punch she broke through, "...whoare!"

Ron felt his bones break and his skin tear as the old hag thrust her hands into his chest and clawed at his lungs, his heart, everything that was now burning with pain inside of him. A huge man with lots of hair and the dark mark burning brightly on his arm threw the woman aside and tore into Ron's chest himself.

"I'm going to go back and kill them all, I'll kill them all and leave the blood traitor to pay my penance with the dementors. I'll finish the bloody job!"

More hands plunged into his open chest and tried to force their way into his body. Ron writhed and struggled but there were too many hands now, too many grey figures who all wanted an oracle of their very own, too many voices demanding their life back. It was their turn, he was denying them their right, and he was just as much a murderer as Voldemort. He was the destroyer of lives but Ron was the destroyer of souls. Too many hands inside him now, too many screams of pain and desire and fury and not enough room.

The hands gripped his lungs and his heart and squeezed, there was nothing he could do, there was no way to breathe, there was no way to move, there was no way to fight back. Something burned inside his chest and he saw his lungs ripped from his body. He was empty, he was airless, and he was dying.

Thank Godric, he was dying, it could end now. It would all end.

Ron's eyes flew open and he saw Harry leaning over him as white as a sheet. He couldn't breathe, there was nothing to breathe with, he coughed and wheezed as Harry's voice drifted in and out of clarity. The cave was spinning and everything was going black again.

"Please Ron no, don't do this to me, please don't do this. Come on breathe, you've got to breathe in Ron, you're going blue. What's wrong with you, why can't you do this? Why aren't you calming down yet?"

The coughs hurt him but they just kept coming, it was as if he was coughing up his own lungs, they were stuck in his throat and he couldn't dislodge them. Harry couldn't help him. He was dying. This wasn't a dream and he was really dying.

"Corroboro spiritus!" Harry yelled at him uncertainly and a whoosh of cold air forced its way into his lungs and Ron sat up and sputtered, gasping for more of the same, "Oh thank Godric, you scared the shit out of me."

Harry almost sounded as weak as he felt. Ron pulled some more air into his body and choked it back out again. He soon felt Harry's hand rubbing his back and murmuring things about flying and being out in the open but Ron couldn't think about anything other than breathing right now.

"Harry what was that?" Hermione's quivering voice was asking.

"He hyperventilated while he was asleep, he almost stopped breathing entirely," Harry said in shock, "I thought for a second...I couldn't get him back."

Ron took several more breaths in and the coughing lessened with the exhalation of each one until he was just left with an audible wheeze on every intake of breath.

"Mate I really think we should get you some dreamless sleep draught in future, this is getting to be too much now," Harry said, still seeming to be in shock at the severity of this nightmare on Ron's physical wellbeing.

Ron nodded and kept breathing until the wheeze died down completely before looking up at Harry.

"Ask the twins, that stuff they gave me before was pretty good."

He was now coming back to himself, the oxygen returning to his brain in the proper amounts, and he looked across to Hermione. She looked as if he really had just died right in front of her. What do you say to a person when you've just self induced your own suffocation in your sleep?

"Sorry to wake you."

She smiled at him through her devastation.

"Don't worry, its fine, as long as you're ok."

"That was really real," Ron frowned to her.

"You're telling me," Harry said with a shake of the head.

Ron lay back down again, he coughed again but only to clear his throat, and closed his eyes to practice Harry's flying technique to calm him down again. He had just began to picture himself flying over the ocean when a bright blue light hit him and he was drawn back into the darkness of sleep.

He was awake, it was morning and he staggered out of his bed and across the landing to the bathroom. He could smell his mother's cooking downstairs and he could hear Ginny laughing somewhere. He locked the bathroom door and walked over to the mirror to see if he needed to shave this morning.

He flinched, he wasn't looking at his reflection, it was a broad shouldered man with short black hair peppered with flecks of grey and a round shiny face, and he didn't know who it was. He forced his eyes closed and shook his head, opening them again and jumping back as he saw a different face looking back at him. It wasn't the first one but it still wasn't his. He waved his hand in front of the mirror and saw the olive skinned brown haired man with the jagged scar across his cheek waving back. He swallowed and the man suddenly jumped forward and slammed both palms against the mirror, growling at him.

He jumped backwards and fell onto the floor. When he scrambled back to his feet he saw that the face had changed again. This was a man with leathery skin and two white eyes grinning at him.

"Who are you?" he asked the reflection that wasn't.

The man smiled and revealed a row of crooked black teeth.

"Surely the question is who are you? I am reflecting what is right in front of me after all."

He grabbed the door handle and pulled, it wouldn't open, and he glanced back to the mirror and saw a wildly cackling woman with curly blonde hair and purple lips.

"You locked it silly Billy, your name is Billy isn't it? Or are you Fred? Which one of them are you I get awfully confused with all you little Weasleys. You all look the same to me."

He unlocked the door and ran out of the bathroom to find rows upon rows of doors lining the hallway. They all had different name plates on them.

Bill, Charlie, Percy, Fred, George, Bill, Charlie, Percy, Fred, George, Bill...

He looked at the names. Which one was his? Who was he? Who were all the others? He turned and ran back into the bathroom but found himself in the kitchen. He knew who the woman was, she was his mother, and she looked up at him and smiled.

"There you are I was wondering when I would see you this morning, sit down and have some breakfast dear you're wasting away."

"Mum," he said hesitantly, "what's my name?"

His mother blinked and looked to one side thoughtfully before shrugging and giving him a merry chuckle.

"Do you know I can't recall? There are so many of you. Are you the dragon one?"

He staggered back into the wall behind him, what was she talking about?

"What, what dragon one?"

"You're too homely to be the pretty one, of course now he's the scarred one isn't he? Or is that Harry? We can't have two scarred ones that'll just confuse me even more," she threw back her head and let out a jolly laugh.

"Mum?" he pleaded, desperate to find out his identity.

"You're not the girl are you? There's only one of those so I can't get confused about that one," she said jovially before turning back to do the washing up.

"Maybe he's the traitor Molly," his father said as he strolled into the kitchen rubbing his hands together.

"No," he said, feeling dizzy, "I don't...I can't be."

"Where's the other one?" his mother said as she spun around away from the sink with her eyes alight, "If there's another one just like you then you're a twin!"

His father slapped him on the back and seemed delighted.

"There you go; you're a twin, problem solved."

He shook his head and sank down the wall.

"No I can't be I must be another one, what's the other one?"

His parents snorted and broke into laughter.

"Oh my dear sweet boy there aren't any others," his mother chuckled.

"Well who am I then?"

Something dragged him towards the front door and threw him out. He saw eight people with red hair and freckles all staring out at him from the house, a crooked house, and two identical red haired men stood over him and shrugged.

"You're not one of them, you're just like us."

"And who are you?"

One of the men bent over him and stared at him with wide eyes.

"If you don't know then it's got you already."

Ron sat up and felt himself shaking and crying his heart out. Somebody was holding him and rocking him back and forth.

"It's already happened," he sobbed, "I've lost it, I'm lost, I've gone."

"You're here with me," Hermione's voice was shushing him and rubbing small circles on his back as she continued rocking him, "it was just a nightmare Ron. Just let it all out ok? You're trying to hold all the fear inside and it's hurting you. You've got to let it all go."

Ron held her tightly and cried from the very depths of his gut. He cried so hard that it made his head hurt and his chest ache. Still she kept on rocking him and soothing his pain.

"I've lost myself; I'm fading away to nothing. I'm disappearing Hermione!"

"No you're not, you're right here and I won't let you go anywhere. You can't go anywhere without me and I won't let you go, I won't ever let you go; now stop dwelling on silly thoughts like that. It's the madness trying to get to you again isn't it? But you're too strong for it. You're too stubborn to give in to that stupid little thing in your brain aren't you?"

Ron heaved a deep sigh and nodded into her shoulder. He sniffed and held her tightly to him.

"Nothing can erase who you are Ronald Weasley, you're indelible."

He laughed; it turned into another brief period of sobbing before he shook it off, and pulled away from her to wipe his eyes with his sleeve.

"It's getting so hard Hermione, they're getting too real and painful and...my mind's being wiped while I sleep I can feel it."

"They're nightmares Ron, it hasn't started happening yet and we're going to put a stop to it before it does remember?"

Ron nodded his head again, she was right, he was just tired and not thinking straight that was all. He wondered how much his nightmares were affecting the people on the outside watching them. He remembered the look on his brother's face when he had woken from a suffocation nightmare and laughed weakly.

"I scared the shite out of George last night, he was leaning right over me when I woke up and I totally lost it. He was almost as shaken-up as I was."

He had actually taken a swing at him, for the second time in his life he had tried to attack George in his sleep, and Ron wondered why his brother was always the kinder of the two twins when he was always on the receiving end of such appalling treatment from him. He gave a sniff and a shudder and Hermione shushed him and kissed the side of his head through his hair.

"It alright to take your time getting over this Ron, nobody's hurrying you, we just want you to learn to deal with all of this in your own time ok?"

Ron took a deep breath in and let it out again slowly. He looked up sadly at the woman whose life he was ruining.

"Bet you didn't miss this last night eh?"

She smiled at him and wiped his face with her sleeve before pushing his hair back from his face. She leaned in and kissed him gently on the lips. She moved back and smiled even wider. Ron realised that they hadn't had a real kiss since he had been trapped inside Black's coffin. He moved forward and Hermione met him half way. They shared another brush of the lips before Hermione kissed him a little more firmly but still with no intrusion, it was simply lips touching lips, and as she moved back again Ron put his hand behind her head and held her in place. He swallowed and saw her part her lips to tell him that he shouldn't try to do anything before he was ready and he moved in and sealed her mouth with his own.

They tasted each other again and it felt so familiar but so new. There was a salty flavour from all the tears that had been shed by both of them that night and Hermione murmured a sound of contentment into his mouth just before he moved backwards and he dropped his hand from behind her head. She looked back at him and seemed to be radiant now.

"I missed that."

They held each other in serene silence until Ron actually felt the desire to sleep coming back to him. It petrified him but seemed to entice him at the same time. He wanted to beat it, he wanted to show Hermione that he wasn't afraid to face the demons, and he decided to let the tide of exhaustion wash over him without a fight. As he lay back down inside his sleeping bag Hermione shuffled over inside hers to nestle in snugly beside him.

"You don't mind do you?" she asked as she rested her head on his chest.

"Not as long as you don't mind this," he mumbled as he put his arm around her and they relaxed into each other.

As Ron drifted away he could've sworn he heard Hermione breathing into his neck.

"I'll never mind that."

Chapter Fifteen - Clearing Your Head

"Wake up Ronald," the voice said, "wake up and come with me."

Ron opened his eyes and sat up. He saw the silver shimmering form of a man he knew, of Dumbledore and wasn't really surprised for some reason.

"Where?" he asked the man who was smiling down at him.

"Not far I promise. It's time I repaired some of the damage I have inflicted on you."

Ron shivered, he didn't dare to hope.

"You're going to make it stop?" he whispered desperately.

"I'm going to make it all stop Ronald. I'm going to heal your troubled soul and preserve your precious mind."

The wizard looked as if he was waiting to unload a massive burden from his own shoulders by doing this for Ron and extended his hand to him as he waited for him to join him at the opening to the cavern.

"Come."

Ron got to his feet and walked toward the light that Dumbledore's silvery form was framed by. He felt something knock against his foot but kept his focus on his old headmaster until he reached the opening and found himself held back by the magical barrier of the bond of blood.

"She's stopping me," Ron said quietly as he pushed gently against the invisible force with his hands.

Dumbledore's smile widened.

"And who could blame her after the terrible night you've had my dear boy."

Ron frowned at him and shivered again.

"You were there?"

"I am always there Ronald. I cannot come to your aid until you are in the deepest of sleeps and the night terrors you were experiencing all last night prevented me from coming to your assistance I'm afraid. I had to stand by and watch your mind attack itself."

Ron realised that all his nightmares were conjured up by his own psyche. That thought seemed to make him feel even worse about them.

"I never realised my mind could be so vicious."

Dumbledore was almost glowing as he leaned forward to stare him hard in the eye.

"Your mind is incredible Ronald, truly remarkable, and I couldn't be more proud of the fight you put up to hold on to it and keep it intact."

Ron felt himself smiling despite the news that he had it in him to torture himself to such a degree.

"Now it is time to alleviate some of that pressure you've been under," Dumbledore said as he straightened up again, "it will be my great pleasure to assist you and give you some well earned relief."

Ron let out a sigh and noticed that Dumbledore was looking to either side of him with a silent chuckle. He frowned at the spirit questioningly.

"Harry and Hermione are with you Ronald. I know you can't see them but I assure you that they are right beside you now."

Somehow Ron already knew this. He had been able to feel Hermione's presence at his side as soon as he woke up.

"I believe you," he nodded.

"You must tell Miss Granger to allow you to go outside, only as far as the edge of this beautiful pool and no further."

Ron nodded and began to address the bright morning light and the blues and greens forming a blurry landscape ahead of him.

"Hermione I need you to let me go outside, just as far as the lake. Please."

Something was squeezing Ron's hand tightly. He lifted his arms and pushed against the barrier, it wasn't weakening, he wondered if he had asked her properly. Maybe he hadn't spoken out loud at all. What if she was still asleep in her sleeping bag?

"Are you sure she's there?" he asked Dumbledore with a frown.

"She is indeed Mr Weasley," looking incredibly amused for some reason, "in fact she has just worked out I can see her and that I am telling you she is standing to your right and blowing a raspberry into your ear."

Ron found himself laughing at the image now planted inside his head of little miss ever-so-good blowing a raspberry at him. That didn't sound like Hermione Granger at all, and yet it kind of did at the same time.

"Hermione are you blowing a raspberry at me?" Ron asked the space ahead of him.

Dumbledore was chuckling quite audibly now.

"She seems exceptionally pleased at having made you laugh now, so is young Harry, he is standing on your left side just for the record."

Ron groped around himself blindly with his left arm.

"I don't feel him," Ron frowned.

Ron suddenly felt his left hand being lifted and rested upon something solid. He saw some kind of shadow beneath his hand but nothing else. He stared back at Dumbledore in some confusion.

"What was that?"

His hand dropped back down to his side as Dumbledore answered.

"That was our mutual friend Mr Potter."

"Oh," Ron said, a little disorientated by his best friend being invisible to him, "hi Harry."

"Now Ron you need to persuade Miss Granger to let you go outside."

Ron nodded before realising he had no idea where Hermione was supposed to be.

"Where is she? Is she here?" Ron asked as he turned to his right.

His outstretched hand brushed against something soft and warm and he shivered and pulled away.

What had he just touched?

"There Ronald, she's right in front of you," Dumbledore smiled and gave him a nod of encouragement.

Ron turned to look at the blank space beside him where he thought Hermione was standing. He had nothing to focus upon so set his eyes on what looked like a protruding rock on the cave wall and hoped he was looking at her face.

"I need you to let me out Hermione."

He waited for her response to be given to him via Dumbledore, keeping his eyes fixed on the cave wall while he listened.

"She has just instructed me that you are not to be taken anywhere without her," Ron smiled at this, "Please inform her that she is welcome to join you at the lakeside as this is as far as we will be going this morning."

He nodded and began to address the shadow that he could vaguely see moving around in front of the dark cave wall ahead of him.

"I'm only going as far as the water's edge; he said you're welcome to join us if you want."

Dumbledore was suddenly laughing and shaking his head. Ron looked back out onto the fuzzy-looking lake and frowned at the old man.

"What?"

"Could you please inform Mr Potter that we only have eighteen minutes left before I am forced out and now is not the time for that?"

"For what?" Ron was well and truly confused now.

"Just tell him and join me at the lakeside," Dumbledore said as he turned and made his way over to the bank.

Ron pointed back to his left where he had previously felt the shadow that was supposed to have been Harry.

"He's still there yeah?"

Dumbledore didn't even look up as he answered.

"No he's in front of you now."

"Oh right," Ron said and continued to address the same patch of wall he had used to talk to Hermione, "I've got to tell you that we've only got eighteen minutes left..."

"It's seventeen now Ronald." Dumbledore called from beside the lake.

Ron huffed and continued while shadows darted back and forth in front of him.

"...seventeen now, and then I'll force him out and...and..." Ron couldn't remember the rest of the message now and looked back out to Dumbledore.

"Now is not the time," the old dead wizard reminded him patiently.

"...and now is not the time."

Ron looked back at Dumbledore for further instruction and saw the spirit looking quite tickled at something.

"Say you're welcome," he smiled.

Ok I'm not even in this conversation anymore!

Ron looked back at the cave wall in bewilderment and delivered the message with a bemused shrug.

"You're welcome."

"Now come and join me Ronald, time is running short."

Ron turned to try to step outside again but the barrier was still up.

"Um, Hermione? Please?"

He felt a sudden pull and found himself drawn out of the cave and over to the lake by his right arm. It was a strange sensation but he trusted the dark shadow that he supposed to be Hermione and let himself be guided to face Dumbledore willingly. On reaching the spot where the blue and the beige blurs met he looked out at Dumbledore who seemed to be several feet away and standing upon the smooth blue surface ahead of him.

"Sit Ronald."

He did as he was told. Dumbledore sat down and crossed his legs. He rested his hands upon his knees and straightened his back.

"Cross your legs and position yourself as I am doing."

"What exactly are we...?" Ron began.

"Just follow my instructions and trust me Ronald. You do trust me again don't you?" Dumbledore almost looked unsure of himself for a moment.

Ron nodded and saw the old man relax again, he realised that things must have been quite bad between them after the night of the coffin. He remembered Harry telling him that he had shouted at the person who visited him the following night.

"Good, now straighten your back a little more and hands on knees," he nodded as he saw Ron silently obeying him, "Now take a deep breath in through your nose..."

Ron inhaled deeply through his nose and watched as Dumbledore did the same.

"...and let it out slowly through your mouth as if you were blowing out the candles on a birthday cake."

The two of them did this together and Dumbledore smiled serenely at him.

"Good Ron, very good, now I want you to close your eyes and do that again for me," Ron did so, "Keep going and listen to my voice, my voice and the sound of the waterfall and the sound of your breathing. Feel each breath as it enters your body Ron. Feel it as it gives you oxygen and feel it take all the toxins from within you and leave you as you blow them out."

Ron felt as if Dumbledore's voice was coming from inside him as well as in front of him now. The voice was all around him and the air was flowing through him in a way it never had before.

"Feel the goodness and purity of life flow in...and the weighty impurities of death flow out. In...and out...in...and out...do you feel it cleansing you yet Ronald?"

He wasn't able to stop to answer, he didn't want to stop, and all he did was nod and keep on breathing.

"You should be feeling lighter now, your burdens lifting away and your limbs should be limp and relaxed no stress, no tension, no rigidity, and no pain. In...and out...in...out..."

Ron wasn't aware of his body at all now; he couldn't tell if his limbs were loose or not, it was as if he wasn't tied down to his body at all anymore. He was taking a break away from it and floating away. Ron felt Dumbledore moving, he was approaching him slowly, but he didn't feel the need to open his eyes. He just kept on breathing and listening to the sound of his voice.

"This valley channels positive healing energy into this very spot Ronald, it's like a funnel for purity and goodness and strength, and I am about to help you tap into that life force."

Ron felt Dumbledore sitting right in front of him now, their knees almost touching, and then he felt the ghostly hands moved up to hover either side of his head. Something began to glow but his kept his eyes closed and kept his focus as Dumbledore spoke again.

"I need you to chant with me Ronald, I want you to breathe in and exhale the word vivificus and then breathe in again and exhale the word corroboro. Do you understand?"

Ron didn't nod, open his eyes, or even try to speak. He simply made a sighing noise at the back of his throat.

"Good, you are ready. Now breathe with me and join me with the incantations. In...vivificus...in...corroboro...in...vivificus...in...corroboro..."

The brightness grew larger around Ron's head as they went on with this together. Soon his inhalations were taking in the white energy, little by little, and his exhalations were expelling a foul tasting smoke from deep within him.

"Good Ronald, good, keep going." Dumbledore said sounding encouraged himself.

Every inhalation seemed to elevate his mind and clear each and every crippling fear and negative emotion that had been crowding his brain. As he exhaled his body felt lighter, as if he was going to float away at any time, and the feelings of confinement and pressure were drawn out of him. He was open and free and light as a feather. It was like a fresh shower on his skin but not quite the same. He was cooling the burn of anxiety from his soul with every breath in and out. The light glowing and swirling around his head and the vile toxins that he purged with every breath out grew more intense as if they were feeding off of each other and Ron was growing stronger with every new breath in.

"Our time is almost up Ronald," Dumbledore was saying while Ron felt as if he was breathing deeper than he ever knew he was capable of, "I am so glad I was able to be of help to you at last, now I will leave you to get some rest. You have earned it."

Ron's eyes opened and Dumbledore was only inches before him, beaming as he had never seen him before. The wizard was swallowed up in a swirl of dazzling white light and Ron felt an overwhelming pull on his eyelids to close. He was now no longer able to hold his own head up. He felt the light disappear and a heavy blackness fall upon him. The weight was too much for him after feeling so light he thought he was going to float away and it pushed him backwards to the floor. His last thought was that there seemed to be something soft and warm waiting for him before he hit the ground.

Then there was nothing.

Ron groaned and turned over. Something was touching his leg.

Gimme a break, just five more minutes mum.

"Ron, are you awake?"

He tried to ignore whoever it was and hid his face in the pillow, blocking morning out for just a little bit longer. What harm did it do to let him lay in he asked himself, why were his family such early birds anyway? It wasn't natural. He moaned into his pillow and willed sleep to come back and smother him for just a little while longer.

"Oi Ron, come on mate, we're starving here!"

Now that was Harry. He must be at Hogwarts. As soon as he thought this a pillow bounced off the top of his head.

Oh shit did that mean he had to get up for class?

"Sod off," Ron grumbled before opening his eyes a fraction and seeing cave walls all around him.

Oh shit it was the cave. That was even worse than class.

"Morning," he mumbled.

He yawned and his eyes closed again. He wondered if they would let him get away with snuggling back into his sleeping bag for a quick snooze. He soon realised that they wouldn't when Harry pulled the sleeping bag off him. Ron sat up with a grumpy huff. Harry and Hermione were both grinning at him in that smug way they always did after waking him up on a weekend, or during the summer holidays when there really was no excuse at all for getting out of bed until dinner time as far as he was concerned, and he scowled at the pair of them. He reached around for his wand to hex Harry with a gingivitis curse so he'd leave him alone to go and brush his teeth for the next hour and a half.

"Oh I've got that hidden, sorry," Harry said, getting to his feet and wandering off to the back of their shelter somewhere to retrieve Ron's wand.

Ron yawned and stretched before noticing that Hermione was watching him with an unusually delighted smile on her face. He wondered if she'd just been awarded honorary N.E.W.T. qualifications by the ministry for being the best student at Hogwarts despite her not actually being there.

"What's up with you?" Ron asked, amused but suspicious all the same.

"Nothing, it's just good to see you fully rested for once."

Ron snorted.

"You're just buttering me up because you want me to make you breakfast. No good morning Ron, no allow me to get you some toast for a change, I'm beginning to think you only took me back for my cooking skills."

"That and your scintillating company," Hermione teased, "and for the record, Harry and I have been without breakfast and lunch so we expect something more than toast y'know?"

I slept through lunch?

He shook his head to make sure he had heard her correctly.

"Wha...? Wait, what time is it?"

Harry called across from the cave where he returned with Ron's wand.

"About half past two in the afternoon."

"What?" Ron said, sitting upright as his wand was tossed into his lap.

Hermione laughed and rubbed his arm.

"You've been asleep for eight hours."

That didn't make any sense at all to him. He knew his maths wasn't all that great but he knew that he went to bed before midnight.

"Wait, no that's not right, I know I was up and down all night long but...eight hours?"

"We're counting from half six this morning when you passed out mate," Harry smiled.

Ron's face fell, he had actually forgotten to wake up and feel immediately stressed.

"Oh so they came back did they?"

"No Ron it was brilliant, they really helped you and...and they spoke to us as well," Hermione said as she gripped his arm and quivered with unsuppressed joy.

Ron blinked.

"You saw them too?"

"No, they spoke to us through you, the spirit or whatever he is can see us even if you can't, he got you to talk to us," Harry grinned.

"And it's a he Ron, we know that much, and he really helped you. You helped yourself too, you were brilliant!"

Hermione threw herself at Ron and hugged him tightly. He was kind of thrown by her doing this in front of Harry. They may have got their relationship all out in the open now but this was a bit full on first thing in the morning wasn't it?

Oh yeah, it's not the morning.

"Blimey Hermione, what the hell?"

She ignored this protestation of embarrassment and pulled back far enough to look him in the eye.

"So how do you feel? Inside I mean," she began examining his face with the same scrutiny as his mother, "you look so much better on the outside but we've both been waiting for you to wake up and tell us how you feel in...in your head."

"He's only just woken up Hermione, give him a break," Harry said as he squatted down beside them.

She took a calming breath and released him with some reluctance. Ron tried to think about how he felt inside. He couldn't really tell, he'd never paid much attention to his feelings unless they were bad ones, and then he realised that the bad feelings didn't seem to be there. They weren't screaming out at him. He tilted his head and listened for any unwelcome little voices, there were none. There didn't seem to be any tangents threatening to take his mind off in the opposite direction he wanted it to go. He seemed to be doing noticeably better from the last time when he had woken up. Blimey that time he had...

Oh fuck!

He had lost his marbles big time hadn't he? He had cried like a total woman all over Hermione. Then he remembered the time before that one and felt another wave of horror at the state he had got himself into during the night. He had actually stopped breathing during that nightmare about all the dead people wanting to use him.

"Oh Godric I had a bad night last night didn't I?"

"Is that what you're worrying about?" Harry seemed quite relieved that Ron's guilt was the most of his problems at the moment.

"Well I must have been a right pain, keeping you both up all night like that."

Hermione took his hand and smiled.

"You didn't, Harry was awake anyway weren't you Harry?"

Harry nodded and Ron gave him a look that told him he wasn't a total idiot and didn't need them to patronise him.

"Oh come on, I've woken you often enough with my nightmares haven't I?"

Ron smiled and picked up his wand. He twirled it between his fingers.

"Well what do you fancy then? I've been thinking of trying to do pizza for a while now, that sound ok to you?"

"That sounds brilliant Ron," Harry said, looking suddenly as if he had been dying of starvation and offered a crust of stale bread.

"Shall I do the mushrooms or do you want to have another go at it?" Ron said as he sent a wicked grin Hermione's way.

Hermione punched him in the arm and he and Harry laughed before Ron remembered back to another upsetting moment from the night before.

"Oh and I'm sorry again about what I said last night, I really wasn't thinking y'know? I honestly didn't mean it that way."

"I don't know what you're talking about mate," Harry said with a grin.

I love selective memory.

Ron was floating on his back and looking at the reddening sky, the sun was setting and they would have to swim back to the shore and light a fire to dry their wet clothes. Hermione had dismissed his and Harry's idea to swim in the nude and they had gone diving into to fresh waters of the lake fully dressed.

Well Harry had gone diving in fully dressed. Ron had actually chased, caught and carried Hermione in fully dressed much to her ear piercing horror. She had soon forgotten how annoyed she was with him when they had raced three times and she had won all three. Harry had grumbled about her being on something called steroids, he said it was like muggle gillyweed, and she had taken such offence at that slur that she had started a splashing war. Now Ron might not be as fast as Hermione in a race but he could definitely out splash her. He'd been given long legs and huge feet for a reason and he intended to use them.

He also had another great gift that seemed to only befall every other member of the Weasley family, the gift of natural buoyancy. Bill, Percy and Ron could float on their backs for ages; Bill had once bragged that he fell asleep like it for a hour one summer; while Charlie, the twins and Ginny sunk like stones unless they kicked their legs constantly. It used to petrify their mother though. She had once seen Ron laying perfectly still, face down, floating on the surface of the pond in the woods behind the Burrow when he was ten years old and screamed herself hoarse until his brothers had come crashing into the water to help their poor drowned little brother only to be stopped by Ginny who was floating in a barrel not far away. She told them that he was looking for her lucky Knut which she had dropped on the bottom of the pond and had to have back otherwise awful things would happen. They watched him float for three minutes apparently before he plunged down and came back up clutching the bronze coin and gasping for air.

His brother's had been mightily impressed but his mother had forbidden him to do it again, telling him that one day he really would be drowning and nobody would jump in and save him because they would think he was just messing around. The boy who cried wolf always was her favourite tale of warning when they were kids.

"I can't believe you don't even have to kick just a little bit," Hermione said as she swam over to him, "you just...lay there. It's very disconcerting."

He chuckled, this was getting too eerie now, she seemed to be turning into his mother.

"Don't you start as well."

"As well as what?" she frowned.

Ron lowered his legs and began to tread water.

"Never mind."

"All I was saying was that it looks sort of supernatural that's all, it's like you're made of wood or something."

He sniggered at the rude joke he wouldn't let himself tell that just flashed through his head and swam over to Hermione. He slid his arm around her waist and pulled her up onto his stomach as he lay on his back again and began to kick his legs, propelling them both towards the bank.

"Oh now you're just showing off," she giggled

"Huh, I'll just throw you overboard and you can swim yourself then."

Just as Hermione was about to tell him she was quite content to sail on the good ship Ron he rolled, sliding her off of him with a splash and swimming for the bank before she could surface and drown him in revenge. He forgot that she was a faster swimmer than he was and she caught up with him before he could wade out of the water. She pulled him back into the lake and ran on ahead, splashing out and jumping up and down in celebration while he sputtered the water out of his mouth and kicked some at her which she deftly avoided.

"We're on dry land now Weasley and on dry land I rule!"

Ron shook out his wet hair before bowing deeply.

"Yes your majesty."

"Now that I could get used to," she said as she picked up her shoes and strolled back into the cave with a mischievous glint in her eye, "now stay out there until I tell you that you can come in, I'm getting changed."

"I hope you're going to send Harry out before you do!" Ron almost choked with his eagerness to get the words out.

He heard her laughing.

"He went for a walk ages ago you Wally."

"Wally, I'm a Wally now," Ron mumbled to himself as he peeled off his sopping wet t shirt and wrung it out, "in the water I'm a supernatural marvel, on land I'm a Wally."

"Talking to yourself is supposed to be the first sign of madness not the first thing you do when you're sane again."

He looked up to see Hermione leaning against the cave wall, wearing a dry shirt and pair of shorts, drying her hair on a towel. She was smiling but not really joking with him as she spoke.

"Well my first sign of madness seemed to be not talking according to you," Ron said as he squelched over to get out of his waterlogged tracksuit bottoms and into something a little less drenched.

He passed Hermione and flicked his wet t shirt at her with a grin but paused when he saw her looking back at him and frowning.

"What's up?"

She dropped the towel and looked away from him and over to the waterfall.

"Nothing, I'm just relieved that's all."

Ron took a step towards her and took her hand.

"You always look this unhappy when you're relieved?"

She finally laughed and shoved his bare chest, not letting go of his hand while she did, and heaved a sigh that she may have been holding in ever since she first found out about the curse of the oracles.

"I just hated seeing you like that, so hopeless and lost, and I'm so glad we found a way...I'm so glad we got you back the way you were before," she smiled and threw the towel at him.

He caught the towel and pulled it around his shoulders.

"A Wally y'mean?" he asked with a raised eyebrow and a suppressed smirk.

"Exactly," she laughed.

The three of them were settled into their sleeping bags and talking around the fire. The topics covered all kinds of meaningless things but Harry had mentioned Ginny in a not so subtle passing way and had become a little quiet ever since. Ron decided to give him something else to think about.

"So do you want to try that thing and get it over with straight away then?" he said to Hermione who was resting her head on his shoulder and running her finger around the edge of the silver hoop that floated around his arm.

She lifted her head to look up at him before nodding.

"Yes, let's see if it does any good, at least that way I won't be kept up all night waiting for you to get it over with."

Harry cleared his throat and they looked across the campfire at him.

"Harry missed that whole conversation; I'll explain it when we're done ok?" Hermione said as she reached for her wand.

"When you're done with what exactly?" Harry said uneasily.

Hermione moved away from Ron who as he took a deep breath and lay down. He closed his eyes and waited for her to try the new spell on him.

"Ready?" he heard her ask.

"Go for it," he nodded between slow deep breaths.

"Sopor!"

His consciousness was sucked away in a purple flash.

"Well that was a marvellous idea of Miss Granger's I must say but come now Ronald, wouldn't it have made so much more sense for you to do this in the morning after a good night's sleep?"

Ron found himself remembering his earlier conversation and meditation with Dumbledore and wondered if that meant he would remember when he woke up too.

"Ah that's logic and we don't go in for that kind of thing," Ron smiled as he sat up.

"Tell Miss Granger to do the spell in the morning in future," Dumbledore said after listening to something and smiling.

"Hermione you're to do the spell in the morning in future, he wants us to get a good night's sleep before dragging us off far and wide."

Dumbledore was listening again and gave a sigh before looking back to Ron.

"Tell Harry that I only need to take you for the night Ronald but thanks to the bond of blood I can't take you anywhere without Miss Granger's permission and I doubt very much that she would allow you to accompany me alone."

"Why are your messages always so bloody long?" Ron grumbled.

Dumbledore's eyebrows lifted and he stared down at him with surprise for a moment.

"I see that two visits from me in a day seem to produce the same result as two within the same night Ronald, you remember our conversation this morning...most interesting. But back to the point; please pass on my message to Harry."

"Ok," Ron sighed, "Harry he doesn't need to drag all of us with him, just me, but because of the bond of blood he can't take me anywhere without Hermione's permission and he doesn't think that you'll let me go alone Hermione."

"Now Ron I think you should come with me," Dumbledore said as he took a step out of the cave.

He tried to wriggle out of the sleeping bag but found that he couldn't move, his arms were pinned to his side and something warm was wrapped around his body, he guessed that this was Hermione's doing.

"I would but I can't move," Ron frowned.

"Ask Miss Granger to release you and come along, I have no time to stand and argue with the two of them over you."

"Hermione let me go," Ron tried to say in a no-nonsense way, although he'd never got his own way with her when she was in a determined mood before so he didn't know why Dumbledore thought he'd be able to do it now.

Dumbledore sighed and his shoulders dropped.

"Ron please persuade her to let you come with me or accompany us both at the very least."

"Is this..." Ron hesitated to ask Hermione along if this was going to be another perilous mission, "...will this be dangerous?"

"Not that I am aware but Lord Voldemort has now been alerted to our search so the risk is somewhat heightened, although this particular horcrux is as elusive to him as it would be for the three of you without my assistance."

Ron thought about this and made a decision, he didn't want her to go with him. All he had to do now was convince her to let him go alone. He took a deep breath and went for it.

"Hermione are you there?" he asked as he looked around in the darkness for her shadow, he felt his head being turned and tried to find something to focus his eyes on while he spoke to her, "I need you to take off the hoop. I need you to let me go alone. Please Hermione."

Something gripped him hard and tickled his neck, he knew she was holding on to him for dear life and probably calling him several names all meaning idiot.

"I trust him ok? I trust him to look after me, please let me do this without you," the hold on him was as tight as ever, "Do you trust me?" he asked with a sigh, "I'm asking for you to do this, not him, he says you can come but I'm asking you to trust me and let me go."

Ron hoped that was going to be good enough, he didn't have anything else, he felt his shoulder growing damp and knew that he had made her cry. He was getting way to good at making women cry he thought to himself. He looked across to Dumbledore who was also watching and waiting. The old wizard seemed to give a sigh of relief and soon afterwards Ron felt the silver hoop sliding down his arm and floating away into the shadows.

"Thank you," Ron sighed before getting to his feet and walking towards the opening in the rock face.

As he reached Dumbledore the wizard put a hand on his shoulder and looked behind him with great sadness.

"Ronald please tell Miss Granger that I promise."

Ron looked back into the cave; all he could make out was the glow of the fire.

"He says he promises."

Ron looked back at Dumbledore who lead him away while planting the image of a beach and a huge Elephant shaped rock in his head.

"Take us here my friend."

Just as Ron was about to apparate Dumbledore gripped his shoulder hard and whispered into his ear.

"And I will keep my promise."

Ron nodded, unsure of what had just been agreed between Hermione and Dumbledore but trusting them both, and disapparated.

Chapter Sixteen - Dizzy

Ron felt damp sand between his toes and heard the crashing of waves behind him. He squinted around himself but couldn't see a thing.

"We are going to need to do some quite difficult climbing Ronald and in this darkness the risk of hurting you is too high," Dumbledore said as he stood at his side, shimmering brightly against the blackness that surrounded him, "so, with your permission as always, I will take control of your body briefly and get you to where we need to be. While I do this I must insist that you trust me and keep your eyes firmly closed."

"But sir, I can't see a thing, why do I need to...?" Ron began.

"When I enter your body you will regain your sight and, although visibility will still be extremely poor, there are magical and natural illusions placed on the staircase we will be climbing that will cause you to become quite dizzy and the only way to avoid the affect is for you to climb blind."

He didn't really understand what he was going to be walking blindly into but he decided to trust Dumbledore. He had saved him from his own psyche after all.

"Oh ok, whatever you say."

The wizard smiled and rested his hand upon his shoulder as they walked away from the sound of the waves and along the cool sand. Gradually the sand became rockier until they stopped and Dumbledore let go of his shoulder and stepped behind him.

"This will feel a little cold but don't worry, it doesn't hurt, and we've done it many times before."

Ron nodded before two ice cold spears thrust into his back, making him shudder, and Dumbledore's voice spoke to him in his own mind.

'Close your eyes Ronald.'

He did as he was told and felt himself being pushed forward. His legs were stepping up and walking on a strange staircase that felt as if it was made of stone but every step seemed to veer off at a different angle to the previous one.

'Keep them closed.'

"I am, I will," he answered aloud as he felt himself take a very large step up and heaved himself onto the next step with a wobble.

'Dear me, will we never remember to put some shoes on your poor feet?' he heard Dumbledore muttering to himself.

Soon Ron realised why he had made this comment as the stone surface he was walking of felt as if it was breaking up beneath his feet. It was like walking on giant pieces of gravel.

"It's alright, it doesn't really hurt, it's just a bit uncomfortable," Ron said as he winced when a solid lump of stone jabbed him in the arch of his foot.

'There's my favourite optimist, I missed him!'

Ron laughed and frowned with confusion at this comment.

"What does that mean?"

'Only that I took a positive confident young man for several night time strolls and then lost him for a short while to a hurt desperate soul who thought I was trying to kill him. The worst part of it all was it was all my own doing.'

Ron didn't say anything to this as they made silent progress up the increasingly unstable steps. Dumbledore was feeling guilty for all he had put Ron through but didn't want to dwell on it and remind him now that he was almost completely healed again. He felt himself being turned and crawling out onto a flat surface to his right. The cold rods left his back and Ron shivered at the sensation. Still he kept his eyes closed.

"I still don't understand why...well I think you would've tried to explain that night to me but I don't remember it do I?" Ron began, remaining on his hands and knees with his eyes tightly closed.

"Ronald please, you don't have to think about that, it was not my intention to remind you of that awful night again."

"No listen to me, I don't understand why it had to happen that way but..." he thought hard about what he was going to say before he said it and realised that he really did mean it, "...I forgive you ok? You made it up to me and I forgive you. I trust you."

He listened and heard nothing. Tentatively he opened his eyes and jumped back at the sight of his ghostly headmaster's face staring so closely back at his own. He was smiling but his brow was crinkled like corrugated steel. Ron hadn't seen that many worry lines on another person other than his mother and that was saying something.

"You are remarkable," Dumbledore said weakly, "utterly remarkable."

Ron wasn't used to compliments like this being thrown his way and didn't really know how to react. He swallowed and found himself uncomfortable under Dumbledore's intense gaze, looking away and hoping that the old man would do the same. He didn't though; he looked at him with even more intensity and placed his hands upon Ron's shoulders.

"Very few men have humbled me in my lifetime Ron and you have managed to do it during my afterlife."

Ron forced himself to meet Dumbledore's eyes again and shrugged.

"Well at least dead people can't cry eh? I'm good at making people do that as well."

Dumbledore laughed and Ron felt him shaking through his touch just before he let him go.

"Your pain deserved all those tears my boy, and yet still you still have the ability to make people smile, as I said before, truly remarkable."

Dumbledore released Ron and turned to glance around at his surroundings. Ron couldn't see a thing and moved to stand up when Dumbledore grabbed at his wrist and held him down with him.

"No, be careful in here, the roof his quite low and you are even taller than I remember you. I fear you might concertina in on yourself if you attempted to stand."

Ron chuckled at this image and put his hand above his head to feel around for the roof.

"Well I can see that what we were looking for has flown the nest so I will leave you to get some sleep and bring Harry and Miss Granger back here in the morning to investigate for themselves. Can I suggest you crawl back here behind this bundle of straw and hay, it should keep you warm and spare you the draft?"

Ron crawled after Dumbledore and curled up beside something very soft but slightly itchy.

"So you're going now?" Ron asked him.

"Until next time, and remember to call on me in the morning in future, I am sick and tired of disturbing your sleep. That goes for all three of you you know?"

Ron smiled and watched as the silver form of his old headmaster disappeared into a bright swirl of mist at the same time his eyelids became heavy and the darkness ushered him back into a state of deep sleep.

Ron huffed and rubbed the nagging itch on his arm, opening his eyes and sitting up, before swearing out loud to see that he was lying beside a huge bird's nest on what looked like an enclosed ledge in the side of a cliff. The cool sea breeze blew his hair out of his eyes and he crawled across to peer over the edge. He swore again, he was really high up and looked around to try and work out where he had apparated to. The ceiling was too low for him to have apparated onto it but he couldn't see any surface he could have managed to appear safely.

He looked down at his bare feet and brushed off some sand before understanding that he must have apparated onto the beach and then climbed up.

How the bloody hell did I manage that? I know I'm good but I'm not up to Charlie's standards.

He crawled over to the open side of the ledge and looked down. He saw a staircase that looked as if it was in the middle of breaking into a million pieces and tumbling into the sea when it was frozen in mid air. Surely he couldn't have walked up that thing, it wasn't stable, and it seemed to have death trap written all over it. It was the only way he could see he could've got up to this empty nest though and it did seem to be his only way back down again.

He sighed and looked back at the nest. It really was huge. What kind of bird made that, he wondered? He crawled back over to peer inside and saw a red and gold feather, a very long red and gold feather, a very familiar red and gold feather.

A phoenix feather.

He looked around the nest for any evidence that it had been inhabited recently but there were no scraps of food or droppings of any kind and it seemed to have been abandoned long ago. Why on earth had he been taken here?

Ron rubbed his tired eyes and shook his head, a crick in his neck making him wince slightly. Hermione was clever, she'd take one look and be able to tell him the bird's life story, and then they'd use this so called clue to find the next horcrux and destroy it. Ron actually smiled as he crawled back over to the top of the wonky staircase, he hadn't been attacked or hurt or anything nasty at all. Maybe things really were turning around for him he thought.

Shit no, now you've jinxed it you berk, touch wood...touch wood...bollocks where's a piece of wood when you need one?

He swung his legs out onto the first step and pulled himself up by the handrail that seemed to have been yanked out of its final destination and wobbled unsteadily at the top of the staircase. He turned and looked down and that was when it hit him. He felt as if the stairs were moving in every direction at the same time and at different speeds while his body told him he was leaning so far over to his right that he was about to fall over. His stomach did a flip inside him and his brain felt as if somebody had just stuck their finger inside and swirled it around.

He closed his eyes with the nausea and the spinning stopped, his feet felt secure, and he realised that he was standing perfectly straight. It was an illusion. Charlie had told him about having to cross a bridge like this once in Budapest. As soon as you stepped on it the bridge felt as if it was turning upside down and hundreds of people had died trying to cross it. Witnesses always said that it looked as if they started walking across the bridge before swaying drunkenly and toppling over the edge as if they had been shoved by a strong wind. The trick was, Charlie had told him, fixing yourself onto one constant thing all the way along and telling yourself that you trusted that thing over your instincts, your centre of gravity and your brain. Charlie had clung to the rope that ran unbroken and constant along the edge of the bridge and made it safely across.

Ron staggered backwards and sat back down on the ledge, pulling his feet back up off the step and opened his eyes. The dizziness had stopped. He looked back down and saw the rusty metal handrail was fixed to the wall all the way down and as long as he held on to that he wouldn't go wrong. Taking a deep breath and reaching for the handrail he tried to begin his decent again.

The stairs looked as if they were moving away from him just as he was about to place his foot on them and step down. He began to feel sea-sick and gripped the handrail even harder than he already was.

The handrail is still, the handrail is anchored, you can trust the handrail.

He continued down the stairs, pausing every now and then to close his eyes and stop the spinning, but he went on with his eyes wide open as he knew the decent was precarious enough without attempting to do it blind. He felt his head and his eyes betraying him again as the walls seemed to be moving, rocking and falling away without falling apart, and he slid his hand further down the hand rail as he struggled to ignore the evidence of his eyes that this tactic would cause him to fall.

Indeed he didn't fall, the walls righted themselves after three more steps down and then the steps began to try to convince his mind that they weren't where they appeared they were. Ron swallowed and took a breath as he reminded himself of his mind clearing techniques. This wasn't exactly claustrophobia but Harry's way of clearing Ron's mind from the sensation of things falling in on him and walls closing him in when nothing was moving at all might work in this situation he thought. He told himself that the walls were solid and that the steps were smooth and even and that he was just strolling down them as if he was walking down the steps to the great hall at Hogwarts for dinner.

He couldn't let his stomach turn because he didn't want to ruin the feast that was waiting for him at the bottom. He wasn't going to fall down the stairs because that would be embarrassing and it would put him back in the hospital wing where the food was awful. It was all about the food, getting food and avoiding humiliation, and he saw the sandy beach getting closer and closer until...

"Oh thank Godric for that!" he groaned as he thudded down onto the ground on all fours and felt his head right itself again.

He dug his fingers into the soft sand and spent a few minutes composing himself before sitting up straight and looking around to see where he was. He saw waves crashing in, the tide was about to cut him off and isolate him on the beach, and turned behind him to see where he had just climbed down from. It was a massive dark coloured rock that looked something like an elephant with its head bowed. He tried to see the ledge he had woken on but couldn't make out where it had been and hauled himself up to his feet unsteadily.

He walked as far as the encroaching tide would allow and saw a small sign warning people that 'Access to Bossiney Cove is restricted during high tide due to dangerously fast submergence of the beach and high risk of drowning'. As Ron turned to look back to see how far in the tide had come now he felt a wave washing over his bare feet.

"Wow, that is fast!" he said as he realised that he should disapparate while the sand beneath him was still solid enough to do so without splinching himself.

Crack!

The sudden compression on top of the lingering nausea had been a little too much for Ron and he dropped to his knees again, fearing he might be sick, and tried to compose himself. He saw he was right beside the pool of cool clear water and took some in his cupped hands and splashed it onto his face to keep the distant threat of anxiety at bay. It was nothing like what it was in the recent past but it was still there just a little. He didn't think it would ever completely leave him but at least he could deal with it now. Harry had heard him returning and come out to check that he was alright. After telling him where he had found himself and with what Harry had informed him that he had been able to travel alone as he had managed to persuade Hermione to release him from the bond of blood during his sleep.

Ron had asked after her and Harry told him that she was asleep inside the cave, inside his sleeping bag, and probably going to be in a bit of an emotional state when she woke up. Ron had built himself up to face a bollocking from his girlfriend and walked into the cave, leaving Harry to ponder the significance of Ron being taken to an empty phoenix nest in the middle of the night.

It was exactly as Harry had told him, there she was inside his sleeping bag with her knees drawn up to her chest and her hands balled into tight fists which clutched at the fabric of the sleeping bag as if it was a lifeline. Ron sat down beside her and gently stroked her hair while he watched her sleep. She was sleeping with a frown on her face and he smiled at her ability to worry while unconscious.

He heard Harry clearing his throat at the mouth of the cave and turned to look over at him.

"I was just going to go for a walk to think this over ok? Just so you and Minnie don't wonder where I am," he smiled.

"Minnie?" Ron tried not to exclaim too loudly as Harry chuckled.

"This guy we met in Wales couldn't say her name properly, too drunk I think, and he insisted on calling her Minnie. She hated it!"

Ron sniggered as quietly as he could before looking back down at her sleeping form.

"I don't know, I think it quite suits her."

Harry shrugged and gave him a wave as he stepped back from the cave to set off on his walk. Ron looked back out and called after him.

"Is this that bloke Ivor? She told me you had a muggle guide who got killed when you...well when you were both hurt."

Harry nodded sadly before walking away. Ron turned back to Hermione, Minnie, and lay down beside her. He kept his hand at the side of her head, playing with her bushy brown hair between his fingers and watching her looking angry with him in her sleep.

He hadn't realised that he had fallen asleep himself until the sensation of her hand brushing against his cheek woke him. Hermione was heavy-lidded and looking worry-free as she smiled at him and ran her hand over the side of his face.

"He kept his promise then?" she said.

Ron blinked with confusion as he turned his head to plant a kiss on the inside of her palm and sit up on his elbow.

"Who's this?"

"Your guide, I made him promise to look after you and bring you back to me safe and here you are."

Ron exhaled with relief that she wasn't angry with him for leaving her.

"I was half expecting a dig in the ribs for making you stay behind after Harry told me how unhappy you were about the idea last night."

She sat up on her own elbow and pulled him towards her for another light peck, this time on the lips.

"Well I was quite hurt that you wouldn't let me come but there's no point taking it out on you this morning seeing as you don't even remember why you did it is there?"

He smiled and wriggled in closer to her they draped their arms across each other and rested their foreheads together.

"Where's Harry?" she whispered into his face.

"Gone for a walk," Ron whispered back.

"Is there anything I need to worry about from last night?" she asked him as she ran her hand along his contours.

"Nothing at all, it was just a clue and nothing else, no Death Eaters," he whispered as he kissed her on the side of the neck, "no dead people," he kissed a little higher, "nothing to be afraid of except for the fact that you weren't there with me."

Hermione made sure he wasn't able to say anything more for the next twenty minutes.

"Wow, you're getting really good at this side-along apparition Ron," Harry said, sounding impressed at Ron's ease in transporting the three of them to Bossiney Cove all at once.

"Yeah well, I won't be held responsible for missing eyebrows or anything you may find you've lost along the way, I'm still not comfortable with dragging one person with me let alone two."

Ron was leading Hermione by the hand. They had been in some form of physical contact ever since she had woken that morning and hadn't even felt self conscious about it when Harry had returned from his walk. He glanced back at her as they reached the elephant rock and pulled her into the space that was the elephant rock's hind legs and nodded up at the disorientating staircase.

"This is the reason we didn't have breakfast this morning," he said with a shrug, "it's best done on an empty stomach."

She squeezed his hand and looked up, he could see that she didn't quite understand how difficult this was going to be, and then turned to see Harry stepping through the two pillars of rock to join them.

"Blimey Ron, it's making me dizzy just looking up at them!" Harry took his warning about the dizzying climb with a little more understanding after seeing Ron having to compose himself at the side of the pool that morning.

"You wait until you start climbing them, it makes you feel sea sick, it's like you're climbing while rotating three hundred and sixty degrees. That was why I needed to get myself together when I first apparated back, I thought I was going to throw up."

He felt Hermione tug at his arm and she gave him a slightly annoyed frown. He knew she was telling him off for not mentioning his nausea when she had asked him if he was alright but he genuinely hadn't thought to mention it by then as it had long passed. She would always suspect him of keeping his personal pain and discomfort to himself to a certain degree no matter how much he swore to her he would be open about all that from now on. She saw that he hadn't meant to keep anything from her and gave him a nervous smile before taking a tentative step up onto the staircase.

"Any tips before I start?" she asked Ron nervously.

Ron placed the hand he was holding upon the rusty handrail to Hermione's left.

"Just make sure you hold onto this the whole time," he said as he watched her swaying slightly and readied himself to catch her if she fell, "you'll feel as if you're walking sideways sometimes but you've just got to remind yourself that while you're holding onto the hand rail you're the right way up. It's all an optical illusion."

As Hermione set off and immediately swayed to her right as if she had been shoved. Ron grabbed the handrail and jumped up onto the step behind her in case she lost her balance. He too was rocked by the swirling of the winding staircase ahead of him, it seemed even worse going up, but he was anchored to the handrail and knew he had the ability to ride the stomach churning mind tricks with his adaptation of Harry's claustrophobia technique and was sure he could manage the climb as well as looking out for Hermione at the same time. He hoped that Harry was doing alright behind him.

Ron turned to look over his shoulder, not the wisest thing to do in an already dizzy state, and saw that he had forced his eyes shut and was clinging to the handrail so tightly that his knuckles were white. He was trying to climb up by feeling for the steps ahead of him but that was impossibility, he would lose his footing and fall back down for sure.

"Harry are you alright back there?" Ron called down to him while trying to hold his body close to the wall and not let himself believe that doing that would topple him over.

Harry nodded before closing his eyes again and seeming to be steadier on his feet.

"Harry mate, I'm really sorry but you've got to climb this with your eyes open, I know it feels better to close them but the steps are so uneven you'll twist an ankle or a knee and go down like a sack of spuds."

Harry took a deep breath in and forced himself to open his eyes again and look up at Ron.

"I'm beginning to realise that."

Ron turned back to concentrate on Hermione once he saw Harry going on with his eyes open again and a greenish tint to his face. She was now crawling up the steps, one hand securely holding onto the handrail and the other pulling her up onto the next step. It didn't seem to be any easier than trying to walk the stairs upright though.

The steps beneath him suddenly seemed to swing out from beneath him and he felt as if he was dangling from the handrail at forty five degrees. He reached out with his free hand to grip Hermione's shoulder as she let out a squeal and used all his concentration to remind his brain that his feet were touching something, he was standing on something solid, he wasn't hanging at all.

"Keep going Hermione, we've got to keep going to get out of this one, I know it's hard but I'm right here ok?" he managed to say as his brain began to beat the illusion and correct itself.

He really was standing on something, it wasn't really happening, he couldn't trust his eyes or his instincts but he could trust his sense of touch and he was definitely touching something solid with his feet. Hermione crawled up another step just as Ron felt the universe right itself again and he slammed into the wall as if he really had just been tipped back upright.

"We're out of that one now, it's ok, you're doing really well."

Suddenly he saw her back arching and Hermione purged her body of the cup of tea Harry had made her before they left the glen for Bossiney Cove. She sputtered and gagged before spitting and wiping her face and turning back to look at Ron with a very pale face.

"Sorry about that, you were right about skipping breakfast weren't you?"

"Don't worry about it, just keep going ok?" Ron smiled as he tried to ignore the smell that now hit him and made him want to do the same thing himself.

"Ron!" Harry called out to him urgently.

He spun around, not the best of ideas, and looked down at his nauseous best friend.

"What?"

"Couldn't you have just apparated us to the top and save us all this?"

"Not possible," Ron answered.

Suddenly the walls began to move inwards on him and the stairs felt as if they were falling away from beneath him. He felt a wave of claustrophobia hit him and gripped the handrail with both hands and leaned against the wall with his forehead. The wall felt as if it was pushing against him and about to topple but he ordered his brain to beat it. This wasn't happening, this wasn't real, and the handrail told him he was still safe and upright and secure. He took a deep breath and let it out, then another, and tried to distract himself by finishing off his explanation to Harry.

"The ceiling's really low," Ron pulled himself together enough to go on, "we'd have taken our heads off."

"Ron," Hermione's weak voice distracted him from occupying himself with Harry, "are you alright?"

"Yeah don't worry about me I'm fine, look you're nearly there now, just a couple more steps further," he said as he pulled himself up by the handrail and tried to ignore the placement of his feet, he managed to climb up five steps that way before slipping down one and having to slow down and take his time again.

Hermione had finally reached the ledge and was crawling of to the side now. Ron stepped up and sat on the top step, he couldn't go in and leave Harry so he waited with his eyes closed to try and hold off the dizziness. He had let go of the handrail now and had no purchase on anything to rely on so he had to open his eyes every two of three seconds to check on Harry and then force them shut again to maintain his sense of stability.

He heard Harry was close now and opened his eyes to see him losing his own hold on the handrail and toppling backwards. He lunged forward and grabbed him by his sweatshirt, pulling him up the last two steps and throwing him onto the ledge beside Hermione. Harry was in and Hermione was in and all Ron had to do was turn around and join them but he had lost all sense of direction now and could only see the staircase they had just ascended spinning away from him. He didn't know which was to turn and felt around for something solid. He found a wall and tried to stabilise himself enough to get his bearings back. He closed his eyes to try and over come the awesome pull he was feeling away from the wall and where he was sitting but that defence didn't seem to be working anymore.

"Ron, you alright?" Harry's voice was asking from what sounded like somewhere several feet above him…

He kept his eyes tightly shut and tried to breathe through the overwhelming need to vomit while jabbering so fast that he didn't think he had made any sense at all.

"Can you get me off of here please?"

As soon as the words tumbled from his lips Ron felt himself tumbling forwards. He lost his touch on the wall and felt himself lifting off the step he was seated upon. He had nothing solid around him anywhere now and no idea which way up he was supposed to be. Something grabbed him by the arm and tugged him backwards.

"Oh no you don't," Harry said.

Ron felt his back thump down onto solid ground and opened his eyes to see the roof of the tiny indentation on elephant rock where he had woken that very morning. He let himself lay still for several seconds before feeling that he knew where he was and which way was up again.

"Thanks," he muttered as he heaved himself up into the sitting position.

"No problem mate," Harry sighed, "I can't believe you held it together right up to the top."

"It's a lot easier going down I can tell you."

Hermione crawled over to the two of them and she looked very pale and strangely ashamed of herself.

"You sure you're ok Hermione?" Harry asked her.

"Just a little embarrassed," she said with a smile at Ron, "a lady doesn't tend to want to throw up in front of her boyfriend, at least not so soon into the relationship."

Ron managed to laugh at this and rubbed her back.

"Has it passed yet?"

She nodded.

"Thanks for your help, I couldn't have done it without you," she wiped her mouth and rested her hand on his leg.

"I think I owe you after all the crap I've put you through recently; I wouldn't have been able to shake off that claustrophobic bit down there if it hadn't been for all your help before."

Harry was crawling over to the nest to investigate and Hermione rubbed her hand up and down his leg reassuringly.

"You shook it off all by yourself though Ron," she whispered with a look of pride on her face, "you know you can beat it now."

He smiled and gave a small shrug before looking down at the stone floor of the ledge.

"It's still there though."

He felt her lifting his chin and forcing him to look at her, she was beaming at him.

"That's what makes it incredible Ron; you are a remarkable human being."

Ron found himself frowning at that compliment and Hermione was looking at him with intrigued concern as he tried to work out why the word remarkable was sounding so familiar to him.

"What is it? You're head's not still playing tricks on you is it?"

"No," he shook his head as he looked off to one side struggling to place the non-memory he was having, "it's like...I think I've got deja-vu."

Hermione shoved him in the shoulder and rolled her eyes.

"Don't scare me like that."

He shook the feeling of familiarity out of his head and laughed.

"Sorry!"

Hermione began to crawl over to join Harry at the phoenix nest and Ron followed on. He leaned over Harry's shoulder to see that he was examining the feather in his hands thoughtfully.

"D'you think it's Fawkes' or another phoenix's?" Ron asked.

"I can't say, I've only ever seen one phoenix my whole life and I didn't really pay all that much attention to individual feathers at the time," he shrugged.

Hermione linked her arm with Ron's and frowned at the feather in Harry's hand.

"I've just had a thought," she began, "what if Ron's guide is Dumbledore?"

What?

"What?" Harry said, mirroring Ron's own thought.

"Well if it was then that would explain why he's looking for Fawkes wouldn't it?"

Ron looked from Harry to Hermione, trying to read their expressions, and wondered if that could be the case. The headmaster had been one of the only other people his mother had told about his 'special' gift but at the same time he and Dumbledore had never really had much to do with each other over the years, he was more of a mentor to Harry and a distant authority figure to Ron. Then there was the question of the risks that had been taken and the unforgivable curses at Gringots, would Dumbledore have had any part in that?

"That would explain Ron trusting him," Harry said thoughtfully.

"It would also explain how he knows where to look for horcruxes and clues," Hermione nodded, "and of course all that power he has when he's sleepwalking."

She was making some good points, he had to admit that, but there was still something about this theory that didn't sit right with him.

"Would Dumbledore have put Ron in Regulus Black's coffin?" Harry said with a harsh tone in his voice.

Ah there it was.

He knew they were both looking at him for his reaction to this so he stared down at the phoenix feather as if he had zoned out on their entire conversation and was trying to decipher the clue. They weren't going to be fooled of course but he hoped that they would let the matter drop and not dredge up all those awful memories again. He didn't want to think that anybody he trusted would ever put him in that position. Then again, if anybody was to take over his body while Harry and Hermione were sleeping and defenceless he was happy to think that it might be their great protector Dumbledore.

"I don't know Harry," Hermione said, seeming to accept Ron's silence for the time being, "I don't know him well enough to know how far he would go but he did know about Ron being an oracle, Mrs Weasley said."

"Could Fawkes, or the phoenix in question, have been guarding a horcrux?" Harry pondered aloud.

Ron looked back up at this change of subject and glanced around the tiny enclosed ledge.

"Well Vol..." now that his sanity worries were gone he was back to not being able to say the name anymore, how stupid was that? "He knows that we're looking for them now doesn't he? Maybe he moved it and the phoenix followed it wherever it went."

Harry nodded.

"That makes a lot of sense."

Ron sniggered and nudged Hermione in the side.

"Hark at me eh, I'm making sense!"

Hermione and Harry laughed. He was only too pleased to inject a bit of levity back into this discussion, anything to get away from talk of that night again.

"There's a first time for everything," Hermione smiled before loosening her hold on him and looking down at the feather.

She took it from Harry and stared at it in deep thought. Something seemed to have occurred to her that didn't make her very happy at all, as if she had just come up with an idea that she was reluctant to go through with.

"What's the matter?" Ron asked her as he rubbed her arm.

She swallowed and looked him in the eye with determination.

"I think we should put you to sleep and see what the spirit has to say for himself about this, he can tell us if this is a clue or a dead end, and that way we don't have to wait around until nightfall to move on with the search. He said so himself didn't he? We've got to start using your somnambulism in the daytime so the three of us can spend our night's actually sleeping."

Ron turned to Harry and shrugged.

"What d'you think?"

"Well I don't know," Harry frowned, "it's a crazy idea, that's for sure, sleeping in the nightime?"

Ron broke into laughter and Hermione rolled her eyes at the both of them.

"Go on then Minnie," Ron chuckled as he prepared himself for another enforced sleep, "knock me out if you must."

"Minnie?" Hermione growled as she turned her fierce gaze onto Harry.

"What? I didn't say it!"

"No but you're the only one who could've told him about Ivor's little nick-name for me," she said as she punched Harry on the arm.

"You call her Minnie and I get punched, how is that fair?" Harry said, turning on Ron, and rubbing his sore arm grumpily.

Ron tried not to openly laugh and shrugged.

"Hey I'm the one getting knocked out, count yourself lucky mate."

"Bloody couple ganging up on me. Wait 'till they have a row then they'll come running to me with all their woes and I can rub their lovey-dovey noses in it!" Harry grumbled quietly to himself.

"Right, you lay down," Hermione said in her most business like manner while getting out her wand and pointing it at the still very amused Ron, "The deep sleep charm totally relaxes every muscle in your body, I can't do it if you're sitting up, you'll hit your head."

"What harm can that do," Ron asked as he lay flat on his back, "all you'd do is knock me out twice as much?"

She huffed at him and narrowed her eyes.

"A deep sleep charm and a fractured skull are very different things Ronald, now take a deep breath, your breathing drops straight into slow even breaths and it can be risky if you're not relaxed."

She was sounding increasingly huffy to him and he felt a bit annoyed that she was still prone to these sudden mood swings out of the blue. What the hell was it with women?

"I'm bloody relaxed ok? Godric Hermione, will you just get on with it?" he snapped at her.

She glared at him and the last thing he saw was her wand sending out a bright blue light and hitting him in the face.

"My dear boy, you can go from charming to dolt so rapidly it amazes me!"

Bloody hell it is Dumbledore!

Chapter Seventeen - The Battle of Pevensy

"Ronald you need to lead them back down to the cove so the three of you can apparate safely."

Ron felt his way over to the edge of the ledge while Dumbledore stood at the top of the stairs and waited for him to join him.

"Now if you don't mind channelling a small spell for me I can create an easier way down for the three of you," the older wizard smiled before bending down and connecting with Ron's hand, pointing down at the stairs, "Labor lapsus!"

Ron saw a blurred magical light cascading downwards away from him and understood what Dumbledore had done for them immediately.

"Harry, Hermione, we can slide down. It won't be as bad," he called out to his now invisible friends.

He wriggled off the ledge and onto the magical surface and pushed himself downward. It felt spongy and solid at the same time and before he could get used to the strange sensation he had zoomed off at the bottom and slammed down onto the damp sand at the bottom. He was about to look up at Dumbledore to ask him what to do next when a force hit him in the back and the weight remained, pinning him to the ground for several seconds, before lifting again and he struggled back to his feet in some confusion. He turned around and saw two shadows moving around behind him, Harry and Hermione were safely down the slide too.

"Now Ronald I can only think of one place that Fawkes would go if he knew that Lord Voldemort was looking for him and that is the town of Pevensy on the south coast."

Ron had another strange moment of deja-vu and frowned to himself.

"I've heard of that place somewhere."

"From your brothers maybe? I don't know exactly how they came upon it but they found the Pevensy stone chest of an old friend of mine. To add to the miracle they discovered the correct way to use it, those enterprising young men never cease to amaze me."

Ron wasn't in any kind of mood to hear how wonderful another person thought the twins were again, it was amazing really considering how disapproving everybody was regarding their antics that the second they started making money people suddenly had all this respect for them.

"And Fawkes?" Ron asked.

"Fawkes should be there, if he has not been captured of course, and I regret to have to prepare you for this fact but I fear the dark lord and his followers may already be waiting for you."

"What?" Ron exclaimed as he thought of dragging his friends into such a blatant trap, "They can't go; I can't take them into that, what kind of plan is that?"

"Ron, Ron, please don't panic. I am simply being honest with you about what the three of you may find there, I do not intend to risk any of you. Do you understand?"

"Not really," Ron said, a little surprised at himself for being stroppy with Dumbledore.

Dumbledore seemed to ignore his attitude however.

"Do you trust me?" he asked as he looked over the top of his glasses and right into Ron's eyes.

Why does he need to wear glasses anyway if he's dead?

"Of course I do," Ron said with a huff.

"But you don't like the idea do you?"

Ron shook his head and looked down at the blur that was his feet. He glanced at his left arm and saw that he was wearing one of the bond of blood hoops around his bicep. He wouldn't be able to leave Hermione behind even if Dumbledore had wanted him to.

"Ron I will be there, I will not leave you and you know how powerful you can be when the two of us join forces. I only have a short amount of time with you and I want to be of use."

"But..."

"I can see Harry and Miss Granger to defend them for you," Dumbledore added before Ron could even begin his next line of protest.

"Yeah, I forgot about that," he said, relaxing a little more about this plan now, "ok let's go."

Ron reached out his arms on either side of himself and began to feel around for Harry and Hermione. He saw that there was a shadow right beside him and made a grab for it. It was soft and warm and something told him that he had his hand on Hermione. He reached out further on his left and still couldn't find Harry.

"Harry we need to go now, take my arm," Ron soon felt a pressure around his elbow and looked back up at Dumbledore, "right. Wands out at the ready ok?"

Dumbledore raised an eyebrow as he heard Ron's cautious warning to his friends.

"Now Ronald we may be lucky but..."

"That's not how things tend to work out for us is it?" he smiled.

"No we're not, very true, and Voldemort's soul rests in Fawkes so that gives them a connection that the dark lord can follow so it's very likely we will be thrown straight into battle."

Ron nodded and Dumbledore stepped up to Ron and placed his hand upon his shoulder to send him the image of the place they needed to apparate to. Ron was feeling very anxious, this time for his friends wellbeing and not his own, and Dumbledore frowned at him before a flicker lit up his grey eyes and he leaned in towards Ron's ear with a smile growing on his lips as he did.

"In answer to your earlier question Ronald, I don't need clothes either but I'm sure you appreciate my appearing to you fully dressed!" the old ghost whispered.

Ron gave a revolted shudder at the image now planted in his head while Dumbledore chuckled.

"There's no law that says you can't go into battle with a smile on your face Ronald, now send us on our way!"

Ron disapparated while semi disgusted and partially laughing.

They appeared in a swirl of bright daylight and rich green grass. Ron released Harry and Hermione while Dumbledore quickly surveyed their surroundings and Ron tried to make out what he could through his blurred vision. There was a jagged dark building of some kind just ahead of him and a broken wall around them, like some kind of crumbling boundary, and no other black shadows other than those of his two friends.

"Are they here?" Ron asked the Dumbledore nervously.

"I can't say Ronald," Dumbledore said, he seemed to be a little on edge himself, as if this wasn't what he expected to find at all," something is definitely not as it should be here, instruct Harry and Miss Granger to be alert."

"Be alert you guys, something's not right," Ron said to the shadows.

"Ron duck!" Dumbledore suddenly yelled and Ron felt the silver figure thrust him downwards into the ground.

"Where, where are they, I can't see?" Ron gasped as he tried to see what he was being protected from and finding nothing.

Dumbledore bent over him and shot a surge of power into him, suddenly his surroundings were a little clearer but he still couldn't see any people around.

"Back on your feet, turn to your right; destroy that arrow slit to the right of the drawbridge. Now Ron!"

Ron didn't have his wand in his hand and yet the power in him somehow made that not matter. He held his hand out to the arrow slit Dumbledore had spoken of and thought he saw a shadow there.

"Dirvo!" Ron yelled and felt the spell shooting down his arm and out through his fingertips.

The spell seemed to hit something before it reached the wall beside what he could now see was a drawbridge.

"Excellent Ronald, same spot, hold him!" Dumbledore said; his eyes alight and directed at the spot Ron had just attacked. Ron was really confused about this battle with an invisible enemy but went ahead and did as he was instructed anyway.

"Captivas!"

Ron glanced over to Dumbledore for a reaction to his spell and saw his old headmaster's face fill with fear and the spirit ran behind him and stabbed him in the back with something ice cold that made his whole body stiffen with a surge of intense power. He felt Dumbledore's strength and power inside him and his hands were shaking with the extra energy that now waited to thrust out of them.

"Contego! Detino!" Ron heard himself yelling while Dumbledore did the same inside his head.

'Hold firm on that spot Ronald' Dumbledore instructed him and Ron felt the confusing sensation of controlling one spell while another part of his body conjured a whole new one and threw it in another direction.

"Oppugno!"

His whole body would've been shaking if it weren't for the incredible surge of strength that made his back arch and his entire body hold its unnaturally rigid posture as if he was being struck by a never ending bolt of lightning.

He felt the sudden urge to throw both hands to the ground at his feet and as he did he heard Dumbledore inside his head instructing him to perform a release spell on the shadow at his feet.

"Solvo!"

Before Ron could take a breath from delivering that last spell Dumbledore got him to lift his arms in front of him, the old dead wizard was worried about something, he could feel it inside him, and was shouting through Ron's mouth.

"No Tom, I won't let you do this, Everbero!"

Ron felt a surge of power flow through his mind and down his arms, through his fingertips and bursting out around himself for several feet.

"Contineo!"

'No not now Ron, don't reject me yet, not now!' Dumbledore was pleading from inside his head but Ron wasn't aware that he was doing anything to Dumbledore.

Suddenly Ron saw a shimmering light surrounding him and felt the cold intrusion leave his back where it had first entered. He felt suddenly breathless and unsteady while an icy trickle of sweat ran down his spine and the silver form of Dumbledore stood at his side once again.

"Harry has been hurt Ron, you must heal him quickly."

"What?" Ron gasped, and began to feel around himself blindly, "Harry where are you, are you alright?"

"Drop to your knees Ron, I will show you where to place your hands."

Ron fell down hard onto his knees and fumbled around desperately before Dumbledore placed his ghostly hands on top of Ron's and guided them onto a still black shadow and he felt a body beneath his palms.

Ron dropped to his knees and fumbled around for Harry's body, Hermione was scanning the situation outside

"Sano! Corrigo sano!" Ron completed the spell and turned when he heard Dumbledore practically screaming his name in fear.

"Ron no!" the spirit yelled before jumping before him and standing tall and trying to hurl his own protection spell into the distance without using Ron to channel it for him.

Ron felt something hitting him and his vision went hazy again as Dumbledore looked both mortified and furious as he threw his arms forward and shouted out a spell at the same moment that two brilliant lights appeared from either side of him, seeming to come from the shadows that stood at either side of him.

"Reluctor!"

Ron felt his energy draining away, as if it was trickling out through the palms of his hands that rested flat on the grass beneath him. He felt so tired and weak as he heard Dumbledore throwing as many defensive spells out around them as possible. Ron felt his elbows give way and his arms could no longer support his body weight. He hit the ground face down and wondered if Harry and Hermione were alright. That thought made him need to do something, one last thing to help them, before he ran out of steam altogether. He grimaced and lifted his right arm with considerable effort and mumbled weakly.

"Acerbus!"

As the spell was performed Ron collapsed completely and could no longer lift his own head. He saw the shadow they had all been fighting against disappear in the darkness he had created and felt a small degree of satisfaction that they were now as blind as he had to be during most of the fight. He barely had the strength to breathe now that he was lying on his chest. He tried to keep his eyes open and watch Dumbledore but it was too dark and he couldn't make anything out.

"Ronald stay alert," he could hear Dumbledore saying, "Ron do you hear me?"

He felt the last of his strength melting away like butter in a frying pan and used the last of his energy to respond to his protector. He opened his eyes again and saw that the spells were still flying back and forth out of the black cloud while his ghostly companion looked over him with desperation. He tried one last time to help them.

"Oppugno!" he didn't even know if he had said the spell out loud.

"No Ronald, no more magic, you need to conserve the last of your strength to keep your heart beating. I am almost out of time. Tell Miss Granger to get the three of you out of here while I try to deliver one last diversion on my own."

Ron's eyes began to close and he didn't think that he even had it in him to lift his little finger anymore.

"Ron no!" Dumbledore's voice demanded, Ron almost thought he sounded scared, "Vivificus!"

He felt a warm invisible hand stroke him and he forced his eyelids open again and swallowed.

"Herm..." he barely said, "...Hermione, Her-minnie...?"

"Tell her Ron, now!" Dumbledore pleaded.

Ron heard Dumbledore bellow out seven consecutive spells directed on all sides of them and he used everything he had left in him to pass on Dumbledore's message.

"Time's up, get us out of here."

As Dumbledore's final incantation was delivered the blackness enveloped him and a thick suffocating weight pushed Ron down into unconsciousness.

Something had gone very wrong.

He could hear crying.

He couldn't lift his eyelids open, it felt as if somebody had sealed them shut with a permanent sticking charm, and it was wearing him out to even try. So he didn't try anymore. He stopped trying. He fell back into the numbness of sleep.

He felt a pressure on his chest and something was flickering outside his closed eyelids, it was like flashing lights, and he managed to open his eyes a crack. He saw Hermione dropping her head down onto his chest and listening for something. She made a whimpering sound before looking up and aiming her wand at him again. She saw him looking at her and let out a gasp.

“You're alive!”

He swallowed and tried to part his lips to speak but he felt tired again and his eyes were closing themselves again. Hermione's hand was tapping his face and she was shouting something at him. Then the flashes started once more and he thought he heard her casting spells before her voice faded away and he was lost again.

Something bright illuminated his entire face and his eyes sprung open, he squinted as the bright light dispersed and Hermione stroked his face and smiled down at him. She was talking to him, he didn't know how long she had been doing that, and he couldn't hear her. Then her voice grew audible and something within his body made him draw a deep intake of breath.

“Oh thank Merlin,” Hermione was saying as she took his hand and kissed it, then she looked up at the ceiling, “thank you, thank you, thank you!”

“Herm…” he tried to speak but his voice seemed to have been sucked away from him as the air left his lungs.

Hermione looked back down at him and put a finger to his lips.

“Don't try to speak Ron, you're still not strong enough yet, I'm going to try some more spells just to make sure your heart doesn't give out again…I mean, never mind. Just stay still and don't try to talk alright?”

He blinked at her and she smiled, leaning over to kiss him and stroke the side of his face, she looked as if she had been up all night he thought.

“Don't worry about anything ok? I'm fine, Harry's going to be fine and you're going to be fine as long as you do as you're told ok?”

He looked at her and wondered what had happened to the three of them.

“Ok?” she asked again and he blinked again, “Good now I've got to go to Fred and George's place to get something to heal Harry's injuries and to make you a strengthening solution so I'll be gone a little while.”

He nodded and felt as if he'd just run up a flight of stairs.

“I said don't move! Didn't I say don't move? I mean it Ron, not even little things like nodding or talking alright? My spells aren't strong enough to keep you alive if you start exerting yourself and I don't want to see you even thinking about picking up your wand and doing magic until we get you back to St Nectan's Glen for another meditation understand?”

He blinked again and she set about casting more strengthening spells at him. Afterwards she rested her head back onto his chest and listened again. She listened for quite a while before looking up at him and wiping her face.

“It's still not good enough Ron but at least I can hear it now, it was barely there when we first got here, I don't want to leave you but there's nothing else I can do. We need Fred and George's miracle cures.”

Ron was sick of blinking, he wanted to talk, he wanted to at least thank her or tell her not to worry but he knew that she'd get angry with him for trying to do so.

She got to her feet and leaned over him, kissing his forehead and pushing the hair back from his face with a sad smile.

“I'll be back soon; don't do anything stupid, I love you.”

He opened his mouth and she stared down at him sternly, silently warning him of the wrath he would feel if he dared to try to speak after all she had said to him just now. He swallowed and mouthed the words ‘I love you' back to her.

She lost her steely glare and lifted her wand to his face with tearful eyes.

“Get some rest Ron, please. Obdormio!”

Once again the world was pulled away from him and everything was swallowed up in the darkness.

Chapter Eighteen - Recharging

Something poked Ron in the side of his head. He felt the soft pillow against his face and the comfortable surface he was laying upon, he wasn't in another cave, he liked that he was comfortable. He felt as if he could sleep forever. Well he would be able to sleep forever if it weren't for the thing poking him in the face right now.

He let out a groan of annoyance as he turned his head away from the direction of the evil prodder. He felt sleep embracing him once again and began to float away with it when something nudged him in the back of the head.

"Get off," he mumbled.

He tried to roll over onto his side, further away from this aggravating bedfellow of his, and lifted his shoulder. That was has far as he was able to get though. His shoulder fell back down and he realised that he hadn't moved at all. His body was too heavy. The ever present poker nudged him in the back of the head again and Ron heard Harry's voice, sounding very rough indeed, calling out to him.

"Ron, wake up, something's wrong."

He opened his eyes and looked to the source of his friend's voice without moving anything but his eyes and saw that Harry was lying beside him, his head at Ron's feet, and looking as if he had been beneath a stampede.

"What's up?" Ron asked, noticing how weak his own voice sounded.

"I don't know where we are and I don't know where Hermione is," Harry croaked again.

Ron felt as if the air around him was some form of sleeping draught, just being awake was making him tired, and he felt his eyes closing as he replied.

"She's gone out to get ingredients..."

His eyes closed and he felt himself drifting off back into welcoming unconsciousness once again. His brain reminded him that he hadn't really filled Harry in with enough information to alleviate his worries and forced his eyes open a little more to look back at him. He decided that he should sit up a bit and try to keep himself awake as he knew that he'd never be able to engage himself in conversation while in the position he currently was. He tried to lift himself up the bed a little with his arms but couldn't even manage a half hearted wriggle. He made do with just shifting his body weight over to the edge of the bed and hoping that he could maybe balance on one of his elbows.

"...for a potion," he managed to offer as a form of completion to his earlier sentence.

While Harry frowned at him Ron realised that holding his own weight up on his crooked elbow was unusually exhausting and desperately wanted to lie back down again.

"A potion for what?" he heard Harry asking him.

He couldn't do this whole conversation thing, it wasn't a good idea, hadn't Hermione said something about him not talking he wondered? He tried to jerk his shoulders up into a shrug to let Harry know that he didn't have a clue about anything Hermione was doing; only that she was doing it right now, and that was when he realised that he couldn't see Harry anymore.

"Ron!" Harry was trying to raise his voice to get Ron's attention but his voice was very raw so it was more of a haggard whisper.

Ron's head jerked as he realised that he couldn't see Harry because his eyes were closed again and he parted his heavy lids once more to peer out at his battered friend.

"I shrugged," he managed to respond.

"No you didn't, Ron are you ok?"

Ron took a great tiring breath in before struggling to pull himself up a little more but all he accomplished was hauling his dead weight of a body closer to the edge of the mattress. He remembered now, Hermione told him he had been hurt or something in the battle, which must be why Harry was so worried, Ron looked back at his friend and did his best to smile reassuringly.

"I'm just tired. Are you ok mate?"

Harry winced and shook his head.

"Is there anything I can do?" Ron asked before fighting back the incredible urge to lie on his back again and pass out.

"I don't know, you don't seem to be able to do much at all," Harry had answered.

Ron smiled again, Harry was sounding really rough and looked even rougher, and he'd put up with any discomfort rather than complain. Ron knew that he had torn himself up inside worrying about him while he was recovering from the coffin and all through the growing insanity and felt that it was time somebody looked after Harry for a change.

"Seriously Harry, what do you need?"

"Water," Harry said after swallowing uncomfortably.

Ron gave a single nod and looked around for his wand, spotting it eventually lying on his bedside table.

"I'll get you some," Ron said.

He leaned over and tried to tell his arm to move over and pick the wand up but all he seemed able to do was twitch his fingers a little. He concentrated and tried to lift his arm again.

"Any time Ron," Harry said with a sigh.

Ron was getting annoyed now and tried to throw his arm forward by jerking his shoulder in the direction he wanted his arm to move but he wasn't able to get any further than just having his wrist dangling over the edge of the mattress. He steeled himself for plan B, and then searched his brain to see if there was a plan B, and he stretched his fingers out to try and hook the middle one over the side of his bedside table which was just in reach. He missed the first time but managed to get it the second time around and pulled his hand forward with his middle finger, his other fingers crawling along the surface as soon as they reached it, and pulling his hand and his limp arm along behind until they reached his wand.

"Ron what's wrong with you?" Harry asked sounding more than a little concerned for him and his epic struggle to reach over eight inches and pick up a wooden stick.

What's wrong with me? I'm bloody knackered that's what's wrong with me!

"I'm just really tired," Ron pushed another reassuring smile onto his face while edging his hand over to the wand, "I'll get it in a minute, don't worry."

His fingers curled around the wand and his hand slipped off the bedside table, which in turn pulled his arm off the edge of the bed, and Ron fell off the edge of the mattress and onto the floor.

Maybe I'll just sleep here. Yeah, this is pretty comfortable, nice carpet, no rocky cave floor like I'm used to. I'll just close my eyes for a minute or two...

"Ron are you ok?"

Oh come on can't you just wait a little bit longer mate?

"Just gimme a second," Ron mumbled into the carpet as he waited for his eyes to open again, "I'm getting to it."

Ron took a deep breath and made himself open his eyes again. He could do this, this was nothing, he could crawl. If babies can crawl then he should be able to. He gritted his teeth and pushed himself up onto his hands and knees and began crawling very slowly alongside the bed.

Why is this so hard?

He felt a pain in his chest and his arms were getting shaky but still he kept on crawling to the far end of the bed. The far end of the bed felt like miles away to him. When he eventually got there he grabbed the sheet that hung loosely over the side of the bed and pulled himself up into the sitting position, leaning his body weight against the mattress and trying his very hardest not to sound out of breath.

"There," Ron said with an embarrassing amount of pride for such a pathetic accomplishment before wondering what he had put himself through all that for in the first place, "what did I want to come down here for again?"

Harry was smiling at him sympathetically before wincing and pointing at his throat.

"Water please," he struggled to say.

"Oh right," Ron tried not to sound as tired as he felt and looked down at the wand in his limp hand on the floor, he wondered how he was going to get away with getting his hand up onto the bed without letting Harry see that he couldn't actually lift it himself, "I just need to..."

He didn't really know what to say so he just left it at that. He also doubted his ability to undertake any kind of physical exertion while talking at the same time and had decided to concentrate on the matter at hand. He bit his lip and tried to flip his hand up onto his lap with a jerk of the shoulder like he had done before. He managed it but it wasn't easy and he couldn't hide just how out of breath this was making him now. Why was he so tired; what had that evil so-and-so done to him the night before anyway? His little moment of anger and frustration at his situation must've given him a bit of adrenaline rush as he practically threw his wand arm up onto the bed like a beater swinging their bat. He felt a twinge of pain in his chest again and tried not to worry about what Hermione had said about his heart earlier, she was just being melodramatic like she always was, and looked up at Harry who was looking incredibly worried about him.

Ron smiled at him to let him know he was fine before trying to point his wand at him and realising that he had neglected to bring along anything to actually put Harry's water into. What was he supposed to do, squirt it straight from the tip of his wand into the guy's face? He let out a growl of frustration as he dropped his face into the blanket at having gone to all that effort and still not even being vaguely near completion of his task.

"I forgot the fucking cup!"

He had gone from battling the whole of Gringotts, fighting off Death Eaters, and tunnelling out of a grave with his bare hands to letting himself be beaten by a glass of bloody water.

No, this will not be how I die; I will not be remembered as Harry Potter's friend Ron Weasley, the bloke who had a heart attack trying to get him a drink!

Ron's head lifted again and he knew that dying after getting somebody a drink was a hell of a lot less humiliating than dying in the process of getting somebody a drink so he would get Harry this drink if it killed him. Ron hesitated for a moment and wondered just how likely it would be that it would kill him.

Oh well there are worse ways to die, Dean once told me about this bloke called Elvis who died sitting on the toilet, at least my pants aren't around my ankles eh?

He looked around and saw a nasty looking ceramic mug lying on the floor, it must've been knocked over when Hermione was levitating them both into the room last night, and decided that it was his best bet.

"There's one on the floor over there, lemme just..." Ron angled his wand at the cup and tried not to worry that he couldn't even lift it anymore, "...Accio cup!"

The cup dragged three inches before coming to a halt.

Oh this isn't good, this isn't good at all.

"Come on you can do this," he hissed at himself under his breath before looking up at the cup, just a foot away from him and yet agonisingly far in his current condition, and tried again, "Accio cup!"

The cup moved a little further this time, a whole five inches, but Ron wasn't really able to celebrate his improvement as he felt his fingers going cold and his head lolling sleepily. His eyes were closing and he still hadn't managed to get Harry his drink.

"Ron seriously, I'll wait for Hermione," Harry began before being interrupted by the sound of a door opening and footsteps getting closer.

"Ron!" Hermione's voice all but screamed with fear and anger, "What did I tell you?"

Ron lifted his head and forced his eyes open a little.

She's looks really pissed-off. Maybe being dead won't be so bad.

"What?" he mumbled.

Hermione dropped to her knees and took Ron's wand out of his hand.

"Stay in bed that's what I said, don't move, do you remember?"

Ron barely managed a shrug and his eyes began to close again. Now that she was here Harry could have his drink and he could finally get back to sleep.

"You said a lot of things."

"Welcome back Harry, I hope you're not too uncomfortable," he heard her saying.

The silent treatment, he could deal with that, the less she nagged the faster he could get back to sleep.

"I've been worse off," Harry was saying, "and it's my fault, I asked Ron to get me some water. I didn't know he...what is wrong with him?"

Ron's head jerked up again and one eye opened.

"I told you, I'm just tired."

Hermione scowled at Ron and reached into her coat pocket to pull out the silver hoops. She forced one of them up his arm and the other onto herself.

"Right, now you have to stay still until your potion is brewed and no complaints!"

"I'm not going anywhere but bed," Ron barely grumbled as his open eye closed once more.

"I can't believe you got out of bed, I can't believe you survived getting out of bed..." she was chattering as her voice began to fade away into nothing and Ron let himself recover from all the activity that morning.

He wondered what would happen to him if his somnambulist guide showed up to take him somewhere right now. He was kind of curious to know what would happen to both of them if he died while under their influence. He was curious but not curious to ever want to find out first hand. He heard Hermione's voice drifting back into clarity for a fraction of a second before feeling his head been laid upon something soft and he chose that very moment to stop thinking altogether.

"Drink this," he found himself being ordered before he had even woken up properly.

Something wet and utterly vile was being poured down his throat while somebody massaged his throat to make him swallow and another person who was quite strong held his hands at his sides, stopping him from batting away the repulsive drink. His eyes focused and blinked in the sunlight. Hermione was holding the chipped mug and force feeding him its contents while Harry met his eye and tried to smile reassuringly at him. He was about to ask them what the hell they thought they were doing when a wave of energy came over him and his lungs made him inhale deeply. In doing this he choked a little on the liquid still being manipulated down his throat.

"Oh sorry," Hermione frowned and brushed the spatter marks off of herself, "I suppose that means you can swallow it yourself now does it?"

"Hermione what are you doing, that stuff's dreadful?" Ron said, still coughing some of it out of his windpipe.

Harry released the hold on him and pulled him forward to slap him roughly on the back.

"Cough up mate; you're going to be fine now."

Ron was about to ask again what they were doing to him when Hermione slapped Harry's shoulder in annoyance.

"Harry not so hard, we don't know that yet."

Hermione put her head down and pressed her ear to his chest. Ron cleared his throat and glanced up at Harry for an explanation but he was occupied with watching Hermione and biting his lip.

"Well?" he asked her as she pulled back and sighed.

"It's pretty strong," she nodded.

Ron moved his head into her eye line to get her attention.

"Am I going to be told what's going on at any point?"

"We're taking you back to the glen to meditate that's what," Harry said as he took Ron's hand and hauled him up to his feet.

Hermione stood and put her arm around his waist, looking up at him and looking incredibly tired herself now.

"We've got your heart back up to speed but you really need an all over recharge," she smiled.

He remembered how concerned she had been about his heart now and frowned back down at her.

"Min, my heart, it didn't stop did it?"

She squeezed him a little tighter as she answered.

"No, it was there all the time; I just...couldn't find it for a while."

"Wow," he found himself saying as the three of them moved into the living room of their cottage hideout to disapparate back where they had come from.

Harry put a hand on Ron's shoulder and shoved him gently. When Ron turned and raised a questioning eyebrow Harry narrowed his eyes and folded his arms.

"You are going to stop worrying us at some point aren't you?"

"I'm doing my best," he chuckled.

The waterfall at St Nectans Glen thundered in the background, Hermione and Ron were sitting opposite each other, legs crossed and eyes closed in meditation

"In...and out..." Hermione was trying to teach him how to meditate seeing as he'd never actually done it consciously, "and then you say vivificus when you breathe out..."

"Vivificus, right," he nodded and tried to shake out his arms to hang loosely the way she had described them to him.

"After that you say corroboro. Now alternate the two phrases with me ok?" Hermione said and Ron nodded, “Right so in...vivificus...in...corroboro...in...vivificus..."

"You're supposed to have your eyes closed," Harry called across to them and they both complied.

Ron was breathing in and exhaling the incantations just the way he was supposed to do. He didn't feel as if anything was happening to him. It was quite relaxing but he didn't really feel any better physically. He tried to clear his mind, maybe it was all his thoughts and expectations that were getting in the way.

"Vivificus...corroboro...vivificus...corroboro...vivific..."

"I must be doing it wrong!" Hermione's voice suddenly hissed and Ron opened his eyes to see her looking enormously annoyed with herself.

"What's the matter?" Ron said as he squinted in the bright sunlight and leaned forward to rub her arm reassuringly.

"It should be working by now, what am I doing wrong?"

"Nothing," Ron smiled at her, "you're doing nothing wrong, it's probably me. I bet it's my fault, don't be so hard on yourself Min."

Hermione allowed herself to smile at this, she seemed to have accepted Minnie as a term of endearment without complaint now, but she still looked bitterly disappointed. Harry walked over to the two of them and crouched down. He suggested that maybe the spirit was doing something more for Ron on his side that Hermione wasn't able to recreate and that they should put Ron to sleep to let him take him through it. She agreed without much need for persuasion and put Ron into a deep sleep without him giving her any lip like last time. It seemed that they were all too weary to waste time arguing with each other anymore.

Ron and Dumbledore had put in almost a full half hour of healing meditation, this time Dumbledore spread the field of the power to cover Ron's entire body and not just his head, before Dumbledore ended it and smiled down at Ron warmly.

"You are fully restored my dear friend. May I say I thought you fought incredibly well last night, beyond the point many aurors would have lain down and let others defend them, and almost to the point of self destruction which is not something I would like to see again Ronald? Please try not to ignore people when they tell you to stop exerting yourself, we don't do it just for the sake of having something to say you know?"

Ron smiled.

"Have Harry and Miss Granger filled you in on all the details of the battle last night now?"

Ron responded with a slight nod and a 'hmm' of recollection.

"And you didn't think that anything sounded odd?"

Ron frowned at the old man and thought back over the story as it had been told to him again.

"Maybe somebody or something or both wasn't at their master's side when they are almost ever-present with their dark lord?"

Ron's eyes were suddenly wide and he called out loud.

"Harry?"

He looked around for a shadow and soon felt a weight upon his shoulder and Dumbledore nodded with encouragement.

"He's there Ron, tell him."

"Wormtail wasn't there, last night he wasn't there, and neither was Nagini. They're together. We've got to find the rat."

Dumbledore beamed at him as he got to his feet.

"Well done Ronald, you never cease to impress me you know?"

Dumbledore was swallowed up in a brilliant white light and Ron was swallowed up by an inescapable darkness as he slumped backwards and closed his eyes.

Something shook him awake from the inside out and he felt a hand at his back holding him up. He gave a cough as he sat himself up and opened his eyes. Hermione was right in front of him, he blinked and smiled at her in the hope that their plan had worked.

"So did I do it right that time?" he asked.

She grinned and nodded.

"Perfectly Ron, how do you feel?"

Ron shrugged, he was getting really tired of answering that question, and there were only so many ways of saying fine after all.

"Well I used to use my hands," he gave a mischievous smirk as Harry gave a tut and shoved him over.

"You're funny Ron, I'll save that laugh for when I'm having a really bad day," Harry stood up and watched as Hermione did the same, bending to offer Ron and hand up, "seriously mate, are you ok now?"

"Much better, thanks you two," Ron said as he gave Harry a brotherly slap on the back.

"I don't know what you're thanking me for, I didn't do anything," Hermione snorted, putting herself down seemed to be her favourite thing at the moment.

Ron pulled her into a hug that was anything but brotherly.

"You got me here."

Hermione smiled into his chest and lifted herself up onto tip toes to plant a brief kiss on his lips. Harry cleared his throat and the two of them turned to look at him without separating from each other.

"So you had a quick epiphany before you woke up," Harry began.

Ron's eye opened wide and he looked down at his crotch instinctively.

"I what?"

Hermione howled with laughter and shoved him playfully. Harry rolled his eyes and shook his head.

"An epiphany you pillock, a brainstorm."

"Oh brainstorm and pillock in the same sentence, there's an oxymoron for you," Hermione chuckled.

"What's with all these words are we playing Scrabble or something?" Ron huffed while the others became even more amused.

Hermione put her arm back around his waist again and the three of them began walking towards the cave while Harry finished sniggering and explained that Ron had come up with a way of tracking down Nagini.

"Hunting down Pettigrew, sounds like just the quest I could really enjoy. So where do we start Min?"

Chapter Nineteen - Reunions

They had been pondering the Pettigrew problem for some time now. There must be a way to track down an animagus; it was a magical transformation therefore some kind of magical trail must have been left behind somewhere.

"Well I'm not sure if Wormtail's a great hider or not. I mean he did manage to stay hidden for twelve years but at the same time he also managed to make his escape when he knew Sirius was onto him and not have the brains to get any further than Hagrid's hut in all that time he was gone."

"Hagrid," Hermione said thoughtfully, Ron and Harry looked at each other and shared a bemused shrug, "he'd know how to catch a snake wouldn't he?"

Harry seemed quite happy about the idea of seeing Hagrid again and was full of enthusiasm.

"We'll go to the Three Broomsticks and send him an owl."

Ron wasn't quite so eager to see the half giant though. It wasn't that Ron didn't like Hagrid, nothing could be further from the truth, it was just that Hagrid tended to like things that could kill Ron a little too much. He pictured the great hairy softie introducing Grawp to the multiple offspring of Aragog and wondering why it wasn't a love-in. He also wasn't too keen about going to Hogsmede for a flying visit and then receiving an angry letter from his sister when she inevitably found out he'd been in town and not come to see her.

She had been quite upset the last time he'd seen her. She had just had a nasty row with Harry about him leaving her behind to keep her safe while risking the life of her brother without a second thought. That had hurt Harry more than he had let on at the time, Ron knew that, and he also knew that Ginny would kill him if she ever found out how badly the quest had gone for them so far. For all their bickering and sibling teasing Ron and Ginny were closer to each other than any of their other brothers. She could drive him crazy and some days he wanted to shove her head first into a bowl of porridge but when she hurt so did he and he knew that she worried about him almost as much as his mother did. He had to admit, he was quite a magnet for peril.

He knew she would be worrying, he hadn't sent her an owl or anything, and their mother was a terrible liar so Ginny would have known that something had gone wrong. Maybe she knew they went back to the Burrow for a few days. Maybe he should ask Hagrid to pass on a message to her or something. Maybe Hagrid could let him go in to see her, Fred and George had showed up unannounced on his birthday hadn't they? Well he had been told they had, he never actually got to see them what with the whole poisoning thing, but they hadn't finished their Hogwarts education and they were allowed to come back to see their family.

"Maybe I could go and see..." Ron stopped himself when he realised that Harry might not want to have to think about Ginny right now, "...some of the guys."

He was obviously not quite as good at covering up as he had hoped; maybe he got that from his mother, and felt Harry's foot kicking at his own.

"You should go and see Ginny, she'd really like that Ron, I bet she's really missing you," Harry smiled.

Ron felt bad for his friend, he probably wanted to see Ginny too, or maybe that was the last thing he wanted and Ron had just dragged her back into his head with a painful vengeance.

"You could come?" he suggested, doubtfully.

"You and I both know that's not a good idea," Harry said with wide eyes.

Ron lowered his head and felt Hermione taking his hand and giving it a squeeze.

"Go and see your sister Ron, we'll talk to Hagrid and fill you in when you get back."

He looked up at her and couldn't imagine what it would have felt like if he hadn't been able to carry on with the mission and been left back at the Burrow worrying about Hermione. It would have been worse for Ginny. It wasn't just Harry out there risking his life but her brother and her friend as well. He owed her a visit, some comfort and reassurance at least, and he nodded. He was going back to Hogwarts.

Ron made his way toward the portrait hole with Neville. His old roommate had spotted him heading up to McGonagall's office to ask her for the password to the Gryffindor common room and told him that he was just on his way back after charms class and they had been chatting non-stop ever since.

So you've been all over the place then?" Neville had asked.

"Pretty much, I didn't get to go to Wales though," Ron shrugged.

"Why's that," Neville frowned as he stood outside the portrait hole, "did you get separated or something?"

"Um," Ron had been trying to keep the talk of their mission so far to a minimum but it was hard when Neville was being as inquisitive as he was, "no I just...I couldn't go that's all."

"Oh well Ginny'll be pleased to see you, ballyhoo," Neville turned and said to the fat lady before continuing on as if he hadn't interrupted his sentence at all, "I've been looking out for her for you. She's been scouring the Daily Prophet for news of the three of you and she got very upset about a letter from home but when I read it it didn't say anything other than you'd stopped by for a visit."

Ron felt as if his head was spinning as they climbed through the portrait hole.

"Wait, what's this, I stopped by where?"

"Your mum's, she wrote to Ginny and said you'd come home for a visit and Ginny went mental."

Oh great, well done mum, what must she have read into that?

"Well thanks for looking out for her mate I really appreciate..."

"Ron!" Seamus and Dean exclaimed in unison.

"Oh hi guys," he grinned as the mini reunion of his roommates began to unfold.

"Where's Harry?" Dean said, looking over Ron's shoulder as if Harry was prone to hiding behind him from time to time.

"Where've ya been? When you never came back we thought...well we didn't know what to think and your sister wasn't very informative," Seamus babbled excitedly.

"Well she doesn't bloody talk to me at all anymore!" snorted Dean.

"Er well..." Ron began.

"I mean I only asked her why you hadn't come back to school and she practically knocked me out!" Dean said, fairly offended that he was being blamed for the absence of another Weasley at Hogwarts.

"Will you shut up about your ex and let the man talk?" Seamus huffed, "So what happened at Gringotts then, that was you three weren't it? I've got a bet with Ernie Macmillan that..."

Ron's throat suddenly went dry and he felt the need to run away and hide in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom.

"What? How do you...what makes you think it was me...us I mean?"

Seamus took Ron's sudden terror as evidence enough that it was indeed him who had caused all the havoc at Gringots that night and simply folded his arms smugly. Dean looked at him mightily impressed before slapping him on the shoulder and nodding them over to sit down by the fire.

"Well to be honest mate," Dean said with a shrug, "after the Department of Mysteries we all know that a bunch of Death Eaters either arrested or dead has got to be down to you three somehow and considering the bizarre circumstances of the robbery..."

"What bizarre circumstances?" Ron snapped, he tried to remember the exact words of the newspaper article but could only recall the horrific description of the unforgivable curses he had used in his sleep.

Neville was sitting forward in his seat and lowering his voice as the portrait hole opened again and a crowd of people came pouring in, the others mirrored his movement to listen.

"Well somebody went to a lot of trouble to take no money whatsoever didn't they? This wasn't a proper robbery, this was like the one in our first year that professor Quirrel did and that was for the Philosopher's stone wasn't it? This had your mission written all over it."

Ron frowned and hoped that nobody else was so easily able to connect him to the break in, he didn't fancy surviving everything he had already lived through only to spend the rest of his life in Azkaban.

"So what was it you took then?" Seamus asked eyes wide.

Ron opened his mouth to try and tell them to keep this to themselves and that he couldn't really tell them anything until this was all over and maybe not even then when another voice interrupted him before he could even begin.

"Listen, this is D.A. business right Ron?" Neville said, casting a glance over at Ron who breathed a sigh of relief and nodded, "And as D.A. members we should respect the secrecy of the D.A. and keep this to ourselves. This is a mission in progress and not idle gossip."

"Bloody hell Neville what happened to you?" Ron said with disbelief.

Neville blushed and looked into the fire while Dean and Seamus laughed.

"He became all empowered when he got a girlfriend," Seamus chuckled.

"You got a girlfriend?" Ron asked, almost feeling proud of his friend for such an accomplishment, "Who is she, is it Luna?"

Neville glanced back and shook his head, face burning bright red.

"Susan Bones," he mumbled, "we kind of bonded over y'know family stuff."

Ron's smile faded as he remembered that Voldemort had been a destructive force in both the Longbottom's and the Bones' lives and nodded.

"Good for you," he said as he punched him in the arm, "she's cool."

Neville looked incredibly pleased with himself just as Seamus and Dean looked incredibly frightened at something over Ron's shoulder and quickly averted their eyes. Ron prepared himself for the wrath of Ginny.

"Ron?"

That wasn't Ginny's voice. That was another voice he knew well. That was the last voice he ever wanted to hear right now. That was the voice of...

"Lavender?" he said meekly as he cringed and turned his head to meet the eyes of his former girlfriend.

"You're back?" she said, Parvatti at her side, attempting to hold her up apparently.

"No I'm...visiting Ginny," he said as he got to his feet and turned to face her properly.

Lavender's eyes darted around the common room before fixing back on him and growing even wider.

"Are you on your own?"

"No Harry and Her...no I'm not, we were in Hogsmede on...D.A. business and I thought I'd come in and see my sister."

Lavender seemed to just stare into him with even more intensity and she didn't say another word to him. She was on the verge of explosion by the looks of it. Parvatti rubbed her back in an effort to calm her down and looked at Ron with an awkward smile.

"Hi Ron, you look well"

"Really?" Ron blinked.

"No," Parvatti said with a kind of apologetic honesty.

"Oh," Ron said as he felt himself deflate with confusion.

"Well I'll just be taking Ron down to the great hall for some lunch then," Neville said as he leapt to his feet and dragged Ron out of this most uncomfortable situation and back through the portrait hole, "I'm sure that's where Ginny must be by now."

"Yeah," Ron mumbled, still in shock as he and Lavender were pulled away from each other by their respective friends before any tears or shouting erupted, "Ginny..."

Ron was shoved back outside, where he tripped in a most undignified manner, and Neville closed the portrait hole just as the sound of Lavender's wailing began.

"Thanks for that," he said to Neville, still in a state of shock.

"Anytime," Neville chuckled as the set off for the stairs down to the great hall.

"I've never had an ex before," Ron explained to Neville as they entered the room Ron missed most of all at Hogwarts, when it was meal time at least, "I don't know what you're supposed to do with them."

"You're not supposed to do anything with them; you're supposed to avoid them."

"I didn't go looking for her!" Ron said with incredulity as a shrill exclamation pierced his eardrum and he turned to see his sister hurtling towards him at an unstoppable rate.

"Good Godric what are you doing here, what's happened, what's gone wrong?" she yammered just before slamming into him and squeezing him so tightly that he feared his eyes were about to bulge out of their sockets.

Ron could see that this little scene was drawing quite a lot of attention to him, and not just from the other students, McGonagall was getting to her feet at the teacher's table and peering down to see what all the commotion was about.

"Are you alright?" Ginny was still firing questions at him without leaving a pause for him to answer as she let him go and began her mini-mum scan for visible injuries or hardships, "Is it all over? Where are Harry and Hermione? What's going on Ron? You look thin have you been eating properly?"

"Gin please, I could've sent a picture of myself for all the part I'm playing in this conversation!" Ron snapped.

Neville leaned in to whisper into Ginny's ear, just loud enough for Ron to hear.

"Give him a break Ginny, he's just run into Lavender."

Ginny took this information with as much horror as she would if Neville had told her he had just been offered the cursed defence against the dark arts position.

"Oooh, I bet that was a barrel of laughs."

Ron rolled his eyes and heaved a deep sigh. Ginny seemed to finally be in a position to actually listen to him and tugged at his arm to come and sit with her. He allowed himself to be dragged behind his sister while turning to thank Neville for his help as his amused but sympathetic friend joined his girlfriend for lunch.

"So sit down you," Ginny ordered as she shoved him down and seated herself beside him, "and explain to me why you had to go back home."

"I didn't have to go back home I just decided to go back home for a visit, y'know, to put mum's mind at ease."

Ron was trying to disarm her with the winning smile but Ginny was using her sibling immunity to her best ability and not falling for it for a second. He looked away from her and decided that he may as well eat while he could, it was nice not to have to cook for a change, and he began to load up his plate with roast potatoes.

"Fred and George won't answer my owls either," Ginny said, as he began to fill her own plate while keeping a constant eye on Ron to read his reaction to anything she said.

Ron shrugged and scooped a small mountain of garden peas onto his plate beside the potatoes.

"That's my fault is it?" he asked as he avoided her eye.

Ginny sucked her teeth and plunged her fork into a slice of gammon.

"Well I tried to floo them a while back and got that shop girl who works for them, what's her name? Verity, that's it, well she said that they were both away because of a family emergency and that George would be back soon to do his shift. Why did they have to cover the shop in shifts eh Ron? What family emergency was I not informed about?"

Ron shook his head and wondered if there was any way out of this.

"Come on Gin, they're probably just skiving or staying out late with their girlfriends or something, why am I expected to answer for them?"

He looked across the table at a steaming dish of something yellow and lumpy that a third year girl was putting onto her plate and called over to her.

"Excuse me," the girl jumped at being addressed by the now pretty famous in his own right Ron Weasley, and froze in the middle of her ladling, "what's that you've got there?"

"It's...It's...It's..." she stammered nervously.

One of the girl's friends took pity on her and smiled down at him.

"It's cauliflower cheese."

Ron lifted his plate and leaned over the table, holding it out to the nervous third year.

"Cool, can you plonk a dollop on there for me please?"

The girl giggled and dropped the ladleful she had been suspending in mid air onto his plate. He grinned at her and sat back down, trying not to notice that the two girls were now blushing and giggling uncontrollably. He had noticed quite a bit of that the year before from the younger ones, he wondered when he went from the kind of boy girls crossed rooms to avoid to the kid who made women like Lavender go all...well, Lavender over him. He hadn't done anything differently, he was still him.

"When you've quite finished flirting with twelve year olds I expect some answers, and since when do you lean over a platter of roast beef and Shepard's pie to get a portion of cauliflower cheese?"

"Look Ginny I came by to say hello because I was in the area, I didn't come to see you for this, besides their thirteen at least," Ron huffed as he scanned the table for anything else that took his fancy.

"Well what did you expect?" Ginny exclaimed rather too loudly before lowering her voice so only he could hear her, "Mum oh so casually mentions that you are staying for a few days and constantly refers to you as Ronnie in her letter, she only calls you that when she's obscenely proud of you or when you're sick or hurt."

"And it's so hard for you to believe she was proud of me?" Ron grumbled through a mouthful of roast potato, "She couldn't have been proud of me for coming back from the first part of our mission and not being hurt in any way? That's unfeasible is it?"

Ginny wiped her face.

"Don't say unfeasible with your mouth full."

Ron swallowed.

"Sorry."

Ginny looked away from him and the two of them ate in silence for a couple of minutes.

"So," Ginny eventually said after pausing to take a drink of pumpkin juice, "you said you've completed part of your mission, how many parts are there in all? Are you nearly done?"

Ron swallowed the mouthful of cauliflower cheese and turned to give her a weary look.

"Just let it go will you Gin?"

"Can you at least tell me what you're doing in Hogsmede?" she pressed as she tossed her knife and fork down onto the plate and turned on her seat to face him side-on.

"We're just picking up some supplies that's all."

"You couldn't have done that in Diagon Alley?"

"Listen Ginny if you'd rather I hadn't come then..." Ron began to stand up but Ginny grabbed his arm and pulled him back down again.

"No don't go, I didn't mean anything by it, I'm just worried about you all. I'm worried about you Ron. You used to tell me everything when we were little."

He looked down at his dinner plate and pushed aside his own cutlery as he sighed.

"Yeah well none of my secrets were dangerous when I was a kid, not the ones I knew about anyway."

Ginny frowned and put her hand on his arm.

"What do you mean? What dangerous secrets have you found out about yourself?"

"I didn't say that."

"You're not saying anything," Ginny whined as she dropped her hands down into her lap and stared down at them with a frown.

"Look Gin I missed you, that's why I came to see you, and I thought that if you saw that I was alright and I told you we were all doing fine you wouldn't worry so much but you're just worrying more now. I didn't mean for that."

She smiled at him and he took a sip from his glass of gillywater and looked down at Ginny's plate before realising that he had given an involuntary wince at the sight of the slice of dead pig on her plate. He saw his sister pretending not to have noticed and said a silent thank you just as the deserts appeared upon the table.

"So Neville's got a girlfriend eh?" he said as he picked up a chocolate éclair.

"Yeah," Ginny nodded as she did the same, "he seems really happy."

Ron shifted on his seat to face Ginny and held the end of the éclair up to his mouth.

"You ready?" he asked her as she did the same with hers and nodded, "Ok, on three. One...two..."

They both clamped their mouths over the end of their éclairs and sucked as hard as they could. Ron's éclair was hollowed out a fraction of a second before Ginny's and he jumped to his feet in celebration.

"The undefeated champion!" he said, arms aloft.

"Only because your mouth's bigger than everybody else's!" Ginny chuckled as she wiped cream off of her chin.

"Ugh, that's gross!" Padma Patil grimaced from over on the Ravenclaw table.

Ron turned and looked down at her with a look of outrage plastered all over his face.

"This is a time honoured after dinner game, none of your charades lark, duelling éclairs are what make this country great."

Padma arched her eyebrows in scepticism.

"Unless you don't think you're up to challenging the National champion for the last five years in a row."

"National?" Padma said with obvious amusement.

"Until I can find a foreigner to challenge yes but don't worry I do intend to gain global domination within your lifetime."

Ginny held her sides and doubled up with laughter at Padma Patil's desperate fight not to give in and laugh herself.

"How about a house to house challenge for now eh?" Ron said, throwing out that grin of his for good measure, "Gryffindor verses Ravenclaw, éclairs at three paces, you and me what do you say?"

Roars erupted from both the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw tables drawing attention from the Hufflepuff and Slytherin crowds too. Padma rolled up her sleeves and got to her feet.

"Somebody get me an éclair!"

Ron had never felt sicker in his entire life.

But you don't get to become the champion by backing down after the tenth or eleventh challenge he told himself and after taking several bows and saying goodbye to Neville and his other half he let Ginny walk him as far as the main doors before giving her a very long hug.

"Try not to worry so much ok?" he smiled as the broke apart.

"Not possible," she shrugged, "try to stay out of trouble."

Ron shrugged back at her.

"Not possible."

They smiled sadly before Ron turned his back and set off down the steps to go and meet Harry and Hermione back at the pub.

"Oi you there, boy!" he heard the familiar voice of Filch calling out for him from behind Ginny, who also turned to stare at him in some confusion.

"Are you talking to me?" Ron frowned.

"Yes you! I've a message for you from Hagrid, he says to meet him and his other guests in his hut, and let him know he can pass on his own bleedin' messages in future I ain't no errand boy."

Ron nodded before glancing over at Ginny and rolling his eyes.

"I'll be sure to tell him that, thank you. Bye Gin."

Ginny waved at him and he set off for Hagrid's hut.

Ron had barely even walked in through the door before Hagrid slammed into him and he found his face buried into his stomach while the half giant hugged him with all the strength of a full grown grizzly bear. If it had been anybody else but Hagrid Ron might have had to put his claustrophobia calming technique into practice.

"Ron, good to see yeh again, have some tea and help yourself to sausage rolls."

"Shanksh aggid," was all Ron could manage to say through his compressed face.

The half giant finally let him go and Ron tried to regain some composure as he caught his breath and sat down between Harry and Hermione. He didn't even manage to say hello to his friends before a plate of home made sausage rolls were thrust under his nose.

I don't need that ordinarily but after all those éclairs there's a real risk of projectile vomiting here!

He tried his very best not to look disgusted as he pushed the plate away from himself. He glanced up at Hagrid with a smile.

"I ate with Ginny thanks Hagrid."

"Ah come on Ron, I know you've always got room for food, you're not tellin' me that you're full are yeh?" Hagrid chuckled.

He pushed the plate back under Ron's nose and he couldn't hide his revulsion this time around as the smell of the sausage meat hit him at the same time he looked down at the pink ground pork and felt everything he had ever eaten in his lifetime threaten to come flooding back out of him.

"Hagrid," Hermione pulled the plate out of his hands and put it to one side with a smile, "Ron's actually a vegetarian now."

Oh Godric bless you Hermione!

Hagrid's entire face crumpled up causing him to resemble a pair of buffalo snuggling together for warmth in the dead of winter. Hermione cast an uncertain glance over at Ron who must've still been looking fairly disturbed because she turned back to Hagrid with uncertainty.

"Well for now anyway," she added her little amendment.

"No," Ron quickly corrected her, he knew now that he was never going to be able to get past this revulsion no matter how much he meditated or how many years went by, that taste and smell and feeling would never go away, "for good, forever."

Hagrid looked from Ron to Hermione to Harry and then seemed to reluctantly accept this without question.

"I really did eat quite a lot in the great hall Hagrid, its fine really," Ron grinned in an effort to let Hagrid know that it wasn't an aversion to his cooking, although he did suffer from one of those as well.

"Rock cake?" Hagrid asked cautiously.

Ron rather liked having teeth but didn't want to offend the big softie any more than he already had and reached out to take the smallest one he could find.

"Thanks Hagrid."

Hagrid seemed happy at this and sat down while Ron attempted to soften the cake a little more by dipping it into his tea.

"So do we have anything then?" he asked them as he began to gnaw at the very edge of the cake.

"Well no, but we do have something from Hagrid that could help us if we found some of the rat's fur or blood, I don't suppose you kept any of Scabbers' fur did you?" Hermione asked doubtfully.

Ron shook his head, he'd pretty much gone on a purge of everything he had to with that detestable little rodent after coming home from his third year at school.

"Scabbers?" Hagrid frowned.

"Well we'd need something of the rat or the snake to make Hagrid's tracker thingy work but I have no idea where to get hold of either," Hermione sighed.

"If we knew where to go to get the snake's blood we'd be right where we wanted to be anyway wouldn't we?" Harry said.

Ron couldn't be bothered to keep up the pretence that he was actually eating the rock cake any more and tossed it back onto the table. He sat back in his seat and wondered why it had to be Nagini's blood, if it could be Scabbers' fur then surely...

"Well we know where to find her snakeskin don't we? Would that do the trick Hagrid?"

Harry and Hermione both jumped up from the table before Hagrid could answer. Ron flinched at this sudden burst of energy from his, until very recently, despondent friends.

"Of course!" Harry said, smacking himself on the forehead.

"Why didn't I think of that?" Hermione squealed.

Ron looked at the pair of them and wondered if they had been skirting around the obvious as always.

"Have I been an accidental genius again?" he asked them.

Hermione laughed and bent over, taking his face in her hands, and planted a kiss on his cheek. He smiled at her before jumping almost through the roof when Hagrid suddenly exclaimed out of nowhere.

"Is there anything I can bloody talk about?"

What the hell was that?

Harry shook with laughter and gave the half giant a sympathetic shrug while Ron looked to Hermione in utter confusion.

"He's just a bit frustrated about being kept in the dark that's all," Hermione whispered to him.

Maybe he and Ginny could form some kind of club.

They were following the jagged trail of yellow light that had drifted from the tracker all the way out of Hogsmede and had been walking in silence for quite some time before Ron grew anxious about them just strolling into another ambush and broke the silence.

"So as we've got time to kill maybe we should come up with a plan of action."

"A strategy you mean?" Harry asked.

"Yeah," Ron shrugged, "you've got to think ahead haven't you? Winging it gets you so far and then it's the better prepared person who gets the upper hand."

"This is the chess player in you coming out isn't it?" Harry smirked.

Ron smiled as he realised that he had just sounded more like Harry during a D.A. meeting then himself. He was right though, Ron was a tactician and he really didn't like just jumping into a situation like this without any kind of plan of attack or defence.

"Yeah, well I didn't have a battle plan last time did I and look how badly that went," he said as he tried not to look quite so embarrassed.

Hermione linked her arm with his and he felt as if he was being silly, after all he did have his own little army of the dead fighting beside him then, which was something of a strategy he supposed. This time it would just be him though and if it came down to him and him alone then he wanted to plan ahead. He smiled down at Hermione as she began to give his ego a mini boost while they walked on.

"That wasn't your fault, you couldn't plan your next move when you couldn't see any of the pieces on the board, you were fighting blind and I think you did brilliantly."

"Well that was mostly him wasn't it? Eyes in the back of his head they way you two described it," Ron mumbled, more to himself than to them.

"No it wasn't like that at all Ron," Harry said, "it was more like he was the eyes in the back of your head. You two make a good team."

Hermione nodded and Ron saw her head drop. He was about to ask her what was wrong when her voice drifted up to meet his ears.

"That's true Ron, the power comes from the two of you together, when you were...well when you were taken out of the game he could barely create any kind of substantial spell at all. It was just like wisps of coloured smoke coming out of nowhere."

Hermione sighed deeply and Ron wondered how long she had needed to fight alone after he and Harry had collapsed. It made him feel sick to think that he had left her to face Voldemort all by herself. She'd done it though and she'd saved both his and Harry's lives. She was amazing and he hoped that she knew it. He hoped that he told her often enough. They walked in silence a little further and Ron wondered what the biggest problem was going to be in the next fight when it came. Pettigrew wasn't a stunningly proficient wizard and Nagini was a stunningly vicious snake so the best choice he could make in protecting Hermione, or paying her back at least, would be to take the snake with Harry. There was still that niggle though, that burn in the depth of his gut that screamed to take on Wormtail. He had lived with his family, eaten scraps from their table, slept in Ron's bed. That last one had always been the hardest pill to swallow as far as Ron was concerned.

"Well I'll go after Sc..." Ron stopped himself from calling his old pet by its old name, "Pettigrew, he's my pest to deal with."

"He owes it to you to face you properly," Harry agreed, "hexing you while you were injured to save his worthless skin that night...he's got it coming the coward."

Then it hit him, he had attacked him while he was hurt hadn't he? Quite a nasty little curse it had been too.

"Oh yeah, I forgot that was him!"

Hermione was laughing at him.

"What?" Ron asked her.

"It's just comical how you remember every little thing you've ever done wrong and yet one of the most heroic things any of us have ever seen you do just slipped your mind!"

Ron struggled not to blush. He'd never been called heroic before, idiotic but not heroic, and he quite liked the sound of it.

"Right well that leaves me and Hermione to catch Nagini," Harry smiled, "piece of cake!"

"Do we really have to catch her? Can't we just kill her on sight?" Hermione said coldly.

Is this the same Hermione who wants to save the house elves?

"I never thought a day would come when I'd hear you say something like that," Ron said with an uncomfortable kind of awe.

"Well these are dark days and they call for desperate measures," Hermione said clinically before stiffening, "speaking of which..."

She put her hand into her pocket and pulled out the silver hoops of the bond of blood. She looked very anxious Ron thought, he guessed it was because she hated the things so much, and he wondered why she was getting them out now. It wasn't anywhere near nightfall and they weren't going to start camping just yet were they?

"...pop this on for me would you?" she said as she held up one of the hoops.

Ron wondered if she wanted to go into battle with his spiritual partner rather than just him.

"What for?" he asked her, almost hurt at the suggestion, “I'm not going in asleep Hermione."

"I know that Ron but I still want you to let me put it on you," she looked him in the eye, "you trust me don't you?"

What a ridiculous question.

"Of course I trust you ya twit," he laughed as he offered his arm for her to slide the hoop upon, "I just know how much you hate using these things so you kind of took me by surprise that's all."

As Hermione pushed the hoop up Ron's arm and past his elbow Ron looked over at Harry who was looking quite oddly at Hermione, as if she had just suggested doing some dark magic on him rather than wanting to do something to keep him safe, and he shrugged at him with a smile. This was nobody's idea solution after all but there was no need to make her feel bad about it was there, after all they were the ones who talked her into doing the binding spell in the first place.

"Better to be safe than sorry I suppose eh?" he said to Harry.

Harry nodded before walking on after the tiny guiding light ahead of them.

"Oi mate, you don't want to go into battle like that do ya?" Harry pointed down to Ron's shoelaces which had both come undone somehow.

"How the bloody hell did I manage that?" he grumbled under his breath as he crouched down and set about tying them again.

Harry and Hermione were still going onwards at quite a rate, Ron wondered if the tracker had sped up or something. He looked back down and finished tying the first shoe. As he shuffled his weight over to the other side to tie his other shoe he thought he heard Harry and Hermione's voices talking quite rapidly.

Oh shit he wasn't going to miss the battle because he was doing his shoelaces up was he?

He squinted down the path to see then talking quite heatedly, it was almost like they used to when they were fighting over telling him the truth about his episodes. Why would they be fighting again he asked himself? He turned his attention back to his shoe; the sooner he got back to them and found out what was up the better.

He finished the job and looked back at his friends who were now standing on the spot facing each other and Hermione was pointing into Harry's chest and waving her arm around animatedly. She looked as if she was trying to prove him wrong about something. Maybe this was a battle plan that they didn't agree on. He straightened up and began to jog back over to the two of them.

Just as Ron reached the two of them Hermione turned and stomped off after the tiny yellow trail as it darted off on its crooked little way. As she went he heard her calling back to Harry.

"You know what I meant."

Ron stopped beside Harry and slapped him on the back.

"What was that?" he asked warily.

Harry stared at him for a second.

"What was what?"

Ron nodded to Hermione several steps ahead of them.

"You two, you looked kind of serious."

"Oh just battle plans and snake attack strategies that's all," Harry smiled and shrugged.

"That's all is it?" Ron said with great sarcasm, "And there was me thinking it was something difficult and hazardous."

Harry laughed. Ron wasn't buying that excuse but they really didn't need to get into a heavy debate about whatever it was right now so he kept his mouth shut. He noticed Harry staring at the silver hoop that floated around his upper arm.

"That thing comfortable?"

Ron glanced down at the hoop and shrugged.

"I don't notice it until she starts throwing me around accidentally," he chuckled.

Harry didn't laugh with him, not even a small smile, and Ron realised what they had been fighting about. They were fighting about the bond of blood. This confused Ron though; Hermione had been the one to suggest using the hoop this time, in fact loads of times recently, so why would she still be giving Harry a hard time about wanting to use them?

"Look!" Hermione interrupted Ron just as he was about to ask that very question, "The light's changed direction, it's heading toward the Shrieking Shack."

"Of course," Harry gasped, "that idiot Pettigrew would've chosen one of the only hiding places he had that had no connection from Voldemort, his childhood bloody secret."

"No imagination that little rat," Ron scowled as they ran to catch up with Hermione and followed the light into the rickety old house.

Chapter Twenty - Pest Control

They had caught up to Hermione as she was pushing open the door that barely hung on its rusted hinges and scanned the lower floor while keeping her wand up at the ready. Harry took the lead up the stairs, putting his finger to his lips to make sure they kept as quiet as possible and Ron glanced over at Hermione at his side. She looked nervous about what they would have to face at the top of the stairs and he tried to smile reassuringly but she had turned her attention up the stairs, ready to cover him in the event of an attack.

Ron wondered how he would rather deal with Pettigrew, as a rat or as a man, and tried to remember as many spells he could for capturing household pests. It was going to be harder hitting him with a spell if he was in rat form but at least he wouldn't be able to use a wand when he was like that.

Harry reached the top of the stairs and peered over to the room where Ron had been dumped by Sirius all those years ago, broken and bloodied, and Ron gripped his wand in readiness for the inevitable explosion of spells that were about to happen. Nothing did happen though and Harry swallowed and looked down at him and Hermione and shrugged. They listened for several seconds and heard nothing. Eventually Harry moved up onto the landing, closely followed by Hermione while Ron glanced back down the stairs behind them and bought up the rear, and he tried not to make too much noise on the groaning floorboards.

"Shhhh!" Ron hissed, it was instinctive rather than instructive, and he averted his eyes from Harry's glare.

Harry edged along the wall towards the flimsy door. Ron and Hermione were right behind him and Harry paused by the door frame and nodded the count of three to them before diving inside. Hermione followed and aimed her wand at the other side of the room to Harry while Ron stood in the doorway and tried to keep one eye one the landing behind him as well as the empty room that his friends were now investigating with great suspicion.

"So the tracker was wrong then?" Ron asked, not really believing that for a second.

"I don't know," Harry whispered, still prepared for attack, "it was leading us to something so I don't know why it's completely empty in here."

"You're right Harry, it's too quiet in here," Hermione said while frowning at the shadows in the corner of the room with caution.

Ron was sure that Pettigrew was hiding somewhere in rat form now. It was his typically cowardly way and Ron wasn't about to relax until he had checked every little crack in the walls for the mangy old rodent.

"You little bastard," Ron whispered as he crouched down and pointed his wand under the furniture, "get out here you little bastard."

"This is a trap," Harry was saying to Hermione while Ron crawled further into the room looking for his former pet.

Of course, what is the time honoured way of catching a rat?

"Traps..." he smiled to himself before swishing his wand across the floor and hissing "Orno traps!"

The entire floor was covered in mouse traps, set and waiting to snap shut around the neck or any other body part a certain rat might accidentally put into it. Hermione looked at Ron and beamed before pointing her own wand at the bed in the centre of the room.

"Wingardium leviosa!"

The bed was flipped up to reveal a ball of straggly fur and a tiny silver glint shivering on the floor in the middle of a nest of primed rat traps. It was Wormtail, Ron would recognise that podgy disease bag anywhere, and he pointed his wand at the wizard who would do anything to save his own skin.

"Stupefy!"

The rat jumped out of the way of the spell and landed between two traps that were side by side and immediately activated as it took another leap upwards before they clamped around any part of him. He scampered and hopped his way around and over the traps as they snapped to his left and right. Ron was joined by Harry now as they threw more curses at it but somehow he managed to evade them and the traps until one eventually caught his silver paw.

"Gotcha!" Ron said, bending over and grabbing the rat up off the floor where it squirmed in his hand and squealed fearfully.

Harry moved across the floor to join Ron when a huge snake lowered itself down from the rafters in the ceiling between them, causing Harry to stagger backwards onto the mousetrap-strewn floor to avoid being bitten. Unfortunately the floor was full of still un-triggered mouse traps and Ron winced as he saw Harry getting caught up in several of them. Hermione threw an immobilising spell at the snake and tried to get to Harry to help him back to his feet.

Ron felt the rat's fur rippling and swelling beneath his fingers and turned back to see that Pettigrew was transforming into his repugnant self within Ron's very grip. He felt the fur lengthen in to lank greasy hair as he pointed his wand at Wormtail but his silver hand had already fully formed and he swung and slammed Ron across the cheekbone with his solid knuckles. Ron saw mini white explosions before his eyes, like a firework display going on inside his head, as he flew backwards out the door and slammed into the rotten banister. The wood of the banister gave way slightly and Ron shook his head to clear his vision, causing the side of his head that had been struck to erupt with pain, and heard Hermione's scream.

Ron gripped his wand tightly and forced himself back up to his feet while Wormtail tore the trap away from his silver fingers and threw it down with glee.

"Well that was easy," Pettigrew sneered, "who's next?"

Ron saw him raising his wand, aiming right at Harry, and he threw himself back into the room, landing on his back. Wormtail spun around in an attempt to shake him off but Ron was one of six brothers and knew how to scrap better than a coward like Pettigrew ever would. He locked his arm around the animagus' neck and grabbed a handful of hair to anchor himself in an immoveable position on his back.

"I've got him, kill the snake!" he hollered at Harry and Hermione while Pettigrew staggered backwards out of the room.

They fell into the already weakened banister, which cracked and buckled into a 'v' shape, and Ron released Pettigrew to reach up and grab the decrepit brass frame of a chandelier above his head to keep himself from falling down the stairs. He pulled himself up off of the struggling wizard's shoulders and tried to kick out at him to push him through the banister and down the stairs but Pettigrew was raising his wand at Ron and he had no option other than to swing and jump back onto the landing beside him. A flash of red light shot out from the tip of Pettigrew's wand as Ron landed and he ducked just enough so that the spell only grazed his shoulder.

Ron swished his own wand at his grinning attacker and yelled out a defensive spell.

"Detino!"

The light was about to hit it's target when Pettigrew raised his silver hand and reflected the spell back at Ron who had to slam his body flat against the wall to avoid the rebound.

Oh this wasn't good!

"Whatever you throw at me Ron I'll throw it right back at you," Pettigrew said with great amusement, "my master thinks of everything you know?"

"Well he definitely made the right decision in sending you away, Compescor!"

Ron threw the restraining spell at his target while trying to stay light on his feet ready to dodge any rebound of it back onto himself. Pettigrew's reactions were too fast though and he deflected the spell into the ceiling just above Ron's head. Debris toppled down on top of him and while he tried to move out of the way of that he saw Wormtail raising his wand and sending a spell of his own back at him.

"Plaga pulpa!"

Ron tried to dodge the incoming spell but only barely managed it again, not clearing the line of fire completely and feeling a sharp slashing across his chest. He winced and staggered while throwing a spell in Pettigrew's vague direction.

"Oppugno!"

Again the silver arm moved too fast and just as the spell was bouncing back at Ron he ran at Pettigrew and slid across the floor at his feet, grabbing him about the legs and pulling him down with a thud on top of him. Ron tried to roll the overweight wizard off of him so he could get the higher ground but Pettigrew was already raining punches with his silver hand into his stomach. Ron managed to find enough space between the two of them to blast the wizard away and through the banister but he still had hold of Ron by his jumper and they both went flying through the air and down the stairs.

As they rolled all the way down to the ground floor where they both landed heavily Ron heard Hermione calling down the stairs to him.

"Ron, are you alright out there?"

As he struggled to his feet, clutching his back which felt as if it was bending the wrong way, he saw Wormtail transforming back into rat form and scurrying away into the darkness of the lounge.

"Fine," he shouted back up to her, not wanting to distract her any more from her own fight with Nagini, and lighting his wand as he ran into the lounge after the rat.

There were heavy footsteps behind him, Pettigrew wasn't in rat form any more, and as Ron spun around to defend himself he found himself being hit with a levitating dining table and slamming into something behind him that smashed, sending shards of glass and ceramics showering over him.

"Fuck!" he grimaced as his back sent agonising pains all the way up and down his spine, soon he heard scurrying of rat footsteps again and he struggled back to his feet, aiming his illuminated wand around the floor in search of the once again transformed animagus, "duel like a man you bloody coward!"

Ron panted as he closed his eyes and listened for the sound of the rat or the man he was fighting over the sounds of Harry and Hermione yelling spells at the snake upstairs.

"Nox," he whispered as he extinguished the light from the end of his wand tip.

Pettigrew was as blind as him now. Ron used his light footsteps to dart across the room and stand in a different place from where he would have last been seen by Pettigrew and held his breath so his very audible gasps weren't any kind of giveaway. He waited and listened. He heard a heavy foot step, Pettigrew was in human form again, and he aimed his wand at the direction the sound had come from. Then he heard Pettigrew's voice.

"Adficto!"

A lightning bolt of red light arced across the darkened room to the spot Ron had just vacated and illuminated Pettigrew standing and facing away from Ron himself. He exhaled the breath he had been holding with a deafening shout as he struck out at the man with his own wand.

"Impedio indentiem!"

As the spell shot towards his target Wormtail turned, not fast enough to deflect the spell with his arm but fast enough to hit back with his own wand.

"Crucio!"

Both their spells hit their targets at the same time and while Wormtail found himself bound repeatedly by magical ropes Ron dropped to his knees and felt as if his bones were on fire and burning him alive from the inside. He screamed in agony as the existing injuries he had felt as if they were about to explode, the gash on his chest felt as if it was splitting even wider and his back seemed to be twisting in an unnatural direction. It had only been for a second or two, Wormtail hadn't been able to maintain his aim with the bindings attaching themselves to his arms and pinning them to his sides, but to Ron it had felt like an hour's worth of torture. He was shaking and sweating but he would not allow himself to collapse, not in front of Wormtail, and he got unsteadily back up to his feet to stupefy the immobile traitor once and for all.

That was when he felt it.

The slam of an invisible wind pushing him out the door and into the hallway knocked him off his feet and he recognised the pull of the bond of blood dragging him towards to stairs. This couldn't be happening, not now, not when he was about to get the upper hand with Wormtail. Ron tried to grab at the floorboards as he was hauled up the first stair on his stomach, his newly regrown fingernails snagging and his still tender fingertips tearing open on the splinters as he went, and he lost his grip on his wand. The pull was intense now and he was being forced up the stairs so fast he couldn't even attempt to hold on to the stairs as he was dragged past them to anchor himself. He reached out to try and grab hold of the banister as he passed but all he could reach was splintered and broken from the earlier fall.

Soon he was at the top of the stairs and being hurled towards the door, through the last remnants of the banister with such force that he felt a rib crack and yelped with pain, and as he was hauled past the door frame he latched onto it as tightly as he could with the last of his strength. He glanced up from his struggle to see Hermione, wand pointed at the snake, staring at him in alarm.

"What the hell are you doing?" Ron yelled at her furiously, "I almost had him!"

She looked down at him with no comprehension of what she had just done and Ron's bloody fingers lost their grip on the doorframe and he curled them around another floorboard as he was dragged further into the room.

"Take it off!" Ron pleaded with her as he felt his arms trembling under the strain of pulling against the bond of blood.

Hermione seemed appalled and Ron's body was suddenly released and he was temporarily slack on the floor. He clutched his broken and bloody chest as he struggled back up to his feet and glared at her, realising now what Harry had been arguing about with her earlier.

"What the hell did you do that for?" he snapped before turning his head on hearing the sound of the front door being flung open, "Oh no you don't," he growled as he raced back down the stairs after the fleeing Wormtail.

As he ran down the steps two at a time he preyed that his wand was still on the floor where he had dropped it he heard Hermione's voice calling after him.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to, I didn't know!"

Fat lot of fucking use that is if he gets away!

He jumped down the last four stairs and ignored the pain in his back as he bent over to pick up his wand. He ran out the door and hoped that Wormtail was too badly injured to disapparate. He could still see him hobbling along several feet ahead of him and Ron sent out a spell to try to stop him.

"Petrificus totalus!"

Pettigrew spun around on hearing his voice and deflected the spell back at Ron, who threw himself to the ground just in time but causing his cracked rib to send a shooting pain right through him. He was already pointing his wand as he fell though and sent out another spell that managed to hit its mark.

"Everbero!"

Just as the spell slammed into Wormtail, knocking him off his feet like a cannonball, he saw a bright light shoot forth from the tip of the animagus' wand and wasn't able to block it fast enough.

"Proteg..." he grimaced as he was cut off by the pain caused by the new slashes the tore through the flesh on his already tender stomach.

Wormtail was coughing and struggling to breathe through the severe winding Ron had caused him as he staggered back to his feet. Ron forced himself to stand as well, he was going to end this now or never, and the two wizards raised their wands at the same moment.

"Trunco trucido!" the older man wheezed.

"Reluctor!" Ron surprised himself from altering his reducto curse to the spell to resist so quickly and the two met in the space between them.

Wormtail's had been a fatal mutilation spell, Ron didn't know if the reluctor defence would be enough but held it anyway, his wand vibrated with the effort he was making to sustain the spell. Pettigrew on the other hand was advancing with confidence, a smile breaking upon his face as he approached, and Ron's spell seemed to weaken now that the other spell was being concentrated upon him. Ron gripped the wand with both hands and tried to think of something, anything from the D.A. lessons that could help him, but all that went through his mind were all of those household spells of his mothers. He felt Pettigrew advance before he saw him and dropped to his knees with the effort of maintaining his resistance spell.

"I do wish it hadn't come to this Ron, you were such a generous master when it came to snacks and treats and I really did appreciate it you know? The thing is, a blood traitor is almost as bad as a mud blood itself and your family are the worst of the lot."

"Fuck you!" Ron panted as he struggled to keep his wand steady.

"I know all about vermin Ron," Wormtail sneered as he was almost on top of him now, "and weasels are just as bad as rats."

"Abdo!" Ron gasped; it was all he could come up with right then.

Pettigrew laughed.

"You can't just put me away like you're cleaning your room you stupid boy, I am the dark lord's right hand!"

"You're the dark lord's arse wiper!" Ron spat, before his fight against Wormtail's fatal mutilation spell disintegrated completely and the full force shot from his wand and travelled towards his chest, just giving him enough time to blurt out his mother's spell for fixing any mess she might have made in the kitchen, "Verso!"

There was a brilliant flash of white light and Ron and Pettigrew were blown apart from each other. Ron landed heavily on his aching back and his opponent eight or nine feet away on his. The older wizard was screaming and thrashing around on the crab grass beneath him. Ron clutched the stabbing pain in his rib as he sat up and watched in horror as Wormtail was eviscerated before his eyes, his skin being stripped from his bones and his bloody remains being dissected over and over again until he was a bloody pile of body parts in a heap on the ground.

Ron felt his whole body juddering uncontrollably and he fell forwards and began to go into convulsions of disgust, the same kind he experienced immediately after escaping from Black's coffin, and he struggled to breathe and stay conscious. He was having some kind of panic induced seizure that was regressing him back into that hole in the ground with that other ravaged human body. His head screamed out to the rest of him to get under control. He was not going to lose it now. His mind was strong; he wasn't insane anymore; he could shake this off. This was only a memory, this was only revulsion, and he could beat it.

Don't look at the meat, don't look at the meat, don't look at the meat!

Ron felt his eyes burst open wide and he forced himself up with his arms, he tried to calm his breathing and scolded himself out loud as he did.

"It's not meat, it's a person, don't call it meat. It's not meat," he took a deep breath in and out," it's not meat," and another; "you're ok. You're doing fine Ron come on you squeamish bugger get a grip on yourself."

He was breathing steadily again and the juddering was almost gone completely now. He knew this was definitely it for him as far as ever being able to look at meat was concerned, he hoped he never had to explain to anybody in any detail what had happened to him to make him a life long vegetarian, and he suddenly felt as if his stomach was being churned. He lifted his wand to his face and cast a spell on himself.

"Eructo!"

The spell to induce regurgitation did exactly what it promised and Ron expelled his stomach contents onto the grass before him. He wiped his mouth when he was finished and got back up to his feet, feeling a little better now, hoping that getting it over with would put the nausea to bed for good. He turned away from Wormtail's remains and lifted his jumper to get a better look at the hatchet job the treacherous wizard had done on him.

He didn't get to see anything though; he just felt the same awesome pull and forceful invisible wind that was the activation of the bond of blood again. It lifted him clean off his feet and threw him through the air toward the Shrieking Shack. He yelled out with the shock of being forced backwards towards a building and was silenced as he smashed through a window one floor up and slammed down onto the floorboards, sending another reminder to his body that his back was killing him.

"Whattahell?" Ron wheezed as the air left his lungs and he began to sputter to breathe in again.

"Ron are you alright?" Harry leaned over him as he struggled to sit up but found that he was being squished against something soft and warm at his side.

It was Hermione. Ron felt his anger boiling up inside of him now. She had gone too far this time; he wasn't a rag doll that she could just drag to her side on a whim.

"What did I tell you?" he said, his voice still strained from both the winding and the aftermath of his battle to the death with Pettigrew, "Take it off I said, why didn't you bloody liste..."

Ron stopped in mid rant when he saw that Hermione wasn't moving. She was as white as one of Hogwarts' ghosts and her eyes were closed.

"Hermione?" he said with a gentle shake of her shoulders, "Min?" Ron looked up and met Harry's eyes, "Did I hit her when I came through?"

Harry shook his head and swallowed.

"She's been bitten, Nagini bit her on the leg, she summoned you after she..." Harry couldn't complete his story and looked down.

Ron's eyes looked down at Hermione's bleeding leg and then drifted along the floor to the dead snake beneath the shattered window before returning his gaze to Hermione who was lying in his arms. This couldn't be happening; he took the punishment, him and Harry, not her. She couldn't...she couldn't...

"Hermione...can you hear me?"

Don't do this to me.

Ron tried to move his arms to shake her gently but he couldn't do it. He tried to loosen his grip on her and found that was impossible too. His eyes widened; she couldn't be doing this to him while she was in this state, how could she be controlling him while she's unconscious? He looked up at Harry and could barely find his own voice to tell him what was going on.

"I can't let her go Harry."

"You won't have to Ron; we're so close to Hogwarts, we can take her through the marauders tunnel and get her to Madame Pomfrey. She'll be fine I promise."

He didn't get it; Ron shook his head and swallowed.

"No I mean she won't let me let her go."

Harry grabbed at Ron's arms and tried to pry him away from her but they both knew from experience that the bond of blood was the strongest magical binding of them all and there was nothing anybody but Hermione could do to break it.

"Carry her," Harry suggested, "you can carry her."

Ron tried to pull his legs out from under himself to heave the two of them up when he realised that he couldn't move at all, his body was fixed in the very position he was cradling her in at that moment. She had once said to him, when they were lying together waiting for Harry to return from one of his thoughtful walks, that she sometimes wished she could just stay in his arms forever. He wondered if she knew what an awful idea that was in reality. Ron huffed and looked back up at Harry, shaking his head.

"I can't move my legs."

Harry paced back and forth for a moment before stopping at the window and looking out at Hogwarts castle in the distance.

"I'll go and get help, you wait here with her and I'll bring someone," Harry said with a determined resolve before a flash of panic hit him, "wait, did Pettigrew get away, I don't want to leave you like this if he's still lurking somewhere?"

Ron turned away from Harry and looked into the space where he had fist found that rat he had grown up with as Scabbers what felt like an age ago.

They were probably eating him already, the parasites; they had smelt the stench of fresh death and come crawling out of the ground to devour him little by little; feeding on him; laying their eggs inside him.

"Pettigrew's dead," Ron said if for nothing else then to stop himself from thinking about what death really means for the flesh.

Harry did nothing more than nod to let him know he had understood.

"Ok I'll go; I'll be as fast as I can and..."

"No wait," Ron said, he couldn't be left alone with Hermione to think about what was happening to the carcass outside, "let me just try something first."

Ron leaned in to Hermione's ear and whispered to her.

"Hermione? Hey Min, can you hear me? I need you to let me move ok? Can you let me move a little please?"

Ron moved back and tried to lift her again but he was still unable to move. He leaned in again and sighed sadly.

"Please babe, I won't let you go I promise, I'll be holding you all the time I swear, I just want to be able to carry you ok?"

Ron tried to wriggle his toes and found that he was just as restricted as ever. He looked up at Harry and shook his head. Harry gave him an encouraging nod.

"Hermione I just want to move my legs that's all I need, just let me move my legs please," Ron said with a shudder in his voice.

He tried to wriggle his toes again and found that his whole foot gave a twitch. He exhaled loudly and started trying to shuffle his legs out from under himself to stand.

"Thank you," he whispered to her before looking to Harry, "can you help me up mate?"

Harry grabbed Ron's elbow and heaved him up as Ron fought to get his footing and lift Hermione at the same time. Being so still for all that time had given him pins and needles and as he stood he staggered a little on his numb feet. Harry grabbed him around the shoulders and steadied him.

"Are you ok?" he asked Ron without hiding his concern.

Ron somehow managed to smile at him.

"Yeah, other than flying through a window, I'm fine."

"Fine?" Harry raised an eyebrow, knowing Ron's code word for ' I'm shit right now but I don't want to talk about it '.

Ron looked him in the eye and nodded.

"Really."

That seemed to put his mind at ease and he turned to pick up the dead snake, hauling it over his shoulder and lighting his wand tip, before catching Ron's slightly disgusted look.

"What do you want to bring that thing for?" he asked his serpent wielding friend.

"Well it might help Madame Pomfrey and I also want to give it to Fred and George to be absolutely sure that the horcrux side of her is destroyed too."

Ron nodded and they set off back down the stairs and to the secret tunnel of the marauders.

Why is the hospital wing at the very top? What a ridiculous place for a hospital wing!

Ron was exhausted as he watched Harry running on ahead of him and throwing the doors to the hospital wing at Hogwarts wide open, shouting for Madame Pomfrey to come and help Hermione. Ron's spine was like a giant knot in his back now and he tried to stretch it out while keeping his balance with Hermione's weight in his arms but he couldn't quite manage it and staggered to his left. He righted himself and winced as Hermione's weight fell against his cracked rib before making his way through the double doors to the hospital wing and seeing the horrified expression on Madame Pomfrey's face at the sight of them.

"Don't drop her!" she was yelling as she shoved Harry aside.

Oh thank Merlin; I don't have to walk anymore!

Ron's relief seemed to hit his legs first and they promptly gave way under him. He landed hard on his buttocks.

Great, the one part of me that wasn't bruised now is!

"Here, give her to Potter and we'll set her on one of the beds," Madame Pomfrey instructed him.

Ron didn't even have it in him to explain the situation and just shook his head, leaving it to Harry to explain.

"He can't put her down, she won't let him."

"What do you mean she won't let him?" Madame Pomfrey scowled at Harry as if he was talking gibberish.

"It's the bond of blood, she can control him," Harry said as he gestured to the hoops around Ron and Hermione's arms.

Ron guessed that Pomfrey knew exactly what the hoops were and turned on Harry with wild eyes.

"Who did this to them? That is illegal magic you know?"

"Look," Ron suddenly snapped, "can we discuss our law breaking after you save Hermione please? She's been bitten by a bloody snake."

"Right, Potter, help me get him to his feet and over to the nearest bed."

They lifted Ron and guided him over to a bed.

"Get him something to sit on before he falls down," Madame Pomfrey said as Ron rested Hermione on the bed and crumpled his legs to try and give his back some relief.

Harry pushed a chair underneath Ron and helped him into it.

"Do you need anything Ron?" he asked as Madame Pomfrey busied herself pouring potions down Hermione's throat and casting spells on her hand and leg.

Ron smiled up at him tiredly. He really didn't want to complain while Hermione was in the state she was but if he didn't get help soon he was probably going to burst into tears.

"Actually my back is killing me."

Harry looked at Madame Pomfrey and she nodded into her potions bag at her side.

"There's a cream in a round blue jar, spread it along his spine, you've got to rub it in deep though understand?"

Harry nodded and rummaged in the bag, pulling out the jar and holding it up to confirm that he had the right one. After being given the nod he pulled Ron's jumper up his back and began to smear the cream all the way up his vertebrae. It was like a hand of fire burning away all his aches and pains and ironing out every crick in his bettered spine. He tried his best not to give a groan of satisfaction but the relief was just too great. He did manage to restrict his sound of pleasure to a simple sigh and couldn't help but laugh at himself.

"What?" Harry asked massaged the cream deeper into Ron's skin.

"It's just that I'd ordinarily feel weird about you doing this but it just feels so much better that I don't care."

Harry laughed too. Ron wondered what on earth Fred and George would've made of this scene; Ron cradling his girlfriend while being massaged by their best friend.

"So will she be alright?" Harry asked Madame Pomfrey as he looked down at Hermione.

"I have managed to stop her deteriorating any further, I notice you brought the snake Mr Potter, well done, I'll extract some of the venom and brew an antidote within minutes and then she'll be well on her way to a full recovery."

This news did Ron's relaxation a power of good and he felt his stiffened spine melting under the intense warmth of the cream penetrating his pores and doing its work. He jumped out of his state of calm at the sound of the doors bursting open though. He couldn't turn around far enough to see who it was but he knew that voice anywhere.

"Poppy what on earth is going on?" McGonagall said briskly, "Potter, Weasley...oh my goodness what happened to Miss Granger?"

Ron felt Harry pulling down his jumper again before jumping up to defend them against their former professor's rage.

"Professor McGonagall we were in Hogsmede and Hermione got hurt and we needed to get her help immediately and..."

"Weasley!" McGonagall snapped, interrupting Harry's explanation mid-flow, "That is not what I think it is around your arm is it?"

Ron let out a sigh and looked at the floor wearily, he didn't need that lecture now and especially not after the night he'd suffered as a result of the bond of blood, he hated the hoops just as much as Hermione did. Or at least as much as she used to, he was beginning to wonder about her and her need to always put them on him 'just in case'.

"It was necessary," Harry began, bravely fielding the question on Ron's behalf, "well in the beginning it was."

"And now?"

He could hear mumbling, Harry was speaking under his breath or maybe whispering to McGonagall, he couldn't tell. He didn't bother to lift his head. He rested it upon Hermione's warm body and let his eyelids fall closed for a moment. He'd just relax for a second or two, he thought, and then he'd look up again and see what was going on.

Except nothing was going on anymore, everything was quiet and still and black. He let himself be taken into the darkness for a well earned rest.

"Ronald, I want you to get some sleep tonight understand?"

Ron blinked and tried to make out the silvery shape that stood in front of the moonlit window in the darkened room. That voice sounded so familiar.

"And don't ever tell yourself you are a murderer for what you did today my dear boy, Peter died at his own hand with his own curse. You were, as ever, entirely honourable in battle."

"Thank you," Ron whispered to the figure.

"Now rest."

The figure was swallowed up in a brilliant white light and Ron's eyes were closed before the light had gone, his head falling and sleep embracing him again.

Chapter Twenty One - Back From the Dead

"Stop protecting me from everything!"

It was Ginny's voice, she was shouting at somebody but it wasn't her frightened scream, or even her angry scream, it was the scream she used when she was throwing a mini tantrum. It had woken Ron from his sleep.

He fidgeted and winced as the unpleasant sensation of partially healed flesh wounds broke open again and the agonising cramp in both arms sent an alarm ringing inside his head insisting he wake up and put a stop to all of this discomfort immediately.

"I can't be with you because you're protecting me, I can't come on the quest with you because it's too dangerous for me, I can't know what the quest is because I'm just some silly little blabbermouth who will risk all your lives just so I can have a gossip..."

Yes that was definitely Ginny, he had heard that whole rant earlier in the summer, she was pissed and she wasn't shy about letting anybody know about it.

"I didn't say that," Harry's voice was struggling to defend himself.

Ron opened his eyes and looked up at the unfolding scene before his bleary eyes. Ginny was, yet again, shouting at Harry for keeping her out of the loop and Harry was defending his need to protect those he loved. Ron had seen it all before and he was sick of it. It was such a waste of their time. There was no compromise, there was no solution that would ever make them both happy, there was only more hurt and anger and none of them really needed any more of that.

"Then I find out that the three of you had to go back to the Burrow for a few days and mum won't tell me why, Fred and George are taking it in turns to run the shop while the other one goes to the house and they won't tell me why, Ron shows up at Hogwarts and doesn't tell me why and now Hermione's bitten by a snake and Ron's a bloody prisoner and I'm still in the bloody dark! I won't have it anymore Harry, I won't, this is my family and how dare you keep me out of the loop. I should know...I should know more than...more than..."

"Don't you dare," Ron found his voice as he realised exactly what kind of mistake his sister was about to make in her blind rage.

"Ron?" Ginny turned to look at him, her face on the verge of tears and her voice meek as it had been when she was a shy little girl.

Ron couldn't let her get away with that though, no matter how sad she looked right then, she had been about to cross a line and that was unacceptable to Ron.

"Don't you dare finish that sentence you spoiled little brat," he warned.

The blood is thicker than water excuse became void as soon as Percy was crowned king prick and turned his back on the family. Harry had been there when their dad had been in hospital. Harry had been there when Ron had been poisoned. Harry had been there at Bill and Fleur's wedding. Harry had been there for Ron when he was slowly going insane. Percy was blood and Harry was water and at that moment in time Ron would have been happy if he never saw a drop of blood again.

"But I was just..." Ginny's trembling voice broke the tense silence as she tried to defend herself.

"You were just the centre of your own bloody universe yet again, that's what you were," Ron hissed, too much of him hurt and his mind was too occupied with worry to have to sugar coat what aggravated him most about his sister this last couple of years, "you might be able to play that game in the family but in the real world you're not the only girl."

"Ron..." Harry tried to interject some calm into this volatile situation.

Ron's fuse had been lit and it was shorted than usual. He didn't have the patience to hold back anymore. He had watched his little sister evolve into a confident charismatic young woman and been incredibly proud of her for doing so. Then he had watched as that newfound popularity went to her head and she occasionally dropped into arrogance once in a while. That wasn't the sister he remembered and that wasn't the sister he needed right now. And he did need her; he needed her to make him feel normal again.

"In the real world Ginny you are not always right, you are not always popular, and you are not always entitled to know every-bloody-thing you want," he seethed as her face fell almost as fast as the tears from her eyes did.

He didn't want to hurt her, he didn't want to push her away, but keeping this oracle thing a secret was his only hope at ever having a normal life once this whole thing was over.

"I love you Gin but you can be really full of yourself sometimes," he muttered as he looked away from her sadly.

"Why...why are you angry with me? What have I done?" she squeaked in a fragile sounding voice.

She was almost as bad as Hermione had become.

"You're pissed off that I'm being controlled while you're trying to do the exact same bloody thing," he explained with exasperation.

Would she really risk his sanity just to know the truth? Couldn't she just trust him and follow his advice, just for once? He knew that it was unprecedented in their family for anybody to accept that maybe Ron knew better than them about the proper course of action regarding something but he had hoped that at least Ginny might just have enough faith in him to leave him be to handle this alone.

"I have to have a secret otherwise my life is over do you understand me Gin? Over. Do you really want to know everything that much that you're willing to ruin the rest of my life just so you don't feel left out?"

Ginny shook her head and burst into floods of tears. She flung herself at Ron and tried to hug him despite his inconvenient position with his arms locked around Hermione. He sighed and looked from Harry to Neville for some help; he figured that Harry might not be the best person to call upon to comfort his sister for him so he opted for Neville instead.

"Neville could you cuddle my sister for me please? I...can't right now."

Neville grabbed Ginny and hugged her tightly while she gripped handfuls of his robes and cried into them. Ron looked away at the scene of yet more pain he had caused somebody he loved and stared at the silver hoop encircling Hermione's arm.

"I'm...sorry...Ron," Ginny said between sobs.

He had never felt more tired in his whole life, not physically but mentally, he was tired of people crying over him.

"No I'm sorry, it's been a rough night, I didn't mean it," he said it as he shifted in his seat and realised that there was no more comfortable way for him to sit.

Ginny pulled away from Neville and sniffed.

"No you're right, I do think I have the right to know everything, and I'm sorry. It's just that I worry, I'm my mother's daughter what can I say?"

Ron laughed and Ginny smiled a watery smile before looking at Harry with her bloodshot eyes.

"I'm sorry Harry, you are family of course you're family, I never meant it to come out that way."

"I know, I'd be out of my mind if Ron was going through all this without me, I totally understand. It's ok."

Ron cast a glance at Harry as he said this and smiled at his almost brother.

"Does mum know?" Ginny asked as Neville pulled up a chair for her to sit on beside Ron.

Harry nodded and Ron blinked in horror. How did his mum know they'd been hurt again? Whose stupid idea was it to tell her? There was no need for her to worry more.

"What?" he snapped.

"McGonagall went off to send an owl, don't you remember?" Harry shrugged apologetically.

Ron huffed so deeply that it seemed to weaken his resolve to stay awake and continue with this conversation. He lay his head back down and tried not to close his eyes.

"Are you sure you're alright Ron?" Harry moved forward and looked down at him with concern.

Ron's eyes met Harry's and he scrunched up his face.

"This isn't exactly the most comfortable position to be in."

At least Neville found the situation somewhat amusing and let out a slight chuckle before chatting with Harry about life at Hogwarts without the Boy-Who-lived attending anymore. It was only when Ron idly commented on his having been thrown through a window that Ginny involved herself in the conversation once more.

"Who threw you through a window?" Ginny demanded before looking down and busying her hands self consciously, "If I'm allowed to ask."

Ron smiled at his sister's caution and nodded down to Hermione.

"No way!" Neville gasped.

"Why did she do that?" Ginny asked, Ron couldn't quite tell if she was amazed or angry with her friend.

"She didn't mean to do it," Harry shrugged, "she was unconscious at the time."

"Who did what?"

Ron looked down to see Hermione stirring as she mumbled her question. She wriggled in his arms and her eyes opened very slightly to peer up at him. She smiled and seemed to snuggle back into him contentedly before closing her eyes to drift back to sleep again.

"Good morning Ron," she mumbled as she did.

Ron looked up quite self aware that Harry, Neville and Ginny were all registering Hermione's familiarity of waking up with Ron and struggled not to blush. He looked back down at Hermione and cleared his throat before breathing softly into her ear.

"Hermione can you let me go please?"

Hermione opened her eyes again and looked back at him with confusion, she didn't think she was holding on to him after all, and then she registered the bruises and cuts upon his face and gasped with alarm.

"Ron what happened to your face?"

"You did," Ron sniggered, "Can you please let me put you down now?"

"What are you talking about?" Hermione frowned before looking at Ron's arms tightly wound around her and the hoop on his arm, "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to."

Ron smiled and rolled his eyes, they would have to have words about that but not right now he thought.

"Yeah you keep saying that," he nodded.

Then something wonderful happened, his arms relaxed beneath her body and he found that as Hermione tried to wriggle out of his embrace he was able to pull away from her and slide his aching limbs out from under her. As he freed the arm that had been taking most of the weight and curled in the most uncomfortable position and shook it out at his side he felt as if it was so light it was going to float away without him.

"Oh Godric that feels good," he sighed.

He sat back in his chair and revelled in the luxury of sitting in another position. As he reclined ever so slowly he closed his eyes and wondered if there would ever be another time when leaning backwards would ever feel as good as it did right then. Hermione sat up and looked over at him with what was getting to be a permanent frown crinkling her brow.

"How long were you like that?" she said.

"Only all night," Harry answered.

Ron recognised that tone, it was the same one he had used when Hermione had accidentally let slip about him hexing them to escape and rob Gringots, it was the tone of Harry Potter being protective of him and he knew that something was definitely wrong with those hoops now. Ron dreaded to think what it could be.

"I think it's time to take off the hoops don't you?" Harry said as if he was attempting to disarm an unstable wizard.

Well whatever it was he was in full agreement that the hoops needed to go and he let out another sigh of relief at his new sitting position while raising his arm for Hermione to release him from the magical binding. He noticed that she was looking at him with genuine fear in her eyes before grabbing the hoop and sliding it down the length of his arm and then doing the same with hers.

"I think we should get these to Fred and George, we don't need them anymore," Hermione said as she looked down at the two silver hoops nestling in her lap.

Harry seemed to warm to her again after this and extended his hand to take them away from Hermione. Ron took another deep inhalation in and felt the cracked rib merrily reminding him of its existence and curled his fingers around the hem of his jumper to lift it up and finally see just how badly Pettigrew had beaten him the night before. He drew a sharp intake of breath as he saw the multitude of different coloured bruises that covered the swollen skin around his stomach against the stark contrast of the two slashes that tore across his flesh and bled freshly through the dried blood from last night. On the bottom of his rib cage, where the intermittent but painful reminder of a cracked rib seemed to be coming from, he saw a dark purple bruise in the shape of a beater's bat had formed. He winced as he tried to examine his wounds tenderly and Ginny jumped up from her chair as if it was electrified.

"I'll get Madame Pomfrey," she said as she began to depart with haste.

Ron looked up at Ginny as she glanced at him, almost daring him to tell her that he was 'fine' this time and he didn't have the will or even the desire to argue with her, and he nodded for her to go.

"Thanks Gin," he said gratefully.

"Wow," Harry said.

"What?" Ron asked, looking puzzled while Hermione leaned over to caress the area around the slash just above his belly button with her soft hands.

"It's just so unlike you that's all, first you let me help you with your back and now you let Ginny get you some help for your war-wounds, what did Wormtail do to my best friend 'cause you don't seem to be the same guy!"

Ron let himself laugh at this, he was acting a little too much like an obedient patient for him but he really wanted to talk to Madame Pomfrey now that he was able to have a full examination and he was at no risk of being overheard by Hermione. As Harry chuckled to himself about Ron's newfound compliance to medical treatment Hermione smiled and took his head in her hand and seemed to be looking at the injuries to his face. He hadn't seen it but apparently there were several lacerations from his sojourn through the window pane and the last of the bruising that Madame Pomfrey hadn't been able to access comfortably around his eye where Pettigrew had landed his first metallic punch of the night.

"What happened with Pettigrew anyway," Hermione said while she examined him, almost as if reading his mind, "did you get him sent to Azkaban where he belongs?"

Ginny was returning with Madame Pomfrey and Ron didn't want to have to think about the remains he had left behind outside the shrieking shack, animals had probably run off with most of him by now, and he sprung to his feet and moved across to let himself be guided into one of the free beds across the ward. Harry could tell her that he was dead. Neither of them could know just how exactly, not yet at least, and they could never know what he was about to confide in Madame Pomfrey.

"Oh dear me, this is even nastier than I imagined it from what you told me," the medi-witch winced with distain for the now hours old wounds, "but don't fret, I can heal these cuts easily and dull the discomfort in the bruises at the same time."

Ron leaned forward, not a wise choice as his cracked rib sent another spasm of pain through him, and lowered his voice.

"There's something else Madame Pomfrey," he began.

"Yes yes, the rib will be fixed too, don't worry, I can't forget it what with that nasty reminder you've got there," she said, gesturing to the long dark bruise at his rib cage, "Now lay back and let me work there's a good fellow."

Ron glanced over at the group around Hermione's bed, all in serious discussion, and wondered what they thought of his being involved in Pettigrew's death. It was obvious that Harry had now told them. He looked back up at Pomfrey when he saw Ginny turn to look over at him with her hand to her mouth.

"It's not that, there's something else you need to treat, I didn't want to say in front of the others and please don't tell them. You've got to promise me you won't tell anyone, they can't find out and neither can my mum."

Madame Pomfrey looked greatly concerned at his state of determined panic and pushed him back down onto the pillow, leaning over him so he didn't have to pass on his secret in such a painful position.

"You are of age Mr Weasley, if you want something kept confidential it is my duty to do so of course, what on earth is it? What else did that vile man do to you?"

Ron took a deep and shuddering breath in before whispering so quietly that he could barely hear the word himself.

"Cruciatus."

The woman gasped and jerked back in alarm, he hand covering her mouth and her eyes wide.

"It was only for a second or two, he couldn't hold it, I can't even feel it now but I..."

"You should have told me about that the second you walked through that door," Madame Pomfrey hissed at him, leaning back in and struggling to keep her calm demeanour so as not to alert the group across the ward that something had alarmed her so, "you could be bleeding internally you stupid boy!"

So much for him being treated like an adult.

"It really was just a second, if that even, I wouldn't have said anything about it but I remember from defence against the dark arts class that it can do hidden damage and I just wanted to get it checked out."

The medi witch leaned back and performed several quick pain relieving spells on his cuts and bruises before summoning a potion as discreetly as she could from her office and pouring it down his throat while Harry picked up the dead body of Nagini and carried her out of the ward, no doubt to floo to Fred and George's place to take care of her disposal properly, and Ginny wandered over to his bedside with a smile.

Madame Pomfrey took the empty potion bottle and shoved it into her pocket so his sister couldn't see and continued with the healing spells on his stomach.

"Everything ok?" Ginny said cautiously, not wanting to get in the way or be accused to sticking her nose in other people's business again.

Madame Pomfrey looked down at Ron, fixing his gaze with her own steely glare of authority, and gave Ginny her answer while answering Ron's own silent query at the same time.

"You're brother's very lucky Miss Weasley, lucky I'm as good as I am and lucky that he's only been hurt on the outside, this mess I can fix up in no time."

Ginny grinned and took another step forward to sit at Ron's side and watch him get healed while he said a very clear but non-verbal thank you to the witch that was now healing his cracked rib with a slight smile on her lips.

"Bollocks to it!" Ron snapped.

He slammed the book closed and spluttered on the layer of dust that billowed up into his face. He was getting very frustrated, as ever, with this research lark and after six hours in the library he had just about enough.

"I don't think I'm even processing the words anymore, I'm just seeing blurred shapes that look familiar on every page, I don't think we're going to get very far without Hermione," Harry grumbled.

"Hermione," Ron suddenly gasped, eyes wide, "Oh Merlin, she's going to kill us!"

They had left her in the hospital wing while she was in a side room having the last of her treatment for the puncture wounds on her leg and hand and not bothered to leave a not telling her where they were going. They hadn't anticipated being gone quite as long as they had been.

Ron and Harry began to hurriedly stack all the weighty texts that were strewn all over the large wooden table before Ron bent over to make a start on the one's they had already worked through from the floor. He stacked them back on the shelves in near enough the correct places and bent to grab another arm full of weighty texts when something struck him on the back of the head, sending a blinding pain through his skull and bursting out through his eyeballs as he was swallowed up in rapid shroud of darkness.

Ron's eyes opened and he sat up, rubbing the back of his head. It felt like he had an axe buried into it.

"You really do re-define the meaning of the phrase accident prone don't you Ronald?"

Ron thought that he had brain damage or something because Dumbledore was standing in front of him, silver and large as life, despite the fact that he happened to know for a fact that the man was dead. He shook his head and remembered that Hermione had suspected that his spirit guide was Professor Dumbledore. He looked up at the man who didn't seem to have the time for introductions. Well he wouldn't need to would he? They had been doing daring deeds together for weeks now, Ron just couldn't remember them.

"There is nothing to help you in these books; you must come with me if you wish to deal with Fawkes."

"Where?" Ron asked.

Dumbledore looked at him with an expression of apology.

"We need to go to my tomb."

Ron felt his greatest fear rippling up to the surface of his psyche with immediate effect. He couldn't be serious could he?

"No, you can't do this to me, not another grave."

The same juddering he had almost lost himself to after Pettigrew had been killed began to rattle him from the inside out. He felt his throat constricting and his breath shortening, the fear was building and accelerating inside him and he couldn't fight it off this time. He couldn't go back into the ground.

"This won't be like last time Ronald; you just need to perform a ritual upon my tomb."

"On your body?" he shuddered, "I don't want to see your body, you can't make me. You can't make me do it."

He could feel the hyperventilation returning and getting out of his control. He couldn't face another body, he'd seen too many already, his head began to spin and his heart was pounding like a humming bird's.

"Please you know me Ron, you know I would never do that to you without being honest about it and I can tell you now Ronald, my ghost of a hand upon my ghost of a heart promises to you this is not going to be like before," Dumbledore said as he placed his hand on his chest and smiled at him sadly.

Could he trust him? Could he trust anybody? Would this never stop?

"No more dead people," Ron whimpered.

"Just my tomb, my sealed tomb Ronald, a brief ceremony on my closed tomb. You will be on the outside the entire time," Dumbledore said, he sounded as if he meant it as he raised the hand from his heart and held it up to swear to Ron, "I give you my word."

Ron's breath was getting away from him now and his arms were shaking as they held the weight of his trembling body up. He looked away from the spectre and tried to compose himself. This was getting worse, it was worse than the attack outside the Shrieking Shack, worse than the attack in his sleep, this was out of his hands and he couldn't do anything to stop it. He couldn't think or meditate or make himself sick to purge the fear from his body along with the nausea. There was nothing he could do.

"I can't, not another grave I can't."

Ron shuddered as he felt the cold dead hand of Regulus Black snaking along his back and the parasites crawling beneath his flesh where they had been sleeping dormant until this moment, this moment when they woke to finish the job. He was going to be eviscerated after all, just like Wormtail wanted, only slower. He couldn't bare it.

"You must," Dumbledore said as he crouched down before Ron with a pained look upon his face.

He could smell him now, taste him at the back of his throat, Regulus Black was inside him and fighting to get out. Black and Wormtail and all those dead people who wanted his life for their own, they were all crawling beneath his flesh and stirring his stomach, fighting their way out to take him over. Dumbledore was just another one of them. He was just another rotting corpse who wanted living flesh to consume. His head filled with a thousand screams and his breath became a dry wheeze. He forced his eyes closed but all he saw was more death so he opened them again and saw nothing but spots before his eyes and the silver ghost of his headmaster reaching out to lay his dead hands on him.

"Why don't you just kill me if that's what you want?" he choked.

Dumbledore rested his hands upon Ron's shoulders and it sent a shiver down his spine as if he had just been leaning on an icicle.

"How could you possibly think that would be my aim Ronald?" Dumbledore said with a tremor in his own voice, "I would do anything in my power to protect you from harm, especially after what we had to do that night."

We?

There was no ‘we' in that coffin as far as Ron was concerned. It was just him, alone, slowly suffocating and being digested by a whole other kind of death eater. His head dropped and he felt his emotion from that night, the raw despair and hopelessness hit him as if the moment was as fresh in his mind as the night it happened. He began to cry like he had done that night. His head was back in that graveyard and he couldn't go through it all again. Not even for Harry, not for anyone, he didn't have the nerve.

"I can't do this anymore, I want to go home," he sobbed and his chest heaved to drag an unwilling breath in, "I want my mum."

Dumbledore looked devastated as he pulled Ron into him and wrapped his arms around him in a solid hug. Ron shook and choked on more tears as they came, burying his face into the wizard's warm shoulder and feeling the hug that didn't seem to be an illusion or a ghostly sensation, it was really happening. Dumbledore was really there cradling him and comforting him and making him feel something other than revulsion at his own internal decay.

"If Voldemort isn't stopped there won't be a home for much longer, or a family for you," Dumbledore whispered to him as they rocked very slightly and Ron felt the warmth of Dumbledore's body thawing the chill that had set into his bones on the news that he would be facing another grave in the name of victory, "the Weasley's are targets. You are blood traitors. You have to keep fighting for them Ron, for all of them."

The thought of Voldemort blasting the Burrow apart and murdering his entire family was too much for Ron to take. As he heard his mother's agonised screams inside his head and the sound of the deadly mutilation spell being spoken he felt his back arching and his stomach churning as it had done last night.

My wand, I need to get this out, I need to let the fear out otherwise I'll choke on it, where's my wand?

Dumbledore suddenly released his hold on Ron and put an icy hand upon his throat while shouting the spell that Ron desperately wanted to perform on himself.

"Eructo!"

The surge of his stomach contents being purged caused Ron to drop back forward onto his hands and knees as he vomited with incredible ferocity, making him feel both dreadful and enormously relieved.

"That's right Ronald, let the anxiety go, let it all go and come back to yourself," Dumbledore was saying soothingly, "Come back to me dear friend."

Ron retched once again and another wave of vomiting began while Ron's mind began to clear itself and his judders were lessening. It had been too much too soon after seeing Wormtail being butchered. He was on top of the fear again, he could feel it, and he knew what he had to do.

"Ok," he said; voice husky from his raw throat, "you're right, I'll do it."

"Thank you Ronald," Dumbledore said with a relieved smile, "you conquer your demons yet again and that is admirable, especially when one considers just how many demons this quest has given you. Your bravery is beyond measure."

Ron got to his feet unsteadily and looked at the wizard as he glanced around the darkened space around them.

"Harry and Hermione are with you, you have frightened them quite a bit and they are extremely angry with me as well. You might want to put their minds at ease."

He nodded and spoke aloud into the darkness.

"Harry, Hermione, I know you're there somewhere."

He felt a pressure around his arm and continued.

"I was overreacting, I'm fine now. It's just the mention of anything to do with graves, I panicked, but it's ok."

Dumbledore smiled at him and stepped forward, hand rising to rest upon Ron's forehead, and he sent a wave of power into him. Ron blinked and saw the library come into focus, he could see, and he peered around to find his friends but they were still nowhere to be seen. He did see several dark shadows a little way ahead of him, they were moving around slightly and he tried to make out a familiar shape in the crowd but they were too close together.

"So many shadows," he sighed.

"It is Minerva and Poppy, your sister and Mr Longbottom are here too."

"More people," Ron said sadly, "more people to come find me just like you did."

"I don't believe they know Ronald, Minerva may suspect, but none of them know."

Did it really matter if his secret was out anymore?

"What the hell, I've got nothing to lose, let's go dance on your grave professor."

Chapter Twenty Two - Soul Transfer

Ron was fighting against a pressure on his chest, he assumed that Harry or Hermione was trying to stop him from leaving the castle but he pushed onward. Dumbledore was leading him out and over to the lake where his white tomb waited, for what Ron had no idea, and the silver spirit in the brilliant sunshine was almost invisible to him. He sighed at this; he had yet another person to barely see in his sleep state. Every once in a while Dumbledore would turn around and give him a reassuring smile and a gesture of encouragement to keep fighting against the two different forces that were now trying to hold him back, the pressure against his chest and a pulling on his arm.

The pressure suddenly left his chest while the pull on his arm only grew stronger. He tried not to pay attention to the shadows that darted around behind him. He knew he was out in the open, out in the daylight and that everybody knew now. Everybody knew what he was and what he could do. He was about to lose himself to the demands of the departed. He might as well do something useful for Harry before he was lost to him and Hermione forever. Whatever this involved he would do it for Dumbledore. This might very well be his last sane desicion.

Dumbledore reached his tomb and turned and waited for Ron to join him with a smile.

Don't make me regret trusting you old man.

"Never Ronald," Dumbledore smiled, causing Ron to start and wonder wether he had spoken out loud without realising it, "I didn't work so hard to earn your trust just to throw it away carelessly. Trust is a gift to treasure and I will tresure yours always dear friend."

Can you hear me?

"I've always been able to hear you Ronald; I just felt it rude to interrupt."

Ron almost let himself laugh but was distracted at the pull on his arm stopping abruptly. It seemed that the shadows were going to let him do what he had to. He stood before the tomb and looked at it, amazed that the panic hadn't reared its ugly and all too familiar head yet, and Dumbledore placed an arm around his shoulders.

"I told you Ronald, you have conquered the fear admirably, and although you can't ever forget it you will always know that you can control it. You are stronger than the sum of your fears, you always have been."

He smiled up at the man who had never seemed to notice him in life but who now appeared to know him better than he did himself and nodded.

Thank you.

"Now let us proceed with the destruction of this last independent portion of Tom's soul shall we? I need you to be standing on top of the tomb for me if you would be so kind Ronald."

Ron pulled himself up onto the smooth white surface and turned to look at his old headmaster for further instructions.

"Now I need you to summon Fawkes to me, lift your arms into the air and call out invenio intus orno viator, did you get all of that?"

Ron nodded and readied himself to send out the summoning spell.

"Good now prepare yourself Ronald, as soon as you begin you will feel a surge of power flowing out of you but you have to hold firm do you understand?"

When do I ever understand anything that bloody happens to me?

Dumbledore chuckled and Ron tried to remember to keep his thoughts in check as he took a deep breath and raised both his hands into the air.

"Invenio intus orno viator!"

Ron felt a ripple of energy leaving his body through his fingertips and held his hands up to the sky. He glanced down at Dumbledore who was looking up at the sky expectantly before beaming as the most beautiful sound echoed from somewhere within the forbidden forest.

"You can stop now Ronald, Fawkes is coming."

As he lowered his arms Ron saw the red and gold phoenix landing gracefully at his feet on top of the tomb and blinked with the shock at the clarity he was able to see this living thing before him. He squatted down and stroked the phoenix.

"Fawkes knows I am here but can not see me, can you please reassure him that you act on my behalf Ronald?"

Ron looked into the Phoenix's eyes and smiled.

"I know you don't trust me but he does so I hope that's good enough for you Fawkes."

Fawkes bowed his head and let Ron stroke the plumage on the back of his neck.

"Now I need you to stand above him and hold out both hands again for me, palms facing down at Fawkes, and hold him in place while you magically penetrate the flesh and dig out the portion of Lord Voldemort's soul, I know you know the spells Ronald. Fawkes will not fight against you. Please proceed."

Ron stood up again and took another deep breath before directing his hands down at the large bird at his feet.

"Obtineo! Permeo pulpa effodio..."

"Good Ron, now break off the soul from Fawkes' own!" Dumbledore said with enthusiasm.

"...abduco abrumpo!"

Ron felt the fragment of Voldemort's soul separating from Fawkes', rising up out of the bird's body and floating before him like a small puddle of crude oil floating in mid-air. As the soul was completely severed from the body of the phoenix the thick swirl of dark liquid seemed to become a kind of jet black vapour that swirled around looking for another host.

"Hold it for me Ron," Dumbledore said urgently, "Don't let it decide to see solace inside you, I have a place for it to go. There is a new vessel for it right here, tell Miss Granger I said that please."

"He says he already has it Hermione, right here," Ron said as he concentrated on holding the swirling black smoke of the released horcrux in one place as best he could.

Dumbledore was floating up to join him atop the tomb now and seemed to be shaking his head wearily before looking at Ron and sighing with amusement tinged with a little sadness.

"Was I really such an ogre in life? I cannot believe how little even my closest of friends think of me now that I am dead and gone."

Gone?

Ron raised an amused eyebrow as he smiled at the wizard.

"Well very nearly gone, maybe that's why they don't feel so bad to be speaking so ill of me."

"He's offended," Ron chuckled with a shake of the head, "he says you've all offended him."

"Now Ronald I'm about to do something that we've done many a time before but you have no recollection of so I give you fair warning that I'm about to join forces with you and that it will feel slightly uncomfortable. You may want to warn our onlookers that despite appearances I am not hurting you in the slightest."

Ron swallowed and looked over to a small gathering of dark shadows a short distance away.

"This is going to look bad but it doesn't hurt..." Ron said aloud before making a little addition while catching Dumbledore's eye as he moved behind him and out of sight, "...he tells me."

What felt like two ice cold spears entered Ron's body through his back and he flinched and felt himself go rigid as if he had been stabbed with something that was charging him with magical energy. Ron could see raw white sparks crackling between his fingers like mini lightning bolts as the black vapour moved away from Fawkes and became easier to control and contain. Ron felt Dumbledore speaking through him as he looked down at the phoenix still nestled at his feet.

"Go Fawkes."

The phoenix took off and flew back into the forest silently. Ron saw the soul fragment in the enforced containment between his hands and the surface of the tomb where Fawkes had been sitting just moments before and directed his hands back down at the spot at his feet for the extraction procedure. He took in a deep breath and began to force the vapour downwards while yelling a spell as he pushed.

"Occludo intus!"

This was hard, it was like professor Flitwick trying to push Hagrid through a quiddich hoop against his will, Ron gritted his teeth and pushed down against his own invisible cushion even harder. He watched as the vapour was slowly eased through the lid of the tomb and felt himself breaking into a cold sweat as Dumbledore's chilly presence within him filled him with another wave of power that was immediately channelled through his arms and into the pressure he was struggling to maintain on the slowly sinking fragment of Voldemort's soul. As the last of the dark gas vanished out of sight Ron wondered if Dumbledore really thought this could work.

"Are you sure about this?" he asked, his voice sounding strained as he panted with the effort it was taking to push the soul into the dead body below.

"You should know better than anybody that a body is just the container you leave behind to embark on the next great adventure, what resides within this tomb isn't any part of me, and I'm sure that victory over Voldemort will be a better monument to my life than this monument to my death don't you?"

Ron nodded and tried to shake the hair, damp with sweat, out of his eyes.

"I'm going to run out of time Ronald, when I leave you cannot be allowed to sleep here otherwise you will be destroyed also."

Ron's hands shook and he called out to the group of shadows.

"Harry when I fall you have to move me quickly, you have to get me off of here understand?"

I can't hold it!

"Just a few seconds more Ronald, I nearly have it anchored, you're doing so well, just two more seconds and then..."

The icy spears pulled out from Ron's back and he shivered at the sensation, feeling a lot weaker without Dumbledore's powers inside of him. He was still surging with a power of his own that needed to come out somehow as it was making him feel slightly dizzy.

"Let it go Ronald, do it now!"

Ron closed his eyes and released it all through his hands which were directed at the top of the white tomb.

"Erase it from existence Ron, Harry is at your side to get you out of there."

"Profundum annullo nusquam esse!" Ron shouted as he felt all the remaining power he had flow out of him and down into the tomb which began to vibrate and then shake beneath his feet.

He forced his eyes closed as a blinding white light grew more and more intense as it flowed forth from his palms and into the tomb, which was shaking quite violently now and he felt hot and cold all at the same time as he heard Dumbledore's voice wafting away along with everything else he felt around him.

"It is done Ronald, our quest is over."

He fell backwards and seemed to float before the cold sweat and the burning inside of him faded to nothing and Ron found himself swallowed up in the darkness once again.

Hermione had him pinned down by the wrists again; her favourite move while they were kissing and frolicking like the kind of lovesick teenagers they used to mock, while she sat on his torso and leaned over to kiss him with a mischievous smile of her face. He lifted his head to meet hers as she pressed her lips to his and then pulled back suddenly, looking as if she wanted something so badly that it scared her to be denied it, as if a chocolate cake had just come out of the oven but she had to wait for it to cool before she could get a taste and just wanted to burn her mouth and be damned.

"What's wrong?" Ron asked as he laid his head back down to get a better look at her.

"You'll tell me if you want me to stop won't you?" she asked as she leaned back over him and brushed her lips against his, "You'll tell me if you're feeling constricted?"

He smiled and lifted his head again to kiss her properly, deeply, before moving back and breathing in her sweet warm breath.

"I think I've got that problem licked now Minnie."

Hermione smiled and lowered her full weight down upon him.

"Well let's see what I can do about some of those other problems of yours then shall we?"

Ron groaned and rolled over onto his side.

"I bet you three chocolate frogs and a packet of Droobles that he doesn't wake up this time," Neville's voice said from somewhere.

Why does Neville always show up just as she's about to get dirty?

"You just lost your bet," Ron mumbled into his pillow with a lazy smile.

"Oh damn!" Neville grumbled.

You're fucking telling me!

Ron heard Ginny laughing out loud and opened his heavy lidded eyes.

"I thought I told you to go to class?" he said with quite a hoarse voice.

"Yeah, this morning, it's almost tomorrow now."

Ron sat up and frowned, Ginny and Neville were both sitting around his bed in the hospital wing and Hermione was sitting up in a chair right beside him holding his hand, and he saw Harry walking towards him with a smile on his face.

"If it's that late how come you two are allowed to still be here?" Ron yawned and rubbed his face roughly.

"Well we did get quite a fright y'know, you looked..." Ginny paused and narrowed her eyes at him before carrying on, "...kind of like you used to when you scared me as a kid. Remember that Ron? When you used to sleepwalk?"

She doesn't know does she? Please don't let her know.

"I think I remember doing that...once."

He tried to read her expression but he couldn't make out if she was telling him he had been well and truly sussed or that she was just very suspicious of his ' I don't know what you're talking about ' act.

"Those days are long gone now though aren't they?" Ginny smiled at him.

"Yeah," Ron nodded with caution, he didn't know if she was drawing him into a trap in order to discover the truth.

"Well I'm glad you're ok," she sighed brightly, she appeared to have let it go for now, "that was quite a heavy book that knocked you out y'know?"

Ron winced as he remembered the shooting pain that had shot through his head just before everything went black. It didn't hurt anymore but he rubbed the back of his head to see if there was a lump.

"Is that what it was?"

Ginny seemed content that he was alright, now that she had spoken to him, and said goodnight; leaving with Neville. Ron watched them all the way out until the door slowly closed behind them before glaring at Harry, if anyone had given in to her and told her the truth it would have been him.

"Does she know?"

"No," Harry shook his head vigorously as his eyes widened behind his glasses, "and don't worry she'll never speak of it again, she knows it's something you need to never talk about and she's ok with that."

Ron looked over at Hermione who was holding his hand with both of hers now and unable to meet his eyes. He looked back up at Harry, worried about what could have happened while he had been unconscious.

"So was I just good old fashioned knocked-out or did I have a bit of a wander?"

"Hermione'll fill you in," Harry smiled as he took a step away from the bed to leave himself and give the two of them some privacy, "but one bit of good news is we know who it is who's talking to you now."

"Who?" Ron asked, sitting up anxiously.

"Dumbledore, Hermione was right," Harry smiled at her and she just barely managed to smile back at him over her shoulder.

Ron placed his other hand over the two of hers and smiled what he hoped was a smile of reassurance at her but she was still unable to meet his eye.

"When isn't she?"

"Right well I'm going to go for a walk before bed, maybe pop in on Dobby for a bit, see ya," Harry said while walking backwards to the large double oak doors to the hospital wing.

"Yeah see ya mate," Ron nodded as he watched the doors closing slowly once again.

AS he looked away and back at Hermione, about to ask her what he had done to upset her, she broke down into floods of tears and threw herself at him. She clung to him as if she was terrified it would be the last time she'd ever get the chance to do so and buried her face into the side of his neck.

"I thought I was protecting you all this time and I was just hurting you more and more," she wailed into his skin.

Ron wasn't following this at all, how had she hurt him? She didn't throw the bloody book at his head did she?

"What's all this? You've never done anything to hurt me, well apart from asking McLaggen to the Christmas party but I kind of deserved that at the time what with..."

"The bond of blood!" she suddenly screamed as she pulled away from him to look into his eyes for the first time with her own, now bloodshot ones, "I was keeping you bound to me, chained up like a dog, and Harry saw it. He tried to tell me and I couldn't see it."

"Hey don't be silly Min, you weren't abusing the power, you just got a little bit heavy handed towards the end there, there's no need to get yourself into a state about it," Ron said as he hugged her close to him and began to rock her gently from side to side.

"But I was, don't you see Ron I was abusing it because most of those times you should never have even been wearing that hoop in the first place. I wouldn't have been able to get heavy handed with you in the shrieking shack if I'd have listened to Harry and stopped using the stupid things once we knew that we could trust the spirit."

Ron shushed her and stroked her hair gently but she still had more blame to heap upon herself.

"I threw you through a window Ron!" she said with painfully raw emotion, "I knocked you onto your back and held you down in that cave while you were going through the worst of your claustrophobia and I didn't even think about it, I just did it. I didn't think about hurting you at all, it was all about what I wanted and where I wanted you to be right then. I'm just as bad as those wizards who treat their house elves like worthless scum."

"Don't be stupid..." Ron scoffed before she cut him off.

She pulled out of his arms and began to pace up and down between his bed and the empty one next to it.

"I even said it Ron, I said it to Harry when he tried to get me to give the hoops up to him, I told him you were mine."

She dropped her face into her hands to catch the new wave of tears that hit her at that moment.

"Well I am," Ron said without understanding why he should be angry with her.

Hermione lifted her tearstained face to look at him and shook her head.

"I said it like I owned you."

Ron was about to pull back the covers and get out of bed to hug her again when she jumped forward and pushed him back down again and sat on the edge of his mattress with her hands still resting upon his shoulders.

"I took away your free will Ron, I made you hold me all night while you were hurt and bleeding, and I felt like I was being abandoned while you were right beside me simply because you weren't wearing the stupid thing."

"Min I..." Ron was silenced by Hermione's fingers covering his mouth and her agonised eyes staring deep into his.

"Ginny hates me now for what I've done to you," she whimpered, "I can see it in the way she looks at me, Harry too; they both think I've become addicted to the bond. They're right Ron. If I had the bloody things now I'd want to use them. I'm a horrible horrible person and I almost got you killed."

Ron took her hand away from his lips and held it in his own firmly.

"You didn't pull me through a window to kill me. I've just been putting you through too much worry recently, who can blame you for doing the only thing you could to try and keep me safe, hell Hermione if it had all been happening to you..."

"Don't make excuses for me," she choked as she looked away from him.

"Will you let me finish?" Ron snapped, causing Hermione's head to snap back and stare at him in utter shock.

Neither of them said a word, they just stared at each other while Hermione sniffed and wiped her face with her sleeve, and then Ron remembered what it was he had wanted to say so badly.

"All I've been doing ever since this sleepwalking thing first started is worrying about you. How much worry I'm causing, how badly I could physically and mentally hurt you without even knowing that I've done it, and how much better off you would be without me."

Hermione made a sound from deep inside and Ron wouldn't let her start crying again, he took her face in his hands and kept going.

"And then I said it to you remember?" she nodded and closed her eyes, squeezing out two more fat teardrops as she recalled their conversation when he confessed the true speed of his deterioration at the Burrow, "I told you to get out while you could and you wouldn't have any of it. You were proud to have been with me and you wanted everybody to know it no matter what kind of mess I ended up."

Hermione opened her eyes again and Ron leaned forward and kissed her salty cheek.

"Well there's nothing you could ever do to make me hate you or drive me away and you know why that is Min? Do you?"

She sniffed again and shook her head.

"Because you don't have a spiteful bone in your body and nothing you could ever do that may or may not have hurt me could ever be something I wouldn't be able to forgive you for because look at the state of you babe, look how upset you are about it. You're telling me you're power mad? The Malfoy's are power mad and I don't seem them tearing themselves apart over all the people they've hurt over the years."

"But I still want it Ron," she said with a broken voice, "I don't want the power of the magical binding but I want to know where you are every single second and I want you with me and I want to know that you're safe and..."

"You think I don't?" Ron blurted, "You seriously think I don't want all those things with you?"

She blinked and stroked the side of his face with a sad smile while inhaling with a shudder.

"But I don't even want to go over there and sleep in that bed because it's too far away from you."

Ron slid his hand around the back of her head and pressed his lips against hers, parting them and sinking into a deeper kiss, before leaning back and brushing a strand of hair behind her ear.

"Then don't."

Without another word he pulled back the covers of his bed and shuffled over to one side to make room for Hermione as she crawled in beside him. He threw the covers over the two of them and they curled their arms around each other and he felt her head nestling on his chest while he rested his chin on the top of her bushy brown hair and closed his eyes.

Chapter Twenty Three - See You on the Other Side

"Ron, stop now, we've finally done it," Dumbledore was smiling when Ron opened his eyes after his near half hour of meditation at St Nectan's Glen.

What's he on about?

"You purged yourself of the last of the toxins at long last. You've beaten it my friend," the ghostly wizard said with a twinkle in his eyes, "you've beaten it in the physical world and in the metaphysical one. You have been purged of all the damage I did to you."

Ron was about to thank him when the headmaster was swallowed up within a brilliant white light and Ron felt himself sinking backwards into the darkness, something soft and warm cushioning him as he did.

Something seemed to shake him awake from the inside before he felt his physical body waking up rapidly and the sensation of somebody shaking him bodily from the outside as well. He blinked in the bright daylight and struggled to sit up.

"Ron on your feet we've got trouble," Harry was whispering for some reason as he scanned the glen with his wand out.

"What?" Ron frowned while Hermione pulled him up to his feet and withdrew her own wand anxiously.

Several loud cracks sounded around them, in different areas of the glen, and Ron recognised them immediately as the sound of apparition. People were apparating into the glen from all over the place and Harry and Hermione were prepared for attack.

Oh shit!

"How many of them are there?" Hermione was asking Harry while Ron pulled out his own wand and tried to pick out any abnormalities on the horizon, "I can't see anyone."

He joined Harry's side and swallowed, he didn't like how quiet the glen was now, where were they all?

"This is not good Harry, something's really wrong."

"Ron there's something I think you need to know," Harry began.

"What?" he frowned.

"Last night I..."

"Avada Kedavra!"

A whooshing sound and a bright green light flashed from somewhere behind the three of them and then Ron felt Hermione's body slamming into him, knocking him into Harry, and the three of them hitting the ground just as the killing curse zoomed above their heads.

Ron felt himself freeze as he looked up into the red snake-like eyes of Lord Voldemort, he had never seen him before, not conscious at least, and it chilled him to the bone.

"You're stupider than I thought Voldemort," Harry scowled as he jumped to his feet and cast a bubble shield charm around Ron and Hermione as they helped each other up, "you just saved me the job of looking for you to finish you off."

Voldemort laughed a laugh that sounded like a crackling fire before hurling a curse at Harry which he deflected with ease. This filled Ron with confidence in his friend, in all of them, Harry wasn't afraid of the monster who had murdered his parents in cold blood. He was confident that he could beat him, he would beat him, and this gave Ron the confidence in his own abilities to grab Hermione and pull her over to his side so he could whisper his plan to her while they were still enclosed within the bubble shield.

"Hermione we need to cover him from the others attacks, you take the left, and I'll take the right ok?"

"When?"

"As soon as the shield drops, I shield the rear, we attack Voldemort to buy us and Harry some time and we move to our positions," Ron said as he scanned his right to find a place with some decent cover from attack.

"What do we hit him with?"

Ron saw a large bolder resting against the rock face, there was no way he could be blindsided if he attacked from there.

"I've no idea, what do you think Min? Do we defend or do we attack?"

As Hermione thought it over Ron glanced over to his left to find an equally secure place for her to take cover and saw a crack in the rock that jutted out, almost like a shield with it's very own arrow slit built into it, and decided that that was pretty good, pointing it out to her as she nodded.

"We attack, defending will only get us half way but he'd have to recover from an attack and then formulate his own, that buys us all more time. Not much but its better than nothing isn't it?" she said as the shield began to falter around them.

"Attacking's good, I like that plan," Ron nodded as he raised his wand in readiness for the shield to fail.

"We cut him ok? He's cut us all over the course of this war; I think it's about time we made him bleed for a change."

Ron cast a glance at Hermione who was staring through the flickering shield at Voldemort with ferocious determination.

"I worry about you sometimes," he muttered as he focused back out at the dark wizard as he did battle with Harry.

"Sorry Ron," she said as she swallowed while retaining her focus once again, "it's the hoops; I'm still feeling a little primal from time to time."

There was nothing he could say to that so he didn't.

"Good luck," she said as the shield fell and the two of them became exposed to attacks from all round.

"Sectum pulpa crebro!" they both yelled as Voldemort turned his wand on them with an evil gleam in his red slit-like eyes and multiple cuts slashed the dark wizard's body.

Harry threw up a shield charm before all of them as Ron spun around and did the same behind them. He could see movement across the glen now and knew that the multiple attackers were just waiting for instructions from their master.

"Protego sempra!" Ron yelled as the shield sprouted from his wand and covered Harry's blind side.

"Death Eaters," Voldemort bellowed with rage, "rid me of the two pests and leave me to duel with Potter in peace!"

Ron turned to Hermione.

"Like we planned it yeah?"

She nodded.

"Good luck," she said once more before running for the shelter to her left.

As the various curses zoomed in from every direction Ron ran for the boulder and dove behind it just as a green flash sliced through the air beside him and exploded onto the rock face, scattering shrapnel everywhere. He looked over to see Hermione was safely protected behind the rock shield, throwing out curses with a real look of rage on her face, and knew that she was going to be fine. He just had to concentrate on covering his side of the battlefield.

He jumped up from behind the rock and cast a small protection spell over himself before going on the attack.

"Contego! Oppugno! Absisto! Adficto! Depulso!"

The protection spell fell away from him and he ducked back behind the bolder while multiple spells hit it and sent debris and sparks showering over him. The rock shook but wasn't in any danger of being breached so far, his judgement had been pretty good as far as the rock being a good place to shelter was concerned. He waved his wand above his head and cast another shield charm.

"Protego!"

Two more spells hit the rock face in front of him as the whizzed above the top of the bolder and when Ron saw the light of the fully formed shield glowing above him he jumped back to his feet again and resumed his attack.

"Captivas! Compescor crebro! Everbero indentiem! Impedio adstringo!"

Something shattered his shield and he flung himself back down onto the ground just in time to avoid the red and green flashes that broke through and headed right for him. He pressed his back against the bolder firmly to make sure there wasn't any angle he could be attacked from and tried to think of something they wouldn't be prepared for. They seemed to have an answer to most forms of defence or attack and he needed to take them by surprise somehow.

He winced as something exploded several feet above him and a pile of loose rocks tumbled down towards him. He raised his wand and levitated them before they buried him and jerked his wand over his shoulder to send them flying at his attackers. He racked his brains for a spell. How could a teenage wizard who hadn't finished school hope to beat this over privileged ruthless army?

The same way I beat Wormtail.

He remembered that his household spells always took the arrogant Death Eaters by surprise, they never did a practical thing in their lives, always left it up to their house elves, and then he knew that that was the one thing they wouldn't have any pre-conceived defence for. He tried to think of the novel ways he and the twins had always found to do battle when they were supposed to be doing chores and then it came to him. He was the runner bean pole javelin champion of the Burrow. And those things were sharp as hell. He sprung up from behind the rock, not even taking the time to cast a protection spell before himself and let his spell rip.

"Asser indentiem!"

The long thin rods shot out of his wand tip and flew out, burying themselves into trees, shattering against the rocks on the far side of the glen where the Death Eaters were sheltering, and impaling several robed figures who fell to the ground and rolled around screaming. More and more of the rods kept coming one after the other and Ron was assaulting all sides of the battle field with them now, beating back the attackers and incapacitating many of them with the same sweep of his wand.

One of the Death Eaters managed to send out a killing curse and Ron ducked back down behind the boulder, pressing his back against his faithful shield once again and yelped as he saw Draco Malfoy in front of him pressing his wand to his throat and holding his own wand arm flat against his side.

"Very impressive Weasel and all without Dumbledore as well, you were almost brilliant except for you not having noticed me sneaking up from the same place you just came from."

Ron's eyes widened, Malfoy knew about Dumbledore, he knew that he was an oracle. He didn't know what to do, if he killed Malfoy that would only be the beginning of his troubles now that he knew his secret. He pushed against the haunted looking young Death Eater but the Slytherin was already moving back, keeping his wand on Ron at all times. Ron lifted his own wand again and held it to Malfoy's face.

"So you know what I am then? Good for you ya sneaky little ferret, but I bet your dark lord won't be too pleased if you went ahead and killed me would he?" Ron hissed as he tried to remind himself to stay covered from the attacks raining in from behind him.

"Oh of course he wouldn't, he'd have my head if I blew you away Weasley. You and I both know just how valuable a weapon you would be to him, horcruxes or none he'd definitely be immortal them wouldn't he? As long as you were and I can really see him doing the whole horcrux thing again through you. How do you fancy a shattered soul Weasley?"

"How do you fancy a shattered nose Malfoy?" Ron snarled.

The blonde laughed and put his wand away. He actually put his wand away. Ron didn't know what to make of this.

"I'll kill myself before I let you hand me over," Ron warned before ducking a powerful spell that shattered through the top of the boulder.

"Well I'm sure if you stay crouched here they'll be only too pleased to do that for you because you see Weasel, none of them know about your little gift."

Ron suddenly realised that this had to be true, they wouldn't be trying to kill him if they or their master knew he was an oracle. He looked to Malfoy who was also ducking from the spells as the broke through the bolder little by little.

"Why would you keep it from them?" he asked with great suspicion.

"Because none of them can be allowed to come back after they die, none of them can be allowed to continue on once we rid ourselves of them," Malfoy said coldly, "It's like my father always said to me, the dead really have no business interfering in the living world, to die is to fail and nobody wants a failure to outstay their welcome."

The bolder cracked right through the centre and Malfoy grabbed the front of Ron's sweatshirt and pulled him back down the slope towards the sandy banks of the lakeside again. They half ran, half fell, and slammed down flat on their faces as the boulder exploded into hundreds of smaller rocks that showered down upon them. Ron found himself dragging Malfoy into a small sheltered area in the rock face, out of instinct to protect a fallen companion more than any desire to save the boy from a pummelling from above, and he aimed his wand at the wannabe Death Eater's chest.

"So what is it you do want Malfoy?"

"I want to take Dumbledore up on his offer," he panted as more rocks fell from above them.

"What?" Ron frowned.

"He said he could protect me, I could join them and fight with them and change the course of my life, Severus Snape and I have been fighting them from the inside and now we want our better life thank you very much."

Ron's eyes were wide; Snape was on their side after all?

"We want him stopped, we want this war over and we want our dues for what we've done. The great Potter isn't the only one who's been doing his bit to win this war y'know and I'm not letting him fuck this up and die a martyr."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa there, you don't expect me to believe this shite do you?" Ron said, not quite knowing what kind of trap he was getting himself into.

"Why didn't I go straight to the dark lord and blab about your little imaginary friend then Weasley? Tell me why I kept that to myself? Tell me why I've been fucking shielding you?"

"You what?" Ron sputtered incredulously, "When was this 'cause I didn't see you around."

"When you were sending out your bloody spears, very impressive by the way, you must teach me that one some day, and not getting hit by a single hex or curse in return. Remember that Weasel? You didn't cast your own protection spell that time did you so why aren't you bloody dead?"

Ron stared at the livid looking boy, who was staring back at him with unashamed disgust, and wondered how he could fight alongside somebody he so clearly hated.

"You can't stand me."

"No I can't," Malfoy said matter-of-factly, "but I'll stand with you, I'll fight with you and I'll finish this bastard with you. Same goes for Potter and Granger."

Ron hoped his judgement wasn't letting him down and lowered his wand with great caution. Malfoy shook his head and scoffed.

"Finally."

"Don't relax too much ferret boy I still don't trust you as far as I could throw you and I'm willing to see how far that is."

Malfoy laughed a genuine laugh at this.

"You know I never believed it when I heard people saying it but you are actually quite funny."

Ron raised both his eyebrows and folded his arms across his chest. Malfoy wanted something and he wanted to know what it was now.

"Well let's get the old man out to finish this shall we?" Malfoy said as he took a step towards Ron, "That is how it works isn't it? I put you to sleep and he wakes you up and the two of you do wandless magic that can take down an army in five minutes, that's how it is right?"

Ron shook his head.

"Not quite."

"Well what then, we need Dumbledore, we need you all super charged like you were that day at Pevensy, how do we do that?"

Ron tried to remember everything he had been told about his own condition and cursed his inability to remember exactly what went on himself.

"Well we've got a new spell that draws him out right away, that's sopor, and then there's the thing about the fever of course. That time I wrecked the Burrow, I was really ill after and after Gringots too..."

Ron was talking aloud to himself more that to Malfoy but he seemed to be getting excited by this information and took a step toward him and withdrew his wand again.

"So I'll send you to sleep with a fever and you'll be strong?"

Ron looked up at Malfoy and knew what had to be done.

"There's something else you have to do as well."

"What's that?" the pale faced and very tired looking boy blinked.

"While I'm in the trance, as soon as I'm in the trance, you've got to wake me up with the ennervate spell."

"But that'll just bring you back the way you are now won't it?" Malfoy frowned.

"No it won't, it'll give Dumbledore full control and send me away, it'll give Dumbledore my body entirely and all the powers that the fever will accumulate too."

Malfoy's eyes lit up and his chest swelled at this news, Ron knew what he was thinking. They were going to bring the only wizard Voldemort was ever afraid of back to life to face him.

They were going to win.

"Ronnie, hey Ron get up, it's all right, it's only us."

Ron opened his eyes and felt as if he was falling despite the fact that he was laying on the ground.

"Don't worry, it'll pass soon enough, I remember when I got back from visiting your mother that time I couldn't tell up from down could I Fabian?"

Fabian?

"It was like he was drunk," another, very similar voice said as he felt his body drifting upwards into the standing position.

Except he wasn't standing, he was kind of floating as well, like he was walking on the surface of very deep snow and wondering why he wasn't sinking down into it. He didn't have a body either now that he thought of it; he just had a presence, a form, but no substance. He felt a fizzing sensation on his arm and saw that he was being touched by a silvery hand. He looked up into a face he had only ever seen in photographs, as far as he remembered anyway, and shuddered.

"Uncle Gideon?" he said in a voice that was felt rather than heard.

The man smiled at him and let him go.

"You've been doing so well little man Prewitt, I am so proud, and after all the visits as well...well you blew me away you really did."

Ron couldn't quite understand what was happening to him. He looked around himself and saw what looked like several different lace patterns of landscapes surrounding him. It was as if he was in a transparent room of frosted glass and through that he could see a transparent street and then a glacial village and further still through all the translucent layers trees and mountains going on forever as if they were ice sculptures. He looked back at his twin Uncles and tried to find the words for all his questions.

"Where...? What happened?"

The quieter of the two brothers smiled at him and answered his vague questions.

"You sent Dumbledore out to fight with your friend Harry. He's gone to finish it once and for all, for all of us."

"It...It worked, Malfoy woke me and he came out like he was supposed to?" Ron asked as he drifted forwards and backwards a little until his uncle Fabian held him in place by the shoulders.

"It worked perfectly Ron, it is working, and we're winning."

Ron let himself smile as he looked around himself again and wondered where everybody else was.

"We're winning," he repeated to himself absent-mindedly while his uncles shared a confused glance at each other before looking back at him.

"Hey baby Prewitt, what are you looking for?" Gideon said.

"Are we the only ones here?" Ron asked, wondering why his uncle kept calling him Prewitt.

Fabian smiled again.

"You poor sod, that nightmare you had when you were going nutso really stayed with you didn't it? We're the only ones Ronnie, us and Dumbledore, we're the only ones that know so we're the only ones here. There's nobody else out to get you I promise, I swear, there's only ever been the three of us."

Ron felt himself shake as he relaxed to such a degree that he almost floated off into the rafters of the invisible house, his uncle Gideon pulling him back down by his feet.

"Where you off to mate?" he chuckled, "there's nothing for you up there."

Ron tried to plant his ghostly feet on the floor and keep them there.

"Sorry, I'm not used to this, how do you stick where you want to?"

Fabian held him down on the ground, pushing on his shoulders, the fizzing feeling of his touch intensifying as he did so, and tried to explain.

"You just tell yourself that this is where you really are, this is where you want to be and this is where you're staying," he let go of his shoulders and Ron felt secure on the ground for the very first time since he got there, "and you should be able to stop your mind carrying you away like that see?"

He sighed and grinned up at his uncle.

"Cheers uncle Fabian."

The two brothers smiled at each other before something in the invisible house shook and then turned back to Ron with serious expressions on their faces. It was Fabian who spoke; his mother always had said he was the more mature of the two of them.

"Listen we are going to ask a huge favour of you, well Dumbledore is asking through us really, he's fighting out in the living world and he needs you to fight from down here as well."

Ron nodded.

"Of course what does he need?"

Again the twins looked at each other with apprehension.

"Look junior," Gideon said bracingly, "this sucks, and when you hear what we want to do you're going to shit yourself but you trust Dumbledore and you trust us right?"

Ron didn't like the sound of this.

"What the bloke who put me in a coffin with a dead guy and the two prats who left me in the snow in my pyjamas when I was little, yeah I trust ya!" he nodded sarcastically.

"Bloody hell he sound's just like Molls," Gideon said with shock as he turned to his twin.

"Don't say that!" Ron said, slightly offended.

Fabian laughed before quickly frowning again and sighing before he explained the plan from their side of the battle.

"The thing is, we need to send another dead person's spirit out there to finish the job, Harry's going to give them corporeal form with one of his patronus' and we need you to let her into this room with us in order to do that."

"What does letting somebody into this room entail exactly uncle Fabian?" Ron asked with caution.

Again the twins shared a look before answering the question; Ron was beginning to hate that.

"Well junior..." Gideon began.

"My name's Ron!" he snapped back at the more difficult and somewhat patronising of the two of them and he jumped back.

"He's definitely taken after our Molls!" Gideon said as he turned to his brother, quite affronted at being shouted at by his 'baby' nephew.

Fabian leaned over him and gripped him by both shoulders firmly.

"Ron, we are asking you if you can invite somebody in, tell a person who is already dead that you are an oracle and invite them to join us so Dumbledore can send her into Harry and Harry can send her out through his patronus."

Ron felt as if the invisible room had just flipped upside down and left him hanging in mid-air.

"What?" he said with a shake of the head.

"You need to let somebody else know what you are, nobody can come into this room, your room Ron, and visit you in your sleep like the three of us have done unless they know about you," Fabian said as he released him and took a step back.

"So what Dumbledore needs us to ask you is to invite somebody in, to let one other person know about you so they can help him defeat Voldemort," Gideon said, strangely seriously now.

Ron stared at them both with hurt eyes before turning away and pacing the invisible room several times. Neither of his uncles said a word while he did. So many more people in the living world already knew his secret and now he was being asked to spread the word amongst the dead as well? This room of his was going to get awfully crowded. Would there even be room for him by the time this was all over? He stopped pacing and looked back over to his uncles who were watching him anxiously.

"Who is it?"

Again they looked at each other nervously, Ron finally snapped.

"Will you stop doing that? I'm over here!"

"It's his mum," Gideon blurted out in shock.

Ron frowned at this.

"Dumbledore's mum? He wants his mum?"

Fabian actually chuckled at this and shook his head.

"No mate, not Dumbledore's mother," his face fell back into seriousness again, "Voldemort's mum. He wants you to bring in Merope Gaunt and send her up to help them take down her wayward son."

Ron's eyes were wide with horror at what he was being asked.

"Dumbledore wants me to invite a Death Eater into my...what ever the fuck this is, he wants me to let a Death Eater know my secret and not just any Death Eater but the mother of the most evil wizard in history?" Ron exclaimed, "Do me a favour!"

"She's not a Death Eater, she's practically a squib," Gideon defended himself, "and she's on our side. She loved a muggle, she doesn't believe in anything Voldemort stands for. She's one of us."

"You're having a laugh aren't you?" Ron said as he began to pace back and forth again.

His uncle Fabian seemed to appear in front of him as if he had dissolved from one side of the room and re-materialised in Ron's path in an instant.

"Ron you're right this is a terrible idea and the three of us have tried to come up with something, anything better than this, but we can't. This is all we've got, this is the only plan we have to stop him, and this is the only way we can think of to help your friend defeat him for good. She's a decent person Ron and she won't use you I swear, I promise she won't."

"On your life?" Ron snorted before his uncle Gideon materialised before him as well.

"We won't let her and she wouldn't try anyway Ron and I promise you on the eternity of abuse I will get from your mother when she eventually joins us if we lie to you!"

Ron saw it in his eyes, the same fear that occasionally struck Fred and George when their mother's wrath was in full swing; Gideon Prewitt was not going to do anything to piss off his sister any more than he already had.

"I believe you," he said as his head dropped and he heaved a sigh of resignation before looking up at them again, "ok so how do I invite her in?"

"You grant me permission to bring her," Fabian smiled as he extended his hand, "you shake my hand and I go out into the spirit world and bring her in, I'll explain everything to her on the way and I'll make her swear not to trouble you ever again after this alright?"

Ron nodded and took his uncle's hand.

"I give you permission to invite Merope Gaunt back here."

There was a sudden surge of energy that grew into a yellow ball of light around their clasped hands and Fabian broke away and disappeared before Ron's eyes with a smile on his face. Ron turned to Gideon and tried not to look as if he had just made the biggest mistake of his life.

"It'll be alright little...Ron, I won't let anyone fuck with Molly's boy, send me to hell if I do."

Ron smiled at him.

"What's with all the baby Prewitt crap anyway?"

Gideon grinned.

"I just like that we didn't get wiped out that's all, I thought your mother was the only one left and she was all alone out there, but you...you're one of us."

Gideon slapped him on the shoulder and Ron frowned and shook his head.

"You think she's lonely? You are aware that she has seven kids right?"

Gideon threw back his head with laughter and Ron sniggered both at the subject and at the situation he found himself in. He was joking around with his dead, uncles in his own afterlife, before he was actually dead but after having been buried.

"Do you know there was a time when I thought I was going to have an uneventful life?" Ron mused to himself and his uncle howled with laughter again.

"Oh man I really like you," Gideon said as his laughter subsided, "I really wish I could have...I dunno, just been there, in your life."

"Me too," Ron nodded.

There was what felt like a breeze but wasn't and the shape of his uncle Fabian reappeared in the room with a young and very haunted looking woman at his side.

"Merope, this is my nephew Ron," Fabian said as he introduced the spirit of Voldemort's dead mother to him, "Ron this is Merope and she has come to help Dumbledore."

"Hi," Ron said in a surprisingly small voice.

"Hello," she said in a similarly weak one before taking a sudden step forward and whispering to him, "I've never made myself a nuisance, I've never stayed where I'm not wanted, so don't worry about me bothering you. I won't, I promise."

Ron looked at her as she pulled back from him and smiled a sad smile at him and he leaned forward and whispered into her ear.

"Thank you," before kissing her on the cheek.

She shimmered in front of him and smiled before looking around at the invisible house and asked Fabian where she needed to go.

"We just wait and Ron will be given a signal as far as I know," Fabian said, explaining the plan to both Merope and Ron, "and then Ron sends you up there."

Ron blinked in panic.

"I don't know how to do that."

Gideon smiled and patted him on the back.

"You'll know."

They only seemed to wait several seconds before something shook Ron inside and he fell to his knees, clutching his head.

"Ron," Gideon said as he knelt at his side with concern, "Ron what's the matter?"

'Ronald is Merope there with you?'

He and Dumbledore were together, in both places at the same time, and Ron could feel his physical form and his mental one being torn in two as they connected. He tried to answer Dumbledore but he couldn't speak. Speech was for his body and he didn't have one of those right now. He tried to answer him with his thoughts, hoping that Dumbledore could read minds as a ghost.

'Yes'

Dumbledore's presence was pulled away from him for a moment and Ron looked up to see his uncles on their knees looking at him with fearful eyes.

"Ron what was that? Are you ok?" Fabian was saying.

"Dumbledore was asking me if I was ready," he said as he tried to clear his mind, "if Merope was here."

On hearing her name Merope stepped between the twins and took one of Ron's hands with both of hers.

"I'm ready Ron, I'm here."

Before Ron could say anything to her the incredible presence inside his head came back and Dumbledore's voice seemed to be booming as if it was thunder directly overhead.

'Send her now Ronald!'

Ron opened his eyes and grabbed Merope, a hand on either side of her head, and thrust her into his silvery ghost-like body where she disappeared and he felt both her and Dumbledore leaving him. He fell back down onto the soft, non-existent floor, and found himself unable to get himself back up.

"It's ok Ron, you're about to go back, this happened to you when you were a little boy, just before Gids came back to me, just lie still and wait for it," Fabian was saying with a smile.

"You did it Ron," Gideon was saying as he laid a hand upon his head, "you done Molls proud, it's been good to meet you properly little man. Sorry, force of habit."

Ron smiled before feeling as if he was sinking and seeing the clear silver forms fading into a dull grey.

"That's ok Uncle Gideon," he said weakly, "I'll see you around."

Just as the two identical faces faded away he heard his Uncle Fabian saying one last thing.

"We'll see you on the other side."

Chapter Twenty Four - Through the Foe Glass

He was sweating and he threw back the covers and rolled over to lie on his side but the movement sent shivers all over his skin. The covers were pulled back over him and he wanted to wrestle them back off him again but something wet and cold was being pressed against his forehead and it just felt so nice that he didn't want to move away from it.

He felt so hot and he couldn't understand why he was shaking so much. He couldn't find any position to lay in that let him be comfortable for more than five minutes at a time and every time he tried to toss in the bed and escape the heavy blankets that were piled on top of him somebody would lay him back down on his back and tuck him in tightly.

He shivered all the way deep into his bones and felt his t shirt sticking to his back. He was really hot but at the same time absolutely freezing. Something was wiping his face and there was moisture on his lips for a second or two before that uncomfortable feeling of wearing seven layers of winter clothing in the height of summertime overcame him again and he kicked out at the covers around his legs. If he could just get one leg out and exposed to the cool air then maybe it would cool the rest of him down enough to stay snuggled under the damp blankets.

He just barely got a foot lose when he heard a familiar voice and felt his leg being pushed back onto the bed and the covers being tucked back tightly again.

"...still on fire but the medi wizards said we have to keep him warm. His body temperature's deceptive and a slight chill could make him worse before he gets better."

Who was Hermione talking to he wondered? He thought about opening his eyes before feeling a spell hitting him and the option was taken away from him as he fell still and let the sleep weigh him back down again.

There was something in his mouth now, he flinched and tried to swallow but somebody pulled it out and laid him back down.

"No you don't, we'll have no eating of thermometers on top of everything else young man," the unfamiliar voice said before the sounds of heels clicking away into the distance made him realise that he was probably in the hospital.

Something took his hand while another, rougher touch rested upon his face, pushing his sopping wet hair away from his burning skin.

"It's still not broken then?" his mother's voice sighed as he heard a chair scraping along the floor.

"No but he's not got any worse so that's a good thing isn't it?" Hermione replied.

"What on earth did that Malfoy boy hit him with?"

Ron listened and wondered if he had drifted back into sleep again before Hermione's voice sounded again.

"He said that Ron told him he had to be sick, the sicker the better, and he beefed up the strongest hex for illness he could think of. He's told the medi wizards exactly the spell he used and the modifications he made but they haven't been able to speed up his recovery any more than they already have."

"Little ferret," Harry's voice was growling from somewhere across the room, "I bet he enjoyed doing that. Even came by this morning to gloat over his handiwork can you believe that?"

Sleep overtook him again and the voices faded into nothing.

Ron felt his skin itching from all the old and new sweat that was drying and reforming all over his skin. He fidgeted and groaned at his discomfort under the still damp sheets. Couldn't any of them cast a drying spell for him he wondered? He felt as if he was letting moisture out of his body like an overloaded sponge. Once again he tried to throw off his sodden covers while wriggling into a more comfortable position but he was being held down once again, he crumpled his face and moaned his displeasure at this interference while enjoying the coolness of the hands at the same time.

"Shall I go and find someone?" Harry was asking nervously.

"Yes please, Ha..." Hermione began before he heard his mother's voice interrupting her in the middle of her sentence.

"No Harry, I can deal with this, I have raised seven children you know Hermione dear, I think I know how to handle one of my boys with a fever better than some twenty two year old nurse at the end of a long shift."

Ron tried to open his eyes to scowl at his mother but only managed to huff with frustrated discomfort and grab at his clinging t shirt, ripping it off over his head, and toss it to what he hoped was the floor. That was better, his skin could breathe now.

"I'll get somebody," Harry was saying a little more forcefully now."

"Harry I said no!" his mother barked, Harry really was a member of the family now Ron thought, his opinion was worthless, "Hermione look in that bag down there, I've bought him some fresh ones, we can't put this thing back on him it's wringing wet."

There was a huff and Ron turned on his side away from the sound of his mother's voice. He remembered the look of fear on his uncle's face when he spoke about his sister in a rage and mumbled to himself.

"Even the dead people are afraid of her..."

There was a sharp intake of breath from all sides and another cool dry hand rested upon his shoulder while a voice whispered from close above him somewhere.

"Ron, what was that? Are you awake Ron?"

It was Hermione. He suddenly wondered what he had just said, it didn't make any sense to him, and he couldn't work out why he was seeing an image of his dead uncles Fabian and Gideon in his mind. Had he been having a dream about them or something?

There was a loud sound, like heavy doors bursting open and cheerfully loud chatter overpowering the sound of multiple footsteps. Ron tried again to throw off the thick blanket that was sweltering and the voices stopped.

"What's going on?" Ginny's voice demanded.

"Ron's getting very uncomfortable and trying to cool himself down but your mother won't let Harry go for a medi wizard," Hermione said pointedly.

Oh no Hermione she's going to kill you!

"He doesn't need a medi wizard he just needs to get into some dry clothes," his mother snapped back.

"Look at him," Ginny was almost yelling as the sound of her unmistakeable footsteps stomped over to his bed, "he's dripping wet mother, if she puts that on him it's be soaked in seconds. Harry go and get a mediwizard right now!"

There was a weighty hush in the room and Ron turned all the way over onto his front, anything to peel his back away from that mattress, it felt as if it was becoming a part of him.

"Glass houses..." he murmured from absolutely nowhere, what was he talking about?

"Right, I'm going to get somebody if the rest of you are too afraid to stand up to her," Ginny said haughtily before her footsteps faded down what sounded like a very long corridor.

"Blimey," the sound of one of the twins gasped.

"Um Harry mate," the other one said nervously, "how about you come with us for a cup of tea or something? You've been sitting here all night?"

Ron heard Harry practically running for the door with the twins and the sound of it slamming behind them.

Then there was silence. Ron listened; he breathed into his moist pillow and soon felt an icy chill running down his back where the covers had been thrown back. He kicked out again in frustration, he was either boiling hot or freezing cold, and soon the covers were pulled back over him again, making him feel comfortable for almost a whole minute before the sweating began again. Still there was silence.

He could feel the tension in the room, on either side of his bed, and almost jumped out of his burning skin when the doors boomed open again and Ginny led a group of obviously very intimidated medi witches and wizards over to his bedside.

"Do something," she instructed.

"Miss Weasley, we can't force a fever to break, it will do so when it's ready."

"But he's dehydrating, you're cooking him!" Ginny snapped.

"Ginny we've been giving him water," Hermione began before getting cut off yet again.

"Ginevra Weasley where are your manners?"

A mediwizard cleared his throat.

"Thank you Mrs Weasley, I understand that the three of you are concerned, it has been almost a whole day since your son was brought in but we are doing our very best to..."

"I'm sorry young man, how many children have you raised?" his mother said pointedly.

"Um well, none, I'm not married."

"I thought not, now I know how to sweat a fever out of one of my own children and I don't need my daughter or a bunch of students..."

"Mrs Weasley I'm fully qualified..." the medi wizard began.

"Students!" Ron's mother's voice seemed to be so high pitched that he wondered if his eardrums would ever recover, "Telling me otherwise, now leave us be and I will send for you if you're needed."

Ron heaved an enormous sigh and wished they would all just go away to let him pull his blankets on and off of himself to his heart's content.

"Ron?" Hermione's voice said, sounding relatively calm considering all that was going on around her.

"Out of my way, I'm getting him to drink something," Ginny was saying just before a flash brightened the world outside his closed eyes, "Ennervate!"

Ron didn't need waking up with all this commotion going on around him and he simply turned back onto his back and threw back the top blanket while pulling the thin sheet tightly around his shoulders.

"Ron?" Ginny was saying, her voice having lost all its furious determination and sounding a little wary now.

"Quickly out of the way," the mediwizard who was so nervous and intimidated just moments before instructed and Ron felt a hand pressing hard against his forehead while another pushed two fingers into his wrist.

"What...Why didn't that wake him up?" his mother was saying in a shockingly timid voice.

"What's going on?" Hermione's raw sounding voice whimpered.

Ron felt one of his eyelids being pulled open and a bright light shining into it. He winced and pulled his face away, grumbling as he turned over onto his side.

“‘Mawake..."

Something sounded like Hermione gasping before her unmistakeable touch grabbed his hand as the mediwizard seemed to hold in a laugh and pull back from his bedside.

"He didn't wake up because he was already awake Mrs and Miss Weasly, I think he was just trying to ignore you and get some sleep."

There was a loud bark of highly amused laughter from the far side of the room and Ron recognised it as his father's laugh. He didn't even know his dad had been there this whole time.

"Ronnie?" he heard his mother saying close to his face as she stroked his wet hair.

"His fever's broken Mrs Weasley but I really do think we should all just give him some peace if that's what he wants don't you?" the mediwizard said.

"Yes, yes of course, and I'm so sorry for speaking to you the way I did I'm so ashamed of myself I..."

"It's alright Mrs Weasley," the mediwizard chuckled, "I'm the youngest of five myself, if you think you're bad you should meet my mother!"

Ginny laughed the most incredible sounding laugh that echoed through the room like bells ringing, she sounded relieved and incredibly happy in that one exclamation.

"Well I don't know about you but I'm going to tell Harry and the twins the good news and join them in a cup of tea," Ron's father said as the sound of multiple footsteps leaving the room drifted away on the other side of the room.

"Yes Arthur, I think Ginny and I need to take a break from here for ten minutes or so," his mother said, "unless you wanted to go Hermione, I could sit with him for a little while longer until you get back?"

"No thank you Mrs Weasley, I'll keep him company until you get back, its fine."

Ron tossed over onto his back again and the covers shifted down a little further as the retreating footsteps of his family faded away until cut off altogether by the gently closing door. He was still bare-chested and covered in a damp sheen from his latest outpouring of sweat and the cool air of the room made the moisture chill him like ice. He shivered and curled up into the foetal position on his other side. He heard Hermione shifting in her seat and then felt the blankets being pulled back over him, sending away the icy feeling immediately, and he let out a groan of satisfaction before feeling something soft brush against his cheek.

For the first time, not counting his eyelid being forcibly opened by the mediwizard, since they fell closed with the flash from Malfoy's wand Ron's eyes opened and he saw Hermione's face moving away from his own where she had just gently kissed him. She saw him looking and smiled.

"When you're better I'm going to make you pay for that," she said warmly as she sat back in her chair at his bedside.

"Wha?" Ron managed to say with an almost shrug.

"Trying to pull a Lavender on me and pretending to be asleep," she smirked.

Ron's lips twisted into the slightest of smiles as his eyes closed again and he was finally able to drift off again in complete silence.

Ron was passing by several open doors of private wards along his wing as he returned from a much needed shower and heard a familiar sounding yell of disapproval as he moved by one particular open door.

"Weasley did nobody think to tell you that wandering around barefoot does nothing to cure a fever?"

He back tracked a little to peer into the room and saw Snape sitting up in bed flexing a very impressive looking false arm. It wasn't quite as fluid and realistic as Pettigrew's had been but it looked as if it had quite a few interesting gadgets on it.

"Oh hello Professor Snape, I heard you...had a bit of an accident."

"An accident Weasley?" Snape said as he raised his eyebrow and looked down his nose at Ron who pulled his open bathrobe around himself defensively.

"Well alright, maybe not an accident but she didn't know you were on our side at the time, she's really sorry."

Snape looked away from him and at the wall directly ahead.

"So she repeatedly tells me."

Ron took a step into the room and tried not to laugh.

"So they gave you...a new one."

Snape's eyes moved back to fall on Ron while his head stayed rigid.

"You noticed."

Ron cleared his throat and took another step into the room.

"Yeah, it's cool; you can really...intimidate the first years with it."

"I needed a false arm for that did I?" he said as he turned his head back to stare right into Ron with both dark eyes.

"Yeah well I'd better be going," Ron said as he started to back out of the room once again, "like you said, I should put something on my feet, I don't want to get cold."

Snape nodded and looked away again before suddenly calling out sharply just as Ron was about to hasten from the room.

"Weasley one more thing."

Ron turned and saw Snape picking up his wand with the fake arm and rolled it between his fingers with his leather bound mechanical fingers.

"What's that?" he said as he nervously watched Snape grip the wand firmly.

"I won't make the same promise as all the others, I know I wouldn't be able to keep it," he sneered matter-of-factly.

"What promise is that?" Ron asked, fearing that he already knew the answer.

"The promise not to come looking for you, to exploit that little...talent of yours," Ron drew in a shuddering breath and wished that he had his wand on him right now, "I can't make a promise like that, it would be a lie."

Ron swallowed and flinched as Snape quickly flicked his wand. The wand wasn't directed at him though; Snape had directed the spell at himself.

"Obliviate!"

There was a flash and Snape shook his head and looked back at Ron with distain.

"Get out of here Weasley, go and ride Potter's coat tails out of poverty and leave me in peace."

Ron tried to say something but all his voice could do was croak.

"I said out!" Snape bellowed.

Ron swallowed again and nodded as he backed out of the room.

"Thank you sir," he whispered.

"What?" Snape scowled as he put his wand back down at his bedside and winced at the sound of his false arm squeaking.

"Nothing sir, nothing at all," Ron said as he reached the door and paused to take in the sight of his most hated teacher who had just done the most wonderful thing in the world for him, "Um you might want to oil that sir, the students will hear you coming."

Snape looked about ready to spit with rage as he growled back at Ron.

"Leave me in peace Weasley."

"But you could get a cool nick-name out of it..." Ron found himself blabbering, "...like Mad-Eye Moody. You could be S...Scary-Arm Snape!"

Snape's mechanical fingers twitched towards his wand and Ron almost ran from the room in fear for his life, practically falling over a hysterical Draco Malfoy in the process.

Ron had dragged Hermione away from the welcome home party at the Burrow and into Percy's long abandoned bedroom.

"What are you doing?" she giggled.

"What I can't bloody do down there in front of everyone without getting ribbed mercilessly," he grinned before pushing her into the corner of the darkened room and kissing her with as much intensity as he had the very first time.

She relaxed in his arms and let herself sink into the kiss with a smile on her lips. He ran his hands down her sides and rested them upon her bottom. She squealed and broke away with a giggle that sounded most unlike her real laugh.

"Ron!"

"What?" he said with a wicked grin, "I'm sick of bending over all the time."

With that he lifted her up, supporting her by her buttocks, and she curled her legs around his waist as their lips met once again in a series of shorter but equally passionate kisses.

"Let me lay down with you," she gasped in between kisses, while tugging at his hair, an after effect of her slowly diminishing 'primal' side.

Ron chuckled and shook his head as best he could with her clutching fistfuls of his shaggy hair.

"Why not?" she demanded as he trailed little kisses along her neck.

"Because you just want to pin me again and I'm going to be the dominant one for a bloody change."

She laughed before pulling back his head, her fingers gently but firmly tugging him away from her skin and holding him just where she wanted him.

"Who's the dominant one now?" she smiled before gliding her own lips along his exposed neck until she closed them over his mouth and loosened her hold on his hair and curled her arms around his neck.

"I'm glad you're better now Min," he sighed into her hair.

"What?" she asked as she turned and nibbled his earlobe.

"I've noticed that you've been letting me out of your sight a lot more since I got out of hospital, and you destroyed the bond of blood yourself, Harry didn't have to take them away from you or anything. I'm just glad you're ok that's all."

He closed his eyes and kissed her on the lips again. He opened them when he felt her hand resting upon his cheek.

"What is it?" he frowned.

"I might let you go off without insisting on going with you or holding your hand the whole time but I still watch you y'know?" she said almost guiltily.

He smiled and kissed her again.

"I know," he said as the broke away from each other again, "I can feel your eyes on me."

She smiled and slid back down his body to rest her feet on the floor again. She pulled Ron down to kiss her by the back of his neck, then let him stand up straight again, taking both of his hands in hers and interlacing their fingers playfully.

"I don't want to be alone tonight," she looked up at him with her huge brown eyes, "will you stay with me?"

Ron cupped her face in his hand and brushed his lips against hers before resting his forehead against hers and smiling.

"Of course."

Ron woke at the sudden icy sensation of a bony silver-coloured hand being clamped over his mouth and he opened his eyes to see a pair of blood red slits glowing in front of his face. A serpentine face grinned and the red slits narrowed, it was Voldemort.

Ron tried to shake off the hand but was rendered immobile by the other claw like hand plunging into his chest, making him go rigid as an intense power flowed into him with so much ferocity it seemed to burn his insides, and the thin lips parted and hissed a spell that surged into him.

"Aegresco egresco accelero!"

Ron's body arched as the accelerated double strength fever was channelled into his body and his skin seemed to crackle as if he was being roasted over a spit. He tried to cry out but Voldemort cast the silencing spell on him and all that had escaped was a small whimper. Voldemort withdrew his hand from Ron's chest and moved towards his face, extending two fingers to his eyes, and lowered his eyelids while Ron tried desperately to wriggle out from under the spectre of the dark wizard.

Suddenly he felt something soft and warm holding him down and touching his face.

"Ah that's it little mud-blood," Voldemort hissed with pleasure, "Hold him down for me while I finish this."

Hermione no, please no!

"She thinks your fever is the reason you are writhing boy, worried you are having a relapse, she will wake you soon enough to get you back to the hospital."

Don't wake me Hermione please don't wake me, remember what I always told you...

Ron's eyes struggled to open, if she could see that he was in a trance she wouldn't wake him, if she knew he wasn't really asleep she wouldn't try to revive him, he had to open his eyes. He couldn't let himself wake up as Voldemort beside her in bed. He couldn't let this happen. He couldn't let Voldemort kill her with his body. Ron struggled to lift his arms to his face to try and force his eyelids open again but Hermione was trying to restrain him, thinking he was thrashing as he had been in the hospital before.

"Here it comes boy, give my regards to Dumbledore while you're down there won't you?"

NO!

Ron was falling and screaming until he landed upon something spongy and began to sink down into it.

"Fabian, Gideon, help him find his feet!" Dumbledore said urgently.

Ron felt himself pulled up to his feet by the two figures he knew to be his dead uncles, his mother's brothers. He looked around himself and saw what looked like a glass house with every pane shattered. There were lace structures that seemed to form streets and further out some kind of forest and distant mountains but everything looked broken. It was as if something had been intricately carved out of snow and then placed beside a blazing fire. There was a howling wind that cut through him as the ghost of Dumbledore ran from the side of a sobbing woman on the floor and grabbed Ron by the shoulders.

"He's out," Ron panted as he looked into the translucent grey eyes, "she woke me, I tried to stop her but I couldn't."

"It's ok Ronnie," one of his uncles was saying while looking at Dumbledore and seeming to silently plead that he had a solution, "we'll think of something I promise we will right Albus?"

"Right?" the other twin said, looking terrified.

Dumbledore looked back into Ron's desperate eyes sadly and didn't say a word. Ron pulled out of his grip and kicked out at something translucent that shattered into tiny crystal fragments and put his hands on his head.

"He's powered-up, he made me sick before she woke me, that's why she woke me, he made her think I was...Oh Merlin," Ron crumpled to his knees and one of his uncles crouched down and held him, "he's with her. I left her with him. I left her!"

"No you didn't Ron, you didn't leave anyone, and we can fix this I promise. There's some way we can fight this, we can fight him from down here I'm sure of it."

Ron was shuddering on his knees as the sobbing woman crawled across the floor to him and took one of his hands.

"I'm so sorry Ron, I tried to make him see, I tried to keep him with me but he's an animal," she choked on her own words, "a monster!"

"Who the fuck are you?" Ron pulled away from her and tried to stand but he found that he couldn't get any kind of purchase on the non-existent floor.

"Ronald this is Merope," Dumbledore said as he lifted the wailing woman to her feet, "he doesn't remember you my dear, don't take it personally."

One of Ron's uncles heaved him up to his feet and held him in place.

"Stand, ok? The floor is solid as long as you want it to be, if you think of it as soft then it's swallow you up. It's solid, keep telling yourself it's solid."

Ron nodded and tried to think straight.

"He's going to go after Harry, Harry's only upstairs," he began to ramble as he paced up and down, "and my mum and dad are asleep. He's gonna kill them all, he gonna make me kill them!"

"Ronald please, you can not help them or us by panicking now please try to stay calm," Dumbledore said as he stepped away from Merope and towards Ron.

"Calm?" Ron snapped, enraged at the lack of concern Dumbledore seemed to be showing this situation, "This is your fucking fault, if you'd have just stayed the hell out of my bloody head..."

"We would never have defeated Tom in the first place," Dumbledore interrupted.

"You call this victory? He's alive now, don't you understand? He's..." Ron felt as if he was hollow inside, "...me!"

Chapter Twenty Five - An Open Invitation

Ron was rubbing his head and sitting in a corner of the room in deep thought while his uncles pestered Dumbledore to think of something and Merope bemoaned her 'abomination' of a son to herself. It must have been five minuets now. Five minutes of Voldemort loose in his home with his family in his body and his...his...

Hermione I'm so sorry.

He closed his eyes and tried to clear his head, he had to think, he was the tactician after all. He looked back up at the three-way panic getting them nowhere just ahead of him and sighed.

"We can't just leave him with them for half an hour until his time's up," Ron found himself saying to himself aloud, the others turned and stared at him sadly, this only made him angrier, "we can't just wait until he's done so you can try to stop him from down here again."

Ron's voice had risen into a furious yell and his uncle Fabian had rushed to his side to try and comfort him but there was nothing he could do. What good was comfort when all there was waiting for him at home were dead bodies?

"What if you can't stop him tomorrow either eh? What about every other night for the rest of my bloody life, what about that? Am I supposed to just let him come out for thirty minutes a night until I drop dead? What if he used those half hours to make fucking horcruxes? What if I can't die? He'll be immortal and I'll..."

Ron didn't know what that would make him.

I'll be damned.

"Come on Ron, it won't come to that we can do something tonight, we will stop this once and for all tonight ok?" Fabian said with a forced smile that was convincing nobody.

"They're all dead," Ron said as he shook his head and drew his knees up under his chin, "he wouldn't wait around, they're all dead already."

"Then why aren't they here?" Gideon shouted over at him.

Ron looked up and stared at his fiery tempered uncle, he didn't have an answer to that.

"If they were all dead and they all know your secret and they all know you're trapped here with us don't you think they'd come looking for you to set you free?" Gideon said as he stomped over to him and pulled him up off the ground.

"Gids, the poor kid's in shock, take it easy will ya?" Fabian said.

"No, he's right," Ron nodded and Gideon released him and gave him an encouraging and solid pat on the arm, "they're fighting him. We've got to fight from down here too."

"That's a Prewitt!" Gideon said with jubilation.

"That's more than a Prewitt," Dumbledore said as he drifted across the room to the three of them, "that's Ronald."

Ron shifted uncomfortably and looked down to Merope who was looking at him from the floor.

"Sorry I swore at you, I do it to everybody," he shrugged.

The ghostly woman smiled and heaved herself up to her own feet.

"Now Ronald, you have always been the great tactical thinker I have ever witnessed of your age and over the course of this quest you have only improved," Dumbledore said while Ron's uncles beamed with pride, "I also saw you think on your feet and improvise both with and without my partnership and, more than anything else, I have marvelled as you solved problems that appeared to have no solution whatsoever. This is one of those problems Ronald and I don't think that you should allow yourself being temporarily non corporeal to limit your imagination."

Ron shrugged off the multiple compliments and began to pace up and down jabbering to himself, strangely enough he was left to do so by the others, it was as if they knew that he was simply processing information out loud for clarity. It was as if they really knew him.

"Non corporeal, on top of everything else I'm non corporeal, I hadn't even thought about that. Of all the things I've got going against me I can now count non corporeal as one of them. Don't have a body, don't have a wand, don't even have a corporeal existence..." Ron stopped in mid step, "...corporeal?"

He stood and tried to place why this seemed to stand out and yell at him to pay attention to it.

"Where did I keep hearing that?" he asked himself and tried to ignore the smile that was growing upon Dumbledore's face as he prodded the Prewitts and indicated Ron's thoughtful back tracking.

"He's about to do it," Dumbledore said, "watch this, it's marvellous to witness!"

What the hell is the old duffer on about now?

Dumbledore seemed to chuckle out of nowhere and Ron closed his eyes and tried to think of where he had heard corporeal out there in the real world that seemed to ring a bell in his head.

"Listen if you know the plan why don't you save us the time and just tell us, I'm sure Ron won't mind," Fabian said with impatience.

"I don't know the plan until Ronald knows the plan and he's just about to work it out," Dumbledore said while watching Ron with fascination.

Ron couldn't get the bloody voice of Neville's girlfriend out of his head. It was her in the pub when they had been about to form the D.A. going on about Madame Bones telling her all about Harry's ability to conjure a corporeal patronus. He hated it when that happened. He would be desperately trying to think of a name or a place and would convince himself that it began with a 'B' when it was in fact an 'S' all along. His brain could be a difficult bugger when it wanted to be. He scowled at his inability to get past Susan Bones' voice saying, over and over again, 'a corporeal patronus?' and willed her to shut the hell up and let him think.

A corporeal patronus.

Ron's eyes suddenly went wide and he looked over at Merope.

A corporeal patronus.

He looked up at the shattered clear ceiling, back where he had fallen into the room, and then back at Merope again before looking at Dumbledore who was almost buzzing with excitement.

A corporeal patronus.

He had been told that he had sent a patronus out from this place when Dumbledore was using his body. He had sent Merope up to fight as a corporeal form.

As a corporeal patronus!

Ron looked back at Merope and opened his mouth to speak.

"There it is do you see?" Dumbledore said enthusiastically as he pointed Ron's expression out to his uncles who looked amazed.

"Merope," Ron began, "how did you get in here, how did...how are you...?" Ron tried to understand exactly where he was and why Voldemort's mother was with them at all.

"You invited her Ron," Fabian answered the question, "we needed to send her through you into the real world and she couldn't do it unless she knew your secret so Albus asked us to ask you to invite her in. To tell her your secret."

Ron looked from Merope, who was nodding to confirm this story, to Dumbledore and his uncles. Fabian was still waiting expectantly to answer Ron's next question but Gideon's face was dropping and he shook his head.

"No!" he said firmly.

"What?" Fabian asked, perplexed.

"Now Gideon, this is Ronald's choice and..." Dumbledore began but Gideon shook him off and materialised right in Ron's face.

"I'm telling you no!"

"You don't know what I'm thinking yet," Ron said.

"Yes I do," Gideon said, wagging a finger at Ron, "you and I are very similar and I know exactly what you're thinking and I'm forbidding it!"

"You're what?" both Ron and Fabian said at the same time.

"Gids," Fabian went on, "you are the most reckless person I've ever known in my life! What is this plan that is so extreme that even you won't have it?"

Ron looked at Dumbledore who was looking at him with a devastated kind of pride and nodded.

"We can send people up to fight him, to protect them all, send him back down here to us."

"Same way we sent Merope up y'mean?" Fabian asked, still not following the train of thought to the horrific conclusion Gideon had.

"Yeah," Ron nodded.

Fabian looked around the room at the anxious faces and still didn't get it.

"So what's the problem?"

Gideon turned on his twin and growled.

"People Fabian, people!"

Ron watched as his uncle Fabian suddenly registered what this plan really entailed. He turned to Ron with the same expression Gideon had been wearing just moments ago and shook his head in horror.

"No!"

"This isn't your choice," Ron said with determination.

"Yes it is," Gideon snapped as he turned back on his nephew, "we are your next of kin...in a dead, kinda reverse sense and that makes us your guardians and that means that we can forbid you and we do. We forbid you. You are forbidden!"

"I'm of age you can't stop me from doing anything," Ron said with a scowl, when the hell did his uncle Gideon start channelling Percy for Merlin's sake?

"There is no 'of age' down here there is me telling you no fucking way!"

Fabian took his brother roughly by the shoulders and made him look him in the eye.

"Gids, I am with you one hundred percent on the saying no but you've got to rein it in mate, this isn't the way to talk him out of it."

"There will be no talking me out of anything!" Ron shouted over the two of them, "In fact there will be no talking anymore. We have wasted too much time and I am not waiting for my mum and dad and everybody else I left behind in that house to come falling through this ceiling before we have enough people to attack."

Fabian looked over to Ron sadly and spoke with a broken voice.

"Ron do you know what this will mean for you when this is all over? Are you thinking about that because that can't be allowed to happen to you? I can't let you go through with this."

"We won't let you ruin the rest of your life Ron," Gideon said.

"What life?" Ron bellowed, "If we don't do this I'm Voldemort's bitch for all eternity! What life is that?"

Ron was shoving past the two of them to ask Dumbledore how to go about things when the twins re-materialised in front of him again, stopping him in his tracks.

"There's got to be another way Ron," Fabian pleaded with him, "you thought of this you can think of something else I know you can."

"What with all the time we have?" Ron said, pushing between them once again.

"Wait please," Gideon begged as he passed by, "I can't let you do this to yourself. You think you had it hard with just Dumbledore making you crazy night after night but just imagine if it never stops. Imagine all the different voices fighting for you attention Ron and it won't just be one half hour visit a night. They'll take it in turns, they get half and hour each Ron, they'll kill you."

Ron spun around and tried not to lose his nerve as he laid it out for them plain and simple.

"I'm already dead, don't you see that guys? Voldemort knows about me, he's inside my body now; he can get inside my head whenever he wants to. I'm already dead."

Fabian stared at him with a look that seemed to be a silent scream while Gideon scrunched up his face with rage and threw a wave of power at one of the crumbling transparent walls of the room, causing it to shatter and the pieces to fly off and break through several other fragile layers of this crystal world Ron was stranded in. Ron turned away from them and looked to Dumbledore.

"Well?" he asked the old man.

Dumbledore's devastated smile remained as he pulled Ron into him and embraced him, sending a fizzing sensation all the way through his non existent body, and whispered to him.

"I have no words Ronald, none do you justice, I am in awe."

Ron and Dumbledore broke apart and both sighed deeply before Ron built himself up for the task at hand.

"Right how to we get the people?"

Merope took one of Ron's hands and held it tightly with both of her own.

"You tell me who you want to come and help you fight, people you trust not to abuse the knowledge afterwards if you can, and grant me permission to invite them back here."

Ron heard one of his uncles smashing something else as he nodded to Merope to let her know that he understood.

"Ok them I want Harry's mum and dad definitely, Lily and James Potter, Sirius Black, Madame Bones...she's dead and dad always said she was a great witch, um..." Ron looked up at Dumbledore for help.

"My good friend Nicholas would be only too pleased to help Ronald, his dear wife too no doubt."

"Nicholas Flammel...and wife, um...grandma and granddad Weasley, granddad and nana Prewitt, may as well see them again," Ron shrugged and he could have sworn he heard his uncle Fabian laugh somewhere behind him, "what about the other members of the order the first time round?"

Dumbledore nodded and held out his own hand to Ron.

"We'll let Merope be on her way with her little list and I can talk you through them and you can grant me permission to gather them for you."

Ron nodded and looked back at Merope.

"I grant you permission to bring them all back here to me."

Merope's hands glowed and she disappeared into nothing. Ron took Dumbledore's hand and looked him in the eye.

"Marlene McKinnon and the McKinnon family, Benjy Fenwick, seeing as Amelia is coming we may as well invite her brother Edgar and the rest of the family too, Caradoc Dearborn, Dorcas Meadows and the Abbots too I think. That will be enough to be going along with now Ronald."

Ron felt a little dizzy at the thought of all of these people vying for access to his head every night but he tried not to dwell on that and looked down at Dumbledore's hand and said the words.

"I grant my permission for you to invite all those people back here to me."

As their hands glowed with the yellow light Dumbledore shook Ron's hand firmly and gave him a reassuring smile before vanishing.

Ron turned around to face his uncles. Gideon was still seething and struggling not to break anything else but Fabian was watching Ron with a strange expression of calm on his face. He sighed and shrugged as he made his way across the room to Ron and took his hand.

"I've got loads for you, are you ready?"

Ron nodded and smiled a silent thank you to him while Gideon lost his composure at seeing his own brother give in and go along with this insane plan and shattered a third of the ceiling and part of the roof above that too.

"Here goes, George, Florence, David, Gordon and Doris Canham, James, Geoffrey, Stewart, and Stanley Rhodes, Lynne Broadly, Tracey Knight, Stephanie Jones, Marie Martin..."

"All your fucking ex girlfriends?" Gideon exclaimed in outrage.

"Shut up Gids, they could hex the shit out of you at school," Ron laughed a little at this, "and they all want revenge on Voldemort too, now where was I? Right, Les, Edna and Andrew McPherson, Gareth Vanner, Bobby Hughes, Glyn Skinner and Robin Webb."

"I grant you permission to bring them all here," Ron said as the hands glowed and his uncle disappeared.

He looked over at his remaining uncle who pointed a finger at Ron and looked utterly furious with him.

"I'm not doing it, I'm not having any part of this, and I won't do this to you."

Ron shrugged.

"Fair enough."

Ron turned around and began to pace up and down as he waited for his 'guests' to arrive.

"It was my fault."

Ron looked up and saw Gideon running at one of the walls and kicking through it. As the smashing sound tinkled into silence again he turned round to face him again.

"It was my fault we left you out there to freeze that time."

Ron took a step towards him and opened his mouth to let him know that it was all water under the bridge but Gideon seemed desperate to get this out.

"I've always been too cocky y'see Ronnie? I've always felt invincible, even when they were killing us I was being cocky. Five of 'em it took and I was so smug about that. I'm pathetic."

"You sound just like me," Ron said sadly.

Gideon shook his head and smiled.

"You're not cocky, you're anything but."

"Not that I meant calling yourself pathetic, I do it all the time."

Gideon looked back at him in disbelief.

"Why?"

"I don't know, I think I'm crap at quiddich when I've won the quiddich cup twice, once without our first choice team playing and this..." Ron gestured upwards to indicate the hundreds of dead warriors he had just summoned into the place he had needed to keep a secret until his dying day, "...I can do something like that but if I see a single spider I shit myself!"

Gideon laughed at this and Ron joined him, their laughter faded very soon and Ron stared down at the floor of what looked like frosted glass but couldn't have been what with its spongy texture.

"She's still not here little man Prewitt."

Ron looked up at his uncle and blinked.

"If she loves you half as much as you obviously love her she would have smashed her way in here invitation or not to help you get back but she's not here is she?"

Ron shook his head and dared to hope.

"None of them are down here, they're all still alive Ron, and we'll figure something out to keep him out of your head. I'll find a way to keep 'em all out I swear alright? I'll never stop trying."

"Thanks uncle Gids."

There was a sudden whoosh as Merope and a crowd of people descended into the room, two people running at Ron with open arms and another two running at Gideon. It was his grandparents.

"Thanks for helping Grandma, Grandie, it means a lot."

As the tall man and the tiny thin woman with short red hair hugged him and told him they would do anything for any of their 'little ones', always funny when a four foot nine woman calls you little, Gideon dragged his own parents over to introduce them to Ron.

"This is our last oracle mum, dad, he's incredible. Molls has raised a good 'un here I'm telling ya."

"Hiya nana," Ron nodded nervously to his mother's mother, who cupped his face in her shimmering hand and smiled sadly.

"I never got to see you did I?"

Ron swallowed and shook his head.

"Now I know what I've been missing all this time."

Ron's granddad shook his hand and mentioned something about a resemblance to Bilius which caused Ron to yell out of nowhere.

"Bilius! I forgot uncle Bilius!"

Just as Dumbledore was reappearing with the deceased order members Gideon grabbed Ron's hand with his own and spoke bracingly.

"I'll get him, send me."

Ron smiled at his uncle and sent him on his way with permission to bring his batty old uncle Bilius to join in the fight too.

"Ron!"

An urgent voice called out to him and a face from his nightmare of this scenario came running at him and gave him a huge bear hug before staring right into him and speaking with a low firm growl.

"Look at you ya poor sod. When we're done up there I'll threaten an afterlife of pain and torment to anyone who messes with you in your sleep. I will seek them out and make 'em wish they'd decided to become a ghost in a haunted sewer, with nobody to talk to but the rats and the shits, I guarantee you that!"

Ron smiled and looked over at his grandparents nervously.

"Um grandma, nana, granddad and grandie...this is my friend Sirius Black."

The four foot nine spectre of Ron's grandma Weasley looked up at the giant hairy wild eyed man who had just accosted her grandson with a foul-mouthed torrent of threats to his fellow deceased visitors in Ron's afterlife and turned to her husband with a nod of approval.

"I like him!"

Ron chuckled until he was frozen at the sight of his best friend, only older and with different eyes, and a woman he recognised from a photograph he had seen of Harry's

"Hello Ron," Lily Potter smiled on seeing his shock at recognising them, "Sirius has told us all about you."

"Hi...Mrs Potter," he managed to say before Dumbledore leaned in front of him to catch his eye as he found himself staring at Harry's father now.

"Now Ronald what are you thinking?" Dumbledore asked him now that all the spirits were assembled and ready to go forth and face Voldemort at the Burrow.

Ron shook off his obvious stare at Harry's doppelganger, or maybe Harry was the doppelganger, and bit his lip. He hoped that Dumbledore knew of a way to do this.

"Well you were able to talk through me while my body was conscious weren't you?"

Dumbledore's eyes lit up and he nodded.

"The viator spell, of course!"

"Well if you can speak through me from all the way down here couldn't we send a bunch of patronus' out of me while he's using me?"

Dumbledore's eyes were darting rapidly from side to side as he thought over everything he knew. Ron glanced up at the faces of his deceased family, he really did look just like Bilius, the Potters and then to Sirius who stood at his side with a hand resting upon his shoulder and willed him to come up with something.

"Viator patronum," Dumbledore eventually said to himself quietly.

Ron looked to Sirius and then back at Dumbledore.

"What's that?"

"It's a way of forcing our spirits out of Voldemort when he tried to perform any kind of spell or release of energy of any kind. As soon as he does we will all come flowing out and set about forcing him back here where the rest of the spirits will be waiting."

"Waiting to do what exactly?" Gideon said.

"Waiting to bind him to this room. Because he knows of it we can't do anything to stop him coming back here as many times as he would like but we can make sure he can never leave it and roam free about the afterlife."

"Wait, that doesn't sound good," Ron's maternal grandmother frowned, "surely we want to keep him out not lock him in."

"We would not be locking him in with Ronald, we would be containing him while finding Ron another place to call afterlife, and Voldemort wouldn't be able to get to him again."

"You can do that?" Ron asked with his eyebrows raised.

"Yes I believe we can."

"You believe?" Fabian said, not liking the uncertain sound of that statement at all.

"We will, don't worry Ron," Sirius smiled confidently.

"Right so we send a team up to force him down here..." Ron tried to clarify the plan in his head.

"Yes," Dumbledore nodded, "and you will return to your body, hopefully awake and able to remember."

"Hopefully?" Gideon said, "This is sounding a little bit too vague for my liking Albus."

"Mine too," Fabian nodded.

"Boys, pay attention and don't interrupt," Ron's granddad Prewitt said, causing his sons to lower their heads and sulk.

"So I'll be put back, possibly with a memory?" Ron confirmed.

"Indeed," said Dumbledore, "while we down here set about binding Voldemort to this room, funnily enough it's very similar to the bond of blood Ronald, except with essence of one's soul rather than blood and I'll be only too happy to be the one whose soul we use if there are no other volunteers."

Everybody around the circle volunteered immediately and Ron smiled at them all gratefully before Sirius began to get impatient and clapped his hands together ready for action.

"Right so can we go and get the bastard now; he's been up there with my godson long enough."

"Patience Sirius please," Dumbledore said as he raised his hand before leaning forward and looking Ron in the eyes, "Now we will do our level best to get you another place to call an afterlife Ronald but I must ask you to please stay awake as long as you possibly can to buy us the time to do so."

Ron nodded and Dumbledore motioned to the others to head towards the hole in the roof that Gideon and his temper had caused earlier before turning around and gripping Ron firmly on the shoulder and whispering.

"I know you too well now don't I Ronald, I feel I must say, don't make yourself ill in an attempt to stay awake. Sleep when you are tired by all means but try not to get tired until at least an hour has passed, that is all I ask, I want no super-human marathon of consciousness do you understand me?"

Ron smiled and nodded, he had just been wondering if there was an opposite potion to the dreamless sleep draught that he could take for a week or so when Dumbledore had said that to him. It was as if the old man could read his mind or something.

"Don't worry Ron," said Sirius as he drifted upwards with the attacking party, "we'll stop this once and for all I give you my word."

Ron waved to him and the Potters as they drifted up with Gideon and Fabian, Dumbledore bringing up the rear and gathered all the rest of the spirits into a large circle and instructed them to join hands. When everybody complied Ron nodded and they all began to chant.

"Viator patronum, viator patronum, viator patronum, viator patronum..."

What looked like lightning struck the floating figures above and transported them into the living world and Ron stepped out of the circle, letting the space behind him close up so they were ready to begin the binding as soon as he was sucked back into his body. He looked at Merope and smiled at her before turning to wave at his grandparents and uncle Bilius. He waited.

He waited.

He waited.

Epilogue

There was a blinding flash and two different screams as he felt something punch him in the chest and sink inside him until it was gone entirely. He staggered back and coughed. His eyes were watering and he had something in his left hand that he was pointing his wand at. He blinked again to try and focus, he felt hot and sick and cold. He tried to see what it was he was holding and then realised that he had a handful of his mother's hair and was pointing the wand at her throat.

His eyes widened and he released her from his grip, dropping the wand on the floor and falling backwards into the wall, panting heavily. The room was spinning.

"Ron? Is it really you? Are you back?" his mother was saying as she cautiously moved towards him and crouched down.

"No Molly, it could be another trick, don't touch him," his father was saying.

Hermione was crying somewhere. Ron looked up and searched, what appeared to be his and Harry's bedroom, for her but he couldn't see where she was. He could hear her crying though, that was good, dead people don't cry he told himself. Then he thought of Merope and corrected himself.

His eyes widened again and he rose to his feet with a gasp. His mother screamed with fright and jumped back. Ron lifted his shaking hands to his burning forehead and rubbed his face roughly.

"I remember..." he gasped before bending over and coughing violently.

Again his mother moved forward to touch him but his father was still being cautious and held her back. What had happened to them all while he was away he wondered as he straightened up again. Harry was stepping forward towards him now, wand pointed directly at his face, blood gushing from his eyebrow and eyes trying to see who exactly was inside the body before him.

"Whatever it is you're planning to do with that thing Harry please don't send me to sleep," Ron shuddered through a sudden attack of the shakes.

He hadn't accounted for this when he promised Dumbledore to stay awake. The fever made him just want to curl up and die and yet he had to keep himself awake for at least an hour or so. He wouldn't be able to do it, it was impossible.

"Ron?" Harry asked, not daring to believe that his friend was really back where he belonged inside his own body.

Ron felt his knees go weak and tried to support himself against the chest of drawers beside him. His dad sprang forward in readiness to catch him and it was his mother this time that held her spouse back.

"What happened to being sure this time Arthur, he could be pretending to be Ronnie again, Ronnie could...he could be..."

"He's not dead Molly," Ron saw his dad suddenly smiling as he pulled away from his wife and grabbed Ron into a tight embrace, "Oh son you did it, we saw Dumbledore and Fabian and Gids, even Sirius and the Potters but you weren't with them and we thought...we thought he'd killed you and taken over completely but it's really you isn't it?"

"Ronnie?" His mother's face was crumpling, Ron noticed that she had a black eye and a swollen lip now and felt sick to his stomach that it had been done at his hand.

Ron was about to try and explain when the dizziness hit him again and he lost the strength in his legs completely and was fully supported by his father now.

"Oh Godric Arthur, his fever, that brute hit him with another fever. Quick get him to his bed."

"No," Ron gasped as he tried to fight against his father with his jelly legs, "I mustn't sleep. You can't let me sleep. It isn't done yet."

Harry tried to help Ron's father hold him upright as he tried to find out what was going on but all Ron could do was stare at Hermione. He had finally spotted her curled up in a tight ball on the floor with tears and blood streaming down her face. He felt sick.

"...listening to me? Ron snap out of it, I know you're ill but we really need to know what to do." Harry finished saying.

Ron swallowed and found an energy reserve deep within him to stand on his own two feet again and pull away from them; staggering back over to the bedroom door.

"Hermione, what did I do?" he said through a wavering voice as he struggled to keep a grip on his emotions.

He heard her cries again and felt them like a knife twisting inside his guts. She was trying to get to her feet shakily and it was then Ron noticed the bruising forming around her throat. Voldemort had tried to kill her. Voldemort had used his hands to try to kill her.

"I hurt her?" Ron said as he felt his skin run cold with an icy sweat before the fire in his head blazed again.

"Not you Ron, Voldemort, you stopped him, you sent him away again," his mother said as she pulled a tatty old school shirt from the top of the chest of drawers and tried to mop Ron's dripping face with it.

Hermione took a laboured step across the room towards Ron, she seemed to be limping, as her eyes stared right into Ron's own in a way he had never felt before. More tears streamed down her face as Harry took a step back to help support her.

"He told me you were dead," she said through a constricted throat, "he told me he killed you."

Ron was about to rush over to her to comfort her before suddenly stopping himself and nearly falling over with the change of momentum. He couldn't be near them until he knew this was all over, he couldn't risk letting Voldemort out again, and he swayed on the spot as he felt the fever threatening to overcome him and cause him to pass out.

"We have to get him to St Mungo's" Ron heard his father mutter.

Ron's head began to spin on hearing this. He wouldn't last, he would sleep before they were ready, he would sleep and be trapped in that room with Voldemort forever.

"No," Ron said as he stumbled and reached out for something to steady himself on and found his fingers curing around the handle of his Cleansweep, "I can't let him come out again. I have to stop this."

Ron threw a leg over the broom handle and kicked off as he heard screaming and felt Harry grabbing for him as he whizzed by and smashed through his bedroom window and into the darkness outside the Burrow. The cool wind on his face was satisfying for a few seconds before it made him feel as if he was in an ice storm. He had to find something to either keep him awake or make sure that he died if he fell asleep. As he glided over the pond where he and Ginny used to play as children he knew what he had to do.

He angled himself down toward the water and slid off his broom before it zoomed into a nearby tree. His body hit the still waters of the pond with a splash and he plunged all the way down to the bottom until he sank into the mud and silt.

He held his breath and waited for his buoyancy to bring him back up to the top. Sure enough he was pulled out of the slime and through the disturbed algae and floated upwards slowly. As he broke the surface he took in a lungful of air and then coughed it out along with another lungful of water before manipulating himself to lie on his back and float while he caught his breath.

Ron shivered. The water was so cold and the chill of the night on top of his intense fever made him feel as if was wearing his skin inside out, all of his nerves exposed to the outside world where they were three times more sensitive to hot and cold and pain and every kind of sensation it was possible to feel. He thought about the battle that was going on inside his own afterlife. He wondered if he could only remember everything from that night because he had come back to his body awake rather than asleep. He asked himself whether he would forget meeting his grandparents as soon as he went to sleep.

His shivering worsened now and Ron tried to focus on the moon as it peeped through the clouds above him, if he kept looking at the moon then his eyes were open and he wasn't falling asleep, and he willed himself not to let himself forget all those people he left behind in that room. He tried to remember all of their names. Canham, Broadly, Skinner, Fenwick...

Ron suddenly realised that his eyes were closing and he flinched and woke himself up. As he did so his body had bowed a little in the middle and he began to sink under the surface of the pond. While Ron sputtered and shook his pounding head he tried to come up with a better plan. The water was a good idea, he could float without using too much energy but he was pretty sure that Voldemort could swim so just being in the pond when the dark wizard came back wouldn't be enough.

When he comes back, please don't let there be a when...please.

Ron took in several calming breaths and then realised what he had to do. He began to regulate his breathing in the same way he would before needing to hold his breath for an abnormally long time and then rolled over onto his front. He opened his eyes and floated face down in the pond with his legs and arms spread wide apart to keep him bobbing right on the surface. This was the way, this was how he could secure everybody's safety, and this was what he would have to do until he felt some sort of change or shift inside of him and knew that they had won and he could sleep again.

He would float and watch the rippled patterns the moonlight and the shadows made on the bottom of the pond, he would stay awake and concentrate on holding his breath for a few minutes, turning his head to take in some more breaths before moving his face back down into the water again and waiting another few. He had something to concentrate on to keep him conscious. And if he lost consciousness, if he went without oxygen for too long or if the fever overcame him, then he would pass out face down in the water and drown before Voldemort could climb inside and take him over again. There would be nobody around to wake him up this time.

A dead man can't posses another dead man.

Ron felt so cold now. He had held his breath and come up for air four times now. That could only have been twenty minutes at the most and he knew he wouldn't be able to last an hour. His head was numb and his extremities were shaking so badly that he found himself twitching involuntarily. Twice he had caught himself closing his eyes while face down and holding his breath and he knew that he wouldn't be able to hold on much longer.

Suddenly he felt warm. It was as if the sun had come up and heated the water in an instant. Ron lifted his head out of the water and saw an open expanse of ocean going on forever in front of him. What had happened to the pond he asked himself? His fever was gone and he didn't feel tired anymore either. He trod water for a moment and tried to understand how he had transported like this.

Was it possible to disapparate while floating?

Ron turned around and saw a large rock, about a quarter of a mile across and thirty feet up, surrounded by a sandy beach and several trees. On top of it was perched a tiny house that was almost entirely see through. It looked something like the shattered room he had been in with Dumbledore and his uncles except it was intact and secluded. Ron looked around himself again and saw nothing else but the horizon. There were no ships, no other islands or rocks, no other people, there was just him.

He swam for the rock.

Ron walked along the sand, it wasn't yellow sand, and it was white and almost clear when you looked at the grains up close. He passed through the shade of the grey and silver trees and climbed up a naturally formed staircase in the side of the grey rock. As he reached the top and approached the tiny crystal house he looked around yet again, not able to believe that there was nobody else around, and then stepped inside.

There was a soft breeze that wafted the lace curtains at the window and a soft cushiony floor like smooth tissue paper under his feet. He wandered around the single large room in the house and called out cautiously.

"Hello?"

Something silver drifted before his eyes and out through the window. Ron ran out of the house after it, it was heading back down to the beach, and he ran down the stairs to try and catch it up. As he passed through the trees and back onto to velvet sand again he saw the shard of silver light zooming off across the ocean and away into nothing. He frowned and tried to understand how and why he was here. He wondered if he could apparate back home. Just as he decided to try something caught his eye.

It was a blinding twinkle. The sun was glinting off of something that was washing up on the beach in the crystal clear waters and Ron ran to it and dropped to his knees to pick up what was a glass bottle with a message inside it.

Again Ron looked around himself, feeling as if somebody was watching him but unable to see anyone anywhere, and then pulled the message out of the neck of the bottle and unfurled it.

Ronald,

There is nothing we can do to stop those who know about your gift from seeking you out and they will do my dear friend. Despite all their promises and good intentions they will eventually succumb and give in to the need to contact their loved ones when they feel they need them most.

There is nothing your uncles and I could do to stop that.

Tom is now secure in your old place of spiritual residence and can never leave so do not let his knowledge of your condition be of any concern to you any longer. He can hurt nobody but himself now.

While your uncles helped me to create your new metaphysical dwelling they left it to me and me alone to plot its location. Nobody knows of this place but the two of us Ronald. They may know to look for you but they will never know where to find you. You and I are the only two souls in this world who know where to find it and I can promise you that I will never seek you out again, this secret stays with me until you come and join us in the fullest of senses...which will not be for some considerable time now Ronald.

Until then old friend, this is goodbye.

Your spiritual guardian,

Albus Dumbledore (old codger)

Ron stared at the letter for several seconds before breaking down completely. The waves crept in and touched his knees where he knelt upon the sand and the message crumpled in his fingers as he buried his face into his hands and wept with relief. His burden had been lifted.

He was free.

A crushing force on his chest was followed by the gushing of ice cold water shooting up his throat and out of his mouth.
Ron gasped and began to cough while shouts and screams echoed all around him. He blinked and saw Hermione's face hovering just inches away from his own, one of her hands pinching his nose and the other holding his mouth open. Harry was over her shoulder, both his hands pressing firmly on Ron's chest and his face frozen in shock. Ron couldn't stop from gasping and coughing to ask them what was happening.

"Quick," Hermione snapped to Harry, Roll him onto his side, Mrs Weasley, the blankets!"

Ron was freezing, wet and freezing, and he blinked a few times to clear his vision a little more and saw the pond in the woods behind the Burrow. He drew another deep lungful of air in and coughed again as a thick dry blanket was draped over him and Hermione began to rub his arms vigorously.

"Harry you do his legs, we need to warm him up," she barked the order and Ron felt his body shaking uncontrollably with the cold.

"Her-mi...mi...Min?" Ron tried to say but his was distracted by his dripping wet father crouching down before him and smiling as he took Ron's hands in his and breathed on them before rubbing them hard to create some warming friction.

"It's ok Ron, you're going to be ok, you fell off your broom into the pond but everything's going to be fine don't worry. We're all here and we're all safe and we're all going to be fine alright?"

Ron coughed again and he realised that his father must have dived into the pond in his pyjamas to drag him out after he had passed out; after he had drowned.

"I..." Ron needed to explain to them, he needed to tell them, "...had to s-stop him c-c-coming out."

"Shhh," Hermione was saying into his ear, her breath as warm as a roaring fire to his frozen earlobes, "it's ok, we can talk about everything later ok? Just get warm for me, help is coming."

Ron was about to try to tell them the wonderful news but his entire body jack-knifed with a cramp and he tried to shake it off while he heard his mother's voice ordering Harry to go out into the open and show the mediwizards to them as soon as they arrived.

Ron managed to straighten his body a little more and shuddered before turning his head to look up at Hermione's face, dry blood and fresh tears staining her cheeks, and smiled up at her weakly.

"We did it Min," he said before feeling his head spin and the shivering intensify, "we beat him, he's gone."

Ron's eyes were closing just as Hermione's warm lips pressed against the cold skin of his cheek.

"Later Ron, we'll talk about all of that later, you just let us look after you ok? You just get well for me babe, nothing else matters right now."

Babe...she called me babe.

"I love you," Ron sighed as his head stopped spinning and his consciousness began to spiral into the void again.

"I love you too Ron, stay with me."

As Ron fell back into a deep sleep he gave the slightest of smiles.

He wasn't going anywhere, not for a long time.

End