A Love That Runs So Deep | Rated: T | Hr/G & H/R
Title: A Love that Runs So Deep
Author/Artist: thesteppyone
Gift For: redhedsarehot
Rating: R for language
Featured Character or Pairing(s): Harry/Ron, Hermione/George, past Ron/Hermione which is mentioned a lot.
Summary: Ron and Hermione's mission goes horribly wrong and serious complications arise. How will they and Harry and George cope with their capture, and the aftermath?
Warnings: Serious injury, swearing, angst
Word Count:Many words... ~16,000. Kinda got away from me a little...
Disclaimer: I own nothing except a car. Oh, and a bike. No copyright infringement is intended, I own none of the names, places, characters or spells you recognise. I'm just playing in the sandbox, all shall be exactly as it was, when I leave :)
Author's notes: So It says Harry/Ron but this Is me, so of course It's all about the Ron/Hermione… :D
A Love that Runs So Deep: Part 1
Ron
The explosion shook every bone in his body. His brain rattled against his skull and he was vaguely aware that he was in pain. A hot, sticky substance was running down the back of his throat and he had to cough to get rid of it from his lungs. When he did, red spatters covered his hand.
It was then that Ron came back to himself. He remembered where he was, what he was supposed to be doing and whom he was with.
He was on a mission with work, and he was in Swindon. Stanton Fitzwarren to be exact, in one of the farm buildings to the north of the village. Well, he had been in one of the farm buildings, until they had turned and fled, throwing themselves towards the big iron doors. They knew it was too late but still they ran. It was the only thing they could do.
He saw the whole thing in his mind again, the wizard they had been observing for the previous five hours smiling and laughing manically at them, their words doing nothing to either calm him or get him to stop pointing his wand at the gas canisters that were neatly stacked against the far wall, next to bottles of something that he didn't recognise, but that Hermione had told him would explode should the wizard choose to do what he was threatening.
Wait... Hermione!
'Hermione!' he managed to croak out, smoke had filled his lungs and he was struggling to breathe but he didn't care, he had to find her. Dust filled the air, which made seeing anything impossible. He fumbled in his robes for his wand, but to his dismay he couldn't find it. He guessed flying through the air and landing in a very undignified heap twenty feet from where you set off, would dislodge a small stick of wood from your pocket. This fact didn't stop him needing it, though.
'Hermione!' he called again, hoping for some kind of noise, anything that would help him get to her and then get them out of there.
Somewhere they technically shouldn't have been, but he had insisted they go, because he knew that they would find evidence, plots, plans and most importantly, the wizard behind everything.
He coughed again, ignoring the taste of blood in his mouth and at the back of his throat. The dull throbbing pain in his nose reassured him that it was probably that that was causing the blood and not anything more serious. He hoped so, anyway.
He crawled forwards, eyes straining to catch a glimpse of movement or light and his hands feeling the ground for anything that resembled his or anyone else's wand.
His fingertips brushed a thin piece of wood, which wasn't entirely smooth. His mind's eye showed him Hermione's wand, with the intricate carvings on the handle, which faded as they got nearer the tip. His head was screaming at him to take the wand, but he knew that Hermione had been holding her wand when she was running, knew that the last thing Hermione would do would be to let go of her wand if she was still conscious as she was thrown across the building. That left him with two possibilities: Hermione and her wand had been separated because she had been rendered unconscious and therefore wasn't capable of keeping hold of her wand, or Hermione had managed to keep hold of her wand while conscious and had passed out on the floor because of the state she was in and was, therefore, lying mere inches from him.
He had closed his eyes, but forced himself to open them.
And that's when he saw Hermione lying, battered, bruised and bleeding with her hand still tightly gripped around her wand, barely breathing.
At this sight he started to panic.
George
The pounding in George's head intensified when he cracked open his left eye, the sunlight around him adding to the pain.
'Phlergle'
Not entirely sure where that half arsed attempt at speaking had come from - either his brain or an involuntary spasm from his vocal chords - he cleared his throat. He then tried again to open his eyes without causing his pounding head to pound harder. As it happened it didn't get any worse when he opened his eye and rolled backwards a bit so he could open his other eye as well, for this he was thankful.
He inhaled deeply and instantly pulled his face at the smell of stale alcohol in the room. Leaving an open, half empty bottle of beer on his floor - right in the middle of his floor, he noted in his half asleep state - had not been the best of ideas. Then again, better open and half empty than spilled all over his cream carpet. Cleaning spells only worked to a certain extent on carpet and he didn't fancy scrubbing on his hands and knees today.
He rolled over and let his arm flop on to the mattress. Or rather what was on top of the mattress. He frowned and then turned to see the dreadlocks he knew so well.
'Bloody hell, Lee! You could at least ask next time you want to share my bed! It's only polite!'
Lee Jordan didn't move, still fast asleep and lightly snoring. George decided that seeing as though he was awake, and the time was - he lifted his head a few inches off the mattress to look at his alarm clock on his bedside table - half nine, he should get up and not waste the day entirely, despite the fact that he was hung over. This wouldn't be a problem for long, however, he had plenty of potions downstairs to alleviate all his symptoms from drinking too much.
He stumbled out of bed, narrowly missing smacking his little toe on his boots and just missing the half empty, open bottle of beer on his floor. After brushing his teeth, washing his face and - very carefully - shaving off his two day old stubble, he went downstairs, still in his boxers and t-shirt and took the combination of potions that Fred had stumbled upon by complete accident, and smiled as he felt the ache in his head, his dizziness and general feeling of bleurgh disappear.
As the effects of the small amount of Invigorating potion he had just taken ran through his veins, he grinned and looked forward to what the day would bring.
Granted the day wouldn't go exactly as he would like, as there would be one person missing from whatever he ended up doing. And that person was Hermione Granger. His girlfriend. His girlfriend, Hermione.
At one point in his life, that idea would have seemed the most ridiculous thing in the world, and she would have thought that too. But it was strange the way things turned out. Never would he have thought that he would have lost his twin in a fierce battle at his old school, and never would he have thought that after some very interesting revelations would he end up being the one thing Hermione Granger needed: Comfort. He thought it was a one-way thing; him helping her to get over something that had turned her world upside down, but really they were helping each other heal from wounds that neither of them expected, or knew how to face on their own.
But that was beside the point, it was a new day, he was no longer hung over - although he knew he had to keep drinking water throughout the day to re-hydrate himself - Lee could find his own way out of George's flat so he didn't have to wait until he surfaced, so the day was definitely his own.
Now all he had to do was think of something to do.
Hermione
She could hear words and the sound of them was familiar. There was something else she could feel but she didn't know what that was either. She was aware of her body, that much she knew. Her arms and legs felt heavy, like she would never have the strength to lift them again. The thought of trying to lift her head felt like the last thing she would ever be able or would want to do, it was hurting that much.
When she realised this, the understanding that that other feeling was excruciating pain overwhelmed her. It was this that made her open her eyes.
There was someone above her, and it took her a few seconds to realise it was Ron. There were tears in his eyes and there was blood smeared across his face. She wasn't sure if she wanted to know who's it was.
'R…Ron…'
She cried out as the pain in her stomach worsened.
'I'm s…sorry, Hermione, I have to push on it, you're bleeding and I have to m…make it stop.'
Gathering all her strength she lifted her head a couple of inches off the floor and looked down at her stomach. All she could see was red and Ron's hands covering her skin.
'What…what's wrong with… m…me?' she asked, trying desperately hard not to panic.
'I…I think you were hit by some flying metal or something. There's a good chunk of it h…here.' She followed the waving piece of metal in front of her face and then followed Ron's hand as he put it on the floor. Anything to not look at herself and the blood, which was spattered over Ron.
'I n…need to apparate us out of here, Hermione, and that means I have to lift you up which'll h…hurt like hell but I h…have too. OK? I have your wand so I'll be fine. I'll get us safe and somewhere you can be treated for this. But it's… it's gonna hurt like hell for a little bit, yeah?'
Hermione felt tears run down her face into her hair. She nodded and closed her eyes. She took a couple of deep breaths and she heard Ron shuffling around her. She felt his hands push under her back and her legs.
'Ready? I'll stand up on three. One. Two-.'
'Expelliarmus!'
Hermione wrenched her eyes open and found the source of the hoarse voice,
which had disarmed Ron. It was the wizard who had just blown them up.
'Well, isn't this sweet?' the wizard wheezed, as he pointed both Hermione's and his own wand towards them. 'Don't either of you move, if you do, I'll curse you into more pain than you've ever experienced.'
She was surprised to hear Ron snort at that comment. 'Please, you have no idea what we've been through before now, I'd like to see you try!'
She knew it had been the wrong thing for Ron to say, and her fears were confirmed when Ron started screaming in agony, as the Cruciatus curse filled every fibre of his being.
The screaming stopped and she tried to reach out towards Ron, to make sure he was fine. She didn't doubt he could handle the curse under normal circumstances, but these were not normal circumstances.
'Well, that seemed to shut him up, didn't it, my darling?'
'I'm not… y…your d…darling.'
'Well, well, well! Still feisty even though it looks like you're bleeding to death!'
'Well, well, well! Aren't w…we the m…melodramatic one! F…first explosions, then over…exaggerating!'
The wizard threw his head back and laughed out loud. A second later there was rage in his eyes and Hermione's own wand was pointed at herself.
'We'll have no more smart words from you, darling!'
The wand movement was swift and the red spell took her consciousness from her.
Harry
Harry Potter heard the chattering of his Godson long before he was content to open his eyes. He knew it would be far earlier than he would like to be awake, but he also knew that this was one of the perils of looking after a three and a half year old.
He didn’t mind, of course. Teddy was his Godson and he loved spending time with him. He had inherited the calm nature of Remus and Tonks' cheery nature, which made him a delight to look after. Most of the time.
Soon enough the door to his bedroom was opened and he heard the frantic attempts of a toddler climbing up onto his bed.
'Unca Harry!' You 'wake?'
'Nope! Definitely not awake.'
Teddy giggled and Harry couldn't help but smile.
'I'm hungry. Is it food time?'
'Yeah, I suppose, what do you want for breakfast?'
'Um…'
Teddy thought about his choices for a good thirty seconds, in which time Harry managed to doze off.
'I think…' Harry opened his eyes and remembered he was supposed to be listening intently to Teddy. 'I think I want some Shooting Stars…'
'Are you sure?'
Teddy continued to think for another few seconds then nodded his head frantically.
'Ok, go and get your bowl and your spoon and I'll come and get your breakfast.'
'Okay!'
Teddy jumped off the bed, narrowly missing the bedside table. Teddy Lupin did happen to inherit his Mother's clumsiness; Harry just hoped he wouldn't have to repeat the trip to St. Mungo's he did last time he babysat his Godson.
'Unca Harry! I can't reach my bowl!'
Harry chuckled and threw the covers off himself. As he walked through the house to the kitchen and prepared his and Teddy's breakfast - the highly sugared and colourful breakfast cereal that literally sent stars shooting above the surface of the bowl after being covered in milk - he wondered how he would spend the latter half of the day. He had Teddy until lunchtime when he was dropping him back off at Andromeda's house.
Ron wasn't due back until later that night so he had a lot of time to kill. He could go and see George, he knew he was in the same position as him, maybe they could play Quidditch, or just arse around at the Burrow.
Yeah, a lazy day with family sounded good.
Teddy ran into the lounge to watch cartoons leaving Harry to clean up. After a few flicks of his wand he heard the flames in the fireplace roar then die down.
'Unca Harry! There's a letter for you!'
Harry frowned, wondering who was contacting him via the floo. Normally that only happened when there was an emergency at work.
He walked through to the lounge and picked up the slightly smoking scroll of parchment off the floor. He read the text and he shivered, hoping that he had read the words incorrectly.
He hadn't. Something had gone wrong with the mission.
Ron and Hermione were missing.
Ron
Ron had no idea where he was. He had been propped up against a cold, stone wall and he was having trouble holding up his head. If he focussed on the ground in front of him for too long he went dizzy and felt sick. He wasn't sure how long they'd been there, but it had been way too long for his liking.
Hermione was lying a couple of metres away from him, curled up on her side and not moving except for the too rapid breaths she was taking.
He wasn't sure which was worse, being on the outside in a situation like this, not knowing where his people were and frantically trying to find them, feeling helpless with every action he took, or being in the situation and still ending up ridiculously helpless, especially when he can't even focus without feeling the need to throw up.
Come on, Weasley, pull yourself together!
He opened his eyes and put his head back against the wall. He forced himself to look at the bars that closed the far end of the cell. It was a few seconds before he started to feel sick but he swallowed and took a deep breath to keep the nausea at bay. He reached forward and managed to pitch his weight forward. When he was on all fours he kept staring in front of him, managing for the minute to keep his sickness at bay. For something as simple as co-ordinating his left arm and his right leg to move forward at the same time, it was taking far too much effort. He wobbled before he managed to tense his muscles and regain his balance. Slowly he pulled his right arm along the floor with his fingertips and when he was about to lose his balance, pulled his left leg forward.
He carried on in this manner until he was near enough Hermione to lie down next to her. He had no idea what hex had been put on him but he hadn't felt this weak for years. He rolled Hermione on to her back and his heart sank when her eyes stayed shut. If he was truthful with himself he wasn't expecting them to be open. That didn't stop him hoping though.
'Her…Hermione…' he whispered. He regretted opening his mouth as he instantly felt sick. He swallowed and breathed deeply again. 'P… Please… Hermione. Wake… up!' George… he'll kill me if… I d…don't get you h…home tonight. You… you promised him a g… good hard sh…shag!' He thought he was laughing, but he felt hot tears run down his nose and onto the floor and he realised he was shaking and crying. He couldn't stop it. He couldn't breathe properly and he started to feel sick again, he rolled onto his side and managed to crawl a foot away from Hermione, before vomiting onto the cold floor.
Black spots invaded his peripheral vision and he went dizzy again. 'No! No… Need to stay… 'wake…'
Three seconds later he was unconscious.
George
He hadn't meant to end up at the shop. He really had intended to use this day to relax, hence the marathon drinking session the night before. But he just happened to walk past the front door when there was a large bang inside, and he could hardly ignore that, could he?
Well, if he'd really wanted to he could, but he was curious as to what had exploded and in what circumstances. There was also the possibility that he was about to come face to face with a lawsuit so it was probably better to deal with these things now than later and without first hand knowledge of the situation.
As it happened it was all superficial, well, the noise and the soot wasn't, but the actual 'fire' effect was an illusion and he was sure the ringing in the boy's ears would disappear within the hour. Probably. No one was burned and there was definitely no structural damage to the building. Of that he was sure. Obviously the boy's well being was his first priority. After he'd subtly checked the shop out.
After a twenty-minute conversation that only on two occasions had turned into an argument, the family had left with a complimentary bag full of Wheezes products, and a promise of 10% off all merchandise for the next six months. Yes, this could be seen as an admittance of fault, but he had a feeling that the business drawn up by the boy bragging to his friends about how he had caused an explosion in Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes would surpass the 10% discount he had promised a rather pissed off and embarrassed father.
Once it was dealt with he carried on in the shop, helping on the shop floor, which he had missed recently. What with inventing new products and looking for new property in various Wizarding towns throughout the country, he hadn't actually done much demonstrating and selling, and he missed it.
Deciding he needed a brew if he intended on carrying on talking for the rest of the afternoon, he went through to the small kitchen in the back room and put the kettle on. Remembering they were running low on Edible Dark Marks he went into the storeroom and found a box on the bottom shelf that had what could be described as a 'caricature' of the dark mark on. As he turned back to the kitchen he noticed a crumpled up and lightly toasted piece of parchment in front of the fireplace. It couldn't have been there long, as it was still smoking slightly.
He tucked the box under his arm, and bent down to pick up the ball of parchment. With one hand he smoothed it out, and then his heart stopped.
Ron and Hermione are missing.
I'm worried. Come to the Auror Office.
Harry
Dropping the box to the floor he sprinted out the shop to apparate to the Ministry. He didn't need telling twice.
Hermione
Hermione was getting worried now. Not only did she know that she hadn't been healed properly and was probably bleeding internally, but now Ron was lying unconscious next to her.
She had woken up and managed to roll onto her back. She wasn't entirely sure if this had been the best thing to do, but she had to do something. Lying down and letting the psycho wizard dictate everything wasn't an option. Unfortunately her injury was slowing her down considerably. Not only did every movement she made hurt her like she was being stabbed, but whatever spell they had put on Ron that had made him throw up had obviously been put on her as well.
Her head swam and she tried to focus on Ron. She shuffled her feet to the right and then managed to push herself off the floor an inch and fall a tiny bit to the side. This hurt her more than she thought and she cried out in pain. Realising that this was not going to be pain free, however she moved, she gritted her teeth and continued to shuffle towards Ron. She gasped and cried out as she did it, but after what seemed like a ridiculously long amount of time, she reached Ron.
She pulled at his shoulder and he rolled on to his back. She held her breath, wanting to hear any noise Ron made. He made none, but she sighed in relief when she saw the rise and fall of his chest. Granted, it wasn't as deep as she'd like, but he was breathing, that had to be something.
'Ron…' she rasped, her throat dry and sore from the smoke from the explosion.
She coughed which hurt her greatly. 'Ron, wake up, please.'
He grunted and she had never heard a more welcome sound.
'Ron! Wake up! Please!'
He groaned again, for a second she smiled, it sounded exactly what Ron waking up in the morning should sound like: him groaning that he doesn't want to get up yet and a 'surely you've woken me up too early' groan. She was then reminded by a shooting pain in her side that they weren't safe and warm at home, and it had been years since she'd heard Ron wake up in a morning.
Her thoughts turned to George, the man she loved and the last person she thought she would and could fall in love with. But she had, and it brought tears to her eyes that she couldn't see him when she needed him the most. Not that that was his fault, after all, he had been the one who had raised his suspicions that she shouldn't be going on this mission. He had argued that there were other people who had more experience who could've gone and questioned why Ron - who had, correctly, followed his instinct - was being given the lead on this mission when he had never been given that honour before.
Hermione had told him not to worry, that she trusted Ron with her life and that they would be fine. They had enough evidence to send the wizard they were pursuing to Azkaban for the rest of his days, but they needed to catch him, and Hermione and Ron had been the ones working on the case for longest and had put the most hours into it. It wasn't often that the two departments worked this close on a case, but in these circumstances, it seemed the best thing to do.
And she still believed that, even though now they were both captured and battered and bruised. She wouldn't have let Ron go on this alone, and he wouldn't have let anyone else accompany him. Harry and George were 'mightily pissed off' as Ron had said, but they had accepted their decision and smiled at them as they left, even if the smiles they had worn hadn't been genuine.
The pain in her side increased as her breathing quickened. She was trying to stay positive and tell herself that they'd get out of wherever they were and back home in one piece, but as every second went by the pain got that little bit worse and she got that little bit weaker. As every second went by she lost that a little bit of hope that she would see George again, kiss him again, tell him she loved him one more time, lie underneath him as he made love to her, and found everything she needed to see in his eyes.
Before she knew it her sobs were shaking her body, making her pain worse but she couldn't stop them. She didn't want to die like this! She had so much more to do with her life. Her and George had so much more to do together. Chances were she wouldn't get to do any of it and she'd die in this cell, another victim of the Death Eaters' second wave of terror since the war.
She started at the hands on her face, pulling her own hands away from her eyes.
'Don't c…cry, Hermione. I'll g…get you out of h…here. Promise…'
She shut her eyes and nodded her head because that's what Ron wanted to see. For him - and herself - she had to stay positive, even if it was the last thing she was feeling at the minute. Their track record was pretty damn good after all. They had survived against the odds on numerous occasions, there was no reason why this time would be any different.
For a second her optimistic side won through, and then the pessimistic half of her brain reminded her she was very seriously injured, still bleeding, wandless and in close proximity to a psycho who had no issue with blowing himself or them up.
She heard Ron shuffling and briefly looked over at him. He was sitting up and trying to bring himself round. She knew the expression on his face and knew that he was determined to do something, even if it came down to making enough noise to get their captor's attention, at least he'd then be doing something. Ronald Weasley was not one to sit about and do nothing. Normally she wasn't, but at the minute there was nothing else she could do.
Harry
'Harry! What the hell happened!'
He had been prepared for this reaction off George, but that didn't prepare him for the irate Weasley brother to come pelting towards him at full speed.
'Where is she?' George shouted in his face.
'I don't know!' Harry replied as calmly as he could. If truth be told he wanted to be shouting and screaming like George was but he would be removed from the department if he did, and that wouldn't help anyone. Some of the other Aurors were looking at George in a disgruntled way, obviously not liking the shouts that were putting them off their work.
'George, you have to calm down, they'll throw you out if you don't.'
'I'd like to fucking well see them try! George growled at Harry.
'George, I swear to Merlin I'll have you thrown out myself if you don't calm down!' George turned red and went to argue with Harry but he cut him off before he had the chance. 'Don't think that because I'm looking calm that I'm not ranting and raving inside. You know exactly how I feel because the person you love is missing, as is the person I love more than anything in the world, so don't stand there and tell me I don't understand! They want me removed from this investigation anyway because they think I'm too involved to be of any use, and if I start yelling and screaming I'll be out that door faster than I can blink. I suggest you take that information on board and do something with it!'
Harry glared at George and didn't blink. After what seemed like forever George looked down and then back at Harry.
'What’s happened to them, Harry?' he asked calmly, although the wobble in his voice was obvious.
Harry took a deep breath. 'There was an explosion, that's all I know. They only found that out a few minutes ago. They went to Ron and Hermione's last known location and it was, well, the building was falling apart and there was traces of Muggle liquid explosives inside. We're presuming they survived the blast because otherwise, well, they'd be there. If they'd been killed by this guy then logically he wouldn't have bothered moving them.'
'Logically? You're using tenuous logic on something as serious as…' George looked around him, very aware that he had raised his voice. 'On something as serious as this! Remind me, Harry, where had this man spent the last three years of his life? I do believe it was on the Psychiatric Wing of St. Mungo's was it not?'
Harry sighed. 'Wait, how did you know he's an ex-Mungo's Psych patient?'
'Hermione told me!'
'Well, she shouldn't have, that was for Ministry Personnel only!'
'Yes, well, I'm sorry for the Ministry that she told me exactly what she was up against, but we don't lie to each other, Harry. She tells me everything and I tell her everything, too. It's called trust.'
'Still, she-.'
'Harry, do you honestly think I'd tell anyone anything she tells me that's to do with work? She tells me because she can't tell anyone else, she has no one else to help her deal with all the shit she goes through. The one person who she could tell everything too decided he loved his best mate more than he did her!'
Harry's eyebrows disappeared into his fringe. 'Really? You're throwing me and Ron getting together in my face, now? And to be honest, I don't see you complaining that Ron 'decided he loved his best mate more than he did her'! You came out of the whole thing pretty well, I'd say!'
'You little shit! I comforted her when she couldn't even find a reason to go to work anymore! You had each other, Hermione had no one! It was all I could do to give her a reason to get up in the morning!'
Harry had had enough, this was not the time nor the place for this argument. He knew under normal circumstances this conversation would never have seen the light of day, but these were not normal circumstances.
Over the years Harry had decided that he had quite a good gut instinct, and something was screaming at him and telling him that Ron and Hermione were in mortal danger. On that thought he pictured the Weasley clock in his head, and he shuddered at the thought of what it might tell them, and the thought of Molly or Arthur looking at it before anyone could tell her what happened.
'You need to tell your mum and dad what's happened before they look at their clock and…' he couldn't finish the sentence.
George looked taken aback at the fact Harry hadn't taken on their argument any further. Harry looked in to his eyes and tried to tell him that this wasn't what they should be doing, and that they didn't really mean what they'd just said. He hoped George would let it go.
He did.
'What should I tell them?' he asked quietly, his voice breaking. He coughed to cover up the upset in his voice.
'Honestly, I have no idea. Make it quick, though, we're setting off to go to the building he blew up in' he checked his watch, 'eight minutes.'
'Eight minutes! You're giving me eight minutes?'
'Well you can have longer if you don't want to come with us, but it seems a shame to waste this official Ministry card I had made for you so you can accompany us on our little excursion.' He handed the card to George. 'It's up to you, but I can't slow the investigation down.'
'No I… I don't want you to. I'll be back in five minutes.'
Harry nodded and turned away. He started walking to the group of Aurors at the other side of the office who were frantically looking through files to gather that vital piece of information about the man they had been trying to capture to try and work out where he might have taken Auror Weasley and Special Agent Granger.
Harry's head was both empty of any helpful suggestions and full to bursting with possible theories. He needed someone to make him think straight, unfortunately the one person who always managed to do that was one of two people he was looking for.
Ron
He was back sitting against the wall of the cell, but this time Hermione was lying on her back, her head in his lap.
They had been brought food, well, stale bread and water if you could call that food, and they had found out that it was the wizard they had been trying to capture who had imprisoned them. It was he who had brought them the food. Ron didn't like to think of the reasons why he decided they needed to eat something, he despised the idea of being stuck wherever they were, cold, filthy, injured and - he hated himself for thinking it - dying. He wanted to go home to Harry, he wanted to take Hermione home to George and he's rather die sooner rather than later if there was no escape.
A war does finny things to people. All people, not only those in the thick of the action, and Ron was one of the people who came out of the battle with a lack of fear of death. After coming close to death a few times, being tortured both mentally and physically and watching loved ones die, you come to the decision that if it's your time to go, it's your time to go. There were worse things than dying. Dying slowly and painfully being one of them, and as much as he hated to admit it, Hermione wasn't looking good. She was still bleeding, and he knew she was bleeding internally too. She was weak, was in pain and he couldn't help her.
''m sorry,' he said in a whisper.
'What… for?' Hermione replied, her eyes still closed.
'Everything,' he replied, still whispering.
'That's a lot to be sorry for. How about you narrow it down a little.'
He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. 'Okay, how about, I'm sorry for dragging you here with me. I'm sorry for getting you blown up. I'm sorry for not being able to anything to get you out of here, and I'm sorry for… for hurting you.'
He heard her breath deeply.
'Open your eyes and look at me, Ron.' It was a demand and he did what she said. 'The first three I'm going to ignore because it was my decision to come here, I didn't stop him from blowing us up either and I'm hardly able to get us out of here, so I'd say we're even. As for you hurting me, well, you had to try and stop the bleeding, you were doing-'
'I didn't mean that. I meant when I broke things off. I never wanted to hurt you like that, but I did. You mean more to me than anything and I did that to you. I broke you, Hermione! I didn't see you for days, no one did! I made you feel that bad that every time you saw someone with red hair you hurt!'
He had talked himself into silence.
'Have you finished?' Hermione asked, her tone of voice almost back to normal.
Ron shrugged, unable to do anything else as emotion was choking him. He looked down at her and knew that the small shuffling she was doing reflected her normal drawing herself up to her full height to give her point extra force. This was as good as she could do.
'Firstly, yes you're right, you did hurt me, I thought we would be together for the rest of our lives, but it didn't work out that way. Nothing is set in stone, Ron and I was foolish to believe it was. Secondly, you didn't mean to hurt me, you couldn't help your feelings. It would have been wrong to cheat yourself of what you truly wanted and it would have been wrong to let me live a false life. Thirdly, I've told you this before, stop torturing yourself, and me by going over this. I know normally you would only give these thoughts a fraction of a second a day, and it's only because we're here and trapped that you're letting them consume you, but it stops now. Right? I don't have the energy for this.'
She closed her eyes and calmed her breathing back down. He could see her barrage of words had taken their toll on her, she winced and her hand kept twitching towards her wound.
'How come you let George in?' he asked, needing to know what it was about his brother that made her let down her guard. He pretended that he was keeping her talking to keep her awake, but if he was honest with himself, he was curious as to how she learnt to love again. She had said it herself: she had expected them to be together forever, he couldn't understand how she had let that go.
'Do you really want to carry this conversation on?' Hermione asked. 'Because I will be brutally honest with you, Ron and you might not like what you hear.'
'Fine.'
'Because George was everything you wasn't. Well, as much as he can be and still be a Weasley. He had lost his way and was finding a way back, he knew - to an extent - what I was feeling and, honestly… at first I knew it would wind you up something chronic to be talking to one of your brothers and not thrashing things out with you. I knew it wound you up that I hadn't flown off the handle in front of you and had just calmly walked away when you told me how things were between you and Harry, this would take things one step further.'
'So… wait, you used George? Hermione, that's…'
'Sick? Bitter? Twisted? Unfair? Not like me at all? That's right and that's probably why I was doing it.'
'Did George… does George know?'
Hermione smirked. 'Of course he does! He worked out I was trying my hardest to wind you up and understood why.'
'And he was okay with that?'
He was shouting now and he didn't care, Hermione had just turned into someone he didn't like. It was very disturbing.
'At first he didn't seem that bothered. He was still at a loose end, the shop was being looked after but the staff, he didn't have the inspiration or the want to invent knew products on his own and he had told people he wanted to 'live a little' before settling back down into normal life. What no one but a few people heard in that waffle of a sentence was that he had no idea how he was going to carry on without Fred. Even six months later all the 'living' he was doing was living a little to close to the pub of an evening and living through one too many hangovers.'
'But he… he didn't, we didn't notice him drinking! Well, not excessively!'
'That's because he and Fred had perfected the exact combination of potions to cure a hangover and he went about his days as everyone expected him to. Actually you dumping me and me needing someone to wind you up actually helped him. He had someone to visit who was suffering like he was. We talked a lot.'
Ron's was reeling slightly. Finding out his ex-girlfriend had been using his brother to get back at him, with his brother knowing perfectly well what was going on was baffling him and rather unsettling.'
'So your relationship is based on some twisted game you were playing that he was in on?'
Why he was getting angry he didn't know.
Hermione glared at him.
'No. Our relationship is based on trust, and friendship. When the light goes out at the end of the tunnel, a friend will hand you a torch. George was the one who gave me a torch and enough batteries to last as long as I needed.'
He fell silent, a little embarrassed that he had insinuated their relationship was in any way unhealthy.
'You did have a wand, you know! They don't need batteries!'
He was glad he could still make her smile.
George
'I shouldn't have let her go!' he growled as he paced around the farm building. 'I should have locked her inside the shop without her wand.'
'And lost your girlfriend in the process.'
'At least she'd be safe! How could I have let her go?' he shouted. The words echoed around the building and that seemed to bring him from himself.
The trip home had been, well, horrible. Seeing his mum and his dad fight back tears was not something he would ever get used to. They had agreed to stay at home for the time being with the small hope that Ron and Hermione would magically turn up there. But he knew it probably wouldn't be too long until he had to face them again.
'So, say you would have locked her in the flat, then what would've happened?'
'What? What's that got to do with-'
'Just humour me and answer the question.'
He glared at Harry but decided to answer him.
'She would have shouted at me, and I probably would have left to stop the shouting, but I would have made sure she was safely locked inside first!'
He half cringed at what he had said, but it didn't stop it being true.
'And you don't think she would have got out the flat somehow and got herself where she needed to be for that mission?'
'If I'd taken her wand then-'
'May I remind you she is Muggleborn and knows how to pick locks and you know, throw heavy things at breakable glass.'
'The windows are charmed!' George shouted somewhat triumphantly.
'To stop things breaking from the outside, in, not the inside, out. Safety first, George!'
He wilted. He had momentarily forgotten his and Fred's safety feature for the flat. When you're doing some impromptu inventing in your lounge, you want to be able to leave the area as quickly as possible, should anything unexpected happen. Breakable glass - from the inside only - was one of the safety features they had installed.
'George, she would have got out the flat, she would have got her spare wand, she would have been beyond apoplectic with rage at you and we'd still be in this situation. At least this way you're still in her good books.'
'Doesn't stop me feeling guilty, though.'
'Nope, believe me when I say I know how you feel.'
They stood in silence for a bit. George needed to keep moving so he walked a few paces one way, then turned sharply in another direction, before doing the same again. His thoughts wandered, yet again, to Hermione and how she still wasn't safe and warm at home. He had no idea what he would do if-
His foot skidded on something round. When he had regained his balance he looked down at the offending object. His heart jumped into his mouth when he recognised the wand as Ron's.
After a second's thought he realised he shouldn't be surprised by this, if he'd had his wand, or Hermione's, then they would have heard something at the very least. Still seeing something of Ron's was quite a shock.
'His wand,' he said, emotion filling his voice.
'What?' Harry exclaimed as he ran towards George.
George nodded to the wand on the floor. Harry bent down and picked up his wand. George looked at him and looked away when he saw tears glisten in Harry's eyes. He kept getting so lost in his own sorrow and loss that he forgot that Harry was suffering in exactly the same way and his attitude was doing nothing to help.
He put his hand on his shoulder and forced himself to look at Harry.
'They'll be fine, Harry. They're survivors. You're the one who dies, remember?'
And people thought that Fred was the joker in the family.
Hermione
She really hadn't meant to go on at Ron, or go on about how her and George started out. Not that she was ashamed about what had happened, it just wasn't something she wanted the whole world knowing. People had raised eyebrows when her and George had started to be seen 'together' in public. Granted the eyebrows didn't raise as high as they did when it became public news that Harry and Ron were together, but still she could have done without the people needing to know about her private life.
She hadn't meant to hurt Ron with her words. She didn't want to hurt him at all any more. At one point she idd, she wanted to break his heart like he had hers, and the mind games at the beginning were part of that. But from there she moved on and found George and everything he had to offer. It was amazing what you missed in a family when you only had eyes for one part of it.
It was thinking about George that was keeping her going, but that was getting harder with every minute that went by. She had always been cautiously optimistic - her glass was never half empty, always half full but she was also a realist, and she knew the chance of her getting out of wherever they were alive were getting smaller. She hated the idea of dying here without seeing her family again, but she had to at least prepare herself for that happening.
'Ron, will you do me a favour?' she asked. It was almost a whisper but it was all she could manage.
Ron opened his eyes and lifted his head, he had been dozing or trying to shut out all around him, she wasn't sure which.
'Of course, do you need to move again?'
'No, nothing like that, I think I prefer my backside numb, anyway, better than cold! No, I want you to pass a message on to my family and George, should I not-'
'Don't you dare finish that sentence!' he growled. 'You're not giving me any death messages to pass on because you're not going to die, Hermione! You can't!'
She waited until he had calmed down before she spoke.
'Ron, believe me, I don't intend to die here, but I have to look at the facts. I'm injured, probably still bleeding internally, I have very little energy, and it's all I can do at the minute to carry on talking. Things don't look good, you have to admit...'
He glared at her defiantly but didn't respond. She took that as a sign to keep on talking.
'Tell Mum and Dad that I love them and that I'm so grateful for everything they did for me, okay? I know I'm coming out with clichés but they're said for a reason.'
She felt her throat tightening and tears burn her eyes.
'I don't know what else I'd say to them, they're the most fundamental things, really.'
Ron was ignoring her but she knew he was taking in what she was saying.
'As for your...' the pain in her side suddenly got worse and she hissed in pain. As she looked at the ceiling, black spots started to invade her peripheral vision. 'As for your f...family. Tell them thank you for everything, for... treating me like a daughter. They made my life in the Magical world so much better than I ever imagined.'
She cried out in pain, something was wrong, something had changed or burst or broken or something. Her stomach was churning with fear and she curled towards Ron without realising what she was doing.
'Hermione! What is it? What hurts?'
'Ev...everything,' she whispered.
She grabbed his hand.
'What can I do? Tell me Hermione! What can I do?'
'Tell G...George I love him... and that...that h...he's the reason I lasted this...long...'
'Oh God, Hermione, I'm sorry, I can't help you! I don't know what to do!'
She felt his tears land on her face and although she was in chronic pain, she was overwhelmed by a sense of calm. If this was her time, she would face death head on.
'Ron, you can't help me, just do me one favour.'
'Any...anything,' he said through the sobs that were making him shake violently.
'Give a dying g...girl one last... kiss.'
Still shaking, he wiped his face and placed his hands on hers.
She closed her eyes and waited. As his lips brushed hers she held her breath. He kissed her firmly then pulled back slightly, before moving in once more. His tongue nudged at her lips and she opened her mouth to let him in. Their tongues swirled and she had never felt so alive. Tears fell from her eyes, she thought of George and she thought of Ron. She sucked on his tongue one final time and then pulled away panting.
'Y...you're a wonderful p...person, Ron. Don't ever let any...anyone tell you differently. I love you...'
She couldn't see anymore, and his voice was fading in and out.
'Please, Hermione, don't leave me! You can't d...die! Not here, not like this!'
'Tell G...Geor...'
With that last breath she slid into unconsciousness.
Harry
'What do you mean he's been sighted?' Harry demanded of the trainee Auror who had just apparated to the farm building and ran inside with a message for Auror Potter and the search team. 'Where?' he shouted at the shaking teenager.
'Sev...Sevenhampton. Village across from... here... mile outside the village... random square of trees... was seen flying into them... on a broom... hasn't been seen coming out?'
'And it was definitely him?'
'Erm... yes... that's what I was told... sir...'
'Why am I not there yet?' Harry barked at the trainee.
'Oh!' The very nervous Auror fumbled in his robes for something, then pulled out a chipped mug and handed it to Harry. 'Because you haven't activated this portkey yet.'
'George! Get your arse over here!' he called across the building.
'Reynolds, Archer, Forbes, Jackson, Habib and Sampson will meet you there,' the Trainee rambled off to Harry. George arrived at Harry's side.
'Touch this.'
'What? Oh! Right!'
'Err, sir?' Harry looked at the Trainee. 'I was told to tell you that no one-'
Harry glared at the now shaking Trainee.
'Never mind.' He disappeared in a rustle of robes but Harry wasn't watching.
'Hold tight!' Harry said to George. George nodded and gripped the handle of the mug.
'Mashed Potato,' Harry said and instantly he felt a pull behind his navel and then everything was a blur.
A Love That Runs So Deep: Part 2
Author/Artist: thesteppyone
Gift For: redhedsarehot
Rating: R for language
Featured Character or Pairing(s): Harry/Ron, Hermione/George, past Ron/Hermione which is mentioned a lot.
Summary: Ron and Hermione's mission goes horribly wrong and serious complications arise. How will they and Harry and George cope with their capture, and the aftermath?
Warnings: Serious injury, swearing, angst
Word Count:Many words... ~16,000. Kinda got away from me a little...
Disclaimer: I own nothing except a car. Oh, and a bike. No copyright infringement is intended, I own none of the names, places, characters or spells you recognise. I'm just playing in the sandbox, all shall be exactly as it was, when I leave :)
Author's notes: So It says Harry/Ron but this Is me, so of course It's all about the Ron/Hermione… :D
A Love that Runs So Deep: Part 1
Ron
The explosion shook every bone in his body. His brain rattled against his skull and he was vaguely aware that he was in pain. A hot, sticky substance was running down the back of his throat and he had to cough to get rid of it from his lungs. When he did, red spatters covered his hand.
It was then that Ron came back to himself. He remembered where he was, what he was supposed to be doing and whom he was with.
He was on a mission with work, and he was in Swindon. Stanton Fitzwarren to be exact, in one of the farm buildings to the north of the village. Well, he had been in one of the farm buildings, until they had turned and fled, throwing themselves towards the big iron doors. They knew it was too late but still they ran. It was the only thing they could do.
He saw the whole thing in his mind again, the wizard they had been observing for the previous five hours smiling and laughing manically at them, their words doing nothing to either calm him or get him to stop pointing his wand at the gas canisters that were neatly stacked against the far wall, next to bottles of something that he didn't recognise, but that Hermione had told him would explode should the wizard choose to do what he was threatening.
Wait... Hermione!
'Hermione!' he managed to croak out, smoke had filled his lungs and he was struggling to breathe but he didn't care, he had to find her. Dust filled the air, which made seeing anything impossible. He fumbled in his robes for his wand, but to his dismay he couldn't find it. He guessed flying through the air and landing in a very undignified heap twenty feet from where you set off, would dislodge a small stick of wood from your pocket. This fact didn't stop him needing it, though.
'Hermione!' he called again, hoping for some kind of noise, anything that would help him get to her and then get them out of there.
Somewhere they technically shouldn't have been, but he had insisted they go, because he knew that they would find evidence, plots, plans and most importantly, the wizard behind everything.
He coughed again, ignoring the taste of blood in his mouth and at the back of his throat. The dull throbbing pain in his nose reassured him that it was probably that that was causing the blood and not anything more serious. He hoped so, anyway.
He crawled forwards, eyes straining to catch a glimpse of movement or light and his hands feeling the ground for anything that resembled his or anyone else's wand.
His fingertips brushed a thin piece of wood, which wasn't entirely smooth. His mind's eye showed him Hermione's wand, with the intricate carvings on the handle, which faded as they got nearer the tip. His head was screaming at him to take the wand, but he knew that Hermione had been holding her wand when she was running, knew that the last thing Hermione would do would be to let go of her wand if she was still conscious as she was thrown across the building. That left him with two possibilities: Hermione and her wand had been separated because she had been rendered unconscious and therefore wasn't capable of keeping hold of her wand, or Hermione had managed to keep hold of her wand while conscious and had passed out on the floor because of the state she was in and was, therefore, lying mere inches from him.
He had closed his eyes, but forced himself to open them.
And that's when he saw Hermione lying, battered, bruised and bleeding with her hand still tightly gripped around her wand, barely breathing.
At this sight he started to panic.
George
The pounding in George's head intensified when he cracked open his left eye, the sunlight around him adding to the pain.
'Phlergle'
Not entirely sure where that half arsed attempt at speaking had come from - either his brain or an involuntary spasm from his vocal chords - he cleared his throat. He then tried again to open his eyes without causing his pounding head to pound harder. As it happened it didn't get any worse when he opened his eye and rolled backwards a bit so he could open his other eye as well, for this he was thankful.
He inhaled deeply and instantly pulled his face at the smell of stale alcohol in the room. Leaving an open, half empty bottle of beer on his floor - right in the middle of his floor, he noted in his half asleep state - had not been the best of ideas. Then again, better open and half empty than spilled all over his cream carpet. Cleaning spells only worked to a certain extent on carpet and he didn't fancy scrubbing on his hands and knees today.
He rolled over and let his arm flop on to the mattress. Or rather what was on top of the mattress. He frowned and then turned to see the dreadlocks he knew so well.
'Bloody hell, Lee! You could at least ask next time you want to share my bed! It's only polite!'
Lee Jordan didn't move, still fast asleep and lightly snoring. George decided that seeing as though he was awake, and the time was - he lifted his head a few inches off the mattress to look at his alarm clock on his bedside table - half nine, he should get up and not waste the day entirely, despite the fact that he was hung over. This wouldn't be a problem for long, however, he had plenty of potions downstairs to alleviate all his symptoms from drinking too much.
He stumbled out of bed, narrowly missing smacking his little toe on his boots and just missing the half empty, open bottle of beer on his floor. After brushing his teeth, washing his face and - very carefully - shaving off his two day old stubble, he went downstairs, still in his boxers and t-shirt and took the combination of potions that Fred had stumbled upon by complete accident, and smiled as he felt the ache in his head, his dizziness and general feeling of bleurgh disappear.
As the effects of the small amount of Invigorating potion he had just taken ran through his veins, he grinned and looked forward to what the day would bring.
Granted the day wouldn't go exactly as he would like, as there would be one person missing from whatever he ended up doing. And that person was Hermione Granger. His girlfriend. His girlfriend, Hermione.
At one point in his life, that idea would have seemed the most ridiculous thing in the world, and she would have thought that too. But it was strange the way things turned out. Never would he have thought that he would have lost his twin in a fierce battle at his old school, and never would he have thought that after some very interesting revelations would he end up being the one thing Hermione Granger needed: Comfort. He thought it was a one-way thing; him helping her to get over something that had turned her world upside down, but really they were helping each other heal from wounds that neither of them expected, or knew how to face on their own.
But that was beside the point, it was a new day, he was no longer hung over - although he knew he had to keep drinking water throughout the day to re-hydrate himself - Lee could find his own way out of George's flat so he didn't have to wait until he surfaced, so the day was definitely his own.
Now all he had to do was think of something to do.
Hermione
She could hear words and the sound of them was familiar. There was something else she could feel but she didn't know what that was either. She was aware of her body, that much she knew. Her arms and legs felt heavy, like she would never have the strength to lift them again. The thought of trying to lift her head felt like the last thing she would ever be able or would want to do, it was hurting that much.
When she realised this, the understanding that that other feeling was excruciating pain overwhelmed her. It was this that made her open her eyes.
There was someone above her, and it took her a few seconds to realise it was Ron. There were tears in his eyes and there was blood smeared across his face. She wasn't sure if she wanted to know who's it was.
'R…Ron…'
She cried out as the pain in her stomach worsened.
'I'm s…sorry, Hermione, I have to push on it, you're bleeding and I have to m…make it stop.'
Gathering all her strength she lifted her head a couple of inches off the floor and looked down at her stomach. All she could see was red and Ron's hands covering her skin.
'What…what's wrong with… m…me?' she asked, trying desperately hard not to panic.
'I…I think you were hit by some flying metal or something. There's a good chunk of it h…here.' She followed the waving piece of metal in front of her face and then followed Ron's hand as he put it on the floor. Anything to not look at herself and the blood, which was spattered over Ron.
'I n…need to apparate us out of here, Hermione, and that means I have to lift you up which'll h…hurt like hell but I h…have too. OK? I have your wand so I'll be fine. I'll get us safe and somewhere you can be treated for this. But it's… it's gonna hurt like hell for a little bit, yeah?'
Hermione felt tears run down her face into her hair. She nodded and closed her eyes. She took a couple of deep breaths and she heard Ron shuffling around her. She felt his hands push under her back and her legs.
'Ready? I'll stand up on three. One. Two-.'
'Expelliarmus!'
Hermione wrenched her eyes open and found the source of the hoarse voice,
which had disarmed Ron. It was the wizard who had just blown them up.
'Well, isn't this sweet?' the wizard wheezed, as he pointed both Hermione's and his own wand towards them. 'Don't either of you move, if you do, I'll curse you into more pain than you've ever experienced.'
She was surprised to hear Ron snort at that comment. 'Please, you have no idea what we've been through before now, I'd like to see you try!'
She knew it had been the wrong thing for Ron to say, and her fears were confirmed when Ron started screaming in agony, as the Cruciatus curse filled every fibre of his being.
The screaming stopped and she tried to reach out towards Ron, to make sure he was fine. She didn't doubt he could handle the curse under normal circumstances, but these were not normal circumstances.
'Well, that seemed to shut him up, didn't it, my darling?'
'I'm not… y…your d…darling.'
'Well, well, well! Still feisty even though it looks like you're bleeding to death!'
'Well, well, well! Aren't w…we the m…melodramatic one! F…first explosions, then over…exaggerating!'
The wizard threw his head back and laughed out loud. A second later there was rage in his eyes and Hermione's own wand was pointed at herself.
'We'll have no more smart words from you, darling!'
The wand movement was swift and the red spell took her consciousness from her.
Harry
Harry Potter heard the chattering of his Godson long before he was content to open his eyes. He knew it would be far earlier than he would like to be awake, but he also knew that this was one of the perils of looking after a three and a half year old.
He didn’t mind, of course. Teddy was his Godson and he loved spending time with him. He had inherited the calm nature of Remus and Tonks' cheery nature, which made him a delight to look after. Most of the time.
Soon enough the door to his bedroom was opened and he heard the frantic attempts of a toddler climbing up onto his bed.
'Unca Harry!' You 'wake?'
'Nope! Definitely not awake.'
Teddy giggled and Harry couldn't help but smile.
'I'm hungry. Is it food time?'
'Yeah, I suppose, what do you want for breakfast?'
'Um…'
Teddy thought about his choices for a good thirty seconds, in which time Harry managed to doze off.
'I think…' Harry opened his eyes and remembered he was supposed to be listening intently to Teddy. 'I think I want some Shooting Stars…'
'Are you sure?'
Teddy continued to think for another few seconds then nodded his head frantically.
'Ok, go and get your bowl and your spoon and I'll come and get your breakfast.'
'Okay!'
Teddy jumped off the bed, narrowly missing the bedside table. Teddy Lupin did happen to inherit his Mother's clumsiness; Harry just hoped he wouldn't have to repeat the trip to St. Mungo's he did last time he babysat his Godson.
'Unca Harry! I can't reach my bowl!'
Harry chuckled and threw the covers off himself. As he walked through the house to the kitchen and prepared his and Teddy's breakfast - the highly sugared and colourful breakfast cereal that literally sent stars shooting above the surface of the bowl after being covered in milk - he wondered how he would spend the latter half of the day. He had Teddy until lunchtime when he was dropping him back off at Andromeda's house.
Ron wasn't due back until later that night so he had a lot of time to kill. He could go and see George, he knew he was in the same position as him, maybe they could play Quidditch, or just arse around at the Burrow.
Yeah, a lazy day with family sounded good.
Teddy ran into the lounge to watch cartoons leaving Harry to clean up. After a few flicks of his wand he heard the flames in the fireplace roar then die down.
'Unca Harry! There's a letter for you!'
Harry frowned, wondering who was contacting him via the floo. Normally that only happened when there was an emergency at work.
He walked through to the lounge and picked up the slightly smoking scroll of parchment off the floor. He read the text and he shivered, hoping that he had read the words incorrectly.
He hadn't. Something had gone wrong with the mission.
Ron and Hermione were missing.
Ron
Ron had no idea where he was. He had been propped up against a cold, stone wall and he was having trouble holding up his head. If he focussed on the ground in front of him for too long he went dizzy and felt sick. He wasn't sure how long they'd been there, but it had been way too long for his liking.
Hermione was lying a couple of metres away from him, curled up on her side and not moving except for the too rapid breaths she was taking.
He wasn't sure which was worse, being on the outside in a situation like this, not knowing where his people were and frantically trying to find them, feeling helpless with every action he took, or being in the situation and still ending up ridiculously helpless, especially when he can't even focus without feeling the need to throw up.
Come on, Weasley, pull yourself together!
He opened his eyes and put his head back against the wall. He forced himself to look at the bars that closed the far end of the cell. It was a few seconds before he started to feel sick but he swallowed and took a deep breath to keep the nausea at bay. He reached forward and managed to pitch his weight forward. When he was on all fours he kept staring in front of him, managing for the minute to keep his sickness at bay. For something as simple as co-ordinating his left arm and his right leg to move forward at the same time, it was taking far too much effort. He wobbled before he managed to tense his muscles and regain his balance. Slowly he pulled his right arm along the floor with his fingertips and when he was about to lose his balance, pulled his left leg forward.
He carried on in this manner until he was near enough Hermione to lie down next to her. He had no idea what hex had been put on him but he hadn't felt this weak for years. He rolled Hermione on to her back and his heart sank when her eyes stayed shut. If he was truthful with himself he wasn't expecting them to be open. That didn't stop him hoping though.
'Her…Hermione…' he whispered. He regretted opening his mouth as he instantly felt sick. He swallowed and breathed deeply again. 'P… Please… Hermione. Wake… up!' George… he'll kill me if… I d…don't get you h…home tonight. You… you promised him a g… good hard sh…shag!' He thought he was laughing, but he felt hot tears run down his nose and onto the floor and he realised he was shaking and crying. He couldn't stop it. He couldn't breathe properly and he started to feel sick again, he rolled onto his side and managed to crawl a foot away from Hermione, before vomiting onto the cold floor.
Black spots invaded his peripheral vision and he went dizzy again. 'No! No… Need to stay… 'wake…'
Three seconds later he was unconscious.
George
He hadn't meant to end up at the shop. He really had intended to use this day to relax, hence the marathon drinking session the night before. But he just happened to walk past the front door when there was a large bang inside, and he could hardly ignore that, could he?
Well, if he'd really wanted to he could, but he was curious as to what had exploded and in what circumstances. There was also the possibility that he was about to come face to face with a lawsuit so it was probably better to deal with these things now than later and without first hand knowledge of the situation.
As it happened it was all superficial, well, the noise and the soot wasn't, but the actual 'fire' effect was an illusion and he was sure the ringing in the boy's ears would disappear within the hour. Probably. No one was burned and there was definitely no structural damage to the building. Of that he was sure. Obviously the boy's well being was his first priority. After he'd subtly checked the shop out.
After a twenty-minute conversation that only on two occasions had turned into an argument, the family had left with a complimentary bag full of Wheezes products, and a promise of 10% off all merchandise for the next six months. Yes, this could be seen as an admittance of fault, but he had a feeling that the business drawn up by the boy bragging to his friends about how he had caused an explosion in Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes would surpass the 10% discount he had promised a rather pissed off and embarrassed father.
Once it was dealt with he carried on in the shop, helping on the shop floor, which he had missed recently. What with inventing new products and looking for new property in various Wizarding towns throughout the country, he hadn't actually done much demonstrating and selling, and he missed it.
Deciding he needed a brew if he intended on carrying on talking for the rest of the afternoon, he went through to the small kitchen in the back room and put the kettle on. Remembering they were running low on Edible Dark Marks he went into the storeroom and found a box on the bottom shelf that had what could be described as a 'caricature' of the dark mark on. As he turned back to the kitchen he noticed a crumpled up and lightly toasted piece of parchment in front of the fireplace. It couldn't have been there long, as it was still smoking slightly.
He tucked the box under his arm, and bent down to pick up the ball of parchment. With one hand he smoothed it out, and then his heart stopped.
Ron and Hermione are missing.
I'm worried. Come to the Auror Office.
Harry
Dropping the box to the floor he sprinted out the shop to apparate to the Ministry. He didn't need telling twice.
Hermione
Hermione was getting worried now. Not only did she know that she hadn't been healed properly and was probably bleeding internally, but now Ron was lying unconscious next to her.
She had woken up and managed to roll onto her back. She wasn't entirely sure if this had been the best thing to do, but she had to do something. Lying down and letting the psycho wizard dictate everything wasn't an option. Unfortunately her injury was slowing her down considerably. Not only did every movement she made hurt her like she was being stabbed, but whatever spell they had put on Ron that had made him throw up had obviously been put on her as well.
Her head swam and she tried to focus on Ron. She shuffled her feet to the right and then managed to push herself off the floor an inch and fall a tiny bit to the side. This hurt her more than she thought and she cried out in pain. Realising that this was not going to be pain free, however she moved, she gritted her teeth and continued to shuffle towards Ron. She gasped and cried out as she did it, but after what seemed like a ridiculously long amount of time, she reached Ron.
She pulled at his shoulder and he rolled on to his back. She held her breath, wanting to hear any noise Ron made. He made none, but she sighed in relief when she saw the rise and fall of his chest. Granted, it wasn't as deep as she'd like, but he was breathing, that had to be something.
'Ron…' she rasped, her throat dry and sore from the smoke from the explosion.
She coughed which hurt her greatly. 'Ron, wake up, please.'
He grunted and she had never heard a more welcome sound.
'Ron! Wake up! Please!'
He groaned again, for a second she smiled, it sounded exactly what Ron waking up in the morning should sound like: him groaning that he doesn't want to get up yet and a 'surely you've woken me up too early' groan. She was then reminded by a shooting pain in her side that they weren't safe and warm at home, and it had been years since she'd heard Ron wake up in a morning.
Her thoughts turned to George, the man she loved and the last person she thought she would and could fall in love with. But she had, and it brought tears to her eyes that she couldn't see him when she needed him the most. Not that that was his fault, after all, he had been the one who had raised his suspicions that she shouldn't be going on this mission. He had argued that there were other people who had more experience who could've gone and questioned why Ron - who had, correctly, followed his instinct - was being given the lead on this mission when he had never been given that honour before.
Hermione had told him not to worry, that she trusted Ron with her life and that they would be fine. They had enough evidence to send the wizard they were pursuing to Azkaban for the rest of his days, but they needed to catch him, and Hermione and Ron had been the ones working on the case for longest and had put the most hours into it. It wasn't often that the two departments worked this close on a case, but in these circumstances, it seemed the best thing to do.
And she still believed that, even though now they were both captured and battered and bruised. She wouldn't have let Ron go on this alone, and he wouldn't have let anyone else accompany him. Harry and George were 'mightily pissed off' as Ron had said, but they had accepted their decision and smiled at them as they left, even if the smiles they had worn hadn't been genuine.
The pain in her side increased as her breathing quickened. She was trying to stay positive and tell herself that they'd get out of wherever they were and back home in one piece, but as every second went by the pain got that little bit worse and she got that little bit weaker. As every second went by she lost that a little bit of hope that she would see George again, kiss him again, tell him she loved him one more time, lie underneath him as he made love to her, and found everything she needed to see in his eyes.
Before she knew it her sobs were shaking her body, making her pain worse but she couldn't stop them. She didn't want to die like this! She had so much more to do with her life. Her and George had so much more to do together. Chances were she wouldn't get to do any of it and she'd die in this cell, another victim of the Death Eaters' second wave of terror since the war.
She started at the hands on her face, pulling her own hands away from her eyes.
'Don't c…cry, Hermione. I'll g…get you out of h…here. Promise…'
She shut her eyes and nodded her head because that's what Ron wanted to see. For him - and herself - she had to stay positive, even if it was the last thing she was feeling at the minute. Their track record was pretty damn good after all. They had survived against the odds on numerous occasions, there was no reason why this time would be any different.
For a second her optimistic side won through, and then the pessimistic half of her brain reminded her she was very seriously injured, still bleeding, wandless and in close proximity to a psycho who had no issue with blowing himself or them up.
She heard Ron shuffling and briefly looked over at him. He was sitting up and trying to bring himself round. She knew the expression on his face and knew that he was determined to do something, even if it came down to making enough noise to get their captor's attention, at least he'd then be doing something. Ronald Weasley was not one to sit about and do nothing. Normally she wasn't, but at the minute there was nothing else she could do.
Harry
'Harry! What the hell happened!'
He had been prepared for this reaction off George, but that didn't prepare him for the irate Weasley brother to come pelting towards him at full speed.
'Where is she?' George shouted in his face.
'I don't know!' Harry replied as calmly as he could. If truth be told he wanted to be shouting and screaming like George was but he would be removed from the department if he did, and that wouldn't help anyone. Some of the other Aurors were looking at George in a disgruntled way, obviously not liking the shouts that were putting them off their work.
'George, you have to calm down, they'll throw you out if you don't.'
'I'd like to fucking well see them try! George growled at Harry.
'George, I swear to Merlin I'll have you thrown out myself if you don't calm down!' George turned red and went to argue with Harry but he cut him off before he had the chance. 'Don't think that because I'm looking calm that I'm not ranting and raving inside. You know exactly how I feel because the person you love is missing, as is the person I love more than anything in the world, so don't stand there and tell me I don't understand! They want me removed from this investigation anyway because they think I'm too involved to be of any use, and if I start yelling and screaming I'll be out that door faster than I can blink. I suggest you take that information on board and do something with it!'
Harry glared at George and didn't blink. After what seemed like forever George looked down and then back at Harry.
'What’s happened to them, Harry?' he asked calmly, although the wobble in his voice was obvious.
Harry took a deep breath. 'There was an explosion, that's all I know. They only found that out a few minutes ago. They went to Ron and Hermione's last known location and it was, well, the building was falling apart and there was traces of Muggle liquid explosives inside. We're presuming they survived the blast because otherwise, well, they'd be there. If they'd been killed by this guy then logically he wouldn't have bothered moving them.'
'Logically? You're using tenuous logic on something as serious as…' George looked around him, very aware that he had raised his voice. 'On something as serious as this! Remind me, Harry, where had this man spent the last three years of his life? I do believe it was on the Psychiatric Wing of St. Mungo's was it not?'
Harry sighed. 'Wait, how did you know he's an ex-Mungo's Psych patient?'
'Hermione told me!'
'Well, she shouldn't have, that was for Ministry Personnel only!'
'Yes, well, I'm sorry for the Ministry that she told me exactly what she was up against, but we don't lie to each other, Harry. She tells me everything and I tell her everything, too. It's called trust.'
'Still, she-.'
'Harry, do you honestly think I'd tell anyone anything she tells me that's to do with work? She tells me because she can't tell anyone else, she has no one else to help her deal with all the shit she goes through. The one person who she could tell everything too decided he loved his best mate more than he did her!'
Harry's eyebrows disappeared into his fringe. 'Really? You're throwing me and Ron getting together in my face, now? And to be honest, I don't see you complaining that Ron 'decided he loved his best mate more than he did her'! You came out of the whole thing pretty well, I'd say!'
'You little shit! I comforted her when she couldn't even find a reason to go to work anymore! You had each other, Hermione had no one! It was all I could do to give her a reason to get up in the morning!'
Harry had had enough, this was not the time nor the place for this argument. He knew under normal circumstances this conversation would never have seen the light of day, but these were not normal circumstances.
Over the years Harry had decided that he had quite a good gut instinct, and something was screaming at him and telling him that Ron and Hermione were in mortal danger. On that thought he pictured the Weasley clock in his head, and he shuddered at the thought of what it might tell them, and the thought of Molly or Arthur looking at it before anyone could tell her what happened.
'You need to tell your mum and dad what's happened before they look at their clock and…' he couldn't finish the sentence.
George looked taken aback at the fact Harry hadn't taken on their argument any further. Harry looked in to his eyes and tried to tell him that this wasn't what they should be doing, and that they didn't really mean what they'd just said. He hoped George would let it go.
He did.
'What should I tell them?' he asked quietly, his voice breaking. He coughed to cover up the upset in his voice.
'Honestly, I have no idea. Make it quick, though, we're setting off to go to the building he blew up in' he checked his watch, 'eight minutes.'
'Eight minutes! You're giving me eight minutes?'
'Well you can have longer if you don't want to come with us, but it seems a shame to waste this official Ministry card I had made for you so you can accompany us on our little excursion.' He handed the card to George. 'It's up to you, but I can't slow the investigation down.'
'No I… I don't want you to. I'll be back in five minutes.'
Harry nodded and turned away. He started walking to the group of Aurors at the other side of the office who were frantically looking through files to gather that vital piece of information about the man they had been trying to capture to try and work out where he might have taken Auror Weasley and Special Agent Granger.
Harry's head was both empty of any helpful suggestions and full to bursting with possible theories. He needed someone to make him think straight, unfortunately the one person who always managed to do that was one of two people he was looking for.
Ron
He was back sitting against the wall of the cell, but this time Hermione was lying on her back, her head in his lap.
They had been brought food, well, stale bread and water if you could call that food, and they had found out that it was the wizard they had been trying to capture who had imprisoned them. It was he who had brought them the food. Ron didn't like to think of the reasons why he decided they needed to eat something, he despised the idea of being stuck wherever they were, cold, filthy, injured and - he hated himself for thinking it - dying. He wanted to go home to Harry, he wanted to take Hermione home to George and he's rather die sooner rather than later if there was no escape.
A war does finny things to people. All people, not only those in the thick of the action, and Ron was one of the people who came out of the battle with a lack of fear of death. After coming close to death a few times, being tortured both mentally and physically and watching loved ones die, you come to the decision that if it's your time to go, it's your time to go. There were worse things than dying. Dying slowly and painfully being one of them, and as much as he hated to admit it, Hermione wasn't looking good. She was still bleeding, and he knew she was bleeding internally too. She was weak, was in pain and he couldn't help her.
''m sorry,' he said in a whisper.
'What… for?' Hermione replied, her eyes still closed.
'Everything,' he replied, still whispering.
'That's a lot to be sorry for. How about you narrow it down a little.'
He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. 'Okay, how about, I'm sorry for dragging you here with me. I'm sorry for getting you blown up. I'm sorry for not being able to anything to get you out of here, and I'm sorry for… for hurting you.'
He heard her breath deeply.
'Open your eyes and look at me, Ron.' It was a demand and he did what she said. 'The first three I'm going to ignore because it was my decision to come here, I didn't stop him from blowing us up either and I'm hardly able to get us out of here, so I'd say we're even. As for you hurting me, well, you had to try and stop the bleeding, you were doing-'
'I didn't mean that. I meant when I broke things off. I never wanted to hurt you like that, but I did. You mean more to me than anything and I did that to you. I broke you, Hermione! I didn't see you for days, no one did! I made you feel that bad that every time you saw someone with red hair you hurt!'
He had talked himself into silence.
'Have you finished?' Hermione asked, her tone of voice almost back to normal.
Ron shrugged, unable to do anything else as emotion was choking him. He looked down at her and knew that the small shuffling she was doing reflected her normal drawing herself up to her full height to give her point extra force. This was as good as she could do.
'Firstly, yes you're right, you did hurt me, I thought we would be together for the rest of our lives, but it didn't work out that way. Nothing is set in stone, Ron and I was foolish to believe it was. Secondly, you didn't mean to hurt me, you couldn't help your feelings. It would have been wrong to cheat yourself of what you truly wanted and it would have been wrong to let me live a false life. Thirdly, I've told you this before, stop torturing yourself, and me by going over this. I know normally you would only give these thoughts a fraction of a second a day, and it's only because we're here and trapped that you're letting them consume you, but it stops now. Right? I don't have the energy for this.'
She closed her eyes and calmed her breathing back down. He could see her barrage of words had taken their toll on her, she winced and her hand kept twitching towards her wound.
'How come you let George in?' he asked, needing to know what it was about his brother that made her let down her guard. He pretended that he was keeping her talking to keep her awake, but if he was honest with himself, he was curious as to how she learnt to love again. She had said it herself: she had expected them to be together forever, he couldn't understand how she had let that go.
'Do you really want to carry this conversation on?' Hermione asked. 'Because I will be brutally honest with you, Ron and you might not like what you hear.'
'Fine.'
'Because George was everything you wasn't. Well, as much as he can be and still be a Weasley. He had lost his way and was finding a way back, he knew - to an extent - what I was feeling and, honestly… at first I knew it would wind you up something chronic to be talking to one of your brothers and not thrashing things out with you. I knew it wound you up that I hadn't flown off the handle in front of you and had just calmly walked away when you told me how things were between you and Harry, this would take things one step further.'
'So… wait, you used George? Hermione, that's…'
'Sick? Bitter? Twisted? Unfair? Not like me at all? That's right and that's probably why I was doing it.'
'Did George… does George know?'
Hermione smirked. 'Of course he does! He worked out I was trying my hardest to wind you up and understood why.'
'And he was okay with that?'
He was shouting now and he didn't care, Hermione had just turned into someone he didn't like. It was very disturbing.
'At first he didn't seem that bothered. He was still at a loose end, the shop was being looked after but the staff, he didn't have the inspiration or the want to invent knew products on his own and he had told people he wanted to 'live a little' before settling back down into normal life. What no one but a few people heard in that waffle of a sentence was that he had no idea how he was going to carry on without Fred. Even six months later all the 'living' he was doing was living a little to close to the pub of an evening and living through one too many hangovers.'
'But he… he didn't, we didn't notice him drinking! Well, not excessively!'
'That's because he and Fred had perfected the exact combination of potions to cure a hangover and he went about his days as everyone expected him to. Actually you dumping me and me needing someone to wind you up actually helped him. He had someone to visit who was suffering like he was. We talked a lot.'
Ron's was reeling slightly. Finding out his ex-girlfriend had been using his brother to get back at him, with his brother knowing perfectly well what was going on was baffling him and rather unsettling.'
'So your relationship is based on some twisted game you were playing that he was in on?'
Why he was getting angry he didn't know.
Hermione glared at him.
'No. Our relationship is based on trust, and friendship. When the light goes out at the end of the tunnel, a friend will hand you a torch. George was the one who gave me a torch and enough batteries to last as long as I needed.'
He fell silent, a little embarrassed that he had insinuated their relationship was in any way unhealthy.
'You did have a wand, you know! They don't need batteries!'
He was glad he could still make her smile.
George
'I shouldn't have let her go!' he growled as he paced around the farm building. 'I should have locked her inside the shop without her wand.'
'And lost your girlfriend in the process.'
'At least she'd be safe! How could I have let her go?' he shouted. The words echoed around the building and that seemed to bring him from himself.
The trip home had been, well, horrible. Seeing his mum and his dad fight back tears was not something he would ever get used to. They had agreed to stay at home for the time being with the small hope that Ron and Hermione would magically turn up there. But he knew it probably wouldn't be too long until he had to face them again.
'So, say you would have locked her in the flat, then what would've happened?'
'What? What's that got to do with-'
'Just humour me and answer the question.'
He glared at Harry but decided to answer him.
'She would have shouted at me, and I probably would have left to stop the shouting, but I would have made sure she was safely locked inside first!'
He half cringed at what he had said, but it didn't stop it being true.
'And you don't think she would have got out the flat somehow and got herself where she needed to be for that mission?'
'If I'd taken her wand then-'
'May I remind you she is Muggleborn and knows how to pick locks and you know, throw heavy things at breakable glass.'
'The windows are charmed!' George shouted somewhat triumphantly.
'To stop things breaking from the outside, in, not the inside, out. Safety first, George!'
He wilted. He had momentarily forgotten his and Fred's safety feature for the flat. When you're doing some impromptu inventing in your lounge, you want to be able to leave the area as quickly as possible, should anything unexpected happen. Breakable glass - from the inside only - was one of the safety features they had installed.
'George, she would have got out the flat, she would have got her spare wand, she would have been beyond apoplectic with rage at you and we'd still be in this situation. At least this way you're still in her good books.'
'Doesn't stop me feeling guilty, though.'
'Nope, believe me when I say I know how you feel.'
They stood in silence for a bit. George needed to keep moving so he walked a few paces one way, then turned sharply in another direction, before doing the same again. His thoughts wandered, yet again, to Hermione and how she still wasn't safe and warm at home. He had no idea what he would do if-
His foot skidded on something round. When he had regained his balance he looked down at the offending object. His heart jumped into his mouth when he recognised the wand as Ron's.
After a second's thought he realised he shouldn't be surprised by this, if he'd had his wand, or Hermione's, then they would have heard something at the very least. Still seeing something of Ron's was quite a shock.
'His wand,' he said, emotion filling his voice.
'What?' Harry exclaimed as he ran towards George.
George nodded to the wand on the floor. Harry bent down and picked up his wand. George looked at him and looked away when he saw tears glisten in Harry's eyes. He kept getting so lost in his own sorrow and loss that he forgot that Harry was suffering in exactly the same way and his attitude was doing nothing to help.
He put his hand on his shoulder and forced himself to look at Harry.
'They'll be fine, Harry. They're survivors. You're the one who dies, remember?'
And people thought that Fred was the joker in the family.
Hermione
She really hadn't meant to go on at Ron, or go on about how her and George started out. Not that she was ashamed about what had happened, it just wasn't something she wanted the whole world knowing. People had raised eyebrows when her and George had started to be seen 'together' in public. Granted the eyebrows didn't raise as high as they did when it became public news that Harry and Ron were together, but still she could have done without the people needing to know about her private life.
She hadn't meant to hurt Ron with her words. She didn't want to hurt him at all any more. At one point she idd, she wanted to break his heart like he had hers, and the mind games at the beginning were part of that. But from there she moved on and found George and everything he had to offer. It was amazing what you missed in a family when you only had eyes for one part of it.
It was thinking about George that was keeping her going, but that was getting harder with every minute that went by. She had always been cautiously optimistic - her glass was never half empty, always half full but she was also a realist, and she knew the chance of her getting out of wherever they were alive were getting smaller. She hated the idea of dying here without seeing her family again, but she had to at least prepare herself for that happening.
'Ron, will you do me a favour?' she asked. It was almost a whisper but it was all she could manage.
Ron opened his eyes and lifted his head, he had been dozing or trying to shut out all around him, she wasn't sure which.
'Of course, do you need to move again?'
'No, nothing like that, I think I prefer my backside numb, anyway, better than cold! No, I want you to pass a message on to my family and George, should I not-'
'Don't you dare finish that sentence!' he growled. 'You're not giving me any death messages to pass on because you're not going to die, Hermione! You can't!'
She waited until he had calmed down before she spoke.
'Ron, believe me, I don't intend to die here, but I have to look at the facts. I'm injured, probably still bleeding internally, I have very little energy, and it's all I can do at the minute to carry on talking. Things don't look good, you have to admit...'
He glared at her defiantly but didn't respond. She took that as a sign to keep on talking.
'Tell Mum and Dad that I love them and that I'm so grateful for everything they did for me, okay? I know I'm coming out with clichés but they're said for a reason.'
She felt her throat tightening and tears burn her eyes.
'I don't know what else I'd say to them, they're the most fundamental things, really.'
Ron was ignoring her but she knew he was taking in what she was saying.
'As for your...' the pain in her side suddenly got worse and she hissed in pain. As she looked at the ceiling, black spots started to invade her peripheral vision. 'As for your f...family. Tell them thank you for everything, for... treating me like a daughter. They made my life in the Magical world so much better than I ever imagined.'
She cried out in pain, something was wrong, something had changed or burst or broken or something. Her stomach was churning with fear and she curled towards Ron without realising what she was doing.
'Hermione! What is it? What hurts?'
'Ev...everything,' she whispered.
She grabbed his hand.
'What can I do? Tell me Hermione! What can I do?'
'Tell G...George I love him... and that...that h...he's the reason I lasted this...long...'
'Oh God, Hermione, I'm sorry, I can't help you! I don't know what to do!'
She felt his tears land on her face and although she was in chronic pain, she was overwhelmed by a sense of calm. If this was her time, she would face death head on.
'Ron, you can't help me, just do me one favour.'
'Any...anything,' he said through the sobs that were making him shake violently.
'Give a dying g...girl one last... kiss.'
Still shaking, he wiped his face and placed his hands on hers.
She closed her eyes and waited. As his lips brushed hers she held her breath. He kissed her firmly then pulled back slightly, before moving in once more. His tongue nudged at her lips and she opened her mouth to let him in. Their tongues swirled and she had never felt so alive. Tears fell from her eyes, she thought of George and she thought of Ron. She sucked on his tongue one final time and then pulled away panting.
'Y...you're a wonderful p...person, Ron. Don't ever let any...anyone tell you differently. I love you...'
She couldn't see anymore, and his voice was fading in and out.
'Please, Hermione, don't leave me! You can't d...die! Not here, not like this!'
'Tell G...Geor...'
With that last breath she slid into unconsciousness.
Harry
'What do you mean he's been sighted?' Harry demanded of the trainee Auror who had just apparated to the farm building and ran inside with a message for Auror Potter and the search team. 'Where?' he shouted at the shaking teenager.
'Sev...Sevenhampton. Village across from... here... mile outside the village... random square of trees... was seen flying into them... on a broom... hasn't been seen coming out?'
'And it was definitely him?'
'Erm... yes... that's what I was told... sir...'
'Why am I not there yet?' Harry barked at the trainee.
'Oh!' The very nervous Auror fumbled in his robes for something, then pulled out a chipped mug and handed it to Harry. 'Because you haven't activated this portkey yet.'
'George! Get your arse over here!' he called across the building.
'Reynolds, Archer, Forbes, Jackson, Habib and Sampson will meet you there,' the Trainee rambled off to Harry. George arrived at Harry's side.
'Touch this.'
'What? Oh! Right!'
'Err, sir?' Harry looked at the Trainee. 'I was told to tell you that no one-'
Harry glared at the now shaking Trainee.
'Never mind.' He disappeared in a rustle of robes but Harry wasn't watching.
'Hold tight!' Harry said to George. George nodded and gripped the handle of the mug.
'Mashed Potato,' Harry said and instantly he felt a pull behind his navel and then everything was a blur.
A Love That Runs So Deep: Part 2