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 2
Ron
She was still breathing.
This fact and this fact alone was fuelling the constant pacing.
He had done the crying over her body and that hadn't helped. He had done the shouting, sometimes incoherently and that hadn't helped.
He was now pacing, and that wasn't helping, but it was making him think things through. Ron paced when he was thinking and he thought most clearly when he paced. He was still feeling a little dizzy but the nausea had passed.
He had taken in all the details of his surroundings, not that there was much to take in, they were in quite a large room, which had remnants of two walls which previously divided the cell into three. Rubble was lying in neat lines - apart from the bits that he had kicked across the cell in anger.
He had to think things through. Hermione may have decided she was fine with dying in here, but he wasn't, and while she was still breathing, he would do anything to get her and himself out alive.
He knew they were underground, having stumbled down the stairs to get to where they were and he walked over to the wall he had been lying against. He looked carefully at one of the roughly cut rocks that made up the wall. he dug his fingernails into the cement surrounding it and it fell away to the floor.
'Slightly disturbing,' he mumbled to himself.
It was a possible way out if they had been left and their captor wasn't coming back. It would take him a long time to dig himself a tunnel and it would be highly unstable and dangerous anyway.
He shrugged and walked to the bars that stopped their escape. They were rusty and he hissed when a chuck pulled off and wedged in the cut in his palm.
'Well, I suppose adding possible blood infection to this whole situation makes things more fun!'
He pulled out the rust and it crumbled in his fingers. He walked to where the bars were buried into the stone and although there was some give when he pushed and pulled at them with all his strength, it was only minimal movement.
'Come on!' he said through gritted teeth as he threw his shoulder at the bars. 'Come ON!
As pain coursed through his shoulder he slumped against the wall.
He slid down until he was sitting on the floor and let his head fall against his knees.
Tears leaked out of his eyes, he didn't have the energy to cry in earnest. He closed his eyes and tried to calm himself down. When his heart was beating at what he though was a normal pace, he heard an explosion above him. More of the cement in the walls fell to the floor. Ron jumped to his feet and twisted around trying to determine where above him the explosion has originated. It was then he heard shouts, screams and more bangs. A couple of minutes later, everything was silent.
George
'Hermione!'
He had been told to wait until they had been told it was all clear, but he didn't care if there were more people down there, Hermione and Ron were down there and that was all that mattered to him.
Shouts and cries followed him down the stairs, but he ignored them all.
He sprinted into the room and instantly spotted Ron who was as close to the door as possible!
'Ron! Are you okay? Where's Hermi-'
He had seen her, curled up in a ball on the floor near the back wall. Dread flowed through him.
'Oh, Merlin, no.'
'George, blow up the fucking bars!'
People appeared behind him but he only had eyes for his girl.
He pointed his wand at the heavy lock on the cell door. He didn't consciously think of a spell, but the metal exploded and showered him and Ron in hot shards. He ignored the scratches and crawled through the twisted metal. He ran towards Hermione and fell to his knees next to her.
'Hermione! I'm here, you're safe now. Come on, my darling, open your eyes.'
'George, she won't… she's…' Ron said from behind him.
'I swear to Merlin, Ron you want to be very careful about how you end that sentence.'
'Just get her to St. Mungo's. Now!'
He picked her up and spun on the spot. Thinking of the only place that could help her.
He appeared in the reception of the hospital and regained his balance before powering his legs towards the Healer who happened to be walking towards him as he arrived.
'Help her!' he shouted.
Startled, the Healer conjured a stretcher out of thin air and George carefully laid Hermione on the stretcher.
'What happened to her?'
It was only now in the bright lights of the hospital that George took in what state Hermione was in. He looked at the cuts and bruises on her face and neck, and then his eyes slid to the dark red stain covering most of her side. He pulled up her top a couple of inches and gasped when he saw the mess that was her wound.
'Sir! What happened?'
George shook his head for two reasons, one, he didn't know and two, this couldn't have happened to his girl.
'She was inside a building and there was a big explosion.' George looked behind him and saw Ron striding towards them. 'She was thrown about twenty feet and landed, possibly unconscious, and she was struck by a large chunk of metal, hence the blood and the wound in her side. She lost consciousness about an hour ago but somehow she's still breathing.'
'Thank you, we'll take it from here.'
The Healer and two others who had arrived in the past minute took Hermione down the corridor. He went to follow but a Mediwitch appeared as if out of nowhere and placed a gentle but firm hand on his chest.
'Sir, we need her details, could you give them to Katie who's on reception, please?'
He went to argue but knew it would do no good. He nodded his head and swallowed down his argument and walked towards the woman called Katie.
'What's her name, Sir?'
'Hermione Granger,' he whispered.
There was a looked of stunned recognition at the name on Katie's face, but she went about writing the name on her hospital forms.
'Her date of birth, Sir?'
'Please… stop calling me Sir, Call me George… Her date of birth is the nineteenth of September, nineteen seventy-nine. When can I see her?'
'I'm sorry si- George. I-… I don't wish to be unprofessional, but you're her boyfriend, George Weasley, aren't you?'
George nodded, a flame of hope igniting inside him that this sort of recognition would help him see Hermione sooner rather than later.
'I'm… I'm afraid it will be family only for the time being. Do you know how we can contact her parents?'
He wilted. 'Is there nothing you can do to help me find out how she is?'
She sighed and looked at him. 'George, I can't-'
'Katie, if you don't mind me asking, are you married?'
She shook her head. 'No, I love him but I'm not sure if we're ready for… that…'
'But you love him, yeah? And you'd be dying inside if you couldn't find out if he was going to… you'd want to make sure he was okay, wouldn't you. If anything happened to him?'
She nodded but didn't look him in the eye.
'I know it's asking a lot, but anything you can do, I'll be so grateful.'
She nodded. 'I'll do what I can' she whispered. She cleared her throat. 'It's probably quicker if you just fill this out , instead of me asking and having to ask you to spell things. I'm dyslexic and normal spell-checking quills don't seem to work always on a case as severe as mine.' She smirked a little uncomfortably and handed him the quill and paper.
'Next time you're in Diagon Alley, drop in to Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes. Our spell checking quills learn from you and what your most common mistakes are, you can also add words to them, like names and things and they have a three year guarantee. Hmm, sorry, I went into salesman mode then. I'll just get this filled out and let you get on with your work.'
'Do they really have a three year guarantee?' she asked, looking deadly serious.
'Er, yeah, but honestly, they were only released two and a half years ago, so hopefully they'll last another six months or I'm going to have some explaining to do!'
She giggled and he smiled. He finished filling out the form, skipping through a few of the details but putting the important information down. He handed back the form and she put it in a cardboard file and put it in the pile next to her.
'I'll see what I can do about… you know… but I can't make any promises.
'Thanks.'
He turned and walked towards Ron, who was sitting with his head in his hands.
'Ron, a word, outside, please.'
Ron sighed as if he knew what was coming. He walked out the door and knew Ron was following.
He needed some answers.
Harry
He needed to know why he wasn't with Ron, why he wasn't holding him close to him and why he wasn't making sure he was all right.
Instead he was filling out paperwork and pretending to care about the person who was lying dead in the depths of the Ministry.
He had no idea how he had died, curses could have combined, someone could have sent the Avada Kadavra at him, which was justified as it was being sent at them faster than he thought was possible from one person.
'Potter!'
He was brought back to the Auror Office by Kingsley's voice.
'Y…yes, Sir?' he said, shaking his head to clear his thoughts.
'I've told you, Harry, don't call me Sir.'
Harry nodded.
'Why are you here and not at the hospital with Ron and Hermione?'
'Paperwork, you know…'
Kingsley took the paperwork off him and threw it on the nearest desk.
'Go. Now. And don't come back until Ron has been cleared to come back to work.'
'But, Kings-'
'Don't argue with me, Harry. I don't care what Reynolds says; I'm your highest possible boss so you can't get in trouble. Leave the paperwork until later. Go and see Ron.'
Mortified that tears were burning his eyes in front of the Minister for Magic, Harry nodded.
'Thank you,' he said, his voice raspy.
He turned and walked out of the office and down the corridor to the golden gates of the lift. On autopilot, he told the lifts to take him to the Atrium and he Flooed to St. Mungo's. He walked to reception and gave a half smile to the woman behind the counter.
'Er… hi, I'm here to see… well, I don't know if I can or not, but, um, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger.'
The woman smiled. 'It's Mister Potter, isn't it?' she said kindly.
Harry smiled and nodded. 'Miss Granger is being treated but I think Ron and his brother are outside.
'Outside?'
'Um, yes, George… um…'
Harry raised his eyebrows.
'George…' he prompted.
'He er… asked Ron, if he could talk to him… outside.'
She nodded and raised her eyes above Harry's head. He took that to mean to look behind him.
He turned and when the person who was an interesting shade of purple had fully come through the glass into the hospital, Harry saw two unmistakable patches of red through the frosted glass.
'Er, Mister Potter?'
He had already taken a step forwards, not entirely sure what was going on, but turned back to look at the woman.
'George asked if I could try and get him some information about Miss Granger. I'm not supposed to but… if you could give him this…'
She held out a tiny rolled up piece of parchment, and Harry nodded. He realised this was probably some information about Hermione that technically George wasn't supposed to know because he wasn't related to her. He smiled at her and then turned his intention to the two shapes he could see through the frosted glass, which seemed to be gesturing wildly. He started to jog.
Ron
'I know you're unbelievably angry, and probably at me for insisting it had to be Hermione who came with me and no one else, I blame myself too, but I don't know what I can say to make it better.'
George turned away from him and paced a bit before turning back towards him.
'If it makes you feel better, it's not just you I blame, I blame myself and the whole of the Ministry, too.'
'It makes me feel a little better,' Ron replied staring directly at George. 'Still doesn't change anything, and while we're out here we're not finding out about how she is.'
'This might help that.'
He spun around and was very surprised to see Harry. Harry walked up to him and held out the parchment to give to George.
'It's from the woman on reception.'
'Katie?' George asked as he took the parchment.
'Um, I don't know, she didn't tell me her name.'
'How are you feeling?' Harry asked him. He felt his hand squeeze his shoulder. He shrugged. 'Okay, suppose. Been better.'
He forced a smile.
'She's alive,' George said abruptly. 'They have no idea how, but she's alive.'
'Will she be okay?' he asked.
George shrugged. 'Dunno, it only says what I just said. She wasn't even supposed to tell me that…'
'Have you been checked out?' Harry asked him. He shook his head. 'Nah, I'm fine.'
'You're not. You need to get checked over. For my peace of mind, please.'
Ron turned and looked at Harry. He had missed him, wished he could hold him one more time. But now, as he looked at him he couldn't bring him to give him the hug both he and Harry needed. He nodded his head.
'Come on,' he said to George. George nodded. They all walked through the glass and Healers suddenly surrounded Ron.
'Mister Weasley, would you please follow us? We have some questions to ask you.'
'Oh, um, yeah, of course.'
He followed the group of Healers - why there were four of them he wasn't sure - through a few doors and then into a consulting room. There was a couple of seconds where he knew they were considering asking George and Harry to wait outside but the glares that they received in response to their none question stopped them saying a thing.
'Anything you want to say to me will be repeated to them, so if you could save me the hassle…'
Ron sat in one of the seats and looked around the crowded room. Consultation rooms were not made for seven people but it would have to do.
'Mister Weasley, we need to talk to you about what happened to Miss Granger.'
Ron nodded. 'Is she going to be all right?' he asked to no one in particular.
There was a few seconds wait before anyone answered him.
'We think so, but to be honest we have no idea how she's alive. She should be dead. Even with the standard presumption that all her magic will have tried everything possible to keep her alive, it shouldn't have worked. She had a ridiculously low blood count. I mean lower than I've ever seen in anyone still breathing. No one should survive that. We need to know if anything happened that could have let this happen.'
'Does it actually matter?' George asked.
'To us it does, Mister Weasley. At the minute she's a medical mystery and we need to understand. The only thing we can think of is some kind of life bond.'
'Life bond?' Ron asked, but he knew the others were wondering the same.
'Where one witch or wizard uses the life energy of another witch or wizard to maintain their life when they would otherwise die.'
'Are you channelling my girlfriend, Healer…'
'Healer Burdess. And, sorry?'
George smirked. 'Sorry, nothing, it's just Hermione would've spouted a definition like that just as quickly as you did.'
The Healer smiled but it soon faded.
'Did anything happen that might have triggered this type of magic. It didn't have to be intentional. If… if there's a bond of friendship or love that exists and one act of kindness happens that is somewhat mutual... things like this can't happen if it's what the parties involved wouldn't have wanted.'
Ron took a deep breath and looked at George and then Harry. 'So something had to happen, that involved some sort of mutual love that could have transferred some of my life force to Hermione to keep her alive. Because there is no other way she could be alive, yeah?'
The Healers all nodded.
He saw it all again.
'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.'
'That'll be when I kissed her then.'
George
It felt like the air had been sucked out the room. He saw in his peripheral vision a couple of the Healers shuffle uncomfortably. He guessed that most of them would be aware of the Weasley/Granger/Weasley/Potter situation. They would have had to have been on the other side of the world and not in contact with anyone from the magical world to miss the headlines when that story broke.
He was a little confused and wasn't sure how to feel. Should he be angry at his brother for kissing his girlfriend, or should he be thanking him for saving her life.
'Well, this is slightly uncomfortable!' he said with a smirk.
'She asked me to. Asked me to give a girl her dying wish and kiss her one last time.'
The concept of Hermione knowing - as far as she was concerned - that she was dying made his stomach clench and his heart ache. He should have been there at that moment. But he wasn't, Ron was.
'She er… she knew she was dying?' he asked, the wobble in his voice obvious.
Ron nodded. I think so. She gave me messages to tell people, but I don't have to now, do I?'
Ron looked at the Healers.
'We’ve replenished her blood and cleaned her wound. There's no sign of infection and there was no oxygen starvation because she kept breathing. There's no reason why she shouldn’t make a full recovery, she's already making progress and looking better.'
'So, er…' he said, not quite sure what he wanted to ask, only that he needed answers to something. He started his sentence again. 'Er… so, what does this mean? They're connected by Ron's life force because he kissed her when she was about to die, yes?'
'Presumably,' Healer Burdess replied.
'So what now? Is she permanently connected to Ron? Or has she just borrowed some of his life force and can pay it back over time at a decent interest rate?'
Ron snorted but there was no smile on his face. George glared at him but he wasn't exactly sure why.
'We er… we don't know exactly.'
'Oh, well, never mind, we'll just carry on as usual and see what happens, shall we?' George replied, sarcasm dripping from his words.
'This is old magic that isn't healing magic, this is the first time any of us have ever seen it in this hospital. As far as we know it's only happened four times in the history of the place. Miss granger is the fifth. It's that unknown, the standard textbooks for Healer training give it three lines of explanation. It's just that unknown.'
'Okay, we get it, it's rare, but it's happened now and we need to understand it. Who can help us do that?'
Healer Burdess took a deep breath.
'We are obliged to report any case of this type to the Department of Mysteries. Once it's handed over to them we aren't allowed to take things any further, unless of course it is imperative in regards to our patients' health. Seeing as though Miss Granger is on the mend, we won't hear anything more on this, unless any of their findings is made public. I don't think that's happened since 1971.'
'April fourteenth, 1971 to be precise,' Harry said.
'Swat,' Ron replied with a small smile.
Healer Burdess smiled and turned to Ron.
'Mister Weasley, I don't believe you've been checked over, apart from your obvious injuries,' his eyes glanced over the cuts and bruises on his face and his hand, 'we do, of course, need to keep an eye on you because of what's happened.' Ron nodded.
'You really have no idea what's going to happen to me or Hermione?'
Healer Burdess took a deep breath. 'We think there a few things that could happen. It could be as if you gave her the energy and healing power she needed and when she stopped needing it the… connection, I suppose, broke and that's the end of it. There'll be no further complications, you just gave Miss Granger what she needed to survive. The second way we see this happening, is that she still might be… I'll use the word connect because it's easier to explain, she'll remain connected to you for a bit longer, until she's fully recovered, and again, there'll be no further complications.'
Ron looked as the Healer shuffled, looking a little uncomfortable and took yet another deep breath.
'And the third,' Ron prompted, knowing he might not like what he was about to hear.
'There's… there's the possibility that you and Miss Granger will be connected for years to come, if not for the rest of your lives. If that's the case then there are a few things that could happen. This… this may not be easy to hear, but as I said, it might not even end up this way. In it's extreme case, Miss Granger might continue to need you and your life energy to continue living. If that's the case then if you were ever to get ill, then she might and if you were to, well, die, then there's the possibility that she might die too. But that's the extreme case, there's every possibility in between, but… we need you to understand how serious this could be.'
Ron nodded but didn't say anything.
'Obviously if we check you over and carry out some tests we could start to determine if there still is a connection between the two of you, but initially I just want to make sure you're okay and aren't hiding any unseen injuries from the explosion and the spells you were put under.
Ron nodded again. 'Yeah, sure. Um, could you just give us ten minutes or so, please? I think we need a few minutes just to take all that in. I promise I won't run off and leave you without having examined me.'
Healer Burdess smiled and nodded and herded the other three Healers out the door. 'You can stay in here if you want, just lock the door and I'll enchant it so no one interrupts you.
'Thank you, we appreciate it,' Ron replied with a smile. He stood and shook Healer Burdess's hand and locked the door after he left.
Well, he thought, this is going to be an interesting ten minutes!
George
'Before we go down the medical discussion route,' George said looking at the floor and avoiding both Ron and Harry's gaze, 'I'm going to have to be the immature one here and ask: Ron, you kissed Hermione? I know I should be able to just walk right past this fact and concentrate on the other medical crap, but I just can't. I'm sorry. And in all fairness, I bet Harry's dying to ask the same thing.'
Harry glared at him but he didn't care.
'Sit there and tell me it's not true!' he said to Harry, obviously irritated.
Harry shrugged. 'I suppose it wouldn't hurt to talk about it.'
George couldn't help but snort at Harry's very woolly response to his comment. Ron slumped down the door and sighed.
'I'll always love her, you know that. Just like she'll always love me. And when someone you love knows she's dying and asks you to give her one last kiss, you don't say no. You give her what she wants. It doesn't mean she loves you any less,' he raised his hand to George,' or that I love you any less,' he briefly looked at Harry before looking back at the floor, 'I was just, granting her dying wish. You would've… if you'd been in my shoes you would have done exactly the same thing, I know that and you know that, so can we just accept it, be happy that she's alive for what ever reason and just concentrate on getting her well again?'
George had listened intently, and found himself getting less annoyed and angry as Ron spoke. Ron was right; he would have done the same thing.
He nodded. 'You're right. Just, Harry, don't go dying on me and ask me for that as you're dying wish. Please.'
Eventually Harry raised a smile and nodded.
'You're sure you're okay?' Ron asked him and Harry.
Again George nodded. 'Thinking about it, I'd've been devastated if you hadn't. It's Hermione, of course you were going to kiss her if she asked you. It's fine. Really. Promise. And, you know, you saved her life with it, so thanks!'
Ron smiled and looked at Harry. 'It's Hermione!' Harry replied. 'Of course it's okay. It's like George said. I'd've been annoyed if you'd denied her the one thing she wanted as she thought she was dying. It's… don't even think about it as an issue.'
Ron nodded. 'Thanks.'
And then he burst into tears. George looked at him and watched as Harry crossed the room and fell on his knees next to him. Ron clung on to Harry and Harry kissed his hair and held him to comfort him. George felt like a spare part and decided he would try his luck at seeing Hermione. He got up and Harry looked at him. Harry managed to manoeuvre a still sobbing Ron out of the way of the door and as he unlocked the door and walked through it, he squeezed Ron's shoulder.
'Stop feeling guilty,' he said and locked the door behind him.
Harry
He was finally in his arms. For a few split seconds throughout the day he had thought this was never going to happen again. Those moments had been brief but had still hurt and sent dread poring through him. He needed Ron and he had told him many a time. Every time he did Ron never seemed to believe him, seemed to shrug the comment off like Harry was talking rubbish.
'Ron…'
Ron continued to sob into his shoulder.
'Ron, come on, breathe properly or you're going to hyperventilate.'
Ron nodded and pulled back, looking at the ceiling and trying to calm his breathing down.
'S…sorry… s'just…' he hiccupped, 'I sh…should've-'
'Ron, you did everything as you and Hermione had planned. You were going in there to try and talk him out. There was evidence that he would be willing to trade names for a reduced sentence and we needed those names. No one could've known that he had those jars of explosives in there. Anyone going in would have faced the same. And you saved her life, Ron! You saved her.'
'If I h…hadn't insis…ted on her being the… the one who came w…with me!'
'No, Ron, she insisted she be the one who went with you. You took some persuading to let her go with you, but eventually you saw, as did the rest of us, that it made the most sense for Hermione to be the one to go on this mission with you. The guilt has to stop, Ron. Okay?'
He pushed Ron away from him and lifted his head so he had no choice but to look at him.
'Okay?' he asked once more.
'Okay.'
Harry held Ron tightly for a few minutes until he had calmed down.
'God, I missed you,' he whispered. He hadn't meant to sound so needy, but at this moment in time, still sitting on the floor of a hospital consultant he didn't care.
He rested his forehead against Ron's.
'Missed you, too,' Ron whispered. He tilted his head and their lips met. Harry tried to keep his urgency out of the kiss, but he couldn't. He sucked on Ron's lips and nudged at them with his tongue. He noticed Ron was a little hesitant, but then opened his mouth and their tongues met. Ron' hesitancy disappeared and the kiss became frantic, Harry was slightly taken aback but understood that this was what Ron needed; to feel alive and to know he was loved and Harry needed to be the person who could give him those feelings back.
George
He knew that they had said she was recovering well, and that it was only a matter of time before she would wake up, but he still held his breath as she blinked again and again and tried to focus her eyes. He stood up when her brow furrowed, obviously confused.
'Hermione,' he said in the quietest voice he could manage so to not scare her. 'Hermione, can you hear me?'
Her eyes found his and she blinked a few more times.
'Geor… George?'
'It's me, I'm here.'
'But how…? What? Where am I?'
'You're in St. Mungo's and you're going to be fine.'
She frowned at him. 'But I… I…' Her right hand covered her eyes and her breathing rate increased. 'I… died!'
She started to cry and he quickly sat himself on the edge of the bed and took her hand from over her eyes.
'Hey, come on, Hermione. You're alive and you're going to be fine in a few hours. There's nothing to cry about. You're safe now.'
Hermione shook her head and opened her eyes. 'No, y…you don't un…understand. I… died, George.' She swallowed and seemed to calm herself down. 'I knew it was my time, I shut my eyes but instead of it being black, it was all white. There… there were shadows around me, not scary ones or menacing ones, helpful ones that were guiding me forwards. I was… I was moving on and I was scared but I knew it was okay. There was something in the distance and I knew I had to walk towards whatever it was, but then there was… pain. As if someone had reached into my chest and grabbed hold of my heart and squeezed it. I was being dragged backwards and then… then it all went black… I… I really… I died.'
George couldn't do anything but nod. There was a huge lump in his throat and he didn't want Hermione to see him cry. Eventually he coughed and managed to swallow his emotion.
'The Healers… well, the Healers said you should be dead. You had a ridiculously low amount of blood in your body and they'd never seen someone still alive with that little before. They were amazed. Glad, obviously, but very confused.'
'So… then how am I still alive?'
George smiled. 'Because of a very sweet gesture and your dying wish!' he watched as Hermione tried to work out what he was talking about. 'When Ron kissed you he… he gave you some of his life energy, or life force if you want and you took that and that's how you're still alive.' He wanted to continue, to tell her that there might be consequences to Ron's selfless act, but he didn't want to overwhelm her with information mere minutes after she'd woken up.
'I… I took some of Ron's life energy because he kissed me, and that's what saved me?'
George nodded, not wanting to stop Hermione's train of thought that she had to go through.
'How…? What…? How is that even possible?' She ended her sentence and shuffled into a seating position, wincing slightly and putting her hand to her side.
'Careful!' George exclaimed. Hermione nodded but still looked determined to get some answers. George had no problem with this, apart from the fact that he didn't have any solid answers, just woolly possibilities.
'It's very old magic, and can only happen between to people who would want this to happen, or rather the giver has to want it on a subconscious level, otherwise it wouldn't happen at all. Ron needed to, well, need you to stay alive… and he did.'
'So… so…'
George smiled at her. 'Is there an end to that sentence. Or even a beginning or middle?'
She smiled. His heart leapt, that was what he had been waiting for since she woke up. He looked at her and just needed to hold her, and tell her he loved her.
'So, what now? Are there complications? Side effects? Long term problems to this?'
He took a deep breath. 'Hermione, they're not sure but honestly, I don't care at the minute. The only thing I can think about is the fact that you're alive and sitting in front of me… I nearly lost you. You said it yourself, you died. I don't know what I would have done had he not dragged you back to the land of the living. I just… it's not even worth…'
He had talked himself in to the thoughts that had haunted him since he got Harry's note. His upset and fear overwhelmed him once more and tears fell from his eyes.
'Come here,' Hermione whispered. He shuffled closer to her and she wrapped her arms around him.
'S…sorry…' he said through his sobs. 'I'm… I'm the one s…supposed to be comforting… y… you.'
He felt her chuckling.
'Well, we never really did things the right way, did we?' she asked before kissing his hair.'
'Suppose not.'
She pulled back from him and kissed him lightly on the lips. 'Like you said, I'm here and I'm alive. We're not entirely sure how, or what will happen because of it, but I'm alive. So this stops, okay?'
George nodded and sniffed. 'Okay. And if you could tell no one about this, I'll love you forever.'
'You say you'll do that anyway,' she said with a smile.
'Do I? I don't remember saying that!'
She swatted him on the arm and then winced as her side twinged again.
'Probably best to get some rest, eh?' he said as he got up off the bed and tucked Hermione in.
'George…' she said timidly.
'Yeah?'
'You don't mind… that Ron kissed me, or rather, that I asked him to kiss me?' she didn't meet his eyes all through the sentence.
He sat back on the edge of the bed.
'Of course I don’t mind,' he said with a smile. 'I've already told him that I'd've been ridiculously angry with him if he hadn't, even without the weird, bonding magic, thing.'
She nodded her head. 'I gave him a message to give to you, did he?'
He shook his head. 'No, he told me you'd told him what to say to various people but the messages have stayed with him.'
'Good, it was the most unoriginal message in the world, but there's only a couple of things you want the people closest to you to know, and they're not original concepts, I'm afraid.'
George nodded and stood once more. He leant forwards and gave her a kiss.
'Get some rest, okay?' he said with a smile. 'I'll send Ron up in a bit, I think he wants to see you, is that okay?'
'Please do.' She yawned and snuggled under the covers. 'Love you, see you later.'
'See you later, gorgeous.'
Hermione
She had just woken up after a long rest and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. As she looked around for a clock her eyes fell on the glass in the door and she saw Ron peering in.
She smiled and waved him in. He opened the door and stepped in, looking a little nervous.
'Hi,' he said as he walked towards her.
'Hi,' she replied with a smile.
'I don't think I'm supposed to be in here, a Mediwitch just gave me a really scary look as she walked past me.' He sat on the seat next to the bed.
'Well, I want you here and technically you're a patient, too, so they can hardly throw you out the building, can they?'
Ron smiled. 'I suppose not. He played with the hospital wrist band that had been put on his arm by a fierce looking Healer before he had chance to protest.
'So... how are you feeling?' he asked her.
She nodded and sat herself up in bed. 'Better actually, I think the sleep I just had helped me get some energy back.'
'That's good,' he replied.
She tilted her head to get a better look at him. He was looking at his hands and nowhere else.
'Ron, what's wrong?' she asked not knowing if he was going to answer her truthfully or not.
'Nothing! Why?'
'Because you haven't looked at me properly since you walked in. Why can't you look at me properly?'
'Because I don't want to see you being angry at me.'
'Why on earth would I be angry with you? You saved my life, Ron, I'm anything but angry at you! I owe you so much and...'
She had no idea why tears were burning her eyes. She was alive and she was very happy about that fact. She'd thought she would never see any of her friends or family again. Well, in this world, she presumed she would see them all eventually, but she didn't want the long and lonely wait until that time.
The tears fell from her eyes and she brought her knees up to her chest as best she could with the multitude of blankets that were covering her.
Ron looked up at her and instantly stood up.
'Hey, that's not allowed.' He sat on the bed and wrapped his arms around her the best he could. She put her legs down and he gathered her to him. 'I don't like you upset,' he whispered.
'S...sorry...' she managed to reply.
'It's me that should be sorry, I dragged you to that-'
'Don't you dare!' she said, her voice suddenly strong. 'I've told you I was there because I wouldn't let anyone else do that job. I told George the same thing and he was intelligent enough to not argue with me. You were too, before all this. Nothing's changed.'
Ron nodded. 'Okay, I'll stop going on about it if you tell me what's wrong.'
She pulled back but he kept hold of her hands. 'I just... I thought I was dying and thought I'd never see you again... well until...' she waved her hand above them and Ron seemed to understand exactly what she meant. 'Seeing everyone again... it's just a little overwhelming when your last thoughts were off death. But then you brought me back, and now I owe you my life.'
Ron shook his head. 'No, you don't. I can cope with all this medical crap and the not knowing what the bond magic entails as long as you promise that you're not going to feel like you're indebted to me for the rest of your life. That I can't do. We go on as before, maybe checking the other feels okay a bit more than usual...' she smiled and he chuckled. 'But otherwise, everything stays the same. The whole thing wouldn't have worked had I not needed you to stay alive. That's how it works! If someone had stood in front of me while I held you in my arms and asked if I'd trade some of my life force to give to you so you could live, I wouldn't have had to even think about the answer. It would have fallen out my mouth before I'd had chance to think, and by the time I'd thought about it, I'd still say the same thing.'
Hermione wanted to say something, but knew Ron needed to say more. She could read his face and knew he was battling with the words inside his head and whether he should say them or not. She waited for the outcome of the internal battle.
'I know we're not... involved anymore, but I still love you and I need you in my life. It's selfish, I know, but I don't care. I love Harry with all my heart, of course I do, and I intend to spend the rest of my life with him. But if you're not there as well, I may as well not be alive. You could say I saved your life because it was a selfish act. I don't care, though. You're here and that's all that matters. I just hope that you're okay with that...'
He had talked himself out. She kissed his hand and smiled at him. 'After a speech like that I can hardly say no, can I?'
He smiled.
'Just so you know, Ron, I would have done the exact same thing. It wouldn't have even needed a conscious decision. For you, I would have traded some of my life for yours if it meant you lived to make me laugh and annoy me chronic even just one more time. We don't know how this will affect us, but I promise I won't keep harping on about it, or make you feel like you did anything ridiculously heroic, even though you did, if that's what you want. We'll deal with this together... and you know, I suppose we better let Harry and George help us deal with it, too, or they might get a little annoyed.'
Ron laughed out loud and she chuckled.
'Yeah probably best for both of us.'
'Probably. Oh...'
'Oh?'
'There's a Healer looking through the door and he looks really quite annoyed.'
'Ah, shit. I think I was due for some test or other. Arse. Ah well.'
He stood and looked down on her. He kissed her on the forehead and she winked at him. He grinned and she watched as he walked towards the irate Healer.
'Ron?'
He turned and looked at her. 'Yeah?'
'Please don't wind him up too much. If he kills you chances are I'll die too and I'll have the whole of eternity to torment you!'
She laughed at his horror struck look but then he relaxed and smiled.
'You bloody well would as well!'
She leant back against her pillows and grinned at him.
'For you, Hermione, I shall try and not be killed by this irate Healer, here. And I shall see you later to tell you exactly what tests they're going to do on you and shall relish very moment! See you later!'
'See you later,' she replied, and then laughed as the door opened and the Healer started throwing very long words at Ron which he waved away with his hand.
She closed her eyes and thought about Ron and about George.
Things never work out the way you think they will she mused. She decided this was a good thing, it kept you on your toes and let you appreciate everything you had. She had George and she loved him, but she still had Ron, despite everything they had been through, she still had him as a shoulder to cry on and someone to annoy her when she was too uptight to get anything done. She needed them both and she had them both.
From this day on she wouldn't take either of them for granted.
From this day on, she would live like each kiss was her last.
fin
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 2
Ron
She was still breathing.
This fact and this fact alone was fuelling the constant pacing.
He had done the crying over her body and that hadn't helped. He had done the shouting, sometimes incoherently and that hadn't helped.
He was now pacing, and that wasn't helping, but it was making him think things through. Ron paced when he was thinking and he thought most clearly when he paced. He was still feeling a little dizzy but the nausea had passed.
He had taken in all the details of his surroundings, not that there was much to take in, they were in quite a large room, which had remnants of two walls which previously divided the cell into three. Rubble was lying in neat lines - apart from the bits that he had kicked across the cell in anger.
He had to think things through. Hermione may have decided she was fine with dying in here, but he wasn't, and while she was still breathing, he would do anything to get her and himself out alive.
He knew they were underground, having stumbled down the stairs to get to where they were and he walked over to the wall he had been lying against. He looked carefully at one of the roughly cut rocks that made up the wall. he dug his fingernails into the cement surrounding it and it fell away to the floor.
'Slightly disturbing,' he mumbled to himself.
It was a possible way out if they had been left and their captor wasn't coming back. It would take him a long time to dig himself a tunnel and it would be highly unstable and dangerous anyway.
He shrugged and walked to the bars that stopped their escape. They were rusty and he hissed when a chuck pulled off and wedged in the cut in his palm.
'Well, I suppose adding possible blood infection to this whole situation makes things more fun!'
He pulled out the rust and it crumbled in his fingers. He walked to where the bars were buried into the stone and although there was some give when he pushed and pulled at them with all his strength, it was only minimal movement.
'Come on!' he said through gritted teeth as he threw his shoulder at the bars. 'Come ON!
As pain coursed through his shoulder he slumped against the wall.
He slid down until he was sitting on the floor and let his head fall against his knees.
Tears leaked out of his eyes, he didn't have the energy to cry in earnest. He closed his eyes and tried to calm himself down. When his heart was beating at what he though was a normal pace, he heard an explosion above him. More of the cement in the walls fell to the floor. Ron jumped to his feet and twisted around trying to determine where above him the explosion has originated. It was then he heard shouts, screams and more bangs. A couple of minutes later, everything was silent.
George
'Hermione!'
He had been told to wait until they had been told it was all clear, but he didn't care if there were more people down there, Hermione and Ron were down there and that was all that mattered to him.
Shouts and cries followed him down the stairs, but he ignored them all.
He sprinted into the room and instantly spotted Ron who was as close to the door as possible!
'Ron! Are you okay? Where's Hermi-'
He had seen her, curled up in a ball on the floor near the back wall. Dread flowed through him.
'Oh, Merlin, no.'
'George, blow up the fucking bars!'
People appeared behind him but he only had eyes for his girl.
He pointed his wand at the heavy lock on the cell door. He didn't consciously think of a spell, but the metal exploded and showered him and Ron in hot shards. He ignored the scratches and crawled through the twisted metal. He ran towards Hermione and fell to his knees next to her.
'Hermione! I'm here, you're safe now. Come on, my darling, open your eyes.'
'George, she won't… she's…' Ron said from behind him.
'I swear to Merlin, Ron you want to be very careful about how you end that sentence.'
'Just get her to St. Mungo's. Now!'
He picked her up and spun on the spot. Thinking of the only place that could help her.
He appeared in the reception of the hospital and regained his balance before powering his legs towards the Healer who happened to be walking towards him as he arrived.
'Help her!' he shouted.
Startled, the Healer conjured a stretcher out of thin air and George carefully laid Hermione on the stretcher.
'What happened to her?'
It was only now in the bright lights of the hospital that George took in what state Hermione was in. He looked at the cuts and bruises on her face and neck, and then his eyes slid to the dark red stain covering most of her side. He pulled up her top a couple of inches and gasped when he saw the mess that was her wound.
'Sir! What happened?'
George shook his head for two reasons, one, he didn't know and two, this couldn't have happened to his girl.
'She was inside a building and there was a big explosion.' George looked behind him and saw Ron striding towards them. 'She was thrown about twenty feet and landed, possibly unconscious, and she was struck by a large chunk of metal, hence the blood and the wound in her side. She lost consciousness about an hour ago but somehow she's still breathing.'
'Thank you, we'll take it from here.'
The Healer and two others who had arrived in the past minute took Hermione down the corridor. He went to follow but a Mediwitch appeared as if out of nowhere and placed a gentle but firm hand on his chest.
'Sir, we need her details, could you give them to Katie who's on reception, please?'
He went to argue but knew it would do no good. He nodded his head and swallowed down his argument and walked towards the woman called Katie.
'What's her name, Sir?'
'Hermione Granger,' he whispered.
There was a looked of stunned recognition at the name on Katie's face, but she went about writing the name on her hospital forms.
'Her date of birth, Sir?'
'Please… stop calling me Sir, Call me George… Her date of birth is the nineteenth of September, nineteen seventy-nine. When can I see her?'
'I'm sorry si- George. I-… I don't wish to be unprofessional, but you're her boyfriend, George Weasley, aren't you?'
George nodded, a flame of hope igniting inside him that this sort of recognition would help him see Hermione sooner rather than later.
'I'm… I'm afraid it will be family only for the time being. Do you know how we can contact her parents?'
He wilted. 'Is there nothing you can do to help me find out how she is?'
She sighed and looked at him. 'George, I can't-'
'Katie, if you don't mind me asking, are you married?'
She shook her head. 'No, I love him but I'm not sure if we're ready for… that…'
'But you love him, yeah? And you'd be dying inside if you couldn't find out if he was going to… you'd want to make sure he was okay, wouldn't you. If anything happened to him?'
She nodded but didn't look him in the eye.
'I know it's asking a lot, but anything you can do, I'll be so grateful.'
She nodded. 'I'll do what I can' she whispered. She cleared her throat. 'It's probably quicker if you just fill this out , instead of me asking and having to ask you to spell things. I'm dyslexic and normal spell-checking quills don't seem to work always on a case as severe as mine.' She smirked a little uncomfortably and handed him the quill and paper.
'Next time you're in Diagon Alley, drop in to Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes. Our spell checking quills learn from you and what your most common mistakes are, you can also add words to them, like names and things and they have a three year guarantee. Hmm, sorry, I went into salesman mode then. I'll just get this filled out and let you get on with your work.'
'Do they really have a three year guarantee?' she asked, looking deadly serious.
'Er, yeah, but honestly, they were only released two and a half years ago, so hopefully they'll last another six months or I'm going to have some explaining to do!'
She giggled and he smiled. He finished filling out the form, skipping through a few of the details but putting the important information down. He handed back the form and she put it in a cardboard file and put it in the pile next to her.
'I'll see what I can do about… you know… but I can't make any promises.
'Thanks.'
He turned and walked towards Ron, who was sitting with his head in his hands.
'Ron, a word, outside, please.'
Ron sighed as if he knew what was coming. He walked out the door and knew Ron was following.
He needed some answers.
Harry
He needed to know why he wasn't with Ron, why he wasn't holding him close to him and why he wasn't making sure he was all right.
Instead he was filling out paperwork and pretending to care about the person who was lying dead in the depths of the Ministry.
He had no idea how he had died, curses could have combined, someone could have sent the Avada Kadavra at him, which was justified as it was being sent at them faster than he thought was possible from one person.
'Potter!'
He was brought back to the Auror Office by Kingsley's voice.
'Y…yes, Sir?' he said, shaking his head to clear his thoughts.
'I've told you, Harry, don't call me Sir.'
Harry nodded.
'Why are you here and not at the hospital with Ron and Hermione?'
'Paperwork, you know…'
Kingsley took the paperwork off him and threw it on the nearest desk.
'Go. Now. And don't come back until Ron has been cleared to come back to work.'
'But, Kings-'
'Don't argue with me, Harry. I don't care what Reynolds says; I'm your highest possible boss so you can't get in trouble. Leave the paperwork until later. Go and see Ron.'
Mortified that tears were burning his eyes in front of the Minister for Magic, Harry nodded.
'Thank you,' he said, his voice raspy.
He turned and walked out of the office and down the corridor to the golden gates of the lift. On autopilot, he told the lifts to take him to the Atrium and he Flooed to St. Mungo's. He walked to reception and gave a half smile to the woman behind the counter.
'Er… hi, I'm here to see… well, I don't know if I can or not, but, um, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger.'
The woman smiled. 'It's Mister Potter, isn't it?' she said kindly.
Harry smiled and nodded. 'Miss Granger is being treated but I think Ron and his brother are outside.
'Outside?'
'Um, yes, George… um…'
Harry raised his eyebrows.
'George…' he prompted.
'He er… asked Ron, if he could talk to him… outside.'
She nodded and raised her eyes above Harry's head. He took that to mean to look behind him.
He turned and when the person who was an interesting shade of purple had fully come through the glass into the hospital, Harry saw two unmistakable patches of red through the frosted glass.
'Er, Mister Potter?'
He had already taken a step forwards, not entirely sure what was going on, but turned back to look at the woman.
'George asked if I could try and get him some information about Miss Granger. I'm not supposed to but… if you could give him this…'
She held out a tiny rolled up piece of parchment, and Harry nodded. He realised this was probably some information about Hermione that technically George wasn't supposed to know because he wasn't related to her. He smiled at her and then turned his intention to the two shapes he could see through the frosted glass, which seemed to be gesturing wildly. He started to jog.
Ron
'I know you're unbelievably angry, and probably at me for insisting it had to be Hermione who came with me and no one else, I blame myself too, but I don't know what I can say to make it better.'
George turned away from him and paced a bit before turning back towards him.
'If it makes you feel better, it's not just you I blame, I blame myself and the whole of the Ministry, too.'
'It makes me feel a little better,' Ron replied staring directly at George. 'Still doesn't change anything, and while we're out here we're not finding out about how she is.'
'This might help that.'
He spun around and was very surprised to see Harry. Harry walked up to him and held out the parchment to give to George.
'It's from the woman on reception.'
'Katie?' George asked as he took the parchment.
'Um, I don't know, she didn't tell me her name.'
'How are you feeling?' Harry asked him. He felt his hand squeeze his shoulder. He shrugged. 'Okay, suppose. Been better.'
He forced a smile.
'She's alive,' George said abruptly. 'They have no idea how, but she's alive.'
'Will she be okay?' he asked.
George shrugged. 'Dunno, it only says what I just said. She wasn't even supposed to tell me that…'
'Have you been checked out?' Harry asked him. He shook his head. 'Nah, I'm fine.'
'You're not. You need to get checked over. For my peace of mind, please.'
Ron turned and looked at Harry. He had missed him, wished he could hold him one more time. But now, as he looked at him he couldn't bring him to give him the hug both he and Harry needed. He nodded his head.
'Come on,' he said to George. George nodded. They all walked through the glass and Healers suddenly surrounded Ron.
'Mister Weasley, would you please follow us? We have some questions to ask you.'
'Oh, um, yeah, of course.'
He followed the group of Healers - why there were four of them he wasn't sure - through a few doors and then into a consulting room. There was a couple of seconds where he knew they were considering asking George and Harry to wait outside but the glares that they received in response to their none question stopped them saying a thing.
'Anything you want to say to me will be repeated to them, so if you could save me the hassle…'
Ron sat in one of the seats and looked around the crowded room. Consultation rooms were not made for seven people but it would have to do.
'Mister Weasley, we need to talk to you about what happened to Miss Granger.'
Ron nodded. 'Is she going to be all right?' he asked to no one in particular.
There was a few seconds wait before anyone answered him.
'We think so, but to be honest we have no idea how she's alive. She should be dead. Even with the standard presumption that all her magic will have tried everything possible to keep her alive, it shouldn't have worked. She had a ridiculously low blood count. I mean lower than I've ever seen in anyone still breathing. No one should survive that. We need to know if anything happened that could have let this happen.'
'Does it actually matter?' George asked.
'To us it does, Mister Weasley. At the minute she's a medical mystery and we need to understand. The only thing we can think of is some kind of life bond.'
'Life bond?' Ron asked, but he knew the others were wondering the same.
'Where one witch or wizard uses the life energy of another witch or wizard to maintain their life when they would otherwise die.'
'Are you channelling my girlfriend, Healer…'
'Healer Burdess. And, sorry?'
George smirked. 'Sorry, nothing, it's just Hermione would've spouted a definition like that just as quickly as you did.'
The Healer smiled but it soon faded.
'Did anything happen that might have triggered this type of magic. It didn't have to be intentional. If… if there's a bond of friendship or love that exists and one act of kindness happens that is somewhat mutual... things like this can't happen if it's what the parties involved wouldn't have wanted.'
Ron took a deep breath and looked at George and then Harry. 'So something had to happen, that involved some sort of mutual love that could have transferred some of my life force to Hermione to keep her alive. Because there is no other way she could be alive, yeah?'
The Healers all nodded.
He saw it all again.
'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.'
'That'll be when I kissed her then.'
George
It felt like the air had been sucked out the room. He saw in his peripheral vision a couple of the Healers shuffle uncomfortably. He guessed that most of them would be aware of the Weasley/Granger/Weasley/Potter situation. They would have had to have been on the other side of the world and not in contact with anyone from the magical world to miss the headlines when that story broke.
He was a little confused and wasn't sure how to feel. Should he be angry at his brother for kissing his girlfriend, or should he be thanking him for saving her life.
'Well, this is slightly uncomfortable!' he said with a smirk.
'She asked me to. Asked me to give a girl her dying wish and kiss her one last time.'
The concept of Hermione knowing - as far as she was concerned - that she was dying made his stomach clench and his heart ache. He should have been there at that moment. But he wasn't, Ron was.
'She er… she knew she was dying?' he asked, the wobble in his voice obvious.
Ron nodded. I think so. She gave me messages to tell people, but I don't have to now, do I?'
Ron looked at the Healers.
'We’ve replenished her blood and cleaned her wound. There's no sign of infection and there was no oxygen starvation because she kept breathing. There's no reason why she shouldn’t make a full recovery, she's already making progress and looking better.'
'So, er…' he said, not quite sure what he wanted to ask, only that he needed answers to something. He started his sentence again. 'Er… so, what does this mean? They're connected by Ron's life force because he kissed her when she was about to die, yes?'
'Presumably,' Healer Burdess replied.
'So what now? Is she permanently connected to Ron? Or has she just borrowed some of his life force and can pay it back over time at a decent interest rate?'
Ron snorted but there was no smile on his face. George glared at him but he wasn't exactly sure why.
'We er… we don't know exactly.'
'Oh, well, never mind, we'll just carry on as usual and see what happens, shall we?' George replied, sarcasm dripping from his words.
'This is old magic that isn't healing magic, this is the first time any of us have ever seen it in this hospital. As far as we know it's only happened four times in the history of the place. Miss granger is the fifth. It's that unknown, the standard textbooks for Healer training give it three lines of explanation. It's just that unknown.'
'Okay, we get it, it's rare, but it's happened now and we need to understand it. Who can help us do that?'
Healer Burdess took a deep breath.
'We are obliged to report any case of this type to the Department of Mysteries. Once it's handed over to them we aren't allowed to take things any further, unless of course it is imperative in regards to our patients' health. Seeing as though Miss Granger is on the mend, we won't hear anything more on this, unless any of their findings is made public. I don't think that's happened since 1971.'
'April fourteenth, 1971 to be precise,' Harry said.
'Swat,' Ron replied with a small smile.
Healer Burdess smiled and turned to Ron.
'Mister Weasley, I don't believe you've been checked over, apart from your obvious injuries,' his eyes glanced over the cuts and bruises on his face and his hand, 'we do, of course, need to keep an eye on you because of what's happened.' Ron nodded.
'You really have no idea what's going to happen to me or Hermione?'
Healer Burdess took a deep breath. 'We think there a few things that could happen. It could be as if you gave her the energy and healing power she needed and when she stopped needing it the… connection, I suppose, broke and that's the end of it. There'll be no further complications, you just gave Miss Granger what she needed to survive. The second way we see this happening, is that she still might be… I'll use the word connect because it's easier to explain, she'll remain connected to you for a bit longer, until she's fully recovered, and again, there'll be no further complications.'
Ron looked as the Healer shuffled, looking a little uncomfortable and took yet another deep breath.
'And the third,' Ron prompted, knowing he might not like what he was about to hear.
'There's… there's the possibility that you and Miss Granger will be connected for years to come, if not for the rest of your lives. If that's the case then there are a few things that could happen. This… this may not be easy to hear, but as I said, it might not even end up this way. In it's extreme case, Miss Granger might continue to need you and your life energy to continue living. If that's the case then if you were ever to get ill, then she might and if you were to, well, die, then there's the possibility that she might die too. But that's the extreme case, there's every possibility in between, but… we need you to understand how serious this could be.'
Ron nodded but didn't say anything.
'Obviously if we check you over and carry out some tests we could start to determine if there still is a connection between the two of you, but initially I just want to make sure you're okay and aren't hiding any unseen injuries from the explosion and the spells you were put under.
Ron nodded again. 'Yeah, sure. Um, could you just give us ten minutes or so, please? I think we need a few minutes just to take all that in. I promise I won't run off and leave you without having examined me.'
Healer Burdess smiled and nodded and herded the other three Healers out the door. 'You can stay in here if you want, just lock the door and I'll enchant it so no one interrupts you.
'Thank you, we appreciate it,' Ron replied with a smile. He stood and shook Healer Burdess's hand and locked the door after he left.
Well, he thought, this is going to be an interesting ten minutes!
George
'Before we go down the medical discussion route,' George said looking at the floor and avoiding both Ron and Harry's gaze, 'I'm going to have to be the immature one here and ask: Ron, you kissed Hermione? I know I should be able to just walk right past this fact and concentrate on the other medical crap, but I just can't. I'm sorry. And in all fairness, I bet Harry's dying to ask the same thing.'
Harry glared at him but he didn't care.
'Sit there and tell me it's not true!' he said to Harry, obviously irritated.
Harry shrugged. 'I suppose it wouldn't hurt to talk about it.'
George couldn't help but snort at Harry's very woolly response to his comment. Ron slumped down the door and sighed.
'I'll always love her, you know that. Just like she'll always love me. And when someone you love knows she's dying and asks you to give her one last kiss, you don't say no. You give her what she wants. It doesn't mean she loves you any less,' he raised his hand to George,' or that I love you any less,' he briefly looked at Harry before looking back at the floor, 'I was just, granting her dying wish. You would've… if you'd been in my shoes you would have done exactly the same thing, I know that and you know that, so can we just accept it, be happy that she's alive for what ever reason and just concentrate on getting her well again?'
George had listened intently, and found himself getting less annoyed and angry as Ron spoke. Ron was right; he would have done the same thing.
He nodded. 'You're right. Just, Harry, don't go dying on me and ask me for that as you're dying wish. Please.'
Eventually Harry raised a smile and nodded.
'You're sure you're okay?' Ron asked him and Harry.
Again George nodded. 'Thinking about it, I'd've been devastated if you hadn't. It's Hermione, of course you were going to kiss her if she asked you. It's fine. Really. Promise. And, you know, you saved her life with it, so thanks!'
Ron smiled and looked at Harry. 'It's Hermione!' Harry replied. 'Of course it's okay. It's like George said. I'd've been annoyed if you'd denied her the one thing she wanted as she thought she was dying. It's… don't even think about it as an issue.'
Ron nodded. 'Thanks.'
And then he burst into tears. George looked at him and watched as Harry crossed the room and fell on his knees next to him. Ron clung on to Harry and Harry kissed his hair and held him to comfort him. George felt like a spare part and decided he would try his luck at seeing Hermione. He got up and Harry looked at him. Harry managed to manoeuvre a still sobbing Ron out of the way of the door and as he unlocked the door and walked through it, he squeezed Ron's shoulder.
'Stop feeling guilty,' he said and locked the door behind him.
Harry
He was finally in his arms. For a few split seconds throughout the day he had thought this was never going to happen again. Those moments had been brief but had still hurt and sent dread poring through him. He needed Ron and he had told him many a time. Every time he did Ron never seemed to believe him, seemed to shrug the comment off like Harry was talking rubbish.
'Ron…'
Ron continued to sob into his shoulder.
'Ron, come on, breathe properly or you're going to hyperventilate.'
Ron nodded and pulled back, looking at the ceiling and trying to calm his breathing down.
'S…sorry… s'just…' he hiccupped, 'I sh…should've-'
'Ron, you did everything as you and Hermione had planned. You were going in there to try and talk him out. There was evidence that he would be willing to trade names for a reduced sentence and we needed those names. No one could've known that he had those jars of explosives in there. Anyone going in would have faced the same. And you saved her life, Ron! You saved her.'
'If I h…hadn't insis…ted on her being the… the one who came w…with me!'
'No, Ron, she insisted she be the one who went with you. You took some persuading to let her go with you, but eventually you saw, as did the rest of us, that it made the most sense for Hermione to be the one to go on this mission with you. The guilt has to stop, Ron. Okay?'
He pushed Ron away from him and lifted his head so he had no choice but to look at him.
'Okay?' he asked once more.
'Okay.'
Harry held Ron tightly for a few minutes until he had calmed down.
'God, I missed you,' he whispered. He hadn't meant to sound so needy, but at this moment in time, still sitting on the floor of a hospital consultant he didn't care.
He rested his forehead against Ron's.
'Missed you, too,' Ron whispered. He tilted his head and their lips met. Harry tried to keep his urgency out of the kiss, but he couldn't. He sucked on Ron's lips and nudged at them with his tongue. He noticed Ron was a little hesitant, but then opened his mouth and their tongues met. Ron' hesitancy disappeared and the kiss became frantic, Harry was slightly taken aback but understood that this was what Ron needed; to feel alive and to know he was loved and Harry needed to be the person who could give him those feelings back.
George
He knew that they had said she was recovering well, and that it was only a matter of time before she would wake up, but he still held his breath as she blinked again and again and tried to focus her eyes. He stood up when her brow furrowed, obviously confused.
'Hermione,' he said in the quietest voice he could manage so to not scare her. 'Hermione, can you hear me?'
Her eyes found his and she blinked a few more times.
'Geor… George?'
'It's me, I'm here.'
'But how…? What? Where am I?'
'You're in St. Mungo's and you're going to be fine.'
She frowned at him. 'But I… I…' Her right hand covered her eyes and her breathing rate increased. 'I… died!'
She started to cry and he quickly sat himself on the edge of the bed and took her hand from over her eyes.
'Hey, come on, Hermione. You're alive and you're going to be fine in a few hours. There's nothing to cry about. You're safe now.'
Hermione shook her head and opened her eyes. 'No, y…you don't un…understand. I… died, George.' She swallowed and seemed to calm herself down. 'I knew it was my time, I shut my eyes but instead of it being black, it was all white. There… there were shadows around me, not scary ones or menacing ones, helpful ones that were guiding me forwards. I was… I was moving on and I was scared but I knew it was okay. There was something in the distance and I knew I had to walk towards whatever it was, but then there was… pain. As if someone had reached into my chest and grabbed hold of my heart and squeezed it. I was being dragged backwards and then… then it all went black… I… I really… I died.'
George couldn't do anything but nod. There was a huge lump in his throat and he didn't want Hermione to see him cry. Eventually he coughed and managed to swallow his emotion.
'The Healers… well, the Healers said you should be dead. You had a ridiculously low amount of blood in your body and they'd never seen someone still alive with that little before. They were amazed. Glad, obviously, but very confused.'
'So… then how am I still alive?'
George smiled. 'Because of a very sweet gesture and your dying wish!' he watched as Hermione tried to work out what he was talking about. 'When Ron kissed you he… he gave you some of his life energy, or life force if you want and you took that and that's how you're still alive.' He wanted to continue, to tell her that there might be consequences to Ron's selfless act, but he didn't want to overwhelm her with information mere minutes after she'd woken up.
'I… I took some of Ron's life energy because he kissed me, and that's what saved me?'
George nodded, not wanting to stop Hermione's train of thought that she had to go through.
'How…? What…? How is that even possible?' She ended her sentence and shuffled into a seating position, wincing slightly and putting her hand to her side.
'Careful!' George exclaimed. Hermione nodded but still looked determined to get some answers. George had no problem with this, apart from the fact that he didn't have any solid answers, just woolly possibilities.
'It's very old magic, and can only happen between to people who would want this to happen, or rather the giver has to want it on a subconscious level, otherwise it wouldn't happen at all. Ron needed to, well, need you to stay alive… and he did.'
'So… so…'
George smiled at her. 'Is there an end to that sentence. Or even a beginning or middle?'
She smiled. His heart leapt, that was what he had been waiting for since she woke up. He looked at her and just needed to hold her, and tell her he loved her.
'So, what now? Are there complications? Side effects? Long term problems to this?'
He took a deep breath. 'Hermione, they're not sure but honestly, I don't care at the minute. The only thing I can think about is the fact that you're alive and sitting in front of me… I nearly lost you. You said it yourself, you died. I don't know what I would have done had he not dragged you back to the land of the living. I just… it's not even worth…'
He had talked himself in to the thoughts that had haunted him since he got Harry's note. His upset and fear overwhelmed him once more and tears fell from his eyes.
'Come here,' Hermione whispered. He shuffled closer to her and she wrapped her arms around him.
'S…sorry…' he said through his sobs. 'I'm… I'm the one s…supposed to be comforting… y… you.'
He felt her chuckling.
'Well, we never really did things the right way, did we?' she asked before kissing his hair.'
'Suppose not.'
She pulled back from him and kissed him lightly on the lips. 'Like you said, I'm here and I'm alive. We're not entirely sure how, or what will happen because of it, but I'm alive. So this stops, okay?'
George nodded and sniffed. 'Okay. And if you could tell no one about this, I'll love you forever.'
'You say you'll do that anyway,' she said with a smile.
'Do I? I don't remember saying that!'
She swatted him on the arm and then winced as her side twinged again.
'Probably best to get some rest, eh?' he said as he got up off the bed and tucked Hermione in.
'George…' she said timidly.
'Yeah?'
'You don't mind… that Ron kissed me, or rather, that I asked him to kiss me?' she didn't meet his eyes all through the sentence.
He sat back on the edge of the bed.
'Of course I don’t mind,' he said with a smile. 'I've already told him that I'd've been ridiculously angry with him if he hadn't, even without the weird, bonding magic, thing.'
She nodded her head. 'I gave him a message to give to you, did he?'
He shook his head. 'No, he told me you'd told him what to say to various people but the messages have stayed with him.'
'Good, it was the most unoriginal message in the world, but there's only a couple of things you want the people closest to you to know, and they're not original concepts, I'm afraid.'
George nodded and stood once more. He leant forwards and gave her a kiss.
'Get some rest, okay?' he said with a smile. 'I'll send Ron up in a bit, I think he wants to see you, is that okay?'
'Please do.' She yawned and snuggled under the covers. 'Love you, see you later.'
'See you later, gorgeous.'
Hermione
She had just woken up after a long rest and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. As she looked around for a clock her eyes fell on the glass in the door and she saw Ron peering in.
She smiled and waved him in. He opened the door and stepped in, looking a little nervous.
'Hi,' he said as he walked towards her.
'Hi,' she replied with a smile.
'I don't think I'm supposed to be in here, a Mediwitch just gave me a really scary look as she walked past me.' He sat on the seat next to the bed.
'Well, I want you here and technically you're a patient, too, so they can hardly throw you out the building, can they?'
Ron smiled. 'I suppose not. He played with the hospital wrist band that had been put on his arm by a fierce looking Healer before he had chance to protest.
'So... how are you feeling?' he asked her.
She nodded and sat herself up in bed. 'Better actually, I think the sleep I just had helped me get some energy back.'
'That's good,' he replied.
She tilted her head to get a better look at him. He was looking at his hands and nowhere else.
'Ron, what's wrong?' she asked not knowing if he was going to answer her truthfully or not.
'Nothing! Why?'
'Because you haven't looked at me properly since you walked in. Why can't you look at me properly?'
'Because I don't want to see you being angry at me.'
'Why on earth would I be angry with you? You saved my life, Ron, I'm anything but angry at you! I owe you so much and...'
She had no idea why tears were burning her eyes. She was alive and she was very happy about that fact. She'd thought she would never see any of her friends or family again. Well, in this world, she presumed she would see them all eventually, but she didn't want the long and lonely wait until that time.
The tears fell from her eyes and she brought her knees up to her chest as best she could with the multitude of blankets that were covering her.
Ron looked up at her and instantly stood up.
'Hey, that's not allowed.' He sat on the bed and wrapped his arms around her the best he could. She put her legs down and he gathered her to him. 'I don't like you upset,' he whispered.
'S...sorry...' she managed to reply.
'It's me that should be sorry, I dragged you to that-'
'Don't you dare!' she said, her voice suddenly strong. 'I've told you I was there because I wouldn't let anyone else do that job. I told George the same thing and he was intelligent enough to not argue with me. You were too, before all this. Nothing's changed.'
Ron nodded. 'Okay, I'll stop going on about it if you tell me what's wrong.'
She pulled back but he kept hold of her hands. 'I just... I thought I was dying and thought I'd never see you again... well until...' she waved her hand above them and Ron seemed to understand exactly what she meant. 'Seeing everyone again... it's just a little overwhelming when your last thoughts were off death. But then you brought me back, and now I owe you my life.'
Ron shook his head. 'No, you don't. I can cope with all this medical crap and the not knowing what the bond magic entails as long as you promise that you're not going to feel like you're indebted to me for the rest of your life. That I can't do. We go on as before, maybe checking the other feels okay a bit more than usual...' she smiled and he chuckled. 'But otherwise, everything stays the same. The whole thing wouldn't have worked had I not needed you to stay alive. That's how it works! If someone had stood in front of me while I held you in my arms and asked if I'd trade some of my life force to give to you so you could live, I wouldn't have had to even think about the answer. It would have fallen out my mouth before I'd had chance to think, and by the time I'd thought about it, I'd still say the same thing.'
Hermione wanted to say something, but knew Ron needed to say more. She could read his face and knew he was battling with the words inside his head and whether he should say them or not. She waited for the outcome of the internal battle.
'I know we're not... involved anymore, but I still love you and I need you in my life. It's selfish, I know, but I don't care. I love Harry with all my heart, of course I do, and I intend to spend the rest of my life with him. But if you're not there as well, I may as well not be alive. You could say I saved your life because it was a selfish act. I don't care, though. You're here and that's all that matters. I just hope that you're okay with that...'
He had talked himself out. She kissed his hand and smiled at him. 'After a speech like that I can hardly say no, can I?'
He smiled.
'Just so you know, Ron, I would have done the exact same thing. It wouldn't have even needed a conscious decision. For you, I would have traded some of my life for yours if it meant you lived to make me laugh and annoy me chronic even just one more time. We don't know how this will affect us, but I promise I won't keep harping on about it, or make you feel like you did anything ridiculously heroic, even though you did, if that's what you want. We'll deal with this together... and you know, I suppose we better let Harry and George help us deal with it, too, or they might get a little annoyed.'
Ron laughed out loud and she chuckled.
'Yeah probably best for both of us.'
'Probably. Oh...'
'Oh?'
'There's a Healer looking through the door and he looks really quite annoyed.'
'Ah, shit. I think I was due for some test or other. Arse. Ah well.'
He stood and looked down on her. He kissed her on the forehead and she winked at him. He grinned and she watched as he walked towards the irate Healer.
'Ron?'
He turned and looked at her. 'Yeah?'
'Please don't wind him up too much. If he kills you chances are I'll die too and I'll have the whole of eternity to torment you!'
She laughed at his horror struck look but then he relaxed and smiled.
'You bloody well would as well!'
She leant back against her pillows and grinned at him.
'For you, Hermione, I shall try and not be killed by this irate Healer, here. And I shall see you later to tell you exactly what tests they're going to do on you and shall relish very moment! See you later!'
'See you later,' she replied, and then laughed as the door opened and the Healer started throwing very long words at Ron which he waved away with his hand.
She closed her eyes and thought about Ron and about George.
Things never work out the way you think they will she mused. She decided this was a good thing, it kept you on your toes and let you appreciate everything you had. She had George and she loved him, but she still had Ron, despite everything they had been through, she still had him as a shoulder to cry on and someone to annoy her when she was too uptight to get anything done. She needed them both and she had them both.
From this day on she wouldn't take either of them for granted.
From this day on, she would live like each kiss was her last.
fin