The Fat Muggle, Ten Years Later

----------------The Fat Muggle, Ten Years Later. chapter eleven, "Forgiveness''----------------------

A sudden snore made Harry's heart skip a beat and he pulled his arm to his side, ready to run and hide.

But Draco merely turned around in his sleep, and Harry sighed in relief.

He once again reached for the doorknob behind the bed and closed his fingers around it.

He turned it and the door clicked and squeeked open, revealing a long and dark corridor with only a few lanterns hanging on the walls.

Harry felt both nervous and exited and tried to figure out how to get past the bed without waking Draco; stepping over it would mean touching the bed and in the condition he was in, he would probably knock it quite heavily and wake Draco up.

He decided to transform into his wolverine shape again and crawl under the bed.

This time the transformation took more energy than he really had left, leaving him with a terrible, thumping migraine and his joints ached.

He began crawling under the bed and heard Draco move again.

Harry stopped dead in his tracks, listening.

Nothing.

He continued crawling and what felt like half an hour of crawling suddenly ended as he came out into the corridor.

Harry felt overjoyous and began jogging in his furry shape down the dark corridor.

He was practically free!

All he needed now was to find an exit and just begin walking until he found some food or water that would make him strong enough to apparate.

Splinching himself was not something he was willing to do right now, no matter how much he'd wanted to escape.

He came to the end of the corridor where a massive, grey, steel door seemed to be the exit to Harry's nightmare.

A large silvery lock hung on it and there was no key in sight.

He turned back into human and concentrated on focusing as much energy to be able to use the Alohomora spell with spontaneous magic.

Harry put his hands on the lock and closed his eyes gathering every ounce of strenght he had left.

"Alohomora," he said quietly and felt the lock snap in his hands.

He opened the door and stepped out into a blizzard!!

It was impossible to see more than three feet in front of you and Harry felt heartbroken.

How was he going to get through this? Naked and exhausted!

"I have to turn into a wolverine again! The fur is thick and can protect me from the cold," he whispered to himself.

"Even if it kills me!"

Ron blew up an Illusion and the bits and pieces left flew across the room, hitting Dudley in the face.

He scraped it off and looked disgusted beyond belief.

"Sorry about that one, Duds! It's hard to calculate how their bodyparts will fly from that curse!" Ron shouted and killed another Illusion.

Dudley nodded at him and proceeded with wiping out twelve Illusions of his own with a firewall that hit the ceiling and made Illusion blood rain over the two wizards.

But just as Dudley was about to ram his fist in the eye of yet another foe, all of the Illusions froze!

Hermione's voice was heard from the booth behind the window where Grindle was operating things.

"Could you come up here for a second, Ron? I need to talk to you," she said with a slightly nervous tremble in her voice.

"I'm in the middle of training!" Ron shouted back.

"I really need to talk to you now, Ron."

Ron sighed and walked up the stairs to the booth, meeting Grindle halfway up.

"Where are you going?" Ron asked.

"I'm going to join Dudley. Problem?" Grindle hissed back.

"No. But you will have one if you keep answering me like that," Ron snarled back at him.

Grindle fought the urge to grab Ron and throw him down the stairs; his boss was watching and with a display as such wouldn't lead to a promotion.

Instead he walked down the stairs and took out his wand, ready to fight.

"What's that about?" Dudley asked.

"No idea," Grindle said flatly and raised his wand.

The Illusions began moving again and the fight was back on.

Up in the booth, Hermione was more nervous than she had been for a long time.

Ron opened the door and stepped inside.

"Yes?" he asked, slightly irritated.

Hermione looked him in the eye for a short second and then looked away.

She made Neville's words ecchoe inside her head so she wouldn't chicken out from what she was about to do.

(Don't throw your life away feeling miserable. Just tell him you still love him!)

Ron was growing even more irritated with her silence, shifting feet.

"Ron?" she said, still looking at the floor.

"Yes. Again."

"I still love you and it wasn't my fault that Tristan died, so please stop blaming me!" she said in one breath, but the words came out all wrong, she realised a microsecond after she'd said them.

Ron looked shaken and didn't speak.

"No, wait! That came out wrong. Let me try again," she said as if she was back in school reading out an essay to the class.

"I know that you blame me for our son's death and I think that you shouldn't as I am not to blame. Voldemort is, and the end of 'us' was for all the wrong reasons. I still love you, Ron," she said.

Ron sat down slowly.

"What? You think I blame you for Tristan's death?" he asked.

"Well don't you? That's why you ended it, wasn't it?" Hermione said.

"No. That's not the reason at all! I ended it because I blame myself! And I thought that you did too and the sight of me everyday would eventually make you hate me," Ron said and pulled his fingers through his hair.

"And that we'd both be better off if I ended it as soon as possible," he continued.

A single tear fell from his eye.

"You don't blame me?" Hermione asked, her voice trembling.

"No. I never have," Ron said and held her hand.

"I still love you too. I never stopped loving you!" Ron said and looked her in the eye.

She met his eyes and got lost in his eyes.

"All this time! All wasted!" Hermione said and hugged him tightly and began crying.

"Neville was right!" she sobbed into Ron's chest.

"Neville?" he asked.

"Long story," she said and hugged him tighter.

He hugged her back and they completely forgot about the outside world, about all of their problems, the tasks they had before them, and they were both lost in their loved one's arms as it was meant to be.

Neville dropped the book he was reading as thunder hit his head!

He had the answer!

He got up and ran out of the little room and didn't even bother to ask for Walter's opinion as he knew he had cracked the mystery of the root.

He asked for the way to the training room and as soon as he had been told where it was, he sprinted as fast as he could.

He flung the doors open and had to duck for a huge fireball coming at him.

The door caught on fire and an alarm went off.

Neville waved his wand and quenched the fire as Dudley and Grindle ran up to him.

"What the hell are you doing? You can't just walk in here when there is a training scenario taking place!" Grindle yelled, but Neville didn't even listen to him.

"I solved it! The root!" he exclaimed.

"It is the most simple thing to do! We'll save Harry easily now!!"

----------------to be continued in chapter twelve, "Joining you"---------------------