Click

Ron sat up in bed, stretching groggily and rubbing his eyes. He had a horrendous headache.

Then he realized it wasn't his bed; he was in the hospital wing.

Hospital wing!

Looking around, he saw Harry and Hermione had fallen asleep in a pair of chairs next to his bed. Harry was still in his Quidditch robes; his head leaned back against the wall behind him, and he was snoring softly. Hermione's head rested on Harry's shoulder and her face was all red and puffy.

Oh! Quidditch match today...

Ow.

"Hey," he whispered, reaching over to poke Harry in the arm. The movement made his head spin. "Harry, wake up."

Harry blinked owlishly and then grinned. "Hey yourself."

"What's wrong with this picture, Harry?" said Ron. "You should be the one laid up in the bed, and I should be over there waiting for you to wake up."

"Ha," said Harry quietly, apparently not wanting to wake Hermione. "I'm sure I'll be there plenty of times before the year is out."

"Yeah, well, try not to get a Bludger to the head," said Ron. "Hurts like hell."

"Probably like a Bludger to the arm," said Harry, snickering.

"Good thing Lockhart's not around - he might have tried to de-bone my head."

"Might have made an improvement."

"Shut up, Harry," Ron said, laughing in spite of his headache.

Harry laughed too, a real laugh that Ron didn't hear often; he laughed so hard his shoulders shook, and the movement woke Hermione.

"Ron!" she squeaked, jumping out of her chair and launching herself at him, throwing her arms around his neck.

"Ow, Hermione."

"Oh, sorry," she said, letting go and sitting on the edge of his bed. There was a blotchy red place on her cheek where her face had been pressed into Harry's Quidditch robes; the weave of the fabric had left marks on her skin. "I'm so glad you're awake, Harry and I have been so worried, you have no idea...."

"Hey, don't worry about me," said Ron, patting her hand. "I'm tough. Weasleys are indestructible, see? That's why there are so many of us."

Harry snorted and Hermione was overcome by a fit of giggles.

When she finally calmed down, she looked at Harry, and then back to Ron, with a serious expression. She opened her mouth as if to say something, then suddenly slid off the bed and ran out of the room.

Harry stood, as if he were going after her, but apparently thought better of it.

Ron was dumbfounded. "What...what was that all about?" he asked Harry, feeling incredibly stupid, like there was something very obvious going on that he should know about but had absolutely no clue.

Harry took a deep breath and let it out all at once. "She...at the game, she...kind of... well, anyway, she was worried about you, is all." He bit his lower lip for a second, hesitating, and then added quietly, "I was too."

"Oh, please," said Ron dismissively. "I'm fine. See?"

Harry shrugged. "At the time...well, it just looked like, you know, like you weren't fine." He looked out the window, avoiding Ron's eyes.

"Oh," said Ron.

Harry shuffled his feet, still looking out the window. "And, er...I just wanted to say I'm sorry, you know, for all the times I'm stuck in here and you and Hermione are worrying...because...well, just because."

"Oh," said Ron again, feeling his stomach tighten oddly, and not knowing what to say.

Footsteps sounded on the stone floor, and then Hermione reappeared at the foot of the bed, sniffling.

"Sorry," she said.

"Yeah," said Ron. "It's okay." He patted the edge of the bed. "Come sit."

She sat, still sniffling. Little strands of her bushy hair had stuck to the dampness on her cheeks, and he pushed them back behind her ears.

"Look, you don't need to worry. It'll take more than a Bludger to the head to get rid of me," Ron said lightly.

She nodded. "Right."

He looked at Harry, all skinny arms and legs and messy hair and more worries than a guy ought to have, and said, "You don't either."

"Yeah," said Harry in a strained sort of voice.

Hermione reached across Ron and patted the opposite edge of the bed, looking at Harry in a way that made Ron's stomach tighten even more. Harry looked back at her, then at Ron, and finally sat down.

The bed sagged a little under the weight of the three of them, and made a bit of a squeak, but that wasn't the sound that Ron heard. What he heard in his head was a quiet but distinct click, as if something tremendously significant had just fallen into place.

It was a very good feeling.