Always the Sidekick

Chapter 2

Their first few nights in Grimmuald Place were filled with muffled cries, echoing screams, and breaking glass.

Arthur had come home from work that day and told the family that he'd seen Percy at work and tried to talk to him. Percy's reply was, "I'm sorry Arthur, I just really don't have time now. Very busy." This sent Molly into a fit of tears, and she had to leave the room.

They also discovered almost immediately that if they didn't whisper they would wake up the horrid portrait of Mrs. Black. If she could, Ron was sure she would come out of her portrait and murder everyone in her house.

Then there was Sirius. He was not doing well at all. They found him in the kitchen, a jug of Fire Whiskey half full and him looking very sleepy. This used to be his house, or at least his family's house, and he and Lupin had moved in only a week before. Sirius was often found in front of a bottle of whiskey and usually got into yelling battles with his mother's portrait.

The first night there Ron lay awake in his room. It was very large, and often strange noises came from it. He wished he were back at the Burrow. At least the noises that filled his room there were identifiable as the ghoul. He couldn't tell what sorts of things were making the odd noises in his room. It wasn't possible for a ghost to kill a person, was it? He didn't want to think about that anyway. He was startled a moment later by a knock on his door.

"Ron, it's me. Are you awake?" Ron's sister was standing in his doorway, wearing her nightgown and holding a lamp.

"Ginny? Is everything alright?" Ron asked, crossing the room and pulling the door open.

"I couldn't sleep. This place is creepy." Ginny walked into his room and placed the lamp on a nearby table.

"I'm sure this room is creepier then yours," Ron said.

He looked at her peculiarly. It was unusual for Ginny to come to him. She was quite a bit closer to the twins and he would have assumed she would rather be in their room. They were a flight up however.

"Do you mind if I just kip in here. I can lay on the floor."

"Don't be silly, Ginny. Of course you can sleep in here, and you don't have to kip on the floor, there's a bed in that wall if you just pull it down."

"Oh," Ginny said. And that night he didn't have to sleep alone. He and Ginny were talking into the night and the next night. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad here after all.

About a week later news came from Hermione.

"Her parents are going on a second honeymoon to Saigon. Bit of an odd place to honeymoon, don't you think?" Ron asked, looking up from the parchment at his parents.

They just smiled and said, "I think any place would be fine for a honeymoon."

Ron looked back at the letter.

They are looking for someone to look after me while they're gone. I was going to stay with an auntie in Wales, but I figured it would be interesting to be so close to the Order and spend time there. Is it all right with your parents?

Ron looked up again. "She wants to come here for the summer. That all right?"

Molly smiled again. Ron was starting to wonder if something was up. "Yes, that's fine by us. We will need to talk to her parents again, of course, but she's stayed at the Burrow before, so I'm sure it will all work out fine."

And three days later, Hermione arrived.

There was a knock on Ron's door. He'd just climbed into the covers. What now? If it were the twins wanting him to test some new fruit that would turn the eater into a dragon he'd kill them. He sighed and opened the door to see Hermione standing in front of it in her pajamas.

"I couldn't sleep," she said simply. She walked past Ron and sat down on the old armchair in the dark corner.

"Well, come in then," he muttered to himself, only just now realizing he was only wearing the bottoms to his pajamas. He walked over to his dresser and pulled the top on.

"Have you heard from Harry?" she asked. He could tell she was watching him put his shirt on. He wished she'd stop.

"He sounds a little annoyed with us, but I think he's fine." Ron leaned against his dresser. The silent tension in the room was so thick. He began to wish she would just leave.

"Well, I don't think he's fine. I don't think he'll be fine for a long time. Ron, he just saw someone murdered. He just saw You-Know-Who come back to life. And now he's in that Muggle home where he doesn't know of anything that's going on. Then there's all this rubbish they're printing about him in the Prophet. Really, Ron, how can you think he'll be fine?"

Ron hated it when Hermione was a know-it-all like this. What was worse was she was usually right. Harry always claimed that was why they liked her, but Ron wasn't sure. It made him mental the first time he met her on the Hogwarts Express and it made him mental still, nearly five years later.

"Hermione, I'm tired," he began. But then he stopped. She looked down at her feet. There was something else on her mind.

"What is it?" Ron asked.

"I'm not sure you'd understand. You probably aren't the best person to talk to about this. I tried Ginny, but she's still a bit young to know how I feel."

Uh oh. This wasn't girl stuff was it? Ron didn't want any of that. But Hermione continued. "It's Viktor," then she looked at Ron's face.

"Viktor Krum?" he asked.

"Yes, he still writes me. I was supposed to see him this summer, in fact. But I'm just not comfortable with that yet." She looked at her hands. "I would talk to Harry about this, but well, he's not here. And it's keeping me up." She looked up at Ron who had an expression on his face he wasn't even sure what meant.

He felt anger and resentment, at whom he didn't know yet, and he felt something else. An emotion he was familiar with. Jealousy. Of Harry? He didn't know, but it was more likely he was jealous of someone else. Krum.

"Hermione, if it makes you uncomfortable, then you don't have to do anything, right? I mean, he's not even in the general area. You're worrying about someone who's thousands of miles away and something that will never happen."

"What do you mean will never happen?" Hermione snapped.

"Well, you aren't seriously considering staying with him are you? He's out of school now. He's old."

"I have seriously considered it, that's why I'm here. Are you daft?"

Ron held in his anger, he really didn't want to start a fight with her now. He really just wanted to go to sleep.

"Hermione, it really doesn't matter to me," he said, and he tried to crawl into his bed. Then he realized it did matter to him. He didn't want her to go to Bulgaria. Why? He couldn't tell.

Hermione huffed and headed toward the door.

"Wait," Ron said, surprising even himself. Hermione turned and looked at him questionably. "Um, I was just wondering how your summer studying is going?" He really didn't want her to leave. Ginny wasn't sleeping in his room anymore and he hated the odd noises it made.

Hermione looked at him and then sat back in the old chair. "Well, Morgana the Mad was interesting to read about, but I really think she got a little carried away with her anti-smell potion. I mean who cares, really, if the flowers didn't smell...." She continued, but Ron just smiled and stopped listening. This was his Hermione.