Canticum Novum

Chapter 8: Will The Circle Be Unbroken?

There are loved ones in the glory,

Whose dear forms you often miss;

When you close your earthly story,

Will you join them in their bliss?

Will the circle be unbroken

By and by, by and by?

In a better home awaiting

In the sky, in the sky?

Ron came to first. For a minute he was groggy and disoriented, unsure where he was and what had happened, but everything clicked into place when he looked around and realised that Hermione was not next to him.

Ron leaped to his feet, anxiously scanning around him, praying she hadn't got lost on the way or gone on without him. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw her sprawled on the other side of the path.

"Hermione!" he called.

Hermione's eyes flew open. She pushed herself to a standing position and looked around her. "We made it!" she cried, sounding happy and relieved all at once.

"Yeah!" Ron called back happily. He moved to the centre of the path. "Come on, Hermione. Let's go find Harry."

"How?" Hermione said practically. "We can't just look for him randomly."

Ron thought for a minute. "He told you that he had to think where he was going, right?"

"Right. Why?"

"Well, think about it. If Harry found himself back up here--and couldn't or wouldn't get back to us--where would he go? Back to his parents, to Sirius. And he told you they live at a place called Red House. So...so we just tell our feet we're going to Red House and...well, maybe we'll get there. And if we get there, then maybe we can find Harry too."

Hermione hesitated, then nodded. "Okay. Let's go."

The two started walking down the road. Ron noticed that Hermione seemed rather quiet and pale and started to get worried about her. What would Harry say if anything happened to her? Just as importantly, what would Ron himself do if he lost both of his best friends?
"Hermione? Is something wrong?" he asked hesitantly. Usually when he asked that question he got his head bitten off.

To his surprise, Hermione swallowed. "I was just...wondering...what if he doesn't want to come back?"

"What?" Ron almost stopped dead but somehow managed to keep going. "Why wouldn't he?"

"I...oh, Ron, what if he's happy here?" Hermione said despairingly. "What if he wants to stay with his parents and Sirius? What if...what if this time he wants to stay here for good?"

"Don't be ridiculous, Hermione, of course he'll come back with us," Ron said, even though he was no longer sure he believed that himself.

"I know that," Hermione said quietly. "I know he will, because I know Harry. We're risking our lives for this, Ron--or so you said. All you have to do is tell him that and he'll go back with us no matter what he wants, because we were willing to give up everything for him and he'd think it would be pointless to...to trivialise that, I guess. But, Ron...if he's happy, if he doesn't want to leave...I don't want to make him." Tears filled her eyes and her voice trembled as she spoke. "I c-couldn't make him do anything he didn't want to do...and if staying here is what he wants...I'm not going to stop him, as much as it might hurt me." She seemed uncertain. "I guess that means I don't care about him as much as I thought I did."

Ron stared at Hermione in frank astonishment. My God, she really does love him, he thought to himself. "No, absolutely not. Hermione, the fact that you would be willing to let him stay no matter how it hurt you indicates that you care for him more than you thought you did, not less. You're willing to do anything for him if it'll make him happy. But I don't think you have anything to worry about," he added. "Harry loves you as much as you love him. There's nothing you can say or do that will change that, and the fact that you're here will mean more to him than anything either one of us could possibly say."

In the joyous days of childhood,

Oft they told of wondrous love,

Pointed to the dying Saviour

Now they dwell with Him above.

Will the circle be unbroken

By and by, by and by?

In a better home awaiting

In the sky, in the sky?

The two fell silent as they continued. The road led them on. Sometimes Ron stumbled, sometimes Hermione stumbled. Once they stumbled at the same time. Twice Hermione tripped and fell to her knees, but managed to get up quickly. Ron fell three times. After they had been walking for what seemed like forever, both of them fell at the same time. Ron was momentarily stunned by the fall, but after a minute he got to his feet and turned to Hermione. To his alarm, she was still on her hands and knees, seemingly unable to get up.

"Hermione? Are you okay?" he asked anxiously.

Hermione nodded. She seemed winded. "Give me...a minute," she managed to get out. After a few seconds she rose shakily to her feet, then staggered a little.

Ron caught her and propped her up. "You going to be okay?"

"Yeah, I'm...fine," Hermione breathed. "But Ron...I don't think I can...go much farther. How far do we have to go?"

"I think that's it," Ron said, pointing. A neat little red house sat just off the path to their left, a winding gravel path leading to a painted stoop and a honey oak door. "Come on. Can't hurt to try."

Hermione nodded. "Okay."

Ron helped Hermione limp up the path--she was still not quite strong enough to support herself--then reached out and raised a hand, hesitated, then knocked three times on the door.

You remember songs of heaven

Which you sang with childish voice,

Do you love the hymns they taught you,

Or are songs of earth your choice?

Will the circle be unbroken

By and by, by and by?

In a better home awaiting

In the sky, in the sky?

A woman opened the door and gave them funny looks. "Can I help you?"

Ron stepped forward respectfully. "Pardon me, ma'am, but...we're looking for Harry Potter. Is he here?"

The woman looked at them in a much more friendly way. "Oh! Come on in. He's out right now--sort of a guy's countryside jaunt, if you will--but he should be back any time if you'd like to wait."

"If you don't mind," Ron said gratefully, stepping into the house. He held out his hand. "I'm Ron Weasley, and this is my friend Hermione Granger."

The woman's eyes widened in surprise. "Good Lord. Please tell me you're not dead...although I doubt Harry will be pleased if you're in a coma either."

"No, of course not," Ron said hastily. "We...well, we came looking for him. We're getting really worried again, and when he went under on us...we had to do something."

"I totally understand. Friends till the end and all that." The woman smiled at them. "I'm Helga Hufflepuff. Come on in...Ro! Lil! We've got company!"

A woman with white-blonde hair and midnight-blue eyes poked her head out of the kitchen. "Who're you two?"

"Friends of Harry's, they've come looking for him, they aren't dead, this is Ron, this is Hermione, this is Rowena Ravenclaw, Lily Potter is in the kitchen, yes she's Harry's mother, am I missing anything?" Helga summed up.

Rowena laughed. "Nice to meet you two. Harry's lucky to have friends like you. Come on into the kitchen...I bet Lily wants to meet you."

"What's that about me?" a light, musical voice called from the kitchen.

Rowena led Ron and Hermione into the kitchen. "Lily, this is Ron Weasley and this is his friend Hermione Granger, they're friends of Harry's. They've come to get him back."

Lily turned and smiled. "That's wonderful! He'll be really pleased."

Ron got a bit of an unpleasant shock. Lily Potter's eyes were exactly the same as Harry's, but her face was built differently...almost like Hermione's. Ron suddenly realised that he knew what Harry and Hermione's daughter would look like.

You can picture happy gatherings

Round the fireside long ago,

And you think of tearful partings,

When they left you here below:

Will the circle be unbroken

By and by, by and by?

In a better home awaiting

In the sky, in the sky?

Lily studied Hermione and looked concerned. "Are you all right, dear?"

Hermione nodded. "I'll be fine...just a little sore."

"She tripped coming in," Ron said, half-scolding. "Almost couldn't get up."

Rowena and Helga immediately pushed her into a tall kitchen chair.

"That must've been some blow," Rowena said in concern.

"Or will be," Helga added. "From what Harry's told us, his big blow hasn't happened yet."

"No, I think hers was," Lily said quietly. "Ron, did you fall too?"

Ron frowned a little. "Well, yeah, but I got up a little more quickly. Why?"

Lily nodded grimly. "Harry was the big blow then. That must've shaken you really badly."

Hermione nodded, looking down at her hands.

Suddenly, Ron understood. "Oh, no wonder it hit her harder then. She's the one who found him on that floor. I didn't even find out about all this until yesterday."

Lily stared at Hermione in astonishment. "You found my boy on the floor?"

Hermione nodded again. "I was so worried about him...I had to go looking for him or I'd've gone out of my mind."

"Just like she had to come looking for him now or she'd have gone crazy," Ron interjected. "Which isn't to say that she didn't go crazy anyway."

Lily walked over to Hermione and hugged her tightly. "Thank you," she whispered. "You don't know how much it means to me that you worked to make sure my boy was safe and well."

"It means a lot to me that he's all right too," Hermione said softly. "Is he..." She swallowed. "Do you think he wants to come back with us?"

"Of course he does," Lily said instantly. "He misses you, all of you, and he's been trying to get back to you since he got here. But the road won't let him go."

Hermione looked up in anguish. "Why not?"

"Because it doesn't believe anyone cares about him," Helga said simply. "He arrived back up here so soon after he left, they assumed he wasn't loved back there and is refusing to let him leave. Now that you're here, though, it should let him go because you can take him. You risked a lot to get up here and get him, so the road will believe that you do care and it'll let him go."

"Good," Ron said with satisfaction.

One by one their seats were emptied,

One by one they went away;

Here the circle has been broken--

Will it be complete one day?

Will the circle be unbroken

By and by, by and by?

In a better home awaiting

In the sky, in the sky?

Before anyone could say anything else, the relative peace was shattered by a truly awful rendition of "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" in several different keys, none of which was the right one.

"Godric's back," Helga and Rowena said in unison.

The kitchen door banged open and three men came tumbling in. Ron felt like he was staring at his brother Charlie or something; this had to have been Godric Gryffindor, whom Harry had described as looking like Ron. That meant the man with silver-blonde hair had to be Salazar Slytherin. The boy in the black-and-yellow jersey was unmistakably Cedric Diggory.

"Where are my boys?" Lily asked half-teasingly, her hands on her hips.

Cedric shook his head. "James and Sirius are out in the garden with Harry. He...he kind of had a meltdown."

Hermione looked over at him sharply; Ron could see that she was ready to cry, to say nothing of being worried. It was Lily, however, who spoke. "A meltdown? Is he okay?"

"I don't know," Cedric answered honestly. "He's...well, he's really upset. We tried taking a loop and tricking the gates--coming out on the other side of the path, you know, approaching them from off the road--and it didn't work, we just looped around. Salazar mentioned that the road might be right, that no one did care about Harry."

"And I've got the bruise on my shin to prove it," Salazar added with a rueful grin.

"Salazar!" scolded Rowena and Helga in the same breath.

Cedric shook his head. "Well, Harry...Harry kind of lost it. He broke down sobbing, and I do mean that literally...he collapsed where he was standing. I think he's a little afraid himself that no one cares."

"We care," Hermione squeaked, finding at least a little of her voice.

Cedric looked over at them and blanched. "Hermione! Ron! Oh, God, don't tell me you're..."

"We are not dead," Ron cut him off. "We are here looking for Harry because we are worried about him. Specifically, because Hermione wouldn't give me any peace until I agreed."

Cedric shook his head. "I'd better go intercept him--warn him--he'll flip again if he sees you..." He turned and hurried out the door.

"Okay, Cedric, we're coming," an amused-sounding voice said from outside.

"No, it's--" They heard Cedric hesitate. "Harry, don't panic or scream or faint or anything, okay? It's really important that you not do that."

Ron groaned and pounded his forehead with the heel of his hand. Stupid, Cedric, really stupid, he thought to himself. Now he thinks there's a reason for him to be panicky. He's going to come in here and see us without any prior warning and flip out.

Sure enough, Harry's familiar voice cut in, worry etched in his tones. "What's wrong?"

Ron's gaze flickered to Hermione. She had had the same reaction when he had said the same words to her before telling her about Harry's turn for the worse. Now she seemed pale and frightened.

"Nothing! Nothing exactly," Cedric said quickly. "It's just that--you see, they--"

"Harry, wait a second!" an unfamiliar voice called. Footsteps could be heard on the porch, and then the back door opened, revealing Harry. But it wasn't the Harry Potter the wizarding world "knew" and idolised. It was the small, scared Harry Potter, the little boy few people had ever seen once and fewer still had seen more than once. Ron was one of the blessed few. So was Hermione.

"Harry!" Lily said, her voice full of fake cheerfulness. "Hungry?"

Harry hadn't noticed them yet, Ron realised. Harry offered Lily a sort of half-smile. "Not really. I was just--" He froze and stared, his eyes locked on the kitchen table.

Ron glanced back at Hermione; she was pale to the point of translucence, gripping the table to keep from collapsing. He returned his gaze to Harry, who also seemed like he was about to collapse. He stared at Ron and Hermione as though he'd never seen them before.

Ron got to his feet quickly. "Harry..."

He never finished. Harry turned abruptly and ran.