The Book of Morgan Le Fey

Chapter Twenty-Five: Wandless Magic

'Ready for the D.A. meeting?' said Ron, as he straightened his tie and ran a hand through his hair. They were holding the meeting at eight o'clock, a time later than curfew, but only because McGonagall had approved it, and only because there would be a dozen Aurors there for security.

'I guess,' said Harry. 'I'm bloody tired, though. I dunno why I agreed to it. How the hell am I supposed to concentrate on what I'm doing, let alone lead a meeting?'

'I'll help you out,' said Ron, trying to sound more confident than he really felt. Unlike Harry, he had no confidence in his leadership abilities. But he'd given Bill his word...

Harry pulled on his shoes and glasses and then the dormitory door creaked open and Seamus, Dean and Neville walked in.

Ron grimaced as Seamus and Dean gave him wicked, knowing smiles.

'Hey, Weasley,' said Seamus. 'Hermione's not hiding anywhere in here, is she?'

'Knock it off,' said Ron, rolling his eyes.

'What does that mean?' said Harry, pulling on his robes.

'Hermione slept here last night,' Neville blurted. Harry's jaw dropped.

'Thanks, Neville,' Ron groaned.

Neville went scarlet in the face. 'Oh...hell. Sorry, Ron.'

'Yeah,' said Seamus, chuckling. 'Imagine our surprise when we found the prefects in a clinch--'

'Seamus, don't you have something else you could be doing right now?' said Ron menacingly.

'Not really,' said Seamus, who was smiling.

'Drop it, Seamus,' Dean muttered.

'Look, maybe you guys can go down and set things up for the D.A. meeting, in the Great Hall,' said Harry quickly. 'I could use your help on that.'

Seamus shrugged, but he seemed to get the hint. 'All right. Sure.'

'See you down there,' said Dean, a bit sheepishly. Neville was still bright red and his lips were pursed in embarrassment as he followed the other two boys out of the dormitory, leaving Ron and Harry alone again.

For a long moment, neither of them said anything. Harry seemed to be making quite a fuss over his tie, when he finally spoke.

'Is that true?' he asked. 'About Hermione.'

'Yeah, it's true,' said Ron. 'But we didn't DO anything, okay? I mean, yeah, we SLEPT together, in the literal sense, and...we had a good snog this morning, but that's it.'

'Okay,' said Harry, holding up his hands. 'Are you planning on, uh, sleeping together--in the literal sense--again?'

'Dunno,' said Ron, looking down at his feet. 'If she wants, I guess. I mean...it was nice. Waking up next to her.'

Ron felt, rather than saw, Harry nod, and they said nothing for a moment. Then Harry cleared his throat.

'Let's get down to the Great Hall, yeah?' he said.

'Right,' said Ron, bringing his mind to the task nearly at hand. They started out of the dormitory, checking for their wands as they went. As they headed out the door, Harry spoke.

'That's my favorite part,' he said.

'What is?'

'The waking up part,' said Harry.

Ron looked at him dubiously. 'Even better than sex?'

Harry flushed and grinned. 'Yeah. I mean, that part's always good but the waking up part? It's like...the icing on the cake. Or something.'

'I don't wanna hear about you and Susan and icing, you dirty great perv,' said Ron, punching Harry in the arm.

'Shut it,' said Harry, still grinning. 'When you finally get around to having sex maybe you'll know what I'm talking about.'

'Piss off!' said Ron, a bit more sharply than he'd meant to. Harry immediately seemed to realize he'd gone a bit too far.

'Sorry, mate,' he said quickly. 'I didn't mean--'

'Forget it,' said Ron, and he shook his head. 'Didn't mean to bite your head off. It's just...never mind. Let's go to the meeting, okay?'

Harry started to speak, but seemed to think better of it, and simply nodded, and together they left the dormitory.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ron said little as he helped Harry and his other dorm mates set up the Great Hall for the D.A. meeting. Several Aurors, including Tonks (her hair was short and blue tonight), were positioned in various points round the room. He saw Hermione and she gave him a soft smile, and he smiled back, but then he remembered what Harry had said and he felt his mood darken again.

It was silly, Ron knew, to be upset about sex. Or more accurately, about the fact that he hadn't had it yet. Hermione wasn't ready. But he couldn't help but wish she'd hurry up and GET ready. He had loved having her in his bed last night, curled up next to him, but it was just so frustrating at the same time. And the feelings of frustration lead to feelings of guilt. He didn't WANT to want her so badly, in that way, but he did. He wanted to be a good, considerate boyfriend, and so far, for the most part, he'd done a decent job of that. But...he was human, wasn't he? She drove him crazy.

And then he thought about that morning, and he wondered just how far things might have gone had McGonagall not interrupted them. There was something different about what had happened this morning; Hermione had seemed more willing to go further. Or had she? He couldn't really KNOW what she wanted at the time. Maybe she would have stopped him, after all. And of course, it didn't help that on top of this was Ron's guilt over Percy. His brother was laid up in hospital with shattered legs, and Ron was more concerned with getting his girlfriend's pyjama top off.

All in all, he hated all these jumbled feelings, and he wished there were a way to deal with them that didn't involve the usual...remedies. It wasn't easy sharing a room with four other blokes who were probably at least as randy as he was. Okay, maybe not Harry, who was getting some, but as far as Ron knew, none of the other boys in his dorm were. Or at least, he hoped not. He'd hate to be the only one who wasn't getting any.

And then Hermione smiled at him again, and the guilt returned. He should be happy with what he had. She was the best girl ever, and it wasn't like she wasn't letting him do anything. And maybe, if McGonagall hadn't interrupted them, he would have gotten her top off and he could have finally looked at her, assuming she'd have let him. Which she hadn't yet. It was a bit weird, really, he thought, that she'd let him touch her but not look at her.

'Can everyone quiet down, please?'

Harry's voice snapped Ron out of his own jumbled thoughts, and he looked up. Harry was standing on the daïs in front of the staff table.

Gradually, the murmuring voices died down, and Ron allowed his eyes to take in the many faces in the room. All the usual D.A. members were there, but Ron was none too pleased to see Malfoy and his Slytherin contingent there as well. In fact, Ron didn't like it at all. Without Bill there to supervise, Malfoy and his cronies could easily cause trouble. Ron turned to Harry and met his eyes and nodded his head just slightly in the Slytherins' direction, and Harry nodded back. He understood.

'In lieu of a lesson today,' Harry said, 'Professor Weasley asked me to run a D.A. meeting, so we can keep up with our practical defense.'

At this, Malfoy and his minions sniggered, but quietly. Ron shot them a furious look, and felt a warm hand on his arm. He turned to see Hermione looking up at him anxiously.

'They won't try anything with Aurors here,' she said, but she didn't sound convinced about that herself.

'Let's pair up,' said Harry loudly. 'Professor Weasley had us working on wandless magic, in particular the Defensive Charge. Let's give that a go, yeah?'

A murmur went up in the crowd; clearly, nobody had been expecting to practice this.

'Excuse me,' said the grating voice of Zacharias Smith. 'Do you think it's WISE to practice this spell without a teacher's supervision?'

Harry bristled, just slightly, but he kept his cool. 'Professor Weasley put me in charge, Smith. If you don't want to be here, you know where the door is.'

Smith scowled, but said nothing.

'Wands away, then,' said Harry, looking pointedly at the Slytherins. Everyone complied, but Malfoy gave a sneer and he put his wand back in his robe pocket.

And with that, everyone went to work. Ron had difficulty concentrating, because his eyes kept wandering over to the Slytherins.

'Ron, you can't expect to throw the charge if you're not focusing!' said Hermione irritably, as she gripped his arms and waited for him to focus his energy on producing the electric current in his body.

'Sorry,' he grumbled. 'I just...bloody Malfoy.'

'Ignore them,' said Hermione firmly.

'Right,' said Ron, and he forced himself to focus on what he was doing. Wandless magic was very difficult; even fully trained wizards found it challenging. At least, that's what Bill had told them, and as far as Ron was concerned, Bill was one of the most capable wizards around, especially for being so relatively young. A wand made casting spells easier because it focused the spell. Wandless magic often produced haphazard or undesired results. Like when Harry had blown up his aunt back before their third year. But wandless magic was always a useful skill to learn. One couldn't always count on having a wand.

'Ready?' said Hermione, and she stood behind Ron and wrapped her arms tightly round his waist, pinning his arms.

'Yeah,' said Ron, trying not to let his mind wander as a result of her being pressed up against him. 'You realize I could shake you off without the magic, of course.'

'Yes, yes, I know how big and strong you are,' said Hermione, in her best annoyed/affectionate voice. 'Just humour me, okay? Please? You can do this.'

'Right,' said Ron, and he took a deep breath and drew his mind inward. He focused on Hermione's grip round his arms, pinning them to his sides. For someone so small, she did have a strong grip on him. She'd never beat him in an arm wrestling match, but she wasn't a delicate little thing either, even if she seemed so small next to him. He felt the strength of her arms and hands as she clutched him, and suddenly he could feel his blood, and hers, pounding through their veins. He focused on her arms, and the blood pumping through them, and closed his eyes and thought to himself, 'Let go!'

A sharp buzz shot through his body. Hermione gasped and released him, jerking away from him as though she'd touched a hot stove. Ron opened his eyes and blinked.

'Whoa,' he said. 'That was intense.'

'It worked,' said Hermione, and she grinned. 'You did it.'

Ron grinned back. Okay, so maybe he wasn't complete rubbish at wandless magic after all.

'My turn,' said Hermione eagerly, and he nodded and stepped behind her and put his arms round her, pinning her arms at her side. His arms were just below her breasts and he held her to him and tried to think of anything OTHER than what he was doing, because this position was a bit intimate.

'Okay, ready?' said Hermione.

'Sure,' Ron heard himself say. He watched the rise and fall of her chest as she breathed.

Focus, Weasley, he thought. How on earth did she do this to him?

Suddenly he felt another current race through his body; it was sharp and painful and he let go of her with a jerk, stumbling back just slightly. The pulse she'd created was even more powerful than his, and she'd taken half the time to work the charge. He didn't know whether to be impressed or jealous.

'Wow,' he said, settling for impressed. Well, she was better at most of this stuff, anyway. He was used to it by now. 'That was a good one.'

'Thanks,' said Hermione. 'I've been practicing that one.'

'Of course,' said Ron, smiling. 'I kind of like that one.'

'Why?' said Hermione, but then her eyes narrowed. 'Ron, you pig.' But she smiled and blushed, just a little. And suddenly Ron very much wanted to leave the stupid D.A. meeting and take her back to his dorm and to his bed and continue where they'd left off that morning.

''Mione,' he said. 'Um, do you think...that is, are you interested in maybe--'

But Ron's request for Hermione to sleep over again was cut off when a loud yell pierced through the room. Ron and Hermione looked up to see none other than Eddie Carmichael go flying halfway across the room to land in a heap.

'Stop!' Harry yelled, and he jumped down from the daïs and headed over to Eddie. Everyone else stopped what they were doing and watched.

'You okay, Carmichael?' Harry asked, extending a hand to help the Head Boy up.

'Fine,' said Eddie, sounding rankled. 'Fine.' He shook off Harry's hand and stood up on his own, and for a brief moment his eyes met Ron's. Ron felt his blood go cold. Eddie's eyes were like icy slate, full of something Ron couldn't quite place. But it was the same awful, unpleasant thing he'd seen a few weeks ago, when Eddie had helped Luna with her schoolbag. Something off. Ron wished there was a word he could find to describe it.

In the next instant Eddie's eyes moved away, and Ron followed the Head Boy's gaze. He was looking at Luna Lovegood. And in the next moment, so was everyone else in the room. Clearly, Eddie and Luna had paired up.

Luna was staring at Eddie with a horrified expression on her face. Eddie grinned at her.

'Good one, Luna,' he said, but his smile didn't reach his eyes, and his voice sounded tight. 'I never knew you were so good at wandless magic.'

Luna's eyes were huge and she swallowed, and her mouth moved like a fish out of water. She tried to say something, but instead a choked sound came out of her throat. She shook her head, and her eyes filled with tears.

'Hey, hey,' said Eddie, glancing nervously round the room. 'It's okay. I'm fine.' He put a hand on her shoulder.

Her reaction was as if he'd done a Defensive Charge on her. She jerked away from him, gave a kind of strangled cry, and ran from the room, shoving past several Ravenclaws and a few Hufflepuffs on her way out. Tonks snapped her fingers and nodded to a young, sandy-haired Auror, who followed Luna out.

Malfoy and his cronies burst into laughter.

'Looks like Loony's having another "episode",' Malfoy said snidely, and this comment was greeted with sycophantic laughter from Crabbe, Goyle, Blaise Zabini, Theodore Nott, Pansy Parkinson and Millicent Bulstrode.

'Shut up, Malfoy,' said a sharp female voice, and Ron was surprised to see it was Ginny. Without a backward glance she started to storm out of the hall, shoving Malfoy roughly out of her way. Malfoy snarled and pulled out his wand to point it at her, but in the next instant the Slytherins were surrounded not only by other D.A. members, but by a few Aurors as well, and Nymphadora Tonks stepped coolly forward, put her hand on Malfoy's arm, and pushed it down. Malfoy resisted slightly, but she gripped his arm hard, and gave it a hard shove.

'I'd put that away, Malfoy,' she said. 'You're liable to hurt someone.'

Ginny was still moving toward the door, and Tonks, without taking her arms off Malfoy, called, 'Ginny. Stay where you are.'

Malfoy glowered at her, then at Tonks, and rubbed at his arm. 'I'd better go wash this arm,' he said. 'Now it's been contaminated with Mudblood germs.'

'Ouch, that hurt,' said Tonks sarcastically. 'Who writes your material, Draco? Those two lunkheads?' And she indicated Crabbe and Goyle.

Malfoy scowled and started to open his mouth to say something, but Tonks cut him off and spoke in a ringing voice.

'This session of the D.A. is over,' she called. 'Students line up and get ready to be escorted back to your common rooms.'

And with that, the meeting was over. The students obeyed and lined up as instructed, with Eddie and Katie leading the pack, and the prefects leading their houses. Harry embraced Susan quickly before she joined the other Hufflepuffs. Ron felt Hermione take his hand and the two of them lead the Gryffindors out of the Great Hall and back to the common room. Hermione exchanged several worried looks with Ron, and Ron knew exactly what she was thinking about : what had happened between Luna and Eddie. Luna had thrown such a powerful Defensive Charge, it sent Eddie flying across the room. And then, she'd fled the Great Hall in tears.

The students filed slowly into the common room, with Ron and Hermione bringing up the rear, just behind Harry, Ginny and Neville. Hermione headed straight to the corner of the room, closest to the fireplace, and appeared to wait for everyone to go up to their dormitories. Neville took a seat by the fire; Ginny fell into one of the squishy arm-chairs; Harry stood next to the mantle.

For a long moment nobody spoke.

Hermione looked agitated, and she kept shooting glances at Neville. It was obvious what she wanted to do: to talk about what had happened with Luna, to see if Ginny knew anything about what had happened. But they couldn't involve Neville.

Finally, Hermione cleared her throat and said, as gently as she could, 'Um, Neville, do you think you could...just excuse Ron and Harry and Ginny and me?'

'What?' he said, as thought in a slight daze. 'Oh, um, okay.' He blushed, and stood up. 'Sorry.'

'Don't apologize,' said Hermione quickly. 'It's okay. We just need to talk, is all.'

'Right,' said Neville, looking thoroughly miserable. Ron felt guilty. He didn't like leaving Neville out of things. Neville was a nice kid, and he'd come a long way in the six years they'd known him. But they'd made a pact not to involve anyone else outside of the four of them and Susan. This was for Neville's own good, really.

Neville trod slowly to the stairs and put a foot on the bottom step, then turned to them.

'Fancy Luna with that Defensive Charge,' he said, sounding impressed. 'I wonder if that's the book's influence.'

His words hung in the air, but they didn't penetrate until he was halfway up the staircase.

'Neville!' Hermione snapped. 'What did you say?'

'Oh,' said Neville and he went scarlet. 'Uh, about Luna, and...and wandless magic. I just wondered if the book had something to do with it.'

'What book?' said Harry slowly.

'You know,' said Neville. 'Uh, The Book of Morgan Le Fey.'

Ron was quite certain he could have heard a pin drop in that moment.

'How...did you know about that?' said Hermione slowly, and then she turned to Ginny.

'I didn't say a word, I swear,' said Ginny adamantly.

'Me, neither,' said Harry and Ron together. It was a given, of course, that Hermione would never have breathed a word.

'Nobody told me,' said Neville, a bit defensively. 'I figured it out.'

'How?' said Hermione.

'Well, um,' said Neville, blushing. 'I remember when you asked about those genealogical charts, and I had forgotten to owl my gran about it, but you said you had everything you needed. But I sort of got curious about why you wanted a genealogical chart. I mean, we're not doing any research on that stuff at the moment in History. But one day I was in the library studying History and I came across that bit in the textbook about the book, and I remembered Luna telling me how her mum had died; Luna mentioned her mum had been using a spell book, but that nobody else had a copy of it. I had asked her at the time what book it was, but she wouldn't say. Only that her mum had passed it down to her. I guess I sort of put everything together on my own.'

'Neville, do you know anything else?' said Hermione urgently.

'Anything else about...what?' said Neville hesitantly. 'I only know that Luna has this book. I don't know why it's such a big deal. I mean, I guess it's a big deal for historic value. And when I saw what Luna did tonight I wondered if it had stuff in their on how to do really strong wandless magic. But...but that's all I know.'

Ron glanced at Hermione, then at Harry and Ginny.

'Neville, listen,' said Hermione. 'Have you told anyone else about this? About what you know?'

'N-no,' said Neville, looking nervous and a bit stricken. 'Was I supposed to?'

'No, you weren't, Neville,' said Ginny firmly. 'It's okay. You didn't do anything wrong.'

'That's right, Neville,' said Harry encouragingly. 'But...look. You can't tell anyone what you know, okay? It's really important to keep the book a secret.'

'Why?' said Neville, his face screwing up in confusion.

'We...can't say,' said Hermione apologetically. 'We're sorry.'

'Oh,' said Neville, and his face looked crestfallen.

'We really can't, Neville,' said Ron lamely.

'Why not?' said Neville, and his face became as angry as Ron had ever seen it. 'This...this is about...about You-Know-Who, isn't it?'

'Neville--' said Hermione quickly, but Neville cut her off.

'He wants that book, doesn't he?' said Neville. 'That's why Luna's been so spooked lately. She and I have been talking, you know. She wouldn't tell me what was bothering her, she just kept saying she's scared. It's because she knows he's after the book.'

'Harry,' said Hermione helplessly, but Harry shrugged.

'That's it, isn't it?' said Neville, more confidently. 'Voldemort wants the book so he can do wandless magic!'

Another silence greeted Neville's words, and Harry swallowed.

'You said it,' he said. 'You said Voldemort's name.'

Neville blanched, then flushed. 'Oh. Um...I did?'

'Yeah,' said Harry, and he couldn't keep an impressed look off his face.

'I guess...I did,' said Neville, looking at his feet. 'But...I'm right, aren't I? About Vol-Voldemort wanting the book?'

The four of them looked at one another helplessly, and finally, Harry said, 'We might as well tell him.'

'Am I right?' said Neville, suddenly eager. 'Voldemort wants the book for wandless magic?'

'You're right about him wanting the book,' said Hermione, casting her eyes round the room to check for any other students who might have slipped in unnoticed. 'But not about the wandless magic part.'

'Oh,' said Neville, and he looked disappointed that he was only half right. 'Well, what's he want it for, then?'

At this, nobody said anything right away. Ron looked at Harry, then Ginny, then Hermione, and soon, Ginny and Harry were looking at Hermione.

'What?' she said.

'You explain it to him,' said Harry.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Half an hour later, Neville headed up to the dormitory to, in his words, 'recover from information overload.' Hermione had told him everything, in the best layman's terms she could manage, and Neville had listened raptly, never interrupting her once to ask any questions. Hermione finished with extracting a promise from Neville not to breathe a word of what she'd told him to anyone, on pain of a jinx that 'made what Marietta Edgecombe got last year look mild.' Neville gulped and readily agreed, remarking ruefully that he'd probably forget it all by tomorrow, anyway.

'Shit,' said Harry, running a hand through his hair. 'Now Neville knows. Why don't we just run a press release in The Daily Prophet and have done with it?'

'He won't tell anyone,' said Ginny confidently. 'He knows what Hermione would do to him.'

'That's not the point, Gin,' said Harry tiredly.

Ginny paused, then said, 'I know.'

'Ginny,' said Ron, 'did you know anything about Luna's ability to do wandless magic?'

'No,' said Ginny. 'I mean, I knew she was working on it, but I never dreamed she'd be so powerful. She threw Carmichael off her like he was nothing.'

'He didn't look too happy about that, did he?' said Harry.

'Oh, you noticed that, too?' said Ron. 'Anything new to report, Gin, about Luna's crush on our lovely Head Boy?'

'She keeps insisting I'm the only one she's told about the book,' said Ginny. 'But Eddie's smart. If Neville figured it out, so could Eddie. I mean, I don't THINK Eddie's really evil, but I don't like the idea of him knowing about the book, either. Anyway, she says that they're just friends and that he's been helping her with stuff, but she won't say what the stuff is.'

'So we're no closer to knowing if Eddie knows,' said Ron in frustration. 'Bloody hell. And on top of this Dumbledore and Madam Bones and Percy and Hermione's parents are all in hospital and we don't know when they'll be out--'

'Hey.'

A fifth voice startled them all and they looked up. Bill had just crawled through the portrait hole. His hair was slightly mussed, his face was pale, and his eyes were red-rimmed.

'Bill!' Ginny yelped, and she ran to him and threw her arms round her oldest brother. He hugged her back and sighed. Ron, Harry and Hermione all crossed to him.

'How's Percy?' said Ron at once.

'He's...he's going to make it,' said Bill, sounding tired. 'But...his legs were really messed up in the attack. They're...they're not sure if he'll walk again.'

Ginny put a hand to her mouth and her eyes filled with tears.

Ron, for his part, felt Hermione take his hand and Harry put a hand on his shoulder as he tried to process the idea that Percy would never have the use of his legs.

'And...M-mum and Dad?' said Ron weakly.

'They're still at the hospital,' said Bill, clutching Ginny's hand. 'Percy woke up this afternoon and he recognized us, so that's good news. He got your letter, Ron, right before I left. Pig must have flown like the wind to get it there. I had to carry the poor bugger back with me.'

'Did Percy read the letter?' said Ron, feeling a bit embarrassed but wanting to know all the same.

'Yeah, he read it,' said Bill. 'He was...he was really happy about it. Can you imagine? Damn sod is sitting there with all the bones in his legs crushed and...and he smiled and said he was glad his little brother forgave him.'

Bill's eyes became shiny, and Ron swallowed and felt a lump in his throat. Damn Percy. It had been so much easier to be angry with him.

'What was he thinking?' said Ron in a choked voice. 'Taking on all those Death Eaters and Dementors like that, almost getting himself killed.'

'Yeah,' said Bill. 'Who'd have thought?' He cleared his throat and took a deep breath. 'He told me he'll write you two in the next couple of days, soon as he can sit up properly. I'm...I'm beat. I'm going to turn in.'

'Thanks, Bill,' said Ron. 'For going and...for everything.'

'You bet,' said Bill. 'What are big brothers for, right?'

'Thank you, Bill,' Ginny sniffed, and she hugged Bill tightly again.

'Anything for my favorite sister,' said Bill, smiling. He started toward the portrait hole, then turned, as if remembering something.

'Good meeting tonight?' he said, looking at Harry.

'Oh,' said Harry, blinking. 'Uh, yeah. It was fine. We practiced the Defensive Charge.'

Hermione made a soft noise in her throat, and Ron, Harry, Ginny and Bill looked at her. Ron wondered if she was going to bring up the incident with Luna and Eddie, but she pursed her lips and said nothing, and the rest of them took her lead.

'What?' said Bill suspiciously.

'Nothing,' said Harry at once. 'Just...well, Malfoy was being a prat but that's nothing new. Tonks got in his face and straightened him out.'

'Okay,' said Bill. 'I'm glad it went well. I'll see you lot tomorrow, then. Good night.'

Murmurs of 'good night, Bill,' echoed in the common room, and then Bill was gone.

Everyone looked at Hermione.

'Why didn't we tell Bill about Luna?' Harry asked, as if Hermione was the only logical person to ask such a question.

'You saw him, Harry,' said Hermione. 'He's knackered. It can wait until tomorrow.'

Everyone nodded at this, and though it was relatively early in the evening, Ron was so fatigued at this point that the only thing he could imagine doing now was going to bed. Ginny headed up the girls' staircase, and Harry took the boys', leaving Ron and Hermione alone.

'Ron, are you okay?' said Hermione gently, still holding his hand. 'About Percy, I mean?'

'I guess,' Ron mumbled. 'He's alive, right? That's what counts.'

'That's right,' said Hermione, in a more firm voice.

Ron grunted and ran a hand through his hair, then pulled away from her and walked to the fireplace. All the guilt he'd been feeling today came roaring back at him.

'He might not walk again,' said Ron, and the lump in his throat threatened to overwhelm him, but words poured out of him anyway. 'Stupid bloody git. He acts like he doesn't even have a family for a year and a half and then he comes back and apologizes and what do I do? I throw it back in his face. I mean, yeah, he was a right sod about everything but...but he's still my brother. Mum was so damn happy that he came back but the rest of us just treated him like dirt. I treated him like dirt. Because...because that's how he treated me, and Dad and Mum and everyone else in our family and I just wanted him to know what it felt like. I could have been...I could have been a bigger person and just forgiven him like Mum and Dad, but no, I had to hold a stupid grudge on him and it's only after the stupid git nearly gets himself killed that I find it in my heart to forgive him.'

'Ron, don't,' said Hermione at once, putting a hand on his shoulder. But Ron went on as though he hadn't heard her.

'And this morning, that was a good one, wasn't it?' he said. 'We're in a clinch and...and I'm not thinking one bit about my brother lying in hospital with his bones all crushed because he'd saved our dad's life. All I can think about is...is getting your top off.'

'Ron, stop this, please,' said Hermione, and he heard the tears in her voice.

'What kind of person does that make me, 'Mione?' said Ron miserably.

'Ron, stop it!' said Hermione, and she threw her arms round his waist and clung to him. 'You're not a bad person. You're...you're the best person I know. You're not supposed to be perfect. Nobody is. And...and what happened this morning...I mean, I was there, too, okay? My parents got attacked and I wasn't thinking about them this morning, either. Does that make me a bad person?'

He sighed and put his arms round her, and felt some of the constricting guilt in his chest ease. He couldn't believe how the simple act of holding on to her made everything feel a bit easier.

'No,' he said, in answer to her question. 'It doesn't make you a bad person.'

'Okay,' she said. 'So you're not a bad person either. Things are so...mad right now. We're just...trying to get through it, aren't we? However we can?'

She hugged him tighter and he rested his cheek on the top of her head, and they held each other for a long time. Ron was exhausted, but he didn't want to go to bed.

At least, not alone.

''Mione,' he said softly. 'Do you think...that is...would you mind...staying with me again, tonight?'

He felt her stiffen in his arms, and he wanted to kick himself. Why would she want to stay with him, when she would surely be discovered again the next morning by the ever nosy Seamus? She wouldn't want that embarrassment.

She looked up at him, and for a moment he couldn't read her expression, but then she smiled softly.

'Yes,' she said. 'I will.'

Ron felt warmth seeping into his bones. 'Good,' he said. 'We don't have to do anything, okay? I just...I like having you there.'

'Shh,' she said, putting a finger to his lips. 'I like being there. I'll just go upstairs and change. See you in a few minutes?'

'Okay,' said Ron, and she kissed him on the cheek and hurried up to her dormitory. A few minutes later she returned, wearing her pyjamas, but no robe.

'Um, I left my robe in your room,' she said, blushing a little.

'Oh, right,' he said. 'Well, you can pick it up tomorrow.'

A few minutes later they crept into the dormitory room to find it dark. The curtains of the other four posters were drawn shut.

Ron bit his lip when he saw that he hadn't bothered to make his bed today, but Hermione didn't seem to care; she pulled back the covers and climbed in. He went to brush his teeth, and when he returned, she was sitting up in bed, waiting for him. He grinned and practically jumped under the covers.

They came together so easily and naturally that were Ron not exhausted, it would have taken his breath away. Her head fit perfectly in the crook of his shoulder. His arms encircled her small body and his hands found her hair. Her leg drifted lightly over his. He felt sleep coming on him as she settled snugly against him.

He wondered how he'd ever managed to sleep before. Sleeping alone now seemed cold and empty. Sleeping next to Hermione seemed to take all the pain and bad feelings and coldness away.

'I could get used to this,' he heard himself say, as he closed his eyes.

'Me, too,' said Hermione, letting her hand rest over his heart. They were both asleep in a matter of seconds.