Harry Potter and the Prophecy of the Strinx

Harry Potter and the Prophecy of the Strinx

By

Moon Weasley

Chapter Twenty-Four:

Missing

Snogging, Harry Potter concluded, was bloody fantastic. Although he'd only been introduced to the wonders of kissing this very afternoon it had swiftly made it to the top of his list of favourite pastimes only narrowly beaten by Quidditch. Harry couldn't for the life of him understand why he hadn't taken it up ages ago.

Obviously the fact that he until now had lacked someone to actually perform the act with was a major factor. But, Harry mused as he ran giddily up the stairs to his dormitory, if he'd only had the vaguest of inklings as to what he was missing out on he sure as hell would've made greater efforts in the romance department, that's for sure.

Ron had been holding out on him. Harry couldn't help but feel slightly peeved with his best friend. Lavender might not have been Ron's ideal snogging-partner but still he'd done the deed. But Ron had never talked about the kiss or what it'd felt like, but then again Harry had never asked either.

He was aching to tell Ron all about his newfound hobby, but unfortunately the redhead wasn't to be found in the dormitory. He was probably still with Filch the poor bugger, he concluded and wincing in sympathy Harry hurried over to Ron's bed and dumped the generous pile of Honeyduke's sweets he'd bought him on top of the cover. That'll cheer him up alright, Harry decided before he headed towards the showers. Snogging was amazing but to Harry's dismay it also brought on a slight case of discomfort and pain as certain - parts - quite involuntary had taken on a life of its own. Robes really were a godsend!

Half an hour later Harry was still reeling from his encounter with Eloise. For some reason he was unable to stop grinning and he was quite sure he looked like a goofy moron (at least that's what the mirror had suggested) but couldn't have cared less. Ron still hadn't made an appearance in the dormitory (the stack of sweets was still untouched when Harry had finished redirection the clotting of blood in his lower regions) and because he was just dying to tell him all about his afternoon Harry decided to go find the lad.

Dinner came and went without any sign of Ron and now Harry was starting to worry. What atrocious task could Filch possibly have assigned that took this bloody long?

Hermione was also nowhere to be found but that was not nearly as worrying. She was probably buried under a stack of books in the library, too caught up in whatever she was reading to realise what time it was. Ron however never missed a meal. Harry could swear his stomach was tuned to know exactly when the house-elves would magic food onto the plates in the Great Hall. If he wasn't here then something really was amiss. Either that or Filch was being a sadistic bastard.

After wolfing down a large helping of delicious beef casserole Harry left the Great Hall to locate his missing friend. He found the miserable caretaker muttering swearwords to himself as he was mopping the floor outside the girls' lavatories on the second floor. Clearly Myrtle was in one of her moods.

"...blasted whiny ghost. Should be banned from the castle along with that awful poltergeist!" Filch wheezed angrily as he kicked the bucket he was gathering the water in. It wobbled dangerously but remained standing although generous amounts of water sloshed back onto the floor.

"Er, excuse me."

Harry had to duck quickly in order to avoid being rammed straight in the face by the soggy mop as Filch whirled around and pierced him with his deadliest glare.

"What do you want, Potter? Come to add to my misery, have you? Trouble always seems to trail just a few steps behind you, but I'm in no mood to clean up one of your messes."

What a truly repulsive excuse of a man Harry thought with feeling. Still he managed to put up one of his more dazzling smiles, or at least he tried.

"I was just wondering if Ron Weasley was still in detention," Harry asked calmly. Filch grimaced and spat on the floor. That's it, I'm loosing my dinner. Could he be more disgusting? Luckily Harry was somewhat adept at hiding his innermost thoughts and he continued to smile sweetly at the Squib though his patience was wearing thin.

"That obnoxious freckly kid?" Filch barked waving the mop wildly above his head spraying Harry with water in the process.

"Yeah, that's the one," Harry said through clenched teeth while wiping his glasses on the sleeve of his robe.

"He finished polishing the trophies hours ago," Filch replied in his usual snarl. "He slammed the door in my face and stomped off before I could properly check his work, the lanky brat. There were smudges on one of the awards and if you see him tell him I'm reporting his lacking effort to McGonagall."

"Sure will," Harry said untruthfully giving Filch a mock salute and promptly left the scene before the student-hating caretaker could think of a reason for him to finish the mopping.

On the way back to the common room he took a slight detour to check if Hermione was in the library. A few students were scattered around the room but Hermione's bushy mane was not in sight. A tight-lipped Madam Pince informed him that she'd been in there earlier but had left hours ago.

"She seemed to be in some sort of hurry," the librarian whispered shrilly. "I found that several books had not been returned to their assigned shelves and bits of parchment were scattered all around the desk."

She forcefully shoved a handful of crumpled up parchment into Harry's hands. "Please return this to Ms. Granger and inform her that if she flounders one more library rule she'll be banned for another fortnight!"

Something about the dangerous glint in Madam Pince's eyes told Harry he'd run out of goodwill and so he exited the library as fast as wizardly possible.

Two hours later Ron and Hermione were still missing. It was now passed curfew and Harry was seriously starting to worry. It wasn't like them to wander off without letting him know what they were up to. That was more his style. But then again he had been rather - preoccupied - for large parts of the day. Perhaps they'd tried to find him but given up?

Harry was trying to decide whether he should alert professor McGonagall or not when his eyes fell on Ginny Weasley. She was sitting in a corner with her fellow fourth years playing what appeared to be a fierce game of Exploding Snap. Harry quickly made his way over before he lost his courage. Maybe she knew something about Hermione and Ron's plans for the evening.

"Ehh," Harry began inarticulately and immediately four pair of eyes shot up from their card playing frenzy to gawk at him. One of the girls looked so thoroughly stunned by his presence and if it weren't for the fact that Harry's stomach was twisting painfully due to a mix of worry about his friends and what felt like a swarm out of control butterflies clearly misbehaving because of Ginny's presence, he would have found the scene quite funny.

Before he had a chance to say anything the stunned girl dropped her cards to the floor and the explosion that followed effectively broke the tension. The girls frantically began tending to their singed eyebrows and Harry welcomed the distraction. Discreetly he beckoned for Ginny to follow him and she promptly got up and joined him. The other girls stared curiously after them but soon their attention was diverted to the smoke coming from a severely scorched hem on one of their school robes.

"Sorry I interrupted your game," Harry began lamely but Ginny just swatted at his arm.

"Don't think about that. I was about to loose spectacularly anyway. You did me a favour really otherwise I would be a Galleon poorer." She gave him a weak smile. At least she's attempting to act normally around me Harry thought wearily. That was progress...

"Do you know where Ron and Hermione are?"

Progress or not, it was still awkward talking to her so Harry decided to cut right to the chase. "I haven't seen either of them since I came back from Hogsmeade."

Ginny furrowed her eyebrows. "I don't know about Hermione but Ron was supposed to have detention with Filch. Maybe he's still at it?"

"Nah," Harry said quickly. "I asked Filch and he said Ron had finished hours ago."

"Odd," she said pensively. "Hermione told me at breakfast that she was going to stay in the castle and do some studying. I don't think she was too keen on going to the village alone or with Lavender and Parvati." She looked slightly guilty and Harry couldn't help feeling the same way.

A lewd and mischievous smirk suddenly appeared on Ginny's face. "You don't think they've finally figured it out do you?" She waggled her red eyebrows suggestively making Harry grin. "Perhaps that's why Hermione chose to forego a visit to Hogsmeade. Maybe they're off "studying" each other?"

Harry couldn't help but grin back at her words. "If so it's about bloody time," he said mirthfully. An image of Hermione lecturing Ron about proper kissing technique ("Swirl and lick, there's nothing to it") had just presented itself and he couldn't help but laugh out loud. Soon they were both doubled over clutching their stomachs.

When Harry retreated to the dormitory some time later he was sorely convinced that his friends were crammed into a broom closet snogging passionately and having the time of their lives.

But when he woke the next morning only to find Ron's bed empty and still littered with untouched Honeyduke's sweets, Harry knew something was very wrong and that snogging was probably far from what they were doing.

* * *

Hermione was in pain and it was all Ronald Weasley's fault.

Honestly what was he thinking prodding his wand at something that clearly reeked of Dark Magic? She sent a murderous glare in his direction. Or at least she thought that was the correct direction if she was to go by the colourful language that flowed towards her. It really was pitch black in here where ever that was.

"Stop cursing!" she spat furiously. She hated when he did that.

"Well excuse me," Ron answered tetchily, "but I happen to be in great pain over here."

"Oh and cursing your injury makes it all better I suppose? Besides you're not the only one who hurts. It wasn't exactly a soft landing for me either."

There was a pause in which she heard Ron move around noisily. It sounded as if he was searching for something. "Are you badly hurt?" he finally asked in a much softer voice. Hermione's heart skipped several beats. "No, just a sprained ankle I think," she answered shakily. "Nothing a quick Healing charm won't fix."

She fumbled around for her wand but it wasn't in her pocket. "Ron, I can't find my wand."

"Me neither."

A sinking feeling spread throughout Hermione's stomach. "Well, they've got to be here somewhere," she said matter-of-factly. "We just have to feel our way around the place and I'm sure we'll find them." She reached out into the blackness trying to get a feel of the room. "Ron where are you?"

"I'm right here," his voice said just centimetres from her ear and she let out a shrill shriek.

"Sorry," he said and Hermione just knew he was smiling one of those lopsided grins of his.

"You startled me," she said, "I thought you were further away." Hermione reached out a hand and grabbed hold of a handful of Ron's maroon Weasley jumper. "Okay, now you stand right there and don't move. I'm going to feel my way around the place to see if I can find our wands and better yet a way out of here."

"What? No way!" Ron hollered right into her ear.

"I'm two feet away from you," she remarked calmly. "I can hear you perfectly well so stop trying to deafen me." Ron didn't seem to hear her because he was already spluttering and rambling in his usual manner.

"We just tumbled god knows how far into what is obviously a trap of some sorts and you want to fumble around in the dark? Who knows what sort of nasty shit is down here. If it is Slytherin that build this whacky place then I'm pretty certain he didn't put fluffy pillows and teddy bears in here if you know what I mean."

He yanked her unceremoniously towards him pinning her arms effectively between his large hands. "But," Hermione began to protest, "we can't just sit here and do nothing. How are we going to get out of here unless we find our wands?"

Ron didn't answer straight away. Instead he sat down on the floor and carefully manoeuvred her down with him. "Mind your ankle," he said and it took all of Hermione's will power not to hug him right there and then.

"I don't think our wands are down here."

All thoughts of hugs instantly evaporated from her mind. "What? Why not?"

"I was holding my wand when this blasted trap opened under our feet, don't you remember?"

Well yes you did use it to set off this trap Hermione thought waspishly but didn't say anything. Ron was probably feeling bad enough as it was.

"As we fell I felt it being yanked out of my hand. It was almost as if someone had cast the Disarming spell on me or something."

She heard him swallow hard and shift nervously beside her. "I'm quite certain it's still up there and I bet my last two Galleons that so is yours."

"No wands?" Hermione asked unable to hide the tremor in her voice. "But how will we get out of here? We can't even conjure up some light?"

"I'm sorry," Ron whispered almost inaudibly. "It's my bloody fault. I never listen to anything you say and just do these bloody stupid things without thinking..." His voice trailed off and Hermione just knew he was sorrier than he let on.

"We'll think of something," she said confidently grabbing Ron's hand and squeezing it comfortingly. "We always do."

"You mean you'll think of something," Ron corrected her thickly. "Everyone knows you're the brains of this operation."

Despite the severity of the situation Hermione couldn't help but blush at his words and because it was pitch black and he couldn't see her she threw caution to the wind and launched herself wholeheartedly at him. She clung to him and when his arms clumsily hugged her back a moment later Hermione couldn't have cared less about being trapped. At least she was trapped with Ron Weasley!

* * *

Harry was silently berating himself as he ran down yet another corridor. He really should've alerted McGonagall last night instead of instantly buying Ginny's flimsy explanation. Ron and Hermione had been dancing around each other for months not to say years and to think that they'd just suddenly proclaim their feelings and snog away right out of the blue was highly unlikely not to say unthinkable.

Harry had more or less assaulted a skinny second year into checking if Hermione was in her dormitory and when she'd returned a short while later to tell him that her bed was empty and neither Lavender or Parvati had seen her since breakfast yesterday Harry had started to panic.

It really wasn't like them to wander off for long stretches at a time without telling him. Well, if it'd only been Ron who'd ignored the newly imposed curfew then it wouldn't be so worrying. His mounting appetite did cause him to wander off to the kitchen every now and then, but Hermione would never intentionally violate this rule. She took her role as Prefect pretty seriously and followed every rule with an almost religious dedication. She typically only partook in rule breaking when there was a damned good reason for it and never without Harry knowing about it. With each passing second Harry became more and more certain that something bad had happened to his friends.

Harry quickened his pace. Seeing as it was Sunday breakfast was served an hour later than on weekdays and no one would be in the Great Hall for at least another half hour. Harry just prayed professor McGonagall was in her office. Despite all the illicit roaming he'd done around the castle over the years he had yet to discover where the professors' private domains were.

Harry was so preoccupied scolding himself that he didn't notice two lone figures lurking in the shadows of a large stone vulture. Before he knew what hit him he was seized by the collar of his shirt by two pairs of freckled arms and hauled into the nearest classroom.

"What the hell!?" yelled Harry in surprise whirling around to face his attackers.

The Weasley twins. He should have known. George Weasley was grinning devilishly as he manoeuvred him into an awaiting chair. Relieved as he was that at least it wasn't a pack of Slytherins ambushing him, Harry still couldn't help but feel slightly annoyed. Sure he adored the pranksters but every once in a while their timing was a bit off, this being one of these moments. Harry was not in the mood for any of their jokes.

If the twins had noticed his lack of enthusiasm they hid it remarkably well. Once safely onto the chair Fred proceeded to sling his arm jovially around his shoulders, squeezing them tightly while George hopped onto a desk applauding wildly.

"Shush brother dear," said Fred and George instantly seized the clapping. "This moment calls for a more serious atmosphere." He flicked his wand and the light dimmed.

"May I ask what you're doing and more importantly why I'm forced to partake?" Harry glared impatiently from one twin to the other. They however appeared irritatingly unfazed by his scowling.

"Harry, my lad," Fred began in a sombre tone of voice. "It has come to our attention that a certain Boy Who Lived..."

"That's you," George informed helpfully. Harry groaned and rolled his eyes.

"...was spotted behind the humble abode of one Rubeus Hagrid-"

"- great big fellow with a slight fascination with the more undomesticated creatures."

"...partaking in the noble art of snogging..."

"...with a very fine specimen of the opposite sex..."

"...and by the look of things doing a damn fine job."

Harry just stared blankly at the twins. What on earth was the meaning of this? As if on cue Fred released Harry and joined his brother. "Not to be rude or anything," Harry said impatiently, "but unless there's a point to all this then I'm out of here."

Fred (or was it George?) clucked his tongue feigning disappointment.

"Is there a point he asks?"

"It sounds to me like you're just taking the mickey," said Harry suspiciously.

The twins laughed. "Well of course we're taking the mickey, we are after all Gred and Forge," said George mirthfully.
"Then I'm off!" Harry made to leave but was effectively pushed back into the chair.

"Not so fast, we're not done yet."

"You see Harry my lad, it's an old Weasley tradition to take the time to properly "educate" a brother as soon as he's crossed the line to become a hormone crazed horny bastard."

"You my friend officially crossed that line yesterday," Fred stated matter-of-factly.

"Indeed he did, and seeing as you are an Honorary Weasley and practically part of our family we've decided to include you in this fine and noble tradition."

Though he secretly was quite touched and honoured that the twins viewed him as family Harry still couldn't help but feel slightly sceptical. It was after all coming from Fred and George and he'd never known them to do anything without a touch of mischief.

"What exactly does this tradition consist off?" he asked apprehensively.

Fred and George suddenly broke into identical wide grins. "You my friend," they said in unison," are getting "The Talk!"

* * *

Ron blearily opened his eyes - or at least he thought he'd opened them but for some reason he still couldn't see a damned thing. He was halfway to a full blown panic attack thinking that he'd gone blind when it all came back to him.

You just had to poke at that weird stone with your wand now didn't you? Stupid prat!

If Ron had thought it would help the situation he'd bang his head against the wall to punish himself. But after watching Dobby try that approach numerous times without positive result, Ron decided to pass on the self mutilation. Instead he began kneading his swore neck. Sleeping up against a stone wall was not exactly comfortable but he hadn't dared lie down afraid that even the slightest movement might set off another trap.

Ron had no idea how long he'd been asleep. It felt like hours but for all he knew it might be just a couple of minutes or even days. Without a wand they were mercilessly paralyzed.

Shifting his right leg marginally Ron became aware off the fact that Hermione's head was resting in his lap. She let out a small moan when he moved and immediately he tensed up. He didn't want to wake her. It was better for her to sleep. He held his breath but it was to no use. Seconds later he felt her stir and soon she began to move her head around like she was trying to furrow it further down into her makeshift pillow.

Ron suppressed a moan of his own. Hermione's wriggling had caused a very unwanted reaction down south. Gritting his teeth he restrained a slew of curse words from toppling out of his mouth. Of all the times and places to get a hard on this was the worst thinkable.

Hermione was still not properly awake and continued snuggling her busy head further into Ron's lap. Oh god, please make her stop doing that or my...eh...wand...might end up poking her eyes out.

Several frustrating minutes later Hermione thankfully woke and Ron felt her move up into a sitting position. Provoking forth an image of a blushing Hagrid wearing a pink tutu thankfully eradicated his little problem. Even if there was no way for Hermione to see his little predicament, Ron still felt highly ruffled that that had happened with her in the same room.

"How long do you think we've been her now?" Hermione's voice was raw and almost husky from sleep. It was in Ron's opinion a very sexy sort of voice. A slight twinge in his boxers confirmed this notion and he was forced to bring Hagrid back out again this time wearing a flower-patterned apron and little else. That did the trick.

"Dunno," he answered dejectedly. "Hard to tell without either light or a wand." A loud growling sound penetrated the darkness. Hermione gulped audibly and grabbed hold of his arm "What was that sound?" she whispered shakily. Ron chuckled softly. "That was my stomach. I'd say it's way past dinner time."

Hermione (regrettably) released her grip on his arm and instead began swatting him. "That's not funny, Ron," she said sounding thoroughly miffed something that only made Ron laugh harder. This again was awarded with a heavy blow to the head.

"Bloody hell, 'Mione! Are you trying to maim me?" He muttered a few select swear words while massaging his head.

"I'm sorry," Hermione said miserably. Ron raised his eyebrows and stared disbelievingly at the nothingness beside him that was Hermione. "You're apologizing and refraining from telling me off for swearing? Who are you?"

"I've lost the will to scold," Hermione said dolefully followed by a very heartfelt sigh. "I honestly don't see how we are going to get out of here without our wands. No wands means no light and no light means that we don't know what this place looks like. There might be a tunnel out of her for all we know."

Ron snorted. "Somehow I highly doubt that."

"Obviously I don't believe that either," Hermione answered curtly, "but without light we don't know for sure now do we?"

"S'ppose not," Ron mumbled. "But it's only a matter of time before someone notice that we're missing. They're bound to go looking for us."

"Yes, I'm sure they will, but we've no way of knowing if or when or if they'll even think of looking down here. It could be days and without water we're doomed."

Ron gulped. "You're the smart one, what do you think we should do?"

It took a moment before Hermione answered. "I think we should start feeling our way around this place and cross our fingers that Slytherin didn't think to put up additional traps."

Ron even tried to cross his toes.

* * *

It took Harry almost twenty minutes to escape the clutches of Fred and George. They'd cast a Silencing Charm on him as soon as The Talk had commenced and ten minutes into their very descriptive speech he'd been subjected to a Full Body Bind as well. Apparently his wild gesturing and several escape attempts were a bit distracting.

When the spells finally were lifted Harry felt he'd learned way more than he ever needed to know about the birds and the bees. His cheeks were therefore quite flushed with embarrassment when he finally arrived at McGonagall's office. He rapped sharply on her door and a second later he heard his Head of House beckon him to enter.

Five hours later the majority of the teaching staff, Harry, Ginny, Fred and George were assembled in Dumbledore's office. They'd all been summoned as soon as Harry and McGonagall had informed the Headmaster of Ron and Hermione's mysterious disappearance. They'd spent the entire morning searching the castle and the grounds but so far without result.

They'd congregated in order to determine which parts of the castle that had been searched and what parts remained all while trying to force down a spot of lunch. Needless to say neither Harry nor any of the Weasleys had much of an appetite.

"We're wasting our time sitting around having bloody tea and crumpets," George mumbled irritably. Fred nodded. "Dumbledore just conjured up a second tray of biscuits. It looks like we're stuck here for a while."

Ginny groaned and impatiently brushed her hair out of her face. "We should just go and continue searching and leave them to it. Stuffing our face won't bring Ron and Hermione back." She was glaring at the group of professors that were huddled around Dumbledore's desk conversing in muffled voices.

Though she obviously was quite upset about the disappearance of Ron and Hermione Harry still noticed that she seemed somewhat uncomfortable. Her eyes kept on flickering restlessly around the room and she kept moving nervously in her seat. Harry found her behaviour eerily peculiar but he quickly forced his attention back to the problem at hand.

"I wish I still had the Marauder's Map," said Harry wistfully. "That way we could see if they were in the castle or the grounds instead of running around this place like bloody chickens." Fred and George nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, we definitely could use the help of Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs right about now," said Fred with a sigh.

"What did you say?"

The voice of Remus Lupin made them all jump in their seats. His increasingly grey-streaked head had been bobbing in the fireplace for the last half hour offering advice about possible places to search. Aside from a quick nod in their direction he'd paid them no notice something that had greatly annoyed Harry. Honestly, it was his two best friends that were missing! Some words of comfort wouldn't go amiss especially since Sirius was unavailable.

"Ehh, nothing," said Fred hurriedly with an uncertain glance at the other professors. He quickly pretended to be immensely interested in the untouched sandwich in front of him. It was a really poor acting performance by Fred and George's standards and Harry saw McGonagall narrow her eyes suspiciously.

A shabbily robed arm appeared among the flames and slapped Lupin on the forehead. "Of course!" exclaimed the former professor elatedly. "Why didn't I think of it sooner?" He turned towards Harry. "Do you still have the map?"

Harry sullenly shook his head. "No unfortunately not," he said bitterly. "The fake Moody confiscated it last year after the Triwizard Tournament. I have no idea where it is now."

Lupin looked as if someone had just poured a bucket full of iced water down his pants.

"Shame," he said with a sad smile. Harry couldn't agree more.

"What is this map you are referring to?" Dumbledore asked curiously looking from Harry to Lupin and back again over his half moon spectacles. Lupin hurriedly filled them in on the map and its abilities. As the truth about this ingenious aid to mischief was revealed by one of the original creators, three of the resent users of said map were shrinking in their seats. Fred and George seemed to be having one of their weird silent discussions while glancing around the room. Probably looking for means to escape, Harry guessed. And for good reason he concluded as his eyes fell on professor McGonagall. Her lips were pursed into a thin line and her eyes were literally shooting fire.

We're so fucked. Harry groaned inwardly and quickly averted his eyes. She had a nasty ability to make him feel extremely guilty even when he really didn't feel he had any reason to. I'm not even going to look at Snape, Harry resolved bitterly. He must be having a field day, that greasy git. I guess we'll be expelled for this.

A soft chuckle broke the awkward tension that had descended upon the room following Lupin's explanation. Harry looked up to see Dumbledore shaking his head with what looked to be amusement.

"Ingenious," he muttered mirthfully. "Very nifty indeed. My compliments to the creators," he said with a wink in Lupin's direction. The werewolf looked torn between pride and bewilderment. Unsurprisingly Snape snorted in disgust but he didn't offer any comment.

"The fake Moody took it you said?" he inquired and Harry once again nodded. "Hmm, I wonder..." Dumbledore stroked his beard slowly and looked to be thinking hard about something. After a few seconds he clapped his hands together and rose from his chair.

"There is something I want to explore," he said vaguely and began walking towards the door. "Have some more biscuits while you wait," he added cheerfully and with a flick of his wand yet another bulging tray appeared in midair. McGonagall rushed forward and grabbed it before it crashed to the floor.

"Great," muttered Ginny darkly. "More bloody biscuits..."

* * *

Ron groaned loudly in frustration. He and Hermione had spent Merlin knew how long crawling along the cold stone floor feeling their way around in the darkness in hope of finding anything that could help them escape. So far all their effort had gotten them were bruised kneecaps and sore hands.

He heard Hermione shift around next to him. It sounded like she was sitting up against the wall. Ron did the same.

"Well, that expedition turned out really informative," he said sarcastically. "We've learned that we're in some sort of rectangular stone dungeon, there's no tunnels leading out, no stairs to climb and no holes to fall into. I'd say we're thoroughly doomed."

Hermione sniffled. "Don't talk like that. There's always hope."

Ron snorted. "I believe it was you that said that we wouldn't last many days without water. I don't recall stumbling across any taps, bulging fountains or water pitchers in here."

"I know," Hermione replied thickly. It sounded as if she was trying very hard not to start crying. Immediately Ron regretted his sarcastic outburst. He really didn't mean anything by it. It was just his way of reacting to sticky situations. Otherwise the severity of it all would just overwhelm him and leave him paralyzed with fear.

He heard her taking a deep breath. "I'd rather not think about that now," she says quietly. "It's too depressing. And besides there's a good chance they'd find us soon. I mean, I'm sure it's at least night time now. Harry will alert the teachers when he sees that your bed hasn't been slept in."

"Yeah, you're probably right," said Ron reassuringly though he felt anything but.

They both fell silent after that. It didn't take long before Ron started to feel slightly drowsy and soon after he fell into a restless sleep. He dreamt about his mother yelling at him for failing his OWLs. That image soon faded and was replaced by a vision of a huge flying carpet. It was flying over what appeared to be a Muggle city and at the very front Percy and Neville sat chatting companionably. Ginny was sitting at the back fiddling with an old book. Harry was speeding along side the carpet on his Firebolt juggling a full set of Quidditch balls as he did so. It was a very peculiar dream where nothing seemed to make any sense at all. The dream was changing and Harry's face seemed to be morphing into Hermione's when a sharp sound brought Ron crashing back to reality.

It sounded like someone was beating on the stone walls with - well stone. Shaking his head to rid himself of the last cobwebs of his dream Ron struggled up into a sitting position. Instantly he began feeling around trying to locate Hermione but she was no longer next to him. Had she perhaps continued searching the cell and accidentally set of another trap?

Another bang echoed through their confinement and suddenly a spark was visible in the darkness.

"Yes!" Hermione yelled triumphantly closely followed by another loud bang.

"What the blazes are you doing?" Ron asked loudly in order to be heard over the racket. The banging seized and he heard Hermione draw a deep breath like she normally did when she was about to launch into a lengthy and probably insanely complicated explanation.

"Oh Ron, you're awake." She sounded honestly surprised. Ron snorted.

"Something woke me," he answered tersely. "Whatever it is you're doing is producing sound, you know. And a freaking lot of it."

A standard Hermione huff could be heard but for once she didn't take his bait. "Well, you just fell asleep and although I did try to do the same I couldn't so I decided I should try to do something constructive while you were snoring away."

"You really shouldn't have poked around in the dark alone," said Ron. "What if you'd set of a trap and gotten yourself hurt or disappeared down another hole without me knowing about it."

He really hated it when Hermione excluded him like this. "And I don't snore by the way," he added scathingly at which Hermione laughed loudly but didn't retort.

"I'm perfectly alright," she said calmly. "We can't see anything in here so I thought I'd just feel myself around the place one more time in case we'd missed something earlier. And it was a good thing I did," she added hastily as Ron began to protest.

"I did found something that might lead to light!"

That effectively shut Ron up.

"Really?" he asked breathlessly feeling a giddy urge to hug Hermione dearly overtake him. "What?"

"Wood!"

Wood? Ron thought bemusedly. What the fuck does he have to do with things?

"What exactly does Puddlemere's reserve Keeper have to do with our little situation?" Ron snapped irritably. He wasn't much in the mood for mind games or lame jokes, particularly not if the gag was coming from Hermione. She might be brilliant beyond her years but she was a very poor comedian even on a good day.

"I don't see what he has to do with light. Unless he's finally seen the light and decided to join the Cannons, that is. It would certainly light up my life, but I doubt it'll do us much good in this hell hole."

"Not Oliver Wood you dimwit," said Hermione sounding thoroughly exasperated. "Just plain old wood as in part of a tree that can be burned and thus create light. Honestly, thinking I've found Oliver Wood."

Ron blushed. "Right," he muttered embarrassedly. Guess the jokes on me. You're such a daft prat, Weasley. He knew Hermione was probably shaking her head and rolling her eyes at him.

"Is Quidditch all you ever think about?" she asked bitingly.

"No," said Ron edgily but he had the distinct feeling that she didn't believe him. His suspicions were soon confirmed.

"Okay, so we have wood," he said impatiently. "Now tell me how are we going to light it without our wands?" Though he couldn't see her Ron knew Hermione was wearing her giddy I'm-so-brilliant-I-have-it-all-figured-out look.

"Years and years ago, before Muggles invented matches and lighters they used to create fire by banging rocks together. When a stone hits another stone it sometimes produces a spark that can light the wood. That was what I was trying to do just now."

"That explains the racket," Ron mumbled.

"Did you say something?" Hermione asked pointedly. "Did my little explanation make any sense to you or should I perhaps try to convey it with a Quidditch metaphor? If the Beaters knock the Bludgers together the impact may create a spark that deeply resembles the Golden Snitch..."

"Ha bloody ha, very witty Hermione," Ron cut her off and Hermione started laughing. "Not funny," he mumbled. Hermione clearly disagreed.

"Oh come off it Ron, I must be allowed to tease you a teensy bit. Honestly, thinking I've found Oliver Wood down here..."

After some fumbling Ron too found a fitting stone and they both began hammering away at the dungeon walls hoping to produce more sparks. Hermione had found enough wood to build a small fire and the plan was to make the sparks jump down on the wood and pray that it caught fire. She had explained that it might be a long shot seeing as the wood was kind of damp and might not burn well, but still Ron had been hopeful. Hermione's plans did generally tend to work.

A considerable time later they were nowhere near a cackling fire. Once in a while their hammering produced a feeble spark but they always died out long before it hit the wood. It took a while before Ron realized Hermione had stopped banging. Reluctantly he did the same.

"It's no use," she said sounding thoroughly despondent. "It's a silly medieval method and I was foolish to think it would work." She let out an angry shriek and Ron heard her pound her small fists on the stone floor. "I'm supposed to be the most brilliant witch in my year and still I can't think of a single thing to do."

"We'll be alright," Ron said trying to sound consoling. "We've been her for ages and I bet they're searching for us as we speak. It's only a matter of time..."

"You don't know that for sure!" Hermione snapped. "I'm hungry, my ankle hurts and this darkness is starting to get to me. I've never been fond of the dark, you know. When I was little I could never sleep unless there was some light in the room and that stupid fear has sort of stuck with me throughout the years." She sniffed and Ron heard her shift around some. "It's a stupid irrational kind of fear and I hate it."

"You're scared of the dark?" Ron asked disbelievingly. The thought of Hermione being afraid of anything was very strange. She always seemed so in control.

"Don't you dare make fun of me, Ron," she said angrily and Ron shook his head. Realizing she couldn't see that he hurriedly assured her he wouldn't. He wasn't entirely sure she believed him though.

They sat in silence for a good while. Once he thought he heard something coming from above but clearly it was just his imagination. As they sat there engulfed in darkness Ron couldn't help but be very impressed with Hermione. She was afraid of the dark and still she'd acted nothing but cool and composed during their imprisonment. Ron knew a thing or to about fear and if it had been him faced with an army of spiders (he shuddered at the mere thought) he'd lost his head ages ago.

A thought suddenly struck him. Maybe he could do something about this? True, he wasn't exactly fully trained yet but he should be able to perform such a relatively easy spell. Ron groaned inwardly and rubbed his eyes. But then again he wasn't supposed to reveal this ability yet. Professor Figg had been adamant about that claiming that the fewer who knew the less chance of it getting back to Voldemort.

But this was for Hermione Ron silently argued with his own conscience. It would make her feel better and it wasn't as if she'd tell anyone or anything...

"Sod your effing rules, professor Figg!" Ron exclaimed loudly clambering to his feet.

"Language Ron," Hermione chided half-heartedly. "And what does Professor Figg have to do with anything?"

Ron didn't answer her and instead began feeling around for the pile of wood. "Where's that fire you built?" he asked impatiently.

"It's right there- ouch, Ron that was my foot!"

"Sorry, Mione - ooh I found it. You're not sitting really close to it or anything, are you?"

"No," Hermione answered timidly. "Why? What are you up to?"

The answer came in the form of a bright yellow beam that hit the small pile of wood and bright warm flames instantly appeared. Hermione gasped and for a few moments she sat staring mouth agape at the cackling fire. After adjusting to the light she slowly moved her eyes to Ron and pierced him with the sternest of glares.

"I believe you have some serious explaining to do, Ronald Bilius Weasley!"

Ron swallowed hard. He was in deep shit now!

*

Harry was munching on his seventh biscuit by the time Dumbledore returned to his office.

"About bloody time," muttered Ginny under her breath and Harry silently agreed. They were hard pressed for time and he didn't think they could afford for Dumbledore to stroll off like that with them sitting around on their asses doing nothing.

"My little excursion proved fruitful," said Dumbledore cheerfully as he reclaimed the seat behind his desk. He produced what looked like an old piece of parchment from within his forget-me-not blue robes and Harry's heart all but jumped out of his chest.

"The Marauder's Map!"

"Indeed it is," Dumbledore confirmed with a wink and Harry, Fred, George and Ginny instantly rushed forward to have a look.

"Where was it?" Harry asked curiously as Dumbledore unfolded it with a wave of his hand. The old man chuckled.

"I discovered it in Filch's office, actually. I daresay our dear caretaker won't miss it, especially since I suspect he has no idea as to the true nature of this ingenious artefact."

Fred and George exchanged an amused look probably thinking back to the eerily similar way in which they'd gotten hold of it during their first year.

"Would you do the honours, Harry?" Dumbledore slid the map towards him and Harry eagerly accepted.

"I solemnly swear that I'm up to no good."

He tapped the parchment with his wand and lines instantly began forming. There was a collective gasp from the professors as they all huddled around Dumbledore's desk for a closer look. Soon the entire castle was outlined and together they began scanning the many nooks and crannies for signs of Hermione and Ron.

"Ingenious!" tiny professor Flitwick piped out enthusiastically hopping onto the table to get a better look. McGonagall pursed her mouth into that telltale thin line of hers and glanced disapprovingly from Harry to the twins and finally Lupin. The latter had the good grace to look slightly abashed. Harry didn't even want to look at Snape. The greasy bat was no doubt relishing in the fact that he'd finally been proved right about every accusation he'd ever thrown their way. Harry had a nasty feeling he'd be hearing more about this later.

"They're not here!"

Ginny was not able to hide the disappointment in her voice. Harry's heart fell with her words. He'd been so hoping the map would reveal their whereabouts and judging by the twins' uncharacteristically long faces so had they.

"Oh well," said Dumbledore giving Harry a sad sort of half smile. "At least now we know where not to look. I guess it's time we alerted our Gameskeeper of the situation. I'm positive Hagrid will be more than willing to lead a search party into the Forbidden Forest."

Harry gulped. Why on earth would Ron and Hermione leave the castle like this without leaving behind any kind of clues as to what they were up to? Unless... A horrible thought just entered Harry's mind and he instantly whirled to face the headmaster.

"You don't think they've been kidnapped or anything do you? Perhaps some of Voldemort's supporters..."

"Honestly Potter, that's ludicrous!" Snape sneered bitingly. "If you'd paid any attention in class, you'd know that there's no way Death Eaters can enter the castle undetected. And if they could why would they contend themselves with Weasley and Granger if they could have the real prize?"

"Now now, Severus," Dumledore began but his attempt at calming his Potions Master was completely drowned by Harry's scratching reply.

"Have you already forgotten all about the little excursion you, me and Siri - eh Snuffles had down the dungeons just a few days ago. If it wasn't a Death Eater we were following then I'll eat my Firebolt, twigs and all! Not to forget that we found proof that Wormtail had been there not long ago. The rat droppings were quite fresh as I'm sure you recall."

Ginny, Fred and George looked thoroughly confused the two latter more so as they hadn't the faintest idea who either Snuffles or Wormtail were. But at this point Harry didn't much care. All he cared about was that his best friends were missing and they were wasting precious time debating whether Ron and Hermione were kidnap-worthy or not. He simply would not stand for more of Snape's condescending remarks!

"And furthermore," he added just as angrily, "Death Eaters have attempted to kidnap my friends before. Ron just narrowly escaped this summer and it was all a part of a plot to lure me away from my protection."

Snape didn't say anything more on the matter but still he continued to give Harry a look that could burn a whole in Antarctica. Harry glared right back.

Behind him someone cleared their throat. "About the map," began Lupin timidly and instantly everyone present turned their attention to the head still protruding from the flames. The werewolf smiled tentatively clearly less than comfortable with the attention he suddenly was given.

"Some time after we made that map Sirius added another function to it that I don't think any of you are familiar with." He chuckled mirthfully. "It was during our sixth year and Sirius had been having an on-off sort of relationship with a rather luscious Slytherin for some time."

"Danielle," Snape muttered under his breath and Lupin's head nodded vigorously. "That's the one, yes. He was starting to suspect that the girl might be two-timing him with another bloke and he spent many a night staring at the map trying to catch her in the act so to speak. More often than not he fell asleep well before midnight and he decided to add a nifty little feature so that he could retrace her steps later so that he didn't have to spend every minute of the day staring at the map."

"Do you mean we can sort of rewind the map and watch were Ron and Hermione went several hours ago?" Harry was staring wide eyed and hopeful at his former professor.

Lupin nodded eagerly. "That's exactly what I'm saying."

"Well, what the hell are we waiting for," Fred bellowed impatiently. He elbowed his way passed a very disgruntled looking Snape his wand at the ready. "What're the magic words?" he demanded briskly.

Lupin smiled lopsidedly. "I solemnly swear that the step tracing will be used to no good."

"Should've figured," muttered Fred with a half grin. He touched the map with the tip of his wand and repeated Lupin's words. Instantly the familiar lines re-appeared once again drawing up the intricate structure of the school.

"Now what?" George demanded.

"Touch the wand to the map and state first the date, then the time you want the step tracer to start from and who you want to trace," Lupin replied instantly.

"When was the last time you saw them, Potter?" asked McGonagall.

"Yesterday at breakfast. Ron had detention with Filch and Hermione stayed behind to study in the library. They were both missing by the time I returned from Hogsmeade around six o'clock. I talked to both Madam Pince and Filch right after dinner and they both claimed that Ron and Hermione had left hours before."

"Best set it from breakfast time then just to be sure," Dumbledore decided. Fred nodded and activated the step tracer.

"You speed it up by tapping it again and saying Speedicus," Lupin offered helpfully. Fred did just that and they all crammed their heads together to get a better look. Despite his stomach churning with worry about Ron and Hermione Harry still felt himself blush profusely when he noticed that Ginny was more or less squashed against his side. The familiar flowery scent of her hair temporarily overwhelmed him and when she a moment later shifted her weight and her chest brushed against his arm Harry felt an unwelcome twinge in his boxers.

"That's very clever," said George admiringly tearing Harry's attention back to the map. "Highlighting the name of the people you're tracking makes it a hell of a lot easier following their moves."

Lupin's bodyless head nodded in agreement. "Yes, we rather thought so. With well over a thousand students and teachers roaming the school it's quite easy to loose sight of the one you're interested in."

"Their leaving the Great Hall now," said McGonagall in a very businesslike tone clearly eager to avoid further bonding between a notorious Marauder and the notorious Weasley twins. "Weasley seems to be taking his sweet time getting to detention." She huffed under her breath. "Honestly, judging by the number of times he's been to the bathroom you should think he had the bladder size of a Flobberworm."

Ginny snickered quietly next to him and Harry felt goose-bumps run down his spine. Clearly snogging Eloise hadn't cured his feelings for the petite redhead. Not that it mattered how he felt anyway, he thought glumly. She was with Max now and there was preciously little he could do about that.

Harry forced his attention back to the map and saw that Ron had reached the Trophy Room and Hermione appeared to be the sole occupant of the library other than Madam Pince. They watched in silence for a few minutes but neither seemed inclined to leave just yet. Fred finally tapped the map to speed it up even more. The magical clock on the top of the parchment instantly increased its pace and six minutes later (six hours in real time) they saw Hermione leave the library taking their usual route back to Gryffindor Tower. A few seconds later the miniscule dot labelled Ronald Weasley sped out of the Trophy Room and he too looked to be heading back to the common room.

"Look, they're about to meet up," said Ginny eagerly once again sending poor Harry into a state of delightful shudders. Blissfully unaware of the effect she was having on him, she leaned forward giving Harry a very nice view of her shapely bum. Harry temporarily forgot all about magical maps and missing friends.

"Still there's no sign of any unknown persons in the castle," McGonagall added bringing Harry out of his daze. "I assume they'd show up on this map too?" she said with a pointed look at Lupin. He confirmed this with a nod.

"Oh, would you look at that?" yelled Fred suddenly looking like someone had just handed him a sack of Galleons. He was pointing at the map where Ron and Hermione's dots were now crammed completely on top of each other.

"What does that mean?" Ginny asked breathlessly. Fred and George exchanged amused grins before they broke into identical evil cackles.

"A dot on top of a dot does in our experience usually mean that the dots in question are engaged in - what shall we say dear brother?" Fred looked to George who pretended to be thinking hard.

"I'd say the most accurate way to describe it would be Snogging or shag-."

"Ugh! Stop it you two, we get the point!" Ginny exclaimed with a grimace. "I did so not want that mental image. Tossers!" Fred and George smirked evilly.

Meanwhile Harry's jaw had all but dropped to the floor. "You're saying that overlapping dots mean they're - uh... k-kissing in the corridor. Just like that, out of the blue?"

George arched a mischievous eyebrow. "Well it could also mean that they've accidentally collided or that their physically fighting but given that they've fancied the pants of each other ("Language, Mr. Weasley!") for the better part of two years I'd put my galleons on snogging or shag-"

"George!" Ginny wailed in pure disgust. "Yes please, Mr. Weasley," professor McGonagall added sternly. "That is quite enough of that, than you very much. Fraternizations of the kind you allude to are strictly forbidden and I have complete confidence in Ms. Granger's dedication to following the rules. She is after all a prefect. Now let's get back to the matter at hand shall we?"

The dots on the map had disentangled themselves and now Ron and Hermione were once again moving. "They're not heading for Gryffindor Tower anymore," said Harry weakly. He was still suffering from mild shock.

"Ooh, they're no doubt heading for a broom closet," Fred yelled with evident glee. "If you're smart you'd go for the one by the History of Magic classroom." George immediately clasped a freckled hand of his twin's mouth but it was too late. Harry watched McGonagall whip out a piece of parchment and make a note of the aforementioned broom closet.

"Oops," said Fred. George whacked him on the head.

Snape had stayed uncharacteristically quiet throughout the tracking but chose this moment to reengage in the discussion.

"If," he began with his usual sneer, "Messes Weasley's assessment of the situation is correct I daresay we are chasing shadows here. Obviously these hormone-crazed Gryffindors are holed up in some soon to be discovered love nest, and I for one think it's only appropriate that they receive a most grievous punishment for having invoked such an extensive search." He glared at Harry for a moment before his gaze went to the other professors.

"Like myself I'm quite sure my fellow staff members have other more pressing things to occupy themselves with than searching for lost lovers." Harry felt an overwhelming urge to punch Snape's greasy nose in.

"Look," piped tiny professor Flitwick suddenly pointing an excited finger at the Marauder's Map. "They're gone!"

"What?" Harry, Fred, George and Ginny cried in unison. "How? Where?"

Flitwick shook his head in bewilderment. "They were walking down that dungeon corridor just a few seconds ago and then suddenly they just vanished."

"But they don't know how to apparate, do they?" asked George. Professor Snape sneered. "You cannot apparate inside Hogwarts you imbecile!" George for once overlooked the insult. "But then what? A Portkey perhaps?"

Dumbledore looked pensive for a moment before he answered.

"That is a possibility although I highly doubt it. The teachers sweep the castle every afternoon and morning for unauthorized means of transportation and other suspicious objects and nothing has been reported. Perhaps we instead need to ask ourselves why Mr. Weasley and Ms. Granger were heading in that direction. That might give up a clue to what happened to them."

Harry stared at the point on the map where Ron and Hermione's dots had disappeared trying desperately to think of a reason for why they had willingly wandered into the Slytherin zone of the castle. There was nothing down there besides ugly tapestries and scary statues as far as he knew, remembering all too well the walk he, Snape and Sirius had taken down to the Cauldron Depot just the other day.

Suddenly a light went on inside Harry's head. Quickly he emptied the contents of his pockets onto the desk and soon found the parchments Madam Pince had given him when he went to look for Hermione in the library. He scanned the notes and let out a triumphant shriek that caused Ginny to jump in fright next to him.

"I think I've got it!" he yelled excitedly. "When I went to look for Hermione in the library yesterday Madam Pince not only told me that she'd left hours ago, she also told me that Hermione had been in such a hurry to leave that she'd forgotten to clear her desk. She was in a right huff about it too and asked me to return this to her."

He handed Dumbledore the crumpled parchments. The headmaster scanned them quickly, nodding as he did so.

"I see what you're thinking Harry and I do believe you may be correct in your assessment."

"What then?" barked Fred impatiently standing on tiptoe trying to read over Dumbledore's shoulder.

"Ms. Granger's very meticulous notes here hold reference to an old legend about the bitter hatred between Salazar Slytherin and Godric Gryffindor. This legend also makes reference to a special room Slytherin allegedly build to house his extensive collection of Dark Arts texts, potion recipes and obscure objects."

The teachers all nodded in recognition clearly familiar with this myth. "Am I correct in assuming you believe Ms. Granger might be of the opinion that the room you and professor Snape discovered the other night could be this very room?"

Harry nodded eagerly. "It makes sense doesn't it? It certainly looked like it belonged to a Slytherin, all that green and all. In addition Ron and Hermione were in the dungeons when they vanished from the map."

He turned towards Lupin. "How complete do you reckon this map is? I mean does it include every single room in the castle including possible secret rooms, corridors and the like or does it merely show Hogwarts as you, Sirius and my dad knew it to be?"

Lupin appeared to have caught on to what Harry was getting at. "Definitely the latter, Harry. We never knew about this secret room and therefore it will not show up."

"Then what are we waiting for?" yelled Ginny.

"To the rescue!" the twins chorused in perfect unison. Harry heartily concurred and together they headed for the dungeons.

*

Hermione was very scary when she was angry.

Ron Weasley could certain attest to this having provoked her into varying degrees of angry on more than one occasion. Which level of angriness she was in could easily be read by studying her behaviour and the appropriate actions should be taken thereafter. By now Ron fancied himself an excellent interpreter of Hermione's many moods (though the majority of Hogwarts might disagree).

When merely annoyed Hermione would typically tut disapprovingly, shake her head and mutter, shoot irritated glances at whomever or whatever annoyed her or become somewhat harsh and snappish in her replies. Mostly Ron knew how to handle an annoyed Hermione, because let's face it: he'd had lots of practice over the years! Secretly he rather enjoyed bantering with her in this state but as soon as her demeanour ventured from annoyed to angry, things quickly became about as pleasant as a large sack of Doxy droppings.

Angry-Hermione soon lost all signs of subtlety and was prone to fume, seethe, stomp and yell. First years and most Hufflepuffs fled before her when in this state and for good reason. She was quite intimidating and Ron was one of the few people who actually dared talk to her when she hit this stage. Based on personal experience Ron now knew that angry-Hermione was better left alone.

And if you thought angry-Hermione was scary then downright-livid-Hermione should be feared and avoided by all cause. She didn't yell, fume or stomp. As a matter of fact a livid Hermione didn't speak at all. She just glared and it was the single most frightening thing Ron knew (Aragog notwithstanding).

It was the silence that freaked him the most. Being glared at Ron could live with (his mum had perfected the art of guilt-inducing glares years ago) but silent treatments of any kind had never been Ron's strong suit. Living at the Burrow with numerous boisterous siblings hadn't really offered much experience with stillness and calm to say the least and to this day Ron still had trouble keeping quiet even during class, something Hermione certainly could attest to. For some reason silence made him feel self conscious and awkward and it was perhaps therefore Ron Weasley always seemed to work so hard at breaking any sign of a quiet moment.

Being trapped in a dungeon cellar with a silent glaring Hermione was therefore quite possibly the worst scenario Ron Weasley could think off.

Why doesn't she blink? Ron squirmed uncomfortably as he met Hermione's unwavering glare. Has she perhaps charmed them like that to freak me out he wondered. Truthfully he wouldn't put it passed her, but remembering that her wand was lying abandoned somewhere above them he knew that there was no magic involved. She puts mum to shame Ron noted in a mixture of fright and awe. He had a very nasty feeling that she would continue with the frosty glower until he finally cracked and explained himself. And that was just the problem: Ron honestly didn't know what to say.

It hadn't exactly been easy hiding this thing from Harry and Hermione. Trying to come up with plausible explanations for why he sometimes missed meals or got to bed unreasonably late had proven difficult but still that was nothing compared to the notion that he had to purposefully hide this major thing from them. It had been eating away at Ron's conscience for the last couple of weeks and in all fairness he was kind of relieved that Hermione now knew. Or at least she was about to know. There really was no way he could continue to hide this from her and keep the friendship; that much he knew.

Figg's gonna kill me! Ron winced just thinking about her reaction. That is if they ever made it out of this hell hole...

Start talking, Weasley! His inner voice barked at him. And in all honesty Ron really wanted to, but somehow his vocal chords seemed to have broken down completely along with his brain. Honestly, how was he supposed to think straight with the Glare of Death directed at him?

Another couple of minutes passed without any words being spoken. Ron tried to busy himself with counting the bricks in the wall again while trying to formulate a well thought out explanation. The brick-counting was however quickly abandoned when Ron remembered that's how he'd found the trigger for this blasted trap in the first place. He was not risking a repeat performance of that fiasco, thanksverymuch!

He chanced a quick look at Hermione only to establish that she was in fact still glaring at him.

Damn! She still hadn't blinked?

A short minute later and Ron was way passed his Death Glare quota and then some. Nervously he concluded that there was precious little to do other than fess up. This hole they were trapped in offered nothing for him to busy himself with and he honestly couldn't take any more of Hermione's bloodcurdling unblinking eyes.

"Er," he began awkwardly tracing nervous circles in the dirt on the dungeon floor. Deciding to forgo his promise to professor Figg and confide his secret to Hermione had been a difficult choice but Ron soon realized that the process of actually telling her was to be much much harder. Judging by Hermione's thinly pursed lips she was not going to make it easy for him. Bugger!

Better just plunge right into it, Ron thought bravely. Squaring his shoulders he lifted his eyes to meet Hermione's frosty glare.

"What exactly do you want to know?"

Hermione's eyes bulged at the question and she produced a very angry sounding noise in the back of her throat.

"What do I want to know?" she repeated shrilly pinning him with her most incredulous stare. "You actually have the balls to ask me what I want to know!"

She jumped to her feet and suddenly she was looming over him bearing a scary resemblance to a sabre toothed tiger. That and the fact that she'd just used the word balls with no reference to the circular object used in various games such as Quidditch and that stupid-sounding Muggle game Dean was always drowning on and on about was greatly scaring him. Hermione was never this obscene. This was not a good sign Ron concluded shakily.

He was right.

"I want to know how you just did that," Hermione stated furiously bushy curls thrashing around her face like angry whips.

"How long you've kept this from me and Harry? You deliberately lied to us after that duel in Defence Against the Dark Arts didn't you, because I just know that it was you who disarmed Malfoy. And how about you explaining to me why we've been holed up in this damp, dark and scary place for Merlin know how many hours and all along you could've conjured up some light and you didn't. Explain that to me, Ronald Weasley!"

Her voice broke on the last word and limply she fell to the floor again. She buried her head in her hands and although she didn't produce any sound Ron just knew she was crying. And she had every reason to.

He was the world's most horrible friend. Staring at Hermione's shaking figure Ron knew that he'd never felt guiltier in his entire life and that was actually saying something considering he had a slight tendency to act before he thought, an ability that had often lead to various levels of regret on his part. It didn't matter one iota that he'd kept this hidden out of the best of intentions. The outcome was still terrible.

He crawled over to her trembling form and laid a tentative hand on her shoulder. She instantly pushed it away.

"Don't touch me," she hissed tearfully. Ron complied and moved back a few steps. He knew better than to push it when she was in this mood.

"I'm sorry," he offered lamely and as expected Hermione's only response was a huffy snort. Ron however was determined to break through her anger.

"I really mean that, Mione. I'm terribly sorry I haven't told you about all of this but it's not as if I've really known about the extent of this myself for very long. Besides, professor Figg made me swear not to talk to anyone about this." He let out a frustrated sigh.

"Actually she demanded I take an oath not to disclose anything about this ability otherwise she would've refused to train me."

Ron said this all very fast fearing that if he slowed down Hermione would put a Silencing Charm on him or something along those lines. Thankfully Hermione seemed to have moved passed her initial anger and now looked to be honestly intrigued. Ron drew a silent breath of relief.

"An oath? What kind of oath?" she asked curiously sniffling somewhat. "Not one of those magically binding oaths that causes bodily harm when broken?" She looked genuinely worried and Ron couldn't help but snicker. "Of course not one of them," he said mirthfully. "I would've thought that a knowledgeable witch like you would know that those kinds of oaths were outlawed centuries ago."

"Uhm yeah I knew that," Hermione mumbled looking as though she'd just been told she'd failed all of her OWLs. It wasn't every day Hermione Granger forgot something she'd read and Ron felt he should take the time to cherish the moment. About four seconds later he changed his mind. She looked so thoroughly miserable he just couldn't take it.

"Don't worry," he said reassuringly. "She just made me promise to keep it under wraps or she'd stick me in detention for the remainder of the year."

"Oh," Hermione said quietly still apparently dazed by her own mistake. A little while later Ron saw her straighten her back and lift her chin back into its usual studious stance.

"So, are you going to tell me about it or not?" Ron grinned lopsidedly and nodded. "Yeah, I'll tell you. Just one thing before I start." He closed his eyes and concentrated hard. A moment later a large silver water goblet appeared in front of Hermione. She gasped and looked from the goblet to Ron and back again with astonishment.

"Thought you might be thirsty," Ron said shyly. "Don't want you to waste away on me during my little tale."

"Oh Ron!" Hermione exclaimed tearfully and before he knew what hit him she'd thrown herself at him giving him a bone-breaking hug.

Her grip was so hard Ron was sure there would be bruises later. She was sobbing quite hard onto his chest and her knee was also jammed rather painfully into his left hipbone. Still Ron couldn't have cared less. Having her small body pressed against his gangly one was intoxicating enough to numb all discomfort. All he could focus on was the smell of her hair, the feel of her hand clasped around his neck and the way her jagged breath was causing all sorts of tingly emotions inside his by now overheated body.

But just as suddenly as she'd launched herself at him Hermione pulled away. As she dried her tears Ron felt like screaming. More than anything he wanted to grab hold of her and hug her again. Holding her had felt wonderful and a part of him was starting to wonder what it would feel like to ki...

He stopped himself before he could even finish that train of thought. This was not the sort of thing he should be contemplating when he had some serious explaining to do.

A pointed cough from Hermione brought his attention fully back on track. She'd obviously pulled herself together because once again she wore her inquisitive-look, a look Ron knew he couldn't escape even if he wanted to. It was time to lay all the cards on the table.

"Wandless thought-controlled magic," Ron began matter-of-factly. "That's what professor Figg calls this ability of mine."

Hermione's eyes bulged. "Holy Heliopath!! Oh Ron, are you even aware of how rare that is?" she asked breathlessly. "I've read about it-"

"Of course you have."

"-and there hasn't been a documented case of wandless though-controlled magic in more than four decades. Wandless magic is more widespread, I mean almost every witch or wizard can do this on some level or another, but it's always necessary for them to say the incantation. This is just-"

"Unbelievable. Yeah I know," Ron finished. "In fact I still have trouble fathoming it. It's like I feel that it's happening to the wrong person somehow. This is undeniably something that would fit much more nicely in on Harry's résumé than mine. Not to mention that I have a hunch he could've put it to better use than I can. It's not me that has that psycho-bastard Voldemort after me."

Hermione didn't comment and Ron lapsed into silence not really knowing what more he was supposed to say. They sat like that for a short while. Hermione looked to be absorbing the information judging by the way she was biting her lip absentmindedly. Ron smiled. She always did that when she was mulling something over and he found it rather endearing.

"How long have you known about this?" Hermione finally asked. "It was you who disarmed Malfoy in that duel in Defence class, wasn't it?" Ron nodded and Hermione let out a triumphant shriek.

"I knew it! I always knew there was something fishy about that explanation professor Figg gave about Sneakoscopes and a second wand up his sleeve. I mean why would Malfoy bring a second wand with him to class? It's not as if he knew he was going to be duelling that day." She huffed in annoyance. "Honestly, she could've come up with something better than that if we were meant to believe her."

Ron chuckled. "I don't think anyone besides you and of course Harry after you started questioning me found anything suspicious about her explanation."

"Something which only goes to prove that our fellow classmates are unobservant and gullible," Hermione retorted haughtily. "But why didn't you just tell me and Harry the truth?"

Ron shrugged. "Dunno really. By then I had had a pretty good idea about what this ability of mine was all about, and part of me wanted to just fess up right there and then and have you help me figure out the rest. But at the same time there was this part of me that wanted to figure out this thing on my own for once. I always rely on you and Harry to pull me through or help with my studies and I guess I just wanted to prove once and for all that I can put the pieces together on my own if I try."

Hermione looked like she wanted to say something but Ron silenced her with a wave of his hand. "Just let me finish explaining please," he pleaded. She nodded and Ron continued. "I knew that Figg had probably figured out what I'd done seeing as she so readily jumped to my rescue that day. I therefore decided to pay her a little visit. I borrowed Harry's Invisibility cloak and snuck down to her office. As it turned out she was expecting me. She'd all these books on wandless though-controlled magic just sitting on her desk waiting for me. She made me read all of them and once I'd done that we started practicing how to properly control it."

Hermione looked to be bursting with questions and Ron gestured for her to fire away.

"Do you still have-"

"The books? Yes I do and yes of course you may borrow them," Ron said smugly. Hermione stuck her tongue out at him but looked more than pleased all the same.

"You practiced how to control it?" she asked disbelievingly. "What do you mean by that? If it's thought-controlled then isn't it enough just to, well think?"

"You should think so," said Ron amusedly, "but unfortunately that's not the case. Throughout the school year I've had various shall we say "accidents" and I've been struggling a bit to learn how to use the wandless magic intentionally instead of by accident."

"What kind of accidents are we talking about here," Hermione asked curiously. Ron squirmed uncomfortably. "Er, once I beat Malfoy to a bloody pulp without the use of hands or a wand," he offered slowly knowing that Hermione undoubtedly would be far from impressed.

"He really had it coming, Mione. And besides it wasn't as if I wad doing it on purpose." She narrowed her eyes making Ron squirm even more. "Well, sure I thought about it, but if I'd know thinking about bashing him would lead to him actually being bashed, then I wouldn't have done it!"

"Right," Hermione said sarcastically a deep frown clouding her normally pretty face. Ron smiled abashedly. "Okay, so maybe I still would've thought it but the point is that I didn't know that would happen at the time and it wasn't intentional. And that's what professor Figg has been teaching me to control."

"And for good reason I should think," Hermione added snootily. "What else have you been up to with these out of control thoughts of yours? Ooh, wait a minute, I know!" She shook her head disapprovingly and waggled a threatening finger at him. "That flying cauldron in potions. You know the one that sent Malfoy to the hospital wing for three whole days." Ron grinned despite himself. "That was you, wasn't it?" she demanded.

"Maybe," said Ron evasively. Hermione snorted.

"Don't give me stupid maybes, Ron. It had to be you. At the time I thought it was just accidental magic, you know because you and Harry were both so mad and I know Harry's been prone to that kind of incidents when he's livid and knowing your temper I wouldn't be surprised if you could as well. Oh and for the love of Arithmancy stop grinning Ron!"

"Sorry," he said throwing his hands up and biting his lip. "I just keep picturing it in my mind; it's right up there with the ferret-incident as one of my all time favourites!"

"Why am I not surprised," Hermione muttered making Ron grin even wider.

"But to be honest, I'm not entirely sure that was my doing though."

Hermione raised a disbelieving eyebrow. "Really? Why am I having a hard time believing that?"

"Well, it's true," said Ron defensively. "I'm not a hundred percent certain it was me. Sure I wanted to hurt the pillock and I was angry as hell, but somehow it didn't feel quite like the wandless thought-controlled thing."

"How do you mean?"

Ron shrugged. "Hard to explain really, but usually I sort of picture whatever I want in my mind, you know what spells I would use and stuff like that. And then I get this weird sort of tingly feeling inside and it sort of builds up to like a wave and then I literally feel it pouring out of me. That time with the cauldron was sort of different."

"How?" Hermione asked imploringly. Ron looked to be thinking hard before he answered. "I did get the tingly feeling," he admitted, "but it never reached that high point where I feel it pouring out. I'm not even sure I thought about wanting that cauldron to hit him. If that had been my doing I'd found something much bigger and heavier to pelt him with, believe you me."

"Then how do you explain what happened?" Hermione was frowning the way she usually did when something wasn't adding up. Ron slumped against the wall. "Harry," he stated simply.

Hermione looked honestly taken aback. "Harry too can do wandless thought controlled magic?"

"Dunno," said Ron throwing more wood onto the fire. "Either that or it could've been another of his infamous accidental magic disasters."

"Well, we just have to ask him then," said Hermione briskly. "Honestly though, I'm quite surprised more Slytherins haven't been injured this year if you've been going around making magic happen just by thinking about it!"

"Hey, I'm not always running around thinking out cruel ways of torturing Slytherins you know," said Ron defensively. "You should really give me more credit than that."

Hermione sighed deeply. "You're right. I'm sorry it's just that this whole wandless magic thing has taken me a bit by surprise that's all."

"'s allright," Ron mumbled but in all honesty he wasn't quite so sure that it was. Did Hermione really think that little of him that she thought he'd just run around trying to maim those stupid Slytherins with his mind just because he could? That would make him just as bad as those bastards, heck it would make him worse.

Hermione must have sensed what he was thinking. "Oh Ron, I really didn't mean it to sound like I think you'd just run around causing havoc," she said soothingly. "I'm sure you've used this ability to something good too, or if you haven't then it's only a matter of time. You're a good person, Ron."

She blushed prettily as she said this and Ron felt something like a great big balloon swelling inside him making him want to fly with joy. She thought he was good, and suddenly he was filled with an overpowering urge to tell her that yes he had done good deeds to.

"Do you remember that day in Care of Magical Creatures when Charlie brought those to Erumpents to class?" Ron's voice was barely above a whisper but Hermione had clearly heard every word.

"Yes, of course I do," she said slowly blushing again. "Malfoy provoked one of them and steered it straight in my direction."

Hermione averted her eyes as she said this. She'd never fully gotten over the fact that she'd just frozen instead of running for it. She prided herself in her cool logic and for once she'd acted anything but rational. She'd always thought it was just stupid incompetent girls like Lavender that would freeze like that, and the fact that she'd done the same thing was something she had a hard time accepting.

"Yeah," Ron confirmed making sure not to dwell on the part of Hermione's inaction. "Then just before it rammed into you the beast was suddenly knocked straight into Hagrid's hut, roof tiles raining on top of it."

Hermione nodded still not looking at him. "I'm forever grateful to Charlie for saving me," she whispered shakily.

"It wasn't Charlie."

Ron's confession had barely been above a whisper but Hermione looked to have heard it anyway. Her teary eyes snapped up to meet his and Ron had to struggle to keep from looking away.

"You did that, didn't you?"

Ron nodded, fiddling nervously with his hands as he did so. The room suddenly felt much smaller and it was filled with a tension so thick he was amazed it wasn't visible. His palms were sweaty and his throat was parched beyond words. Still he couldn't bring himself to do anything about it. Not when she was looking at him like that.

There was something new in Hermione's eyes Ron noted. If it had there before at least he hadn't noticed it. He didn't quite know how to interpret it but whatever it was it was making his heart beat faster and his stomach do flip flops.

A split second later Hermione threw herself into his arms for the second time in less than fifteen minutes.

"Oh Ron," she sobbed shakily snaking her arms around his neck and snuggling into his Weasley jumper. Once again Ron reached a volcanic temperature and felt a very unwanted twitching in his boxers.

"You're always looking out for me, aren't you?" she asked tearfully.

"I try," Ron croaked hoarsely. Damn, his voice was breaking again!

"Thank you," Hermione murmured into his neck and when she quite unexpectedly pressed her lips onto his skin just below his jaw Ron couldn't help the throaty moan that escaped. It was the single most wonderful thing he'd ever experienced and his entire body was screaming for her to do it again.

She didn't.

And even though she continued to stay nuzzled into him and her hands were still clasped around his neck Ron felt a wave of disappointment wash over him. Her gentle kiss had felt amazing at the time but now that the feel of her soft lips had left his skin Ron just felt empty. He realized that by kissing his neck Hermione had created a want for something more.

It's not enough, he thought despairingly. He wanted more...

"Hermione," he croaked throatily. He felt her tilt her head up towards him and her eyes met his. Ron's heart stopped.

She knew!

Looking into her eyes he could plainly see that she knew exactly what he needed and wanted. Because she too needed it and wanted it.

"Hermione," Ron said again and was surprised to hear how husky his voice sounded. "Yes?" she murmured and he watched in amazement as her tongue licked her lips in anticipation.

"I'm going to kiss you now," he whispered tilting his face to accommodate hers.

"Good," Hermione answered breathlessly and then his lips were on hers.

Instantly Ron was overwhelmed by the multitude and sheer intensity of emotions that erupted inside him. Her lips were incredibly soft and she tasted of sweet tea and honey. Never before had his senses been so acute, and he could little do but surrender to it all. The way her fingers were playing with the slightly too long hair in the back of his neck, the way her breast bore into him making his boxers feel ten times too small and the way her tongue had just probed its way into his mouth and was now battling sweetly with his own. It was heaven.

And it all ended entirely too soon.

Through his kiss-dazed mind Ron barely noticed the thundering of dozens of boots above him or the intense creaking of a trapdoor being forced open. It wasn't until he heard Fred's familiar voice in the background that Ron finally caught on and immediately they sprang apart. A second later they were bathed in a bright light and squinting up Ron and Hermione saw Harry's anxious face staring down on them.

"There you are," he said evenly. "I've been looking for you."

Ron and Hermione just smiled sheepishly.