Bringing Ron Back

It took ages to fly to Hogwarts in the freezing night air but Harry didn't dare stop off sooner, at Hermione's house or the Burrow. He knew that what he had done was highly controversial and he didn't like to imagine Molly Weasley's face when he walked through the door with Ron's body in his arms. He decided that Hogwarts was the best idea; it was warm, and safe, and as it was the start of the summer holidays no students would be around to disturb them.

Finally, Harry saw the lights of Hogwarts glowing faintly in the red sky of early morning.

"Ah, home now, see, Ron?" He laughed. "Course you can't. Never mind. You'll wake up soon. You've got the best deal there, I think; my bum's well stiff from being on this bloody broom."

He grinned, the sight of Hogwarts reviving him. He was sure everything would be better once he got there.

"Do you remember when we took your Dad's car to fly here? Bit more comfortable than arriving on broom - except for that last bit, of course." He smiled reminiscently and kept a watchful eye for the Whomping Willow as he descended towards the castle.

Not wanting to be caught by any teachers that remained over the holidays Harry flew his Firebolt straight to the window of the boys' dormitories, and opened the windows. He climbed inside with Ron before pulling his broomstick through, and then settled Ron in his bed.

"That's a bit better. At least you're away from that hospital, hey."

He sat on his own bed, looking across at Ron. Inside his head a horrible voice said, "Now what?" The niggling thought had been there ever since Harry had reached the hospital roof. He had heard of raising people from the dead by magic, of course, but the awkward truth was, he had no idea of how it was done. He had a fleeting image of Wormtail cutting off his own hand and hoped it would not come to that. He looked across at Ron, lying still and cold in his bed, and his breath hitched in his throat. He was really de-

"No, I won't think that. I'll go mad if I do," he said aloud, and began pacing up and down the room. "I just have to have a plan, that's all. It's O.K, Ron, seriously. I'll get you out of this if it's the last thing I do. You just hang on there...stay away from the light, and all that," he said absently, as he made up his mind and strode out of the room, closing the door, which now said "Seventh Years", behind him.

He found a piece of parchment and a quill in a drawer in the Common Room, and scratched a hurried note to Hermione. He ran to the Owlery and met nobody on the way. There were only a few of the school owls in the Owlery; most had been taken home by their student owners for the holiday. Harry coaxed a large school barn owl onto his arm, attached the letter and watched it soar off into the sky.

Hermione -

I've found Ron. He was in a Muggle hospital. But I've brought him back to Hogwarts now and we're camping out in our dormitory. Please come and see us? I really need your help with something. Please, Hermione, don't tell anyone I've found him yet. Just trust me. We can tell them together once he's O.K. Please don't say anything, just get here as quickly as you can. It would be best if you flooed to the fireplace in the common room, because nobody knows we're here. Just come quickly, Hermione. We need you.

Harry

He hoped Hermione would help.

He spent the rest of the day curled up in bed, watching Ron and waiting for Hermione. Eventually, he fell asleep. He was woken in the evening by frantic shouting at the bottom of the stairs.

"Harry? Ron?"

"Looks like the cavalry's here, mate," Harry said to Ron's body.

He got out of bed and padded downstairs in his socks.

"Oh, Harry, thank God." Hermione hugged him hard. "When I got your letter I didn't know what to think. How's Ron? Where is he?" She looked over Harry's shoulder at the door to the dormitories.

"You didn't tell anyone about this, did you, Hermione?"

"No, I didn't. What on earth's going on, Harry?"

"Just...just come with me. There's something I need to show you."

"Ok," Hermione said in a hesitant voice, and she made her way cautiously up the stairs after Harry.

He swung open the door to the dormitory and Hermione stepped inside and then stopped abruptly.

"U-uh." She made a guttural noise and pinned herself back against the wall. "Harry -"

Harry looked at her. A tear was sliding down her face.

"Harry, he's -"

"I know, Hermione," Harry said hurriedly before she could say the actual word. He'd heard it too often during the last twenty-four hours.

Hermione started to sob hysterically, back against the wall, a petrified look on her face. Harry rushed over to her and held her.

"Alright, Hermione, alright. Hey," he soothed her. "Hey, hey, hey. Don't do that, Hermione. Don't do that."

She wailed up against him.

"W-when did it happen?"

"I don't know," Harry said. "I looked round all the Muggle hospitals in London, like I said I would, and St Thomas' said they had someone brought in who fitted my description of Ron. When I got there he was already..."

Hermione broke away from him.

"Harry," she gasped. "How long has he been like this?"

Harry thought.

"How long?" she insisted.

"Since...yesterday afternoon, at least."

Hermione looked as though she wanted to hit him. Instead she asked, "How did you get him here?"

"It wasn't easy," Harry said almost cheerfully. "I had to take him out of the morgue, which was horrible, and then some security guards found us and I had to make an escape on my Firebolt and -"

He stopped talking at the look on Hermione's face.

"Don't look at me like that, I didn't have much choice."

"But Harry - why?"

Harry sat on the end of Ron's bed. "I have to save him, Hermione."

Hermione leaned heavily against the wall for support.

"And how are you going to go about doing that?" she asked him faintly.

"I don't know - there are spells, aren't there, to bring people back from the dead? There are things you can do, I know there are."

"Harry, how - how do you even think you'd be capable of doing something like that? It's terribly dark magic."

"I - I thought that you might - might be able to help me." He suddenly realised how stupid he sounded.

"Me!" Hermione said hysterically. "For a start, I don't know anything about Necromancy - nothing that would help us, even if we did consider this - this disgusting plan for a moment! And you certainly don't know anything about it either. How could you even think-"

"I saw them do it to Voldemort," Harry said heatedly.

"Voldemort was alive at the time, Harry," Hermione scolded. "All he needed was a new body. But Ron would need a lot more than that," she sobbed.

"Like what?"

Hermione shook her head and buried her face in her hands.

"Like what, Hermione?"

"Oh I don't know, Harry, all right? Don't you know what they do in Muggle morgues? They take stuff out of him, and put in stuff, and - that's not even Ron any more."

She cried for a long time while Harry sat and looked at Ron, a small part of him wondering what 'stuff' was, exactly.

"You mean there's nothing I can do?" he said blankly after a while.

Hermione shook her head in disbelief. "How could you be so..."

Harry looked at her, and she looked back through a mass of wet hair at him and Ron behind him.

"I have to get out of here," she said, springing up.

"Don't go far," Harry pleaded.

She looked at him in sympathy.

"I'll be in the Common Room."

Harry nodded. He got up and bent over Ron, and kissed him lightly on his forehead. It was cold, and smooth, and Harry hated Ted from the morgue who, according to Hermione, had taken Ron away from him.

"I'm so sorry, mate," he said, and a tear rolled off his cheek onto Ron's. "I did the best I could."

x

He found Hermione in the Common Room as she had said. She was curled up small on a corner of the sofa in front of the fire, crying quietly to herself. Harry went over to her, lay on the sofa and nuzzled his head into her lap. She stroked his hair absently.

"I couldn't just leave him there, Hermione."

"I know."

He turned his head to look into the empty fire grate.

"I'm sorry, Hermione. I know how you felt about him."

Hermione sniffed. "I never told him."

"He never told you, either."

"Did he -"

"You know he did."

Hermione smiled sadly. "It doesn't matter now, anyway. I can't believe this is happening."

"I know."

"I can't even remember the last thing I said to him."

"I know." Harry sighed. "The worst thing is, they were obviously only using him as bait, so that I would go after him, like I did with - with Sirius. But it didn't work this time. It didn't work because I was too drunk to notice he'd even gone."

He wept into Hermione's lap and she cried too.

"You don't hurt Ron," he sobbed. "You just don't."

x

Harry awoke some time in the middle of the night. The fire was crackling merrily, he had a cushion underneath his head and a throw wrapped around him.

He sat up abruptly. "Hermione?"

"I'm here, Harry," she assured him.

She was sitting at the large table, head buried in a heavy book.

"What are you doing?"

"He can't be dead, Harry, he just can't be. You were right. I'm going to make sure we save him."

Harry grinned and joined her at the table, pulling a book from the large pile she had collected.

It took them two days to research what they had to do. In the end it was Hermione who did most of the work. She was the one to research the spell fully; she was the one who pinched the correct gemstones from Snape's alchemy cupboard and laid them out in a perfect circle on the East side of the castle. She was the one who found the bells in the Astronomy Tower and learned how to ring them as it said in the old dusty book they had found in the library's Restricted Section. Harry brought Ron down to lay him in the middle of the gemstone circle in the middle of the night and gave his blood for Hermione to use, and then he sat back and tried to watch as she performed the darkest magic he had ever seen. He had to admit, he was scared. Scared in case anyone would come out and see what they were doing. Scared of Hermione speaking in an ancient tongue that was as foreign to him as Parselmouth was to her, and ringing the bells that echoed deep and low and long. Scared of the ritual that brought the old graveyard back to him. Scared, most of all, that it wouldn't work.

Hermione took an hour to complete the ritual, and then she stepped out of the circle to join Harry.

"Did it work?" he asked her.

"I don't know," she said faintly. "I feel kind of -" Her eyes rolled back into her head and Harry caught her as she passed out.

He took her back up to Gryffindor Tower and laid her in his bed. Then he went down and repeated the process with Ron, who was still very much dead. After that, he went to pick up the bells and gemstones. They were scalding hot, however, and he decided to leave them where they were for the time being. He picked up the heavy old book Hermione had been using for reference and took it back to the Restricted Section of the library. Then he went to hide back in Gryffindor Tower. He had not seen anyone in the time that he had been at Hogwarts, but he did not want to take any chances.

For the rest of the night - which was fast becoming early morning - Harry sat between his and Ron's bed in the dormitory, waiting.

At six o'clock in the morning he checked his watch. Red-eyed and tired, he looked over at Ron, who hadn't moved from where Harry had put him.

"Please let it work," Harry prayed aloud. "Come on, Ron..."

Ten minutes later, Harry was just dropping off to sleep, when he heard a great gasp. He turned to look at Ron and fell off his chair. Ron was sitting bolt upright in bed, staring at the wall. Harry watched him, his heart in his mouth.

"Ron?" he asked, tentatively.

Ron let out his breath, long and slow.

"Whoa," he said.

Harry laughed.