Mourning Dawn (A Prelude to The Wand of Elder)

Just minutes before, Harry had been worried that his arrival at the Burrow would be too loud. He had intended to apparate a few hundred yards up the road so that the crack of his emergence would not wake anybody. He had been so excited about seeing Ginny, that he had not really figured out how he would explain his arrival before dawn, or get to see her without waking up someone. He had also failed to apparate with the requisite deliberation, and had found himself standing right next to the Weasleys' broom shed.

This had been a fortunate error, however, because he had arrived in the middle of a full blown row between Hermione and Ron, right there in the middle of the garden. Not wanting to be drawn into the argument, Harry had instinctively hopped out of sight into the broom shed among its spidery inhabitants. His friends were so involved in their verbal duel that they had not even noticed the sound of his arrival, and Harry was pretty sure that their shouting would wake up the Burrow's residents much more quickly than Harry's appearance.

Now Harry cursed under his breath in the darkness of the shed, and bided his time as Hermione and Ron argued back and forth across the garden. He felt a crick forming in the small of his back because of his awkward hunched position in the confined space, and he wondered how much longer it could go on. He took a broom and leaned on it to relieve his cramped muscles.

He tried to think of pleasant things and waited for his friends to wind down their argument. Unfortunately, he had no choice but to pay attention as the fighting couple moved into a position a few feet from Harry. Ron and Hermione were in plain sight through one of the many large cracks in the walls of the little outbuilding.

"Ron, please," said Hermione plaintively. She sounded on the edge of tears. "You have to go back to bed! You collapse from exhaustion every night! You've only been asleep for three hours!"

"Stop bossing me around, Hermione," said Ron loudly. "Why did you follow me out here anyway? You go to bed. I'm fine."

"Your Mum and Dad are doing okay now. You need to deal with your own grief. This isn't healthy, Ron! You're going to make yourself ill!"

"Get off my case, alright!" shouted Ron, rounding on Hermione. For a moment Harry thought Ron would strike her. "What do you know about it anyway? Your family's fine."

Hermione held her ground. "I don't know how my family is," she said softly.

"Yeah, well, they're sunning themselves on a beach and having a grand time, aren't they?!" said Ron, shaking a clenched fist at her. His face had gone from red to purple.

"Ron, I'm just worried about you," said Hermione patiently. "I don't want to fight with you. But you can't bottle this up inside you. I've read a lot about the psychology of grief..."

Ron's face twisted in fury. "You're just so bloody smart, aren't you? You know what I say? I say eff your books, and eff your muggle psypopogy... and eff you too!"

Ron stared at Hermione, shaking. Uncharacteristically calm, Hermione just stood there and let Ron's anger wash over her. She was letting Ron vent on her. She continued to meet his angry stare with her own patient gaze.

This only seemed to infuriate Ron further, and he took another menacing step towards her, towering over her. She had to crane her head upwards because of his height.

"You're just so much smarter than me, yeah?! You know everything, right?! You know what's best for everybody!" Ron was yelling, now. "Well, you don't know about this, Hermione! You're a spoiled brat of an only child, aren't you? You don't have any brothers or sisters, do you? You don't know what it's like to see your mother's heart ripped out! You don't know what it's like to hold your...to hold your dead brother in ...to..."

Ron's voice broke, and with it, so did the wave of his anger. He looked away quickly. "You just don't understand," he said shakily.

"You're right. I don't understand," said Hermione, taking Ron's face in her hands and making him look her in the eye. "But I want to understand, if you'll let me."

Ron just shook his head, his face screwing up with repressed emotions. Hermione stepped closer to Ron, embracing him and resting her head on his chest.

"I know you are so very sad, and it's breaking my heart," said Hermione softly. "I just want to help."

Ron's lip started trembling and then his face broke into a portrait of acute grief. His legs gave way and he sank to his knees. Hermione was there with him, her arms wrapped around him in support.

"Oh God!" Ron gasped in a strangled voice, and he began weeping shamelessly into her shoulder.

And so they continued for a long while. Ron and Hermione knelt together in the garden while he cried his heart out. Ron unleashed the grief that he had caged for the past two weeks. Hermione stroked his hair, held him tightly, and cooed comforting sounds into his ear. He clutched her like a drowning man clinging to salvation.

Harry's heart was sick for his best mate, and Harry had a strong desire to come out of the shed and lend what comfort he could. But Harry knew Ron better than just about anybody, and Harry was very sure that Ron would not show such emotion to Harry. This was Hermione's place now. Thus, Harry quietly waited among the spiders of the broom shed for Ron's breakdown to exhaust itself, and felt a sympathy for his friend that was as unrestrained as Ron's weeping.

Eventually, Ron's sobs became deep breaths as he sought to regain control of himself. "It...it hurts, 'Mione," said Ron into her shoulder. He sounded almost like a child. "Whenever I close my eyes, I see him...his eyes..."

"I know," she whispered comfortingly, her own tears coating her cheeks. "All will be well. You'll see."

"All will be well," Ron echoed as if reciting a prayer, taking a shuddering breath. "All will be well."

After a few more minutes, Ron raised his head and looked at Hermione. She raised a finger and wiped a tear from the corner of his eye, and smoothed down his hair. She kissed him lightly.

"Whenever you want to...whenever you're ready, I'm here to listen," said Hermione.

"I love you," said Ron. He said it simply, like the way someone might observe that the sky is blue.

Hermione let out a surprised little gasp, but smiled beautifully. "I...I love you too," she said, her voice quavering.

It happened so quickly that if Harry had blinked he would have missed it; but suddenly, Hermione and Ron were kissing passionately, almost greedily. In a flash, Hermione's cloak was cast aside among the garden gnomes. Her hands, which had held Ron comfortingly a few moments before, were struggling to remove Ron's cloak. Once it had joined Hermione's on the ground, Ron, with a look of disbelieving wonder on his face, watched as Hermione began to tug at his shirttails and trying to undo the buttons. Ron momentarily forgot his grief in the face of the couples' youthful needs, and he smiled broadly, burying his face in Hermione's neck. She must have liked what he was doing, because she closed her eyes and let out a low moan.

Grunting in scandalized embarrassment, Harry began to think about disapparating straight from the broom shed and returning to Grimmauld Place. Even a chance to see Ginny was not worth this mortification. Hermione saved him the need to make a decision, however.

"Ron, wait," whispered Hermione. "Ron, your parents!"

"Sleeping," said Ron from somewhere near Hermione's earlobe.

"Ron...hmmmm," said Hermione again. Ron must have done something she liked, because she shivered, and pulled his head up, kissing him deeply. Then she said, "Please. Wait just a second."

"Okay," said Ron, but the look of hungry disappointment on his face was telling. Harry had a very strong feeling that the physical aspects of Ron's and Hermione's new relationship had not gone as far as Ron would have wished in the past couple of weeks.

"Not in the garden, Silly Boy," said Hermione teasingly, patting Ron's cheek.

"Right. Uhh, where then?" asked Ron hopefully, not yet willing to admit defeat.

Harry almost laughed out loud at Ron's expression. Hermione giggled, but then bent down and dug into her cast-aside cloak. She pulled out a small beaded bag, shaking it lightly. It sounded like a loaded railway car being overturned.

"I've still got the tent packed in here," said Hermione coyly. "Would you like to go by the Forest of Dean for a few hours?"

A giant smile bloomed on Ron's face. He looked like a man who had made an unlikely wager and hit an big payday. He quickly scooped up Hermione's cloak.

"Let's go!" he exclaimed.

Hermione laughed as he chivalrously hung her cloak about her. He then hugged her, and they kissed lovingly.

"Hermione?" Ron asked as they separated. He checked his pockets until he assured himself that his wand was there.

"Yes?" she replied as she checked her own pockets.

"What changed your mind? I mean, yesterday you said you weren't even close to being ready."

"I don't know. Maybe we both are now."

Ron gave her a puzzled look. "Was it because I cried?"

"Let's just say that your emotional range has gotten considerably larger than a teaspoon," giggled Hermione.

"Right," said Ron, putting on his cloak. He looked at her with a lopsided grin. "Should I cry every day, then?"

Hermione's expression shifted. "You really need to learn to quit while you're ahead."

"I do. I really do," he said, chuckling at her annoyance.

"Shut up, Ronald." But she smiled as she took his hand and turned on the spot.

Harry stood in the shed for several minutes, trying to grasp what he had just witnessed. Apparently things were about to change quite a bit for Ron and Hermione in this early morning. Harry shook his head, marveling at the recuperative emotional powers of his fellow young people and their hormones. He silently wished them the best.

Harry waited to make sure they did not come back, not wanting to be forced to explain his eavesdropping on such events. He then brushed off the spiders infiltrating his clothing. He exited the shed still holding the broom upon which he had been leaning. As he began to formulate a plan for finding Ginny at this ungodly hour (perhaps he could fly up to her window and tap on it?), he heard some soft footsteps coming through the shadows behind the shed.

Harry turned to see a corona of red hair and a slim form emerging into the pre-dawn light.

"That was...interesting, wasn't it?" said Ginny amusedly.