The Hospital Wing

"Wake up, Hermione," a soft voice whispered.

Where was she? Hermione had no clue. The last thing she remembered was being in the Department of Mysteries, and then Dolohov...and she...oh, Merlin.

"Ron," she said abruptly, sitting up in bed so fast that her head smacked into the nose of whomever had whispered to her. Ignoring the howl of pain, she asked again. "Ron, where's Ron? And Harry? Where's Ginny and the rest of them? What happened? I can't see a thing," she added, and it was true. Her vision was quite blurry.

"Hermione, calm down," came a voice she recognized with a rush of relief as Ron's. "I'm right here, everyone's fine."

"Thank goodness," Hermione said emphatically, blinking to clear her vision, an effort which failed miserably. "I still can't see," she said irritably. "My eyes are all unfocused."

"Madame Pomfrey said that might happen," Ron said, coming into her line of vision. All she saw was a blur of red and peach. Ron's face. She unthinkingly reached out to touch his cheek.

"I'm glad you're okay," she said. "Why are you in the hospital?"

Ron put his hand over hers, sending shivers down her spine. "Long story. Are your eyes any better?"

"Is it night?" Hermione asked. "That would explain one of the reasons I can't see."

"Yeah," Ron assented, nodding his head. Her hand moved with it, causing her to realize exactly what she was doing and pull the offending appendage away abruptly. Suddenly she was grateful that she couldn't see the look on Ron's face.

"I can see you," Hermione told him. "You're a big blur, but you're there. Who else is here?"

"No one," Ron said. "It's the middle of the night and we're the only patients."

"Oh," Hermione said weakly. The sheer force of what he said hit her abruptly. She was in the empty hospital wing...alone...in the middle of the night...with Ron. This was definitely not good.

"What about now?" Ron asked.

"It's a little better," she said. "I can see you clearly if I squint." Doing so, she noted that Ron looked tired. In addition to that, he looked immensely sad. A feeling of dread hit her.

"What happened?" she asked in a fearful tone. "What's the matter?"

Ron sighed. "You can read me too well, you know that?"

"I've known you almost six years, I ought to be able to read you," Hermione said impatiently. "What are you not telling me?"

She could see Ron clearly now, even without squinting. He looked terrible, and her heart squeezed uncomfortably in her chest. Ron reached out and took both of Hermione's hands in his. Ignoring the warm feeling this gave her, she looked him squarely in the eye.

"Sirius..." Ron started, and then trailed off. He took a deep breath and tried again, and Hermione's stomach sank as he did so. This was going to be bad. "Sirius is...well...It was that veil. He...fell through it. And he didn't come back."

Hermione gasped, tears filling her eyes. "He's...dead?" she asked in a small voice.

Ron nodded. Hermione threw her arms around him and burst into tears. Ron didn't say anything, just held her.

*

Ron sighed, knowing exactly how she was feeling. Hadn't he felt the same way when he heard the news? Sirius had been like the cool uncle neither of them had ever had, and had been even more to Harry. As he had cried for his own sake (in the privacy of his hospital bed, of course. Ron Weasley did not cry in public), he had cried for Harry, too.

He spent an unheard of amount of brainpower trying to ignore the fact that, when Hermione woke up, his name was the first thing she'd said.

After what seemed like an eternity, Hermione's sobs halted. She looked up at him with fearful eyes and said one word. "Harry?"

Ron shook his head. "Harry's not doing so well," he told her. He laughed bitterly, adding, "Well, that's actually the understatement of the year. He's doing terrible, and I'm worried about him."

Hermione sighed, and rested her forehead against his shoulder. "What are we going to do?"

Ron tried to clear his head and answer her question. Her proximity was making his brain go foggy. "I don't know," he said. "I'm not sure there's anything we can do."

"It's not fair," Hermione whispered vehemently. Hermione always whispered when she was too choked up to speak aloud. Ron was slightly afraid she was going to cry again.

"I know," Ron said, in what he hoped was a soothing voice. "I'm sorry."

She let go of him to look into his eyes. "How are you holding up?"

"Pretty well," Ron said.

"Good," she sighed. "We've got to be strong."

"Harry needs us," Ron said. "It's just...I'm afraid. I'm afraid this will break him."

"He's Harry," Hermione said. "He can't break."

"He's got the weight of the world on his shoulders," Ron said, every worried thought he'd had in the two days since the Department of Mysteries rushing out of his mouth. "I'm just scared that this time, he'll buckle under it."

"Me, too," Hermione whispered. Good Merlin, he'd brought her to tears again. He hadn't meant to make her cry.

"We've got to keep hoping," Ron said. "If we lose hope, we've lost everything."

Hermione stared at him skeptically.

"Okay, okay," he admitted, "Lupin said that to me once."

"I thought so," Hermione said, nodding. "It was nice all the same."

"I do try," Ron said smugly, causing Hermione to laugh. Thank goodness. She needed to laugh, and if his clowning was the only thing that did the trick, he'd put on a red nose and do his best.

"I'm scared, too," Hermione admitted suddenly. "No matter what they say, I've just got this feeling that whatever needs to be done, Harry's going to be the one to do it."

"He's got a big destiny," Ron said. "We're just the sidekicks."

"We're the best sidekicks ever, though," Hermione said. "Right?"

"Well, of course," Ron agreed. "Did you ever doubt us?"

"Not for a minute," Hermione said fervently. "He's going to stay with us over the summer, right?"

"I suppose so," Ron said. "Dumbledore wouldn't send him back to the muggles for the entire summer, would he?"

"I don't think so," Hermione answered, although her voice sounded worried.

"I just hope we're able to do whatever it takes to help," Ron said. "We'll be old enough to join the Order in a year."

Hermione shook her head. "It's really selfish of me, I know, but I just can't stand the thought of you and Harry out there risking your lives."

"Well, how do you think I feel about you?" Ron scoffed. He abruptly realized what he'd just said and hastened to rectify his blunder, although Hermione was staring at him in a way that made him squirm. "I mean...you and Harry...you're my best friend, you know. You and Harry."

Hermione let out a sigh Ron hesitated to call disappointed. "I know," she said. "Merlin, this is complicated. Now I know what the old Arabic curse means."

"What?" Ron asked, the familiar feeling of confusion he got when he was around Hermione coming into prominence.

"It's an Arabic curse," she explained. "May you live in interesting times."

Ron gave a short laugh. "Isn't that the truth?"

Hermione sighed. "I just hope we all get through this alive."

Ron stared at her. "What?"

"Maybe it's morbid of me," Hermione said. "I just...there are so many people I care about, and the thought of them not being here any more..." She trailed off into silence.

Ron unthinkingly hugged her again, his only thought to make her feel better. He couldn't stand it when her eyes filled with tears. It wrenched his heart in a highly uncomfortable manner.

"How's everyone else?" Hermione asked suddenly.

"Neville's nose was broken, but Madame Pomfrey fixed it in a trice, and Luna wasn't even hurt," Ron said. "I don't know how she did it."

"Luna's odd," Hermione agreed. "I feel kind of silly for saying this, but doesn't she remind you of a young, female Dumbledore?"

"I thought you didn't like her," Ron accused.

"I never said that," Hermione said. "She just sort of made me feel wrong-footed."

"Why?"

"She kept staring at you," Hermione said. "And...everyone else, too," she added, although Ron had the distinct feeling that she had just revealed something important.

"And Ginny?" Hermione asked.

Ron sighed again. "She's bad off. Apparently she and Sirius had become really close, although I don't know when they found the time. She's also really worried about Harry, even more so than us."

Hermione's eyes became hopeful. "She's just what Harry needs right now, don't you think?"

"Harry's really not in any shape to be thinking about love," Ron said, and immediately regretted it. You said the L-word, a voice in his head chided him. You're such an idiot.

*

"But that's not right," Hermione insisted. "Love shouldn't become inconsequential in times of trouble. Love is what gets us through."

Ron just looked at her. She blushed, and turned to study the bedspread.

"You really think so?" Ron asked softly.

"Yes," she said, not taking her eyes off the blanket. "Don't you?"

"Yeah," he agreed, in that same soft voice. "Love is important."

Hermione abruptly realized that they had just said the word 'love' more times in the past minute than they had in the entire time they'd known each other. She bit her lip, suddenly nervous.

Don't look at him, the voice in her head warned. Don't even think about looking at him.

You looked, the voice accused. The moment she met his eyes, Hermione knew she was toast. From this moment on, things could never be the same between them. Not for the first time, she found herself thinking that it wasn't necessarily a bad thing.

Ron's eyes were filled with an emotion so intense that it took her breath away. Hermione had the distinct feeling that he was letting her see that emotion. He could have hidden his feelings, but he was choosing not to.

Suddenly Hermione realized that they were both right. Love was the most important thing. Ron had said it, she had said it, and they both knew it.

They had practically admitted that they were head-over-heels in love with each other, but neither of them had the guts to come right out and say it. It was stupid for the both of them to be tiptoeing around, ignoring this elephant in the room.

"Ron...I...we..." she managed to choke out.

Ron surveyed her with an unusually shrewd look. "We what?"

"We should...go to sleep," Hermione said. You are such a bloody coward, she berated herself.

"Yeah, we should," Ron agreed, looking crestfallen. Then he met her eyes with a look she couldn't decipher and...

*

...kissed her hard.

Merlin, it felt good to finally kiss her, after years of denying that he had any feelings for her. He reveled in the knowledge that he didn't have to feel guilty about the way he felt when she hugged him, or all those inadvertent touches that one inevitably has when one is friends with someone for multiple years.

He loved the way she fit in his arms, and the way her mouth opened under his. For the first time he'd ever kissed anyone, he was doing pretty well, if he did say so himself.

But all good things must come to an end. Ron realized that he was in serious danger of never leaving her bed. As much as that idea appealed to him, it also repelled him. He didn't want to do that to her. He loved her too much to risk her getting hurt.

Ron pulled away from her, leaving her dazed and gasping for breath. He was out of breath himself, and took a few moments to steady himself before looking at her once more.

Merlin, she was beautiful, he found himself thinking. Her cheeks were flushed, her lips were swollen, and she was gazing at him adoringly. The fact hit him that he had made her look that way. Not Viktor, not Harry, not anyone else. He, Ron Weasley, had put that look in her eye.

"Hermione, we should really go to bed," Ron said unthinkingly. He winced as the words came tumbling out of his mouth. "I mean...we should go to sleep...in our beds...erm...separately."

"I know what you meant," Hermione said softly, leaning in and kissing him again. The thought struck him that he could kiss her any time he wanted now, and he suddenly found it difficult to breathe with the sheer bliss of it all.

Ron smiled against her mouth, chuckling slightly.

*

"What?" Hermione asked. "Why are you smiling like that?"

"I just snogged the girl I've fancied since I started thinking about girls that way," Ron scoffed, "and you want to know why I'm smiling like this?"

She laughed. "Ron, you're such a prat."

"Why, thank you, Hermione," he said in a self-satisfied voice.

"Go to sleep," she told him sternly.

"Fine," Ron said grumpily. He leaned in to kiss her again, and she lost herself in the feel of his lips.

"I have got to go to bed," Ron said in a strained voice. Without further ado, he went to his own bed and laid down.

"Goodnight, Ron," Hermione whispered.

"G'night, Hermione," Ron whispered back.

Hermione was suddenly struck by a funny thought. She couldn't hold back her giggle.

"What?" Ron asked, with an amused tone in his voice.

"I just realized that Ginny is never going to let us live this down," Hermione told him.

"Oh, Merlin," Ron breathed. "Harry."

"What are we going to tell him?" Hermione asked, feeling suddenly guilty for being happy.

"I don't think we should tell him anything," Ron said. "Not right now. He's got too much to deal with."

"I agree," Hermione said, feeling decidedly relieved.

*

"He's just...he doesn't need his two best friends suddenly falling madly in love in addition to this mess," Ron decided.

"That's true," Hermione agreed. "So we're keeping this to ourselves?"

"We don't have any choice," Ron said, feeling depressed.

"We can do it," Hermione said firmly. "We're his best friends, we have to."

"Maybe he'll suddenly decide that he loves Ginny, so he won't mind so much about us," Ron said hopefully. Hermione just laughed.

"Goodnight, Ron," Hermione said. "Really, this time."

"Goodnight, Hermione," Ron said. "Sweet dreams."

"You, too," Hermione replied softly.

After a few moments of silence, Hermione spoke again.

"Does this mean no more kissing?" Hermione asked in a pitiful voice.

Ron just laughed.