Unofficial Portkey Archive

Author's note: First, I need to thank everyone that reviewed this story. I think every review's important and that's why I replied to each of them (except for the one that was double-posted, for obvious reasons). I also take this occasion to tell you that just the fact that you're reading this means a lot, it makes all the time I spend reading it and developping the plot worthwhile. I'll keep replying to every review, no matter how much time it takes.

Now onto the story. These are the fluffy chapters. Although, my definition of fluffy is not completely accurate - I mean that they won't be as dark as perhaps the two first chapters and the chapters ahead. I've taken Ron's character pretty much as low as I could, but he had good reasons for acting this way, grief. I don't hate his character, I'm rather fond of him by moments, but his degression had its purpose in this story. Hopefully, this lighter chapter will make everyone happy, and will allow you to get comfortable with the background of the story once it truly starts. Oh yeah, because, this is really just the beginning.

Darkness fed on any form of light it could find as the clothed form descended even further into the cave, its steps so light it almost hovered over the muddy ground. Its respiration consisted of quick ragged breaths as if a weight crushed down its windpipe. Turning a corner, it erupted into a candlelit portion of the cave where the roof stood higher than anywhere else, a few feet above its head. Along the tall wall of the circular room stood five feet tall solid steel candleholders, heavy velvet tapestries covering the rock. In the middle of the room, over a roaring fire, a cauldron hung, its content boiling. From behind the fumes, two red eyes darted up to meet those that shone under the hood of the silhouette as it crept into the cave. "Master, I have interesting news."

A few knocks on the door was all Harry needed to be pulled out from sleep, and he opened his eyes, reaching out to get his glasses from the night stand. Hermione protested with a soft groan as he lifted her off his chest and softly laid her down on the bed. As he looked down at her, he felt an incredible sense of calm wash over him, but it was only momentary. In a matter of seconds, the familiar pain rushed back him, stealing his breath away.

Turning away from Hermione, he bent over and grabbed his pants from the floor, slipping them on before heading for the door. Taking a hold of the knob, he hesitated for a moment, wondering if it was a good idea to answer Hermione's door in the middle of the night. After a short pause, which was followed by a new set of knocks, he finally opened it, making sure not to open the door completely so that whomever was on the other side wouldn't get a good view of Hermione laying in bed. He prayed to Merlin he wouldn't find a teacher or any faculty member standing on the other side. But what he did find was even more shocking. On the other side of the door stood a very much surprised Ron, surprised but not angry. "Ron…what are you doing here?"

The thin line of his mouth slowly curled into a shy smile, a smile Harry had not seen in a very long time. Yet it seemed different somehow. Somehow, Ron seemed older. "Hello Harry. You never showed up last night, so…Well, I came to this conclusion. Looks like I was right. Can I come in?"

Harry frowned, then threw a quick glance over his shoulder. Hermione had rolled onto her stomach and was sleeping peacefully, her hair tousled like it had been the first day they had all met. "Erm, no. Let me just…"

"Get dressed?"

"Yeah," Harry approved, turning back towards his best friend. He didn't feel so good about leaving Hermione alone, but he could not help but wonder why Ron had come to him. He still wore the painful reminders of his last encounter with the redhead on his face, but there was an obvious shift in Ron's attitude, one he wasn't sure how to feel about. "Be a minute," he finished before closing the door.

He couldn't think straight as he picked up his clothes from the floor one by one. From time to time, he would look up to her and pause, almost in a daze. She was beautiful, laying amidst white sheets, her fair skin looking like porcelain. At once, after putting on his shirt, he made his way to the bed and laid down next to her again, his fingers kindly brushing against the soft skin of her back. She wrinkled her nose and emitted a soft groan before her eyes flickered open. For a moment, she seemed surprised to find him there, then her expression shifted as a pleased smile appeared on her face. "Hey"

Her voice was weary, as if she was still being pulled back into sleep. He smiled, caressing her hair, before he bent down and kissed the top of her head. As he came in proximity to her, she hooked her fingers into his shirt as if to make sure he wouldn't fade away. Pulling back slightly he looked into her eyes, fully taking in what they had done only a few hours before. It was night now and there was nothing he wanted more than to sleep next to her. Somehow, she made all the pain fade away, she made the unbearable weight that was crushing his chest subside. And he loved her now more than ever. But Ron was waiting for him and he owed it to his best friend to discuss with him whatever it was he wanted to discuss. "Ron is here, he says he wants to talk to me."

At the mention of their mutual friend's name, she noticeably stiffened, and he shook his head softly, explaining with a soft voice that he seemed better. With a long sigh, she rolled onto her back, bringing the covers up to cover her nudity as she sat, and her amber eyes met with his green ones. "Tell him that if he hurts you again, I will make sure he'll never be able to procreate. Ever."

He offered her comment a soft giggle before bending down and claiming her lips. She tasted like honey and once again, he was tempted to pull her into his arms and stay with her. However, he pulled back, raised one hand and caressed her cheek before standing up, the mattress shifting as it no longer had to accommodate to his weight, with the promise to come back.

A fresh coat of snow covered the Hogwarts grounds, rendering even the oldest students to the state of gleeful kids as they all partook in snow fights or made snow angels, each and everyone of them taking advantage of their first snowy week end of the year. Amidst them, a redhead and a brunette laughed as they sat on one of the rocks nearby the lake, pointing at a bunch of boys that were well involved into a snow balls war. A rather large ball flew the short distance between the two forts and landed right in the middle of Ron's chest, throwing him aback but not onto the ground. Harry's laugh resonated as Ron's cheeks flushed with red out of shame from being unable to duck in time, and the redhead kicked his friend lightly before bending down behind the snow palisade with him.

"See, now I'm not so sure the whole Slytherin versus Gryffindor thing was a grand idea. They're bloody cheaters!" he complained, peeking through a small opening in the wall through which they could see the other side's fort. A bunch of Slytherins, obviously excluding Malfoy, had accepted Harry, Ron, Dean, Seamus and Neville's challenge, although both Harry and Ron would have preferred being opposed to Ravenclaws or Hufflepuffs. But no one wanted to play with the Slytherins, as they ignored the meaning of "fair play" and when they had finally been ready to play, only them were left to be challenged.

Still waiting for a reaction, Ron turned to Harry and found him looking right from the Slytherin fort, at the two girls that sat laughing at their pitiful attempts to counterattack the treachery of their adversaries. Rolling his eyes, he poked Harry's side. "Invited her to the Yule Ball yet?"

His words seemed to pull Harry out of his reverie and Ron stared as his best friend shook his head slightly as if to put his ideas back into place, then eyed him oddly. He had put a charm on his glasses to ensure that they wouldn't get fogged and a few locks of ebony hair were escaping from the edge of his hat. In the cold winter air, he still could look like a kid with his cheeks red from the cold, but one look into his eyes, and you were faced with an old soul. "Oh bloody hell Harry, do you think I'm that much of a git that I wouldn't see it? You're madly in love with her."

Truly, how could Harry think he hadn't noticed? They had been best friends almost since the moment they had met, they had gone through so much together. They almost knew each other inside out, so how could Harry think he had been fooled even for one moment? The last year had been especially hard on Harry, leaving him wounded and in bed at St.Mungo's throughout the summer after a particularly traumatizing face-off with Voldemort. Hermione had been shattered, staying by his side basically day and night, reading to him and often falling asleep while sitting in a chair by his side, her head resting atop her arms on his bed. Ron had made it out of the fight with a broken arm and a few trophy scars, but that one day he had walked into Harry's private hospital room, he had gotten a broken heart. Hermione was resting, partially on the chair, partially on Harry's bed, and Harry lay awake, brushing his fingers through her hair gently and simply looking at her peaceful face with pure adoration.

He had known for a long time that his crush on Hermione was a silly thing, even before he'd admitted it to her during their sixth year. She had said she was flattered and that she cherished him beyond words, but that she simply didn't feel for him what he felt for her. He hadn't insisted, he hadn't pleaded. He had simply nodded and, of course, told everything to Harry the next day. It had taken him a great deal of courage to do so, but he felt that he simply couldn't hide this fact from his best friend, especially if there were to be any awkwardness between him and Hermione.

On that day, Ron simply walked out without notifying Harry of his visit and on the way back home, had kept his fist clutched so hard his knuckles had turned white. He had waited for Harry to break up with Cho, whom he had been dating for a few months by then but was obviously not in love with, or even simply to mention it to him. The break up came quickly, as soon as Harry and Cho had seen each other on the train. He had pulled her away from everyone, and minutes later, she rushed past them in tears. But Harry had never acted upon his unspoken feelings for Hermione. And although it troubled him at first, Ron now knew exactly why. Because of him.

Although he was still amazingly fond of Hermione and probably always would be, he had now accepted that she didn't feel for him like he had once felt for her and had moved on. And he would be damned if he was the only thing stepping in the way of Harry being truly happy for once.

"Harry, I'm not blind. And I'm not an idiot either. I know my goofy charm is by times disarming," he joked, while collecting a bit of snow and slowly forming a large ball in his hands "but I'm no fool. I've known for a while now, and I appreciate that you held back out of consideration for me. But mate, you don't have to. I'm ok with this. Better even, I'm happy with this. You two deserve each other, you deserve some happiness Harry."

Finishing the ball, he threw his arm back while jumping onto his feet and threw the little pack of snow with all his strength towards the Slytherins. One of them received it right in the face as he peeked above the icy wall they used as protection and Ron laughed gleefully, happy to have gotten his revenge. "I bet he doesn't sing Weasley-is-our-king now."

Harry only snorted to that, but he still looked at his friend as though the redhead had just opened a world of possibilities to him. "You better fix that jaw, it seems like it might have a bit of a tendency to fall off," Ron began before throwing a handful of snow at Harry. "Come on, you fool. Go and ask her before someone else does. Someone else always does."

With that, he pulled onto Harry's arm and shoved him away from the protection of the fort, pointing his wand at him and casting a protection spell around him to ensure that he wouldn't fall victim to a rain of snowballs. Harry threw a glance over his shoulder in his direction and Ron mouthed words of encouragement. He watched as Hermione's face lit as she saw Harry, watched as Ginny left the two of them alone and joined him to help in the snow fight. She offered him a playful grin and shoved some snow his way, obstructing his vision for a few seconds. What he missed was a surprised Hermione stuttering a yes to Harry's question and an equally nervous Harry taking a few steps back as he starred and nodded at Hermione before bumping into a small rock and falling over into the snow. Ginny giggled at the sight and his laughter joined hers as they forgot all about the snow fight and simply took pleasure in watching their dear friend be happy for once.

The two of them walked side by side, Harry throwing uneasy glances at Ron while chewing lightly on his lower lip. He was aware he'd picked that habit from Hermione, and right now, it offered some kind of comfort. She was away, but not really. Finally, as they reached the lake, Ron sat on top of a large rock and looked back at him.

"Sorry for…well, your face," the redhead began, shifting uneasily on his cold seat as he laid eyes on his face. In the moonlight, Harry was even paler than he usually was, and now, the contrast with his ebony hair was almost eerie. Harry grunted a response, kicking the ground as he lowered his head. He still felt an immense guilt whenever he was around Ron, and he felt that situation wouldn't change anytime soon.

"I…McGonagall took me to see Dumbledore after what happened and we sat in silence for a long time before I sort of…"

Ron stopped, wondering if he truly was going to admit that he had broken down into uncontrolled sobs for a good hour before he had finally been able to talk with Dumbledore. He had cried when he had been told his sister was dead, and he had held his mother against him at the funeral, but he hadn't cried then. He had stared at the coffin as it had been lowered into the ground, forever holding the body of the person he cherished more than anything. It had taken physically hurting his best friend for his defensive walls to fall and let the flow of tears that were tearing him apart internally to the surface. Deciding not to, he diverted his sentence. "Before I sort of talked. Not very coherent, royally pissed off. Dumbledore just starred at me for a long time then took out the Pensieve. You know, that thing you told me about?"

Harry nodded, remembering his experiences with the pensieve, first exploring Dumbledore's memories, then Snape's, which had offered him more than he could ever hope for: a glimpse of his parents in their youth. Satisfied with Harry's motion, Ron explained how Dumbledore had set the pensieve in front of him and told him that he had been awaiting for something like this to happen, causing a snort from Harry. As much as he admired Dumbledore, he had grown accustomed to his ways, and knew that while he usually had a good notion of what was to happen, he mostly waited for the events to unfold before he took action, making sure everyone learned their lesson in the process. It was a patented method of teaching, but it was also a painful one. Harry couldn't count the times such actions had caused him or someone else physical and psychological harm. "And he left me alone in his office, with the thing. I had no idea what to do, so I stuck my finger in it like you said you'd done, and I got sucked into the sodden thing."

Furrowing his brow, Harry looked into his friend's face and he blinked as he saw a shift in it. Ron's eyes grew darker as he clenched his jaw so hard it Harry thought the pressure could crush the redhead's teeth. "And then I found myself back into that bloody chamber, as the Order rushed about, along with Dumbledore. I saw myself, unconscious, next to Hermione, and then I saw you…and her."

It was only when Ron's voice broke as he pronounced the last word that Harry understood what he had meant. Dumbledore had not picked some random memory of their friendship to bring them closer, he had picked the moment that had brought them apart in the first place, one of the - if not the - most sinister moments in Harry's life. And he saw her again, her pale face, whispering his name with great difficulty as if it took all of her remaining strength to do so. He had never been aware of how precious a friend she was to him until that moment, of how much she meant. He wasn't in love with Ginny, that much was clear, but he did love her, just as much as he loved Ron. She was a piece of him, and she had been taken away. A piece of himself had died in that chamber, when her life had slipped through his fingers. The steel was meant for him, not for her. Never for her. Yet it had taken her.

"I heard her voice before I even saw her. There was so much pain, so much sadness in her voice. I bent beside you and I looked into her face as she died, and I saw you cling to her, and refuse to let go, even though they eventually brought you apart. I don't think you remember that though… You were starring into nothingness Harry. As if…as if a part of you died."

Harry looked up in surprise as his friend used the words he'd just considered moments before and his eyes met Ron's. They both held their stare for a long time, before Ron spoke again. "I'm not saying I'm not angry at you anymore, I think I'm pretty much angry at the world right now, but the blame…The blame is gone. I watched into her face Harry, and she did not blame you, not for one second. I can't spit on her memory and blame you Harry. I truly am sorry for hitting you, and I feel horrible for saying those things to you."

They both stared at each other in silence before Ron stood up and stepped towards Harry. "Tell Hermione I'm also sorry for the nasty things I said to her, she was nothing but kind and…"

"Why don't you tell her yourself?" Harry asked, his tone slightly reproachful. Ron nodded slowly, as if he had been expecting this, and let out a long sigh. He shifted from feet to feet uncomfortably for a few seconds before looking back at his best friend.

"I can't. I'm leaving Hogwarts."