A/N: Back again. There's another fresh update for "The End…" as well. I don't think it's going to bump it until I get to where I was before removing the chapters, so I'll stick to the pattern of mentioning it here until it starts bumping again. Once again, your comments are much appreciated. Cheers!
~
Ron woke up sweating with a pounding in his head. He was underneath what seemed like every blanket in the tent. The last thing he remembered was being outside. How did he get here? He pulled the blankets back and extracted himself from the bed. His arms and legs felt weak and tingly. He gingerly made his way to the door to be greeted by a surprised Hermione.
"Hermione?" he hardly believed it.
"Ron, you're up. How are you feeling?"
"I'm fine. How?....When?...."
"Two days ago. I found you nearly buried in snow. Ron what were you thinking?" her voice rose with every word.
"Two days?"
"Don't avoid the question Ronald."
"What do you want to hear? That I was drunk?" his anger broke through his curiosity. "Here I'll say it: I was drunk. Happy now?"
"No."
Silence enveloped the room. This wasn't exactly how he had wanted it to go whenever she came back.
"I'm glad to see you again." He said a note of apology in his voice.
"I'm happy to see you too Ron." Hermione's voice went quiet. A groan from the other room caught his attention.
"Who is….." Ron started before his brain answered for him. "It can't be. Harry?" he gently pushed his way past Hermione to the other room and had to stifle a yell at what greeted him. "What the hell happened to him?"
"He's…he's in bad shape." Her voice wavered, "But I think he will be okay….I…"
"You think?"
"I'm not a doctor Ron. I did everything I knew how to do. I think, I think maybe we should take him to a hospital. I would have done it already but you were here and I couldn't do it by myself…"
"Where would we go?" he cut through her.
"I don't know. The only place I know of is St. Mungo's."
The statement hung on the air. That would mean going back to England, back to everything they had run from almost three years ago.
"Ron?"
"Give a guy a minute." Ron's brain was running faster than it had in a long time. He wasn't ready to go back was he? Hell he wasn't sure if he ever wanted to go back. He was still pissed at pretty much everyone they knew back home. Not to mention it would mean having to go see Fred…..he wouldn't be able to go back without visiting his brother.
"Ron, I have another idea….but you might not like it either." Hermione was biting her bottom lip.
"Well, what is it?"
"Well, I've kept in touch with Viktor and" she paused, "I know where his home is. Maybe he can point us to somewhere to go."
"You've been writing to him again?" the question leaves his lips before he can stop it. Now wasn't the time to be jealous.
"I…I just needed someone to talk to. I didn't want to bother you or Harry and Viktor had still written to me from time to time…"
"Okay, let's do it."
She goes from worried to frenzied planning mode in an instant. He is reminded of how much he loves the girl, though it doesn't stir his stomach quite the way it used to. Hermione sets him to getting everything else squared away while she gets Harry ready to travel. Ron stalks through the tent, packing everything away like he's done so many times over the years. He can hear Hermione talking to herself as she moves frantically around Harry's bed. She's tanner and thinner than he remembered, though she still has the same bushy hair and deep brown eyes.
There had been times, loads of times really, that he had thought about going after her. He had packed up the tent and had everything ready to go at least a dozen times to find her, wherever she was, and every time he couldn't bring himself to do it. He would think of her smiling face and the way her warm body had felt against his and he would pull out the Deluminator….
And then he would think about a stairwell and four simple words.
He wasn't sure how he was supposed to tell her. Wasn't sure how you told anyone that the reason you couldn't be with them was because they loved someone else. Usually the other person did the talking in those situations. But then again, nothing had ever been typical when it came to the three of them.
He just couldn't keep living in this lie that was his and Hermione's relationship. He had longed after her for so long. She had been the only girl he had ever really wanted. Even Lavender had really been about making Hermione jealous and hurting her the same way she had hurt him with Krum. Hindsight told him it had been petty and made him a prick, but she had forgiven him…eventually. Nobody affected him the way she did, even when they were arguing. But he couldn't….he wouldn't….settle for being second best in her heart. He had always, always been afraid that she cared more for Harry than him. No matter how many times he told himself that it wasn't fair to Harry he had never been able to stop himself for being jealous of Harry's relationship with Hermione. That he eventually turned out to be right did nothing to make himself feel any better about it.
That would have to wait though. The important thing now was making sure the git actually lived to see his wonderful future with Hermione.
"Everything is ready." He walked in to see Hermione frowning down at Harry. "How exactly are we going to move him?"
"Precisely what I'm trying to figure out." She said. "We have to keep in mind that he's going to have to aparrate with us, or else we'll have to use muggle transportation…"
"What about a broom?"
"Are you insane?"
"Look, here me out. I know you hate flying, but we could sit him up and use a sticking charm to stick him to me, then you could hold onto him. We wouldn't be able to travel as far or as fast, but it would be easier and draw less attention than muggle transportation."
"I don't know…"
"Alright, well if you think of a better idea I'm all ears."
Ron stood waiting for her to respond. He took a closer look at Harry. The poor guy looked terrible. He couldn't imagine what he had been doing to look like this.
"Okay. We'll do it."
"Brilliant. I'll get Harry if you'll take up the tent." Ron walked to Harry's side. He looked to be somewhere between sleep and alertness. "Alright mate, up you get." He reached down and pulled Harry upright, sliding his arm underneath Harry's shoulder. Harry groaned as Ron stood, awkwardly making his way out of the tent. He was perturbed at just how light his friend was.
Hermione took down the tent and got it folded neatly into her bag with a couple waves of her wand, placing her bag inside of Ron's. "Where's your broom?" she asked
"My bag, front pocket." She reached into the bag and withdrew a miniature broom that she returned to normal with a quick flick of her wrist. "Up." Ron commanded his broom, mounting it as Hermione took Harry. It was awkward trying to get Harry seated, as he was complete deadweight, but after a few minutes of trial and error he was firmly attached to Ron's back on the broom. Only Hermione remained on the ground, worrying her bottom lip with her teeth.
"Come on Hermione, don't you trust me?"
"It's not you I'm worried about." She eyed his broom.
"So you can squeeze yourself in and out of fireplaces and whatever the hell happens to you when you aparrate, but you can't trust a broomstick?"
"It's not that simple."
"Well I could leave you to your thoughts…" he drifted away from her.
"Stop!" she growled in frustration, "You win, let's get this over with."
She gave all three of them a rap on the head with her wand to disillusion them before Ron took off, staying a couple hundred feet above tree-top level. Too high and they risked running into the many airplanes that crossed European airspace. Too low and even disillusioned they could be spotted. Ron pushed his Cleansweep as fast as he could while still navigating the terrain. They passed through a large forest and a bustling city before reaching a wide open plain that stretched as far as the eye could see. Only small villages and farms broke the monotony of the steppe that flew underneath them.
"How long do you think it will take?" Hermione shouted.
"Can't be sure. I didn't even know where we were. All I'm basically doing now is flying west. See anything you can recognize?"
"Judging by the terrain we're somewhere in the Ukraine. But I can't be sure. You're last newspaper had been from Kiev, I think that was the city we passed. That puts us at least a thousand kilometers from Sofia. You'll want to head South-West. We can land when we hit the next city and check our position."
"Have I ever told you you're brilliant?"
"From time to time." Ron had to smile at her distressed attempt at humor. She really hated flying. Not that that had ever seemed to stop her where Harry was concerned….
They flew for hours, the terrain flying away beneath them. Soon the steppe gave away to foothills. It felt so freeing to be flying again. Times like this made him wonder why he had spent two years drinking when he could have been flying. It was a shame Harry was missing out, he might've been the only one who would have enjoyed it more than Ron.
The sun was beginning to sink below the distant mountains when they reached the outskirts of a town which a quick translation charm told them was Suceava. Ron brought them in a wide circle around the town, taking in the church domes and steep rooflines of the spread out and rather quaint town.
"So where are we?" he asked Hermione, who had stuck herself to Harry facing backwards so she had enough room to open a map.
"Romania. We need to take a more southerly course until we hit Bucharest. Do you think we could make it to Krum's tonight?"
Ron thought about the man stuck to his back. "Do we have a choice?"
"Right. Well, on with it then." Hermione turned herself back around as Ron sped off to the south, the mountains to his left guiding him. Darkness fell after another couple of hours, the lights of villages glowing like much like yellow patches of fallen stars against the blue hued earth. A full moon lit the night with a ghostly pale light, making his hands appear deathly in their grip on the broom handle.
Harry's occasional groans worked liked the ticking of a clock in the back of Ron's mind. He was clearly in need of real medical attention and Ron shivered to think what might happen if it got to him too late. Harry hadn't survived countless run ins with the worst wizard of the age to succumb to his denial. It was mad, every bit of it. They had all three spent two years apart and for what? All they had seemingly accomplished was to reach the very depths of denial. Seeing just how far down they could push reality.
Ron was no fool. He knew full well what his trips to the bottle had been about. Knowing it and coming to terms with it were two different things. It was just too hard to accept that this really was the fate assigned to him. He wondered briefly how long he could keep it up now that they were back together again.
Harry groaned again behind him.
One thing couldn't be denied, Harry needed help soon. He tightened his grip on the broom handle, speeding off into the night.