Grimmauld Place

Harry emerged from the bathroom a short while later, having pretended to have simply gotten ready for bed, when he'd actually experienced another vision of Lord Voldemort ; these visions were becoming more and more frequent these days, and this most recent one showcased Voldemort's use of Draco Malfoy. Although he and Draco were by no means good friends, he didn't deserve to be tortured and used by Voldemort to such an extent, or even at all, like his life was disposable. Nobody did. Harry thought it was best, for their sakes, not to mention it to Ron and Hermione at that moment in time; they'd just been through a lot and were already on edge – the last thing they needed was to add more fear and tension to the mixture.

When Harry re-entered the room, he was met by Ron and Hermione bickering loudly about something or other – probably something completely insignificant, knowing them. Harry shook his head. Their meaningless fights were not a new occurrence, and Harry didn't expect them to subside anytime soon, but now he just put it down wholly to sexual tension. His two best friends had been in love with each other for as long as Harry could remember, and it frustrated him that neither one acted on these feelings. Ron was far too nervous of Hermione's reaction and Hermione was probably waiting for Ron to make the first move. Not that Harry was much of a ladies' man himself, but he had read Ron's birthday present to him, and he knew that if the two of them carried on much longer, he was going to have to play wingman.

"Ronald, if you are insinuating that just because I'm a girl –"Hermione was arguing, her temper hotting up.

Ron was flabbergasted. "Hermione, that's not the reason – I just want you to be comfortable. What's the issue? And besides, I don't even know what insinuate means!"

"It means – oh, never mind" Harry smiled. Hermione had long since given up trying to improve Ron's vocabulary. "I'm perfectly fine on the floor with you two. I don't need special treatment" she then reached for the corner of her sleeping bag, which Ron had apparently laid out on the ragged sofa, and tugged, pulling it on the cold, hard floor, along with Harry and Ron's.

"I'm not saying that you do. All I'm saying is that –"Ron stopped, just noticing Harry's reappearance. "Harry! Can you please tell Hermione that my wanting her to sleep on the sofa is gentlemanly, and not patronising like she seems to think?"

Harry groaned, quickly debating whether to go back and hide in the bathroom. "Uh…I'm sure Ron just wants you-"He didn't get to finish his sentence, however, for Hermione interrupted him.

"Can you tell Ronald that I'm not fragile? I knew what I was signing up for when I agreed to come along – so obviously I'm not the type to get squeamish if I have to sleep on the floor or moan if I break a nail! Not like some girls…" she trailed off, and Ron's face fell. It was apparent that she was making a reference to Ron's ex girlfriend, Lavender. Harry rolled his eyes – Hermione must be angry, that was a pretty low dig, for Ron to be reminded of his previous year.

Hermione looked demandingly towards Harry for his opinion, who held up his hands in surrender. "Hey, neutral third party here. I can't take sides" He henceforth retreated to his own sleeping bag and pretended to be busy, absentmindedly fiddling with its zipper.

"I'm not saying you're fragile, or incapable, or anything else! I'm just saying that it's good manners to let you sleep on the sofa – you'll be more comfortable. Will you please just do me the favour of sleeping on the bloody sofa? I'll sleep easier…"

Hermione's eyes narrowed suspiciously. "And why would that be?"

At this, Ron's ears flushed scarlet and his composed expression turned flustered. "I...Uh…Just do it, ok?"

"Yes, fine" Hermione replied in a half-defeated, half-exasperated tone. "If it'll make you happy"

"Thank you. It will" Ron sighed, still slightly pink, but looking otherwise, pleased with himself. He proceeded to lay Hermione's sleeping bag back out on the sofa.

Harry threw up his hands, amused at the spectacle his two best friends had managed to make. Despite the situation, he almost felt like he could laugh – they really were like an old married couple. "Great! Now that's sorted, how about sleep? Seems like a good idea after today"

Ron and Hermione murmured their agreements and after brief, meaningless small talk to take all their minds off what they would no doubt have to face soon, the trio lapsed into silence. Barely minutes after they'd settled down for the night, Harry fell sound asleep; his long and loud snores were soon reverberating around the small, empty room, sleeping soundly for a change.

Ron, on the other hand, was suffering from a bout of insomnia and as a result, was very restless. He didn't see how anyone could sleep with all that was going on. It turned out that he wasn't the only one. Looking above slightly at Hermione's raised silhouette, he could see that she too was finding it difficult to drift off; her petite body was casting moving shadows every now and then, and Ron could hear the quiet groans of the old and ragged sofa as she changed her position. Although the sofa was not exactly the most luxurious piece of furniture, taking into consideration its worn state, it was the best they had, and it comforted Ron some that she wasn't sleeping instead on the cold hard, and frankly, rather uncomfortable, stone floor. Ron didn't want to disturb her, even though the thought of gaining some quality time with Hermione, sans Harry, was extremely tempting, so he turned on his side and forced his eyes shut, willing himself into slumber. It was practically silent in the room after this, so Ron assumed Hermione had managed to get to sleep after all. After about five minutes of lying still, trying to count sheep in his head and things of the like, all he could conjure up in his head were death eaters. And Hermione. Predominantly Hermione. He sighed – it looked like sleep was going to be hard to come by that night, what with having just started on the embarkation for horcruxes, plus the fact that he was in a strange house, sleeping only inches away from Hermione. It was then; as Ron was thinking all this through that he began to hear a faint sniffling noise. As he listened harder, he realised that it was in fact someone sobbing. Sitting up immediately, Ron knew exactly who it was. He hastily unzipped his sleeping bag and knelt beside the sofa. He was met with a heart wrenching sight- for him, at least. Hermione was curled up in a ball, facing the wall, and crying as hard as she could without waking anyone. Suddenly, Ron felt useless. He'd never thought himself any good at the emotions stuff. Especially when it came to Hermione. He always managed to say the wrong thing or upset her more. But he had to try.

Not knowing if it was the right thing to do, Ron gently laid a hand on her back, whispering "Hermione?"

At his touch, she jumped, and Ron instantly felt guilty. What if she wanted to be alone? Ron withdrew his hand and Hermione turned to face him – what he saw made Ron's stomach drop. Her eyes were red from crying, and the pain in them was devastating. Tears were freely cascading down her cheeks, and her bottom lip was quivering. "Ron!" she said, startled, quickly wiping her eyes, although, in Ron's opinion, nothing could hide the oppressive, despairing look that made her usually shining brown eyes look dull.

"Hermione, what's wrong? Are you alright? Uh, obviously, you're not…but…" Ron inwardly cursed his stupidity.

"I'm fine" she blatantly lied, Ron raising an eyebrow. "Ok, maybe I'm not, but really, you can go back to bed. You shouldn't have to see me like this."

Ron shook his head firmly. "No chance. You think I can go back to bed and leave you in this state? Anyway, I can't sleep. My brain's working overtime. Never healthy."

Hermione smiled faintly, but still said nothing.

"So, what's upsetting you?" he prodded gently, Hermione making room so he could perch on the edge of the sofa.

She paused. "Everything" When Ron looked confused, she continued in a small voice, "I'm scared. Of what's coming, what I know our journey's going to entail from here on out. Yeah I know that's what we signed up for, but I hate to think that we might have signed up to die. It's no bash at Harry, but Voldemort's getting stronger by the minute, and here we are, a few teenagers who don't have a clue."

She paused again, Ron watching her intently at the end of the sofa. "I couldn't bear it if something happened to you. Or Harry" she added quickly, flushing pink.

"Same for me" Ron replied, "But you know, we've gotta think positive. It's the only way to keep from going crazy. We're not clueless- you brought the mobile library with us, and Harry's receiving these visions – they could help." Then he hesitated. "I wish I could promise you that everything's going to be ok, but you and I both know I can't. Way I see it, we're just gonna have to take each day as it comes, and deal with it then."

Hermione smiled. "When did you get so insightful?"

Ron smiled too; glad that he could bring some of the warmth back into her eyes. "It comes naturally."

It was quiet for a moment, until Ron spoke up. "I wonder where all the horcruxes actually are. Do we know already where any are?"

"Well, we know they are all going to be in places that have impacted largely on Voldemort's life, like the muggle orphanage, Borgin and Burkes, where he worked for a while, and maybe Little Hangleton. We know for certain that there is one as Hogwarts, but what it is, we have no idea. On the bright side, Harry's already gotten rid of one of them – the diary. That's one down." Hermione explained, her tears now gone, and her voice steady. Ron smiled faintly, hearing her talk intelligently about something meant that she was alright. He loved hearing her talk, even if he didn't understand a word of it.

"Also" she continued, "Harry seems to think Nagini is a horcrux. You know, Voldemort's snake. I don't know if he's right or not, but if he is-"

"It's going to be impossible to get to. We'll have to duel Voldemort just to get to it!" Ron exclaimed.

"Well, yes. I expect so"

"The one at Hogwarts is going to be like mission impossible too!" Ron added, starting to worry himself now. The task that had seemed so easy when he was explaining it to Hermione now seemed impossible. Now she was the calm one. What had happened?

"Again, true." Hermione agreed, "The amount of security they're going to have now will make it doubly hard to get to, as well as the fact that Voldemort's pretty much in charge of everything, now he's taken over the ministry. Who knows what he'll do to the school?"

Ron and Hermione shared a chilling look and both shuddered at the thought. What he could do to the school, but worse, do to their friends and family, was unthinkable.

"Bloody Hell" Ron said.

"Now you're psyching yourself out" Hermione accused.

"How can I not? Hermione, do you realise that we're just relying on Harry to get us through this, on Harry to know where the horcruxes are, on Harry to battle Voldemort. But what if that isn't enough? Sure, he is the chosen one, but is that really going to save us?" Ron questioned worriedly, not wanting to upset Hermione further, but unable to stop himself from voicing his fears aloud.

Hermione faltered, looking stumped. "Erm…"

"I mean, we're more vulnerable than him if you think about it. Voldemort wants to kill Harry himself; he's not going to let anyone do it. But he knows that if he gets someone else to kill us, then Harry'll go straight to him."

"Ron, don't think like that. Like you said, we have to think positive. Harry's not going to let anyone do that to us. We're not useless ragdolls either; we're going to help him!" Hermione protested, laying a hand on Ron's.

"You're right" Ron replied eventually. Then, his gaze turned steely, as he squeezed her hand tightly. "I'm not going to let anyone hurt you, not matter what happens."

Hermione looked taken aback at Ron's words, and her own gaze softened. "That's kind of an irrational promise, don't you think?" Ron could hear the smile in her voice, regardless of the darkness. "But, thank you. That means a lot"

There was hush again after this for a brief moment, until Ron broke the silence, releasing Hermione's hand, as if he'd had a triumphant epiphany all of a sudden.

"Just think, after Voldy's history, we can all get on with having a normal life. Wonder what that'll be like"

There was no reply from Hermione; she looked down at her hands, twiddling her thumbs. Suddenly all the light drained from her eyes – they were dull and lifeless again.

"What? What did I say?" Ron began to panic.

"Nothing. It's just…my parents. I've modified their memories, as you know. And if – if we don't survive, if not even one of us makes it, they're never going to be put right again. Never going to know their true identities. Never going to know I even existed, let alone –"she stopped, shaking her head, as if to rid herself from the thought. "It's not fair on them. They're innocent."

It made Ron's heart ache, to hear her voice her woes so painfully. He had to do something, tell her anything, to make it better. He couldn't bear to see her so upset and devoid of warmth and light. "Hermione, Hermione, look at me." Hermione raised her head to look him in the eyes. "I've just realised something. Something I never realised before. We can win – we will. You're going to make it. We're all going to make it. You have to believe. Your parents going to be back to normal before you know it." He paused. "And I'm coming with you."

Hermione's eyes widened. "What?"

"After the war, after everything's sorted out. When you go to Australia, I'm coming with you. You need the support, and I like to think I can do that for you. If you don't want me to, I'll completely under-"

Hermione stopped him mid-sentence and pecked him quickly on the lips. "Now who's being stupid? Of course I want you with me. Thank you. So much."

Ron beamed from ear to ear – that was much more than even he'd been bargaining for. "That'd just how sure I am that we're going to be alright. I promise I'll be with you. Every step of the way." With that, he lay back down on his own sleeping bag, as tempting as it was to just remain on the sofa with Hermione all night. His words seemed to reassure Hermione, as she too settled back on the sofa. She then dangled her hand down on the side of the sofa, and even in the darkness, she found Ron's hand and interlaced their fingers.

"Goodnight Ron." She paused. "And, thank you for tonight, you were so supportive – you made me realise that it is possible. We just have to have faith"

"G'Night Hermione" Ron replied, still smiling brightly. "No, thank you. I freaked myself out for a moment there, and that's all I needed to hear, that we could do it. And now I know we can. Hope Harry believes that too"

"Yeah…" she agreed, her voice trailing off. Ron smiled. Bless her…He hoped for her sake that he sleep was tranquil and that she had sweet dreams. As corny as it sounded, he just wanted for her to be happy, and he was pleased that he'd manage to transform her broken self into someone that believed, who had faith that they could win. And the funny thing was, in his trying to help her, she also managed to help him too. Not that he ever thought he needed help. Ron guessed that's what love could do. Love…the word left his mind as quickly as it had entered. He didn't want to fool himself into jumping to conclusions, but still, what they had both shared tonight was special – to Ron, anyway. And he had a pretty good inkling that it was to Hermione too. One thing, Ron thought, was certain: in the midst of unrest and uncertainty, light would always prevail against the dark, and love would be the guiding light. In his and Hermione's case, she was his guiding light, and, as long as he had her, he could deal with whatever came their way.