Boron is essential to life. Small amounts of boron compounds play a strengthening role in the cell walls of all plants, making boron necessary in soils. Borates have low toxicity in mammals, but are more toxic to arthropods and are used as insecticides.

5. Boron

31 August 1998

The storm was picking up, and Ron wondered if he should just go ahead and apparate inside the house. Of course Hermione wouldn't mind, but he wasn't sure what her parents would think about finding him on their sofa when they got back.

Presently, he was sitting on the bench in their back garden, waiting for Hermione to get home from a dinner she had accompanied her parents to under the notion that she might be able to scarper with him to Grimmauld Place later on if she said sufficient goodbyes to her parents at the house after dinner tonight instead. He thoroughly approved of this plan, but it was getting quite late, sun obviously setting, even though all he could see at the moment was an expanse of gray clouds overhead, in every direction. And he wasn't entirely sure Hermione would see his point of view on staying up all night to spend as much time together as possible before she left on the train the next morning. She would have Prefect duties and wouldn't really be able to sleep much on the train...

The rain started suddenly, splattering his hair and shoulders. But it cooled his skin a bit, and he didn't really mind. It had been so hot this week, and after a day at training, he would welcome a cold shower.

Lightning flashed, and he looked up, considering his options as the sky promptly opened over him, rain abruptly pissing down. He vaguely regretted his positive outlook on the shower from seconds earlier… and he hastily decided that huddling against the back wall might be preferable, as the eaves could shelter him from the full brunt of the storm.

He stood, boots squelching in thickening mud. As he turned, whipping soaked hair out of his eyes, he saw the lights flick on, inside the house, and Hermione appeared, on the other side of the glass door, eyebrows lifting to her fringe as she unlocked the bolt and opened the door for him.

"You could have come in!" she called, as he ducked his head and pushed forward, assaulted now by the increasingly heavy downpour as he made his way to her.

"I'm filthy," he grimaced, as he stood half a metre from the entrance, taking in the sight of Hermione in her purple dress, bits of her hair pulled away from her face... She looked so perfectly clean and beautiful, and he was dripping into the flower beds.

She smiled at him, and he shrugged, smiling back.

"Hand me your wand? Mine's in the kitchen."

He removed it from his back pocket, offered it to her, and she waved it over him, squeezing some of the water from his clothing and hair as he slipped off his boots, leaving them on the back step.

"Come in, and I'll do it again," she said, moving back.

He stepped inside, carefully, and she flicked his wand at him again as her parents came into the room from the hallway.

"That's useful," her father remarked as Ron's clothes dried a bit more.

Ron reached back to shut the door but remained standing on the patch of tile that separated the door from the carpeted sitting room.

"Hullo," he said, nodding in her parents' direction. "Sorry about..." He gestured at himself vaguely. "I'll just stay here and wait, yeah?"

Hermione reached for his hand, slipping his wand into it as she smiled up at him.

"It's alright. You can come up with me."

His shirt was still soaked, clinging fiercely to his skin, but he wasn't actively dripping anymore, at least. Her parents had distracted themselves with a conversation about work, so Ron followed Hermione cautiously through the kitchen, where she retrieved her wand from her small handbag and continued on to the stairs.

He followed her up to her room and was unsurprised to find her trunk and one additional case already closed and stacked by the window. She flicked her wand over them, and they vanished.

When she turned to face him, her eyes were a bit bloodshot, and he suddenly noticed the tendrils of curled frizz sticking out from the neatly tucked back portions of her hair on either side of her face. The detail made him smile, for some reason, and she sighed, slipping off her dressy shoes and walking up to him, wrapping her arms around his waist and pressing her cheek to his wet shirt.

"You alright?" he asked against the top of her head.

"Just trying not to think about it…"

"Tomorrow, you mean?"

She nodded against his chest.

"Want to follow my trunk and meet me back at Grimmauld Place?" she asked, changing the subject, fingers curling absently into his belt loops as he smoothed her hair with one hand and played with the zipper on the back of her dress with the other.

"Yeah?" he grinned.

"I told them already," she explained, pulling back to look up at him, "so we don't have to wait. They're tired from work anyway and probably won't stay up late."

"Could have saved me getting soaked if I'd known that would work out so well..."

"Sorry..."

She wrinkled her nose and slid her hand up the back of his wet shirt.

He smiled at her and shook his head.

"Reckon you can send my boots along? Aim for the bath tub... they're disgusting."

"Come inside next time," she huffed, lifting up onto her toes to kiss his chin before letting him go.

"Didn't think your parents would be thrilled to find me in their house. Sort of looks like I'm having a laugh at Muggle security..."

She did laugh, shrugging.

"I could keep you out for them, if I wanted to..."

He narrowed his eyes at her as she headed for the door.

"I'll be over in just a minute."

He smiled, and she turned to descend the stairs. Spinning quickly, he disapparated, ready to get the hell out of his wet clothes, which were beginning to feel a bit on the cold side against his goose-fleshed skin.

As he arrived, he took one step forward, through the room he'd only half set up since moving in two days prior... and ran immediately into a low-hanging cobweb.

"Bloody! Fucking-" He ducked and shook himself frantically. "Shitshitshit!"

He flailed, sputtering as he ineffectually batted at his own hair for potential spiders. Impossibly, the web seemed to have attached to the whole front of him. Or his skin was simply crawling from implication. Either way, he wasn't taking any chances.

He staggered out of his jeans, managing to unfasten them while hopping from leg to leg. Kicking them away from his body, he viciously swatted through his hair with both hands again.

"...ruddy spider twats..."

His legs and arms tingled with goose flesh as he aimed his wand across the room to the dreaded Crime Scene. Flicking, he attempted to banish the mostly invisible web strands that had previously attacked him, unwilling to get any closer to investigate his success afterward.

Shivering, he clamped his wand between his teeth and glanced down his front to check for web remnants...

It was there. On the floor. Half a metre away. Half an inch wide, dark brown, eight bloody legs. Boldly crawling across his floor with no regard for his state of mind.

"Shit!"

He narrowly caught his wand as it fell out of his mouth, and he leapt up onto his bed, shifting his weight back and forth to balance.

A loud crack of someone apparating echoed through his room, startling him. And then she was there.

Hermione.

"Oh my God, save me."

She stared, wide-eyed, at the scene, taking in his disheveled state, discarded jeans-

"Hermione, it's going under the fucking bed!"

"Is there any point asking for an account of what's happened since I last saw you, two minutes ago?"

"I'm serious! Can you see it?!"

"Can I see what?" she gawked at him.

"The little cocksucker spider that's probably rebuilding its damn web underneath where we're going to sleep tonight!"

She pressed her lips tight together.

"Calm down, it's okay," she said gently, moving forward to kneel at the foot of the bed. Ron flinched as he watched her.

"Can you see it?!"

She paused, lighting the tip of her wand.

"Oh! Yes, I see. I've got it, Ron."

With a sharp flash and puff, she straightened up, still on her knees, and stared back up at him where he was frozen in place, feet sinking into his mattress, waiting for her to confirm her kill.

"Killed it, banished it," she said.

He let out a heavy breath. She was clearly trying to hold back an amused grin. He could feel his hair sticking up at all sorts of odd angles from his assault on it moments previous.

"Okay, this feels a bit silly all of a sudden..."

She burst out laughing, and he shrugged.

"Look, can you just check over there-" he gestured toward where the web had set upon him "-and be sure he hasn't got a mate waiting to attack us in our sleep?"

"You keep talking about sleep like that's something you plan to do tonight..."

She stood, and he grinned after her, watching as she thoroughly checked the opposite side of the room. Waving her wand twice, she cleared away any remaining evidence of the web and turned back to face him.

It was only then that he realised how cold he was in his wet shirt and slightly damp boxers. He climbed down from the bed, shivering, and approached her.

"Can you do me one more favour and check my hair? I swear it felt like a whole nest of them was rooting around up there..."

She smiled kindly at him as he ducked forward, closing his eyes as she ran her fingers gently through his hair for him.

"All clear."

He exhaled, fully relieved.

"Ron, you're freezing."

"I know..."

She reached for the bottom of his shirt and peeled it off of him, hanging it over the back of a chair to dry.

She looked up at him for a moment, cheeks tinged a pretty pink. The past few minutes replayed themselves. And he blushed, laughing.

"You saved my life," he joked, rolling his eyes at himself.

"That was a record, I think..."

"Of what?" he asked, warily.

"Most terrified I've ever seen you of something thousands of times smaller than you..." She bit her lip, corners of her mouth twitching.

"I owe you big..." he laughed. "But first, I desperately need a shower. I'm sure I can still feel bits of ruddy web on my skin..."

"Go on," she grinned. "I'll watch over your room. Make sure nothing else is coming to get you..."

"My hero."