Preface:
This is a Beauty and The Beast retelling of Romione (Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger).

The cellar we were locked in was cold and terrifying. The steady drip of water echoed somewhere faraway eerily reminiscent of a clock ticking. I sat huddled in the corner, my mind racing with useless thoughts and so called solutions to get out of this place.

As soon as Harry had uttered the wretched name, we were surrounded by Snatchers. All I remember after seeing them was a flurry of activity, intense adrenaline rush and the stinging hex that I had used. The next thing I knew, we are in this damp place.

"Hermione. . ." My heart skipped a beat when he called my name. It always did but I pretended it never happened. I was supposed to be mad at him for deserting us. "Hermione. . . I feel sick. . ." That did the trick.

"What? Ron?" Hurling myself at the bars obstructing me from both of my friends, I squinted my eyes in search of him. "Ron?!"

"There's a curse. . ." This time, it was Harry who spoke. "These cells. . . They're cursed!"

I knew it. I felt the unwanted fear and anxiety as soon as I was forced into the cell I'm held captive in. "What's happening? Ron?" I urged, feeling the bile rise in my throat.

There was a sudden flash of bluish red and a light ignited above us - the deluminator. Under this light, I could see the dirt etched face of Harry but Ron looked. . . pale.

Without any warning, he threw his body at the bars in vain and a scream erupted from my throat. When he looked up, terror seized me. He was as pale as a ghost, his eyes dark with circles of wasted tiredness under them; and his hair was really messy. Something just seemed off.

"Marry me, Hermione. . ." Ron said, his voice hollow and his eyes - dark irises instead of the ocean blue ones - focused on me. To say I was surprised would be an understatement.

"No, this is not you! What's happening to you, Ron?!"

"Nothing!" he bellowed and a second later, fell to his knees holding his head as if Voldemort was whispering into his ears. Harry was trying to reach his best friend but fell short of it being in the adjacent cell.

"Hermione? What happened to Ron?!" Harry asked desperately seeing he could not witness how Ron looked.

"H-he-"

"Marry me, Hermione!"

"No!" I squeaked out, my hands flying to my mouth as tears streaked down involuntarily. I could not witness Ron falling to pieces and was glad that the water in my eyes blurred the entire scene. My mind raced with thoughts as to what could have possibly made Ron to go insane when Harry and I are still intact and the answer flashed before my eyes - the locket that was intact and as docile as a baby. "Take it off! Take it off, right now!"

"What?" Harry asked, obviously not catching up.

"The Locket! It's affecting Ron! The curse is the contributing factor!" Harry's eyes dawned with realisation and he began shouting as well, trying to reach out to Ron. I extended my arm out too and surprisingly, Ron accepted it. Being in the parallel cell that I was, I could at least brush my fingers against his.

"I'm not going to." Was Ron's silent reply. He seemed to have calmed down a little bit. "It's going to get you out of here. . . this energy." In a flurry of action, he tackled the bars of his cell, shockingly bringing them down with a crack of the hinge. Dust flew and obscured my vision. In despair, I closed my eyes and felt a warm pair of hand take hold of mine.

"Y-you broke it!" Harry's exclamations forced me to open my eyes. Standing in front of me was a smiling Ron - his eyes still dark but holding an affectionate sparkle in them - the bars of my cell lying on the floor behind him. I let out a gasp before searching him for any injuries.

"How did you do that?!"

"I can't bare to see you imprisoned. Marry me?"

I forced myself to draw back from him. "W-what's wrong with you, Ronald?! I can't marry you until we have - we have finished helping Harry! Here, give me the locket!" I tried to take it off but he resisted.

"Not yet. I'm embellishing in the energy of You-Know-Who and I am not ashamed of it." His voice firm and with a stiff nod, he proceeded to help Harry as well. When he was done, he put out the light using the deluminator. "Harry, I want you to allow me to lead you both."

There was a moment of silence and I could almost hear Harry nodding. "Yes, mate."

"Good."

Boy, was I glad that he had the locket on. Even though he looked downright terrific at times, the way he - along with Harry - seized their wands and duelled the Senior and Junior Malfoy, his aim at the chandelier to cause a distraction and most importantly, the idea of Dobby getting us out amazed me.

This Ron was unlike any other. He was composed, graceful and most importantly, did not yell out profanities that annoyed me. He was kind and gentle, especially towards me, in the days that came and went by. Shell Cottage had more or less become a Manor of our own.

But still, there was the absence of my old Ron. . . The Ron who now only appeared in my dreams of solitude together; the Ron I originally knew.

I missed him. . .

-xoxo -

When the day of the Battle came, we were all running high on panic and anxiety. There was a horde of students rushing about, yelling defensive charms and offensive curses. The sound of things crashing and falling apart rang like an eternal bell in my ears as I hurried past a giant acromantula. I craned my neck to take a look at Ron the moment I remembered his arachnophobia.

He was standing in a defensive posture, his wand quivering in his hand; he was still the Ron I knew, insecure and afraid of spiders. I forced myself to retrace my steps, leaving Harry alone. As soon as Ron saw me, his eyes widened.

"Don't, Hermione!" he shouted. His sudden pitch of voice turned the spider on me instead - just what I wanted. Taking my steps cautiously among all the fallen shingles, I withdrew back as its ugly eyes scanned me. Silence rang painfully in my ears as the whole battle suddenly turned into a duel between the acromantula and me, Hermione Granger. Each second passed with hesitant desperation.

The large beast finally lunged forward and I raised my wand arm to fend it off. But my brain had lost its capacity to think straight.

Its pincers were awfully close when it was struck in the back by a white light. It fell to the ground in a dead paralysis, the shadow of Ron standing behind it. I felt my knees buckle with weakness at what I had just witnessed.

"You - you just fought your worst fear, Ronald. . ." My voice came out rather feeble that I was surprised he heard it.

"No." He shook his head dismissively. "I think my worst fear is losing you, Hermione. . ." There was a slashing sound heard in the background, followed by the sound of something falling down. Without pondering on what his speech made us, I grabbed his hand and broke into a run towards the Great Hall where the entire population was gathered, watching something. Upon pushing through the crowd, I spotted Harry and Voldemort, locked in a fierce war of words while moving in a circular pattern. Harry screamed something before the jets of sickly green and bright red light met each other.

I held my breath in anticipation, feeling Ron's warm hand in mine, as the elder wand flew out of Voldemort's hand and he fell to the floor, unmoving. It took a second for realization is hit everyone and when it did, the whole hall broke into a cheer, save the Death Eaters. With a wide smile, I was about to congratulate Harry, who was swarmed by people, but Ron held me back. His terse expression did nothing to abate my feelings.

"Hermione, as you said before, our mission is completed now. He's gone and is never coming back. With that reassurance, will you marry me?"

A thousand words came to the tip of my tongue but they never reached his ears for, I was both ecstatic as well as apprehensive. His dark eyes bored into my lighter ones and I, for once, saw something more than affection in them - desperation. Why, I did not know. For all I did, I latched onto him, connecting our lips in a rush of passion. "Yes."

Even through my closed eyes, I felt something brighten up. It was probably my heart feeling lighter after all the strenuous days. The collective gasps from voices unknown led me to flutter my eyes open and withdraw from the embrace. The sight in front of me left me speechless.

Ron was glowing brighter than the sun. Shading my eyes, I tried to think of a solution to whatever curse that was placed on him but none occurred. A moment after, the aura dissipated and he opened his eyes - the ocean blue that I missed so much - and everything around me but him evaporated along with the glow. "What - what happened?" I asked, shakily. He smiled sadly before responding.

"That cell in the Malfoy Manor was cursed, I suppose. It might have just broken because you said yes to me."

Shock and guilt coursed through me like adrenaline. "W-what?" My question was definitely not direct but I think he got me, like he always does in ways that I fail to comprehend.

"I don't know how but I had a feeling that if you married me, I would be freed from this - this monster in my chest. . ." He withdrew from the embrace and took him hand, softly placing it on his chest. I could feel his beating heart, beating for. . . me. . .

The entire world and the celebrations of the victory drowned in the background; his heart beat was enough to fade everything but us away. Truth dawned on us, enlightening us with its gracious presence and without the need of thinking, I began speaking.

"The Locket along with the cursed cell just. . . influenced you to become like a Horcrux and as Dumbledore always said. . . love conquered all. . ." It was truly miraculous. Quoting something that I never gave a thought ever since the hunt.

"You're probably right. Blimey, Hermione, you're always right! I just did not wish to tell that before," Ron admitted, a red tint creeping to his cheeks. I could feel my own blood rush to my face in a hurry to match his reddened face. Cupping my cheeks, I whispered a feeble 'Oh, Ron'.

"Guys?" a familiar voice came.

"You'd really think they noticed us, uh, Harry?"

"They were literally eating each others' faces when you defeated Voldemort and I had the bad luck to witness that, ew!"

"I personally think that their soul reunion was sweet, Ginny."

"Wait, what?!" I shrieked, realizing with a start that we were discussing important life decisions in front of thousands of survivors and victims. I chose to ignore Ron's soft laugh behind my back but his hands slipping back into mine fuelled me to reprimand him. "Ronald Weasley!"

"What?!" he responded with equal level of tone.

"You just - we are in public!" I hissed, withdrawing back and looking around to see if we had attracted any eyes. Ginny, Neville and Luna were looking at us with a smile but I could not really spot anyone else looking this way. Unless you count the potentially invisible Harry under the cloak.

"I don't see that as a problem. Blimey but being with my Beauty and Brains is all I need for now."

I melted into a puddle then.

Thank you for reading!

Miyoko x