11

Edited: 23/5/2014

Contrary to popular belief Ron wasn’t as stupid as he made out. He actually had the brains to succeed in his classes and his magic wasn’t exactly squib like. He just didn’t want to put the work in. It had been easier before when Hermione and Harry had been with him, with their help he’d managed to comfortably coast through his years at Hogwarts.

Now however, it was a different story. He should have been concentrating on how to succeed in passing his seventh year without any help. Instead he was intent on wooing a witch who A) wasn’t interested and B) a witch who he hated half the time. His attempts at seduction had not been working well. He blamed his failures not on his own lack of charm but on the stubbornness of Hermione and the poisonous control of Draco. This was really the problem of the matter. It was one thing to fail at winning Hermione but it was another thing entirely to lose her to Malfoy. He was done playing second fiddle to Harry’s violin and had hoped that his disappearance from society would give Ron his big break in the limelight but once again he’d been pushed aside.

He didn’t believe this tripe about Malfoy renouncing his past deeds and suddenly being good. As far as he was concerned the Malfoy’s were so imbedded in the darkness that there was no way out for them.

However, he was rambling. As much as he hated Malfoy, he wasn’t his main concern right now. He had a plan to win Hermione, sure it involved less than legal avenues but it didn’t matter if it proved to Hermione that they belonged together. He’d actually willingly entered the library to research his plan. He’d found a rare form of fairy dust that when sprinkled upon the intended victim, makes them act upon the power of the fairy dust. In this case the fairy dust acted with the greatest desire of the victim and the first person they kissed would be revealed as their soul mate. Of course Ron hadn’t been thinking of Hermione’s desire when he thought up this plan but he was still fully confident that it would work.

Now that Hermione no longer trusted him and the fact that he didn’t want to be humiliated again in front of a crowd of people, he decided to catch her when she was alone. So yet again he ventured into the library – willingly – in search of his prize and e found her buried deep in her prized books. If he’d been more observant then he would have seen the paleness of her skin and the dark circles under her eyes. Then again, he hadn’t even heard that she’d just had a brief stay in the hospital wing.

‘Hermione I have to talk to you’ he said urgently.

Hermione looked up from her work, her eyes narrowing as she realised the person interrupting her was Ronald.

‘I’m busy Ronald, please go away’ she said sternly.

‘But it will only take a second’ he said pulling his best puppy dog expression.

Hermione however wasn’t fooled.                                               

‘If this is another one of your spectacles then I’m not interested. Can’t you take a hint Ronald? Go away’ she said frustrated.

‘You don’t understand, this is going to make everything better, you’ll see. Then you’ll see where you belong and you’ll stop associating with Slytherin’s’ said Ron desperately.

‘Ronald Weasley if you don’t move out of my way right now, you’ll find yourself with missing limbs’ she threatened seriously.

At that moment Ron produced the pouch of fairy dust, poured some into his hand and blow it into the face of Hermione. She coughed and spluttered as the particles attached themselves to her. She had a strong desire to murder Ronald Weasley before her mind went blank.

Ron stood before Hermione triumphantly. He watched as various emotions crossed her face before her expression finally became blank. He smirked as he leaned forward puckering his lips and closing his eyes in preparation. After nothing happened he opened his eyes to see what was going on. Hermione was standing exactly where she had been before he closed his eyes. Except this time the blank expression had gone from her face and had been replaced by a look of determination and love.

‘I have to go, I must find him’ she said making to move past him.

He caught her arm and spun her round to face him ‘I’m right here’ he said.

She looked at him but it looked like she was looking straight through him/

‘You are not him’ she said.

He watched, mouth open, shocked as Hermione walked by him. Any normal person would see this for what it was, realise that they weren’t soul mates and give up.. Not Ron though, he was far from giving up, he was more concerned about why th fairy dust didn’t work.

Meanwhile, Hermione was walking around the castle with a determined expression on her face. It was a good thing that their group were so often together and only had a few places that they liked to hang out in for it made finding her target easier for Hermione.

P.O.V Change

He’d been reluctant to allow her to go to the library – they all had. Though she was now fully healed she had scared them and as a result they were now more cautious of her safety.

‘Where have you been?’ he asked.

‘It’s not important’ she replied.

‘What’s that in your hair?’ he asked.

She gave no response but simply moved to wrap her arms around Draco’s waist. Not that he was complaining much about this reaction, it was a bit unlike Hermione to act this way and that was worrying. Draco didn’t have much time to protest as Hermione latched her lips to his and pulled him in for a fiery kiss. Their friend’s around them whooped and cheered but the couple kissing paid them no attention.

It was during the kiss that the compulsion to find the one from the fairy dust wore off and the couple finally parted minutes later, blushing and panting hard.

‘What is in your hair?’ asked Draco while smirking.

‘Fairy dust’ replied Hermione, some of her earlier anger at Ron returning.

‘What?’ Draco cried seriously.

‘I know, what was Ronald thinking! Why can’t he leave me alone!’ huffed Hermione irritated.

Draco however wasn’t so concerned with Ron’s behaviour than he was with the knowledge that fairy dust had been used.

‘Did you say fairy dust? Do you know what kind?’ he asked.

‘Oh it was another stupid attempt of Ronald’s to try and seduce me. Something about kissing and soul mates, probably completely ridiculous’ said Hermione.

Draco grinned ‘when you kissed me, what did you feel?’ he asked.

‘I knew that I needed to kiss you, I just had too, like nothing else mattered. Then my head began to clear and I realised what I was doing’ she said.

‘Ron might be an idiot, but his knowledge of fairy dust is correct. The dust you’re covered in does lead the victim towards the one they’re destined to be with, or soul mates as some people would say. It means a lot and nothing at the same time’ said Draco.

‘What do you mean by that?’ asked Hermione.

‘It can mean nothing because I already have feelings for you, and then it can mean something because we are made for each other and will never be better suited to another person. What we have’ he gestured between them ‘is forever’.

She smiled at his words, it sounded kind of soppy coming from Draco’s mouth, considering who it was she was talking about, but she was happy that he had said the words nonetheless.

MEANWHILE – TEACHERS MEETING

McGonagall had called a meeting of the heads of house, Madame Pomfrey and Kingsley Shacklebolt. She excluded the other teachers because she didn’t want to worry about them and she didn’t invite Professor Shepard because these things were happening in his classes. It was worrying how many students had gone missing so far this term and it wasn’t something anyone wanted to see happen. The death of Voldemort was supposed to end the fear that plagued the world but it seemed that that fear was coming back. McGonagall couldn’t understand how the students were going missing, there was no trail left behind to indicate where they had gone. She had triple checked all the challenges and as far as she could see there was no way that they could have been snatched from the challenges.

Yet if they hadn’t been snatched from the challenges then where had they been snatched from? For a while McGonagall had even suspected foul play from Professor Shepard, they were his lessons after all and she’d seen first-hand that he wasn’t against his students suffering injury during the challenges. However, Professor Shepard had passed every test given to him and had bought up no red flags, that’s why they’d hired him, he was completely clean of any blemish. McGonagall had had her doubts but nothing had come of them, so Professor Shepard had been written off the suspect list. He hadn’t been invited to this meeting more because McGonagall didn’t want to inform more people than necessary and she was also concerned of people listening in.

The meeting was held in an old safe house that the order used during the first war against Voldemort. It was known only to the people sitting in the room before her.

She had hoped that they may have information that she might have missed and was hoping that they could share their thoughts and perhaps shed some light on the situation. However, it seemed they were as clueless as she was. The only relief she was given was from Shacklebolt when he said he’d get in contact with George Weasley and see if they could get some of his newly improved secret security system up and running in Hogwarts. That gave McGonagall some piece of mind, however troublesome George Weasley could be, he was a genius at inventing and McGonagall felt a little better knowing that there would be more protecting the students at Hogwarts.

She had but one letter to send before she returned to Hogwarts, she only hoped that her message would be received.

LATER

Hermione sat alone on a sofa, waiting for the others to get back from raiding the kitchen. She hadn’t wanted to join them, preferring to stay back and think over the things that had happened that day.  It was there that a familiar owl caught her attention from the window where it was waiting. The ‘tap, tap, tap’ of its claws at the window caught her attention and she moved to open the window and let the owl in. Once she had taken the letter off the owls leg, the owl flew off, it clearly wasn’t waiting for her to respond. She sat back down on the sofa, unrolled the letter and started to read.

Dearest Hermione,

I thought you wanted a year free of drama and fear yet I hear you have recently spent time in the hospital wing and are positively making Ron green with jealousy and envy. You must take better care of yourself, I know the war is over but I couldn’t bear to lose what little family I have. If you’re wondering what bird told on you it was McGonagall. She’s worried, the missing students aren’t a small fact, and it is something to be cautious of. Notice every detail Hermione, use that amazing brain of yours and I’m sure you can solve the problems. Don’t go anywhere alone where you know company will help. I don’t want my next message to say that you’ve joined the group of missing students.

Stay safe,

Harry.

Hermione smiled fondly at the words Harry wrote, but he was right, she was the brightest witch of her age. She shouldn’t be sat on her ass worrying about what was happening. Years with Harry taught her that you cannot wait for someone to come to the rescue, they needed to act on this now but just like when Voldemort was around, people were scared. It had been harder when it had just been her, Harry and Ron but now she had a small army of friend’s behind her and she was sure she could persuade them to help her solve the problem of the missing students. There just had to be something they were missing…

[Looking for a new cover for this story, anyone who wants to give it a shot, pm me. I'd be incredibly grateful, I'm not very skilled when it comes to making covers ~ clinquant]