Кассандра Клэр - Draco Sinister

"I don´t know," she said softly, and glanced down. One stroke of luck was that none of the guards had tried to take the Lycanthe away from her, probably assuming it to be jewelry of some sort.

However, no spells she tried inside the cell seemed to be working at all. It must, she decided, be quite thoroughly warded. "I´d imagine they´re going to report finding us to Slytherin, and he´ll probably…come for us."

Ron was looking away now. "We lost Harryś cloak," he said, after a moment.

"I know."

"It belonged to his father."

"I know that. Don´t dwell, Ron."

"Heś going to — "

"Be panicking over where we are, not worrying about his stupid cloak. Oh, God," said Hermione, with a sort of despair. She couldn´t bear thinking about how worried Harry would be. Couldn´t get the memory of that look on his face when she and Ron had left him in the cell out of her mind — white with worry, trying to smile, not because he wanted to, but for her. She turned away from Ron, and, miserably, began poking at a loose brick in the wall with the point of the Lycanthe.

Ron was silent for a moment. Then she felt, rather than heard, him get to his feet and come to sit beside her. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see a bit of red hair, the scuffed knees of his jeans, his tanned, freckled hand resting on his knee. "You´re not trying to tunnel our way to freedom, are you?" he said, after a moment.

"No. I´m not."

"Good. Because I think you´re just tunneling into an adjacent cell anyway."

Hermione stopped poking at the wall, and turned around, resting her back against the stones. At the look on Ronś face, she relented slightly. "We´ve been in situations where we thought we were going to die before, haven´t we?" she said gently. "And we´re all right."

"Yeah." Ronś voice was distant. "But we were usually with Harry."

He was quiet for a moment, staring into space. "Hermione?"

"Uh-huh?"

"If we´re going to die anyway…"

"Don´t be defeatist," she admonished, poking the Lycanthe at the wall again.

"Well, you admit it looks bad for us."

"I don´t admit anything."

"Yeah, you never do."

"I am not going to squabble with you right now."

"Look, I´m just saying, if we´re going to die anyway…"

"Don´t say that!"

"I always thought I´d have sex before I died," he added thoughtfully.

Hermione dropped the Lycanthe. "Ron! Too much information!" She reached down to pick it up, and accidentally jammed one of the points of the sideways X into her thumb. "Ouch!"

"You all right?"

"I´m fine." She put the cut side of her thumb in her mouth and sucked on it mournfully for a moment.

"Good."

"No thanks to you," she added, slightly childishly.

Ron ignored this. "Be that as it may, as we are, obviously, going to die, then thereś something I think I should tell you."

She looked at his suddenly serious expression in surprised bewilderment. "What are you going on about?" Something occurred to her then, and she scooted closer to him, staring anxiously into his face. "Ron. Are you all right? Is everything — you´re not sick, or dying, or-"

He cut her off with a short, mirthless laugh. "No. It isn´t that." He reached out then and took hold of her hands, closing his fingers a little awkwardly around them. She looked at him in utter bewilderment, shocked by how pale and determined he seemed, by the clouded, troubled look in his blue eyes. "I hope this doesn´t make you hate me," he began, his voice very low and urgent, "because I don´t know what I´d do if you hated me, but I have to tell you that-"

"Psst!"

Hermioneś head whipped around. "Did you hear that?"

Ron looked mutinous. "I didn´t hear anything."

The noise came again. "Psst! Hermione! Ron!"

Hermione yanked her hand out of Ronś and spun around, listening for the source of the noise. "Whoś there?" she whispered, her eyes huge.

Ron was goggling as well now. "That sounded like Sirius," he whispered.

"It is me," came the voice again, and this time Hermione was able to gauge the location the voice was emanating from — the wall. "I think you managed to loosen one of the bricks by scraping at it, so I pulled it out of the wall. Can you see me?"

Ron at her side, Hermione stared at the wall until she found the dark opening Sirius had made. Then she scrambled towards it, bending down to stare, and found Sirius´ bright dark eyes looking back from the other side.

"Sirius!" she gasped, both wildly relieved and horrified to see him at the same time. "What are you doing down here?"

"Actually," he said, and there was a note of almost-amusement in his voice, "I was sketching. As to how I got down here, itś a bit of a long story and I´m not sure you would believe me if I told you. The real question is, are you all right? Are you hurt at all?"

"I´m fine," she said, a huge lump forming in her throat. "I´m fine, not hurt at all-"

"And Ron?"

Hermione leaned back as Ron took her place at the wall. He looked just as relieved and shocked as she felt. "Sirius!" he exclaimed. "I´m fine, too, but what about you? How long have you been down here?"

"Few hours," said Sirius briefly, an I-don´t-want-to-talk-about-it note in his voice. "I was listening to you two talk for a while before I realized who you were. And none of us are going to die. All right?"

"All right," said Ron, managing half a grin.

"And don´t worry about Harryś cloak. We´ll get it back."

Ron nodded. "Okay."

"Oh, and Ron?"

"Yeah?"

"Don´t worry about the not having had sex business," said Sirius magnanimously. "You´re only seventeen. Good things come to those who wait."

They sat facing each other across the small round table: Ginny on one side, Benjamin Gryffindor on the other. He had gotten dressed and was staring at her, as he had been since she had arrived, as if he had seen a ghost. The Gryffindor sword was still leaning against the table; every time she saw it, she thought of Harry, and of the rest of them, in the future where she had left them. It was so quiet here and so peaceful, with all the pretty multicolored tents among the green grass and the view of the castle over the hedge of brambles, looking as pretty and harmless as a picture from a history book.

"So let me get this straight," said Ben, still looking at her, wide-eyed.

It was still a bit odd to see such dark eyes in a face that looked like Harryś. "You want to borrow an army?"

Ginny sighed, and templed her fingers together under her chin.

"Look," she began, trying to find the words to explain. "We haven´t got the resources to face Slytherin in the future. We haven´t got armies like you do, and the Ministry doesn´t even believe that heś returned, mostly because they don´t want to."

Ben looked at her quizzically. "The Ministry? Is that like the WizardsĆouncil?"

"Probably. Wait, let me see if I can remember my history. The Council was abolished in 1612 because-"

"Don´t. Don´t tell me too much about the future. I don´t want to know." He sighed, and shook his head. "I have to say I really never thought I´d see you again. I do actually remember you, even though I was only twelve."

"Well, I remember you," smiled Ginny, "but thatś because for me, it was yesterday."

Ben nodded. "Rowena said she´d given you the information you´d need to defeat — him — in your own time."

Ginny shook her head. "It wasn´t enough. I don´t know if she understood that in the future, the magical community just wouldn´t be prepared to deal with a threat like this. Heś got all the Dark creatures on his side — the werewolves and the trolls and the dementors — there are just so many of them."