Кассандра Клэр - Draco Dormiens

"Hermione kissed MALFOY?" Ron said again.

"Did I mention the big scary demon arm?" asked Harry.

"Yeah," said Ron, "But Hermione — " "Oh, shut up, Ron, do," pleaded George. "You're giving me a headache."

"That's just not like her," said Ron in amazement. "I thought — I mean, you know -

her and you," he said, and trailed off at the look on Harry's face. "Or not," he added hastily.

"We're here," said George, and indeed they were pulling level with the walkway.

The Weasleys leaped out of the car, Harry, on legs that were still very wobbly, followed them.

At first it looked to them like there was only one person sitting on the path. Then, as they drew closer, they realized it was Sirius, holding Hermione, who was sobbing into his shoulder.

Hermione rarely cried, and Harry had never heard her cry like that. It was a horrible, lost, awful sound. He started forward but couldn´t make his legs work right. He stumbled, and George caught him. "Easy there, Potter," he said, and Harry started to walk forward.

Hearing George, Sirius glanced up. His eyes widened when he saw Harry, and he grinned all over his face. Gently, he put his hands on Hermioneś shoulders and pried her off him. "Uh, Hermione," he said. "Hermione," and he put his hand under her chin and turned her head.

Hermione followed his gaze and saw…

Ron?

She didn't even stop to think how Ron might have gotten there, just gasped once and leaped to her feet, flinging herself on him, sobbing hysterically into his shirt front. "Ron, oh Ron, Harry's dead, I'm so sorry, it's my fault, I really tried — " Ron patted her head. "Dead, did you say?" he said, not sounding the least bit sad.

"Well, it was bound to happen."

Hermione pulled back a little and looked up at him uncertainly. "What?"

"Well, he led such a risky sort of life," said Ron, ignoring the shocked look on her face, "Don´t you think? I suppose the only thing for us to do is dedicate the rest of our lives to making sure the memory of Harry never fades from the recollection of the wizarding world. Perhaps a zonking great monument is the way to go. Some huge block of marble with a statue of our favorite midget in glasses right on top.

We can get Fred and George to fund the construction." Seeing her expression, Ron relented and shut up. "Hermione, you great ninny," he said with a grin. "Look behind me."

She turned her head and saw Fred and George Weasley standing behind her, grinning like mad. And between them, looking very much the worse for wear, with his hair sticking up every which way and his glasses on crooked, but very much alive, was… Harry.

Hermione's knees gave out, and she sat down hard on the ground.

A second later, Harry had shoved Ron (rather rudely) out of the way, and was sitting next to her on the ground. "Hermione," he breathed, putting his arms around her. "I'm sorry…I'm sorry…Ron's an idiot." He turned and glared at Ron.

"Ron, you're an idiot!" Ron rolled his eyes. "I'm fine," Harry went on. "Don't cry."

But she wasn't really crying — more gasping in great, shuddering breaths as if she couldn't get enough air. Harry held her and she clung on to him, breathless, burying her head in his shoulder. Harry looked over her head at Ron and mouthed desperately: What should I do?

Ron mimed patting an invisible someone's head, which Harry did.

Hermione's gasps quieted somewhat.

The Weasley twins watched Harry and Hermione clutching on to each other as if the world were ending, and shook their heads.

George sighed. "Look at him," he said in an undertone, "he's got one of the great makeout lines of all time available to him — 'hey, I'm back from the dead' — and he doesn't use it."

"He's a cretin," agreed Fred.

"I'm glad he's alive, though," said Ron, who was listening.

"Me, too," said George. "We've got a match against Slytherin coming up next week and we'd be flattened without him."

Nobody wanted to hang out on the walkway where Harry had fallen (even if he was all right), especially not Hermione, so they got in the car and drove back up to the top of the cliff, where they parked in the middle of a grove of trees and Sirius made a rather startling announcement.

"We're not leaving," he said.

"Oh, right," said George. "We'll just hang around a bit, shall we, have a campfire.

Toast some marshmallows. Wait for the Dark Lord to return and kill us all."

"We're not leaving," Sirius clarified, "without Draco."

"Come on, Sirius! " said Ron, sounding horrified. "For six years itś been my dream to leave Malfoy stranded on a horrible, barren plain full of giant spiders, and now I finally get the opportunity and you want to take it all away?"

"They're his giant spiders, Ron, they won't hurt him," pointed out Harry.

"Well, you can't have everything, can you?" said Ron.

"Sirius is right," said Hermione.

"Oh course, you would think so," snapped Ron. "You've been kissing Malfoy all over the place, after all, it's only natural you'd want to save his scaly hide. You-you bad girl, Hermione. You smoocher of evil."

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Ron! Honestly!"

Sirius crossed his arms over his chest. "I am not leaving without Draco," he said again.

"Has he been kissing you, too?" asked George. "Gets around, Malfoy does."

Harry had turned and was looking away from them, back in the direction of the Manor. "He won't come, Sirius," he said.

"You'll have to believe me that it would be a very wrong thing to do, not to at least give him the chance," said Sirius.

"Wrong?" said Ron angrily. "First chance he got he turned right around and stabbed you all in the back, didn't he?"

"Only because Voldemort used the Veritas curse on him," said Sirius, sharply.

Harry and Hermione both started talking at the same time, and Sirius held up a hand.

"Draco didn't tell me," he said. "I guessed. And I wasn't going to tell you, because I figured it was his business, but you might as well know. And I'd like to see you, Ron," he said with a flash of anger in Ron's direction, "fight it as hard as he did."

Hermione and Harry looked at each other, with identical expressions of guilty horror. Then they turned back to Sirius. "Why didn't he tell us?" demanded Hermione. "He said Voldemort didn't torture him to get him to talk."

"The Veritas curse isn't torture," said Sirius. "Technically speaking."

"He's so stubborn," said Harry, angrily.

"Like someone else I could mention," said Sirius.

Harry looked at his shoes. "Go and get him, Sirius," he said.

"Be practical," protested George. "How're we meant to find him?"

Sirius tapped his nose. "You forget I'm a dog," he said. "I can follow his scent.

Chase him down."

"That's kind of weird and disturbing," said Fred. "You know that, right?"

"But very effective," said Sirius. "You five wait here. I'll look for him for twenty minutes and no more. I've a feeling he hasn't gone far."

" I've got a question for you, Harry," said Ron. Harry and the Weasleys were crowded around the car, which was parked near the chasm edge. George had claimed the car was making a funny grinding noise, and he and Fred were messing about under the hood, trying to figure out what it was. The Weasleys had brought food with them, so Harry was currently stuffing a jam sandwich into his mouth, in between swigs of pumpkin juice.

"Yeah?" asked Harry, around a mouthful of sandwich.

"Are you ever going to tell Hermione how you feel about her?"

Harry choked on his pumpkin juice. "What?" He glanced around nervously.

Hermione, saying she was exhausted, had retired with her sandwich and juice to the edge of the clearing, and was lying down in the grass some distance away.