"Ron!" Hermione screamed as the tall red haired boy tumbled down the stairs leading into the Great Hall. She tried to run down after him but was stopped and forced to move slowly down the stairs when Harry grabbed her arm.

Ron lay in the entryway of the school without moving, his body was a tangled mess. Teachers and students' came pouring our of the Great Hall to see what was causing all the commotion and Ron's body was soon surrounded by a hundred curious and shocked students.

Dumbledore and McGonagall ran to Ron's side. McGonagall ordered the students to move away as Dumbledore whipped out his wand and charmed Ron's body to float towards the hospital ward.

"Ron!" Hermione began to shove her way through the mob of students to make her way to where Dumbledore and McGonagall were, but was stopped dead in her tracks by a cold and heartless laugh.

"Well guys," Draco Malfoy laughed loud enough for everyone to hear. "Now you know what happens when you fall for a mudblood! Get it? Fall, for a mudblood!" All of the Slytherins began to laugh heartily at the most recent of Malfoys bad jokes, the rest of the students body just stared at him in disbelief.

Hermione pulled her wand out of her robes and pointed it directly between Malfoy's laughing eyes.

"I swear to God Malfoy," she growled, a violent look in her eye. "If I find out you had anything to do with this I will kill you!" Malfoy just stared at her slack-jaw. He would never have imagined that Granger would ever threaten someone like that, even him.

"Hermione, come on," Harry whispered. "Let's go see about Ron."

"You got lucky Malfoy." Hermione lowered her wand and turned away from him to walk with Harry towards teh hospital ward. Malfoy took this as a sign of victory.

"Yeah," he shouted, "and your next Potter!"

Hermione whirled around and hit Malfoy squarely on the nose. The Slytherins all gasped and the rest of the students broke into laughter at teh sight of Malfoy's bloody face.

"He's bleeding all over the damn place," someone shouted.

Malfoy, escorted by Crabbe and Goyle, hid his face and ran from the area.

"That's what happens when you tell bloody stupid jokes about a mudblood's friends Malfoy!" Hermione shouted at his fleeing figure. "Get it? Bloody!"

Harry grabbed Hermione and ran in the direction of the hospital ward, she was right. Ron was his best friend, and he needed to find out if his best friend was all right. But Harry didn't have much hope; he had never seen anything like what Ron had looked like at the bottom of the staircase. Harry was afraid that his friend was dead and that it was all his fault.

"You stupid son of a bitch!" Malfoy whirled away from the mirror he had been staring into to gape at the fiery eyes of the girl who had spoken to him.

"How the hell did you know where to find me?" Malfoy asked sulkily as he returned to staring at what had once been his nose, his voice was barely distinguishable because of his injury.

"Those idiots you call friends," she answered. "They'll do just about anything for a chocolate frog or two."

Malfoy whirled around again. He was standing in the Room of Requirement, a secret place his father had once told him about. At the moment it was full of medical books, ointments, bandages and just about anything else he would ever need along with the one mirror he stood in front of. The last thing he wanted to do right now was go to the hospital ward where Potter, Granger, Dumbledore and that McGonagall woman were and try to explain his situation. Besides, he was embarrassed enough as it was, he didn't want to give that supid mudblood the pleasure of knowing he had gone to the hospital ward.

"What do you want?" Malfoy shouted at her. "Can't you see I'm busy?"

"What the hell do you think you were doing?" she asked him. "How could you do such a thing?"

"I thought I was accomplishing our mission! You started with the Weasel, I was just finishing the job," he spat at her.

"First of all," she said pointing her finger in his face directly at the bloody pulp that currently made up his nose, "this is my mission. You are here to assist, not presume and act on your own! You are second wand, you had better start acting like it. Second, I still had plans for Weasley, plans which aren't going to happen now because you had to go and throw him down a fucking staircase!"

"Don't you ever say I'm second wand! My father is the Dark Lord's right hand man!" Malfoy shouted at her. His embarrassment had turned into pure anger and he was ready to kill again, he didn't care who she was.

"You wish he was, the truth is your father only cares for himself and what benefits him the most. Where was your father those thirteen years that the Dark Lord was barely alive? Where was your father when the Dark Lord tried over and over again to kill Potter? You know where, he wasn't there. He was sitting in his mansion amid his riches living it up. The only reason he answered the Dark Lord's call two years ago was because he was afraid no to. Yeah, you know your father is terrified of the Dark Lord and you know he was punished for doing nothing in service to him those thirteen years. So don't even start to talk about your father being my master's right hand man, your fahter is lucky he even has his right hand."

Malfoy simply stared coldly at her, he knew she was right. That's why he had done it, that's why he had killed Ron. He wanted to be better than his father. He wanted to prove to the Dark Lord that he was capable of so much more, he could do the things his father had never been capable of doing before. He wanted to show the Dark Lord that he could take care of Potter and his worthless friends.

"Okay, I know," Malfoy said. "But Weasley deserved what he got. You can't tell me his murder is going to ruin the whole plan."

"No, it's not," she said simply and calmly. "But it takes a lot of my fun away."

Malfoy smiled. Fun, she was having fun torturing the Golden Trio! With every passing second, Malfoy was beginning to like this girl more and more.

"Want to know how I did it?" Malfoy asked, getting as close to her as he possibly could. "I'm sure you do," he whispered in her ear. As he lay her down on a nearby couch he whispered lightly into her ear, "the Jelly Legs curse."

"Professor!" Harry shouted as Hermione and he ran towards the hospital ward.

McGonagall glanced towards the two of them as she was closing the doors.

"I'm dreadfully sorry to the both of you," she said, "but I can't let you in right now. You are both to return to the Great Hall for lunch and then Miss Granger will inform the rest of the prefects that the students are to return to their common rooms immediately following the meal."

"Professor!" Hermione shouted. "How is he?"

"I'm afraid I can't tell you Miss Granger." With those words the doors leading into the hospital ward were shut and sealed from inside.

"Professor!" Hermione cried banging on the doors. Hermione sank to the floor crying.

"He's dead isn't he?" she asked Harry.

"I don't know Hermione, but I'm sure Ron will be okay. He always has been,"he said trying to reassure her. But in Harry's heart, he didn't believe what he was saying. He lifted Hermione up off the floor and led her towards the Great Hall. He didn't want to eat. In fact, he felt so sick that he was sure he would never want to eat again, but he knew he had to try.

At that moment, Ginny came running down the corridor. Tears were streaming down her face as she ran towards Harry and Hermione. She stopped when she saw Hermione crying on Harry's shoulder.

"No!" she said, her tears staining her freckled face. "No, this can't be happening!" Ginny sank to the floor and began sobbing into her hands as violently as Hermione was crying on Harry's shoulder. Thankfully for Harry, Seamus came running down the hall and immediately sat down to comfort Ginny.

Harry was lost. He felt like crying, he wanted to cry. But no tears came. He could only stare straight ahead at the wall, trying to forgive himself for the things he had said to Ron. Harry didn't know how he would live with himself knowing that the last things he had said to his best friend were in anger.

"Come on Seamus," he said to his friend who was trying desperately to comfort his sobbing girlfriend. "Let's get them to the Great Hall."

Amanda Drowry sat quietly in her office. She had witnessed the whole scene, she had seen Ron's mangled body lying on the cold floor at the bottom of the staircase. She had heard Hermione scream and she had watched Dumbledore take his body away.

Her hands shook violently as she tried to contain herself. Was he dead?

This was too much. This was too far. It was one thing to attack Potter, but to kill his friends, to torture him like this. She was sick of it! She didn't care what the Dark Lord did to her, she didn't care what anyone would think about her breaking her cover. She was going to figure out who was behind this, and she was going to start with the most suspicious person.

The four of them sat next to each other at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall. Everywhere around them people were talking about what had just happened, even pointin at the sobbing girls and Harry. Harry knew they were trying to show sympathy, but it just irritated him. The worst part though was that many of them knew about the fight he had just finished with Ron.

Luna Lovegood was sitting at the Ravenclaw table, staring at him. Harry knew she knew about everything, Luna always did. She knew that Ron had tried to rape Hermione, she knew that Ron and he had jsut finished having an argument before he fell, and he hoped she didn't blame him.

Harry was in the middle of his musings when he was forced to clutch his forehead in agony and fall onto the floor. Hermione and Ginny both stopped crying and immediately assisted Seamus in lifting him back onto the bench.

"Harry," Hermione asked worriedly, "is it your scar?"

The pain in his head was so terrible all he could do was nod affirmatively. Hermione and Ginny immediately started to survey the crowd, looking for any trace fo what could have caused Harry's pain. Everyone was eating and talking peacefully, nobody was even looking at Harry- that they saw.

The doors to the Great Hall flew open and Drowry came walking in. She looked frightening, none of them had ever seen her like that before. She walked directly towards the Ravenclaw table and grabbed Marietta Edgecombe who had been peacefully talking with her friend Cho.

Marietta said and did nothing as she was lifted from her seat and drug from the Great Hall by Professor Drowry. Harry though wasn't worried about Marietta, he was worried about the splitting pain in his head he had felt just before Professor Drowry had walked in, and the hot wave of fear and pain that had washed over him when her eyes met his.

Hermione tossed and turned in her bed. It was impossible for her to sleep. None of them had seen either Professor Dumbledore or McGonagall for the rest of the day, and none of the other Professors would say anything regarding Ron.

Hermione knew he must be dead. The Professor's would have let them into the hospital ward to see him if he had been alive, and they hadn't. Also, Hermione had seen his body, she had seen him fall. She didn't know who could have survived that, wizard or no wizard. Hermione had spent most of the day crying, just like Ginny. Seamus and Harry had been with them all day, only once did they leave for the owlry after Ginny had written to her mother.

It was 2:30 in the morning by Hermione's watch, and she knew there was no hope for sleep., So against school rules, she got up and dressed. She left the bedroom as quietly as possible so as not to disturb Lavender, Parvati had gone home earlier that day.

Hermione walked out the portrait hole, ignoring the snort of disbelief from the fat lady and walked towards the hospital ward. She was going to find out once and for all if Ron was okay. She was tired of guessing.

As she got close to the hospital ward, she saw Professor McGonagall come out from the ward, closing the door behind her once again. Hermione ran up to her from the end of the hall.

"Professor!" she cried.

"Hermione!" McGonagall said in a reprimanding voice. "What are you doing out of bed? And how dare you go wandering around the castle at this hour, you are a prefect for goodness sakes!"

"I know Professor, and I'm sorry," Hermione gasped out of breath. "But I can't sleep, and I have to know about Ron!" McGonagall rolled her eyes and made to walk away down the hall. "Professor please! I have to know!"

McGonagall turned around and looked at Hermione. McGonagall looked so tired, so old, so, so ruined. All Hermione could say was: "Please!"

"Hermione," McGonagall said walking towards her. She placed her arm around the now sobbing girl and pulled her close. "Ron is alive, but we had to transfer him to St. Mungos. We honestly don't know if he will make it."

a/n: Well, there it is! Chapter 7! Oh my God! How scared were all of you? Did any of you honestly think he was dead? I know I did for a while, WOW! That was crazy! Okay, I'm going to stop babbling right now so all of you can go and write me a review- which you will all do, Right? Please! Pretty please! Come on, it only takes a minute, or two (depending on how fast you type) and it makes me happy! I always write back, personally! And, you can yell at me or something for everything I've put in my story! Go ahead, yell! Let it all out, it's not good to bottle your emotions up inside like that! Do it, just review.....Please!