a/n: First, The characters portrayed here are the property of J.K. Rowling. It is thanks to her that this wonderful world is available for us to lose our way in. Second, I have to thank Merlani for originally giving me this idea based on a part of one of her stories. Third, I would like to give special thanks to my Beta (Who shall remain nameless). His advice was instrumental in making this piece flow. I owe him more then he could understand. Thank you K.
Song
Pain was etched in the lines of her face. The tears that leaked down her cheeks unceasingly since she found out increased as she looked hard into his eyes. He could feel the pain in her heart harrowing him through her gaze, as it coursed throughout her being. He didn’t even realize he was crying himself. In all the rows, in all the fights, in all the tears from the past… nothing came close to what he saw now…
Emptiness.
He wanted to give her everything “ anything to ease the pain that wracked her form. Anything to fill the void behind her eyes. It was that hollowness that scared him the most. It was as if her soul was gone. Ripped out… and he had no idea how to get it back…
She fell against him suddenly, startling and confusing him as her lips crashed into his. He quickly realized that it was not out of passion, or lust, but out of need. She pressed against him until his lips were numb against her teeth. He knew she was searching in him for something stable, something familiar in all the chaos… in all the emptiness…
To no avail.
The pain… the loss… the void… it was swallowing her. It was all she could feel. It was all she knew.
She let her head fall to his chest as she grabbed onto his shirt. She clung to him for dear life, pulling with all her strength - crushing her nose into his collar bone until stars danced before her eyes. She half screamed, half bawled into his chest as her torrent of tears soaked through the front of his shirt. She was falling, but made no attempt to stop herself…
She was falling, and he had no way to catch her. He sobbed, his arms wrapped around her as her hysterical sounds made his stomach clench in desperation.
She was closer to him then she ever had been, but at the same time she had never been so far away. He knew his comforting arms around her, as tight as they were, did nothing to abate the tragic events playing out in her mind. He felt her pushing against him with all her remaining strength, heard her sobs and cries increase by the second. She grew increasingly helpless in his arms, as if he were holding a newborn child.
With this thought, a door to the memories of his past suddenly flew open. He felt himself slip into a different time. A time that was all but lost to him…
He was a baby in his mother’s arms, and she was comforting him. She was singing. Not really a tune, per se, more like repetitious sounds, but they somehow had a way of filling him with peace. The sounds were warm, and wrapped around him the same way her arms held him close to her heart. The pain began to lessen as the sounds became louder… stronger… they were inside him.
He came out of his memory realizing that he was now the one singing the song, over and over in his deep, soft voice.
From out of the screaming darkness in her mind, a song emerged. She did not know from where it came, but it grew ever louder and brought with it… hope. It was simple, but strong and she latched onto it with all her might. The song slowly threaded its way throughout her form and she began to quiet down. She turned her head, allowing her ear to rest on his chest while she let the beautiful and peaceful sound envelope her. She let the song lift her out of the immense emptiness and pain that threatened to trap her forever. Fresh tears glided down the bridge of her nose, but she was silent. She was in the worst place she had ever known, but he was with her…
Her only hope.
“Ron… I love you…” she whispered almost inaudibly, as the sounds lulled her into finally letting go. To finally rest…
Ron just kept singing.
It was the first time she told him she loved him, and although he wanted to kiss her and tell her he loved her back - tell her that he had loved her for as long as he could remember and that he alone would keep her safe and take away all her pain… he just squeezed her tighter and continued. He knew she needed his strength now more then anything else and he was content to hold her, silent and safe, for as long as he could. Anything to separate her from the cruel reality, if only for a few moments… moments she had not had since she found out.
Soon, he felt her breathing steady and knew she had fallen asleep. He continued the song, if not for her, then for himself. The tears continued to leak slowly down his face, but the warmth of her on his chest comforted him.
He leaned down and kissed the top of Hermione’s head.
“I love you too.” he whispered into her hair.
******
In the hallway adjacent to Hermione’s room, Molly paced back and forth, wrapped in silent tears as she heard the hysterical crying of her youngest son’s closest friend. Molly was desperately upset, but also knew that there was nothing she could do. It destroyed her inside to know that her presence would only bring more pain to the girl she thought of as the sister her own daughter never had, even though she knew what it was like to lose family in the war.
She also felt ashamed of herself because, for the first time she could remember, she was running out of comfort to give. She always had some way to comfort everyone, to ease the pain, even if only temporarily… but the pain was getting to immense. Sirius, then Dumbledore, and Bill getting attacked… and now the Grangers. Why them? What did Hermione do to deserve this?
She had reached her wits end. She did not want to fight anymore. She…
She halted in her tracks by a sound that caused all thought to cease.
It was the song…
The song she sang to all of her babies to calm them; the song that she had not heard in fifteen years, not since Ginny was a baby; the song that her mother sang to her, when she was a child…
Her song…
Molly slowly crumpled into the chair with her hands shaking over her mouth. Her throat clenched as fresh tears erupted down her cheeks.
Her son was singing her song to his best friend; to comfort her as Molly had once comforted him…
“He remembers it…” she whispered thickly before succumbing to her own bittersweet memories.
She covered her face with her hands and wept. All the pain and loss and anger she held inside for the past two years, being strong for everyone else, finally came out in a torrent of heavy sobs and tears. She cried for the losses and the voids that they left. She cried for the fighters and the risks they had yet to take, but most of all, she cried for her family and especially her son, for somehow knowing the way to give her back the hope that threatened to desert her and leave her so terribly alone.
After a few long, but necessary minutes of incoherent tears, her senses came back to the present and she noticed that Hermione was silent and her wonderful son’s deep and peaceful voice was quieter now. She wiped off her swollen face and chanced a look around the door jam to the bed where the young couple lay against each other. Molly saw the rise and fall of Hermione’s back and understood she had fallen asleep in the comfort Ron provided. She looked to her son and saw that he was crying. The tears rolled down his cheeks and stained the collar of his shirt, but she understood that he was all right… he kissed the top of Hermione’s head and whispered something inaudible into her hair…
At that moment, Molly knew that it would not be necessary to watch over them anymore. It was apparent from the look on her son’s face that he loved Hermione same way she loved her Arthur. No matter what odds, Ron would be there for Hermione just as her husband was there for her.
Inseparable.
With soft tears still running silently down her face and the image of the couple still etched in her mind, Molly quietly turned and slowly made her way down the hall in search of her husband. She left her son and his best friend…
No…
Her son… and now her daughter… to be together on their own.
It was time for love to watch over them from now on.
fin.
a/n: The song Ron sings and Molly speaks about is actually a song my mother used to sing to me when I was a baby… to this day I still remember it.