A life-sized portrait slowly moved in, to close the door of the common room. Anxious glares shot up towards the direction of a seventeen year old girl with brown bushy hair.
The girl was Hermione Granger, the most brilliant student of Hogwarts, and the prefect of Gryffindor House. She was a girl, who valued her studies and discipline, but besides that she values her friends, she cares for them; she cares nothing more than her friends.
Behind the closed portrait, was Harry Potter. Outside that very common room was one of Hermione's best friend in mortal peril.
Red-haired, lanky Ron Weasley, turned in the opposite direction of Hermione. His sight was directed to a table inside the room.
Hermione took a deep breath. The clutching sensation on her chest softened, but only for a short while. She turned slowly, hardly taking her eyes off from the portrait.
"Hermione," Ron said, "Harry can deal with it by himself, and he’s with Dumbledore. Don't forget what he told us. We must be ready."
In his hand was a small bottle, half of it filled with golden liquid. He removed the cork and handled the bottle and a spoon to Hermione. Hermione felt troubled, almost lost.
A few months ago, only lucky circumstances saved the lives of a schoolmate and her best friend, Ron Weasley. That night, it was clear to Hermione that they needed all the luck they could have.
And now, Ron was offering her exactly that. Felix Felicis, the potion that Harry undeservingly won, earlier that year on their very first Potion lesson, the potion that is also called 'Liquid Luck'.
Cautiously, Hermione poured little potion into the spoon Ron just gave her. She felt revived. The clutching sensation died. She could hardly remember it. She tilted the bottle with self-confidence and filled her second spoon. She then took the spoon from the table and poured yet some more of the liquid, moving it to Ron's mouth. The boy hesitated for a moment, but shrugged it away as he opened his mouth, and Hermione slipped the precious potion in it. Preparing for the second spoonful, Hermione became conscious that they were using the same silverware, something that they've never done before, but in spite of it she did not feel an ounce of embarrassment.
She moved a small step, bringing herself closer to Ron, letting him get the spoonful of liquid. Looking down at him, Ron took her hand and led the spoon to his mouth. Hermione found his touch warm and sweet, her legs trembling with a desire of tenderness. She met Ron's blue eyes and saw the same desire, reflecting back at her. Her breathing became rapid. She couldn't hear anything, only her heart, thumping. She dropped the spoon immediately and brought her face very close to Ron's nose.
Their lips brushed and quivered together, and then gently they kissed. Hermione shivered all throughout the little, yet eternal moment of bliss. Ron felt the same way, his left hand caressing her face and the other intertwined with her locks. The spoon lay on the ground, forgotten.
Their kiss deepened, every little moment was enjoyed. Their kisses revealed a never spoken will to trust each other, offering and satisfying themselves the same time.
After some moment, Ron drove his lips away from Hermione's face, moving them to the girl's neck. The girl held the boy's back, their touch transmitting electricity to her skin. But something in Hermione's hand was an obstacle for her grip. Abruptly, a doubt surged in Hermione's mind, and suddenly she loosened her arms. She was carefully holding something in her hand. She knew that the thing has enormous importance. She understood. It was the bottle of Felix Felicis.
"Ron, stop it," she ordered.
Ron moved back, freeing Hermione from the hug that didn't keep her captive. Hermione breathed deeply then raised the bottle so that Ron could see the elixir.
"Harry told us to give this to Ginny," she said, "and Malfoy is going to do something here. He probably has Snape to help him. You have the map, go look for Malfoy with Ginny. I'm watching Snape's office. With my galleon, I may call some other DA members."
Ron nodded. They looked deeply at each other for a while, reddening both their cheeks. Hermione moved to her dormitory stairs, determined to follow what Harry wanted her to do, confused still with every single thought in her mind.
Felix Felicis. Anyone who drinks the portentous elixir can lead him in positive circumstances and could gain him self-confidence to accomplish the actions.
Nothing is surprising about the kisses; she knows that it was because of the elixir. They both have drank it, that's why they're both confident.
She found Ginny, and then let her drink the last drops of the precious liquid. Hermione called for the other members of the DA, and had asked Neville to follow Ginny and Harry, and Luna to reach Snape's office with her.
Hermione was sure, sure that the kisses she shared with Ron before, have fulfilled and gave Ron hope. In the same way, Ron had to be sure as much as she is, by the effect of the potion. In spite of their continuous disagreements and although they were not together and they avoid talking to each other, they were strictly bound together.
Felix showed it.
In her heart was a hidden door, a door from which she travel to be in an awesome garden, a garden smelling of fresh cut grass, new parchments and air that has Ron's scent.
She doesn’t have the time for day dreaming! She knew they were in danger, but she’s happy, still.
The girl put her mind on Voldemort, on his existence that was spent in a foolish quest for power. On Death Eaters, the followers of Voldemort, them who cause suffering and pain, them who expects to gain a bit of his power; on Dementors, ready to feed themselves from happiness of humans, on Giants, those who are suspected to have collaborated with Voldemort, on Inferi, the dead who were deprived of their eternal rest. Dumbledore had bound Hogwarts on a strong protection. Still, in the cruelest way, this protection did not comfort her; there was still this suspicion that something terrible was going to happen in Hogwarts. And there was, actually, some floors higher, and she couldn’t hear it.
"I don't think Wrackspurts may be here," Luna said.
"What?"
"I was talking about Wrackspurts, invsible creatures that goes in your ears to pass in your brain. They mess your thoughts."
Since the previous year, Hermione had let Luna Lovegood to believe most strange hypotheses on enchanted animals, and magical beasts.
"Oh!" She simply smiled.
"Now, we have no way to know where or what is happenig with Ginny and the others."
Hermione asked herself why she named Ginny instead of Ron. The rational part of her said, Luna was more acquainted with Ginny than the other two, and the emotional part was suggesting that she was not yet ready to admit yet how often and how intensively Ron appears in her thoughts.
She knew she had to run for him. She sensed it was the best thing to do. But her and Ron's luck doesn't necessarily apply to all of Hogwarts. Felix Felicis knows the best for you, not for the welfare of others.
And the bliss that she and Ron experienced, earlier on, when they kissed, was certainly not enough to stop Malfoy and his companions.
Alarmed screams about Death Eaters inside the castle and noise of little and rapid footsteps, moved Luna's and Hermione's attention to the corridor.
Professor Flitwick rushed to Snape's office. He went in, without apparently noticing the girls. Hermione heard newly came Professor asking the other for help.
There was a dull thud as Snape got out. His penetrating black eyes met Hermione's, his hand tight on his wand.
"Give Professor Flitwick the aid he needs," he ordered, "he is in my office, unconscious. I have to go help the others." He ran away, very quickly, his dark cape blowing after him.
Luna rushed into Snape's office. She sat down near Professor Flitwick, her hands holding up his head. Meanwhile, Hermione got a goblet anda piece of cloth from the cupboard. She drew her wand and declaimed, "Aguamenti!" Her enchantment filled the glass to the top. Hermione dabbled the cloth and put it on the Professor's forehead.
"He can't be revived!" Luna pointed out, after two long minutes. Hermione kneeled to the left of her friend and took the Professor's wrist. "He’s alive," she said, then cupped Flitwick's head with her hands and opened his mouth. She anxiously moved and observed his tongue. "Lumos!" she said, conjuring a light on the tip of her wand. She moved in much closer and moved his eyelids. She inspected the iris and cornea carefully.
"In most poisoning cases, the examination of the tongue and the eyes are useful to discover the antidote. But I find no hints of poison," she explained to Luna, "if luck is with us, we can find the ingredients to reveal the poison from the Professor's saliva and perhaps even prepare the antidote..." she met Luna's eyes, carefully walking near Snape's ingredients cupboard.
"Well?"
"Professor Snape is an expert in Potions and Dark Arts," Luna judged quietly.
"It is obvious," holding her tone, so as it wouldn't sound as if she's totally pissed off, "he's the teacher of DADA and he was the teacher of Potions."
"Correct, while we are just students," Luna continued, with the same imperturbable tone. Hermione stepped back from the cupboard, confused.
"If Professor Flitwick is poisoned," Luna explained, her prominent eyes enormous as it is fixed with Hermione's, "and he is in need of an antidote, Snape should have told us what to do."
Hermione stood still. She looked for an answer to Luna in her thoughts, both of them confused, again. She again had the feeling to run for Ron, to be with him, and for the first time, an idea appeared to her, the idea that Felix wanted her up on those floors, fighting Death Eaters.
"Hermione, you are strange tonight," Luna said, with unbreakable tranquillity and sincerity.
The portrait hole on the Gryffindor's common room was still closed. Hermione looked at it, thinking Harry was going to be back. He had faced the danger set to him and had come out unscathed. The same thing could not be said for all people who had been fighting Death Eaters, that very night.
Bill, Ron's brother was wounded. His wounds wasn't life threatening, but it would mark forever, Ron sat on an armchair next to Hermione, quiet holding his head in his hands, was sharing the suffering of his brother and family.
Dumbledore was dead. Hogwart's school Headmaster, the only mage powerful enough to bring fear into Voldemort, himself, couldn't protect them anymore. He was murdered by Snape's Unforgivable Curse. Hermione has seen Snape running to kill the Headmaster after stunning Professor Flitwick, but she hadn't suspected that things were going to happen.
She turned and looked at Ron's eyes deeply.
"What would we do now, Hermione?"
Ron, in the same way he used to do for years, trusted her. He had always without hesitancy this trust, but that time Hermione was aware that such trust was a signal of the link between them.
"We can do the same thing we have already started, Ron," she replied. The effect of the elixir was over by now, but Hermione didn't need support, alchemical or not to gain confidence about it. "We will fight Voldemort, with Harry."
Ron, in the same way the most part of magical people do, cringed at the sound of the name.
"And to do it," she added in a sweet but clear voice, "it would be useful, if you're used in hearing that name."
Ron sighed. "You mean, Hermione, we can effectively do it, then."
"I mean it," Hermione said firmly, "Dumbledore knew that Harry would have a chance to finish him. He risked his own life to discover if Harry can do it, to make clear how Tom Riddle became what he now is. We can't waste his work. We are going to seek his Horcruxes, we'll find and destroy them, and then it will be his moment."
Ron tried not to surpress his grin. Hermione understood that her speech reminded Ron her know-it-all attitude she usually has during lessons.
"We are in need of gallons of Felix," the boy suggested.
"No Ron," Hermione objected. "As I said before, Felix Felicis can't make a person be able to do something."
"Harry can be successful in his own. He has preparation, intelligence and intuition for this task. He proved his strength again tonight."
"I agree," said Ron noticeably comforted. "I'll be waiting for Harry in our dorm. There is a lot of people here he probably have no intention to meet. Perhaps, he needs some more time to answer McGonagall's questions."
In fact, the Common Room was packed with people. All of them whispering terrified news and opinions about what had happened. Ron stood up and walked past them. Hermione did as well, walking to the direction of the Girl's Dormitory.
"Ron," she called. Ron turned to her, perplexed. "There is also something else you have to do," she said with a slightly unsure voice, "without expecting help from Felix Felicis again." Ron raised his eyebrows, confused for several seconds, then his face lightened up, his mouth opened. He looked at Hermione, who was already starting to climb the first steps of the stairs.
"Hey! Wait," he called. The girl turned to look at him and dedicated a shy smile and the sweetest glance then disappeared without even letting Ron talk.
Felix in periculis - In danger but happy by rik
Chapter Notes: I wrote this story in italian, joining a contest of "R/H positivo" website. Since it had very good reviews, I decided to translate it in english.
Credits I owe:
to .cleo1. who courageously accepted to improve my rough english version and accurately made her corrections of grammar.
to AtlantisLux who suggested me countless nouns, verbs and expressions to improve my translation.
in a special way to Paisa, beta-reader of MuggleNet FanFiction Boards, who gave my translation a fluent and definitive assect.
to Zsenya who wrote the same missing moment describing very similarar effect of the potion, as I discovered recently in "The Sugar Quill", proving that the better an idea is, the easier somebody else had it before you.