had hit him when he resisted having the Invisibility Cloak taken away from him, and he had a dramatic and rapidly purpling bruise on one cheek.
'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 Harrys cloak,' he said, after a moment.
'I know.'
'It belonged to his father.'
'I know that. Don?t dwell, Ron.'
'Hes 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 Rons 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.' Rons 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 theres 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!'
Hermiones 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 Rons and spun around, listening for the source of the noise. 'Whos 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
