HP ficlet: End of the World [Harry/Ron, general]
Title: End of the World Author: celandineb Fandom: HP Pairing: Harry/Ron, Ron/Hermione Rating: general Length: 300 words Summary: Ron didn't come back on Hermione's account. Part of the H/Hr/R series. Note: For quill_it, 100.3, prompt 74, "world".
I pretended that it was because of Hermione that I came back, but that wasn't the truth.
Oh, I love Hermione, don't get me wrong, but it was Harry's need that drew me, that left me gasping awake at night with a conviction that things were going horribly wrong and it was my fault for not being there. Yes, we had quarrelled -- badly -- but Harry had been my best mate for years, long before we became lovers, and that wasn't something I was willing to give up, not once my temper had cooled.
I'll admit that being away from that Horcrux helped too.
So I made the decision to go back; the trouble was how to find them, moving around as I knew they must be, and protected by all of Hermione's best concealment spells.
The Deluminator was a stroke of luck. Harry has told me, since, about Dumbledore's theory that love is ultimately what saves us all, but I didn't know that then, only decided that following the impulse, the tug, that I felt when I used it was no worse a way of guessing where the other two might be than any other.
I didn't really believe it would work, though, so the sight of Harry going down through the ice into that black pond astounded me so much that it was several moments before I reacted. I didn't stop to consider; I just threw myself after him as soon as I realised what was happening. There was nothing in the world more important at that moment than saving Harry. I wasn't thinking of You-Know-Who or the Horcruxes or Harry's value as a symbol of resistance, or anything really. I just knew that if Harry died, even if Hermione still lived, my world would come to an end.