Hallows Game || HP X Squid Game (Draco Malfoy)

14 - Hermione and Ron

He did not take any notice of the surrounding 'town' in which they stood. Did not care for the fact that it freakishly resembled a certain place where his best mate had been born, and later orphaned.

Because all Ronald Weasley saw as he stood shivering in 'Godrics Hollow' was the woman opposite him, the woman whom he'd loved from the moment he'd first ever laid eyes on her.

Yes, she had been infuriating, annoying and a stuck up insufferable know-it-all. But she'd been his - from the very beginning at the tender age of eleven, even if he had not known it at the time, the beautiful Gryffindor had completely stolen his heart.

"Hermione," he whispered, his voice choking and stumbling in his horror, the rest of his sentence left unsaid:

What have we done?

******

The embroidered number sixty-nine on his tracksuit blurred before Hermione's eyes.

He had laughed, of course, when he'd first been assigned that silly number ("Blimey! Sixty-nine! This is definitely a sign that they know what our favourite activity is.").

"Ron," she whispered back, her voice trembling as the pouch of marbles shook in her hand. Ten of them. Ten in which she or Ron needed to end up with in order to survive.

They had three choices to make within thirty minutes. Either she lived, he lived, or neither of them lived.

The last one was not an option for Hermione. They had gotten this far. One of them needed to get out of this place in order to go home and help their families.

What was left of them, anyway.

Straight away, she attempted to hand Ron her marbles. "Take them-" she gasped breathlessly, "you need to go back to your mother and let her know that at least one of her sons survived-"

"Are you fucking kidding me?!" Ron hissed, snatching his hand away, "I would sooner die than let you sacrifice yourself like this! I made a promise that I'd look after you and I will keep it!"

"Don't be stupid, Ronald!" Hermione scolded, feeling the panic clench her chest. "Think about Molly, Arthur and Ginny! They cannot afford to suffer anymore loss."

"And your parents can, can they? Their only child?!"

"They don't even know I exist! Their memories are safely modified, remember?!"

Ron silently shook his head, his mouth opening and closing. It was with a sinking heart that Hermione knew he had no argument. Of course it had to be her.

Slowly putting the bag of marbles down at her feet, she looked at him, holding out a trembling hand once she straightened up again.

"We have just under thirty minutes," she whispered, tears already spilling down her cheeks, "let us make the most of it."

As he reached out and touched her fingertips, she closed her eyes, sobbing that little bit harder.

"You, Hermione Granger, are the best thing that has ever happened to me."

With as much strength as she could muster, Hermione opened her eyes, blinking away the tears which blurred the vision of the man she had planned a long and wondrous future with.