What a lovely dinner party, Hermione thought coolly to herself. Looking down the table, she noticed no one was speaking to one another, a stark change to the merriment everyone had been producing just an hour ago. Goes to show you how Lavender Brown can bring down a mood.

Of course, that wasn't fair. This wasn't Lavender's fault. If it was anyone's fault, it was her own. She should never have come. She shouldn't even be sitting there now eating Mrs. Weasley's chicken and peas. She needed to spend every second trying to figure out how to get herself and Rose out of there. She looked over to where her daughter sat on the yard, playing a game with Victoire. Molly had assured her the girls were safe, protected by the famous Weasley wards from any possible intruders.

She had no wand, and the nearest muggle transportation was miles away. It's not like no one would notice her scooping Rose up and making a run for it. Hermione never thought she'd see the day she'd be held captive by Harry Potter or the Weasleys, but then a lot of things had turned out in ways she couldn't have imagined.

Ron wasn't speaking to her again. That moment in the kitchen was the first non-hostile sentence he'd said to her in years, and then it was ruined. By Lavender. Ugh. Of all the people he could have ended up with, why did it have to be Lavender? But Hermione knew she shouldn't be cross about it. She'd left Ron, leaving him free for someone else, it's only natural he hadn't sat around single the whole time. Like she had…

"I had the nicest visit with Hagrid last weekend," Lavender said suddenly, interrupting the silence. Hermione raised an eyebrow. Lavender was chummy with Hagrid? What a bizarre world she had created.

"I was going to apparate there, but then of course Ron reminded me that was impossible." Lavender giggled and rubbed Ron's arm. "He just loves quoting his favorite book."

"What book?" Hermione asked automatically. She hadn't meant to speak, but the question flew out of her mouth.

"Hogwarts: A History," Lavendar said, turning to Hermione. Hermione could tell by Lavender's expression that she hadn't yet forgiven Hermione for having a child that looked so much like Ron. "He's read it loads of times."

"Ron has never read Hogwarts: A History," Hermione protested. Her brain was screaming at her to shut up, but her mouth wouldn't listen. Ron, an avid reader?

"Yes he has," Lavender nearly hissed, slanting her eyes. "He's always quoting it, always asking me 'Haven't you ever read Hogwarts: A History?' It's very cute."

Lavender continued rubbing Ron's arm and nodding at him, waiting for Ron to speak up. Ron tugged lightly at the collar of his shirt and cleared his throat.

"Yes," he said finally. "I've read it a few times."

Lavender turned back to Hermione, a triumphant look in her eyes.

"When?" Hermione asked quietly, skepticism written all over her face. Ron was silent, looking back and forth between Lavender and Hermione, clearly confused as to whether he should continue the conversation.

"Second year," Harry offered, after a long and awkward silence. "He read it in second year."

Ron glared at Harry, clearly indicating his friend should stop talking. Hermione's attention was now focused on Harry.

"Second year?' she asked. "But, he never said anything to me. All those times I pestered him to read it, he acted like I was asking him to read hieroglyphics."

"Yes, well, I'm a mysterious guy," Ron said suddenly. "Mum, this chicken is delicious."

"Ron, why did you read it in second year?" Lavender asked slowly. Hermione looked down at her plate, pushing peas around with her fork. She already regretted continuing this topic for so long, clearly she'd started some trouble.

"Ron?" Lavender persisted again, more urgently.

"Um, the end of second year…" Ron trailed off, staring at his plate as well. "Well, uh, Hermione was sick. She was in the infirmary, after being petrified."

Hermione swallowed hard, she didn't want to hear anymore. Ron didn't look like he would say anything more anyway.

"Ron stole my invisibility cloak every night," Harry said, continuing where his friend obviously could not. "He thought I didn't know, but he really is a noisy git. He snuck down each night to read to Hermione."

Hermione swallowed again, blinking rapidly and begging her tears to stay at bay. Please, please don't let me cry now, not here.

"That was very nice Ron," Ginny said, eyeing her brother as if seeing him in a new light. "Hermione was down there for quite some time."

The whole table was quiet, looking at Ron for some sort of explanation. Silence engulfed the scene, until Ron finally spoke in a clear, low voice.

"One month, two weeks, five days," Ron said, staring even harder at his chicken. Then he looked Hermione straight in the eyes. "I didn't want you to be all alone out there."

Hermione caught her breath, pressing her lips together to keep from crying out. Surely this was the universe punishing her. She was sitting here, looking at Ron, hearing him say such things. And yet she had to keep her distance, not touch him, and she was the one responsible. It was too much, it hurt too much, and Hermione was sure she would crumble any minute at the torture of it.

"Let's change the subject, shall we?" Lavender said briskly, rearranging the napkin on her lap. The table came to life again after a moment where everyone was frozen, enraptured by the story unfolding before them. Audrey started to pass potatoes down the table and Bill began refilling wine glasses, while Arthur clapped Harry on the back to start some shop talk.

"Trottle tells me you and Ron will get started back up on your next case. Any telling when? I hear it's a big one."

"Yes," Harry said, pushing his glasses up. "You know we've been trying to bring in Shraxen and Willigsbee ever since they did that number on Ron last year…"

The rest of Harry's sentence was cut off by the sound of Hermione's plate crashing to the ground. All of the occupants at the table looked to Hermione, who was now crouched on the ground, trying to clean up the mess and mumbling to herself.

Calm down, calm down, Hermione thought to herself. "Oh dear," she said out loud. It can't be, it isn't time, we aren't prepared, how could they have found out? Hermione continued to berate herself internally, clearly frightened by Harry's story but looking to everyone like she had finally lost it.

Hermione paused with the bits of broken plate in her hand, closed her eyes and tried to think of what to do. There was a time her mind was sharper than anyone around her, and now it seemed she couldn't think far ahead enough to work out even one problem.

"Hermione, are you all right?" Harry asked. He had moved from his spot down the table to crouch next to her, helping her pick up the pieces of plate. "Don't cut yourself."

Hermione stood suddenly, dropping the bits of plate on the table. She looked hard at Ron, a frantic urgency in her eyes. Her mouth opened and closed a few times, as if she wasn't sure what to say. Then she closed it again, took a deep breath, and spoke.

"What did they do to you?"

Ron looked up, clearly surprised that the question was addressed to him. Being attacked by two of the nastiest death eaters still at large wasn't something he wanted to spend too much time thinking about, especially considering what a close call it had been.

"They tortured him!" Lavender wailed, misting up. "They crucioed him, then left him for dead in a gutter! Oh, thank goodness Harry found him when he did!"

Lavender flung her arms dramatically around Ron's neck as Hermione continued to watch him. They hadn't killed him. They could have, but they didn't. Hermione closed her eyes in relief.

"He was all right, Ron did great," Harry said quietly, laying down the remaining pieces of broken plate on the table. "It threw us for a loop though. We'd been searching for Shraxen and Willigsbee for some time, they were on a long list of known death eaters in hiding. But we'd had reports that they'd been far away at the time, in Ireland. It didn't make sense, them being in London when they were."

"But you're sure it was them?"

"Yeah, it was them," Ron said, looking haunted. "They kept asking me where my family was. Bit weird. Not that I gave them any information, but everyone knows where to find the Weasley family."

Hermione nodded, feeling her heart sink. She had to get out of here, and fast. Turning from Ron she quickly catalogued her options again, still finding no way to leave efficiently. She decided it would have to wait till later, when everyone was asleep. She scanned the yard then for her daughter, looking for the familiar small red head.

"Rose, no!" Hermione shrieked as she saw that her daughter was standing dangerously close to crossing the edge of the protective wards surrounding the Weasley home. With one more step, Rose tumbled over and past the barrier. Looking behind at her mother's yell, Rose picked herself up again to begin crawling back toward her Mum. And then, with two quick movements, Rose pulled herself back through, crossing the enchanted barriers that would only give way for someone with Weasley blood.

A/N: Thanks for reading and please vote and comment!