A/N: Hello everyone, sorry for the late update. If I didn't finish writing and updating today I don't think I would have had any free time to update this story for at least couple of months. Been too busy lately and will become more busy eventually. This chapter didn't go for beta-read (rhmac12). Please ignore grammar mistakes. The updates will be uneven and may take more time. Please bear with me...
Ron opened his eyes groggily and looked around but couldn't fathom his surroundings. His head is dizzy and eyes felt very heavy. And all of the sudden the events of Gringots flooded his mind. He tried to get up quickly but his head was too dizzy and he fell back on the bed. His hands immediately went for his wand but the wand was not there. He searched all his pockets but couldn't find a thing, even his Deluminator was missing.
He just stayed on the bed for a minute as he recalled the events happened in Gringots. Ron slowly got up and sat on the comfy bed he is sleeping on. He tried to make some sound but his throat was dry and the voice came out as squeak. He saw bottle of water on the table beside his bed, he took the bottle and greedily drank it.
Once his all senses came back to him properly, he checked the surroundings. He was in some kind of room which is completely closed from all the four sides. He couldn't find any door except for a window from which he couldn't see a thing from what Ron assumed from a spell.
Ron shook his head clearing the last traces of dizziness. He couldn't believe he is still alive after the encounter with Voldemort himself. Last thing he can remember is that the fiend fire was seconds away to consume him; he gave up all hope and lost consciousness due to exhaustion. But he is miraculously alive and in one piece. He checked for the injuries and found that all the injuries were completely healed not even a single burn mark can be seen. Somebody must have saved him and whoever it is, definitely not a foe. But he couldn't think of a single person who can come all the way into Gringots vault to save him from the clutches of fiend fire most importantly Voldemort. Only Bill partially knows about his plans and if Bill saved him he definitely wouldn't have kept him in this unknown place.
Ron saw some potions bottles lying on the table beside him. He tried to inspect them but his potions knowledge was too limited to understand them. He cursed Snape under his breath. He took a deep breath and shouted, "Anybody there." No answer. "Anybody there, I am awake." No answer. "Thanks for saving me, if you leave me now I have to go please show yourself." When nobody replied Ron bit back his frustration. He just lay on the bed and waited for his savior to come. After it felt like a very long time but actually not more than an hour Ron heard somebody approaching his room. His senses became alert even though he knows whoever is coming is definitely not coming with the intention to harm him. If he or she wanted to harm him they wouldn't have saved him in the first place.
But again once Moody's 'Constant vigilance' got injected in your blood you cannot help but feel very alert in all situations. Ron picked a dangerous looking potion bottle from the table and was ready to through at whoever comes inside the room. Suddenly a door appeared on the wall and Ron held his breath in anticipation. He was ready to through the bottle at the intruders face at slightest amount of doubt but as soon as he saw Snape coming inside his jaw dropped and he even forgot to through the potions bottle but instead he dropped it in surprise.
"It's been a week, why didn't he come back? Why is Kingsley taking this much of time to know what happened in Gringots? Do you think he is in trouble? No he is not in trouble, the Weasley family clock is just showing lost, nothing serious. Do you think we should go looking for him? But where do we start? Obviously we have to start searching from Gringots itself. But we don't know what exactly happened in Gringots. If we go there they will be definitely expecting us. We will just walk straight into their trap and also-"
"Hermione, will you just shut up?" Harry shouted, Hermione immediately shut her mouth and glared at him. "You are just rambling. Kingsley said he will get the information today he will be here any minute and I think… I think we should leave after meeting Kingsley. We know Ron is safe. It's just a matter of time he will be back here. But we are wasting our time here and You-know-who is killing people out there. We are the only people who can stop this Hermione. We cannot just sit here idly. We should continue our mission, with or without Ron." Harry said as if the words were paining to say them out loud.
"I don't know how exactly your mind works Harry. But these days everything you say is either stupid or clueless." Hermione said exasperated.
"What do you mean?" Harry asked offended.
"Just tell me where do you intend to go?" Hermione asked folding her hands.
"We can go to- umm- I mean we can go to Hogwarts." Harry said after thought, to be honest he didn't give a thought about where to go, he just wanted to leave Burrow before Ron arrives. To his luck Dean and Luna didn't came to Burrow. He doesn't want to test his luck further.
"Ok, we shall go to Hogwarts and then what? Where do want to search? Do you think with Snape being headmaster and Carrows being in charge we can freely roam around the castle without knowing what we are looking for?" Hermione asked still folding her hands giving Harry the best impression of Professor McGonagall.
"Oh, stop it Hermione. Do you have any better ideas other than poking fun at my ideas? Tell me." Harry challenged.
"I am not poking fun at you Harry. All I am saying is if we find Ron we can get answers. I think Ron succeeded in destroying one of the hor- things which we are looking for." Hermione said looking around making sure that nobody was there in the room. But being in Weasley household and that too with Fred and George in the house it is always better not to use exact words.
"How can you be so sure?" Harry asked, since Bill told everything what Ron did he couldn't help but his dislike for Ron increased tenfold and Hermione praising him and asking his approval didn't help the matters either.
"Didn't you hear what Bill said Harry? It makes perfect sense; I still remember how much Bellatrix feared when she saw the sword. She pointedly asked us what else we have taken from her vault. At that time I didn't understand but now I am sure You-know-who must have entrusted one to Bellatrix like he did with Lucius Malfoy. Ron is brilliant I still can't believe it." Hermione said with no less amount of pride in her voice which irked Harry.
"Yeah, I am also surprised it's our Ron who did it. We never thought he is that much capable." Harry said with fake smile on his face.
Hermione gave him offended look, "I always knew he is very capable he just need right motivation to apply himself and by the way I am not surprised I am just awed and proud of him."
Harry gave her a look and said, "If I remember correctly you were the one who never appreciated his efforts." Harry said without thinking.
"I was, wasn't I? I never appreciated him but whenever he makes mistakes I was always the first one to scold him." Hermione said sadly.
Harry gave himself a mental slap if he wants Hermione to love him and forget Ron he definitely not doing the right thing by pointing Hermione's mistakes towards Ron.
Harry was about to speak than Kingsley entered the room and immediately Hermione rounded him, "Kingsley, you don't know how much anxiously we were waiting for you. What happened in Gringots? Where is Ron? Who saved him? Did you find anything about that mysterious Patronus? And why didn't he come back yet?"
"Calm down Hermione, I can understand your anxiety. I will explain everything. But I am afraid to say we just able to get limited amount of information." Kingsley said. "It seems somebody burnt the vault of Lestrange's completely and it is now nothing but pile of ash. Nobody knows anything about Ron coming there or going out. But You-know-who came to Gringots along with Snape, Bellatrix and other Deatheaters, the fire incident happened afterwards and the fire was not normal one, it was Fiendfire." At this point Hermione's eyes widened and Harry's ears perked up with interest since it is one method of destroying Horcruxes, Kingsley continued, "the Goblin who went along with Ron went died in the hands of the dragon which was guarding the vaults and the head goblin was killed by killing curse and before that he was tortured brutally so we think it might be the work of Bellatrix. This is all the information I gathered from some of our friends from ministry. Sorry but nobody knows anything about Ron except that there is a rumor going on that there was an intruder broke into Lestrange's vault and You-know-who himself came and killed him and in his fury he burnt the whole vault. But the Weasley clock never lies so Ron must be still alive but don't know where." Kingsley said everything in one go; and took a seat in the chair looking at both Harry and Hermione for any kind of reaction.
Hermione and Hermione both remained silent processing the whole new information.
"Thank you so much Kingsley, please let us know if you get any more information about Ron even how insignificant it may look like." Hermione said and walked out of room. Harry knows that she just didn't want to cry in front of them.
After wearing off of initial shock Ron's mind filled with uncontrollable rage and anger. He shouted, "YOU, YOU…" He couldn't even form the right words than Snape spoke, "Pathetic." Snape sneered, "I know you were very useless in your academics but I didn't expect you to forget your professor's name." Snape said bringing Ron out of his shock completely.
"YOU FUCKING BASTARD, HOW DARE YOU TO SHOW YOUR GREESY BAT FACE AFTER WHAT YOU DID?" Ron lunged forward to attack on Snape but Snape waved his wand and invisible hands held Ron back.
"I DON'T NEED MY WAND I WILL KILL YOU WITH MY BARE HANDS." Ron shouted and tried to escape the spell but it held him firmly to the ground.
Snape demeanor didn't even changed a bit, he calmly took out the potion bottles he brought and placed them on the table.
"So tell me Mr. Weasley, how are you feeling? Still feeling dizzy? If you feel too dizzy you take this potion. You will be completely healed in two days." Snape said as if Ron is still in bed and didn't speak.
"YOU FUCKING COWARD, BACKSTABING HYPOCRITE, YOU KILLED THE MAN WHO KEPT HIS TRUST ON YOU AND YOU-" Snape cut off Ron's mid rant, "Mr. Weasley take this potion it will calm own your nerves." Snape opened a cork and held it in front of Ron asking him to open his mouth.
Ron gave him an incredulous look, "I will die but I am not going to drink your stupid potion." Ron hissed through his gritted teeth.
"Fair enough" Snape took his wand out. "Imperio, now Mr. Weasley, open our mouth." Ron tried his best to beat the spell but he couldn't break it as he opened his mouth and swallowed it. Snape released the spell as Ron started breathing heavily trying to break out from the spell.
"Why are you doing this? What do you want from me? Where am I? Why in the name of hell I am imprisoned here?" Ron asked panting heavily.
"You don't have to worry . It doesn't matter for me if you are alive are dead. I just want information from you. As soon as get all the information I need from you, I will kill you myself." Snape said his voice plane but venomous.
"I am not going to tell you anything. I will die before giving you any sort of information." Ron said gritting his teeth.
"Like you didn't give any information to Dark Lord?" Snape asked raising an eyebrow. Ron cringed remembering Voldemort invading his mind.
Snape continued, "I have my means to extract information from you Mr. Weasley. Either it might be Legilimens or Veritaserum or Imperio. You don't have to anything." Snape said as he took out food and kept it on the table.
Ron mind started reeling with all the possibilities. He cannot beat truth serum or the spells. His mind quickly went to the possibility of killing himself but Snape spoke as if he read his mind.
"One more thing Mr. Weasley, if you are thinking about harming yourself than you better be aware of the spell I placed on you, that doesn't allow you harm yourself anyway possible." Snape said with the same monotone. "But I will be coming daily here and extract information from you. But without resistance it will be too much boring."
"You greasy git you are talking about boring. Do you even look yourself in the mirror?" Ron said cutting Snape, but Snape continued as if Ron didn't even speak.
"I have brought you some books how to resist Veritaserum and how to break out the spells. Try if you can resist me or else with the information I can kill all the Order members one by one." Snape said and left the room.
Ron looked at the books in front of him. He remembered his parents, brothers, sister, all the Order members and—and Hermione. He cannot afford giving any information already his inability has given too much information to Voldemort. He is going to die but he won't give any ounce of information to Snape. Ron picked up the books and started reading.