Always

KAT

A week had passed. So far, I had not heard from Ron, and he had not asked me to come home. I sent him a text every night telling him that I loved him. I never got a response. I spent my days and nights in the bed in Hermione and Blaise’s guest room. The twins came by a few times to check on me and fill me in on how Ron was doing. From what they tell me, he is doing about the same that I am. I can’t decide if that makes me feel better or worse.

I heard a knock at my door, and the girls came in a moment later. I was hardly ever left alone. Kayce came up to my right side and snuggled in. Ginny came to my left and held my hand. Hermione and Angelle were at my feet. Hermione handed me a potion and I placed it on my bedside table.

“Any word?”, I asked quietly.

“No… I’m sorry”, she answered sadly.

“I can check on him tonight”, Ginny added.

“Can I… can I ask you something?”, Angelle asked tentatively. I nodded my head yes. “You fought over Draco… have you ever…”, she trailed off.

“No”, I answered immediately. “It has never been like that for us. It has always been Ron for me”, I sighed. I let out a small laugh. “When we were in school, we would play spin the bottle, and I never wanted to see him kiss anyone else or even have me kiss someone. I’m pretty good at my wandless, non-verbal spells and I would always rig the bottle so it would land on each other”, I laughed again sadly.

“You know, we all always figured something like that was happening, but you were having fun, so we didn’t ask”, Ginny laughed.

“Ron knew”, Hermione said. “He told me one time, he caught the bottle moved, but it said you were so nervous before hand that he just let it happen. But he knew”, she added. She patted my leg and stood up. “We brought you lunch too. You need to eat”, she said more sternly. I took a small bite of the sandwich to prove I was eating something. Hermione nodded and the girls walked out of the door with one last look in my direction. I pushed the plate away from me and stood up, stretching my limbs. I grabbed the plate of food and brought it into the bathroom. I scraped the contents of the plate and dumped it in the toilet, flushing it down. I returned my empty plate to the tray she brought in. I walked back into the bathroom and started the shower. I undressed slowly and then stood under the scalding water.

***

I let the hot water wash over me and down my body. I washed up and then sat down in the bottom of the tub, and let the water hit my legs. I reached for the razor on the shelf and pried it apart like I had every night for the past week. I made little notches on my ankle. Not deep enough to really do any damage, just enough that it hurt. Just enough so that I could feel something. I let the water hit my leg until the small amount of blood stopped flowing. I sat at the bottom of the tub until the water turned cold.

***

When I got back out to my room, the food tray was gone and in its place was a new book and fresh glass of water. The potion bottle remained. I dumped the bottle down the sink drain. They were trying to lessen my nightmares, which now happened every time I fell asleep. They had gotten worse. Now I was forced to watch Ron die in the most brutal ways, I can’t even repeat. I woke up screaming every time, drenched in sweat. What my friends didn’t know was that I never took the potions. These dreams would haunt me the rest of my life, however it was the only way I could see Ron. I went to the small bag of clothes Ginny grabbed from my house and threw on a new night shirt. She grabbed a few of Ron’s shirts for me and his pillow from my bed. I inhaled deeply and felt fresh tears spring in my eyes. I climbed back into bed and closed my eyes. I let my tears lull me to sleep.

“Ron! Ron! No!” I screamed. “RON!”, I screamed and screamed. I yelled until my throat was raw. “Please… Ron. No”, I sobbed. “Ron”, I sobbed, over and over.

“Katie, wake up love”, a voice said. Opening my eyes, I noticed it was Draco again. He was always there when I woke up, if not he was close behind. “It was just the dream again”, he said softly. He brushed my arms while I sobbed into his chest. “Katie, this can’t continue. You can’t do this to yourself anymore”, he sighed. He held me until I was no longer sobbing. He gave me a look before he stood up and walked out the door. A moment later Angelle came into the room.

“He couldn’t handle me anymore?”, I asked her. She came and sat next to me on the bed.

“He said he needed some air…”, she said quietly. “Can I ask you… I know you said there wasn’t, but…there isn’t something there is there? Between you and Draco?”, she asked nervously. I reached for her hand and squeezed.

“Lords, no!”, I said, sitting up further. “I won’t deny that he is really attractive, and he is sweet if he lets you in. I care for Draco a lot; he has been through a lot, and I was there for some of it. It just brought us closer”, I explained. “Draco will never be anything more than a friend, a brother”. I smiled at her. She smiled back at me and took a deep breath.

“That’s good to hear”, she said, relieved.

“He really likes you; you know. I know this week it may not have seemed like it, but he totally smitten with you”, I tried to reassure her. She squeezed my hand once more and walked out the door. I laid back down and fell back asleep, quickly.

RON

It has been two weeks without Kat and it has been literal hell. I have been so miserable. I can barely eat; I almost never get out of bed. My brothers have not been mad at me for missing work yet, but I don’t know how long they will let that go. I was laying on the couch, an arm over my eyes, beer bottles littering the table in front of me. The TV was on, but it was background noise at this point, I can’t even tell you what I was watching. A loud bang came from the front door. I was slow to get up, and whoever was there, pounded on it again.

“I’m coming, calm the fuck down”, I shouted. When I opened the door, I did not expect all of my brothers to be there. They shoved their way into the apartment. And forced me to sit down.

“Enough is enough”, Bill said. “You are going to go take a shower and clean yourself up”, he said.

“I’ll shower later”, I mumbled.

“No. You will shower now”, Charlie said forcefully. I nodded and walked to the bathroom. I let the shower run over me for a while, before washing up and shaving the stubble on my face. I got out and dressed in fresh sweats before heading out to the living room. My brothers had kept busy while I was showering, and the apartment was now cleaned, and they were sitting waiting for me. Not a smile was to be had by any of them.

“What is going on? Is it Kat? Is she okay?”, I asked quickly.

“No. She's not okay Ronald”, Fred said. I could hear the anger in his voice.

“She doesn’t get out of bed. She’s not eating. She thinks we don’t notice, but we do”, George added.

“She thinks we don’t see those marks on her ankles like when you both were in school”, Charlie replied. He didn’t try to hide his anger at all.

“It has been two weeks. It’s time to go and get her and bring her home”, Bill said. I started to interrupt but he stopped me. “I know you think she doesn’t want to see you but that is the furthest thing from the truth”, he added.

“And I need all four of you to come and get me?”, I asked rudely.

“Yes. You did. You should have gone to get her yourself and you haven’t. so now we are making the decision for you”, Fred said and the four of them stood to walk towards me.

“Bloody hell, you would think my own family would be on my side”, I said.

“We were on your side mate. We let this go on for a week and then another. We let you wallow in your own misery, but this ends tonight”, George said. The four of them grabbed me and apparated us. We landed in Hermione’s living room.

“RON!”, I heard Kat scream from upstairs. Her scream made everyone else in the room flinch. Her scream tore through my chest. ‘RON, NO!” she shouted again. I raced up the stairs and found the room she was staying in. she was thrashing in the bed, crying out my name over and over. No-one followed me in the room. I went and sat on the bed. I shook her gently.

“Kat, Kat wake up”, I said gently. “Please, wake up”, I pushed her hair away from her forehead. Her eyes shot open, and she jolted upright.

“Why am I still sleeping? I can’t wake up. I want to wake up”, she said miserably.

“Kat, you’re not sleeping, it’s real”, I said.

“Ron?’, she asked me, fresh tears filling her eyes. I nodded my head.

“Yeah, it’s me”, I said, wiping a tear away from her cheek.