Chapter 1
"…and then a press conference at six, and Harry, I really think you should have it at Hogwarts this time. I know you don't want to, but it'll make for good publicity, and give people something to talk about for a while that's positive." Hermione Granger looked up from her long roll of parchment and frowned at the black-haired boy across the table from her. "Harry, are you even listening to me?" Harry Potter rolled his eyes in exasperation.
"Hermione, why are we even bothering with this? For the last time, I don't want to have any press conferences at all. I don't care what people think of me. And most of all, I don't want to go back to Hogwarts! There are too many bad memories there right now." Hermione sighed and lay her parchment down.
"Harry, be reasonable. You'll have to go back to Hogwarts for your seventh year anyhow, it's expected. You know that Professor McGonagall specifically wrote to you about it. And you also know that I'm just doing my job. You need good press coverage, it's crucial if you ever want people to leave you alone."
"No, it isn't," Harry snapped. "I never wanted you to do this in the first place, Hermione. If I don't talk to anyone, after a while they'll lose interest. But you have to keep trying to shove me into the public eye, and you know that I hate that!" Hermione looked stung.
"Harry, I'm only trying to do what's best for you." Harry snorted and stood up.
"What's best for me is if you leave me alone, Hermione, all right? Why does no one understand that I just want to be left alone?" He stormed out of the small kitchen in Grimmauld Place where he and Hermione had been sitting. Hermione sighed and rolled up the parchment where she had written out Harry's publicity schedule. In the months after the War, she had taken it upon herself to manage all of his appearances. Once every few weeks or so, Harry would get frustrated and tell her to buzz off. He had never stormed out on her before, but Hermione shrugged that off. He would come back in the end. After all, who else could do what she did?
That afternoon, Ron Weasley entered the drawing room where Hermione was sitting working on next week's schedule, looking concerned. Hermione looked up and frowned.
"What's wrong?"
"Have you seen Harry?" Ron asked. "He's nowhere to be found, and his broom's gone. Last anyone knew, you had him penned up in the kitchen."
"I did not have him 'penned up', Ron," Hermione said testily. "And no, I haven't seen him. He got annoyed during our meeting and left." Ron stared, his hand frozen in the act of running his fingers through his hair.
"He walked out?" Hermione nodded.
"It was no big deal, Ron, we just-" But Ron cut her off, running to the door.
"Kreacher!" he bellowed. "Kreacher, would you come up here?"
"Ron, what's wrong?" Hermione said, looking confused. "I'm sure Harry just went for an afternoon fly to clear his head or something, there's no need to get so-" Ron cut her off again, looking concerned.
"I know, Hermione, it's what makes sense. But Kreacher's been running secret errands these past few weeks, and all the packages he brought for Harry are missing too. I thought maybe Harry had moved them, but if he was angry…" he trailed off as Kreacher entered the room with a bow.
"You called?" Ron nodded. The house elf had taken a liking to him and Hermione after the War, and was likely to answer truthfully if he asked them something.
"Kreacher, we can't find Harry. Do you know where he is?" Kreacher nodded, but said nothing, so Ron questioned further. "Can you tell us?"
"No," Kreacher said. "The young master said I was not to tell you." Ron looked over at Hermione, panic beginning to appear on his face, but Kreacher continued smoothly, "Master said you would ask, and bid Kreacher to give you this letter." Ron reached out and took the roll of parchment that the house elf held out. Kreacher bowed and exited the drawing room, leaving Ron and Hermione alone in stunned silence. Ron hastily opened the letter and began to read aloud.
"Ron and Hermione-
By the time you read this, I'll be long gone. I won't tell you where I'm going, and neither will Kreacher, so don't bother him too much. I've been making arrangements to leave for a while now, so don't think that this is because of anything specific. I'm just sick of the life I'm being forced to live right now. I can't keep on acting like the public is all that matters. I'm a person in my own right, and I need to live that way. I'm sorry I couldn't tell either of you, but I knew you'd try to stop me.
I'm sure that you're going to search for me; in fact, in some strange way, I'd be dissapointed if you didn't. But I won't surrender to you easily. I'm in hiding for however long it takes for people to leave me in peace to be who I am. Hermione, I know you thought it was what was best for me, but I won't go back to your schedules and time tables. If you need to tell me something really important, Kreacher will contact me for you. He knows only to do so if it's urgent. I'll see the two of you once things calm down a bit.
-Harry"
Ron looked up from the parchment, his face shocked. Hermione was looking affronted.
"He does have the worst timing. His press conference is scheduled for six. And how does he think he's going to survive without schedules, he should know that people will search him out." She quailed under Ron's glare. "What?"
"That's all you can think about?" Ron said scathingly. "Your precious schedules? Harry's just run away, Hermione, and we've no hint of when we might see him again. But all that you can think is that he'll miss his press conference?" He snorted in disbelief.
"Well, I-" Hermione began, but cut herself off with a gasp as Ron strode over, grabbed her schedules out of her hands, and threw them into the drawing room fire.
"Now is not the time, Hermione. It's these stupid schedules that got us into this mess in the first place. We all tried to warn you that they were doing more harm then good, but you just wouldn't listen. Once you got going, it was like spew, you just kept going no matter what anyone said. Give it up already! And if you must put your mind to something, put it to the matter of fixing this mess you've made, and finding Harry!" With that, he left the room, leaving Hermione to stare in shock at the black whisps that were all that remained of her parchment.
Later that evening, Ron heard a knock on his bedroom door. He opened it to find Hermione standing outside, looking like she wanted to disappear.
"Ron, I'm sorry," she whispered. "You were right, I messed up. But… if you'll let me, I'm willing to try and fix it." she held out a stack of parchment. "I-I went through Harry's desk, and I found a list of stores, which might be where he sent Kreacher. And I also sent an owl to Kingsley, at the Ministry, and he sent back a letter saying he'll help us however he can." Ron blinked. Hermione was biting her lip now, looking on the verge of tears. She looked up in shock as Ron burst into peals of laughter.
"Y-you!" he gasped. "Hermione, you are the only person I know who can jump from one obsession to the next so thoroughly in such a short amount of time." Hermione glared at him.
"You said it was important!"
"I know I did." Ron grinned. "Come on in, then, and let's see what you've got."