Hermione sat in Ginny's room in the Weasley burrow. Harry had defeated Voldemort the year before and Hermione and her friends were about to finish their final year at Hogwarts. They would leave the next day. Hermione was a mixture of excitement and dread. She could not wait to get back to something close to normal however she was dreading the thought of how many people she saw everyday had been killed in the war.
"Hermione are you almost ready?" Ginny called from the bathroom. They were going to diagon alley to buy school supplies. The boys had done their school shopping the day before and were practicing quiddich for the entire day. Ginny and Hermione insured the rest of the family that they would be fine going by themselves.
"Just about. I have to grab my bag and then I should be ready to go. You?" Hermione asked as she grabbed her bag and put on her shoes.
"Just a second. My hair is a bit messed up in the front." Ginny fixed the loose strand of hair and walked out of the bathroom. The girls walked to the fireplace and within a few seconds they were in diagon alley.
The streets of diagon alley were crowded as usual. It was full of witches and wizards young and old. Hermione and Ginny first started in the book store to get their school books. Hermione was a year older than Ginny but they were in the same year because Hermione was off destroying horcruxes the year before. Because they were in the same year, they both needed to get the same things.
As the girls shopped for their school supplies, they talked. "So are you and Harry getting pretty close?" Hermione asked. In reality Hermione knew that Harry was planning on proposing before they left for Hogwarts the next day.
"Yes, we are getting very close. I can see myself spending the rest of my life with him." Ginny said. What about you and Ron? Are you guys getting close?"
Hermione cringed at the question. She wasn't quite sure how to answer. She still didn't know how she felt about her relationship with Ron. She hesitated, but decided to answer truthfully. "I'm not sure where my relationship with Ron is going." Ginny looked at her with a puzzled expression so Hermione kept talking. "It's just that sometimes he treats me like a princess and sometimes he just brushes me off like a speck of dirt on his shoulder. I mean he didn't even really ask me to go out with him, it just sort of happened."
Hermione and Ginny walked in silence for a moment, and then Ginny responded. "Ron's like that. I won't judge you or treat you differently if it doesn't work out just so you know." Hermione was grateful that she had such a good friend.
They changed the subject and started talking about clothes and what they were going to wear the next day. Hermione was describing a pair of shoes she had bought over the summer when she ran into none other than Draco Malfoy.
Draco smirked when he saw who it was. "Hey Granger."