Chapter 1
Hermione ran as fast as she could. She had to get away from everyone. She didn't stop running until she could run no farther. She sat down in the grass as the sun slowly fell in the evening sky. The pink effect was beautiful, but Hermione's mind was not on the sky. Tears streamed down her cheeks. Why had it happened? Hermione pulled her knees to her chest and hugged them tightly. She tried to remember what she could. Her thoughts were interrupted by a hand on her shoulder. Hermione looked up to see Ginny standing above her. She looked away. "Go away," she muttered as she brushed Ginny's had off her shoulder. Ginny sat down beside her.
"I'm not going anywhere. Not until you tell me why you ran," Ginny said. Hermione controlled her crying.
"It's nothing. I'm just a little stressed out, is all," she said as she brushed the tears off her face.
"It's not nothing. You ran away crying while we were trying to comfort you. Now, what's wrong?"
"I couldn't stand being comforted. Not when it was partially my fault."
"Hermione," Ginny placed her arm over Hermione's shoulder, "Luna and Ron's deaths were not your fault." Hermione pushed Ginny's arm away.
"How do you know that? I was there. I could have, no, should have put up a protective charm to save them. But I just stood there and did nothing."
"How can you blame yourself? You could have been killed too."
"I should have protected them. But I just watched them die."
"Who killed them?"
"I couldn't tell who it was. I only know it was a male."
"I'm sorry Hermione."
"Don't be. There's nothing we can do about it now."
"What do you say we go back to the Burrow and relax a little?"
"That sounds good." Ginny and Hermione stood up and made there way back to the Burrow. When the got back, everyone had questions, but Ginny motioned for them to stop.
The rest of the summer was okay. Hermione and Ginny spent a lot of time together. They mostly talked about the upcoming school year. But they would drop a conversation whenever Ron or Luna came up. Talking about them was always awkward and involved frequent pauses in the conversation.
Ginny found herself avoiding everything that reminded her of Ron, except for Harry, Hermione, and her family. She stayed as far away from his room as she could and never touched anything that was his. She had put his wand in his room the day Hermione came to the Burrow with the news. But since then, she stayed away from it, as if it were cursed.
Hermione would frequently sit in the garden, watching the horizon, as if Ron were going to come walking towards the Burrow. But she knew that it would never happen. She knew that he was gone forever. The only thing she had left was the silver necklace he had given her.