Chapter 1: Back to the Burrow
Hermione Granger was once again contemplating her life and the choices that she had made. After Ron's death she left magic behind forever, and intended on never looking back. For months and months she had cried herself to sleep, but her tears had stopped since then. Hermione never thought back on the memories of her past, for they were filled with happiness and tears of joy, not of sadness, and whenever the memories flooded her mind, she would break down. The hole in her heart had never healed, and she never expected it to.
For the past three years she had been living in solitude, in the muggle world. She cut herself off from everyone that she loved, Harry and the Weasleys. She severed ties with her support system and fell into a deep depression that was nearly impossible to come out of. She stopped living, and grew more despondent and mad at the universe. As she thought back on her decisions that lead her to this point, she decided that she was ready to live once again.
She went into the bedroom of her small flat in the muggle neighborhood in which she currently lived and looked under her bed. She saw it. She reached under the bed and pulled out the small wooden box hat contained everything from her past. She set the box down on her bed and ran her fingers over the smooth wooden surface of the box. She took a deep breath and opened it.
The very first thing that she saw when she opened the box was a picture of her, Ron, and Harry at graduation in seventh year. She slowly began to take all of the pictures out of the box. There were pictures of the Weasleys, Harry, Ron, her friends, at school, members of the Order, and many others. Her eyes began to well up with tears as she reached the bottom of the box, but she did not let them fall. She instead let a smile make its way onto her face as she found the last thing left in the box. She picked up the small, black, velvet ring box and opened it. The simple diamond ring sparkled in the sunlight; she had finally made her decision. She placed the ring in the bottom of her suitcase.
She was going to tell the secret she had been keeping from everyone for three years, the secret that had caused her sadness and depression. She was ready to tell everyone what Ron had planned to do that fateful night, and to tell them that had he lived, they would have been family. She wanted to be happy again, to feel loved and to love, and to be amongst those who had once help to make her life complete. She was ready to break the chains that had held her down for so long.
Hermione picked up her suitcase, found her wand, and pictured the Burrow clearly in her mind. "Here goes nothing." she thought before apparating to the place she thought she would never again visit in her life. She looked again at the house she had visited many times in her life; the home that she knew was much emptier after the war. George, Bill, Fleur, and Clarice, Fleur and Bill's daughter, had all died in the war. She didn't want to think of how Mr. and Mrs. Weasley felt; three of their children had died along with one of their grandchildren.
Flashback…
Hermione,
Harry, and Ginny were sitting in the kitchen of Grimmauld place when
Moody's head appeared in the fire. "Anyone who's there, get
down here! We have a situation at the Weasley's place."
"Which one?" Ginny asked, her voice trembling.
"Bill's place." Moody replied.
"Oh no." the three said in unison. "We'll be right over Mad- Eye." Harry said. The three of them stood up and flooed to Bill and Fleur's house. The possibility that they could be dead was something that no one wanted to think about, but the thought still invaded to minds of Hermione, Harry, and Ginny. When they landed in the kitchen, they saw that the house was swarming with aurors, and Mrs. Weasley could be seen silently crying into Mr. Weasley's shoulder while Charlie, Ron, and George were sitting at the table, their faces downcast.
"Hermione, Ginny I think you should go back." Harry said forcefully.
"Why?" said the girls in unison.
"They're dead, all three of them." Harry whispered his eyes filling with tears.
Hermione looked behind Harry and saw something she never wanted to see. Three bodies were lying on the floor of Bill and Fleur's home. Fleur's blue eyes were open in a blank, cold stare, her silky golden hair messy and disheveled, and her robes spattered with blood. Bill was in the same state, but looking as if he was beaten and tortured, his robes were ripped and he looked almost as bad as when Greyback attacked him.
Then Hermione remembered Clarice. "Harry where is Clarice?" she asked, when in her heart she knew the answer to her own question. Then she saw it, the body of a small blonde girl was hidden from view; the only thing visible from behind the couch was her golden hair. She began to sob as tears fell freely down her cheeks. She remembered the young girl, beautiful and innocent, and now dead at the hands of Voldemort.
"I'm not ready for this. I don't think I can face them again." Hermione whispered to herself as a tear slid down her cheek. All the horrible memories had come flooding back to her in a second, and she didn't know if she was ready to succumb to the pain she knew would come if she entered the Burrow. Before she could apparate back home, a man with untidy black hair, emerald green eyes, and, by the look of him, he was covered in spaghetti sauce. Her heart almost leapt out of her chest, a feeling she hadn't felt in a long time. She was immediately overcome with emotion and she fell to her knees, letting herself cry. The man came and lifted her up in a hug.
"I missed you Hermione, we all have." whispered Harry. Then a lovely young woman with red hair, wearing an apron, and also covered in the mysterious spaghetti sauce came out of the house and stared at the sight before her. She immediately ran to the crying friends out on the front lawn. Hermione cried even more as Ginny sprinted across the lawn towards Harry and her. She then realized she was doing something she hadn't done in three years.
She was crying tears of joy and happiness, and hugging the two best friends she had left in the world.
