It was always hard to say goodbye.
To live with someone for nine months, to live them and breathe them, then to leave them – you would never get over it. Saying goodbye to Harry and Hermione at the end of each term was something like –– like not drinking Butterbeer at Hogsmeade during Christmas, or not reminding Hermione daily of her know-it-allness. It just wasn't done. There was something inherently unright about it.
The moment became awkward, and as three you stood around and wondered who was going to break the circle first. (Harry hadn't yet.)
You glanced at the two that made Hogwarts worth being at; the two you would sometimes (well, rarely, really) bitch and moan at about being poor, not living up to the familial standard, what's the point, you're gonna fail anyway... and then there were those moments, those where you were about to lose them for two whole months, where you would remember that neither Charlie nor Bill – nor Percy nor the twins – not any of them had Harry or Hermione.
However cheesy that sounds – because you'd never say it out loud, anyway – you know that you have a one-up on them there.
They're your surrogate family. (Perhaps your real family, someday, if Ginny maybe loosened up and if – well.
Never mind. Forget that part.)
But it always surprised you that with all you had gone through with these two – all the fights and arguments and danger and banter and, well, life – and excluding the generic "Remember to write"s (as if you'd forget) – no one knew what to say when it was time to go.
It wasn't until much later that you figured out that sometimes words weren't necessary. That made things a bit easier but --
damn, it was still hard to say goodbye.
--- reward me with a review?
so this coulda been incredibly angsty where someone dies at the end or the castle blows up or something – but it wasn't. it was about to be. :) everyone, be proud! i thought outside the box.