It was raining. A consistent, whispering rain which had been ongoing for days now. As I stared onto the hollow earth at my feet, knowing a pair of figures stood by my side, I could not call forth even the slightest bit of comfort. Instead, I found myself desperately attempting to recall a moment in the past year where I wasn't as lonely as I felt in this present hour. A deep sorrow which was inevitable seemed to be closing in on all sides, drawing me further into a darkness that I could not escape. As the heavens cried tears which I could not seem to muster myself, I found those same tears blurring the corners of reality. Slowly, my surroundings became another scene completely. Not even the small, warm hand which laid within my own could save me from this dizzying overtake.
The grey contrast of the murky sky gradually shifted into a luminous sea of reds and yellows. The echo of terrorized shrieks ignited in my ears. As my eyes shut in an effort to end the formidable image, the scene continued to project across my closed eyelids. In front of me was the man who had accidently ripped my heart from my chest and buried it six feet under in a hand-carved coffin, despite his not meaning to. His wide, blue eyes beckoned me hastily forward. His arm slipped around my waist in an effort to quicken my body which had become frozen in unease, already knowing the way the story ends.
My heart clenched as a familiar urge came over me. The same urge which had brought an end to all my happiness just one year ago on this very day. I found myself wanting to turn around. To turn around and run back in the direction that we had, at the time, come. He doesn't agree. His arm fell from my waist until his hand was persistently tugging at my elbow, telling me with a stubborn look that now wasn't the time for objection. He was right, it turned out. For it was at that exact moment that it had hit him. A flash of green light came from an unknown direction, turning out the light in his eyes forever.
"Hermione," someone said, only a faint whisper in the corner of my mind. It was enough, though; for I was unconsciously seeking some form of reality to drag myself away from my own personal Hell. My eyes blinked open, meeting the emerald of a shaggy, black haired man's. "It's time to go."
My throat seemed dry, as if someone had shoved a piece of the itchy wool, which Molly always used to make the family's Christmas sweaters, down it. The small, warm hand was still grasping my own, I suddenly realized. Turning my head down, I met the blue gaze of a little girl who seemed to haunt me with her familiarity. "Of course, Harry," I deadpanned, looking quickly away from her red hair and freckles.
"Are you coming back to the Burrow with me?" he asked, eyes shimmering with quiet understanding. Sometimes it still frightened me how knowledgeable we each had become toward the other's thoughts and emotions. How I could sense the deep regret in his heart, and how he could, quite obviously, sense my prior tumble towards oblivion. Ron had been sensitive to us, as well. That connection would never be awaken, however. It was a fact that constantly probed at my heart, as if it were a piece of me that would forever cause my body to ache in its absence. "It might be nice for Tyler to see her cousins, yeah?"
Immediately, my mouth opened to object. Spending an evening with a family of complete replicas of my haunting desire, did not quite sit well with me. Besides, I would never come to be completely apart of their household. My opposition was completely drowned out by the pleasantly jovial voice of my daughter.
"Oh, Mummy, please! Can we?"
"Tyler, it's been a long day-"
Her adorable azure eyes seemed to melt my bones, even as I fought to hold back the image of Ron's. The likelihood which she held toward her father used to make me swell with pride; now, I couldn't seem to stop the stinging in the back of my eyes whenever Tyler looked in my direction a certain way. "Please?," she pouted, "We don't have to stay long."
"Sweetie-"
"C'mon, Hermione," Harry said, copying his godchild's expression, "The rest of the kids will love to run about with her. They've always been close and Tyler hasn't had much opportunity to be with them in months. Besides, everyone is home for the anniversary. We're family, Hermione. You can't just keep hiding from that." My jaw clenched as his expression became accusative.
"Harry, it's all just too much. Besides, Ronald and I were not married. I'm not their family," I shrugged, causing my attempt to remain nonchalant to become quite obvious.
Letting out a disbelieving laugh, Harry exclaimed, "You were with Ron for over six years! You guys had a child together. Like it or not, the Weasleys are Tyler's family and your own."
My face crumpled in brief shame as my hand absently settled on Tyler's shoulder, drawing her closer. It wasn't right of me to neglect Ron's parents and siblings. After all, Arthur and Molly had been such a miracle since the death of my parents. Plus, Tyler simply adored them all. It was vividly clear since her birth that she withheld more Weasley traits than Granger ones. Their metabolism, their stubbornness, their rather crude sense of humor. Yet, most of all, their kind and humble natures. For the last year, though, looking into the eyes of the Weasleys had felt harder than staying away. So, that's what I did. I stayed away from them all.
"Besides," Harry continued, taking advantage of my loss of speech, "I really need to speak to you about something important later."
"What is it?"
A slight smile spread across his face, "Ah, it seems the know-it-all in you hasn't ventured too far."
"Oh, sod off," I groaned, looking down at Tyler. "Well, alright. I'm sure Tyler has dreadfully missed Fred and George, anyway. Right, Sweetie?" I received a winning smile in response.
Despite the decades which the Burrow had remained standing, nothing quite seemed to have changed so much as a fraction. No matter how many times I had entered and exited the warm hospitality offered by the loving home, I could always expect the exact same environment the next time I came around. Only the people inside change. However, age is merely a number and not a single Weasley changes in personality. Fred and George were prime examples of such.
"Granger," the twins chimed in unison as they appeared as if from thin air the moment I stepped through the threshold with Harry and Tyler on my heels.
Holding back a groan, I threw a desperate look at Harry. He merely shrugged sheepishly in return. Tyler, on the other hand, rushed into her uncles' waiting arms. "Fredorge!" she exclaimed, instead of choosing one or the other to greet first.
"Well if it isn't our little raging ball of bushy red hair," one twin grinned, lifting Tyler up for closer inspection.
The second twin put a finger to his chin, "You've grown missy. How dare you!"
"Sorry, I can't help it," Tyler said, shrugging helplessly, "When I tried to make myself shorter, Mummy made me stop."
Harry smirked to himself before looking over at me with a questioning brow. Sighing, I announced, "She was in my library, stacking books atop her head in the hope that they would squish her down a couple of inches. Was I supposed to let gravity have its way with her?"
No one had time to supply a teasing remark before Mrs. Weasley came bustling unexpectedly into the foyer. "My dears!" she exclaimed, a kind smile spreading broadly across her plump, cheerful face, "It's been such a long while. 'Bout time you've came around to see me. Everyone is home. The boys, and Ginny, have missed Tyler a bundle. You really shouldn't keep my only granddaughter away for extended periods, Hermione. It's not good for an old lady."
"I'm sorry, Molly," I said, genuinely feeling sick that I had been so crude towards them. Suddenly, the awful regret and the amount I had truly missed them all, came rushing back to me. My arms flew around Mrs. Weasley, embracing the woman who had been the closest I've had to a mother figure for over 3 years.
Lovingly, she stroked the back of my head, a truly maternal gesture. The image of myself doing the exact same action to Tyler entered my mind. "It's quite alright, dear. No one blames you, we've just missed you, is all."
"Who else are we going to use as a walking library?" a twin supplied, breaking the moment and causing the group to chuckle lightly.
"Shut it, Fred," Molly dismissed absently as I leaned back from the hug..
"I'm not Fred!" a twin, now recognized to be George Weasley, exclaimed while turning an amusing shade of red in annoyance.
"I am!"
"All the same," she shrugged, placing a kiss on Tyler's cheek as George placed the girl upon her feet.
Fred shook his head, "To think, all these years and I truly thought we were loved in this house, George."
"This breaks my heart," George pouted.
"Rips it apart, really."
"Burns it to ashes and gives it to Malfoy."
"Blazin' Hell, the pain!"
Harry laughed good-naturedly, rubbing the back of his head as his eyes glimmered beneath his glasses, "You two are never going to grow up."
"You get used to it," a new voice said, joining us in the foyer. "All right, Hermione?"
"I've been better," I admitted, looking quickly to Harry and then back, "What about you, Charlie? All right?"
"I'm absolutely sensational," the second oldest of the Weasley kids replied, grinning boisterously. It didn't avoid my notice, though, that the grin was slightly off. Pushing the thought to the back of my mind, I smiled in return. The way Charlie was able to carry himself had always thrown me for a loop. He was the only Weasley whom I really had nothing in common with that I knew of. In fact, he was probably my complete opposite. Charming, more hands-on than hands-on-books, disorderly, daring, and spontaneous. I, however, lived for lists and order. I had learned early on in life that I needed to be in control in order to function at my best. "How's the littlest bird of my world?" Charlie asked, leaning down to tickle the sides of an absolutely glowing Tyler.
"Fine," she giggled, causing me to beam. Harry was right, it had been too long. I cast a thankful smile his way which was immediately responded to with a wink.
"Molly?" Harry asked, "Is Ginny around?"
Everyone turned to smile knowingly at the, now flushed, man. "'Course, dear. She's right in the kitchen, go on ahead," Molly replied helpfully.
Nodding, Harry slipped in between myself and Charlie on the way towards the kitchen door. "Meet me on the back porch in two hours," he whispered quietly in my ear as he passed. He lifted his head to look at me only long enough to see my curt nod.
"Give Dad and Bill a heads up before you two go at it in the kitchen!" Fred announced, causing George and Charlie to snicker. Molly shook her head in exasperation before taking Tyler's hand and following after Harry, muttering about how "Boys will be boys."
"Bill's here?" I found myself asking Charlie as the twins disappeared up the stairs.
Charlie turned his gaze to meet mine. I realized, for the first time, that his eyes weren't the normal Weasley blue. They were green, almost sea-green. The thought struck me that, not only are we most unalike...but we really hadn't spent much time together. Charlie spent all his time in Romania with his dragons. Another tally he had against me, I was scared beyond my wits of dragons. I vividly remembered feeling completely ill when Harry had come up against one in the TriWizard Tournament. Even Hagrid's old "pet," Norbert, had scared me out of my knickers. "Yeah," he replied, successfully grounding me from my thoughts, "Why?"
"No reason," I shrugged, "Just haven't seen him in so long."
"And whose fault is that?" Charlie retorted suddenly, his eyes narrowing almost in calculation.
"What are you on about?" I asked, crossing my arms over my chest and feeling completely bewildered about his sudden change of mood. I couldn't stop wondering what exactly had gotten his wand in a knot.
"You," he stated shortly, as if it were the most obvious thing in the entire world, "It's your own bloody fault that you haven't seen any of us in so long. Now, you just pop in as if nothing has happened and you hadn't been gone for an entire year."
"I'm sorry," I bit out, furious that he was being so rude to me so unexpectedly, "But have you really got the nerve to talk? After all, you're the one who remains cooped up with scaly beasts in some god-forsaken spit of land, instead of spending more than a day at a time with your mother."
"It's my job, Granger."
"You should make more time for your family."
Letting out a bark of sarcastic laughter, Charlie shook his head, "Oh, that's priceless...Especially coming from you."
"Why are you acting like this?" I asked, fuming with annoyance. Since when had Charlie ever been so hostile towards me? He was supposed to be warm and endearing. Not so...vile.
"You could have come around!"
"Right back at you!"
Unexpectedly, the door to the kitchen swung open, revealing the ruggedly handsome face of the eldest Weasley boy. "Am I interrupting something?" he asked, moving his gaze back and forth between myself and Charlie. I could only imagine how red in the face I had became. It gave me some pleasure when I noted that Charlie now had rivaled the shade of a tomato.
"Bill!" I said, casting Charlie a dirty look before launching myself into Bill's embrace.
"How have you been?" he asked, holding me away from his body in order to scan me over. "You look fantastic, 'Mione."
Sighing, I muttered half-heartedly, "Don't call me that."
"So?" he prompted, looking over my shoulder for a quick second, presumably at his brother.
"I'm great, and you look fantastic, as well. Seems Fleur is keeping you in good health."
"More like slowly killing me, she wants to have another kid. I'm thinking two is a good number."
"Nonsense, I think you need a third. It'll keep you young," I teased, poking his chest.
Bill answered with wide, mockingly, horrified eyes, "Do I look old? Am I getting fat?"
I laughed cheerfully before ruffling his hair and dragging him by the arm back towards the kitchen. "Is your mother almost done with dinner? I think I could eat a dragon," I drawled, throwing a challenging glance over at Charlie.
"Yeah, well don't get burned," Charlie muttered in a low growl, causing Bill to, once again, look between us in confusion.
"Something you care to share with the class?" Harry questioned, raising an eyebrow at me as we settled down on the bottom steps of the back porch following dinner. The sky had already become dark, though only a single star seemed to be out at the moment.
"Make a wish," I mumbled, ignoring him for the time being.
"Pardon?"
"It's the first star, silly. Make a wish," I responded, closing my eyes and making the same wish that I had been repeating over and over again for a year now. When I finally opened my eyes a few moments later, I saw that Harry is opening his, as well. Only Harry would actually listen to me about something so childish. Not even Ron would have. He would have stubbornly dismissed it.
"So?" Harry sighed, returning to the earlier topic.
"I haven't the slightest idea where you are going with this, Harry."
He laughed, "Good one. You always were a bad actress, Hermione. Why don't you just tell me why I could cut the tension between you and Charlie with a knife during supper, so we can move on?"
"We had a row just after I arrived," I said, choosing to respond honestly, yet to down play the argument. "Nothing to alert Witch Weekly for. Now, would you be so kind as to tell me what you needed to speak to me about?"
Rubbing the back of his head, Harry sighed heavily, "I wasn't planning on any disagreements between you two. Actually, I thought Charlie would be just as welcoming as the rest of 'em towards your home-coming. It complicates things the way it has played out."
"Complicates what things?" I asked, confused beyond reason. "Just come off it and tell me."
"I need you to do something for me. Actually, I'm ordering you to do something for me," Harry said, somewhat reluctantly.
"I don't understand."
"Let me explain, then," he insisted, knowing how impatient I could get when it came to these sort of occasions. "I need you to leave." I opened my mouth to interject again but was eagerly dismissed, "I need you to leave the country, Hermione. It would be only for your own good. You know how things have been. The world is slowly inching towards dark times, again. Actually, considering everything, I think it's safe to say we are in dark times, again. With all the rogue Death Eaters who are still scrambling to gain power after Voldemort's downfall, its not safe for the two of us. Or our families. Towns all across Europe are being torched to the ground, Muggles and Muggleborns are being captured and/or executed."
"What does this have to do with me? I mean...Yes, I'm a Muggleborn; but shouldn't we concentrate on gathering resistance again, instead of running? You know I can help. I've been a crucial aspect of this war before, and I still am."
"You have a daughter," Harry reasoned.
"As if I don't know that...Have you ever pushed a little person out of yourself?" I teased, trying to make him brighten up and move away from such silly discussions.
"Don't you see?"
"What's there to see?"
"They're going after us, Hermione!" Harry exclaimed, as he lost his patience at last.
"What-"
"Ron's dead. You and I are next if we don't do something about it. I, for one, won't stand for that. You have a little girl who needs you. I'll stay and lead the resistance, but I need to know that you are safe," he finished, breathing in a large breath of the night air.
Still not accepting the fact that my best friend was simply shoving me off to the side, I stubbornly shook my head, "No, I'm not leaving you so I can act a coward in some faraway place."
"I've already told you," Harry smiled sadly, "I'm not asking. I'm ordering. You and Tyler are to go live in Romania. With Charlie on the reserve."
It took a moment for my brain to wrap around his proposal, before, "You've got to be off your rocker!" I shouted, jumping to my feet. "Are you trying to kill me, or just trying to kill Charlie? Because, one of us will go, that much I know for sure."
"You guys will come to an agreement. Besides, he'll gladly take you in after being explained the circumstances," Harry said gently, following my lead and standing.
"That's just wonderful, Harry. You haven't even discussed this with him, yet. Have you?"
"Not quite," he admitted, "But, it doesn't make much of a difference. He's trustworthy. As, I'm sure, are the other men on the reserve. You'll be completely safe there. May even be fun. Besides, sooner or later you're going to have to come out of that shell of yours."
"I do not have a shell," I huffed, resisting the childish impulse to stick out my tongue at him, "I'm completely comfortable with who I am. And, Tyler will hate this plan. Where is she, by the way?"
"She's playing with Jared and Kevin in the livingroom," Harry explained, smirking somewhat, "Bill was pretty damn anxious to get the boys off his chest long enough to collapse upstairs for a short nap. Ever since Fleur took a week off to visit her parents in France, he's been working himself into a state having to deal with the kids alone."
I couldn't help but chuckle at the image of an exhausted Bill chasing lazily after the two fiery young boys who had an energy level that would rival that of Fred and George. "You're off topic, Harry."
"Apologies, where were we?" he said, somewhat sincerely.
"Tyler wouldn't go for this," I supplied, raising an eyebrow at him as if challenging him to say differently...Which is exactly what he then did.
"'Course she would. She adores Charlie, and kids love dragons."
"Dragons are dangerous."
"So are Death Eaters."
"I'd take the Death Eater over the blasted dragon."
"Over my dead body."
"Easily arranged."
Harry bit his lip, looking up at the sky as if begging some unseen god to strike me down and make me see things the way he wished for me to see them. "Please," he said at last, "It won't be too long. Just a couple of months, and I'll visit every once in a while. You know how I can't go too long without seeing Tyler, anyway."
"Charlie isn't going to like this," I singsonged, secretly taking great pleasure in that fact, even as I pouted about the loss of this particular argument. Romania didn't really sound all that appealing to me. My home is in Britain. It always had been.
"You're overreacting. He'll love the company," Harry said, dismissing my argument with a wave of his hand, "I'll go talk to him now."
I knew the instant that Harry had relayed the "good" news to Charlie. I was sitting in the livingroom watching as the twins levitated a couple of toys around in order to entertain the kids. Quite suddenly, from the back porch came a loud, quite audible, thump. I distantly wondered if Charlie had hit his head against the house in his need for a way out of Harry's little plan. It wouldn't be very surprising, actually the idea sounded highly appealing in my eyes.
For a while, there was complete silence. I imagined Harry arguing with Charlie in a low, steely voice. Forcing the tall, yet not overly tall, athletic redhead to see things his way. I had known that Harry was delusional when he thought Charlie and I would willingly be forced to live in the same vicinity for any extended time period.
It wasn't until about thirty minutes after the thump that Harry and Charlie reentered the Burrow. Charlie immediately looked over at me, scowling in his deep reluctance to go along with this whole ordeal. "You better not give me crap for this. You should be kissing my arse."
Snorting, I placed a somewhat mischievious smirk on my face, "Yeah, well if you snore...Don't expect to wake up in the morning."
AN: Read and Review :) I've only just decided to write this story, today. This is what I've got so far. The rest of the plot is still spinning around in the void I call my brain. The next chapter will be up ASAP, but only if you guys have enjoyed it thus far. Tell me what you think!