Hello again,
Thank you to everyone who's following and especially to those who have reviewed; I may have blushed reading them. You are all lovely people.
This chapter is a lot smaller than the last one. That's because the plan was to break Chapter One into two or three smaller chapters, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. So this is the size you ought to be expecting.
I'm not sure how often I'll be updating. My sister Cheezels and I bounce ideas off each other, so she helps me with a chapter of this, and then I help her with a chapter of her story Real Life Sucks. You should go check it out. She has big plans for it.
Chapter Two – A Breakthrough and a Half
She'd been running the Burrow for a week, and George was still coming up with new ways to try and get past her. He'd started simple, using Summoning Charms with various distractions. About halfway through, he'd realised it wasn't going to work, and had started trying in earnest.
First it was a boomerang-like product that had been very popular in the shop. Hermione had seen it coming down the hall and shut the door just in time. She'd sent it back with a note informing him that it was a nice try, but it wasn't going to work.
Then it was a garden gnome. He'd managed to get one from the garden and, using a variety of spells, had managed to get it all the way down the stairs and into the kitchen. It was just his bad luck that Hermione was brewing a pot of tea at the time. The gnome found itself a very long way from the Burrow, and George was once again thwarted.
His next attempt had been very clever. She almost didn't notice it… until it ran into her in the hallway.
"George Weasley, what do you have to say for yourself?" She called up to his room, not expecting a reply.
"Nothing!" he surprised her by yelling back. She snorted.
"So this plate just grew legs and walked all this way by itself, did it?" She asked sarcastically.
There was a pause. "Ginny did it!"
"Not bloody likely!" Ginny poked her head in from the kitchen. "But that's pretty good, feel like teaching that spell to me?"
The most recent had involved Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder, a Muggle remote-controlled car and a fishing rod. Hermione had humoured him by placing a single half sandwich on the hook, along with a note that said "Very creative. What's next?"
She'd thought asking him to come down for dinner was a bit much, and was taking that up for him. Really, she was impressed he was attempting to get lunch at all.
After that disastrous first morning, she'd moved into the Burrow on a temporarily permanent basis, and was staying with Ginny. She hadn't seen Bill and Fleur since that first night, but they had been instructed to come to Sunday dinner. As a family, the Weasley's had decided that even though Fred was gone, the world needed to be cheered up, and had re-opened Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes two days after Fred's funeral. Hermione had taken lunch across to Harry, Ron and Lee Jordan several times, and it always made her smile to see the crowds flocking to the famous joke shop. They'd keep it running until George felt up to taking the reins again.
She'd just gotten back from one such lunch delivery when she found Ginny, sitting at the kitchen table and staring into a cup of tea.
'Penny for your thoughts?' Hermione asked quietly.
'They're worth a darn sight more than that, I hope,' Ginny replied with a half-smile.
'A penny's all I've got on me. I don't even have a Knut,' Hermione said. 'I should have gone to Gringotts while I was is Diagon Alley.'
'We can go tomorrow if you like,' Ginny seemed slightly cheered by the prospect. 'I've got some things I want to get from the Apothecary. And I was thinking about getting an owl of my own. Errol's really old, and Pigwidgeon is, well…'
'He's Pigwidgeon,' Hermione agreed.
'Yeah. It'd be nice to have a pet of my own. I never had one. Ron got Scabbers, well, Peter, and no one else had a pet to hand down.'
'Diagon Alley it is then,' Hermione said cheerfully. 'Though I assume that isn't what you were thinking about. Do you want to talk?'
'It seems kind of silly, and really selfish since Fred died and we've only just had his funeral and all, but... when we were in the final battle at Hogwarts, with all the Death Eaters, and the spells flying everywhere, and not knowing if you were going to live for more than a minute at a time, it was like we were really living, and… there was this moment of peace right in the middle of it all, where I turned around and I saw Harry, and he turned and looked at me and… and he proposed.'
Hermione gasped. 'Ginny! Merlin, that's so exciting. Why haven't you said anything about this before?'
Ginny sighed. 'Because it was all sort of heat-of-the-moment type of thing, and then Fred died, and I was so heartbroken. And Harry hasn't mentioned it since.'
It all made sense. 'And you're worried he just asked you because you both thought you were going to die, and since you didn't…'
'What if he didn't mean it?' Ginny wailed. 'I mean, I waited for him for so long, and then he left to go find the Horcruxes, and when he finally got back… but he hasn't said anything, and I'm scared that he didn't mean it, and I feel guilty because my brother died and I should be sad, and I am, I'm devastated, and then there's Mum, but I'm also worried about Harry, and about me and about what this means for us and I feel like I shouldn't be thinking about any of that because I should be focussing on Fred and on Mum, but I can't stop thinking about it, even when I try, and I feel bad for not feeling worse, but I can't, and that makes me feel worse, and I must be a bad person for not being more upset that my brother died and, and…'
She broke into sobs and quickly became incoherent. Hermione rushed around the table and pulled her into a hug. 'It's okay Ginny. Breathe. Come on, now, deep breaths. In… and out. In… and out. In…'
Once Ginny had stopped hyperventilating and the sobs had slowly turned into hiccups, Hermione drew back a little, still rubbing soothing circles on Ginny's back. 'How have you been sleeping, Ginny?'
'I haven't,' she hiccupped. 'I can't sleep, everything keeps running through my head, round and round in circles, and I can't stop it and I can't sleep…' This brought on a fresh wave of sobs. Hermione silently cursed herself for not seeing just how close Ginny was to utter exhaustion.
'You're not a horrible person, Ginny, you're human. We know how much losing Fred hurt you, but we move on. It hurts a lot now, but it hurts a little less than it did a week ago, yes? And a little less than when we buried him,' she felt the nod on her shoulder. 'We can't live in continuous pain, Ginny. Slowly, we heal. And other things start to come back. You can't keep clinging to the hurt that Fred's death caused, and it's alright to be worried and upset about Harry.
'That was a big thing for you. You've been waiting for him for so long, and then you had to give him up. And now with all that uncertainty… you're allowed to hurt and confused and upset. It doesn't take away from how much you love Fred, and it doesn't take away from how much you love Harry. But have you thought of this from Harry's point of view?
'He asked you to marry him, and a couple of hours later, your brother was killed. Maybe he's worried that Fred's death has changed how you feel. You know Harry, he's got a martyr streak a mile wide. He's probably worried you blame him for Fred's death, because Voldemort was after him.
'Ginny, you just lost your brother. You needed, and still need, time to grieve and time to heal. Did you think that maybe Harry thinks the best way to help you with that is to take a step back and let you be with your family? He's a boy; he has no idea that withdrawing was just going to make things harder for you. I bet that given time, he'll come back, closer than ever. If you reach out to him, he'll be there in a heartbeat. You didn't see him while we were hunting Horcruxes, Ginny. Leaving you was one of the hardest things he ever did, and he's not going to let you go for anything. He might not propose again soon, to give you the time he thinks you need, but if you ask him, he'll be there for you no matter what.'
Ginny raised her head slowly and looked Hermione in the eye. 'You think so?' she asked in a tiny voice.
'I know so,' Hermione replied firmly. 'Now let's get you to bed. I've got a Dreamless Sleeping Draught somewhere, and you're going to get the rest you so obviously need. Come on.'
Grabbing the potion, she led the exhausted girl up the stairs and tucked her into bed. 'Sleep well, Ginny. Everything will look better when you wake up, I promise.' She kissed her forehead like she would for a small child and left the room quietly. Oh the messes we create for ourselves. She needed a cup of tea.
Let me know what you think. And remember, Real Life Sucks by Cheezels. It's worth it.
D
