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"Last call for flight 43 to Austrailia leaving at terminal 5" the nasal voice of the overhead speaker blared out over the mass of manic muggles.
"Excuse me...sorry, excuse me" a curly haired brunette Witch pushed her way through the evergrowing crowds. Hermione Granger was taking the plane to Austrailia to collect her parents, she hadn't seem them since she had made them forget her. She was taking a plane because intercontinental portkey took too long to pass through the ministry and she couldnt bare to wait. Hermione missed her mum and dad.
"This is getting ridiculous" she huffed under her breath. But she had to admit, it was better then running for her life. It had been a month since the final battle at Hogawarts, a month since she had spoken, seen or kissed Ron Weasley. During the aftermath of the battle Ron had somehow slipped away and Hermione wanted nothing more then a quiet place to sit and cry; to mourn her lost friends.
She had spoken to Harry on occassions, he wasn't really having that much luck with Ginny and after the battle he didn't know if he wanted to open an old wound. Hemione understood completely, she wasnt too sure about Ron anymore either...
Hermion reached terminal 5 with no time to spare, she gave the flight attenedent her ticket and hurried aboard the plane. Seating herself in 1A, right at the head of the plane so she could be first off once they had landed in Melbourne. It was going to be a 21 hour flight but thankfully she didn't seem to have anyone sitting next to her, so she had room to spread out. The plane took off on time, shooting into the sky, this was the closest Hermione would ever get to flying a broom.
"Good morning it is 9:05am, this is your Captain speaking, we should reach melbourne in about 21 hours. The flight attenedents will be around shortly, we hope you enjoy the flight" everyone on the plane sat in silence as the captain spoke over the tannoy, his confident voice making the jittery flyers calm; Hermione among them.
An hour into the flight, Hermione felt comfortable enough to grab her Witch magazine, 'Miss Witchly' from her bag and read through the mind numbing articles about boys and the hottest new trends. On the cover not surpisingly was a picture of Harry Potter playing quidditch, its was obviously a paparazzi photo Hermione knew Harry wouldn't pose in a photo shoot. She flicked past the first few pages only to stop dead on a full page add for Madame Malkins robes for all ocassions.
There was a picture of Luna! She was modelling a peach coloured knee length dress, with a button up boddice and a tan coloured robe hanging demurly from a gold clasp on her shoulder. This couldnt be Luna, if it wasnt for the grey eyes and long blonde hair she would never have recognised her. Why was Luna modelling? She never seemed to have any interest in fashion. Although Hermione didnt really know what Luna's interests were, she was studious, slightly odd, bluntly honest and very brave. But that was all Hermione really knew about Luna Lovegood.
Hermione examined every inch of the photograph, she particulary focused on the eyes which were shining brightly up at her. So different to Luna's normal expression, she looked like she was enjoying herself. Hermione spent half of the flight looking for more photo's of Luna in the magazine, she found five more. Each time modelling a different outfit, Hermione's favourite had to be the floor length black dress that hung closely to Luna's lithe frame, the photo was in black and white giving a very classy feel to the dress. Hermione would have never thought it before, but Luna was very beautiful in an intensly delicate way.
"Excuse me, would you like a lunch?" the flight attendent asked kindly. Hermione nodded in thanks and put away her magazine. She couldnt believe that it was already lunchtime, she must have been musing about Luna longer then she had thought. The lunch was small potato's, carrots, peas and two sausages all smothered in warm gravy. As far as plane food went it was better then average, at least it filled a hole.
Hermione looked to her left, the plane window was two seats over and she didn't see any harm in moving over for a closer look; the seats were empty. She moved over carefully, and sat as quickly as possible, she didn't like being on a plane without the seatbelt fastened. Hermione had never seen the sky so blue before or the clouds so white, they were flying high and it looked as though soft mountains of snow were laid out before her for as far as the eye could see. It was magical. The scenery entranced her for what seemed like minutes and before she new it, the light began to fade and the sky turned such a dark shade of blue that if Hermione looked at it long enough it turned black. In every which way the stars shone brightly, the more she looked the more stars seemed to appear. Until the night wasn't so dark after all.
The next morning Hermione woke to her head throbbing against the plane window and her cheek so cold it hurt to pull away. "We'll be arriving in Melbourne in two hours and the temperature is a bamy 25 degree's"
The plane landed on time and greatfully Hermione was the first one off. She was in desperate need of exercising her legs, she couldnt quite place at what point in the flight they had fallen asleep but by the time she was meant to start walking her legs felt like lead turning to jelly. Maybe it would have been a better idea to have waited to portkey...but that thought was quickly thrown from her mind as a memory of her parents got her legs moving faster.
As always the baggage took an age to arrive but as soon as Hermione collected her suitcase she practically ran out into the sunshine and stalked up the pathway to get a taxi. She would be with her parents soon enough.
Ronald Weasley and Harry Potter had made a decision. They were moving into 12 Grimmauld place, it was the only way they could escape the crowds and family members that kept badggering them at the Weasley's family home. It was getting ridiculous. All Harry wanted to do was move on with his life and Ron just wanted to take a step back. He thought he'd love all the attention, but he found it overwhelming. He now understood why Harry always complained about his adoring fans, they were bloody annoying.
"Oy! Ron! Get your lazy arse down here! Your bloody boxes fell over again!" Harry bellowed up the stairs. Ron had just placed down a box in his new room; the old room of Regulas Black, the unknown hero. Ron had already turned the wallpaper red and the large oak bed to a nice light brown; he wasn't a big fan of emerald green and onyx black. "RON!" Harry shouted again.
"I'm coming!" He answered, turning out of the room and returning down the stairs.
"What took you so bloody long?" Harry huffed, dragging in another one of Ron's boxes. Harry didn't have much in the way of belongings so he had moved his stuff to his Godfather's old room rather quickly. Now he was busy setting up a nursery for his Godson Teddy Lupin, who would hopefully be staying with him on some nights; he didn't want his Godson to grow up without a male role model and he intended to be it.
"Why do you need all that baby stuff anyway, its not like Teddy we'll be staying here all the time" Ron whined as he helped Harry heave the large wooden crib up the narrow stares and into the bedroom next to Harry's.
"He's a baby Ron, babies need alot of stuff. Besides he's my Godson, I want him to be comfortable"
"This crossed comfortable and hit spoiling a while ago" Ron said lowering the crib in the corner of the spare bedroom and smirking. Harry only shrugged and went to get more boxes from the hallway downstairs.
It took most of the morning, but they finally got all the boxes into their assigned rooms. Harry and Ron sat down at the kitchen table in Grimmauld place having lunch and feeling thoroughly worn out from the move.
"You know Harry"-Ron said taking a large bite from his sandwhich-"this is going to be great. Just being able to relax. Mum isn't the easiest person to relax around..." he trailed off happilly.
"We still got a lot of work to do Ron, before we can relax." Harry reminded him. "Plus we have to decide about Hogwarts."
Ron looked down at his lunch, the light happy mood struck from the room at the mention of Hogwarts. Harry never believed that Hogwarts would ever turn out to be such a bad memory, but it was. So many people had died, too many people had been injured and it would forever mare Harry and Ron's thoughts as a dark place.
"I'm going back." Ron declared.
"What?"
"I'm going back to Hogwarts. We need to Harry. We need to face it. Besides we can't let Hermione face it on her own". Ron was right, and if Hermione was going back, they couldn't abandon her now.
"What's going on with you and Hermione? I've only had about two letters from her since the battle" Harry asked, it was odd not having Hermione with them. They had been apart of eachother's life for so long now they were practically family.
"We haven't spoken since we..." 'kissed' was the unspoken word. "I don't know what it is Harry, at the time I thought I was in love with her. But I just don't know anymore"
"Its alright Ron, just try not to lose her as a friend. Hermione is like my sister. I don't want to have to pick sides." Harry said as he placed his dirty plate in the sink and it started to wash itself magically. "Come on we've got to unpack the boxes now!" Harry clapped his hands together and dragged an unwilling Ron out of his chair.
