Ch. 2 Care to what? Where?

"A couple of weeks ago, there was a Ministry function. Hermione asked if I would go with her. The guys were still out on their mission, and weren't due back for another couple of days. She had to be there for some silly reason. If you ask me, she can be rather ambitious at times. Damn politics."

Ginny frowned, thinking on Hermione. "She otherwise hates going unless Ron is there, but since they were out, and I had a night off from practice, I told her I'd go. Personally, I get tired of sitting at home in an empty house too, and I didn't want to have dinner with Mum and Dad that night."

Ginny took a sip of tea. "I think I said something to the effect of 'Let's give them something to talk about.' She chuckled, but said I would be a lovely date."

Ginny saw Luna smiling too. "You know I get rather playful after a couple of glasses of champagne. I see you blushing. I know you remember that memorable night at Slughorn's party. I groped your arse then kissed Hermione. People were still talking about that at Easter hols."

Luna took a sip of her tea. "I enjoyed your hand on my bum. Your caress was really quite nice. I think it turned Dean on more than anything else. He mentioned it later that night when he had me pinned to the wall in the Astronomy tower. That detour to the Ravenclaw tower was most enjoyable."

Ginny grinned in memory also. 'I remember the look that Dean had on his face after I groped your arse. Pricessless really. Bet he wished it was mine.' She glanced at her dearest friend, and grinned. "Nah. You have a better arse than I do now.'

Luna smiled remembering that night. "Hermione is so tightly wound most of the time. It must be all of the faerie dust she bathes in. You would think she would loosen up after a glass of wine herself," Luna said with a far off look on her face. "It certainly looked like she enjoyed that kiss for a second. She must have missed Ronald terribly by that point. But an orgasm from him seems to work better. She is quite nice after he's shagged her."

"Yes, dear, Hermione is quite stunning when she wants to be, but she doesn't twist my knickers that way. I love getting a reaction out of her. Sure, if she fell into my bed, I wouldn't kick her out. Hell, I wouldn't kick both of you out. We'd stay up all night talking, laughing, or crying on each other's shoulder like before. It's not like we've not fallen asleep together or woken to find you cuddled in front of me."

Ginny frowned again. "You remember how brutal our last year was at school. McGonagall didn't bother keeping me in the dorm after that first night when Hermione woke everyone with a nightmare. She quit trying to keep you out of our room after the first fortnight. Once we explained what happened, she relented."

Ginny fell into her own memories that first night, feeling McGonagall shaking her awake, telling her in a hushed whisper that Hermione was screaming and they couldn't wake her. She raced down the stairs in her sleep trousers and Harry's Quidditch shirt to find Hermione thrashing on the bed, trapped in a nightmare. She had broken the silencing spell twice already. Her screams echoed through the stone walls.

The only way that Ginny could get Hermione to wake was wrestling her in the bed, pinning her arms, and whispering in her ear. Ron told her the magic phrase to get her to wake, and it worked. Brown eyes looked around in panic, until they settled on her face. Tears turned to sobs to wails almost immediately.

Ginny held her dearest friend in her arms the rest of the night while she cried herself back to sleep. The next afternoon, all of Ginny's things, along with a second bed, were moved into the Head Girls' suite. Minerva said that if anyone needed allowances in the school, it was for them. From that afternoon onward, the girls has a nightly dose of sleeping draught and Draught of Peace, should they so choose to take it.

Everyone in Gryffindor Tower knew who they were – and that Hermione had returned. No one could know until later on, in a meeting with Macgonagall the next evening, what the sanitized events of the previous year were. The sanitizing was dramatic from what Luna and Ginny knew.

They learned the complete truth the night of Ginny's birthday – sitting at Harry's half-renovated home at Grimmauld Place, drunk on wine and whiskey talking about everything that happened. The guys had already passed out, drunk on whiskey at that point. That was the night the other two girls learned about Hermione's physical scars.

Ginny and Luna wept over them, from the ones on her back, to the burn on her chest, the ugly one on her neck, and the carving on her arm.

Madame Pomfrey knew about all of her scars. She had to. Hermione insisted however that she take an Unbreakable vow against disclosing them, unless an emergency happened. Pomfrey wouldn't do it – but she said her bond as a Medi-witch held her as tightly. That sufficed.

McGonagall knew about the carving on her arm. She wasn't told about the rest, at least at first. Hermione was adamant about that one.

Ginny stared into her tea cup, watching the dregs swish in the bottom of it. "I'm sure you remember that many nights she crawled into my bed crying from a nightmare – or I did. I also remember many a night where all three of us woke up together, at least the first two months of term. You didn't see most of the nights after then since you were sharing a bed with Dean by the end of October. At least you were getting a leg over him by then."

Luna looked off into the parlor, lost in her own memories.

'That last year of Hogwarts for the three of us was something the guys would never understand, and we'll never share. Each of us have something the other understands, if not completely. Luna was kidnapped and held hostage, tormented in ways I can't fathom. Hermione was starving before being tortured by that monster Mum killed. I was tormented at school, almost raped, beaten to an inch of my life then thought my life was forfeit after I saw Harry dead. I didn't care whether I lived or died at that point.'

Ginny sighed. Luna was still lost in her memories. 'Our bond is stronger than most siblings. Fighting alongside one another on more than one occasion forged the bond. Facing death incarnate and living to talk about it tempered it. Soothing each other's nightmares quenched it. Trusting the others to understand your weakness polished it. Finding laughter at the end of it engraved it.'

'The guys will never truly understand. Few outside this house ever would.'

"I'll need more tea shortly." Luna glanced back at me, back from her own memories.

"But I wouldn't lose my mind with her – or you. She's married to my brother, and I'm getting a leg over on her brother as much as I can. You're dating my ex, and shagging him still – so some things just won't happen." I gave my other best friend a rakish grin. "Besides, I rather take my pent up repression and save it for Harry. That man will be the death of me one day. G_d knows that when he's gone more than two days, well, needless to say, we act like Ron and Hermione."

"I heard that!" A reply echoed from the landing. "You act like that's all we do," said Hermione as she walked past the parlor into the kitchen carrying the empty tea pot and her book. "Honestly, we aren't that bad!" said the brunette in a huff.

Luna laughed since she knew of Ron and Hermione's antics as well. The two younger girls loved picking on her for the right reasons. She realized things had changed when she met them at the train platform the first of September 1998.

Of course, most people knew that when Ron curled her toes rather passionately. Parents gave dirty looks for their display, and a few students laughed and pointed. They didn't notice. Ginny didn't either since she was berated by her mother for doing the same thing with Harry behind a stone pillar.

Once ensconced in their carriage, Luna asked rather pointedly, "Is Ronald that passionate in bed as well?"

Hermione couldn't stammer out a reply, and only could blush instead. It didn't help that Hermione got a howler the next morning from Molly Weasley about public propriety. The hall only laughed right along with the girls.

Hermione didn't show her face in the Great Hall for a week.

The two witches saw the transformation of Hermione almost overnight – and laughed when she tried to be her normal self. The time away from him was hardest on her. Ginny hadn't consented yet, and Luna had her dalliances at school. Only Hermione had truly suffered at that point. The war changed her and her friends helped heal her.

Ginny grinned before raising her voice to be heard in the kitchen. "Oh right. So those nights when you were on floo call with Ron talking dirty wearing his oversized jumper weren't bad? You were such a corrupting influence in my life at that point. I think I learned more in our room at night than most of the classes that last year. And let's not talk about those letters you'd never let me read either. You looked like a chimney after some of them you received."

Ginny loved pushing her buttons as friends do. Hermione huffed audibly from the kitchen. "I missed him terribly at that point. There's only so much a woman can do when she has a man in her life. You two witches know that now."

A blush crept up her cheeks. Ginny grinned, remembering that pointed conversation.

"Anyway, Hermione and I dressed to the nines, knowing that our guys were out working, so we said we would have fun tonight, and when they got home, lock ourselves in the bedroom for three days. Hermione was practically gagging for that brother of mine to come home. She won't go into details, simply because it's Ron, that tosspot, but some of the things she has said off-hand make me think she's a freak."

"I am not," said Hermione from the kitchen. "I just enjoy my husband's company in various ways. That doesn't make me a freak." She was carrying a tea pot and a tome under her arm. "And it's not like I want to know about my brother either, Ginny."

Hermione settled into a chair on the other side of the table, taking one of her books into her lap. "Don't quibble, dear, since I know my brother tickles your fancy in many a way also! You get a leg over as often as possible. I should know. I've heard you while getting ready for work and late into the night when I'm studying too. "

"I think we all do," Ginny interrupted. "Merlin knows that there isn't a place that we've not seen the two of you bouncing along like garden gnomes. I can't think of a place we've not walking in you, or seen you shagging: in the kitchen at my training flat, the couch here, the dining room table at the Burrow, and the men's loo at the Ministry. I was in hysterics for days when you told me about the first Hogsmeade visit and Ron met you up at the school. Didn't you tell me that you threw him against the wall in the Prefect's bath after locking it, and you didn't let him leave for two hours? I won't even count the myriad of times that he's tossed you up against a wall. Harry kept thinking that the house was haunted until I told him one night in bed that it was just you two testing out his masonry skills."

Hermione's blush was beautiful to see. Ginny grinned because she loved picking on her sister in law in such company. They loved seeing her back to being Hermione. The first year after the war ended was difficult, learning to live and laugh again. The days were manageable, but they worked to make the nights tolerable.

"Or what about the first Quidditch match? He met you under the stadium and shagged you senseless with everyone else cheering during the match? Didn't you tell me that was one of the best orgasms you ever had? Did you know that Luna? Who knew that the brightest witch of our age had such an appetite for my brother? Only he could coax you into such wanton behavior. I'd swear you're a Weasley under that untamed brown hair."

Hermione went from a blush to mortification. Her face was so red, like a ripe cherry. Ginny took another sip just to hide the grin. "I'm just glad I invested in brain bleach for me and Harry the moment you made it official. I wanted to retch the first time I walked in on you two in Mom's scullery. What was that, the day after Fred's funeral?"

"It's not like you don't for Harry," retorted Hermione. Her chagrin shifted into a mischievous grin. "How many times have I heard you screaming like a banshee, or seen your bum bouncing away on that table in there, or watched your head bob from the couch in here, and seen your breasts bouncing merrily away in the bathroom? I think I've seen your body more than the Harpies' medi-witch has. But that was the price we paid for living here together for a while."

All of the girls laughed.

Hermione grinned. "Too bad that Molly came looking for you on Boxing Day while we were home for Christmas holidays. I think Ron and I heard her up in Surrey at my parent's house that morning."

Ginny blushed from that particular memory – and that next morning.

"But I knew years ago that you were destined to be with Ronald," said Luna quietly, pointing back at Hermione. "You need one another – and are strongest together. I knew he fancied you after the fight at the Ministry. He didn't leave your side one minute while you were unconscious in the hospital wing for those three days. I recall he held your hand most of the time, even when he slept."

"True. You're the one who told me our fourth year that they were soul mates and would be happier once they snogged and shagged. You're right." Ginny leaned forward to Hermione's tea pot and refilled her cup. She gave her sister in law a beautiful smile.

Luna continued. "Anyone who saw you knew he loved you. He just didn't have courage to tell you. His screams while you were at Bellatrix' mercy hurt. Watching him try to tear down the walls of our dungeon with his bare hands was heartbreaking. Him sitting at your bedside for hours, watching you sleep was beautiful, if for the wrong reasons."

Hermione blushed, hearing Luna's compliment. Ginny could only smile over her now empty tea cup.

Luna smiled. "He also didn't leave your side for those first few days at Shell Cottage once we were rescued. He only left to eat and use the loo. The only reason he left your side that first day to check on Harry was that I said I would guard you with my life."

Hermione couldn't reply. "I didn't know that," she whispered.

She knew about that stint in the hospital, but only after she was in the relationship with her best friend and lover. She remembered Ron telling her about those first few days at Shell cottage, when she was still too weak to really get out of bed or get up and moving.

"That first summer was so good for both of you."

They talked about much while she was at school via letters that she didn't share with her best friends. His letters were the only thing that kept her sane those nights after Ginny fell asleep. What little she slept that last year back at school was in his jumper: the one that she took from his hands helped her sleep those cold nights away from his embrace. Sleeping draughts and Ginny could do only so much.

"That first summer after the war, I think I walked in on them probably two dozen times. It's like they wanted me scarred for life. I couldn't find a room anywhere at home where they weren't acting like kneazles in heat. Hell, there were many a time that I couldn't take a walk out to the pond without them out there, or in the orchard too."

Hermione had the decency to blush, and yet her black walnut eyes glinted mischievously. "Oh good grief. If I'm going to get that kind of treatment, I'll go back up to my room!"

"You would have anyway," Ginny cackled as Hermione retreated back up the stairs with her teapot and tome. "You know you love me!" she bellowed before the door slammed shut. Breaking out in a fit of giggles, she reached over and took another sip from her tea.

"You want another pot full, Looney?"

"No, I'm good right now. Please continue with your story."

"Suit yourself."