Chapter Three: Writing Terms

I still haven't won, and I've run out of witty ways to claim that I wrote Harry Potter, so I'm giving in. You win, JK Rowling. You created the most amazing world in the known universe, and we are all just a part of it.

Thanks to anyone who's read, and the 1 person who's reviewed- I super incredibly appreciate it.

Hermione woke well before the sun again, and blinked sleep from her eyes lazily. The tiny tent was still relatively dark, and as she swung her feet out of bed, she heard a rustling that she didn't recognize. Instantly frozen, she snaked her hand under her pillow and let her fingers curl around her wand, not daring to breathe. In her head, she silently muttered 'lumos' and then let out a half strangled cry of joy at the tiny brown envelope with looped handwriting that read her name, sitting at the end of her bed, caught in her blankets. She tore it open greedily and poured over the letter inside.

Hermione-

Sorry to not write you sooner, but things have

been hectic during the search. Diggle and Hesita

really took their job seriously when they hid the

Dursleys- they've made it pretty much impossible

to find anyone. Harry keeps saying that you should've

taken tips from them when you went out on your

adventures last year. But finally, we've managed to
track them down

Hermione let out an excited squeak and folded her legs back up onto the bed, and pulled the covers over her knees, holding her wand close to the page. If they had found the Dursleys, it meant Ginny and Harry would be coming home soon.

Vernon and Petunia have settled back into Privet Drive

and we're already on our way back. Harry certainly

wasn't exaggerating when he talked about them.

How're things back at Hogwarts? We'll be back in about

another week, I think. Maybe less if I can talk some sense

into Harry. I'm glad to be out of the tent town, but I can't

wait to get back and see you all. Harry reckons that
everyone's exactly as we left them- arguing.

I'll write if I have time, but I'll tell you more when I
see you in person. I can't wait!

All my love,
Ginny

Hermione clutched the letter to her heart and took in deep, rattling breaths to calm herself. Ginny and she had become unusually close for girls of differing ages at Hogwarts, and having her back here would definitely make Mr. and Mrs. Weasley feel better, as well as the entire clan, and Harry would make the older witches and wizards more at ease. After carefully memorizing its precious words, she folded the letter down into a tiny square, and tucked it into the diary under her pillow, casting a vanishing spell on it, twice just to be sure this time. Her mind raced as she pulled on her clothes for the day distractedly, thinking faster than usual. Something seemed just slightly out of place with Ginny's letter. The handwriting matched, and the tone of the letter was hurried, but not unusual given the circumstances. So why couldn't she shake the feeling that something was wrong?

She wrapped her hair into a tight bun at the base of her neck, and grabbed her basket from the tent flap, not bothering to wake Ron this morning to eat. Instead, she tiptoed her way through tent town and down to the lake, finding a large flat rock to sit on that overlooked the great lake that she had always loved. The lake rippled and gleamed in the pre-dawn twinkle, and very vaguely, Hermione could hear the distant calling of the Merpeople as they started their day underwater. From what she understood of the situation around Hogwarts, the mystical creatures around them had a great deal of rebuilding to do as well. Dark curses and killing had tainted the area enough that the unicorns that lived in the Forbidden Forest, and the Centaurs as well, had migrated farther away to the west. Minerva had set up a task force to cleaning the woods of any dark magic that remained, and Hagrid had remained firmly at the head of that force- he took great pride in being able to finally show the woods that he cared for so much to people that would actually appreciate it.

Slowly munching on what she could only assume was a day old apple tart, she thought everything Ginny had said in her letter over in her head one more time, before shaking her head violently to rid herself of the thought. If something was really wrong, Ginny would've written about it. Surely, she was simply reading too much into it, and worrying for the sake of worrying.

"You got her letter?" She jumped, and panicked, raising the crumbling pasty in her right hand and turning quickly, ready to launch it at whoever was behind her. Percy stood there in work jeans and a baggy grey t-shirt, holding a letter almost identical to Hermione's, and looking bewildered. "Really Hermione? You're a witch! You're going to throw a biscuit at me?"

"You should consider yourself lucky that I was a Muggle long before I was a witch, or you might be dead right now." She let her heart rate slow for a moment, and then remembered something important. "I'm sorry about last night. I didn't mean-"

"Don't bother." He shook his head emphatically and sat down next to her, pulling his knees to his chest and looking over the still placid lake, "I shouldn't have said anything."

Hermione looked at him thoughtfully for a moment, and then offered him an apple from her basket, which he took in his long fingers and bit into carefully. The silence between them stretched like a very thick blanket as they watched the sun start to rise, nibbling at pastries and fruit, afraid to offend each other again. The silence almost choked her, until she finally managed to get it out.

"I didn't realize you and Ginny were on… writing terms." She realized this was the wrong phrasing the moment she said it, and he quirked an eyebrow at her. "What I meant to say is, I didn't realize you were close enough that she would've- that is to say, I didn't think you two were-"

"Friendly?" He supplied for her, as she blushed a crimson red and nodded slowly. "Ginny started writing to me right after the Yule Ball. She wanted advice on a boy, and well… It just became our thing." Percy twirled the stem of the apple between his fingers, and threw it into the lake, watching the ripples ring out around it as it floated there. "I stopped writing back when I realized she could be in danger, but I… I didn't want to."

"That's very…" Hermione patted his shoulder awkwardly, searching for words. "nice of you, Percy. Really. It's sweet."

They continued eating in silence, and when they were finished, Percy walked Hermione back to her tent, where she left the basket at the flap, and the two walked in silence through the rows of children's tents to the remains of the Great Hall. The rest of their team met them there with sleepy hellos and muffled good mornings as Arthur explained which parts of the wall needed repair first. Hermione, still lost in thought, half listened and nodded along when she was expected to. Ginny was certainly hiding a few things from Hermione, especially if she was writing to Percy. She clearly had not written to her parents, or any of the rest of the Weasleys, as Arthur's face was still clearly lined with worry, and Charlie's strong and silent demeanor hadn't changed at all. Ginny definitely had the ability to be secretive, after all she had grown up as the only girl in a house full of boys and an overly boisterous mother, but what could she be hiding this time?

Assigned to the last remaining bits and pieces of the wall, Hermione drew her wand, along with Professor Sprout, Percy, and Arthur, and cast a perfect Wingardium Leviosa in unison with the others, carefully lifting the final granite stones into place. She shifted to glance at Percy for an instant, and found his concentration not all there either. His eyes were glancing back and forth quickly, as if he was reading an invisible text in front of him, his brow furrowed in frustration.

And just as her lips were starting to form his name to ask what was wrong, she heard a sickening crack, a woman's echoing scream, and the whole world went black.