Chapter Three
Ginny had just transferred to her second train since beginning her travels this morning. She arrived at the train station in the muggle town not far from her home around 5 am. She bought a ticket on the first train out of the town. She had switched trains about three hours after leaving the first train station. She had no idea where she was, but she thought that maybe now was a good time to go to the bathroom and make herself untraceable. She did not want to leave her family but knew that she had too. She had conjured the forms that made her birthday a few years before it really was and knew that if she needed more forms that she could conjure those also. She had to do this for her future.
No one noticed the redheaded teen as she walked to the back of the train to the bathrooms; she went in and cut herself off from her world, her family and friends. She just hoped that he would forgive her when this was over.
Hours later, Harry and Ron still sat in the room that they both felt made fighting this war more important and gave them the desire to end it soon. Neither boy looked up as Hermione walked in the room.
"Guys, what are you still doing in here? You've missed lunch." When there was no response to her question, she went and sat next to Harry on the bed. "Look, I know that both of you are hurting right now but we have a lot of work to do if you want Ginny to come back here any time soon. I don't think that she did this to hurt you but she did say that she would be back when it was over, so what do you say? Let's find a way to end it so that you can both be happy again."
Harry cleared his throat, "You are right, we need to end this, as soon as possible. Hate to tell you this Ron but I need her." Harry looked up at his redheaded friend who finally met his eyes.
"I know you do mate. I agree we need to get this over and done with so that we can be with the girls we love." Ron moved his eyes over to Hermione as he said the last part. "'Mione, I think we need to talk."
"I'll go down stairs guys, but Ron we have wasted a lot of time today so kind of make it quick."
"Harry, he will take as long as he wants." Hermione told him as she looked back into Ron's eyes.
Harry looked at his two best friends for a moment, turned and walked out the door. He knew that things would be different between those two and he thought that it might help them with the future that they had, he had.
When Harry got down the stairs, he saw Mrs. Weasley sitting at the table with her face buried in her hands; he could tell that she was crying.
"Mrs. Weasley, I am sorry that this has happened. I promise that we will end this so she can come home."
"Oh Harry," she said as she got up and went to him. "As long as you are okay too, Ginny is not the only one who needs you around, do you hear me." She held him in a hug that was a little tighter than normal, but he needed it. "And Harry dear, you should know that her brothers, Arthur and I don't blame you for this, we just want her safe. But my little girl is strong and if she felt that she had to do this for a little while then I am sure that it is for a very good reason."
"I know Mrs. Weasley; I just wish that I could have apologized for everything that happened in June. I feel like that may be why she left."
"Trust me Harry, if it had to do with how things ended with you two she would have just yelled at you. That is how she would handle her brothers and I know that you are not a brother but she would have put you in you place dear, so I fear that there is more going on with this situation than what we know. Now since talking about this does us no good, can I make you something for lunch?" Mrs. Weasley wiped her eyes as she went to the stove to make Harry something to eat.
"Well I think that both Ron and I might could use something to eat but he may be a little while. He is talking to Hermione."
"He is, good I was wondering what it would take to make my little boy see what was in front of him. I guess something good has come from Ginny running away." Mrs. Weasley got busy making the two boys something for lunch.
"Mrs. Weasley, I am going to go for a short walk, I just need some fresh air."
"Okay dear, don't worry I will keep your food warm."
"Thanks," he said as he walked out the back door in to the early afternoon sunlight. He just needed to be by himself for a few minutes before he, Ron, and Hermione started making plans, which they would have to start as soon as lunch was over. As he walked around the yard at the Burrow he tried to figure out what could have caused Ginny to leave without telling him anything, he came up with no obvious reason.
"Harry, come on in. We need to get this started and you still have not eaten mate." Harry looked in the direction of the voice that was calling to him and saw his best friend at the door to the house watching him. He decided that he would have time to wallow in the could have been's later, now he had to talk to his friends.
As Harry walked in the house and he saw Hermione at the stove reheating his lunch.
"Where is Mrs. Weasley," he asked as he sat down at the table.
"She had to go and see Fred and George, they don't have a floo at their store yet so they don't know about Ginny," Ron told him as he sat down next to Harry.
"How long was I outside," Harry asked him.
"Over an hour mate, we've been kind of worried about you. Listen, I am sorry that I yelled at you this morning I was just worried about my sister. I don't blame you for any of this, Ginny is going to do what she wants and when she wants, probably a side effect of being the youngest in a family of all boys." Ron was watching Harry to see if he was going to react to what he said.
"Yeah, I know. Thanks Hermione," he said as she put his lunch down in front of him. "So what did I miss while I was outside?" The two others in the room shared a glance with each other at this comment.
"Well, I told her how I feel, and found out that she feels the same. So I guess you might want to warn us before you walk into a room we are in by ourselves," Ron said with a smirk.
"Ron! Nothing is going to change Harry, I think we felt that before we go into this we needed to make sure that we both knew what the other felt. SO, there will be no need to give any warnings until after this is over." Hermione was giving Ron a dirty look over Harry's head.
Ron smirked; he had caught what she had just said even if she did not.
"It's good to know that you two are still planning for the future after this," Harry commented as Hermione blushed. She had not meant to insinuate a future but all three knew it was there, they just hoped they would be apart of it.
"Okay," Harry said as he began to eat. "Are we here alone?"
"Yes."
"Then let's get to the plans. So we know that the Horcruxes are Voldemort, Nagini, the ring, the locket, the cup, and the diary, we need to figure out what the last one could be. Dumbledore was thinking that since there is something that wasSlytherin's and something that was Hufflepuff's that maybe the seventh thing is either Ravenclaw's or Gryffindor's. I have been thinking that we might be able to rule out Gryffindor because he was against what Slytherin stood for and since Voldemort loves his Slytherin heritage I don't think that he would go there. I was hoping that my best bookworm might be willing to find out what of Ravenclaw's could be out there that Slytherin could have access to. What do you think so far," Harry asked as he finished his rant.
"I think that I already have an idea about Ravenclaw. You know that Ravenclaw was the fonder who thought that your brains and learning ability is what should decide your future, we have learned that just from the sorting hat at Hogwarts, but what we didn't know is that Rowena was a beautiful woman. She was proud of her looks and where ever she was there where mirrors so that she could look at herself. She had a favorite mirror at her house; that was magical like most around here. When she died the mirror was passed down through generations of Ravenclaw women until about 1930 when the mirror never arrived at the home of Phillip and Madeline … Diggory."
"What, Diggory, are you sure?"
"Yeah Harry, I double checked. Madeline's grandfather was the last decedent with the Ravenclaw name. If the mirror had followed its destiny then it would be with Cedric's mother but she died so I am not sure if it would go to another woman in the family or what, since well, Cedric is gone and had no siblings."
"Well are there any ideas as to where the mirror went missing to?" Harry did not know if this new development was important or if it just matter because it was Cedric.
"Not that I can find, no one knew what could have happened, the only thing that made me think that this even might be important is that Phillip was with a woman shortly before he met Madeline and she felt betrayed when Phillip chose Madeline."
"Who was that," Ron asked.
"A woman by the name of Adalyne Long, who later married Marvolo Ghant, Voldemort's grandfather."
"So you think that maybe…." Harry was not sure how he wanted to finish that comment.
"I think that she stole it and kept it and that it might be possible that Voldemort found it. Now as to where he may have put it, I don't know."
"I have a few ideas as to where I want to look for the ones that remain," Harry told them.
"Well now that we have a better idea what they all are I think that we might need to figure out how many have been destroyed and when the last two, Voldemort and Nagini need to be destroyed," Hermione told them.
"Well we know that the diary was destroyed in second year in the chamber, and you said that Dumbledore destroyed the ring right Harry? What about the locket that you found or I guess didn't find," Ron asked.
"Well," Hermione said. "I have been thinking about that too. The locket reminds me of something, I just can't remember what. I feel like I have seen something like what you described, I just can't remember if it was in a book or if I actually saw it."
"Me too," Ron responded.
Harry, who had not spoken in a few minutes, looked as his friends next to him. "I want to go to my parent's home. I don't know if it will have any answers but I need to see where it all started."
"We understand, and actually I already figured that. So, this morning when Remus was here and you two were upstairs, I asked him if he could tell us where to go. He gave me the location that it was at but he said he does not know if Ron and I will be able to see it since the secret keeper is still alive. I was thinking that we might could go there in the morning, what do you think." Hermione looked at Harry as she asked him the last part.
"Sound great, thanks Hermione," Harry said with the first smile he had worn all day.
"What are friends for?"
The three sat in silence for a few minutes, before they heard a pop outside the door of the house; all three moved their hands to where their wands were stored.
"Afternoon all," George said as he walked through the door.
"George, what are you doing here," Ron asked his brother.
"Well I know that I don't live here anymore but this is my parent's home, I thought that I might see if my mum would make me some dinner when she makes dinner for you lot."
"How come you aren't at the shop," Harry asked him.
"Well if you must know Harry, today is my day off. Fred and Lee are handling the shop today." The three friends exchanged glances as George said this. "Why, where is mum?"
"Well," Hermione started to explain.
"No let me, I get the impression that he is still a little mad at me for breaking up with Gin. George, your mum is at the shop, she went to tell you and Fred something." Harry was slow to say a whole lot because he really did not want to be hexed.
"Well, are you going to tell me today or maybe do an interpretive dance?"
"See, its Ginny, she has run away."