Chapter 7

"Hermione." Fleur calls to her a few minutes after the muggle recording has ended and she still hasn't reacted. She comes closer to her, to be able to see her face, her eyes, that right now are facing the wall.

"Hermione." She says again, much lower because they are now inches apart. Fleur touches her arm and she finally seems to come back to reality.

"I need... maybe is... plane..." She starts mumbling incoherently and Fleur has to grab both her arms and pull the brunette to really look at her. Her brown eyes are wild with worry and nervousness.

"Breathe, Hermione." She does. "One step a time."

"I have to get to Australia right away." She says and then she frowns. "I..." She worries her lip.

"What is it?" Fleur shakes her a little.

"I have to go the airport. I have to get a plane ticket for Australia." She tries to escape the blonde's arms but she stops her a few more seconds.

"No. The muggle way will take too long." Fleur shakes her head. There must be a better way... "Send Harry and Ron a Patronus. We are going to use their fireplace. I think I remember them saying that they have upgraded their Floo connection to the international network." She looks confused.

"We?" She asks.

"You are one of the strongest persons I have ever known, but nobody should go through something like this alone and I am certainly not going to let you." She listens very still. "I am not going to impose in your family moments, but I would like to be around in case you need someone. So we..." She points slowly to the both of them. "...are going to Australia."

Fleur stares at Hermione resolutely, so she knows that there is no way she is going to change her mind, and finally the brunette nods slowly. The blonde looks a little relieved.

"So, remember I told you I have family in Australia?" Fleur continues, taking control of the situation. "We can't apparate to another continent, it is too far, but their fireplace is connected to the Floo network." She starts nodding along. "Their place is in Albany, which isn't exactly near Perth, but we should manage from there."

Hermione snaps into action then, hugging the taller girl, her arms going around her neck. "Thank you, Fleur."

"You are welcome." She simply says, caressing her back and her messy hair. "Now, take a deep breath to calm yourself down and send them the Patronus while we pack. I still can't conjure a corporeal one." The blonde looks at her watch. "We don't have to hurry, it is the middle of the night in Perth.".

Hermione withdraws and complies, conjuring a bright silver otter from the end of her wand. Before th otter can go away, Hermione records her message. "Harry, Ron, we need to use your international Floo network later tonight, is that okay?" The otter flies away through the window and to Grimmauld's Place.

"I need to apparate back to my place and grab a few things. Will you be okay here?"

She nods her head. "Yes, don't worry."

Fleur doesn't doubt it, but she looks so tired already. She approaches the brunette and gives her a quick kiss on her forehead. "It's going to be fine." Hermione blushes a little at the gesture and she only sighs and nods. "I will be right back." She walks out of the apartment and apparates away.

All in all, it takes the blonde about half an hour to shower, change and gather a few things that might be useful in their trip. She apparates back to Hermione, finding her pushing old copies of the Daily Prophet into her purse.

"I thought they might be helpful while explaining everything to my parents." She shrugs. "And the purse has an undetectable extension charm, so it is not like my space is limited."

"That is a quite useful charm." The blonde says impressed. "And a difficult one."

The brunette shakes her head. "Not difficult. It just requires some patience."

"Then I am definitely not near patient enough."

She chuckles. "Put your bag in here too, that way you don't have to carry it. It is much bigger than this purse." Fleur obliges, because the long bag magically fits inside a little purse and they can 'accio' anything they might need out of it.

A ball of silver smoke comes through the window and stops right in front of Hermione. It transforms into a

silver stag and Harry's voice is clear.

"Of course, Hermione. We just got home from training. Is everything alright? Can we do anything? Come by

whenever."

Fleur closes the purse and Hermione asks her. "What do you say we go say hi to my friend Li and apparate to their house?"

"So I guess there is no chance of you resting a little before travelling across the world." The blonde chuckles.

"I am too wired, Fleur, but you should totally make yourself comfortable here and rest for a while. You have been working all day, after all."

She shrugs. "Today consisted mostly on desk work. We couldn't get by the protections of the vault, much to the goblins annoyance. Let's go." She looks at me, biting her lip, but when she sees her resolution, she just accepts it.

They apparate soon enough to Grimmauld Place with Chinese take-out.

"I can't believe you actually are on a first name basis with the owner of the Chinese place." She shrugs. "I thought you were just kidding!."

"I have been too busy to cook." She tries to defend herself.

"Hello." Harry appears in the stairs, his hair slightly wet and all messed up from towelling it dry.

"Hi. We brought dinner." Hermione waves the bag.

"Great!" The red head exclaims, his head popping out from the third floor flight of stairs. "I'm starving."

We end up in the kitchen and Harry doesn't waste any time, looking worried. "What's going on, Hermione?" He asks.

"Remember that muggle private investigator I hired?" He nods. "He found my parents. I need to go to Australia."

"Blimey." Harry pats his hair and straightens his baggy jumper, as if trying to decide if it is good enough for the trip.

"Now?" Ron asks when he swallows his food. He winces, clearly tired, but grabs his wand and moves his chair back to stand up.

"I have to do it as soon as possible. But, guys..." She says, putting down Ron's wand back on the table. "You don't have to come with me."

"Hermione, I don't think..." Harry starts.

"I'm going with her, Harry." Fleur interrupts him. He looks surprised from her to Hermione. She nods and the boy looks back at the blonde. He nods his approval. For his part, Ron gives a suspicious look while shoving noodles to his mouth. "Which might work for the best because, I am sorry to say, you don't seem on top of your game."

He chuckles and moves his glasses to rub his eyes with the heel of his hand.

"How is the Auror training going?" Hermione asks.

"Fine, I guess." He shrugs. "We have been practicing our reflexes. The first couple of times you go through the simulator it's cool, but then it's just exhausting. There are persecutions and hostages and screams..."

Ron swallows and pushes back his carton of Chinese food. If he isn't hungry anymore, he must be really tired. "That is not the worst, though. Aurors are required to have superior skills on Occlumency. That is the absolute worst. To have someone looking inside your brain, your memories and you have to push it out..." He squirms. "I'm sorry man for giving you a bad time when you had to go through it our fifth year at Hogwarts."

Harry shrugs. Fleur isn't sure why Harry had to learn Occlumency when he was fifteen, but she guesses it all had to do with Voldemort.

The blonde chooses to change the subject. "You are free this weekend though, aren't you?"

"If they don't call us in..." Ron says, putting his arm on the table and resting his head on his hand.

"I don't think we will be called in on our first week." Harry says, but he isn't very sure. "I hope not. I have a date with Ginny tomorrow." He smiles. "Hogwarts' students have their first visit to Hogsmeade and I am supposed to meet her there."

"So that is going well, I gather." Fleur wasn't sure if they still were seeing each other or if it was something that had ended much like Hermione and Ron's budding relationship.

"Yeah, we are working on it." He seems so happy after all he has been through. It gives Fleur hope. He shakes his head, as if he was getting rid of this particular subject that makes him smile like a fool. "So, how has your week been? Hermione, you took your N.E.W.T.S., right?"

Hermione nods and is about to answer when a loud snort makes us look to Ron, sprawled over the table soundly asleep.

She chuckles and keeps it short. "Yes. I am not sure how they went, but they are done now and I won't know anything until sometime next month." She finishes.

"I'm sure you did good." Harry reassures her and a yawn escapes his mouth right afterwards.

"You are tired. Why don't you go to bed and Fleur and I will levitate Ron to his room, clean up down here and be on our way?"

He considers it briefly and Ron then starts snoring. "I am going to take you up on that." He stands up and walks to the other side of the table. He hugs Hermione. "Good luck, Hermione." He kisses her forehead.

Then she walks to Fleur and she stands up to meet him. He hugs the blonde much like he did with her and whispers in my ear. "Take care of her too, will you?"

He withdraws from the hug and Fleur nods almost imperceptibly. "Goodnight, ladies."

Harry tugs Ron's ear and the red headed jumps. "What...?"

"Say goodnight and go to bed." Harry tells him before walking out.

"Sorry." Ron apologizes when he sees the women. He stands up leaning on the table, his eyes barely open. "I really hope everything works out.".

"Thank you, Ronald."

"Take care, okay?" He tries to open his eyes and he gives us a sleepy smile. Hermione laughs at him.

"Goodnight." He walks out dragging his feet, but at least they don't have to levitate him and put him to bed.

They just clean up in the kitchen. The take out dinner didn't cause too much of a mess, so it is finished fairly quickly. The blonde looks at her watch. "Would you like some tea?"

"Sure." Hermione answers.

She looks around the kitchen finding everything, puts a full teapot on the stove and finds some cups. The water boils soon enough, so she prepares a couple of cups and sits back down.

"Thanks." Hermione takes her cup and rests her hands around it. "It is still too early."

"Yes, a little." Fleur sits down in front of her. "So tell me about your exams." The brunette looks at her curiously. "You didn't go into much detail earlier. Tell me about them."

"You really want to know how my exams went?"

"Of course, Hermione. You were concerned about them." She explains. Hermione gives her a strange look, it is almost as if she is trying to figure her out. "You have been studying very hard for them. I want to know how they went. Which did you find the hardest, the easiest..."

The younger woman keeps looking at Fleur with quiet the intensity and she is not sure what is going through her mind, but that looks makes something deep inside the blonde come alive.