Chapter 9

"Ron, you need to go over and stand with your family, I'll be with Harry, look even Ginny is over there." As they walked out onto the grounds, dressed in dark mourning clothes, Hermione was trying to convince Ron that she couldn't stand with his family at this moment, it wouldn't be right. "I'll wait to go sit; as soon as you are going over to sit I will join you."

"Alright," he walked towards his parents and Hermione started walking in the opposite direction. She saw Harry standing by their favorite beech tree.

"Hi," she said at her approach.

"Hi," he replied, looking up from the grass and the lake.

"It seems like it has been ages since we really talked. You're always with Ginny now, I haven't even had a proper conversation with her."

"Well you're always with Ron, not that I am blaming you of course," he said hastily, "it's much better than the fighting, you even keep the snogging to a minimum. Which is a good thing because I reckon I might get mad like Ron does when I snog Ginny if you did."

Hermione giggled for a second before saying, "I think he is alright with it, you and Ginny, he would rather it was you than anyone else."

"I'm glad. Did he …." Harry stopped.

"He told me about the locket, yes."

"I wondered if he would, I told him afterwards that your like my sister, and I thought I could tell that to you too, because it's true, I love you like I suppose a brother would love a sister."

"And I love you like a sister loves a brother, but that doesn't mean you have to be over protective of me around Ron, even though he is your best friend, because the both of you are my best friends."

"Yes but are you going to tell me where you and Ron have been hiding."

"Maybe, if you tell me where you and Ginny have been."

"Fair deal, you tell first."

"No, oh all right, but you can't tell anyone."

"I won't. I promise."

"In the Room of Requirement, but you won't be able to get in."

"As if I want to. Ginny and I have been hiding outside for the most part actually, and going into deserted parts of the castle. I'm just trying to hide from all the attention, I'll never get used to it."

"And neither will I or Ron, it was kinda silly, at first, he liked it about the first four times and then he got annoyed. It was strange watching someone else annoy him."

"I bet."

"We haven't really fought for a while now," she said looking out across the lake. "It's been quite a while, other than silly playful arguments."

"They all were that for both of you, you were just trying to get the other one's attention."

"I know that now, but when I was thirteen, not so much."

They laughed together and looked out on the lake and up at the sky which was blue with white puffy clouds. Hermione glanced over at Ron's family, they were still in conversation with the little wizard who had done Dumbledore's funeral and Bill and Fleur's wedding. She sighed and said, "We haven't just been kids like that for a long time."

"Too long, but we aren't kids anymore Hermione."

"We lost all of the bits of childhood we had left last year. Harry, I … I hope you don't feel left out … Ron and I are going to Australia the day after tomorrow, to get my parents. I didn't think with everything you had to do that you would want to come with us. If you would like to you can, but with Ginny here. I mean, it's a Portkey, so if you want to come you can, but I really only need one person's help."

"I won't be to over-protective of my big sister," he said looking at her. "I reckon you and Ron are partially sane and won't kill each other at least."

"Harry!" but then she looked at him and saw that he was laughing and she was so glad he was laughing, she was afraid that he would never laugh again, the last time they had laughed had been before the battle when Ron said 'I hate to break this to you, but I think they might have noticed we broke into Gringotts.' She began to laugh a little too.

"When will you be back? From Australia that is."

"A week from when we leave, it just long enough to do what I need to do, explain things to my parents, get them ready, oh no …" she broke off.

"What's wrong?"

"Don't tell Ron," she hesitated.

"I won't if it doesn't need to be."

"It doesn't."

"Well then I won't."

"Their house. What if our house was destroyed, what if they came looking for my parents and me and no … no … no … they couldn't … no…." she couldn't speak.

"Hermione, I'll go to the house and fix it if it needs to be fixed, I'll go when you leave for Australia, it's my fault you did this all anyway."

"No Harry, it is not your fault, what it is, is that I am lucky beyond belief for you to have done what you did and made it so that I could have the chance to go get my parents."

"Hermione …."

"No Harry it isn't your fault, however if you would like to help me because you're my friend then I will allow you."

"I will go look the house see what needs to be done, I am your friend Hermione, and I will make sure it gets done before you get home. Can you teach me to do that talking patronus thing so that I can let you know what's going on?"

"When you conjure the patronus, when you think or say the spell, it doesn't matter, you think the message and to whom you want it to go to, you can picture them in your mind or their full name, it doesn't matter. You'll be able to do it no problem."

"Okay, thanks."

"What are you going to say about Snape?" Hermione asked cautiously.

"Some of it, but I think I'll leave out the part about him being in love with mum. I'll just say that they were friends, and those who matter will know that it was more. I'll say they were friends and he didn't mean to tell about the prophecy to Voldemort and he switched to our side before Voldemort's downfall. I'll tell him short why he was brave and loyal to Dumbledore."

Hermione looked at him and she smiled, feeling a fierce pride at that fact he could hate the man and still understand that, Harry and grown up so much and Ron too, oh her boys had grown up so much, they weren't little boys any more. She didn't need to be their extra mother, now she was in a sense Harry's sister and she was … something more to Ron she didn't know exactly what.

"And Lupin?"

"He was dad's best friend, other than Sirius, so I'll talk about all four of them and then what they meant to me."

"I just wanted to make sure you were going to be alright speaking it."

"I will be, I know how to deal with the grief by now, even if Ron hasn't. If he won't talk to you, talk to him."

"I … I will."

Hermione looked up watching the Weasleys as Ron and Ginny left their group to come get Hermione and Harry. She and Harry started walking to meet them and when they met, Ron took Hermione's hand and leaned close so that he could whisper in her ear, "Don't leave me 'Mione, not the whole time."

"I won't," she breathed back, so desperately quiet that no one else would be able to hear or even tell that her lips were moving. The walk together, barely a hairbreadth apart and Ron lead them over to where his family was sitting. He slid into the row, sitting down next to Charlie and Hermione sat down next to him so that Ginny was sitting between her and Harry. Ron keeps holding her hand and she puts her other hand on her knee. After about five minutes of silence the little wizard that spoke at Dumbledore's funeral got up and spoke, he said general things about those who fought and died in the Battle of Hogwarts, the individualism, the differences in it would come from those family members of the almost sixty members who died. The list of people started going in Alphabetic order, Dennis spoke for his brother when the time came, and Hermione was in tears, Ron was crying too she could tell, he was shaking every so slightly in that way. Harry went up for both Remus Lupin and Severus Snape, Hermione continued crying, know Ron was crying too, and Ron was trying to hold her, to comfort her in some way.

George's speech for Fred was the last, for no one's last name started with a letter after W who had died. George went up in front of all the people and stood for a moment. "We are all here because we lost someone that was our friend or our family. And the not having them with us, it hurts, a lot. I won't ever be 'hole' again." George smiles, a small smile. "But I was thinking yesterday, after Charlie asked me to do the speech for today, what I would talk about for Fred. And I've listened to all of your speeches today and I finally know how I want to say. I won't ever be 'hole' again, but I have one in the side of my head that Fred always used to make jokes about with me. Those jokes would all make us laugh, even when we knew Mad-eye was gone, Dumbledore was gone, and Sirius was gone. The important thing is that we keep laughing that we keep going. Fred died the way he lived I am told, my brother Percy was with him, as was my brother Ron, they said he was joking with Perce, and that's the way he lived, teasing us all. He thought it was great we were fighting at night in a castle, we'd never been in any of the fights during the war so far, and he thought it was great fun. Before we were called to come fight, Fred and I were making something, and I think it's fitting that I use it know. I perfected it yesterday." George took something out of his pocket and threw it up into the air, the air exploded and a firework slashed through the sky reading 'Potterwatch Forever' another one burst 'The End of Voldemort Nears' then another, 'Dumbledore's Army Fights Forever' and more and more and more of them flew from George's hand and burst in the air. When the fireworks died down and the crowd stopped making noise George said one more thing, "I think that this is what Fred would have wanted us to take from his sacrifice," one more firework shot from his hand and spelled out the words 'Laugh and Joke Forever.'

Hermione looked at Ron, wanting to know his reaction. To her great surprise he was smiling, "That was bloody brilliant," he said.

She looked up into his face and smiled. "It'll still hurt but George's right, he would want you to laugh and joke."

"And he would like to tease the micky out of us for finally getting together."

"Are we together? You seem to assume quite a lot, I believe one of your lines was 'Hermione come dance with me" without a question mark."

"Um … then I guess I better ask … 'Mione, will you go out with me, our first date will be going to give your parents back their memories in Australia."

"I think that sounds lovely, when is our date then Ron?" she asks jokingly and almost shyly.

"Tomorrow morning at 10:15 because we leave at 10:30 … Merlin's pants … mums going to kill me … I forgot to tell her."

"We can tell her in a minute," Hermione says, then begins to open her mouth to say something else when Ron's lips fell on hers and for the briefest second they are touching but knowing that someone could look any second made it so it was as quick as possible. The opened their eyes quickly and glanced around, no one had noticed. Slowly the masses of people began to make it back to Hogwarts. Ron was glancing around, looking for his parents. Many of the people that they passed were in tears and smiling at the same time. It was a strange feeling to be walking through all these people again.