Chapter 29 A turn about
The next morning Hermione's plan to have her cake and a bite of Draco began to unravel. Whatever happened between her and Ron last night was not enough to keep Ron from wondering about the situation and he was dangerously close to figuring out just who kissed who.
He pointed this out to her while Ron was in the bathroom and she nodded, eventually bursting into panicked tears. "I didn't think I-I-I just acted and it's eating me up," she wiped her eyes and grabbed his arm with her wet hand; "I betrayed Ron and I can't leave it like this to just…fester."
Harry wanted to tell her to bite the bullet and talk it out with Ron, but he came out too soon. Ron still put an arm around her, but it was clear something was on his mind.
Like most women, Hermione didn't need advice, she just wanted someone to listen; by the end of the day she took the advice he never gave and confessed the whole truth to Ron. He took it better than Harry had expected; he just pulled back from Hermione and walked off with a bit of a slump in his shoulders.
Hermione's lip quivered as he walked off, her eyes going bright with tears; she took a step towards him, but stopped herself even before Ginny could tell her not to. "I think I just ruined everything" she murmured and plopped down Next to Ginny on an empty love seat.
"Let him mull this over Hermione, my brother has a bit of a short fuse, but he can get past this." Harry had informed Ginny of the trouble so she was ready for it. She winced when she heard; Hermione was a good friend so she was a bit on the fence about how to feel, she just couldn't condone such treatment even with Hermione's lame excuse. She only hesitated for a moment before putting an arm around Hermione as her head drooped and she cried quietly into her hand. Ginny's grimace over Hermione's head said that her words may have been less than certain.
Unable to think of anything to say that would help, Harry cast about to find something to talk about and latched on to a good one. "Ginny, just where did you go while I was with professor Weatherwood?"
Ginny had been lost in her own thoughts when he asked so she was caught a bit off guard with the question; she rose to the topic with a small smile and a wink over Hermione's head as she warmed to the subject. "Oh I suppose now would be as good a time to tell you as any…." She looked around the room and leaned in, lowering her voice. "As you know by now you can't just aperate or use floo powder to go between countries so I had to ask around to, you know, find a loop hole and I think you'll be surprised by where I got said loop hole."
She had aperated into a squall within sight of nothing but rolling waves. She was glad that she had managed to aperate with her broom; without it she would have fallen twenty feet into the rain swept sea.
Ginny pulled her backpack around to her lap and stuffed her head and shoulders into it; a trick she took from Hermione. It was like a small cave in there; one she could climb into, but was just going to use to check her charts. She could still hear the wind and rain against the bag and it was soaking her from the shoulders down until she felt like she had fallen in.
She confirmed where the cargo ship she was looking for was at and pulled her charmed lode stone out. By the light of the night light Fred had made for her, she cut a few small chunks off and let them fall to the map she had charmed to interact with the stone. There should only be one out this far, but two possible hits were marked. She circled both and spun about to go back towards the far off land; she was ahead of the ship.
She used her head and found the ship without the ship finding her; now she had to find Harry's blasted owl! Shortly after spotting the ship the owl shot towards the on deck containers and disappeared between them and she had spent five valuable minutes trying to find him.
"A rat? You're holding me up from watching your master's back for dinner?" The owl was in front of an orange container with the dead rat under one claw; as Ginny approached, dripping with rain, the owl tapped at the door with its beak.
She was feeling a lot of emotions right then, fear for Harry, anger that it was so hard to get into the country, and worry that she would be useless or show up late, so she was not in the mood to put up with the bird right then; being an animal lover, she put up with it any way and looked around to make sure no one was looking and put an ear to the door. "I can't hear anything." The storm was loud and the ship was making noises of its own, still the bird insisted; tapping on the door again.
She had no time for this; she wiped out her wand and unlocked the door, flipping up the latches and cranking one door open with a squeal of hinges. Her wand showed pallets wrapped in plastic, the odd product name showing thru the wrap. Several strands of pooled rain water began to run across the floor now that the door was open; one went between two pallets and something pounced upon the water making her jump.
It was a rail thin alley cat with torn ears and one eye; its fur matted and clumpy over its scrawny frame. The cat watched Ginny with wary intensity, but did not stop drinking; the owl was typical to its job and the cat was ignoring it as a non threat even when it hopped forward and dropped the rat.
"We'll come back for it after", she told the owl who returned to her side as if it knew she was going to seal it back up. "Good job Sherlock."
She was on somewhat solid ground, had Harry's bird, and had marked the boat with a spell that would guide her back; it was time to aperate. She went first to a sort of back door jump trail that Dumbledore had told her about; a trail Sirius had taken to get to England. It consisted of rocks sticking out of the water like miniscule islands that were small even at low tide. After that she just followed the trace she had placed on Harry until she found him in a truck on its way to the dementor.
"I cast my patronus and attacked that dome that formed around you until Hagrid burst thru and stamped the bugger out. I followed you back out while I was under the cloak and hopped back home. Nabbed that cat on the way of course and dropped him off at the pier where he must have gotten on."
Ginny had to work on her squib class so she was gone when Ron came back that night. Harry had stayed in the common room, catching up on homework while supporting Hermione during her vigil. Hermione was too worried to work; she just stared out the window as the hall emptied due to the late hour.
He straightened up and stopped just inside the common room when Hermione stood. They stared at each other for ten long seconds before Ron charged forward. Harry was afraid that there was about to be a room shaking fight until Ron's eyes squinted with new formed tears; he scooped her up into his arms and gave a near whimper almost unheard under hers.
"I left you alone when you needed me most; when people were out to kill you. I think about that all the time; afraid that I had put a cowardly wedge between us that has been hovering over my head like an axe." He put her at arm's length and looked into her eyes. "I have to know that you're not looking for a way out; to know that you love me enough to get past that wedge."
Hermione nodded vigorously. "He was a silly… I was…" She held her tongue as Ron shook his head.
"I got past that while I was walking; I mean this." He took something out of his pocket and dropped down before her. "I have to know you're in this all the way." He held up a ring that was not quite an engagement ring with such a painful look of hope that Harry wanted to turn away.
Hermione's eyes went wide when she saw it and she snatched it out of his hands as if she thought it might disappear. After enough time to make Ron worry, she sank down to her knees in front of him and clawed her eyes away to look at Ron. She only managed a teary nod before giving into her tears and squeezing him tight.
Hermione wasn't the only one; four other girls began crying at the top of the stairs where they had been eavesdropping. "Give em a moment would ya?" Harry asked; the only person in the whole castle who was not crying evidently.
