Here is, as promised, another chapter of the story. Hope you all enjoy. That's all I have today, so enjoy. Keep reading and keep reviewing!

Chapter 35

The next morning, Mr. Weasley and Hermione left the Burrow shortly after breakfast.

"Are you sure you don't want me to come with you?" Ron asked as he followed Hermione into Ginny's room, where she was retrieving her beaded bag.

"Thanks for the offer" Hermione said, turning around and squeezing his hand. "But no. This is something I need to do along. I wanted your dad to come just in case I need help with some things."

"Alright. As long as you're sure."

"I am. I'll meet you at the hospital at noon?"

Ron nodded.

"See you later" she said, kissing him, before walking out the door.

Mr. Weasley was already waiting for her in the yard. "Ready?"

As a way of response, she grasped his arm and twisted, concentrating on the place that had been her home for nineteen years. As the world came back into focus, the first thing that Hermione saw was that her home wasn't completely gone. The roof had caved in on one side of the house, and the rest was barely standing, but at some of it was still there.

The second thing she noticed was that there was no evidence of a muggle investigation- no policemen or firemen circling the perimeter, no 'caution' tape, not even a 'do not enter' sign.

"Mr. Weasley? Was anyone here when you came by the other day?"

"No- why do you ask?"

"Normally when a home catches fire in the Muggle world, there's a bit on an investigation to find out what started it. It's odd that there's no sign of one."

Just then, two old, Muggle women out for a morning walk noticed Hermione staring at the ruins and said "Aren't the wildflowers in the field lovely dear? Pride and joy of the community, they are."

They continued on their way without waiting for an answer, leaving Hermione gaping. "Wildflowers? Field? This is getting weirder by the minute! Why can't the Muggles see my house? They've always been able to see it before!" Then she asked "The Ministry hasn't added any security to the house- like what happened to Harry's house in Godric's Hollow- have they?"

Mr. Weasley shook his head. "Not to my knowledge."

"But then why can't the Muggles see it?" she wondered. An answer weighed heavily at the back to her mind- the Death Eater in the area.

"Hermione?" Mr. Weasley asked worriedly.

"What?" she asked, not meeting his eyes. "Let's go- I need to see what's left."

He nodded and followed her into the partially standing house.

One side of the house was completely caved in, like Harry's had been, and the rest was blackened and severely burned.

"Wow…" she said. "At least it's not all gone. Although, we won't be able to repair it."

"Yes, now, where's this safe you were talking about? I'm rather curious about how it works."

"It's in the basement. Which is right…" Hermione paced through the kitchen, into a hallway, and opened a door. "…through here. Do you think it's safe for me to go down there? This part of the house looks stable enough."

"I think so, but let me do some stabilizing spells, just to be on the safe side."

He did so, and then pushed firmly on one of the beams surrounding the basement door. "Ok. Go on in."

Cautiously, she made her way down the stairs, into the cool, cement basement that had stored all of the family's 'junk' over the years. The safe stood in the corner, just as it always had. Hermione let out a little shout of joy and quickly jogged to it. It was the only think still whole in the basement- fire had reached almost all of the boxes stored there.

"Wingardium Leviosa" she said firmly, carefully levitating the safe back up the stairs into what used to be the kitchen.

"Well, here it is. Isn't much, but it has everything we need- licenses, identification, business permits, photos."

Suddenly a thought struck Hermione. "Jamie's room!"

Without a word to Mr. Weasley, she rushed to the opposite side of the house, the side that had collapsed. Coming to the place where his room used to be, all she saw was the roof completely blocking off the entrance into his room She struggled to find a way in, but a gently touch on her shoulder from Mr. Weasley told her it was no use.

"I'm sorry" he said gently.

She looked down, trying to hide the tears welling in her eyes. Amidst the dust and rubble, she saw a familiar shape- a ball, with a hexagonal pattern on it.

She stooped to pick it up- it was Jamie's soccer ball door knob. Clutching it to her chest, she sobbed gratefully. "At least Mum and Dad didn't loose everything material they had to remember you by, Jamie. Thanks for watching out for them" she said to the empty air around her, knowing that wherever he was, her brother could hear her.

Hermione didn't bother checking the rest of the bed rooms. There was no point- they were collapsed in and contained nothing important.

"That's everything" she said to Mr. Weasley, slipping the knob into her sweater pocket.

He nodded.

Minutes later, they stood back in front of the Burrow.

"Back so soon?" Mrs. Weasley asked from where she worked in the garden. "Ron hasn't left yet, Hermione." She nodded, and went into the house, levitating the safe in front of her as she went.

"Oh, hey!" Ron said brightly from where he sat at the kitchen table. "Writing to Harry- letting him know what's going on. What's wrong?" He'd noticed her glum face.

She set the safe down in the corner, and sat down opposite of Ron at the table.

"The Muggles couldn't see my house, Ron" she said, cutting right to the chase.

"So? The Ministry puts up protection like that all the time!"

Hermione shook her head. "They haven't, though, Ron. I asked your dad."

"But if the Ministry didn't, who did? That doesn't just happen."

"I don't know. This fire is getting more suspicious by the minute."

"At least you got the safe, though."

"And this." Hermione pulled the knob from her pocket. "It came from Jamie's room- all of it's completely gone, except for this."

"Wow! It's a soccer ball, right?"

"Yes" Hermione replied, pleased that he'd remembered.

"What's this inside of it?"

"What are you talking about, Ron?" she asked, giving him a strange look.

"Can I see it for a second?" She gave him the knob, and a moment later, he held out a piece of folded paper.

"It was lodged where the knob would have attached to the door. What is it?"

With shaking hands, Hermione opened the paper. It was written by Jamie, in his nine-year-old handwriting, addressed to her.

"Dear Mione" it read.

"I had a dream last night that I died. I could see you from where I was, crying. And it really scared me. So I just wanted to let you know that you don't need to worry about me. Also, you should probably know that I punched Robbie Brulles a couple of days ago for calling you a bad name that started with f and ended in reak. Don't tell Mum and Dad, though.

Jamie"

Hermione quickly glanced at the date on the paper. "This was written the day before he died!" she though, shocked.

Then she handed the note to Ron. "Read it- it's from my brother!"

"Wow" he said when he'd finished it. "How long as this been in that knob?"

"It's dated two days before he died- so ten years. I can't believe it!"

"Why did he put it in the door knob? Kind of a weird place to put a letter you wanted to give to someone."

"We had a message system set up- I would unscrew his doorknob once a week for a letter, and he would do the same. I didn't check for a message after he died."

"Wow" he said again. "All that time- like it's meant to be."

"I know- anyway, we should get to the hospital. The healer's said that they would know when my parents could be released, today."

"Yeah, okay."

If anyone's wondering how I came up with the message system, my sister and I used to want to have a system similar to this. Except it never happened because we shared a room for a long time, and it was kind of pointless :D See you all next week!