Loving You Is An Easy Thing To Do
Chapter 50; 1 Day, 1 Milestone
A/N: Whoaa, the big 5-0!
January 14th. It had been 1 year; 1 year since his life had been mangled, and he lost the 1 he loved. Everyone in the house that day, or came to the house that day, were quiet and hardly said a word to one another. As much as he wanted to just lay in bed all day and forget everything that was going on around him. However, he couldn't do that and leave everyone else alone; knowing they were hurting too. As much as everyone tried to put on the fake smile for him and his kids, they couldn't. Not even Lupin.
Lupin had been there when it had all happened, and somehow he knew that he must have felt responsible all this time. Downstairs the Twins, Ginny, Neville, and Ron and Cho were all sitting on the couch. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, Lupin and Tonks were all in the kitchen. The 2 kids still asleep upstairs. Those in the living turned and stared as he came down the stairs. Ron was the first to speak.
"Hey Harry, how's it going?" Not in the mood to talk, he just went and sat down on the other couch. Ron gave up trying to start any other conversation along with everyone else. About 20 minutes after the complete and awkward silence, Charlie came down the stairs.
"Hey daddy," he said coming and climbing in his lap.
"Hi Charlie, you sleep alright?"
"Yes. Why everyone quiet?" Everyone turned and glared at him.
"Well Charlie, you remember how a year ago I told you that your mom was gone?"
"Yup I do."
"Well, today makes it one year since it happened." Charlie went quiet and just sat their like the rest of them, until he had to go get Ellie out of her bed. Lupin came upstairs moments later. "Hey," he said to him as he lifted Ellie out.
"Hi," Lupin responded. He let Ellie down to go with Charlie downstairs.
"So Er- how're you?" he asked Lupin shuffling his feet.
"You don't have to ask that do you Harry?"
"No, but it's better than awkward silence."
"Well I could ask you the same thing. How are you feeling?"
"To be honest, I feel like I've been stabbed with 1000 knives; this morning anyway. Now I just need some time to myself."
Lupin nodded his head and told him, "We're all here for you today Harry."
"I know that, but you and everyone else need me too. Everyone's hurting. Listen, I need to go do something, but I'll be back in a little while." He and Lupin walked downstairs as he continued out the door and apparated away.
Moments later he was standing at the end of a long driveway, staring up at his old house. The last time he had been here was a little less than a year ago, when he was moving into the Burrow. He walked up the drive, turned the key, and walked back inside. Although it was dusty, everything was exactly the same. He went in and sat on the couch, looking around and thinking of different things. Then retreating into the kitchen, following to his bedroom. The bed still lye unmade, and different pictures still hung on the wall. He went and layed down in what had been his spot; thinking of what he and Hermione had done a year ago lost in memories. How comfortable and nice it was to be back in his old bed. As much as today pained him inside, he couldn't bring himself to cry.
After a good hour, he went and took a walk around the neighborhood as he and Hermione had done many times before. When he found himself staring back at the house, he realized how much he missed it here. But, he knew that he couldn't move back no matter how much he wanted to. It was just too much of a part of another phase in his life. He had 2 bouquets of flowers in his hand he had picked on one of the back roads. He placed one and put it on the porch. With a final glance, he left back to the Burrow. Everyone was sitting in the living room waiting for him apparently.
"Everyone needs their coats," he told them.
"Why Harry? Where're we going?" Ginny asked. Everyone knew what he was thinking when they noticed the flowers that he was holding. Within a half an hour, the group of them stood at Hermione's grave. Mrs. Weasley and Ginny were the first to brake down crying. Ron claimed to have something in his eye, along with Fred and George.
"Lupin, can I ask how you deal with all this?" he whispered to him. "You witnessed it all happen. I mean I did too, but I can hardly remember."
"I really don't know. Don't get me wrong, I feel like I could've done something last year..."
"Like you told me, you couldn't of. It was Voldermort's fault, not ours. I feel like I could've done something too half of the time too. When we married, we knew Voldermort and his supporters were a risk we had to take."
"You're smarter than an average 40 year old."
"Well I'm only 26. They say pain does that to you." He placed the flowers in front of the grave and let a few tears slip. Then with everyone else, he made his way back to the Burrow.
A burning sensation ripped into his upper thigh. Reaching into his pocket, he realized that it was the detector coin. Looking at the clock, it read 1:30AM. Quickly, he threw on clothes and apparated to the house. He crept around to the back of the house and went in that way. With his wand out, he slowly went inside looking around for the snake. "Where the bloody hell are you at?" he asked himself. No sign in the living room or bottom floor. A crash came from the basement. Carefully, trying not to creek a step, he went down the stairs. All of sudden the glowing yellow eyes appeared from the right corner. It hissed and charged towards him. Running down the last step, he ducked and tumbled through some boxes. Again, it charged. Only this time he was ready for it.
As it lunged itself at him, he called out, "AVADA KEDAVERA!" the glowing jet of green light shot out and hit it square in the chest. A deafening screech was let out, and multi-color lights burst out of the snake. Within seconds, it collapsed nearly on top of him. He couldn't believe at first that it actually happened. For 1 thing, he'd never done the killing curse before. Secondly, the Snake, the last and final horcrux, was destroyed. He stood horror struck and in disbelief of what had happened for at least 5 minutes. Then he brought himself to hurry back and tell Ron.
Although it was 2 in the morning now, he burst into Ron's house and called, "RON! Are you here?" Seconds later Ron peered down the stairs.
"Harry, what they bloody hell are you doing here? It's 2AM!"
"Ron it's gone! The snake, I just..."
"Harry that's just brilliant!" Ron came and gave him a high five and grasped him into a hug. They must've been cheering pretty loudly because Cho came and peered down the stairs.
"Harry, what're you doing here?" She asked.
"Er- just something I had to tell Ron. Sorry, I'll be going now."
"What did you have to tell him?"
"That...they're inventing a new ice cream flavor for Ben and Jerry's called pumpkin." Ron gave him one last high five, and he ran out the door.
The pleasant April mist greeted his face as he ran out of the house. He thought he herd Cho say, "We need to get a lock." Excited, he ran down the driveway and down a half a block before deciding to apparate back to the Burrow. When he was on the front porch, he jumped on top of the railing letting the light breeze whip across his face. When he jumped to turn around, he bumped into Ginny. Frightened, they both let out mild screams. They instantly started laughing realizing who each other were.
"Harry you scared me!"
"Well you scared me too! What're you doing out here at 2 in the morning?"
"Well I could ask you the same thing."
"You tell first."
"No, you tell first." He just started to laugh and fell into the grass, while he pulled Ginny down with him. The moon was almost full and it was a clear sky. "Well if you wanna know," he began, "I just finished some important business with...work. And now we're all 1 step closer to becoming Voldermort free."
"Well my story isn't nearly as interesting. I just couldn't sleep so I decided to come out here." Ginny and Neville had bought their own house, but the floors were being refurnished for the weekend.
"You're right; your story isn't as interesting."
"Hey! You're not supposed to argue it back!" she told him playfully.
"Looks like I just did," he replied laughing slightly. She flicked some of the dew that was developing on the grass on him. He did the same. Soon, they were both chasing each other around the yard and laughing as they each became wet from the grass. As he went to dodge something Ginny threw at him, he tripped and fell into the miniature pond. Ginny was cracking up now. "You think this is funny? It's cold!" he called to her.
"Yes, I do think it's funny! Here I'll help you," she replied holding out her hand to pull him up. As she did, he pulled her in the pond too. "HARRY! Oh, you're gonna get it now!"
"What more you going to do to me? I'm already soaking!" Laughing, they both climbed out of the pond ringing out their clothes. A light fog was just starting to roll in.
"I'm surprised we didn't wake mum up," Ginny told him.
"It's 3 in the morning, everyone's fast asleep. You gonna change your clothes now?"
"No, I'm perfectly fine being dripping wet. Why, you cold?"
"No way," he responded; although it was getting chilly. They slowly walked to the porch, but stopped just before.
"Admit it, you are too cold!" she nagged.
"No, I'm fine. You're the one who's cold."
"Not a chance!" Realizing how stupid they both sounded, they started laughing again. What was with the both of them? He hadn't felt this way in a long time...He looked at her, and she looked at him. The moon and stars still lit up the yard. Ginny put her hand on his and moved closer to him. But to his shock, he did the same thing to her.
"Er- listen, it's pretty late or early, depending on how you think of it. But anyway, I should go get some more sleep."
"Uh yeah same here."
"Yeah and change out of these clothes."
"Yeah, they're defiantly a drag." They both got up and said good-night, parting in their soaking wet clothes.
A/N: So, how was the chapter? I'm getting a lot of favorites, but not as many reviews. Tell me what ya think! Oh, and as sad as it may be, there are only a 4 more chapters I believe until my story is done. I'll tell you more in the next chapter. Thanks and review!
