A/N: Yes I'm starting another in-progress story, it was an idea that refused to go away until I started writing it, I hope you enjoy.
Warning: As with all my stories there will be adult themes and language, this isn't going to change, this story is rated M for a reason, be aware. I do not suggest children read it.
You should also be aware that this is NOT a Ron and Ginny friendly story, there will be a lot of Ron, Ginny, and to a minor extent Molly and Dumbledore bashing in this story, if that offends you or you don't like it, for goodness sake don't read it just to complain about it later when it happens. I'll ignore you if you do.
The Broken
Prologue:
The setting sun was warm on her face as she raised it to the sky, it was the last day of summer and she was finally going home, not that she didn't love the house she'd grown up in as a child but without her parents it was little comfort and ever since the end of her first year at the school it had never really been home not like the walls of that castle. A feeling and a bond that had grown deeper when she had helped to rebuild the ruin it had been left after the battle. When she witnessed not for the first time the sentience of the ancient building, as it worked with them to ease putting it back together.
Many of her yearmates would be returning to the school to make up for the year they'd all but, in most cases, missed during the first and last year of Voldemort's short lived reign of Wizarding Britain. The Headmistress, her mentor, her mother figure in the wake of her formative years had informed her that had things not been what they were last year she'd have been made Head Girl and it was her distinct pleasure to be able to afford it to her now, since she had agreed to the invitation to finish her education.
It hadn't exactly been a hard choice to make, after a painful week at the Burrow with the Weasley's in which her and Ron had a falling out. She hadn't spoken to him since. She stayed close to Harry, they'd become so much closer than they thought they ever would that time on the run, especially after Ron had left them. They had always been there for one another, no matter the problems the trio had, she and him had always stuck by one another. He was so much more to her than her best friend, they loved one another on a level nobody else around them understood, as long as the other was happy, they were happy, it was that closeness that had driven the jealousy that had effectively in one fell swoop ended both his relationship with Ginny and her relationship with Ron. While the rest of the family held no ill will towards the duo, with the exception of maybe Molly, they had decided it was better to just stay away from the house where they'd stayed countless summers, and generally well out of the public eye except when necessary at her family home in Hampstead.
Warm arms came around her shoulders, an embrace she knew well by now, "Are you ready for tomorrow Mi?" He asked his deep voice came from above her as he placed a light kiss to her curls.
"As I'll ever be I suppose, I'm happy we're going home, but, I'm not so sure I'm ready to be away from you." She sighed leaning back against his solid form and letting his scent sooth her in the warm evening air.
"Mi, I'm going to be right there, I'll always be right there." He said softly his arms tightening. Their dynamic had irrevocably changed, when, they weren't certain, but after everything something that for most of their lives had been an almost sibling like love evolved, somewhere, somehow, they'd fallen and it had been as easy as breathing.
"I know, I didn't mean that you wouldn't be, I meant this, us, our quiet bubble, I'll be somewhere else in the castle at night, not the tower, not your arms. Yes I miss everyone, I'll be happy to see all of them again, but, I'll miss coming to you at night. Hell as it is I don't know who I'll be living with this year, I've not the faintest clue who the Head Boy is and Minnie refuses to tell me until I meet them on the train." She rambled, all her thoughts spilling forth, she couldn't hold back from him.
He turned her in his arms and lifted a hand to gently tilt her head to look at him, Hermione gave in easily looking into his deep emerald orbs, "Everything will be alright, if anyone can get through what this year holds for us its you, I'm never far, you know that, whenever you call I'm there, nobody and nothing else matters, we will always be us." He placed a soft kiss to her lips before pulling back and beaming down at her.
"You're right, you always know what to say Harry Potter, c'mon, dinner should be ready by now." She replied with a soft smile of her own kissing his nose and slipping easily around to grasp his hand turning him to face the house from the back yard, hearing him chuckle behind her, her grin grew as she led him into the kitchen to check her roast. She was happy, they were happy, it was them against the world. Neither foresaw the events that would soon pass to disrupt that.
He walked from the study that had once been her father's to the glass door leading to the back yard of her family home and looked on at her in wonder as she faced the sunset standing in the gardens she'd tended vigorously to to return them to their former glory in a beautiful violet sundress that hung just so on her petite, lithe figure, its skirts fluttering lightly in the warm breeze of the late summer afternoon. The hurt they'd faced to reach this level of bliss and contentment no longer weighing on him as much as it once had. She was all that mattered.
He just gazed at her entranced, he knew what she was thinking about, he had been as well, what led them here holed up, away from everything that happened in the aftermath of his defeat of Voldemort. It had only taken a week before it had happened. They were at the Burrow that week when everything came to a head, there had been something, he wasn't sure, that had been changing between them for some time, they were so close, closer now than they'd been before everything that had happened that year, that time alone, but they were each happy, they thought, with their respective partners, but that closeness had also been the thing that broke it all.
One bad row with Ron and she'd naturally come to him, just as she had in the past, but there was a sense of finality to it this time that there hadn't been before. It was as she cried into his arms that Ginny had walked in and ranted at the sobbing girl in his arms, arguably in defense of her brother, but had taken it to a personal level when he had shifted to shield her from the younger witch's wrath. The rest of the family held nothing against them, knowing the temperament of the two youngest of their number, and how pigheaded they could be when they were wrong. They'd decided though, to stay away, only having contact enough in so far as it was needed in public, and when every able bodied person had helped in the rebuild.
The Headmistress had been a frequent visitor, instead of owling their letters she'd brought them with her to tea one day. She took him aside at one point when Hermione had gone to refresh the kettle to tell him in confidence that he was "a Head Boy" this coming year, but he hadn't yet gotten around to telling the opposite party because of the way the older woman had phrased it, and how no matter how Hermione pressed she'd refused to tell her who it was when giving the beautiful brunette her own good news. She needed no more undo stress though he was sure that he'd be thoroughly dressed down for his silence when they met with Minerva and her deputy, name hitherto also unreleased, on the train in the morning.
He quietly opened the door and walked up behind her, enveloping her in his arms. "Are you ready for tomorrow Mi?" He asked her placing a soft kiss to her wild curls and breathing in the honey and lavender scent that was purely her.
He felt her sigh as her weight fell back into him, a familiar feeling now and he smiled into her hair. "As I'll ever be I suppose, I'm happy we're going home, but, I'm not so sure I'm ready to be away from you."
"Mi, I'm going to be right there, I'll always be right there." He replied softly breathing her in, he knew exactly what she meant, he just couldn't tell her that, there was a reason Minerva was keeping it from her, what it was he didn't know, but he knew he could trust the woman.
"I know, I didn't mean that you wouldn't be, I meant this, us, our quiet bubble, I'll be somewhere else in the castle at night, not the tower, not your arms. Yes I miss everyone, I'll be happy to see all of them again, but, I'll miss coming to you at night. Hell as it is I don't know who I'll be living with this year, I've not the faintest clue who the Head Boy is and Minnie refuses to tell me until I meet them on the train." Her worried voice carried up to him and he repressed a sigh.
He closed his eyes for a moment gathering his thoughts, needing to comfort the woman he'd so easily and inexplicably fallen for. He turned her around to face him gently lifting her face to his with the subtle press of his fingers under her chin, she gave with no resistence, looking deep into the honeyed caramel depths of her eyes. "Everything will be alright, if anyone can get through what this year holds for us its you, I'm never far, you know that, whenever you call I'm there, nobody and nothing else matters, we will always be us." He swept a chaste kiss over her soft lips pulling back to beam down at her.
"You're right, you always know what to say Harry Potter, c'mon, dinner should be ready by now." She smiled up at him pressing her rosy lips to his nose slipping from him and grabbing his hand, he chuckled gladly letting her pull him into the kitchen.
A/N: Well there's the prologue, hope you enjoyed it please, leave a review, let me know what you think. I do love hearing from my readers, remember, harsh, mean or catty reviews won't be tolerated, I will however take constructive criticism.
Love Always,
The Broken