A/N: Does anyone else find it amazing that Ginny remembers Herm's address? I have trouble even remembering my grandma's… Okay, I'm overestimating myself, I have to check every time I'm asked for my own… ^_^;;; a heheh… Anyway, Ginny must have a very retentive mind— D'OH! I keep forgetting not to tell the readers I fill in my plot holes with PlayDoh… Did I say that out loud? Oh god… Eh, I'll shut up now.
Okay, just so you know, I merged Chapter 6/7, so …. Yeah. And, find 'Chapter 7' on yer own!
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Chapter 6
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Hermione was sleeping soundly, curled contentedly into the fetal position on the couch, when suddenly something slammed into the window. She shot up at the dull thunking noise and stared at the window. There was nothing there.
***
Outside in the garden, a tiny ball of feathers sat up on its little talons.
Pigwidgeon cocked his petite head and stared at the living room ceiling— all he could see inside the house. He hooted happily and flew back at it.
Thonk.
He was back on the garden floor, now looking rather ruffled indeed. He glared at the living room ceiling, for not much could be said for the poor owl's intelligence and he still hadn't caught on to the fact that there was a window there. Even so, he found the ceiling rather inhospitable and waddled around the corner of the house, up the walkway, and right into Crookshanks' kitty door as though he knew exactly the route to take and had just been running into the window for fun.
He saw Hermione on the couch and pranced up to her with a little owl dance. He would recognize that hair anywhere! He'd hid there many times to escape from Ron of course.
Pig hopped up on the couch, then on her temple. Feeling very proud of himself, he danced the dance again, and then finished it with a lively "HOO!"
Hermione jerked awake again, seemingly having a heart attack until pig jumped right on top of her sweater, flapping his wings happily. "Pig!" She shrieked joyously. He hooted the affirmative and commenced bouncing off the walls, literally, for his pride of Hermione getting his name right.
"Come here, come here!" She yelled, trying in vain to catch him out of the air. "How'd you get here, stupid? Where's Ron?"
She sighed and sat on the backrest of the couch, watching him bounce around. Up until this point she'd forgotten about Draco, but even now she thought of him only fleetingly, as she had to catch Pig and get him down. She suddenly realized what to do, disappeared into the kitchen, and came out a few seconds later with a pasta strainer. She hopped back onto the back of the couch and, teetering alarmingly, attempted to scoop the owl up with it. This might've worked had she taken gymnastics at all, but unfortunately she hadn't. She miscalculated the distance to the damned bird and shrieked as she lost her balance and nearly went to the ground, but threw herself sharply back the way of the cushions, ending up straddling the back. She blew a curl of chestnut out of her hair and glared contemptuously at Pig, who, if anything, seemed to have gotten giddier.
"Having fun?" She turned sharply to her left, squealed again, and toppled sideways to the ground. Of course, not before Draco, (who had been standing in the doorway smirking, watching her through most of this) ran over and scooped her up an inch from the ground. She blushed furiously as he waited for her to sit up.
"I got 'im." Draco said slowly, watching Pig fly. He climbed on the couch far more gracefully than Hermione did, squatted and watched Pig for a few seconds before…
"HOO!"
… Jumping up and grabbing him lithely out of the air. Pig hooted, annoyed, now getting a bit low on energy.
Hermione was still red as a Weasley as he handed her the owl. His hand closed around hers as they made sure Pig didn't get away. He smiled warmly at her, but she didn't see as she looked for a place to set Pig. With lots of qualms she set him in a large desk drawer. He didn't seem to mind, but there were the usual Piggish banging sounds as he went about the drawer, doing his Piggish exploring.
Hermione opened another drawer, got out a roll of parchment, and a quill from the pencil holder on the desktop.
Dear Harry-I'm so sorry for writing you at the Dursleys', I know they hate it, but this is so important. First off, did you see the news reports on the Dark Lord's attacks? One was in North Carolina, where Ron went. We haven't heard any news from him, but Pig just came here as you can see. Did he take Pig with him? Do you think they're stranded, and that's why Pig didn't have a note? I doubt pig could fly all the way from America, don't you? … I'm so scared Harry.
The next news- and you wont believe it, I'm serious. I'll bet you anything you won't.
Here it is- Draco Malfoy's at my house. Something happened to him, he was mugged in the park across my street. He has amnesia and can't remember a thing. Not anything. He came to the first house he saw and it was ours. I came back from Ron's the moment he was going to sleep on the couch last night. He had told my parents his name was Neville.
Please Harry, I need your help. Like I said, I don't think Pig could make it all the way to America, could you see if Hegwig would go? I don't know what's going on. Obviously Draco doesn't either.
Do you have any advice? Does Sirius? Oh, yes, please ask Sirius, he must know what to do! And he keeps tabs on wizarding affairs more than either of us could. He's at Professor Lupin's too. Lupin could help with Draco's amnesia.Hurry with a reply. Unless you want to send Hedwig to America and Pig to Sirius and Professor Lupin. Or maybe you could send Hedwig to Lupin and have him-
"Hermione?"
"What, Draco?"
"I think he'll get the point."
Hermione bit her lip. "Sure. Okay." She crossed out the last sentence and added 'Love, Hermione' at the end, smiled softly at Draco and said "Ready?" wearily as she placed her hand on the handle.
He nodded and grabbed the owl as he went off like a shot and sat on Draco's chest, glaring up at him nefariously. Draco looked down at him nervously, but handed him to Hermione, who tied the note to his little leg and hurled him out the window.
"Hermione?"
She stared out the window, her fingers barely touching the warm glass. "Yes?"
"I… I hope he's okay." Draco shifted, hands in his pockets, looking so much smaller than she'd ever seen him before. "And…. And, I'm… I'm sorry… for stuff I did to you. Before." He smiled uncomfortably.
She closed her eyes and for some reason felt close to tears.
"I… Er, Are you okay?" he took a step forward and brushed over her shoulder with his fingertips, making her shiver. She nodded without speaking. Slowly, so slowly, he leaned forward, and just like last night, expectation fluttered somewhere over her heart, making her loose her breath. Her eyes were still closed, but it was so silent she tell by the soft sigh so close to her cheek that he was hardly an inch from her now.
She waited again… Just like last night… A tear rolled down her cheek at the same time his lips grazed it.
"Draco." She finally managed.
"Hermione?" he murmured softly into her ear as he dotted her cheek with kisses.
She was now truly crying. Her little sleep, Ron, Harry, Pig, and the surge of hormones as Draco touched her transformed her breathless exhilaration into a feeling like she was about to vomit. She made a small sobbing sound and he pulled his head back, and hugged her. Over the night his touch had gone from awkward to steady, consoling. He held her tight, and she cried. She cried a lot.
He held her waist and patted her hair, kissing the top of her head gently. He wondered how he hadn't fallen in love with her before, and she wondered what in God's name she was thinking.
***
Harry, unlike his friends, had been having a rather uneventful summer, as summers had been ever since his third year at Hogwarts. The high points were right before he went to bed, when he could write to Sirius or Hermione or Ron. The low points were the hours after that, and the dreams… oh god, the dreams…
Ever since he ad left Hogwarts, he'd had recurring nightmares, horrible nightmares that left his scar aching like a bruise for days. It was as if he'd been tied to Voldemort on a string that inverted the Dark Lord's emotions… whenever he killed, Harry knew it, it shot him out of his dreams. Now he was hearing more voices. The cries of newly killed witches and wizards, or innocent children, screaming out to him. Of course they were only screaming but to Harry, and his hero's heart, he heard them screaming for him, and every goddamned day he spent in this house it hurt more that he wasn't with Sirius or Dumbledore, trying to make this better.
It was one of these dreams that made him shoot up, nearly ramming his eyes into his knees, shivering and shivering in a cold sweat.
He breathed deeply, slowly, trying to catch his breath, catch that lump in his throat from coming out. He opened his eyes as wide as they could go, trying to escape the images of green flashes of light. Finally, very slowly, he reached blindly behind himself to the bedside table for his glasses and settled them on his nose.
Scratch scratch scratch scratch.
Harry turned his head to the window, next to which Hedwig was sitting in her cage, glaring evilly at the tiny owl banging on the window happily. Pig. Yes.
He went over to the window and opened it a little, grabbing Pig out of the air as soon as he shot through the small opening, at stared at the sheet of parchment, folded so meticulously. This wasn't from Ron.
Pigwidgeon was quickly let loose in Hegwig's cage, much to her distaste, as Harry shuffled over to the bed and read the letter.
About halfway through, he stared back at Pig in the cage, who hooted happily at him. Harry sat back up and put the letter on his lap before finishing.
This was bad. This was very, very, very bad. "Fuck" about summed it up, as Harry decided. Of course he believed Hermione, but she'd put responsibility on his shoulders. Not that he wasn't accustomed to this, he thought as he took Hermione's note and a quill and added
What do you think, Sirius? Sending Hedwig to America to see if Weasley's are OK. Tell you first thing I get. Does Lupin have anything on amnesia?-Harry
He attached this to Pig and threw him out the window before the owl could cause any trouble, then took a new piece of parchment and wrote-
Ron-Just wondering if you're alive and whatnot.
And now that he sounded nice and stupid.
Hermione heard a news report about Dark Lord in North Carolina. Hope to god you're all right. Please send note. If Hedwig comes back without anything we're sending Sirius after you on motorcycle.
-Harry
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Back in America, Nancy Bennet was showing the Weasley kids around her house. There were three bedrooms. One was Nancy's, for she was a single mother, and the other was for her daughters, Brooke and Halie. Halie was seven and loud, Brooke was thirteen and at basketball practice.
"This is your room… Ginny, if you'd like to stay in the girls' room, I'm sure it will be less crowded in there." Nancy smiled and pointed down the hall. She'd learned their names amazingly well, and she could already almost tell Fred from George. It usually took normal people years to do this, and some of their best friends still got them confused.
Ginny nodded. Halie grinned widely and stood in her chair, nearly flipping it over as she leaned on the reclining back. "She can do my hair and we can play barbies! I've got all of them!" She yelled.
"Oh you do not. Most of them were mine anyway," called a voice from the kitchen, and a girl with long blonde hair in a ponytail and a blue and white shirt on came in from the kitchen. She eyed the Weasleys.
"Brooke, this is… Ginny, Ron, and… Fred and George. They're staying with us."
Brooke stared at her mother. "Why?" She finally said, with a bit of an edge in her voice.
Nancy gave her daughter a look, then turned back to the kids. "You guys get yourselves settled in, okay?" she suggested softly, then marched forward to Brooke and dragged her into the kitchen. Halie, who was still standing over the back of the recliner, laughed loudly and screamed "Brooke's in trouble! Brooke's in trouble!" gleefully.
Ron stared after Brooke, the tops of his ears turning pink, and the twins and Ginny all tried not to laugh at him. Halie squealed as she noticed this and screamed "George LIKES Brooke!" and cackled in classic second-grade fashion.
"My name's Ron, he's George." Ron finally managed, blushing furiously and trying to hide inside his tee-shirt.
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And that's it. Sorry, hons, but that's all that came to my little mind and I went with it, thinking if I didn't update soon I'd fall out of it, and I'd hate to now. Thanks so much for the reviews, you all kick the shizne. This is a good thing, by the way. For god's sake, tell me if it gets too fluffy, I'll be sure to put lots of gore in the next chappy… ^_^;;; or not. ANYway!
Specific thank yous to Chapter Four Reviewers (aww, you have your own proper noun now!!) Whom I forgot to put in the last chap: JudgeDP, gataca, Ryn, chica, Oreo of Love (mmmm), Emaeleigha (damn I rule), Draco's Queen, peanut butter cup (drools), Holly, mercy, err… Other Holly!, AngelzGaze, *takes a deep breath*, MedEvilElephants (mwa hah hah), and Mae!
Chapter Five Reviewers: Padfoot's Girl, Kstar74, Leanne, dljewel, AngelzGaze again (yay!!), Chrissy, Draco's Queen again (repeat reviewers win Jiww's heart), CharismaBrianne, Mystah (you too!), Icy Stormz, Li-Chan, Erin, sjcw99 (checks back and forth several times upon spelling this), Long de Yungi (Lady Jiwwy. Jiwwy likes.), JudgeDP (33), blood thirsty (MORE MORE'S!), Flipacoin (err, this chapter ain't that good then, is it? *fluffs up story*), someone, dragonprincess, PiriMalfoy, Draco malfoy's girl (oooh, plot twist), Delphi (333 to you too)!!
I wubboo revooers.