On the following day, the twins woke Harry and Ron up very early in the morning, even before the girls were up. They had entered Ron's room and had already flopped down on his bed when Harry was finally able to open his eyes. He hadn't been able to sleep too much the night before, with so many thoughts running around his head after Ginny had talked to him.
"So, Ron. How was the sky last night?" Fred asked his brother, a huge mischievous grin on his face.
Ron seemed a little bit sleepy, and didn't answer right away. "Very...starry."
Fred and George exchange amused glances, and Harry knew they had something up their sleeves. "Really? Fred and I wanted to gaze at the sky last night before we went to bed but we couldn't." George added, an almost innocent look on his face. Harry stifled a laugh.
"Yeah, we couldn't see anything from our room's window because of all those clouds...But I'm sure you noticed the clouds, right little brother?" Fred winked at Ron, who was wide-awake by now, his face turning an interesting shade of red.
"Fred, I'm beginning to think that Ron wasn't really looking at the stars last night." George seriously said to his twin brother.
"Well, I don't blame him. He had better things to do, right Ronniekins?" The mischievous look on both the twin's faces was clear. Harry couldn't help but laugh loud and clear this time.
"You were spying on us!" Ron said, hoarsely, his previously red face completely devoid of color. He had sat down on his bed during his brother's last comment, and he glanced angrily at Harry when he heard his best friend's laugh.
George hesitated for a second, but quickly recovered. "Why would you think we were spying on you, little brother?" He said, a silly grin on his face. Then he added, looking more serious. "You were looking at the stars last night, weren't you? I mean, you shouldn't be this worried or upset with us if you were just looking at the stars, like Hermione said you two would." He glanced at Fred and another grin started to spread on his face. "But then again, you couldn't see much with all those clouds last night...as a matter of fact, I'm sure the garden was quite dark. A perfect place to..."
At that, Ron jumped from his bed. Harry thought the twins were in for a big fight. Sure, they were two, but Ron was taller than them, and he was very angry right now. And there was nothing that could stop Ron when he was angry at something or somebody. Well, almost nothing. But Hermione was sleeping at the moment, and wouldn't be able to hold him before he strangled his brothers.
Fortunately for the twins, the only other person who could prevent Ron from beating up his brothers was already awake. Mrs. Weasley's called her family to have breakfast. The twins were fast and clever enough to run downstairs, as far away as possible from Ron.
After breakfast, they went outside to play some more Quidditch. This time, after much insistence from Ron (especially towards Hermione) the girls joined them. They soon found out that Hermione being the cleverest witch on her year didn't make her a great flyer. As a matter of fact, she almost collapsed two times on the trees nearby, and almost fell off her broomstick another uncountable amount of times. But Ron kept grinning at her and telling her that she was doing great, much to the other Weasleys and Harry's amusement. They spent the whole day teasing Ron that Hermione was the one who should try for the Keeper position on the Gryffindor team.
Ginny, on the other hand, was quite a good player, and Harry thought that she could be a wonderful Quidditch Chaser if she wanted. Of course, he wasn't about to say that aloud to any of her brothers, and it was even less likely that he would say that to her. Harry didn't want to think what she would think about him if he did.
Later that morning, it started to rain, and they had to run to the house not to get too wet. That, of course, was useless because the storm was pretty bad, and they ended up wetting the whole living room. And they had to spend half of their afternoon, after having lunch, drying and cleaning the room. After their job was done, they spent the other half of the afternoon playing Exploding Snap.
With dinner time also came Mr. Weasley, who looked very grim despite his attempts to pretend that everything was alright (well, as alright as possible with Voldermort back), and whenever one of the children tried to gather something about the current situation, he started talking about something else, like the weather or how good the food tasted that evening. Harry had a sneaking suspicion that Mrs. Weasley probably had had a little chat with her husband the night before about how inappropriate it was to tell the children anything that reminded them that the Dark Lord was back. Not that Harry needed any reminding of that.
The rest of the week went by without any extraordinary thing happening (at least not extraordinary for the wizarding world's standards). They spent their last summer holidays days playing Quidditch all day, trying to gather some information from Mr. Weasley at dinner, and then collapsing into bed exhausted.
Or at least Harry thought so. But he was unaware that not all of them fell asleep as readily as the others did when they went to bed, despite being completely exhausted or just a bit tired.
On almost every night Ron wasn't able to sleep right away. Instead, he would lie down, facing the wall with his back towards Harry, and wonder about the first kiss he and Hermione had shared, on the night of the Yule Ball.
It had been so unexpected, and yet so...right. Even after so many thoughts about it, Ron wasn't able to decide who had been more startled by their kiss. Sure, he was the one who had grabbed Hermione by the shoulders and pressed his lips fervently to hers, but he hadn't realized what he was about to do until he was actually doing it. Ron had felt like a bunch of fairies were flying inside his stomach, but it wasn't a bad feeling. It had felt more like a warm, fuzzy, good feeling. His legs, though, were trembling. Ron had even wondered if he had been cursed with the Jelly Leg curse. And then, without any kind of warning, Hermione had stepped away from him, her cheeks flushed, and had run to her dormitory.
Ron had stood there for a moment, trying to remember everything that had just happened in detail, while still trying to believe that it had indeed really happened. He had never kissed a girl before, and he had no idea of how he knew what he was supposed to do. But it had been great. Bloody brilliant. Sometimes, even now, he still had urges to pinch himself and make sure that all of it hadn't been just a dream.
Of course, the days following the Yule Ball had been a nightmare. He couldn't stand being near Hermione without touching her, and kissing her. Even though he wasn't ready to admit out loud that he was head over heels for Hermione, he knew deep down inside his heart that he loved her. The only thing he could do to prevent himself to jump on her was to treat her coldly, formally, like nothing had happened. It had been pure torture.
Fortunately, Hermione was a very clever, determined and passionate girl, and she had decided to confront Ron about his feelings towards her. It had been after Harry had left the common room to find out about the Third Task. She had waited until everyone else had went to bed and finally spoke to Ron, who was sitting across from her on the table near the common room fire.
6
"Ron, we need to talk." She had said, during a Wizard Chess game they were playing. It had been the only thing Ron could come up with to prevent him from jumping on her and kissing her while waiting for Harry. When he was concentrating on Wizard Chess, he didn't lose himself in the depths of her brown eyes; at least not too much or for too long.
"Aren't we doing that right now?" Ron had snorted, while analyzing the next move that would lead him to a checkmate and victory.
Hermione had rolled her eyes. "You know what I mean. Can I ask you a question?
Ron had looked up at her, a lopsided grin on his face. "When people talk, they usually ask questions and tell answers to each other."
"Ron! I'm serious." Hermione had looked really determined, so Ron pushed the Chessboard aside. "Okay, go ahead."
After a second's hesitation, she blurted out. "Why were you so upset about the Witch Weekly article today?"
Ron had been caught off guard, and started racking his brain for a plausible answer, which fortunately came. "Well, that Skeeter woman had said pretty nasty things about you, and that made me upset. You are one of my best friends, after all." He said, a look of triumph on his face.
Hermione's face was still set. "You know that wasn't the only reason." She had hesitated for a second. "You were also upset about the fact that Viktor had invited me to Bulgaria. And don't tell me it was because I was 'fraternizing with the enemy', I don't believe it."
Ron's face had gone very pale, while his ears were bright red. "Then we have a problem, because that's the only reason I can give you for my actions today."
"I don't think so. I think you're only hiding the real reason you're upset about Viktor's invitation behind a lame excuse." Hermione had gone very red when saying the last sentence.
"Yeah? If you know that much, why wouldn't you know the real reason then? Why am I so upset?" Then it was Ron's turn to have his face completely red, in a perfect match for his hair color.
"Because...because...because you fancy me." Hermione's face was even redder if possible. But since she had said it, it was better to be properly done, so she added, almost whispering, "And I fancy you too."
"You...you like me?" Ron couldn't believe his own ears.
"Yes." She had said, looking straight into his eyes.
At that, a huge grin had almost split Ron's face in two. He had quickly gotten up from his chair, around the table, and swept Hermione into his arms, kissing her.
6
And with those happy and sweet memories on his head, Ron would finally drift off to sleep, almost forgetting the dark times in front of them. But when Ron remembered that the Dark Lord was back, he felt really worried about the future. At least he could feel happy that he had finally acknowledged his feelings towards Hermione before anything bad could happen to either one of them.
But that didn't stop Ron from worrying about Harry. And Ron did so every night, and almost every time of the day.
However, Harry never suspected anything. He was so preoccupied noticing Ginny and how much she had grown since he had met her that a Hippogriff wearing a dress robe could have tap danced in front of him that he wouldn't have noticed.
And since Ron and Hermione sometimes disappeared for long periods of time (until they were found snogging by the twins), Harry and Ginny talked during long periods of time. And he felt so at ease with her that he told her all about his adventures during the end of every term he had attended on Hogwarts (except the end of his second year, since Ginny was also there herself). One night he actually told her everything that had happened on the night of the Third Task, something he hadn't even told Ron or Hermione with so much detail. He even revealed to her that Sirius Black was his godfather, and that it had been in fact Peter Pettigrew who had betrayed his parents, not Sirius. Peter was, therefore, responsible for Lily and James Potter's deaths.
It was on the night before they were to go to King's Cross Station and take the Hogwarts Express that the bubble of safety they had unconsciously erected around themselves vanished.
Mr. Weasley had Apparated for work very early in the morning, like he did everyday, followed closely by Percy, Ron's older brother. But he Apparated back home earlier than usual, and quickly summoned Mrs. Weasley into their bedroom, where they discussed something in hushed voices during a couple of hours.
When they finally left their bedroom, they both looked very grim. The rest of the family, Harry and Hermione were called to gather around the dinner table, and when they were all on their seats, Mr. Weasley stood.
"Children, I have something very important to tell you." He looked at each preoccupied face around the table, ending with his wife. "Molly didn't want me to reveal this piece of information to you, but since I'm sure that Dumbledore will do so as soon as you enter the Great Hall tomorrow night, I see no reason not to tell you this."
He sighed. "Azkaban is no longer under the Ministry's command. The Dementors have aligned themselves with the Dark Lord, and released all prisoners. Including the Death Eaters."
Later, when Harry would try to remember what had happened after Mr. Weasley's revelation, he would only remember pieces of it. He remembered the uproar made by the Weasleys' boys, especially the twins. They all wanted to know exactly what had happened and what the Ministry thought it would happen next; and if now the Ministry was finally going to admit to the entire wizarding world that the Dark Lord was back.
After what seemed like hours of unanswered questions, and discussion revolving around the same points without getting to any conclusion, they had all eaten their dinner in silence, everybody deep in thought, an amazing accomplishment at the Burrow. Then they had gone to their rooms to finish packing their trunks before they went to bed. Neither of them was able to get too much sleep that night.
On the following day, they all went to King's Cross Station and climbed the Hogwarts Express uncharacteristically sad, despite all the happiness emanating from the other students, especially the first years.
The whole trip to Hogwarts was all but a blur to Harry. The only thing that he remembered vividly from that day was Dumbledore's speech at the Great Hall. After the usual greetings to the students, which had been said in an unusual grave voice, Dumbledore had reminded them of the past's years events that had culminated with Cedric's death and Voldemort's return, and used the opportunity to also tell them about the Dementors newly formed alliance with the Dark Lord, which came as a surprise to almost all the other students. The Slytherins, however, remained calm and quiet, which came as no surprise to Harry. After all, Lord Voldemort himself had been a Slytherin, and this House had turned out more Dark Wizards than the other Houses. After the noise had died down, Dumbledore finished his speech telling them that this year was going to be a rough one, but that hopefully they would survive it. However, Harry couldn't detect a hopeful tone on Dumbledore's voice. He only hoped to be wrong, because if Dumbledore had lost all his hope, they were doomed.