Chapter One

"Ron? RON!" shouted a slim brunnette woman, "Ronald Weasley, if you don't get -"

"Your beginning to sound like my mother" he said jokingly. Hermione frowned. "What is it, then?" asked Ron from the other end of the kitchen.

He was trying to fix the muggle clock that they had gotten as a Christmas present last year. So far, he had been rather unsuccessful in actually making it tick, but he had managed to get it to moo, cluck, neigh, whinny, and roar.

"Look what Pig brought in," she said, while untying the envelope from the owls claw, "Its from Hogwarts. Oh, and Ron you don't need grease to fix a clock. I'll send for some batteries from my parents"

"Don't tell me our little Merlin has gotten himself into trouble," he said, changing the subject.

"If he has, you can hardly blame him," she said, "not after the legacy we left behind."

Ron grinned and put down the family clock and walked over, wiping his hands on the tablecloth.

"Roooooon, don't-" she began.

"Hermioneeeee," he interrupted, mimicking her, "So what's the letter about anyway?"

"Actually, its not a letter, its an invitation."

"From Hogwarts?"

"From Professor Longbottom."

"Neville! Its been too long!" exclaimed Ron, " How is he, what's he inviting us to?"

"A Gryffindor House Reunion, for Christmas," she explained after skimming the invite " This is wonderful, I can't wait to meet everyone again!"

"Read the rest," he urged, walking her to their living room. The two of them sat down on the sofa, and she wiped some of the grease from her husband's face, grinning.

Her eyes scanned the invitation, and soon her eyes reached the post-script. The smile faded from her face and she set the letter down on the table.

"What is it?" he asked.

Hermione remained frozen, her eyes were far away, but a tear managed to crawl down her cheek. Ron read the rest of the invitation, and turned back to Hermione.

"I cant believe this." She began, "This is just wrong. WE cant have. I mean, we just forgot about our best firend-"

"Hermione, we've been through this. It's not our fault" Ron said, dropping the parchment as blurry memories of the ceremony ran through his head. Feeling the guilt tighten around him, he stood and tried to finish, "the prophecy. I mean, Dumbledore arranged it this way. We didn't do anything wrong."

"I can't believe this! How can even call ourselves friends?" She was shaking her head, "Even before the wedding … something was wrong … Ron, how could we have let this happen? He… he needed us. We failed." she stopped herself, and looked up at Ron "What will we write?"

"For the first time in thirteen years," he said, still shaken.

"More." She said, "too many… oh god…"

"Hermione," he tried to sound comforting, but his voice cracked. He started again, " Hermione, it's okay. It's okay" He smoothed her hair, "It's okay, I'm sure he's alright. Dumbledore would never let anything happen to him."

Hermione shook her head through the tears, and after taking a breath, she said, "You know it's a lie! Ron, we don't even know where he is, or if he's even…" her voice wavered, but she picked up the invitation and read off of it, "the controversy surrounding-"

Ron finished it in his head. It was true, they only knew what the Daily Prophet reported. Ron sighed, putting his head in his hands. Harry, where are you? Everyone had lost count of the number of times he had admitted in and out of St. Mungo's. He came and went as he pleased, and his pride, and his frank mental instability refused to let him the help he needed. Not to mention, who dared stop Harry? Who questioned where he went? There was only one person that he would heed, and she was asleep upstairs.

"Alright, I'll go upstairs, and I'll say we haven't heard from him" he said, while helping her up, "Why don't I wake Ginny up, too. We can go for a walk or something."

"But." she started, "I just don't understand. Our best friend? We just… forgot? There's something else. There must be."

Ron recognized the look on her face, and left her to figure it out. He had given up long since…He jogged up the stairs and across the hall, stopping at Ginny's room. He knocked carefully on her door, and there was no answer. "Ginny?" he called, "Are you in there?" Still, no respnse. He pushed the door lightly and it swung open easily. A note fluttered to the ground.

Ron-

Just stepped out for a walk. I'll be late, don't wait up for me.

Ginny

Ginny probably had the worst time coping with Harry's situation, she had not been able to forget, to move on. But it had still been awhile; how could she have known about the invitation? He pocketed the note, and decided to avoid showing it to Hermione, she had enough on her mind.

"I think it's time to go for a walk," he said to himself.