A/N2: so yeah it's been quite awhile, huh? I'm really sorry for the lack of posting. As you can see from the first author's note, I did start writing awhile ago! It's just that Junior year has been crazy and there really hasn't been time for me to write at all if it wasn't for a school assignment. But I'm now on summer break, so hopefully I will be able to write more...
AN3: I am really posting it this time!
Last time: Sighing heavily and shaking his head, Ron said, "So, you're back and Voldermort is still alive. What do we do now?"
"That's really up to you and Harry. If you want to tell people, I'll stand behind you 100 percent. If you still don't want to tell anyone anything, then I'll keep my mouth shut."
"And stay away from us," said Ron almost inaudibly. He was looking at the floor.
Hermione sighed and thought for a moment before she spoke. She sounded regretful. "Ron, there is no way that I can show up tomorrow morning on the news and say 'Hey, I'm here and alive' unless we tell the truth. I won't add another lie to the situation by making up a story about why I left."
"Then we'll tell the truth."
"Ron.."
"No. We will tell the truth. To everyone. Having you back with us is more important than our reputations."
"How do you know Harry feels the same way?"
"If he doesn't, I'll make him," Ron said smiling. A few years ago his boyish, lopsided grin would immediately make Hermione swoon, but these circumstances were different. They were more dangerous, and Hermione was not ready yet to return the gesture.
"I'm not so sure he'll be okay with it. Do you realize this is the monster that killed his parents? Who spent 7 years trying to kill him and his friends as well? I'm not so sure he will be eager to admit he's still alive- to go through all that again."
"Hermione. You know how much it pains me to say this, but you are right. We basically are feeding into his plan by not telling everyone. Harry doesn't want more killing. When he realizes what could happen by not coming forward...He'll want to tell people." He said this kneeling by her chair. His eyes showed her his sincerity.
Slowly, Hermione nodded. "Okay. So when do we tell Harry?"
Standing up, Ron walked to the kitchen window and looked out. "As soon as possible I suppose. Tomorrow morning- once he's already up, of course. Having him wake to see you may kill him." It was a joke, but neither laughed. It wasn't the time. It didn't feel right. Suddenly the heavy weight that had been gone for five years was back at full force. Even Hermione, whom the weight had never left, felt it more so than ever before.
"You should get some sl-" he stopped mid-sentence and turned back to face her. "How do I know you won't leave again? Not show up tomorrow?"
Hermione thought for a second. "Well, I suppose you don't. You just have to trust me."
"What would make you think I wouldn't? I've always trusted you."
"HA! You have never trusted me Ronald Weasley. You contradicted everything I ever said."
"Yeah, but that was because it was a way I could always get a rise out of you. In actuality I believed everything."
Hermione shot him a disbelieving look and tutted, "I cannot believe you would even say that. That is the most-"
But Hermione could not finish her rant because Ron's lips were soon on hers. This kiss was different then there last. It was softer, and more searching. As though Ron could not believe it was really her and wanted to make sure. When they parted, Ron kept his one arm around her waist and the other on her chin as he softly spoke, "Told you I could always get a rise out of you."
Hermione could not help but also smile when she saw his lopsided grin show up once more. "I see you still shut me up the same way you use to." She could not shake how right this felt-- her in his arms. It was perfect. Simply perfect.
"When are we going to talk about this?" Ron asked. "We sorta left it for dead back then, but apparently it didn't die."
"Apparently."
"But can we just be...what we were? Don't we need to, I don't know, sort out our issues?"
"We have issues?"
"Well, I mean, I figured girls, you know, they like...to talk...about stuff, and I thought you, oh jeez." Hermione decided to put Ron out of his flustered misery.
"I'm kidding Ron. You're right. I realize that you can't really pick something up that ended five years ago-especially the way we ended it- without sorting things out, but not now. Right now we have bigger things to worry about."
"Right. So, meet me at my place around 10 tomorrow? I'll make sure Harry is there."
"Okay."
And with one last peck on the cheek and a nod, Ron apparated out of her house, and Hermione was left to her own thoughts.
"Maybe we shouldn't do this. Maybe I shouldn't be here when you tell him. I don't want to give him a heart attack."
Ron and Hermione were standing in Harry's living room, whispering. Harry was still sleeping in his bedroom down the hall. They had expected him to be up by now, and that Ron would go first and tell him, then Hermione would apparate in 10 minutes later, once the shock had lessened. But when Hermione appeared 10 minutes later she saw Ron sitting on Harry's couch, reading Quidditch: The Magazine! Harry apparently had had a rough night and was still asleep at 1 o'clock in the afternoon.
"If I am going to go wake him up, you may as well just stay. I'll explain it to him once he wakes up, and then bring him in here to see you."
"Ron, somehow I just don't think-" Hermione never got to tell Ron what she thought because at that moment a very topless-Harry and a very bottomless Ginny (whose top was covered by an oversized Quidditch shirt), walked into the living room.
"Ron- what are you doing here? Look, it's not what you think...well, yeah it probably is, but don't get mad all right? We're practically married, after all."
"Oi, Potter! This not what I bloody want to see in the morning-- no, never!"
"Ron, don't swear," Hermione said out of instinct, and all of a sudden, every eye in the room was on her. Harry and Ginny, who had been trying to plead their case to Ron, had not even noticed she was in the room. Ron looked apprehensive; Ginny looked pleased; Harry, poor Harry, he just looked confused.
"What-- what--" Harry's mouth opened and closed a few times much like a fish struggling for breathe. Finally, he said all that he could due to the circumstances. "Hermione?"
Tentatively, Hermione stepped forward towards Harry. "Yes, Harry. It's really me."
Harry looked at Ron, and then at Ginny, both of whom nodded without saying a word. Finally, he looked back at Hermione. His eyes glassed over, and Hermione reached out to him. Before she could comfort him he sat down on the couch, elbows on his knees, head in his hands. His body quivered.
The three of them- Ron, Hermione, and Ginny- they were unsure of what to do. They all wanted to comfort him, ease the shock, but they also knew he needed time. They opted to stand there looking at him. After a few minutes of silent staring, Ginny spoke.
"I think I'll go make us all some tea," she said. But before she had even taken two steps Harry looked up and spoke.
He red, wet, and puffy eyes were focused onto Hermione. "We thought you were dead. For five years we didn't know if you were missing or dead or hated us. But we thought it was our fault."
"Oh, oh Harry," Hermione knelt down on the floor beside him and tried to take his hand in hers. He pushed it away and stormed out of the room, slamming the door to whichever room he had entered.
Hermione exhaled deeply and pushed her hair out of her face. Her eyes had also begun to tear up. She sat against the based of the couch pulling her legs to her chest and rested her forehead on top of them. "Well that went well," she said into her knees, exasperated.
"One of us needs to talk to him," Ginny stated.
Ron nodded his head in agreement until he realized both Hermione and Ginny were looking at him expectantly. "Why me?"
"Because he's still in shock over me," said Hermione.
"And because you are his best friend and have known about this all along," replied Ginny.
"No I haven't. I found out last night; you knew about it way before me, and you're his fiancee."
"Yeah, but this is one of those 'Trio' things Ron. It's not my place to console him yet. Maybe after everything has been explained I can do something," she blushed ever so slightly when she as she said 'something', "eventually, but at this point one of you two need to talk to him, and Hermione is right- she isn't the person."
"Well what am I supposed to do?"
"Talk to him, you idiot. Explain to him what is going on. Tell him how you felt when you found out. He's probably upset that you aren't freaking out as much as he is," Ginny explained. "I wouldn't put it past him to think that Hermione is an impostor or something."
Ron opened his mouth to speak but stopped. He looked Hermione up and down for a moment, trying and not succeeding to be nonchalant.
"For Merlin's sake Ron, I am not an impostor."
"No, no, I know that. Don't be silly," he tips of his ears turned red.
"Go talk to him," commanded Ginny. "He needs you."
Ron sighed; he looked determinably at the hallway and marched toward Harry's room.
Ron did not bother knocking because he knew he wouldn't get a response. Considering Harry had not locked the door, he took that to mean he really wanted Ron to come in. He was not really sure what he had expected to see: the room trashed, Harry crying his eyes out into the mattress, Harry sullenly looking out the window. He definitely had not, however, pictured what he walked in on-- Harry, laying on his unmade bed, reading a book. A real book, at that. Not even a Quidditch magazine.
"What the hell is going on?" Harry asked putting down his book and startling Ron so much he physically jumped. Ron had expected he would have to started the conversation. That's how it always was; Harry sulked, everyone else tried to get him to talk.
"Hermione's back."
"Really? I wouldn't have guessed. I mean how? Why? When?" Harry sat up on the bed. Ron moved toward the chair next to it and sat.
"She's been hiding all these years. In the states. Ginny's friend Julie? That was actually Hermione. She took some potion of Fred and George's to make us not see it. Unfortunately for her it wore off in the middle of our date."
"Why did she come back? No, no...more importantly, why did she leave?"
"She came back for Dumbledore's funeral," Harry gave a grunt of undeterminable meaning, and Ron continued. "She left because...well...you see..." How on earth was he supposed to tell him this part? Best just come out with it I suppose...fast and painless...
"Voldemort isn't dead."
"What did you just say?" asked Ron.
AN!!! ALLL DONE!!!! for this chapter at least, and a bit of a cliffy :) Please review it will make me want to write more :)