Chapter 8.

It had been three months since the affair ended. Harry had resumed a somewhat normal life with Hermione, and he finally thought things were beginning to settle. He despised himself for staying with her. He knew the sensible option would be to break up with Hermione, for his conscience's sake...but, he was only human...and humans are selfish. So he stuck with Hermione, and continued to love her. Ron and Lavender had married in a wonderful ceremony in a church outside London. (Neither were religious...Lavender just thought the church was beautiful and traditional.) Of course, Harry and Hermione had been there, and so had many of their old school-friends. To top it all off, it had been a wonderfully sunny day...which was unusual for Britain in the summer. Ron and Lavender had moved into Hermione's old flat shortly after that and began their newly-married life.

Now, Harry was to be found sitting in the living room watching TV, when Hermione came bustling through the door with bagfuls of shopping.

"Hey!" She groaned, kicking the door shut behind her. "Give us a hand?"

"Sure." Harry replied and leapt up to take some bags from her. "Been shopping I see! You said you were only out for a new pair of shoes!"

"Oh shut up!" Hermione mocked and dragged her bags towards the bedroom. "Oh, one of those bags has food in it...leave that one in the kitchen."

"Yes ma'am." Harry laughed under his breath and separated the grocery bag, before joining Hermione in the bedroom with the rest.

"Need any help?" He said, staring at the pile of bags on the bed.

"Um...sure." She said, tipping a few bags out so that there was a pile of clothes to sort.

"Right...you can put away the t-shirts that were in....this bag." She said, tipping them out. "Oh, there's some in that one too..." She said, rifling through the pile.

"Okay." He said, taking the t-shirts.

"And fold them properly!" She said. "Now...I'll hang these up."

Harry began putting away the t-shirts and grinned to himself. "Girls and their shopping! I'll never understand girls and their shopping!"

About five minutes later, Hermione put the last pair of shoes at the bottom of the wardrobe and collapsed on the bed beside Harry, who had fallen back onto all the empty bags.

"Aaah..." She sighed. "Oh! I almost forgot! I bumped into Ron when I was in town!"

"Oh yeah? What was he saying?" Harry asked, removing a coat-hanger from an uncomfortable place beneath him.

"He's invited us for dinner tomorrow night at The Burrow. A big family get-together. All the Weasleys, Ron and Lavender...and us!" She grinned.

"Sounds cool!" Harry smiled.

"Well, most of the family haven't really seen Lavender since the wedding...plus...Molly's wonderful cooking!"

"Yep." Harry looked at her and smiled.

She leaned in and kissed him lightly...then not-so-lightly...as he ran his hands through her hair and she ran her hands over his back. Just at that moment, Toby jumped up on the bed between them, wagging his tail.

"Toby!" Hermione groaned light-heartedly.

Harry sighed as his hand rested on Hermione's hip. He moved it to pat the small dog.

"I think he wants a w-a-l-k." Hermione looked at Harry meaningfully as Toby jumped about excitedly at the mention of the word. Although they spelt it out, he had somehow got the hang of that too.

"Oh fine! Don't give me those eyes!" Harry smiled, kissing her forehead. "Come on Tob's!" He said, getting up and heading to the kitchen, where the lead was kept in a drawer.

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At about 5pm the next afternoon, Harry was standing waiting in the doorway to the bedroom.

"Come on, Hermione, we're going to be late!"

"Just a minute...I can't find my shoes...." She called out.

"They're right here!" He said, nudging the high-heels at his feet.

"No, not those ones!" She said. "They don't go with my outfi...oh, here they are."

"Ready?"

"Yep!"

They went into the living room and Hermione took some floo powder.

"The Burrow!" She said confidently, and she was gone. Harry followed after her and joined her in the Weasleys' kitchen.

"Molly! How are you!" Hermione said, rushing up to Mrs Weasley and hugging her.

"I'm fine dear! Oh, and Harry! Hello!" She added, as Harry entered the busy kitchen.

"Hello!" He smiled at her.

"Well...take a seat!" Molly said, as she turned back round and busied herself with plates.

They sat down together, Ron and Lavender was on Harry's left, and the Twins were on Hermione's right. Ginny was sitting opposite them. After assorted hello's, and delivering of plates, they began to eat. Harry glanced at Ginny and noticed that she was hardly eating anything, and that she seemed to be a bit pre-occupied. George had clearly noticed this too.

"You ok, Gin? You seem a bit distracted." He pointed out.

"Oh...um...yeah, I'm fine! I'm fine." She said, picking up her fork and toying with her potatoes.

After their meal, Ron helped Molly hand out teas and coffees. Harry noticed Ginny taking small glances at him and wringing her hands.

"Um...I need to go...to the toilet." She stammered and ran upstairs.

"And we're all the better off for knowing that." Fred chuckled, taking a sip of tea. "So Harry..." He started, but was interrupted by crashing noises coming from upstairs. Everyone's eyes darted towards the stairs. After a few seconds, Molly ran upstairs with a worried look on her face.

"What was that?" George asked aloud, to no-one in particular. Everyone remained silent for the five minutes Molly was gone. When she returned, she glanced once more upstairs and addressed the group.

"Ginny's a bit...well...I think you should leave her alone for a bit." She said quietly.

"She's been weird all day." Fred mused. "All fidgety at dinner, did you see her? Wonder what's up?" He said, glancing at the ceiling.

"I dunno. I don't think she's sleeping well, I saw she was up last night, well, early this morning when I went to the toilet...her light was on." George added.

"Well...she said she just wanted to be alone." Molly said, clearing the empty cups. "Sorry boys...and Hermione and Lavender, dears. I think we'd better call it a night." She sighed.

"Yeah." Ron said, staring at his hands.

"Thanks for the meal, Molly, it was lovely!" Lavender smiled. This followed choruses of words to similar effect from the rest of the group.

"Well, ready?" He asked Lavender, and standing up. "We're off, mum."

"Okay dears! Floo?" Molly asked.

"Naah, we can just apparate?" He looked to Lavender, who nodded.

"Okay then. See you soon!" She said, hugging both of them, as they said their goodbyes to everyone and apparated home.

"We'd better be off too." Hermione said, standing up and hugging Molly. "Thanks again for dinner!"

"No problem dear." Molly smiled, hugging Harry.

"See you, Molly. Thanks!" He said.

"Floo?" She asked them.

"Um..." He looked to Hermione. "Yeah, please!" He answered. Molly smiled and offered the floo powder dish.

"Bye everyone!" Hermione smiled, waving at the table.

"Bye!" They chorused.

"Bye!" Harry added, to random "Bye's" in reply.

They took some floo powder and headed home.

"Wow, that was...eventful." Hermione sighed as they walked out of their fireplace and into the living room.

"Yeah...I hope Ginny's okay." He said, flopping down on the couch and catching Hermione in his arms as she done the same.

"Yeah. I'll have to go round and speak to her at some point." Hermione said, thinking deeply.

Harry just sighed as he absent-mindedly ran his hands through Hermione's hair.