Ron exited the Potions room the next morning in a bad mood. He had forgotten to bring his essay and had been forbidden to go and get it. He had gotten detention for this, and he would have to help Snape prepare chameleon livers for their next lesson on Thursday. He took out some anger on Peeves by putting a few spells straight through him, none of which did anything, but helped anyway. It made him feel a lot better, Peeves having bombarded him with dungbombs the night before he was meeting the Chudley Cannons, his favourite Quidditch team, just a few weeks ago. He went to lunch in the Great Hall, catching Harry as he passed the stairs to the common room. They went in and managed to find a spot next to Ginny.

"Hey Ginny," said Harry.

"Yeah, hi shrimp," added Ron. Harry laughed. Ginny scowled.

"Hi Harry. And YOU, Ron, I don't know what you're so happy about, don't you care that Hermione's sad? I may not know why she's upset, but I at least take notice of her feelings." She glared at him so angrily Ron was scared, but it wasn't long until he regained composure and asked "Why, what's wrong with her? Is she OK? Speaking of which…" he looked around. "Where is she?

Ginny rolled her eyes. "Like you don't know. But for Harry's info, she's been in the girls bathroom crying for the last half hour. Harry I'd suggest you go find her. Ron, to be honest, I think you should stay here and talk to her later."

Ron was outraged. "Wha… but she's my… how can you…"

"Don't worry, Ron, I know what I'm doing."

Harry left the Hall, but Ron was too busy protesting to notice.

"Ginny come on, she's my girlfriend, why wouldn't she want to see me?"

"Possibly because it would hurt her too much," said a far too innocent sounding voice from behind him.

He turned around. It was Lavender, and she wasn't looking too happy. "What do you mean?" asked Ron dangerously.

"Well you see, when people have to part when they don't want to, they sometimes can't stand to see the other person. I'd say this is the case." She grinned wickedly. There was something about it that Ron didn't like. Maybe she'd found out that Hermione had told him about seeing her with Dean. He could understand why she'd make up bullshit stories for that.

"Come on Lavender," he laughed. "You can't still have a grudge, can you?"

"Oh no, of course not," she said. "I just thought you might like to know she's leaving on Tuesday."

"What do you mean, leaving?" Ron asked, now with quite obvious worry in his voice.

"Surely you know she's moving to Germany?" she replied in that same overly sweet tone.

Ron gaped. "Moving – to Germany?" he said hollowly.

"And conveniently having her mind wiped so as to leave all traces of witchcraft and Hogwarts behind – oh bother, I suppose that means she'll forget you too." She sighed. "Poor you."

She smiled and walked off.

Ron sat staring. She couldn't be telling the truth – could she?

Yet something about the way she kept glancing back at him expectantly told him she wasn't joking. He couldn't take it. He staggered out of the Great Hall, hoping to find a way to make the overwhelming pain go away, for someone to tell him it wasn't true. But he knew there was no comfort for him now.

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Harry ran straight to the second floor bathroom that Moaning Myrtle inhabited. Somehow he knew Hermione would be there. And there she was, sitting with her back to the wall and her chin on her knees. She looked up as he entered.

"Harry it's awful, I knew I had to tell someone, but I didn't want to hurt you guys so I –"

"Hey, shhhhh, its ok, slow down." He hugged her and she sobbed onto his shoulder.

"OK first things first. Why are you up here in this kind of state?"

She sniffed and looked him in the eye.

"I wanted to tell you, really I did, but it just hurts so much, I couldn't bear to see you two like I am."

Harry broke her off again before he got too confused.

"Hold up. What did you want to tell us and why would we be like this just because of something you said?" He smiled.

She feebly returned it, but it left instantly. "Because, Harry, you remember when Professor McGonagall came and got me out of class?" He nodded. "My parents had come. They don't want me coming here anymore." Tears brimmed in her eyes. Harry's breath caught in his chest. She whispered, "We're moving to Germany next week."

Harry couldn't breathe. He stood and backed away slowly.

"Harry please, I don't want to but mum and dad, I can't fight them about it. Please Harry, just listen for a minute."

But Harry couldn't hear anymore, even if he wanted to. He turned blindly and stumbled out of the room. He ran until he could run no more, collapsed behind the nearest suit of armour. He did something he had not done in a very long time, and had forgotten the sincerity of. He cried. He sat there for a long while until the lunch crowds started coming up the stairs to their next lesson. He hauled himself up, wiped his eyes, and then decided. He headed against the crowds (Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff 6th years mostly) to the staircase leading to the Owlery. He stalked determinedly up them, knocking over poor Dennis Creevey on the way past. He burst into the room and sank to his knees. His new dead black owl, Trissin (Hedwig had passed away last year), came over and hooted softly on his shoulder. Just like Hedwig had, he seemed to always know what Harry was feeling. He stroked his wing gratefully for a few minutes. Then he got up and walked over to the parchment and ink sitting on a small table in the corner. He scribbled a note, looked over it three times to make sure it was actually readable, and tied it to Trissin's leg.

"Take this to Remus for me?" he asked.

Trissin hooted, looked him in the eye as if to say Cheer up, it'll be fine, and flew off into the distance.