Chapter 8: Planes, Pains and Other Memories

Ginny came running down the stairs carrying a red beat-up suitcase and with her hair pulled back. "Ok, guys, ready?"

Harry and Ron looked at her with their arms crossed. Ron was tapping his foot impatiently. "Uh, yeah! We've been ready for the last 15 minutes." He turned to pick up his duffle bag and Harry heard him mumble, "women" under his breath. He turned and smiled at Ginny. "You look nice. Did you change clothes?"

"Yep. I figured I might as well look nice for whatever the hell is about to happen."

"Hey!" Ron turned around and pointed at her. She thought his temper might flare but then he lowered his arm. "You're supposed to be supportive. Be optimistic!"

"I am being optimistic! I'm just saying, we also need to be realistic. But come on lets go."

The three of them walked into the living room where Fred was sitting with his feet up on the couch reading a "Women's Witch Weekly". He licked his finger and turned a page before looking up at the soon-to-be-travelers. "Soooooo, I was curious, how you guys planned on getting to Salem?"

Harry, Ron and Ginny turned to face Fred in unison. Then they dropped their bags. "Ummm…" Ron started to mutter. Harry looked pensive and Ginny chewed on her bottom lip in thought.

"Yeah, that's what I thought," Fred stood up, dropping his magazine. "I knew you'd need me again." He stretched his arms up to the sky and did a couple toe touches. Ginny stood with her arms on her hips. "Ok, Mr. Hotshot, we can handle getting there-"

"Oh yeah? Well, you can't go by Floo, because I highly doubt Hermione and her wannabe-Muggle roomie have a fireplace that is connected to the Floo network. You can't apparate because you need Ministry permission to do Oceanic Apparition. Cant go on a flying carpet because they've been banned for 42 years or so and there are no known port keys set up to take you to America at this current time."

Ginny dropped her arms, defeated. They hadn't really thought this plan through all the way.

"But no worries, my liebkins, dear Uncle Fred has taken care of you, once again!"

Ron snorted at that remark. Fred walked over to his brother, smiling and slapped him hard on the back before embracing his brother and Harry. "For I, in all my brilliance, have already called into Heathrow airport – while you kids were packing – and booked three coach tickets to New York. Oh, Ginny, dear sister, don't look at me like that, I know it's a rather surprising and generous move on my part, but ya know, George and I can afford it and well, it's the least we could do." He patted Ron on the back. "Because now the hard part is left to you. Good luck, young grasshopper. Return safely!" He grabbed Ron's head and gave him two big, wet smackeroos on his face. Ron grimaced and Harry laughed. "Oh, you think you're getting off easy, Mr. Potter?" Harry tried to duck, but Fred grabbed his face too and kissed his cheeks. Ginny started giggling but then thought of something. "Fred…uh, what are we going to do about passports?"

Fred looked insulted. "You doubt my abilities? I am shocked. My sweet little sister doubts her big brother's abilities?" He shook his head disappointment. He walked over to the table and picked up three little blue booklets. He held them out to his sister but grabbed them back when she reached out for them. "What do you say?"

"Thank you, big brother." She snatched the fake passports out of his hand. "Do I want to know where these came from?"

"Nope."

"Will they pass for real passports?" Harry was looking at them with great interest. He'd only ever seen his aunt and uncle's passports, but these looked pretty real to him.

"Yep. No worries. Trust me. George and I didn't go into the fake document business for nothing."

"What?" Ginny looked shocked.

"Nothing nothing. Just go! Don't miss your flight!"

They grabbed their bags and apparated to the airport.

"Hey sweetie." Kevin kissed Hermione on the cheek and set down his bag of bagels and cup holder with their coffees in it. Hermione smiled at him, barely feeling his lips on her skin; her thoughts were elsewhere. Who does she think she is, barging in here when I'm perfectly happy

"Hermione?" Hermione snapped her attention to her sweet mannered and considerate boyfriend.

"What?"

"I just asked you if you wanted cream in your coffee." He looked a tad concerned."Um, yeah. Sure. That sounds great. "

"You ok? You seem a bit distracted." Kevin set her coffee with cream in front of her and opened the bag of bagels.

"Oh, no, no. Christine just came by here and well, you know Christine. Ha ha." She forced a smile and found herself staring – or was it glaring? – at the photo Christine had set on the counter.

"Oh, who's that?" Kevin picked up the photo fame. Hermione's eyes widened and reached up to grab it, knocking her cup over the process. "Whoa!" Kevin dropped the already broken frame on the counter and scrambled to get a towel. "Take it easy, Miss Klutz!" he smiled at her and she grabbed the photo from the counter. Aside from explaining who was in the photo, she didn't also want to explain why the photo was moving. Kevin hadn't seemed to notice, thankfully, and picked up Hermione's half-empty cup, placing it back in front of her. "You can have mine if you want…"

"No, no I'm fine. I don't really need much caffeine anyway." She laughed a little and went to put the photo in her room. When she came back, Kevin had taken up the stool next to hers and was applying cream cheese to two bagels.

She sat down next to him and smiled. He looked at her and kissed her gently on the lips. "Good morning, beautiful." She blushed, as she always did whenever someone complimented her, and took a sip of coffee. "So, who was that a picture of?"

Hermione bit her lip, trying to figure out how and if she should answer the question. "Um, oh no one. Just…just an old friend." She held her cup with two hands and took another sip.

"Well he looked like a rather happy fellow. Though that picture seemed rather odd for some reason…is it an old photo?"

"Um, yeah, I guess. It was taken in our second to last year of school."

"Oh ok." Kevin took a bite of his bagel. "So is that that fellow you mentioned, um…Harry, I think it was?"

Sometimes Hermione really appreciated Kevin's genuine interest in her life but this morning his curiosity was not appreciated. "No, its Ron." Hermione grimaced as she said the name. It had just come out of her mouth without her intending it to. She took a bite of bagel in case he asked any more questions.

"Ron? I don't think I remember hearing that name? Were you close?"

Hermione sighed. There was no way avoiding this conversation. Once Kevin got interested in a subject, he rarely let it go. Usually she could divert his attention from her past but sometimes, it was just too difficult to avoid. She decided just to give in. "yeah. We were very close. He and Harry were my best friends. But…but I guess you could say we've drifted since…uh, we left school." And since I fled England…she thought miserably.

Kevin looked at her kindly. "Aw, that's too bad. I've never gotten over drifting away from my college roommate. He was one of the best friends I've ever had." He paused to take a drink. Then, "Maybe I should call him up this week." He looked up thoughtfully and took a bite of his bagel. Hermione glanced at him. Was he trying to tell her something? She frowned slightly.

"Yeah, yeah. It is a shame, I suppose. We were really good friends…"

"Were you guys ever more than friends?" he grinned at her. She slapped him lightly on the arm.

"No, not really…" then she stopped. Remembering what Ron had said that night…

"We're not even supposed to be outside now, and you're telling me something you're not supposed to be saying, and I'm feeling something I'm not supposed to be feeling, and I want to do something I'm not supposed to even want to do…"

"Well, actually, we almost were, I suppose…"

Kevin looked at her, eyebrows raised. "Yeah? What happened?" Perhaps he expected a juicy boarding school story, but it was nothing of the sort.

"Nothing. Absolutely nothing." She shook her head as she remembered that night in the park, outside of headquarters for the order. "We were just sitting, talking outside one night and we almost, well, we almost kissed but then…" she couldn't exactly say 'and then death eaters showed up' so she improvised, "but then something big happened that sort of distracted us and…I guess time and politics and everything just got in the way." She sighed and then sort of chuckled. "I didn't realize till later that I'd been waiting for years for the night that didn't happen." She sighed again and slumped on her stool. Did she regret what had not happened? What if they had kissed that night? What if they had actually told each other what they meant to that night? She was staring off into space and jumped when Kevin touched her shoulder.

"You know, Hermione, when I was in college, I was in love with my best friend's little sister, Marie. She was a year behind us and went to a college a few hours from mine and Marc's. That's her brother. For years, I didn't want to tell her how I felt for a lot of reasons, most of which were inanely stupid now that I think about it. And now, even though my feelings for her have changed and I don't even know where she is in her life, now I regret never having told her. I denied myself the chance to be happy. No one should ever do that." He paused and rubbed Hermione's back. She looked at him. "And I vowed never to do that again." He smiled at her. She smiled back and sighed, resting her head on his shoulder.

Once on the plane, Ron was struggling to put his luggage in the overhead compartment; a pretty stewardess offered her assistance.

"Can I help you, sir?" She smiled flirtatiously at his and made sure her hand touched his when she put the bag away. "Is there anything else I can get you sir?"

"Uh, no thanks." Ron sat down. The stewardess put her hand on his shoulder and bent down. "If you need anything else let me know. Anything else at all." She winked at him and she sashayed down the aisle.

"Merlin's beard, I don't know much about women, but was she flirting with you or what!" Harry nudged him in the shoulder and grinned.

Ron stared at Harry. "What? Really?" He looked down the aisle at the stewardess. "Wow. I didn't even notice.." Ginny smiled but made sure her brother didn't see her. Even though she was incredibly proud of her brother and was overjoyed to be joining him on his overseas journey, she could never admit to him how adorable she thought he was at this moment. He could be pigheaded and stubborn, but he certainly had his moments.

Ron sat back in his chair and tried to stretch out his legs but the person in front of him leaned their chair, ramming it into Ron's knees.

"Ah, bloody hell!" Ron's eyes nearly bugged out of his head as he sat rubbing his knees. "Damn, how are people expected to sit comfortably here? How do muggles travel like this all the time?"

"Ron! Watch it!" Ginny looked at his warningly over Harry who was reading the airplane emergency evacuation guide. "You can't say things like that. Just…just pretend you know what the hell is going on."

"How do you know how everything works, Ms. Smartypants? I can't take all these crazy muggle inventions! Like that thing we had to walk through in the airport. And why'd we have to put our bags through that thing?"

"Ron, I explained this to you already before we got here. Security. It's all about security. A few years ago there was a major terrorist attack on New York so all the major airports have installed much tighter security. Its for you own safety."

Ron looked at his sister in confusion.

"Ron…have you forgotten that I live among muggles?" Ginny whispered across Harry. "Have you forgotten all those stupid muggle TV shows that I used to watch with dad because no one else would? Have you forgotten that I have flown multiple times to New York just so my American publisher could pick me up at the airport and not discover that I'm a witch?"

"Well excuuuuse me for not remembering how perfect my little sister and her muggle lifestyle is!" Ron seemed miffed but Ginny could see that he was fighting to keep from smiling.

"Well you better not forget it again!"

Harry was laughing silently, listening to this sibling exchange. Sometimes he longed for a real family, siblings of his own. But hey, when you've got friends like these…

"Ladies and Gentlemen, would you please focus your attention on the screens in front of you for a short video on airplane safety. Thank you."

Ron and Harry, who had also never flown, watched the video with great interest as the rest of the plane read, slept and talked right through the lifesaving information. Afterwards, as the plane was taxiing and then taking off, Ron looked slightly anxious and Harry noticed he was gripping the arm rests rather tightly. "Hey, mate, calm down. Its just an airplane."

Ron looked at his friend incredulously. "Are you mad! This thing could just plummet down to the earth sending us to our deaths before we could have a chance to apparate out of here!" Ginny giggled at her brother's reaction and leaned over Harry to say, "Ron honestly. You are very paranoid. And you haven't even seen all the airplane hijacker movies." Harry noticed that her hand was on top of his and her head was close enough that he could smell her shampoo. He closed his eyes to enjoy it but lost the moment when Ron nearly screeched, "HIJACKER MOVIES? What the bloody hell?"

"Excuse me sir, could you please keep it down?" A very impatient woman with a two-year old, across from the aisle, looked rather irritated. Ron blushed his classic beet-red and slumped down in his seat. "Sorry, ma'am."

Harry and Ginny laughed at Ron who did not look pleased. He planned not to remove his seatbelt for the entire flight.

Harry looked over at Ginny who was digging in her bag to pull out her laptop. Ron looked over at his sister, "Are you kidding me?"

"What? I'm a writer now. This is what I use."

"But…but it's a…muggle compuper or something."

She sighed and smiled at her brother. "You can be a real ignoramus sometimes. It's called a computer – this is a laptop – and it's a helluva lot easier to use than parchment."

Ron, who was never truly understand the convenience of some muggle products over their wizarding counterparts, shook his head and leaned his seat back. He couldn't believe where he was at that moment, doing what he was doing. I'm going to see Hermione for the first time in months…and I'm going to tell her…holy shit. This is never going to work! I'm a dead man! No, no, it'll be fine. You know she loves you. You know it. You know it now and you knew it then. That night on the quidditch pitch should've told you everything…

He closed his eyes and smiled remembering that night – before the screaming started. He remembered how her hair was falling in her face, how little she looked in her giant coat, how sweet she sounded when she nearly told him how she felt.

I just hope to Merlin that she still feels the same way. And he let himself fall into a sleep filled with dreams of the past.

Harry was engrossed in a Sky Mall catalog, barely able to control his surprise and excitement by some of the new-fangled muggle inventions. "I had no idea…" he kept whispering to himself. Though he was muggle-born, the Dursleys never let him go to any malls or even bought stuff that was half as cool as the stuff in this catalog. He was just utterly astounded by some of the brilliantly practical items that muggles had created.

"Hey, Harry." Ginny nudged Harry with her elbow. "I don't mean to distract you, because I can see that you are really engrossed in that literature right there, but look at my brother." Harry looked to his left to see Ron snoring, with his mouth open and a little bit of drool coming out of this mouth. Harry tried hard not to laugh. He'd seen Ron in nearly that exact position many times over the past years but every time it made him laugh. "Do you have a camera Gin?" Ginny handed him her cell phone. Luckily, he'd had enough practice with such electronics to know how to take a picture with one. "We'll want to show that one to Hermione when we get there."

Ginny smiled. "Yeah. Definitely." She put her cell phone back in her purse and put her hands on her keyboard as if to start typing again, but then stopped herself. Leaning her head against the headrest she started thinking about what was happening – Ron running to tell Hermione that he loved her and wanted her to come home – and what had happened – herself kissing Harry after so long and finding out that he was actually in love with her. A huge grin crept up on her face and she looked at Harry, who had gone back to reading the magazine.

He looked like a little kid in a toy store. His eyes had lit up and he was muttering to himself about "genius inventions". Ginny sometimes felt more muggle than Harry acted, since she seemed to know more about their lifestyles than an actual muggle-born. Still looking at him out of the corner of her eye, she started laughing to herself.

How many years had she known him? 8? 9? And how many years had she known of him? Since the day she was born! Here she was on an airplane, headed to America, with the famous Harry Potter, the boy who lived. She couldn't believe the hand Fate had dealt her. She thought back on all those years at Hogwarts when she had been a little weakling, naïve and frightened of everything. She recalled how grateful she had been to have Tom Riddle's diary as a friend, only to be horribly distraught to discover that it had been using her to get close to Harry, the boy she thought she loved with all her heart. She remembered waking up in the hospital wing after Harry had saved her from Tom's basilisk and finding Hermione, petrified, across the room. She was scared and hurt and terribly upset. But when Harry and her brothers came by to check on her, some of her fear went away.

Ginny smiled as she remembered the summer of the Quidditch World Cup and how surprised Harry had been when she spoke to him. She had actually surprised herself; being a 13-year old girl, she should've been timid and self-conscious and intimidated by every boy she met. But by that point, Ginny had grown tired of always feeling timid and self-conscious and intimidated by anybody, so she resolved to give it all up and just be herself. It had worked thus far.

Ginny closed her laptop, leaned back and closed her eyes as she thought about the night by the fire. Perhaps it wasn't all that historic, but to her, it was as important a day as her first at Hogwarts. That was the night she fell in love with Harry Potter, the boy, and gave up her fantasies of Harry Potter, the boy who lived. That was the night she learned Harry's secrets and fears and all the details of the night at the cemetery. He told her things she never imagined she'd find out: what really happened when the trio went down the trap door, how Ron actually reacted when nearly attacked by giant spiders in the forest, what the Slytherin common room looked like, why the Shrieking Shack was 'haunted', what the mermaid underworld looked like, what happened with Cho Chang, why Snape hated Harry, what happened in Hogsmeade, how Harry felt about his family, his friends, school, the war, everything. They must've stayed up till after dawn.

And they continued meeting for the rest of Harry's schooling, up until he left Hogwarts to go fight Voldemort; they'd meet in secret corridors found on the marauder's map or they'd sneak outside using Harry's invisibility cloak; sometimes they'd go to the library and sit in the restricted section and just talk, sometimes peering into and laughing at Naughty Charms and Sinful Spells, Love Slave Potions or Other Ways to Use Your Dungeon. She started laughing at that particular memory, remembering the preposterous scenarios they dreamed up involving Snape and members of the Slytherin house.

"What's so funny?" Harry had put away the catalog and was now looking at Ginny, wanting to be in on whatever joke had made her laugh so.

"Oh, nothing, just…" she almost couldn't bring herself to say it. "Just…do you remember when we used to go to the restricted section of the library?" Harry nodded. "Well, do you remember that book about dungeons? And what we said Snape must do with –"

"- with Draco and the rest of his cronies! Yes!" Suddenly Harry was laughing hysterically.

"With the chains and shackles on the walls!"

"And all the things that must be locked away in his secret cabinets."

"Or what he really used all his potions for."

The two were off in another world laughing. Ginny wiped the tears away from her eyes as the laughter finally died away. Harry was staring at her. "Ginny, you're gorgeous when you laugh."

That sobered her up. She stared back at Harry and saw love-filled desire written all over his face. She wanted to kiss him again so badly, but didn't want her brother to wake up and see them in such a compromising situation (it had been a while since he'd seen them like that), or have the other passengers upset by their display of PDA. She reached over and touched his hand.

Harry looked down, almost surprised by the touch, and smiled. He absolutely loved being with her and couldn't stop thinking about kissing her in the park in Paris. He knew he was lousy with women, but with Ginny he didn't have to try. He could just be himself. He didn't have to hide a damn thing. Well, except for the fact that he was in love with her, but he was really only hiding that from her family. He'd managed to survive Voldemort's wrath but didn't know if he could handle the Weasleys'. He leaned over to kiss her, but she backed away.

"Harry, I have an idea." A smile spread across her face, and she unbuckled her seatbelt. "Have you ever heard of the Mile High Club?" She stood up in the aisle, but Harry looked at her dumbfounded. The Mile High Club? No, he had never heard of it.

She started walking towards the back of the plane and looked over her shoulder making a 'come hither' gesture. And then it hit him…the Mile High Club. He smiled and unbuckled his seat belt.

Kevin and Hermione had moved to her couch. They were cuddling and he was stroking her hair. She had broken down and told him stories from her days at Hogwarts – rather revised stories, that is. She even told him about the fight they had before she left – though she had to invent another reason for her leaving since she had left out the whole bit about the war.

"Ron held a special place in your heart, that much is clear. And I'm sure you meant a lot to him too." He held her close. That's when a something that was obvious to everyone else occurred to Hermione: the reason Ron had been so angry at her when she left was that he had feelings for her! I am such an idiot…

"Well, you would never have known it from the way he treated me. Half the time he was insulting me or criticizing my way of doing things or making fun of me for being studious. And then he'd turn around and defend me or ask me to go into town with him or help me research something in the library. He was very frustrating."

"So let's see? He was mean to you and defended you? Yep, sounds like love to me." Kevin tickled Hermione causing her to squeal. "Boys can be stupid, you have to know that by now Hermione. We do not take subtle hints. You have to beat us over the head with the facts before we have any clue what you're talking about." She grinned. Kevin was right. Despite the fact that she had beaten Ron over the head with many books and homework assignments, she had never done so with how she felt. Now who was the stupid one?

Hermione snuggled up to Kevin as best she could on the stool. She loved being in his arms. He held her with care and ran his fingers up and down her arm. She could stay like this for a long time. But in the back of her mind there was always someone else, someone else waiting to be holding her, someone she was waiting for.

"Kevin, I –"

But before she could say what she needed to say, Kevin held a finger up to her lips and shushed her. "Hermione, listen to me. You are indeed one of the most amazing women I have ever had the good fortune to get my hands upon." Hermione smiled at him and opened her mouth to say something, but Kevin continued. "You are intelligent and funny and very nice to look at. You are thoughtful and compassionate and a damn fine kisser, among other things." She opened her mouth, again, out of mock indignation, but he closed it and continued. "But there is also a lot about you that I don't know. I would consider myself the luckiest man in the world if I could spend an indefinite number of years learning everything about you and….and loving you." Hermione nearly melted in her chair when he said that. Kevin was the closest thing to a perfect man – discounting his quirks and flaws of course – that she had ever met. How could she let him go? Kevin kissed her quietly on the lips; Hermione closed her eyes, reveling in his adoration. He pulled back, placing his hand on the side of her face, brushing her mad morning hair away from her face. "But, Hermione, sweet, wonderful, Hermione, as much as I crave to do those things with you, I think there is already someone out there who already knows you and loves you more than you could know." She sat up, surprised at what he was saying. He sighed and looked at her lovingly. He took her hand in his and stood up. "And I can't let you make the same mistake that I made."

Hermione felt her eyes welling with tears. Suddenly it felt as if a huge boulder had been lifted from her shoulders; her emotions stopped battling inside and she felt a strange peace within herself. It had taken another man to knock some sense into her. She knew what she needed to do.